One of the things that excites me about being part of the NetSquared community, and particularly about NetSquared Local, is that it engenders spaces where digital innovation actualizes the potential of the social web to address critical social problems offline. In the process, it is also deepening and strengthening - rather than weakening or diluting - the relationships and connections the social web affords us.

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.