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The 501c3cast Podcast for Nonprofits
URL:
www.501c3cast.com
Project Description:
The 501c3cast is an independent podcast for and about nonprofit professionals, volunteers, and people who are interested in the nonprofit sector. It is inspired by personable talk radio shows but also draws heavily from the techniques used by pioneering podcasts. It is a weekly show, generally about 30 minutes long – an average commute time and easily digestible. A typical show includes current news about or affecting the philanthropic world, recommended links to check out on the web (playfully called Lookie, Lookie Links), interviews with nonprofit professionals or volunteers, stories, inspirational quotes, and an occasional song by an independent "podsafe" artist.
There are several purposes and goals of the 501c3cast:
- Provide an inspirational channel for people in the nonprofit sector to share stories and proven skills.
- Introduce podcasting to people working with nonprofit organizations as an effective method of sharing information with their constituents.
- Encourage people who work with nonprofit organizations to cooperate rather than compete.
Like many podcasts, the 501c3cast is produced using Audacity, a free open-source audio recording software tool. (See image above) Other applications/services used to produce the content include: Skype, HotRecorder, iTunes, Feedburner, and Libsyn.com.
Points of interest:
Though many people working with nonprofits see the potential of podcasting as a valuable tool to help them tell their stories, the representation of nonprofit organizations producing podcasts has been low. As of Dec 5, 2005, a search in the iTunes podcast directory for nonprofit returns less than 20 results. I hope that the 501c3cast can be used as an example of how the medium can be an effective way for people working with nonprofits to communicate with their constituents and peers.
Podcasts have the following benefits over other forms of media:
- Audio can often elicit emotional responses more effectively than writing and even images.
- The technical hardware and production requirements are significantly less than video production yet podcasts can still bring a sense of "liveness" to the message.
- The increase in number of people who own mp3 players makes podcasts much more accessible and portable to the general public. As of Feb 2005 – 22 million Americans owned mp3 players. One out of every five people under the age of 30 own some sort of mp3 player. Source = Pew Internet & American Life Project
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