Fundraising: Impact Of Mobile Donations To Haiti Two Years On?
Two years ago this month, Haitians endured a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that destroyed much of the infrastructure in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and killed over 300,000 people. The outpouring of support from numerous nations inspired faith that rebuilding after the tragedy would bring notable improvements to the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.
Unfortunately, two years on, much of the news concerns not the rebuilding of the island nation but the challenge of simply finding where the promised money and resources went. Much of it simply has not shown up as countries have given less (some news sources state as much as half) than first promised. But of what has arrived has often been diverted to non-Haitian companies or to corrupt local officials who overcharge for minimal services.
And yet we also have the data to show how much non-governmental was raised ($43 million) and how.
Popularity: 1% | Category Case Study, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Media Review, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Publications, Research, Resource, Social Media, Study, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner
#Communications: Hashtags Haunt McDonalds’ Foray Into Social Media
If anyone suggests to you that social media lay the yellow-brick road to huge fundraising or provide the silver bullet to finish off negative responses to your company, just smile sweetly and back away. Like any power tool, social-media platforms offer opportunities to do fine work to reach out to new customers, and they offer the chance to do serious damage to your organization in a stunningly brief period of time.
The most recent victim of a social media/PR blitz that went awry is the McDonalds‘ corporation, who wanted to put a human face – one interested in good food – on its restaurant chain. But for a while, it looked like Mickey-D’s slipped terribly out of its own control.
Popularity: 1% | Category Advertising, Campaigns, Case Study, Diet, Health, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Public Relations, Social Media, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner
#Communication: Six Tips To Expand Readership On Your Nonprofit’s Blog
We thank you for reading our blog, and we hope to provide relevant, timely, and interesting material for you for 2012. Producing a timely and engaging blog (at least we hope so!) requires some effort. But the opportunities and results they can produce are well worth the investment. If your nonprofit organization has a blog, you want to ensure regular production of high-quality. And if it doesn’t, you’re missing great opportunities to tell your stories, to turn your passive followers into active volunteers and donors, and to benefit from the multiplier effects of readers sharing, tweeting, and faving your nonprofit’s good work.
Plenty of advice about how to raise your blog’s readership exists in the same blogosphere your organization is already working in. A recent post by Jeff Ogden at SocialMediaToday.com particularly caught our eye because he keeps the advice clear and simple and because he stresses quality over quantity. And let’s face it: the internet largely encourages the latter over the former. So what is on his short list?
Popularity: 1% | Category Advice, Blogs, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Media Review, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Reviews, Social Media, Storytelling, Twitter, Web and Print, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner
#SocialNetworks: Videos Demonstrate The Power Of Storytelling For Nonprofits
Image by Mike Rohde via Flickr
Perhaps making a series of videos for your organization seems a bit too daunting. Making them certainly will require a bit of planning about the stories to tell, the shooting and editing of the material, and the advertising of the great results. But the return on investment can be huge. And what better way to appreciate the impact of video outreach than to watch a couple of videos that explore the impact nonprofits like yours have made with such outreach?
The first one comes from the South By Southwest Festival‘s Interactive Program (SXSWi) from a couple of years ago. The participants of a panel presented their recent successes on ROI thanks to social media generally and thanks to video outreach specifically. And in the spirit of the music and arts festival, they introduced their projects in a brief poetry slam.
Popularity: 2% | Category Advice, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Events, Fundraising, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Social Media, Storytelling, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner
#Communications: ‘Tis The Season For Making Lists & Prepping For 2012
In our last blog posting for 2011 we wanted to encourage some meaningful reminiscence over this past year and what it meant for the nonprofit world and to inspire some thinking about the possibilities for 2012. Making lists and checking them twice is a time-honored way to prepare for the holidays, so we present a list of lists and the opportunity for your organization to break onto a list when they are compiled in a year’s time. We have compiled this list based on our own experience with apps, platforms, and issues discussed on these lists.
Popularity: 2% | Category Advice, Blogs, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Design, Facebook, Fundraising, Hardware Review, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Media Review, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Publications, Resource, Reviews, SEO, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner
#ProAging: A Few Gift Ideas For Older Family Members
Earlier today we posted a story concerning DoSomething.org’s drive, ‘Grandparents Gone Wired.’ In the process of working up that story we came across this brief list of gift ideas for some of those same grandparents: A Grandparents’ Tech Gift Guide. The blogger who is developing the list is Michele McGraw of northern Virginia, and her site, ‘Scraps of My Geek Life’, is one of the cuter and more engaging tech blogs we’ve come across.
The list for grandparents seems to be growing, and she also has Tech Gift Guides for Moms, young teens, and Bloggers (I’d like the iPhone 4S, please). All of these lists include her brief comments/reviews and she solicits reviews from her readers. Well worth a look, and it’s refreshing to see a site savvy to technology in its various guises with a fun and family-focused aura.
