Nancy Schwartz, president of Nancy Schwartz & Company and blogger at Getting Attention, has just finished analyzing data from a nonprofit marketing survey of more than 900 nonprofit leaders, revealing that they are doing a poor job connecting with their audience and community.  Nancy explains:

I like Skype.  Say it with me..."I like Skype."  Now, I don't want to seem too much a pusher of Skype, but I have to say, I'm impressed with this business model (along with Netflix, they're the best 21st century biz models I've experienced.)  

Skype takes telephony and translates it into the digital future.  Start thinking of your computer as a telephone, is how I could best describe it - a very cheap telephone.  And they have business packages, which is why I'm throwing it in our Toolshed.  Mostly likely your office has one computer, quite possibly several.  With Skype you can make FREE computer-to-computer audio and video calls - and the quality is super sweet (I use it constantly for personal and business use on a Dell Inspiron 1525.)  

My blog is located at:

http://theraiser.blogspot.com/

Has anyone ever sent you a link to The Meatrix, Store Wars, Sam Suds or the DaVersity Code with the note, "You have to watch this"?  All four online movies were created by Free Range Studios, an advertising and marketing firm that specializes in nonprofits and socially responsible businesses. 

If you have a campaign at your organization that you think could benefit from their services, they are accepting proposals for their 2007 Gratitude Grant.

You can read an interview with Free Range's Principal, Jonah Sachs, on the NetSquared blog. 

This blog will cronicle the process of building a new and innovative web presence for Women and Youth Supporting Each Other.

We have a website. www.wyse.org However, it is outdated and our forums are under utilized becuase they are too static.

The goal is to create a modern website for WYSE that incorporates a blog, chat capabilities and many other available social networking tools to bring us into the 21st century.

My vision is a mutli-level web community that serves the needs of our constituents(girls in 6th through 12th grade), our volunteer networks(ranging from college students to professional women), sponsors and foundations as well as other non profits who have a cyber footprint.

I just got back from the DMA 2007 Annual Washington Nonprofit Conference, where I was able to dip into a session on integrated fundraising for “nonprofits only.”  I was struck by one discussion, in particular, which was sparked by the session facilitator asking “What division owns the web in your association?”  As various organizations started division-bashing, I’m sure I frowned. For me, it’s the over-arching communications strategy that should be defining how we communicate online and off…and that strategy should be consumer focused and supported by each division (in unique and various ways).  People in this session were actually saying things like…”we don’t issue emails to our email contact list because of political reasons within the organization”…and “we stole the communications division’s list to conduct a donor analysis”…statements that seemed to betray the session’s intent (or, more truthfully, showed just how much work many of us have ahead). 

I believe it’s the web services group that is best situated to lead the charge in defining and driving  a collaborative approach to communicating cross-divisionally. The fact that we are customer focused by design is a huge asset for that role. But that said, I also believe it’s clear we need to befriend and engage our colleagues in other divisions – not only to win their support, but to share the work-load and ultimately to improve our collective effectiveness as an organization. Let that be the driver for organizational communications. 

So says a study by the Nielsen Norman group, which I wrote about in my blog, studio 501c.

Emily, creator of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange, asks why nonprofits don't blog. I think it's because blogging is too often touted as a radical, new end in itself, not as a tool in a larger strategy for building relationships with donors, volunteers, members, and clients.

Relatedly, we need to engage more nonprofit communicators and fundraising professionals in the conversation. No matter how well intended they may be, techies and Web gurus often promote blogs and the like without regard for sound principles of nonprofit fundraising and relationship building -- principles that apply online and off. 

Q : What is the New Orleans Voices For Peace Project?

A: Providing the tools, technologies and training for communication.

Q: For Who?

A: Communities effected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.