A Blog on fundraising for nonprofits

I thought you guys might find this useful

http://www.gayleroberts.com/blog/labels/Fundraising_Resources.html

Kick Apps

I found an online service called KICK APPS that does "social media applications on demand." They have a Free version with ads and an "ad inventory buyout" version. I know nothing about it except it looked like an interesting way to get a seamless new media look up for your organization - for free.

Future of Social Networking

In an effort to explain blogs to my coworkers, my down and dirty research over the past week has only unearthed articles that all seem to have been written in 2005 or 2006. Last night I was reading the latest GD USA (Graphic Design USA) and came across a quick blurb which talked about the future of social networking. I left the mag at home today, but to paraphrase, the article stated that social networks will be more target audience oriented, such as Takkle, a social network for high school athletes.

So I Googled "future of social networking" this morning and found that there are many more theories about the topic. Some think that social networking will move to one big platform, with one big login where you then shop for your social group, others think that video communication will be the next trend.

I think it will be interesting for nonprofits to watch where social networks go over the next couple of years - since both a broader audience and a more targeted audience have their pros and cons.

Creating a Blog

I have to admit that creating my own blog was much easier that I expected. It is very user friendly and it only takes a few minutes to create a nice looking page. I thought the poll option was a nice feature and it was simple to create new page elements.

Domestic Violence Blog List & Local Provider Site

I found this list of domestic violence blogs on a site that you can use to search for lists of different types of blogs by category.

http://www.blogged.com/search/domestic%20violence

This is a list of local domestic violence resources that I got while searching for Richmond domestic violence blogs. It is a comprehensive list of local dv service providers.

http://www.womenshealth.vcu.edu/community/dv_resources.html

~Carrie Reynolds

Top 100 Social Media and Social Networking Blogs

This blog gives a great list of the top 100 social media and social networking blogs. The information on these blogs may help others in trying to convince your agency to start a blog. The blog has a good summary of each blog so you can find blogs that relate to your line of work.

Social media and social networking sites aren’t just about making new friends. These concepts have introduced a whole new way of communicating and managing information with the help of Web-based communities, software and tools to build business contacts, and design marketing and branding strategies. --Laura Milligan

Sorry for two days of quiet..

but you guys have been rocking and rolling!
Great sharing forum. I loved the video.

I did want to highlight some articles that I put in the syllabus. I think the stats, and perspective might be interesting to you.

http://www.inc.com/news/articles/200707/Internet.html

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080214_077604.htm?chan=search

I am going to try to post some documents this weekend to help us get ready to plan our big adventures in New Media Space.

Worst Social Media of 2007

I found this interesting blog on social media. A recent entry highlights some of the worst social media campaigns:

http://www.scottmonty.com/2008/03/suxorz-worst-social-media-of-2007.html

Blogs in plain English

As I mentioned in my first post, I need to write a proposal to convince my agency to do a Financial Aid blog.

I've found a great little video that "explains blogs in plain English." My boss said it helped her so I'm including a link to it in my sample blog.

Blog Promoting a Marketing Campaign

I've been searching for other organ donation agencies that are using blogs to promote their cause. I found this neat blog from Illinois where they are using the blog to promote their current ad campaign. The blog is written from the perspective of the ad campaign at times. They are trying to get 3.5 million people registered as organ donors by April this year. They started the blog in 2006 and it gives them a great forum to promote their upcoming events and put photos and responses from previous events. It looks like it is a good opportunity to involve, network, and retain volunteers.

http://iam-areyou.blogspot.com/

Dena

Local Blogs

Wanted to share some successful local blogs with everyone, since it was mentioned in class.

The North Richmond News is good, as is River District News. These are areas where I live and work so I read them often.

There is a very active community that supports the Church Hill People's News.

For more, visit RVAblogs.com which now has 247 local blogs listed. They pull from the RSS feeds of these and highlight the latest interesting posts on their site.

A lot of the community based blogs offer free classified ads and great rates on banner ads on their site (some as low as $6 for 3 months!). Look at the advertising link on each blog for info.

Local Blog and Podcast Example

Virginia Community College Systems has a blog they do. They are a state agency and oversee all the community colleges. They say their blog is "dedicated to updating you on the latest news and information about Virginia higher education generally and Virginia’s Community Colleges specifically." They have 4 contributors that work at the agency.

http://vahighered.com/


They are also doing a podcast about once a week and they promote their podcast within their blog. They interview students and staff. They have an intro with music and an announcer.

http://vahighered.com/podcast/

Thought it was worth checking out-
Dena

Wednesday Morning...Lisa Johnson

Lisa Johnson runs a small consulting boutique specializing in HOW to market. Her primary focus has been on how to market to the connect generations.
I find her to be insightful from a broader perspective. I've placed her website in the "blog roll" on the side. On this site, you will have access to her blog, and her podcast files.

Think about a couple things.
Although she is primarily geared towards corporate America, what does her website, her marketing material, and her choices in media say about where she believes the direction of marketing communications is going?

When you are thinking about constructing a team of people to help you advance your mission via technology, how can you apply the themes/issues she addresses?

She calls for open-minds and creative thinkers...well, that is why you took this class. Give the class session we had on monday which is a survey the implementation rules she suggests in some of her earlier podcasts, how can we respond to her call? In what ways can we give our mission a "fresh face"? What if noone else where doing it, and you are being called to lead the charge in this area, how would you do this?

Just thoughts for today...
Have a great one!
V~

Welcome!!! New Media for Non Profits

Welcome, Especially for Non Profits!
Welcome, Friends.

This blog is especially for members of the Especially for Non Profits community to communicate between classes.

The objective of this course is to introduce the benefits of including new media technology into the communications planning for non-profit agencies. This class is designed to introduce students to new media technology in the following areas: communications (internal and external), marketing (including fundraising and internet campaigns), productivity and budgeting for new media technology.

Each day, A new nugget or exchange will be posted here for each student to contribute. Sometimes it will be a link to an article, a podcast that is especially interesting, or other new media file that will help you become accustomed to New Media and brainstorm about how you might use technology creativity to help achieve the goals set forth by your organization.

This course should be a fun experience of theory and hands-on exposure. If there are any areas you would like to discuss, or see explored, this is the place to suggest.