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.

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.

But some of the most interesting developments in the analytics world are actually around qualitative user data, such as that collected through tools called Web Use Recorders. These tools record individual browsing sessions to give you a more qualitative view, from your constituents' perspectives, of your site: where their  attention is drawn, what content is overlooked, how they scan your homepage.

So now what?, you ask. If our traffic data doesn't tell us "why," isn't always accurate, and isn't "just the numbers," why do I analyze this data at all.

The answer: Triangulation with other user research methods and data sources. Traffic data is a critical - but singular - pillar of user research. Without alternative techniques like user interviews or surveys, usability tests or focus groups, even the best-laid plans of metricians and analysts can only answer part of the eternal question:

Who are our constituents, what do they want, and why do they do what they do online?

1. Pick something that reinforces your organization's brand.  If you don't really have a brand or your brand is not a good one, you'll have to start somewhere else.  Your domain name doesn't need to be your organization's name, as long as it reinforces your brand.  Also, avoid using your organization's acronym unless it is your brand, like the World Wildlife Fund at www.wwf.org.  If someone further than 100 miles from your office won't recognize it, neither will anyone in Sandusky (unless of course you're within 100 miles of Sandusky).

Unless your organization's reach is local or regional  and very well known, it's unlikely that your acronym will get people to your site.  Northport Baptist Church at www.nbc.org probably thought it was a good idea to grab what appears to be some good online real estate, but I'd suggest that it's likely a confusing domain name.

2. Pick something meaningful.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation, has launched its new site at www.preservationnation.org.  While it breaks some of the rules mentioned later, it is consistent with its brand and is memorable.

3. Pick something without room for ambiguous interpretation.  Make sure whatever you pick could not possibly be misinterpreted as something else.  What do you think exists at www.denrescue.org?  It's not a wolf advocacy organization, it's the Denver Rescue Mission (which helps people who are experiencing homelessness).  Enough said.

4. Pick something that's not too long.  I think that four syllables should be the max for any domain name.  Preservation Nation (above) breaks that rule, but is otherwise pretty good.  Consider future needs for domain names for your web presence.  If you expect to have affiliate or program elements like ma.easterseals.com or www.jointogether.org/ca/

5. Pick the best real estate you can afford.  For your corporate site, be sure to buy your domain name using the .org top level domain.  The others (like .net, .mobi. and .us) usually aren't great ideas for your main site unless your organization's mission suggests it like Free Press at www.freepress.net. If you have a program site, a .com domain name is often good, like Free Press' other site www.savetheinternet.com.  Be prepared to spend more than the annual domain name registration fee if you need to buy your domain name from someone else who owns it.  I usually won't pay more than $1,000 for a domain name unless it's REALLY key to your web presence.

So those are my rules, anyone want to argue these?

Being married to a talented and beautiful anthropologist, I have found myself seeing the world through her lens more over the years.  Recently, I noticed that I’ve been paying lots of attention to how the language we use to describe our experience shapes our perceptions about things.  This affects how we see ourselves, interact with others, and solve problems.

Stop Talking About Your “Web Site”
I talk with a lot of people about how they plan to use online tools to support their organization’s mission and goals.   When I listen to the language we use to describe what we’re doing, their language tends to focus on our “web site.” As in, “we need to reach more people with our web site” or “our web site needs to be bigger.”

When an executive director pushes us to focus on a project around our “web site” to increase donations or signups or whatever, it’s not enough. It’s too narrow a definition of what, how and where we engage our constituents online.

Think about it.

Our web site exists within the much larger landscape that includes a sea of email, the mountain range called social networking, and search outposts dotting the hills.  If we don’t consider these things (and only focus on the web site) we’ve limited our ability to reach new audiences, drive more traffic, encourage donations, and engage more activists.

Start Talking About Your “Web Presence”
What I’m suggesting is that we need new language to describe what we’re doing for our organizations online.  So let’s consider thinking out side the web site and start thinking about our “web presence.” 

