Whether you need hands-on help with writing your year-end appeals, help with strategy or segmentation, or someone to facilitate a planning session or provide some coaching for your staff, Harman Interactive can help.

Here are a few notes and links to resources that I hope you will find helpful. I encourage you to look up some of your favorite nonprofit organizations on Facebook. If you work for a nonprofit organization, please share how you are using Facebook and what you’ve found works best for your organization.

First of all keep in mind that Facebook is simply one tactic in your overall outreach and engagement strategy. Focus on using social networking sites like Facebook to engage and connect with people first and for fundraising second. Engaging and connecting with people will lead to increased giving and engagement through all channels.

Also, use social media sites as a tool for listening and to better understand what people are saying about your organization and how it impacts their life. Two keys to success with Facebook are frequent updates and being personal and human to forge real connections.

One of the first questions that organizations seem to have when it comes to Facebook is which tools should they use and how should they set up their presence on Facebook. Some organizations have set up their presence the same way as an individual does with a basic Facebook profile. Others are using Facebook pages or groups.

Pages can only be created by official representatives of businesses, bands or organizations. There are also specific applications built for different types of fan pages. The pages are indexed by search engines which is a huge reason to use them. Also with a page people can become “fans” of your organization. As a fan you are showing that you value and appreciate the business or organization but you aren’t giving the organization access to view everything on your own personal profile as you do when you become a “friend” with someone. An organization can also enable multiple administrators to help keep the page up to date.

Groups tend to be more informal and based around specific interests. With groups you can be more viral because everyone in the group can send bulk invites to their friends to join the group or participate in group activities.

I think it makes a lot of sense for organizations to use both pages and groups and to encourage staff and volunteers to use their personal Facebook profiles and friend networks to spread buzz about the organization.

The page would be the place for the official organization presence, link to sign up for the organization email newsletter etc…

Groups could be used for specific purposes and constituencies such as the volunteer group, the junior board group, or a group related to one specific aspect of your organization’s mission.

A couple quick examples — WGBH has a volunteer group as well as a WGBH page and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago has a page as well as a group for people who like attending their First Friday events.

Here are some other articles on the topic that you may find of interest:

Beth Kanter is a go to person when it comes to how nonprofits use social media. Her blog is constantly updated and jam packed with useful information. This article on her blog is very useful on this particular topic.

This article from Searchenginejournal.com has a good explanation of the reasons to use pages versus groups.

Mari Smith offers this great comparison of pages and groups in Facebook

I also found this excellent article about the use of facebook pages and groups in Higher-Ed.

National Wildlife Federation – tips for energy conservation, interesting animal facts, links to opportunities to participate in advocacy etc…

AIDG – a lot of links to interesting videos that showcase the work that they do

Adler Planetarium – some great quick facts about things to look for in the sky as well as info about upcoming special events at the planetarium

Chicago Public Radio and other public media sites – links to news reports and interesting features

American Public Health Association - links to public health news and to interesting facts and polls. There’s a link to a pop quiz to name the top 10 public health achievements, a survey asking if you got a flu shot, and more…

Anyway this is just a small sample of how some nonprofits are starting to use Twitter. I imagine it will take some experimenting to determine the right amount of tweets to their followers and the best tone for those tweets. I think there is certainly a place for some fundraising tweets too but nonprofits will have to resist the temptation to go overboard on that or they will likely lose followers pretty quickly. It will be fun to watch how the use of Twitter evolves in the nonprofit sector.

It gives me a headache and makes me feel like I have ADD when I go to a site that is a hodgepodge of graphics and colors with confusing navigation.

I’m a lot less likely to take some sort of action on a website – make a purchase, download a white paper, listen to a podcast, sign up for an e-newsletter, or make a donation when I’m on a website that doesn’t clearly and quickly convey the brand or steer my eye in a particular direction.

