5 Easy ways to end up in a budget hole

Budgets. The mere mention of them can cause entire departments to suddenly come down with the flu.  It can sometimes feel like we are on one endless budget cycle—one that starts 6 months in advance (hey, we need a draft lots of folks can provide input on), goes through 900,000 revisions and scenarios, and then at some point, leads into potentially monthly reforecasts when cash flow doesn't line up to within 3% of initial forecast... No wonder everyone gets so sick!

Many of us may be in budget season as we speak. It's now almost the exception to the rule that someone actually lives on a calendar year.  Trying to keep track of clients’ fiscal years can be a fun mental exercise for some of us consultants to stay alert…

But I digress. The thing about budgets is that as they keep getting more complicated—integrated programs, cross-department planning, multiple vendors, hundreds of affiliates with revenue share to be accounted for, and all sorts of big unknowns like “the economy”,   can make for one complicated spreadsheet (with multiple tabs mind you). And that's just version 1, scenario 1, baseline growth rate, pilot affiliate roll up.

As we swim in the complexities, I thought it might be useful to point to some of the less complicated details that can be easy to overlook, but, when not accounted for, can make a pretty big impact to the bottom line, especially the expense side of things, that, frankly, no one wants to have to explain to the Board.  If you're going to have to build a 97 page deck, you don't want it to be because:

1. You guestimated your expected performance next year.  Sure, sometimes a guestimate is all you have to work with, like when starting up a brand new program from scratch, but, that should never be your go to if you have a program with past performance indicators and are able to understand your file composition.  Know your file, forecast its performance, and understand its dynamics.
   This is what can provide you a realistic expectation of future performance. Ok, so maybe this first point is not a small detail, but rather key to a good budget.
2. You are planning to do testing in direct mail and didn't account for the cost.  Considering throwing in a calendar with that label package you mail? Even if you only mail that to a 50,000 test panel, at the added cost of say $.50 a calendar in a test quantity, and then bigger envelopes, etc, etc, art, etc etc, did you budget that extra $25K you are going to need? The test may be totally worth it, and you could even come out with more cash in hand, but if you didn't plan for it, you're going to have to find that testing money somewhere….Also:
1. Evaluate and plan for an overall increase in the cost of paper, etc, as necessary. The years of cut throat production prices just to stay in business seem to behind us.
2. Speaking of which, if you've got a DM winner from last year you plan to roll out with but it's a more expensive package, don't forget to budget in that extra few pennies per piece 
3. Postage expenses: so, most of us don't live on a calendar year, but postal costs do tend to go up annually…. Even if we stop cowering from the constant threat of an exigent rate case, if you've mailed anything out first class out or first class back you can mostly count on that being more expensive come January 1st. Take a look at your budget—anything going in the mail in the new year with a nice first class stamp on it? Plan for that. A million pieces at an extra $.01/per piece is an extra $10K that has to come from somewhere.
4. It's not just direct mail. Planning to send out more email? Expand your site? Do something integrate mobile? That's great! Even better if you have the in-house talent to do so, so you're not expecting to have to pay someone. But, have you checked if you are nearing your usage limits? Or the number of pages you get? Are you going to have to buy up? Probably a good thing to budget for before it turns out you can't host that special content area, or email out whatever campaign.  And that cool Twitter campaign, possibly using some processor who might charge a higher % than you're used to? Don't forget to discount that from the revenue.
5. Freemiums: man, are those things expensive in test quantities. Think about your testing themes for the year ahead of time. Planning something big offline? Always consider where you could combine and test online, TM, etc. And not in a “hey, we have a bunch of X leftover lying around, why don't we throw it in over here and see if it works” kind of way (well ok, sometimes we all do that), but wouldn't it be great to say “hey, I could never afford to test this as part of my online sustainer acquisition budget, but since offline is ordering 10,000 of these, the vendor is willing to throw in 200 for online for free!”
1. Side note: fulfillment costs for freemiums. The expense that if unplanned for, can be the bane of an otherwise successful campaign.
6. Bonus tip: Always have a slush fund.Stuff happens. Opportunities come along.  Or, gaps appear. Someone leaves. A crisis happens. A slush fund may be the difference in the content for that 97 page deck for the Board….

Social Community Impacts Volunteerism

What’s the sure fire way to make certain your constituents continue to volunteer for your cause – ensure they are emotionally invested to the organization. Allowing your volunteers to be able to find other volunteers through your online directory, post messages about their upcoming events, blog about their experiences, and share pictures within your community site, empowers them to be more committed to the cause and yields higher fundraising for your foundation!

