One of the things I really love about working with non-profit organizations is their passion. Very few people, if any, get into the non-profit sector because of the big paychecks or the lavish lifestyle. More often than not, the people who are involved in these organizations are there because they really believe in the cause and mission that their organization supports and promotes.

That being said, one thing that often disappoints me with nonprofit organizations is the lack of that passion and conviction in the content on their websites. I have to admit that I am pretty ardent about content, so maybe I'm a harsh critic. However, websites are a visual medium. Not unlike their print-based brethren, they rely heavily on a combination of visual design and content to convey the voice of the organization. When the combination of these two components doesn't accurately represent the organization, the purpose of the website and the mission of the organization is often lost.

Remember that, just like those of you that work for nonprofit organizations, people who donate to and advocate for these organizations are passionate about what the organization is doing, too. So highlight the great things your organization does that differentiates it from other organizations in the same vertical. Talk about who donations help, not just how they are allocated. Share volunteer experiences. Get excited about what you are doing, and spread that excitement all over the content on your site. Get a content strategy together to make sure that what you say on your site represents your organization, not just another website. Your passion and your dedication are important and inspirational - you've got a lot to say, and we want to hear it!

Additional Links
Check out the following links for more information about this topic:
Winning Content Persuades, Not Manipulates
Turn Usable Content into Winning Content

I will sheepishly admit to being a personal productivity geek. I've read Getting Things Done multiple times, check Lifehacker the way others check their stocks, and am constantly looking for that nifty new Firefox extension that will magically render me Organized.

While I've gone down some dead ends, there are a few little apps that have made a lasting difference in my ability to feel in control of my day - or at least to minimize the drudgery. And given how buried most nonprofit staffers are, I figure anything that saves you a little time might be welcome.

Anagram: when a new major donor prospect or one of your super-activists sends you an email, wouldn't it be great if you could use their email signature file to create an pre-filled Outlook contact with one click?  Anagram instantly creates Outlook contacts and appointments out of text you highlight. 99% of the time it pre-fills the contact/appointment exactly right. Free 45-day trial...they also have versions for Palm, Netsuite, and even Salesforce.com (for those of you using SFDC as your database of record). Windows only, I'm afraid.

ActiveWords: I used to type the words "Thanks, Alex" 50 or so times a day...so it was very annoying when I would misspell my own name, have to hit the back button five times, rewrite it, mistype it again, etc. Now I just hit the letter t and then hit the spacebar twice, because ActiveWords lets me create keyboard shortcuts to automate common tasks...could be text snippets, opening a folder on your network, browsing to a URLs, or even a multi-step task. It sits in your taskbar so it works across all your apps. It has a built in calculator for totting up how much time and money it saves you...since installing it a couple of years ago, I've saved 30 full hours and avoided having to type 354,000 characters! Free 60-day trial. Windows-only, but I'm led to believe Quicksilver offers similar functionality on the Mac platform.

Jott. Call Jott's phone number and leave a message for yourself. It will be converted to text and emailed to your email address. Great for reminding yourself of an idea or action item when you're not near your computer. Free.

I've also playing around with Xobni,  a new, free Outlook plugin that organizes your email by person...all of your previous conversations and shared attachments with that constituent/colleague/board member in one place. Real potential for improving responsiveness....hat tip to my colleague Will Buchanan for that one.

How about you? What are your favorite productivity apps?

In today’s Wall Street Journal, technology columnist/blogger Ben Worthen wrote an interesting article on the 30^th anniversary of the first spam email. Since that first invitation to an open house for a new computer, spam has grown to an estimated 90 percent of all electronic messages sent.

To celebrate, ok, highlight the anniversary, I thought it was a good time to feature an article and blog post that help you make sure your email is getting through.

The first is from Convio Chief Scientist, Dr. Bill Pease. Culled from his oft-requested conference session on things that affect email delivery and the best practices required to avoid common delivery problems, the article provides insight that can help you succeed.

From the “oldies but goodies” section, Holly Ross (the post is an oldie, Holly is NOT) provided ten steps to improve email deliverability on NTEN blog last year.

Gary Thurek, the father of spam says people started complaining about his email immediately. He never sent another. Now, if only the Viagra pushers and Nigerian Princes would stop… Well, we can wish. But if you want results and not wishes use the opportunity of this infamous anniversary to share these tips across your organization.

