More and more nonprofits are exploring and finding benefits from using new social media tools like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter in their online communications. But while the tools themselves can be relatively straightforward to learn and adopt, many organizations struggle with how to effectively coordinate messaging and communications across their suite of online channels – from web and email, to blogs and social media, and beyond.

With this week as history-laden as it is, it seems that all bloggers (on the micro and macro scale), are taking time to give props to the rad folks who are keeping the history of all-around do-gooder-ship (you can tellI made that one up, right?) alive. Thus far, Google Reader has delivered to my blog-hungry soul entry after entry covering the extraordinary efforts of this collective, or that activist in order to highlight the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King and the progress illustrated by the dynamic achievements of Barack Obama.

Hello Friends of ManorMeta!
It's true...we're moving! Our Better World Island location became too small for our crystalline sanctuary and we wish our friends at Care.org and the Better World Scouts the best wishes as they build amazing aid and activism efforts inworld. We will continue to be active scouts and offer you AMO Island as a resort alternative for visionary communities in development around the world.

First, a big thank you to Susan Tenby, Britt and Aaron and Gina and Beth and Ben and Bennett for helping us spread the word about ManorMeta! You have been tremendously helpful supporters in our work and we are grateful for every bit of support for the Amoration community.

A recent dotOrganize study of nonprofit organizers showed that lack of integrated tools was the #1 universal technology complaint; that's why a group of folks have created the Integration Proclamation:

We the undersigned progressive leaders, have together identified technology integration as a top priority infrastructure need in 2007.  We urge progressive funders, vendors and technologists to support a collaborative effort dedicated to ensuring that our tools integrate effectively, so that we can move forward with innovative, powerful platforms that will help us win.  

You can sign the Proclamation by clicking here, join the Integration Proclamation list serv by emailing Tate Hausman at tate (at) dotorganize (dot) net, and pass the word on to friends and colleagues with the email text below (or your own):

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.