1. Establishing a Discussion Group - When your volunteers can post and reply to messages to events they have an interest in, it facilitates a type of community in which volunteers feel more connected with their peers and committed to the cause. Through Discussion Groups they can coordinate logistics, share creative ideas, discuss marketing and communication strategies to increase attendance and involvement, share their stories, and receive feedback from their peers leading up to, and after the event. Higher engagement of volunteers yields a more significant commitment to the cause and subsequently higher fundraising dollars for the organization.
2. Creating a Blog within your Community - Why send the traffic back to Word Press and Blogger? You want your volunteers to be able to share their stories of volunteering at a homeless shelter, building homes for their neighbors, and running marathons for great causes within your community. Bring the traffic back to your private online community site that is branded for your organization. This also enhances SEO by allowing new members to search for keywords and having your volunteer’s blogs appear in the search results within your community site. The easier it is for volunteers to be able to share their experiences from the events or their personal story with the organizations, the more likely they are to be engaged and invested in the organizations. Higher emotional investment indubitably yields higher contributions.
3. Enhanced Volunteer Directory - Volunteers want to network with those whom they will be working with. They want to see their profile pictures, learn more about their bio, job history, volunteer history, and see if went to the same Alma Mater.  What better way to do that than to have them search for other volunteers in the communities and events they are involved with, add them as a friend and send them direct messages in advance of the event? This pre-event relationship building, instantly builds stronger connections for the volunteer members and helps foster the sense of community which the organization is trying to instill.
4. Sharing within a Resource Library - Your Volunteer Champions can upload pertinent documents within the community for the volunteering events which can be easily referenced at any time from the volunteers smartphones and community site. This also builds a knowledge repository and archives of the agenda, project management, logistical, and budgetary plans. The easier it is for volunteers to be able to see the relevant documents pertaining to the events, the more likely they are to be engaged and invested to the organizations.

Angelika Lipkin is the Manager of Strategic Partnerships for Higher Logic, a social media and mobile software company for associations and nonprofits. Angelika specializes in fostering relationship development, developing social media engagement strategies, and consulting organizations on launching private social networks.

Seven Deadly Mobile Myths

When you think about someone accessing your nonprofit website from a mobile device, how do you picture them? I can imagine you’re thinking of someone who is in a hurry, maybe standing in line somewhere, at the airport or in a car. While that’s probably the case with a lot of your mobile audience, it’s not always true.

I heard a great talk at the IA Summit a few weeks ago that debunked many ideas and assumptions we’ve made about mobile context. As a designer of mobile experiences, I too am guilty of these assumptions. Josh Clark, the presenter, defined the 7 Deadly Mobile Myths as follows. You can also download the slides from his presentation here.

1. Mobile users are rushed and distracted
   

   Per my illustration above, it’s easy to think of mobile users as always on-the-go but the reality is that people access the mobile web in many contexts like when they’re lying on the couch or trying to kill time on a 3 hour travel layover. Josh cited a statistic that 28% of mobile users in the US are “mostly mobile” users meaning they rarely use a laptop or desktop computer.

   
   
2. Mobile = Less
   

   Because users are not always rushed and distracted, they also don’t need a “lite” or dumbed-down experience from their mobile phone. Another statistic cited was that 85% of users expect your mobile site to be “at least as good” as your desktop site. Josh argued that users don’t like the “View Full Site” option and would rather be able to access all of your content in a mobile-friendly format. He said that omitting certain content on your mobile site is like an author leaving out chapters in a book!

   
   
3. Complexity is a dirty word
   

   So we’re now challenged with providing the entirety of what could be a very complex nonprofit site in a mobile format that still feels uncomplicated and easy to use. Making the complicated seem uncomplicated. The nice thing for most of you reading this is that you can leave this challenge up to your designers. For the mobile designers out there, the next myth is really good news…

   
   
4. Extra taps and clicks are evil
   

   When you’re dealing with such a small screen, the best approach is to use progressive disclosure. This means showing the user a little, and then having them click or tap to see more. We use this principle with navigation on a desktop website and it’s even more imperative with mobile. Josh said that the quality of the click or tap is far more important than the quantity.

   
   
5. Gotta have a mobile website
   

   Let’s clarify here… you don’t need a separate mobile website. You still need to offer your constituents a mobile experience but Josh argued the best approach is to make your existing content mobile-friendly. Thanks to Convio CMS and other content management systems, this is not difficult. It does mean that you may have to start thinking a little differently when you create new content though. Perhaps there are additional fields you might need to add for each content item to make your mobile display work better.

   
   
6. Mobile is about apps
   

   Josh stated that app vs. mobile website vs. desktop website are all just containers we use to present content. So apps definitely have a place in the mobile landscape but they’re not the end-all be-all. He played this NFL commercial to illustrate that users expect to access the same content across multiple devices. Again, this boils down to making sure your content is adaptable to all of these devices.

   
   
7. CMS and APIs are for database nerds
   

   Going back to what I mentioned above, content management systems and APIs are the tools that we need to make our content adapt to all devices. Not just the devices we use today but the devices that we’ll be using in the future too. All we need to do is learn how to write content that will scale across multiple screen sizes and then rely on the CMS and API technology to control the display.

Do you agree or disagree with these mobile myths? What are some things you can start doing today to make sure your content is truly future-proof and adaptable to different devices?

Where's the remote (worker)?