In addition, share your best tips here and we’ll compile them for a future post. Also, share some of the worst tips you've heard and we can put them on a list too. We heard some at a session in San Diego a few weeks ago that made our clients and team cringe - things that good email marketers stopped doing years ago were touted as best practices - but that is a future post. You can also visit the resource center with lessons learned from nearly a decade of research and collaboration with clients and partners on email practices.

And don't blame Gary - as he puts it, blaming him for spam is like blaming the Wright Brothers if the airline loses your luggage.

I just read a great article on the cost of free software, published by Boston Interactive.  They take some time to describe the merits of "free" software, or software that doesn't have a pricetag for taking it off the showroom floor.  They then spend a lot of time describing many of the costs of open source tools that are seldom considered. 

When you consider using open source (or make ANY decision around purchasing technology for your organization) you might want to consider the following:

1. You Get What You Pay For
What are you getting for the money (or no money)?  Is the tool reliable and dependable?  Can you talk to other users who have used the tool to solve similar problems, whether it's managing content or analyzing data, to the ones you're solving?  Have you outlined your needs thoroughly and can the tools meet most of them?

2. Deployment or Setup Costs
Every software product requires some kind of setup.  Off the shelf, it probably needs to be configured for your organization's needs.  How much will it cost to get that thing set up? Whether your staff or a consultant sets it up for you, there are definitely labor costs involved.

3. IT Expenses
Besides labor, what else will be required to support this system?  Will you need to purchase additional hardware (i.e. another web or database server) or software (e.g. MS SQL Server or Cold Fusion Server) to use the tool?  If you're not hosting it in-house, how much will it cost each month or annually to have someone else host the tool? 

4. Support
What kind of help will your organization need to maintain the tool over time?  Does someone need to deploy security patches and upgrades?  Is there someone you can call for help the moment you need it?  Or, are you going to have to post a question in an online user forum and wait for someone that can help you?

5. Openness
Is the tool you're selecting "open."  A lot of times we'll buy software that doesn't meet all of our needs, but that can be coupled with other tools to get 100% of the job done, just think of all the crazy things you do with MS Excel that other programs cannot do).  Be sure that the technology you select makes it easy to integrate with other solutions at the content, data, and authentication levels (assuming it's web based technology).  Also, consider the costs of doing this integration.  Just because the technology can be integrated doesn't mean it'll be cheap to do so.

6. Portability
You're making a significant investment in this technology because it's going to help you solve some process that's important to your business.  Just like mutual funds, you want to be sure your investment will go as far as possible.  Should you decide to move to some other tool to solve the same problem (i.e. moving from one CMS to another to support your organization's web site) be sure at a minimum you can move your data or content.  Also, keep in mind that the customizations you make getting this thing set up or need over time will complicate the portability of the investment you're making in this system.
 
Well, there they are.  Six things you should consider when considering open source or really any kind of software.  I'm excited to hear what others think of these and what else we should add to the list.

Building your housefile (list) is one of the key ingredients in developing a strong online presence. Like Sally discussed in her post on April 22, it is important to welcome a constant flow of constituents into your online home.  But, what are the next steps in maintaining that list?  Once you have a good list going, it is vital to keep that list clean, dust and clutter-free.  Mom always told you to keep your room clean.  Why should your constituent list be any different? 

Here are some tips to keeping a clean list:

• Decide on what data you want to collect and how you want it to be organized in your database.  For example, if you want to have a field in your database to store information on constituents’ pets’ names, decide where you want that information to live in the database and how you want to get it there.

• Draw a map.  Create a flowchart.  Put together some document with all of your database fields and the naming conventions for those fields.

•  Make sure all individuals in your organization have that document.  This will ensure that everyone in your organization will use the same naming conventions and mapping process when creating the online forms you use to collect constituents’ information.

•  If you have uniform response options you want to have listed on multiple choice questions (that are going to be used on many of your online forms), decide upon the answer options and make sure everyone in your organization has a document outlining those response options.

•  Clean up duplicate records often.  If you have the time to do this regularly, it can save you time in the future.

Essentially the most important ingredient to keeping your housefile (list) clean is to dust it regularly.  Empower your organization by coming up with a clear and outlined process of how you collect and store your data.  Doing so will allow you keep a tidy housefile that is easy to report on and analyze.

This was a record year for the Hill Country Ride for AIDS, held last Saturday, April 26, in Austin, TX. In a soft economy, we raised more money than ever before by Ride date--$575,000--beating our amount raised as of Ride day last year by $60K. We had 20% more riders than last year. It was a record year for the number of teams and the amount of money raised by teams. I'm pleased to say that Team Convio turned in a very respectable $14,000. And  I raised $7000 individually, surpassing my initial fundraising goal by over $2000! All of my fundraising--and almost all of the Ride's--takes place online, using Convio's TeamRaiser component, which enables individual participants to maintain their own web pages and donations, as well as to roll those up into a larger team's fundraising totals.