Let your web presence include thing like your:

• Organizational or corporate web site
• Micro (or program oriented) sites
• Editorial calendars for email and web content
• Presence on social networking sites like Facebook
• Social media sites like Flickr
• Marketing through search engines

Even if your organization doesn’t want to have a blog or twitter strategy today, it’s important to consider those things outside of your site if even to put them on the shelf for a while.  If we start by talking about our web site, we’ve already shut the door to many things that will make us successful.  So please, call it your web presence.  You'll be glad you did.

One of the key benefits of the Software as a Service (on-demand) model is the unique insight that the model provides from a data and analytics perspective. Because of that model we are able to obeserve aggregate data that helps nonprofit professionals answer three questions:

1) What online metrics should I focus on?

2) How is my organization doing? and

3) What targets should I set for my organization?

As a company we have 9 years of cummulative data and experience in the nonprofit sector, and a team of employees and partners with even more personal experience and expertise in analyzing data to provide actionable insight to our clients and the market.  Today, we are exctied to share the results of the second annual Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index™ Study with the market. The NonProfit Times has featured the research in their current issue.

One of the lead researchers, Vinay Bhagat, sat down with us for a series of interviews on the study. Today, Vinay discusses the value of the research and some of the key trends. 

Convio clients can get the full report in the Convio Online Client Community. Visit our Web site for a summary of the benchmark report and to learn more.

We would be remiss if we didn't thank the study authors Quinn Donovan, Lynette Perkins and Vinay for the many hours they put into completing this project.

Recently, I heard Eve Smith from Easter Seals tell a story of what she characterized as a failed social networking experiment they made. The most important lesson learned, according to Eve, was that they needed to cultivate their “Influencers” if they wanted to have success in social networking. When I asked Eve how she defined an “Influencer” she answered that it was anyone who had a personal connection to the particular cause, in this case Autism. I thought that answer made sense in the case of Easter Seals and the particular campaign they were running, but it did not seem to be general enough for other organizations to take the concept and run with it.

I started thinking about the idea of an “Influencer” and how to define it in a general way, but nothing seems to be just right. The defining characteristics of an influential person seem like they would change given the context. Just as in Eve’s case, the Influencer was not really the most connected person, but the person who had a personal connection with the cause and therefore acted the most passionately. Then it struck me, the best way to identify the I nfluencer is to let them identify themselves. And the beauty part, eh? (Thank you, Bob and Doug McKenzie) Social networks are perfectly built to let Influencers run rampant and identify themselves via their actions.

That’s right! By having a community of your own that you nurture and cultivate, you have the breeding ground you need to find and cultivate Influencers. Now, you may have community members who were born Influencers, much like the way my daughter seems to be a born litigator (she negotiates just about everything from getting out of bed in the morning to getting into bed in the evening) and you may also have community members who have the potential to be Influencers, if they only had a little help and training. The former should jump out at you just by the fact that they post a lot, and offer a lot of good material. The latter will blossom before your eyes.

Now, you’ll also treat these members differently. For the existing Influencers, you’ll want to ask two things of them:

1. Please educate and inspire the other community members
2. Please spend time in social networks external to this one, educate and inspire other community members there, and drive those people back to our community if you can

For the Influencers-In-The-Rough, you’ll want to provide as much education and encouragement as you can. If you provide the knowledge, and teach them how to convey the message, one day they’ll be ready to act as Influencers.

You’ll also need to reward each of these groups for the progress they make. The reward will depend on the individual. It may simply be recognition, or it may be added privileges in the community (such as their own blog), or it may be more materialistic. Give them some options and let them choose what they want.

Below is a picture that attempts to capture all of this.

I’d like to hear your comments on the thoughts, and specifically how to refine the graphic to be more meaningful.

With today's shift from the pulpit to the Internet as a public forum, some have been concerned with the possibility of technology weakening ties among communities.  However, in the U.S. non-profits have embraced social media as a new way to strengthen those ties with their communities of constituents.  And, although many of us - who have become accustomed to using the Web in our daily lives - believe that, as Thomas Friedman (in my opinion, a brilliant author and economist) says, the world is becoming flat, it may not be as flat yet as we think it is.

A recent trip to India introduced me to a whole new world, a world with strong, traditional communal ties where the Internet is consumed by early adopters but where there is much room for the Internet's continued diffusion. 