At the recent GetTogether2006 – a conference for GetActive Software users – there was an excellent presentation on the topic of planning, designing, developing and managing websites. Eric Helmuth from Join Together talked about the process they went through to launch their new site. Melissa Roberts from Free Range Technologies worked with Join Together on the site design and provided some great advice. She said to make sure that the designers and developers are on the same page and meet early in the process. She also talked about the importance of designing your site with your end goals in mind. If you want to generate more online donations on your website, make sure the donation link is prominent and above the fold for example.

Join Together’s new site generates more traffic and more visitor actions than their old site did. Take a quick look and you can quickly see why:

1. Within a few seconds of looking at the site, you have some understanding of what they do.

2. The ways to get involved with the organization jump right out at you. The donate link, the e-newsletter sign up, and the information about various issues at the state level and how you can get involved are the first things my eyes were drawn to on the page.

3. The site is also designed to provide fresh content on an ongoing basis. People interested in the work that Join Together does will return to the site often to read “Today’s News” in the right hand column. Using a content management system makes it easy for them to keep the content timely.

Take a look at your own site. Within a few seconds will a site visitor understand what your organization is all about and will they be compelled to take the actions that you want them to take?

Seth Godin was the keynote speaker at GetTogether. He was great. In his book “Small is the New Big” he talks about the importance of focusing on the big picture of what you want your website to do. He writes “A Web site must do at least one of two things, but probably both: Turn a stranger into a friend and friend into a customer. Talk in a tone of voice that persuades people to believe the story you are telling.”

How well does your website do those two things? I’d love to hear your thoughts about what’s working and what isn’t and what you’ve tested to increase the percentage of site visitors who donate, subscribe to your newsletter etc…

One of the services I provide for my clients is a website audit from a donor perspective. I look at how well your site tells your story and how effectively it encourages the actions you desire. Please contact me to discuss an audit for your site.

I’ll share more of my thoughts about how nonprofits can apply Seth Godin’s cogent advice in future blog postings or editions of my e-newsletter. (If you aren’t signed up for my e-newsletter, you can sign up here Talk to you soon!

Tags:
gettogether2006
nonprofit
websites

This included asking their audience what key words they would use in a search and adding key words and target phrases to their home page and to the meta title tag and meta keywords. Now potential audience members and class participants can find their website so they are much more likely to get engaged with the organization as a donor, e-newsletter subscriber etc…

Search on words that describe your organization and see how well you come up in a search. Optimizing your natural search results should be your first step in using search to raise money.

Other ways to raise money through search include:

Use Sponsored Ads such as Google AdWords and/or Yahoo Sponsored Ads
Type some keywords and target phrases that describe your organization’s mission into a search engine and see which organizations come up in the sponsored ads on the side of the search results page. For example, if you type in “International Relief” organizations like MercyCorps and World Vision will appear.

These ads are purchased on a cost per click basis. You can establish a maximum budget which ensures you don’t wind up spending more than you’ve budgeted for keyword search advertising if you run into the good problem of having a lot of clicks. You can also choose to just have your sponsored ads appear in your state, region, or city.

Through the Google Grants program nonprofit organizations can apply for a grant covering three months or more of in kind online search advertising.

Encourage Use of Nonprofit Friendly Search Engines
Techsoup wrote Goodsearch.com or to download the Goodsearch toolbar and then your organization earns money every time a search is performed there.

Another service which wasn’t mentioned in the Techsoup article and, based on my research, I’d recommend over Goodsearch is Prodege.

Prodege works the same way that Goodsearch does but I think it has two advantages.

1.) The percent of funds that goes to the charity is higher with Prodege

2.) The toolbar can be fully customized for the organization so in addition to including the Prodege powered search box, it can include your organization’s logo and several links to your organization’s website such as your “upcoming events page” or “donate now” page. What an awesome branding opportunity! Having your organization’s logo right at the top of your donor’s browser – what a great way to keep the organization top of mind for your donor!

Learn more about Prodege here
http://www.prodege.org/about.html

or feel free to contact me and I’ll put you in touch with one of their reps who will gladly answer any questions you have and show you a sample customized toolbar.

Use all of these strategies to raise more money for your organization via search! Good luck! Please share your comments about what’s working for you. If you have a success story to share I’m sure my blog readers would love to hear it.