What follows for those of you who are interested is my journal entry for the weekend:

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It's Sunday morning, and I am basking in the memory of what is always the best day of the year for me--albeit with sore muscles and the sun still burning on my face!

The 9th annual Hill Country Ride for AIDS began Friday night with registration, packet pickup, and pasta dinner followed by an hour of opening ceremonies. It was a joyous time to greet fellow riders ("You look so different with your street clothes on!"), connect with crew from last year, and to remember why we ride. I sat with my team, Team Convio, through the evening. We heard a moving testimonial from a young woman who lost her "step father" to AIDS.

Back home after packing my gear and getting my bike ready for the following day, I retired early at 10 p.m. for the day ahead. I went to sleep to the sound of a thunderstorm and hail, wondering what the next day's weather would bring. But when I woke up, the rain had cooled the temperature down and cleared out the humidity. It was a beautiful clear spring morning!

I got an on-time start from the house at 6:30 a.m., arriving at 7:15 at Krause Springs, some 35 miles west of Austin, where we would start and finish the Ride. The morning was perfect for riding. Our team of 10 members was resplendent in our gold, white and purple Team Convio jerseys as we gathered at the starting line for a final team picture.

Riding out into the spring morning, the cluster of 480 riders quickly thinned into singles and pairs and small clusters. I rode for most of the morning with my boss and his wife. The scenery was beautiful: the Texas wildflowers were still in bloom in subtle shades of yellow, blue, red, and cream. I pulled into the lunch pit stop by 12:00 and 31 miles, earlier than usual since I had not elected to do the extra 20-mile extension this year.

Only 12 miles to go after lunch, but what a 12 miles! At 6 miles out, we encountered "The Hill." This was our steepest climb of the day, and the Ride had posted volunteers to run alongside us as we cranked up the last hundred yards of the hill. I was grateful for all my training that enabled me to grind it out without getting off my bike, but my heart rate was 170 by the time I crested the hill! We stopped for a well-deserved rest at the top to enjoy the incredible vista before us and to cool down on popsicles at the hilltop pit stop before riding into camp.

It was mostly downhill the final distance. At 5 miles out, we encountered a new feature of the Ride: the 2-mile "Ride of Silence." I rode through it solo, remembering the names of many friends and acquaintances lost to AIDS. I coasted into the finish line to the shouts and cheers of the many people lining the road. It was truly a triumphant moment--and I was beat!

By finishing early this year, I was able to take advantage of some of the recreational amenities of the camp: a wonderful swim in the natural springs pool, complete with a pounding waterfall to soothe tired muscles, then a relaxing chair massage in a quiet grove of trees.

A shower and change of clothes later, I felt human again as I walked down the hill to the ampitheatre for the Remembrance Ceremony. This is always the most solemn event of the Ride, a time to remember why we ride and to hear a list of names read of people who have passed away from AIDS. The list grows longer each year as the Ride grows and more people want to remember friends and loved ones.

After the ceremony, we ascended the hill to gather for a Mexican dinner under a big tent. The silence broken, over 800 people--riders, crew, friends, and family--gathered to enjoy one last meal and to hear the final totals for the Ride. This was a record year, with more riders (480) registered than ever before, and more money raised than ever before--$575,000.

What an awesome day!

Let me cut to the chase.  This is a plea to get as many people as possible to take the NTEN CMS Survey.  This survey will feed into the most exciting piece or industry research to come along since the Wired Wealthy Report.

One of the things I do as Convio’s CMS Evangelist is spend a lot of time thinking about how to help nonprofit organizations use web based technology better.  What does “better” mean?  Well, in my opinion, I think we can all do “better” managing our web technology to objectives in two categories. 

The first category has to do with how well technology helps us make our public facing web presence as strong as possible.  Are we engaging new constituents?  Does the site look professional?  Do constituents find our content truly valuable? Are constituents supporting our organization’s objectives – be they learning, donating, or taking action?

The second category centers around how well technology allows us to be more strategic than tactical.  Does maintaining the site take lots of time from our IT team?  Can our business oriented staff manage content without taking 22 days of training?