On a daily basis, I work with non-profit clients working to streamline and improve the online experience for their uses.  While in India, I spoke with a woman who heads a non-profit organization.  They specialize in helping women become entrepreneurs.  We talked about what I do and how eCRM has helped so many U.S.-based non-profits effectively reach a larger audience than they were able to before because of new high-tech avenues that help to develop strong ties with their constituents. She explained that it's not so easy there.  While they have a website, her organization has a difficult time maintaining it.   Although she understands the importance of reaching constituents online, the resources are not there.  She explained this to be a problem for non-profits in India.

There is a much smaller online audience in India.  About 5-7% of the country’s population uses the Internet.  While driving through the countryside, looking out the window, I observed villages of people hard at work.  My travel companion looked at me and said, "What would these people use the Internet for?  Who would they e-mail?"  This question opened my eyes and made me realize that while the Internet is being consumed by a growing number of people in India, there first would need to be a growth in non-profits and an infrastructure improvement for it to fully diffuse.   

My experience in India was full of eye-opening experiences.  It not only made me see how different other parts of the world live and use technology, but it also made me step back and realize how lucky we Westerners are. It will be interesting to watch the further diffusion of the Internet in India and how it affects non-profits as technology continues to meet humanity. 

Recently, as you may or may not know, John Slatin, highly-regarded Web accessibility expert and advocate, passed away. John's involvement in the accessibility community included serving as Co-Chair of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group in 2005 and 2006, as well as founding Director of the Accessibility Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. He also authored several publications regarding accessibility, including co-authoring Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone.

This morning I attend a session on "Attracting and Cultivating the Next Generation of Philanthropists" at the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference in San Diego. An interesting generational divide was apparent in the session.

As Sue Acri of Ketchum spoke about the generational attributes of the new generation of philanthropists, the conversation quickly turned to using Facebook and MySpace to engage with constituents. That's when one of the "Baby Boomers" said, "Facebook, MySpace and those things are nice, but how do we bring them into a real relationship?"

To which one of the "Gen Y" members in the room stated. "That is a real relationship."

Another "GenYer" added that these young philanthropists "want to participate, but not in traditional ways. We'll start our own organization if we don't like the way you run yours," he added.  In a follow-up question to this young man he said that he and his peers want to engage in various channels, not just the Internet, but since that is the "best and most efficient way to communicate, I assume that if you can't do that well, you're too bureaucratic for me."

After some time, Sue helped people understand that these channels need to be part of a strategy. Creating a Facebook site to say you have one will not pass the transparency and authenticity test for the next generation - a site is not a strategy.

Another person questioned the amount of resources needed and ROI on regular updates to the Web site or tying to keep a Facebook and MySpace presence real. An older gentleman in the back commented that he was glad he didn't have to show an ROI on his annual report. All interesting perspectives based on generational differences and technological sophistication.

As the session was coming to a close a young women in the back of the room, stood up and said, "These are the same questions about Facebook and MySpace that we asked about the Web several years ago. It ain't going away. We have to meet this audience's expectations if we want to engage them."

As I listened, it appears that the research completed with our partners Sea Change Strategies and Edge Research into the expectations of major donors online and today's insight into the expectations of the next generation of donors is closely linked. Nonprofits still have a great deal of opportunity to engage the next generation and major donors through the Internet - "it ain't going away."

It seems we that what we have here, might just be a "failure to communicate." Is that failure a generational gap or a technical gap? What do you think? I welcome your perspective.

Don't panic: Technical problems, emergencies and unexpected issues are rare but it can be beneficial to be prepared to deal with and even capitalize on them.

"Man doesn't plan to fail, he simply fails to plan."

Dealing with technical emergencies and other issues can be exciting, (where exciting is a rather ambiguous term). A good way to plan for problems is to ask the rhetorical question you'll ask when in the middle of an emergency: "What else could possibly go wrong?" I promise it can be fun and productive by using the right mixture of silliness and seriousness. Pick your favorite cynic and trudge 63,360 inches in his shoes. Do it now or he will be singing "I told you so" later!

