I haven’t been blogging long, and although I have a depth of experience in communications and a “gut” instinct on what works, there’s still a lot to learn.  One great source has been Beth Kanter’s blog and wiki.  The great thing about social media is that this assistance comes “free” (okay, I retract that, there’s the [...]

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In my previous post, you began to lay the groundwork for board signoff on your web 2.0 initiatives.  
It’s a myth that boards won’t support (increased) usage of web 2.0 technology.  They are simply unfamiliar with the potential of what exists.  They may have seen their teenager use MySpace or a school blog. Your job is to connect the dots. Ultimately, they are accountable for the financial well-being of [...]

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Yesterday, I made this comment in response to others on Ken Goldstein’s blog:
In a perfect world, even smaller nonprofits have some semblance of a strategic plan, signed off on by their board of directors. Web2.0 usage would be integrated into the plan (in general terms-I don’t want to indicate micro-management or, heaven forbid, sound too [...]

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In a swirl of links only the blogosphere could manufacture, Beth Kanter brought to my attention (aren’t feeds great?) a post by Ken Goldstein on why Web 2.0 is important to small nonprofits.  I couldn’t agree more, but posting a comment to his blog got me to thinking some deep thoughts.  
As I look around at [...]

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Nominations are again being sought for the Purpose Prize–a $100,000 award for baby boomers and beyond who have rocked their world by being social innovators, using their experience and talents to benefit others.   Who is eligible?  People over 60.  (For you young-uns, that’s people who remember with clarity where they were the day President Kennedy was shot).
Check [...]

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Last night, I began teaching a college class in strategic planning.  It got me to thinking about a recent conversation with my hubby, who also teaches college part-time.  We’ve had difficulty lately getting in touch in a timely way with our students.  We try our darndest to help students succeed, often in spite of themselves–sending reminders about upcoming [...]

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Beth Kanter, the technical maven of the nonprofit world, posed a simple question to me yesterday–  

“What do you think are some best practices in using these (social media) tools in terms of collaboration?”  

So much potential, it makes my brain hurt! (Sorry, too much Monty Python with my daughter last weekend).  I’ll focus on one aspect:

peer learning.  [...]

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I know.  You’re with a nonprofit or a likewise budget- and staff-challenged organization .  You read my last couple of posts that mentioned using YouTube and you thought “I have a tough enough time keeping my website from becoming stale, so how in the world am I ever going to get the time and resources to produce [...]

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The Pew Internet and American Life Project –an initiative of the Pew Research Center–released a new survey yesterday demonstrating why we can’t make assumptions about who is doing what on the web.  To make these assumptions may mean missing key opportunities to engage new supporters. 
Many nonprofit execs make assumptions that it is the young volunteers, not the [...]

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I was disappointed recently when I cruised YouTube’s ever-expanding nonprofit channel.  With high hopes that some of my personal favs in the nonprofit world would be using this technology–they weren’t there!   Hey, even the 12 year-olds from my Girl Scout Troop are posting info, so how hard can it be?
Yes, the “biggies” were there.  United [...]

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