These objectives can be affected positively or negatively by the choices we make regarding technology.  One of the biggest challenges to making good choices about the technology to use is the lack of information.  There’s nary a technologist alive who could tell you with relative certainty what tools people are using, what ones are good, and what ones are tough to use.

This is a long way of saying, “I think you should take a few minutes to take the NTEN CMS Survey.”

For a few more days, NTEN is asking people to tell them what works and what doesn’t.  They’ll compile the results shortly and make them available to the public.  This research effort is groundbreaking, as no one else has (or has made public) the results of such a survey.

So, help your colleagues and help yourself, take a few minutes to take the NTEN CMS Survey.

A few years ago, I read an article on the Wilson brothers, Owen and Luke, the dynamic film stars who burst onto the Hollywood scene via the unlikely success of a film called Bottle Rocket. If you don’t know who they are, this is what they look like:

The article paid special attention to Owen, as he was the bigger start at the time. In particular, the article covered Owen’s unusual ability to “get things done,” as the article said. Apparently, Owen had the personality to make a crazy amount of connections within the Hollywood producer set, and when someone wanted a movie to actually be made, Owen was the guy to get involved. Even if he wasn’t going to be in the movie, if Owen was talking about it and pushing it, the money and other resources had a way of showing up.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the term Social Capital. and what it really means. The idea I had in my head seemed a lot like what Owen Wilson apparently has. To be sure, I started at Wikipedia and its definition of the term.

The bit that I found interesting in that definition is the importance of connections. It made sense to me. After all, they always say, “It’s who you know that matters.” But the definition doesn’t go into enough detail, does it? Owen Wilson surely couldn't know more people in Hollywood than everyone else? He was a relative newcomer. In other words, Social Capital is not just about how many people you know. One look at my son tells me that. As a first grader, he seems to know an inordinate amount of older kids in the school, or at least they know him. We walk through the halls on the way to his classroom and at least 4 fifth graders wave and say hi to him. When I ask him who these kids are, he replies, “I don’t know.” Now, he has acquaintenances, but he clearly hasn’t made a meaningful connection with these kids. This problem is exacerbated in social software, because the ease with which we can make “friends” means we all end up with many, many connections that are essentially meaningless.

So, social capital has to really be about the quality of the connection in addition to the quantity of connections. Tara Hunt proposes a different definition that includes great things like Reputation, Influence and Access. Now we’re talking, I think! If my connections enhance any of these items, I’ve really gained something. Of course, Tara knew that. She said on her blog, horse.pig.cow, that “The success of the network is directly correlated to the amount of Social Capital it can help its members build.” (Click here to see the entire post) She goes on to say that the real barrier to switching social networks is how much social capital is lost by making the switch.

This sounded about right to me, but then I thought about Scrabble. You’re thinking to yourself, “WHAT?” That’s right, Scrabble. I like to play Scrabulous in Facebook. I play with my friends. What social capital is Scrabulous winning me, I wondered? For that matter, what social capital is the iLike application, or any number of other applications, doing for my social capital? Well, smarter people than me know the answer. Fred Stutzman has a great blog called Unit Structures where he discusses social software. In one post, Fred answers my Scrabulous question. (Click here to see the entire post)

When we use social software, we often employ the software to share. I employ this blog to share my knowledge and try to sound smart. You may share your last.fm playlist to show people that you are a connoisseur of good music. Someone else may share a particular set of bookmarked links in del.icio.us so that their fans can be kept informed of information. Yet another person might join a pool in flickr to share photos that they think are of interest to that particular community. The common thread in all of these examples, and almost all examples in social software, is that what we share reflects back upon our identity.

As social software is situated in a community, we are hard-wired to be aware of the community's perception of ourselves. For the most part, we are also hard-wired to want to win the affection and praise of the community. Good social software compliments us by enabling us to win the affection of the community.

Of course, I also use social software because it let’s me share what I think is cool, and if those things resonate with others, they make me feel good by confirming my opinion. This ties well to Tara’s notion of reputation. If I offer enough cool things on my profile and enough people confirm that they are cool things, then I become a person with a reputation for being cool.

What does this mean for non-profits and how they should use social media and social networks? Make your social network a place where your constituents can build unbelievable social capital. Make the social capital levels so high that these folks will want to spend time in your network rather than in some other network. But how to do it?

1. Figure out the main personas who visit your network
2. Figure out what they count as social capital
3. Provide them a way to build that capital within your network
4. Go out and find people who are not in your network but fit the persona
5. Tell them about all of the other people like them in your network and all of the great, valuable connections they can make and the great opportunities to share