Popularity: 5% | Category Aging, Blogs, Fitness, Grandparents, Health, Media Review, Resource, Reviews, Seniors Life, Technology, Technology for Aging | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner
#SocialNetworks: Set Up & Take Advantage Of Google+
Setup takes seconds...
Alright, your mind might be elsewhere today: packing – or already travelling – for Thanksgiving, getting the wine chilled or the bird defrosted, remembering all the reasons we are celebrating ‘Thanksgiving’…
But at least bookmark this post so that when you return to your desk at your organization, you can set up your nonprofit’s Google+ page and start growing those Circles during the holiday season. This period is the one most Americans give to their favorite charities and projects, so outreach via social-networking platforms in the days after Thanksgiving is pivotal.
We begin by establishing your organization’s presence in Google+. A great walk-through/how-to is presented here by the blog ‘NonprofitOrgs’ (from which came the image above). As of today, the URL created for your page is not customized (nor is it memorable/elegant). But once the page is up, it has features just like personal pages: Circles, Sparks, etc. For a tour of nonprofit sites already on Google+, visit this portal to get some great ideas.
As we and many other strategists have stated, plenty of good reasons already exist to establish a Google+ page. Which is not to say everyone needs to jump on the bandwagon just yet. Deborah Askanase at SocialBrite.org points out the notably 30/40-something-and-male demographic that is overwhelmingly on the platform at the moment. Moreover, the audience seems notably tech-engaged, which might mean, for your audience, directing resources to Google Plus at the moment might not make the most sense.
But once you and your colleagues commit to establishing a presence on the platform, rest assured that the tech side of the setup is pretty straightforward. Moreover, Google is establishing the connective technologies and APIs that will allow you to update your nonprofit’s page through such third-party platforms as HootSuite and BuddyMedia and Vitrue that your organization may already be using. So upkeep and outreach through the holiday season will be as easy as setting up the page.
Finally, we at MKCREATIVEMedia wish you and yours a joyous Thanksgiving. Safe travels, bon appetit, and take a moment to reflect on those families separated by war this Thanksgiving so that we can enjoy ours at home.
Popularity: 6% | Category Advice, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, How-to, Marketing, Measurement, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Web and Print | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner
#ProAging: SM Savvy Encourages Cross-Generational Connection
Click to enlarge
With Thanksgiving a mere 36+ hours away (30 of which might be spent in a ticket line or sitting on a runway or hoping the traffic finally gets moving), we are all thinking about re-connecting to family and old friends. That we do so via social networking platforms has become the assumption among the Millennials and the Gen-Xers, whether in the holiday season or not. The social networking demands of these generations encourage them to keep up with the latest technologies as well – not a bad thing for the economy.
What happens to the previous-generation phones and laptops as younger Americans buy the latest-and-greatest? One thing that happens to them is they become ‘hand-me-ups’.
Popularity: 5% | Category Boomers, GI Generation, Independent Living, Internet, Interview, Media Review, Nonprofit, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Technology, Technology for Aging, Web and Print | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner
#Tech: Online Security For Your Person-Not Just Your Passwords
What is to be done?
Securing one’s passwords, email accounts, and banking information rightly gains the lion’s share of attention in the media. Having one’s email hacked into – even if the account contains no particularly personal or truly incriminating information – can be a terrible headache for oneself and for one’s family and friends.
But are we aware of just how much of our activity is tracked and counted and bought and sold as we browse the internet outside any personal accounts? Computer scientists at Stanford Law School’s ‘Center for Internet and Society’ have been pursing this issue for a few months now, and they trace the myriad ways our identities are shared via even the most innocuous of surfing.
Popularity: 5% | Category Advertising, Case Study, Communications, How-to, Marketing, Measurement, Media Review, Public Relations, Research, Resource, Reviews, Site Administration, Study, Technology, Web and Print | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner
#SocialNetworks: Google+ For Business Is Now Open!
Yes, the release of Google+’s Business Pages is the biggest news in social media this week. And in business news. And in design news… The release of business pages within Google+ did not go without incident: Many were led to believe they could get their pages up, only to discover their accounts were not part of the list allowing early adoption – an inconvenience that mirrored the rollout of individual accounts as well.
But over the last day or two, the Business Pages have been presented to all Google+ users (one must have a Google+ Personal Page before one can build a Business Page), and the bandwagon has been overwhelmed ever since. What will Google+’s Business Pages bring to the social-media landscape?
Popularity: 3% | Category Advertising, Advice, Communications, Community, Design, Facebook, How-to, Marketing, Measurement, Media Review, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Web Design | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner
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