After a recent relocation, I'm learning a lot about working remotely from a home office. Well, I don't know if you can call my desk jammed into the corner of my bedroom a "home office", but we'll roll with it.

I've been fortunate that my team, which now covers three time zones and two coasts, has been so flexible and accommodating to the new arrangement. We've been tinkering around with a lot of different settings, options, software systems, and phone arrangements over the past few weeks. It's definitely easier now than ever to work remotely, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

It also got me thinking about organizations, maybe like some of yours, where remote working isn't a product of having people who just happen to live in different areas, but is more a product of a lack of office space. Let's face it, the overhead of having an office can be more than a lot of organizations and companies can justify.

So, I thought I'd take a few minutes to talk about some of the options out there (and I'll let you know if we've tried them). If anyone else has ideas, especially ones you've tried, then let us know!

Google Hangout

When it comes to conferencing software, we already have one that we use as a company. But, for my team, we have a quick, 15-minute meeting every day, and we wanted to use something a little more lightweight. We all gather in a Google Hangout (via Google +), and knock the meeting out with out a lot of software overhead. Also, they seem to be adding a lot of features, inluding screenshare and a few app integrations that we've really been digging.(I've used Skype for personal video calls, and I've always been pleased with their software as well. I can't say I've used it for group calls, but the preference for Google's option is that it just requires a browser window.)

Conference Calls

Though not always the best way to keep everyone engaged, there's certainly something to just gathering everyone on the phone for meetings. It's not as personal as everyone being in the same room, but it certainly allows everyone to end up on the same page better than a slew of emails.

Chat Rooms

We have a chat room that we are all logged into for the majority of the day. Sometimes it's silent, sometimes it's chatty, but it's always there as a way to communicate to a lot of people in a quick way.

Basecamp and Campfire

I can't speak for Highrise or Backpack, but as far as web-based collaboration tools go, the suite from 37Signals is some of the best out there. It's been a long time since I've used Basecamp as an actual project management tool, but it's been an ongoing repository for document sharing for a while in my group of colleagues. The pricing is pretty approachable, and certainly allows for collaboration and visibility into ongoing projects.

Coworking Space

I'm giving this a shot for the first time next week, but a new crop of businesses out there designed specifically for people who don't have offices. These spaces typically provide some work space, internet connection, outlets, and small kitchen-like areas. They are often open spaces, and basically allow for those people like me, who don't work from an office, to have someplace to work. (If you've ever looked for a coffee shop to work from, you know that that can be hit-or-miss.)

If you're an organization or a person who is dealing with the remote office in a different way, or you want to just talk about one of the options I've already mentioned, then leave a comment and let us know. In the meantime, I'll be in my room...I mean, my office.

4.8 billion reasons for a mobile site

Last week an important anniversary crept by — barely noticed. The humble SMS had its 20th birthday. It is now estimated that more than two-thirds of the world’s population have access to SMS. With 4.8 billion mobile phone subscriptions, we are in the startling position of living in a world where it is highly likely that more people own a mobile phone than own a toothbrush (toothbrush owners come in at a paltry 3.5 billion). And as the number of people who own or access a mobile phone increases, so will the penetration of more sophisticated handsets. Today, 1.2 billion phones are internet-connected.

The mobile phone has created a direct, instant connection to the majority of people on our planet. And as the technology increases, that sense and reality of that connection will have a greater impact — both for the user and for the content (and content originators) with whom they interact.

Only a few years ago social media was seen as a passing fad — a distraction. Now it is not only integrated into the lives of people and businesses, but is defining the development of communication. More than half of the 900 million Facebook users use their mobile to access Facebook. More than half of all twitter traffic is also from mobile. Mobile is the growing country in our new world order.

There’s a reason why Facebook just spent $1 billion in acquiring Instagram (the free photo sharing app). And it’s not because of the quality of the filters. It’s all about mobile! Facebook currently has no income from mobile, which considering how many hundreds of millions of people access their account via a mobile phone is astonishing. Instagram (whilst having zero revenue throughout its fledgling history) has a single-minded focus on mobile as a platform, and has the potential to support the primary use case for Facebook — sharing photos. Facebook is not a mobile-first company and has poor location data on its users. Instagram’s single-minded focus provides both of these — arguably to a greater long-term value than $1 billion.

So what are you doing about it? What is your nonprofit doing about it? It is very hard to overstate how crucial it is that the nonprofit sector understands the genuine and seismic shift that mobile technology is bringing to our world. The ability to engage with people, no matter where they are, is the most powerful and effective way of getting donors involved.

Out of those 4.8 billion reasons why you need to have a mobile website you can narrow it down to the one key fact that people are consuming more and more content on their mobile phones. That content (some of which your non-profit might push out as a text messaging campaign, QR code, location-based campaign, app etc.) invariably leads on to somewhere else. Do you really want that content to lead to a web page that was designed to be read on a 12-14” computer screen?

If you’re making the donate ask on mobile you need to keep the user journey within mobile. If you’re not making the donate ask on mobile, it would seem that there are just a few reasons knocking around why you should be.

Go be mobile!