BlogWritingCourse

Nonprofits, especially ones with smaller budgets, often don’t put a lot of time and effort into their online communications.  Their website, if they have one, usually consists of just a few pages dedicated to the mission of the organization, the services they perform, and instructions for volunteering, or sending in donations.  While this no-frills type of website is certainly better than having no online presence at all, it is far from ideal in providing adequate communication between you and your supporters.

Technology can be a valuable tool to keep donors, supporters, and volunteers engaged with the daily operations of a nonprofit organization.  Unfortunately, many worthy causes have settled for one-sided communication with their donors in the form of monthly newsletters and occasional fundraising appeals.  This method may have sufficed years ago, but in today’s world-wide-web culture, people expect more.  They want to know they have a voice, and that the causes they support are willing to listen to their ideas and suggestions.   An active internet presence can provide this two-way communication.  Your nonprofit could use any or all of the following methods to encourage interactivity with your supporters:

• Email Updates - You can easily create a section on your website where supporters can sign up with their email addresses to receive current status reports or news items.  Occasional email “bulletins” sent out to these addresses might include a particular victory your agency has experienced, an urgent call for help with a specific task, or a reminder about an important upcoming event.  Because a sign up for this type of mailing is voluntary, you can count on these updates to be read and attended to. 
• Electronic Newsletter For Volunteers - volunteers give selflessly of their time and effort, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need to be told how much they are appreciated.  A special email “newsletter” for volunteers could be sent out monthly or quarterly, and could include special “inside” information about the agency, highlights of a particular volunteers contributions, notices about upcoming volunteer needs, and of course, generous appreciation for  their efforts. 
• Dedicated Information Email Address - this would be located in a prominent place on your website,usually in the “Contact Us” section, and would be checked daily by someone in your organization who is talented at answering inquiries and taking feedback.  By providing an information email address, you are saying to your supporters and potential supporters that you have nothing to hide and are eager to answer any questions, concerns, or suggestions they may have
• Interactive Calendar - this would be a website feature that would allow the nonprofit to update as often as needed with current data on activities and events, and would allow the user to click on items on the calendar to receive more details and information
• Blog - Blogging is becoming one of the fastest growing methods of communication.  A blog, or web log, is an ongoing journal of information related to your cause.  It is almost limitless in its type of content, but could include news about your nonprofit, pictures of recent events and activities, editorials on the issues surrounding your cause, or spotlights on people who have made important humanitarian or financial contributions.  Blogging can be an uniquely effective tool, in that it allows readers to comment and interact with the content. This creates a sense of active participation for supporters, and gives them a way to express their ideas and to vent their feelings.  If your organization is interested in adding a blog to your website, but aren’t sure how to begin, you might want to sign up for a blog writing course, that will guide you through all the steps of designing, writing, and promoting your new blog.  Qualified nonprofits can receive a discounted subscription for the Blogging 101 course.

There are many other ways to use your nonprofit website to encourage participation and involvement from your supporters, but hopefully these ideas will get you started on creating a two-way communication that will benefit your cause for years to come.

Change is difficult. Change is usually incremental. Change is sometimes necessary. But if you are a non-profit organization operating in the 21^st century, change is CRUCIAL. The way today’s non-profits communicate with their potential donors, their consistent supporters, and their volunteers is radically different than the way they communicated even ten years ago. Newsletters and mail-outs, while still in use, are not usually the preferred means of receiving information for most supporters under the age of forty…and that demographic must be reached in order to continue to grow a foundation of ongoing support and continued fundraising.

Today’s grass roots boosters aren’t satisfied to sit back and be spoon fed information about the causes and organizations they support - - they want to interact with their chosen movements. They want to feel like they are not only aware of the problems of the world, but are a part of the solution.

This is where blogging comes in. Almost 30% of internet subscribers read blogs on a daily basis. For many of these, blogs are their top source for news and information. This is partly because the blogging format, like no other medium, provides a dialogue beween the author and the reader. A blog is almost never one-sided. Non-profit agencies who incorporate a well-written blog into their communication strategy, are likely to achieve several worthy goals:

• Drawing interest from people formerly unfamiliar with the organization and its goals
• Keeping their supporters and potential supporters up-to-date on issues and news stories relevant to the mission of the organization
• Keeping constituents aware of upcoming events, immediate needs, or current fundraising drives
• Highlighting the selfless efforts of volunteers who give of themselves daily
• Providing a platform for supporters to interact with the organization and other supporters via blog comments and feedback
• Increasing a sense of overall connection and immediacy between the non-profit and its base of supporters through timely informational posts
• Putting a personal face on an impersonal fundraising entity, and makes supporters feel personally invested in the ups and downs of its daily operation

If you are interested in finding out how to quickly and easily integrate a blog into your communication efforts, click here to find out more about taking our Blogging 101 course.

Until next time,

Immediacy.  Technically, it is defined as “the quickness of an action or occurrence.”  But on an emotional level, immediacy can be incredibly important.  If someone we loves is injured or in need of help, we want to know immediately.  When we have good news to share, we can hardly wait to find a listening ear.  Births, marriages, deaths - - they all appear as soon as possible in the local newspaper.  Finding out news when it happens makes us feel connected in a real way to those it is happening to.

For nonprofit agencies, this can be an important truth to digest.  Donors almost always feel emotionally connected to the causes they support.  For any myriad of reasons, they believe that their chosen cause deserves attention and funding, and they are willing to put their own hard earned time and money into it.  But just like any investment, donors deserve a return.  And, rightfully, this return ought to somehow involve timely news on how the agency or organization is managing its resources.

One way that nonprofits are successfully handling this in recent years is by creating their own blog.  The whole premise behind blogging is bringing up-to-date information to the public, and that is exactly what savvy nonprofit agencies are doing.  They are nurturing the emotional connection of their donor public by bringing them up-to-date news on the ups and downs of the issues involving their organization.  When supporters get current information about the cause they support, they feel emotionally linked with its successes and failures.

Large nonprofits such as the One Campaign, are utilizing this tactic successfully.  The One blog is not only featured prominently on the agency’s website, but is updated several times daily.  To donors, this says that the organization has its eye on the ball, and is keenly involved in its own agenda, and in keeping others informed with its progress.  These are key ingredients to getting and keeping support. 

The Greenpeace organization goes even one step further, and encourages its supporters to blog about subjects relating to environmental concerns.  They then link the contributing blogs to their own blog site, Making Waves, thereby increasing attention to their cause and creating a community of like-minded bloggers who feel passionately connected to the nonprofit and its issues. 

If you are involved in a nonprofit organization, and would like to learn more about blogging, and how it could benefit your cause and your supporters, why not sign up for our free Introductory Blogging Course and discover the basics and the vocabulary of the world of blogging.  And if you decide that your nonprofit might truly benefit from an ongoing blog, then you will definitely want to take the Blogging 101 course where our experienced instructor will guide every step of the way through designing and setting up your blog, writing quality content, and building your audience.  Then you will be well on your way to delivering the timely information and creating the immediacy that your organization’s supporters want and deserve.

Until next time,