Seth Rosen asked on LinkedIn "Which nonprofits are using Web 2.0 technology in an innovative way to listen and talk with their clients and constituents and further their missions?".

In response, Alexandra Samuel posted six recommendations in her blog on Social Signal, culling from her consultancy's best practices. At the top of her list: "Focus your site on a particular goal or conversation, rather than a general mandate. For example, the UN Foundation has had a dazzling success with its Nothing But Nets site, which focuses specifically on providing malaria nets to kids in the developing world." One should infer that a singular home site for your organization is not sufficient for all of your programs' needs.

Focus upon a single objective, topic, or campaign makes sense in the Web 2.0 world for several reasons:

• Traffic quality calls for specificity and relevance, from organic search results to social bookmarking and recommendations.
• Conversion to a call-for-action takes place more readily when the visitors' attention is not sent elsewhere in the site.
• Foundation funding favors programs with focused media, while it may be much less attracted to supporting the entire spectrum of programs in which your organization might be engaged.

Thanks, Alexandra, for sharing this with us. Thanks, Seth, for starting the distributed discussion thread. Thanks also go to Brice Royer for breathing new life into the conversation through the "Non-profits using Web 2.0" group in Facebook.