In planning for emergencies it is necessary to weigh the cost/inconvenience of the risk against the cost/inconvenience of the failure.

"Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

The first step in weighing these items is to identify what is critically important to your cause and what are the potential failure points you are dependent upon.

Obviously your site is hosted on a server and you most likely are entrusting someone else to have it backed up with failover options if anything goes wrong. Do you know what the user experience and recovery will be like if something were to fail? What kind of error messages could be displayed for various situations? Please resist the urge to bring back one of those under construction animated GIFs from the early 90's! I know they're cool. You know they're cool. I predict a "retro internet" movement within 10 years that will bring them back along with flashing italics and marquee scrolling text! Back to seriousness... After a problem occurs, how will damage control be assessed and handled and most importantly, by who?

For collecting donations online, it may be worthwhile to have a backup method of collection. This can include a second host/server, payment processor and even pointing donors to an offline donation method if needed. I have seen several offline donation methods set up including pointing to a form, phone number or email address to either continue collecting donations or gather phone numbers or email addresses to be alerted later when it is possible to donate once again. For large donation campaigns, existing or emergency call centers can be utilized to continue accepting donations if set up in advance.

For email and advocacy action alert mishaps the most common recovery method is a mea culpa. Everyone gets to do it once: send an email either to the wrong audience or with broken links or some other mistake that reminds you both how small and large the internet is. I have seen some accidents resolved with web trickery including rerouting bad links or using meta refreshes to push the user from the bad link to the correct one. With broken links in an email, these fixes need to be very fast because, in general, the majority of the audience will view the email and take any action within the first few hours of receiving it.

"If you want to survive out here, you've got to know where your towel is."

The final step in preparing for emergencies is knowing the escalation path. You will likely need to know who in your organization will need to take action or be alerted. Also make sure you know the escalation process and procedure for escalating high priority problems.

"It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark."

It ain't all bad. A great way to make planning for emergencies fun is to also include strategies for turning a potential problem, emergency, or sudden opportunity into a good thing. For instance, you might see a much greater than anticipated response to a campaign that overwhelms your system. As soon as the system is stabilized reach out again to those who tried to donate or take action, thank them, apologize and let them know that the response has been so incredible it overwhelmed the system!

I was forced to watch at least one episode of American Idol last year because of the "Idol Gives Back" program. In general it was a great success but I hope to be your favorite cynic, I saw it as a missed opportunity. During the window of collecting donations the server performance was atrocious and the conclusion was "look how successful this was, the server was killed." There was a big opportunity there to say the demand was so great we have come back for an encore. Don't even get me started on the lack of Fox Network's understanding of eCRM. They made sure these were one time donations and did not make it easy for the non-profits benefiting to continue the relationship with the donors; few saw usable housefile increases.

On a similar note, be prepared for potential events, news items and opportunities that could require quick, emergency-like response to capitalize on. While strategizing on handling bad emergencies, take time to focus on potential good ones.

My last tidbit of disaster preparedness is this: Always have a hidden stash of chocolate. That's what my mama always said.

So MPower has announced the availability of their CRM product as an downloadable open-source toolkit. (http://mpoweropen.com)

Why is this significant you ask?  Because it opens the door for further innovation on their platform (open pun intended) yet maintains the accountability and reliability of your standard vendor-backed application.  This hybrid approach is not new, but in the nptech world it's only just coming en vogue.   The smart folks at CivicSpace Labs have been offering a similar approach for a while and are steadily gaining clients and building a great tool for nonprofits.  I'm excited to see MPower adopt this strategy and look forward to following the imminent innovations that will come as a result.

3.    Web 2.0 - Unlike video and phone, this is an area where nonprofits can really see the obvious benefits right now. Services like Flickr, Facebook, YouTube and blogging are changing the past one-to-many model of the past and allowing for direct feedback and engagement on the Internet. Some useful and interesting sites discussed included Kiva, Goloco and the new British government e-petitions. Examples like these show that enhancements in technology and online strategy can truly help nonprofits and other organizations trying to make a difference in the lives’ of people around the world.

"If it takes a village to raise a child, what does it take to raise a village?" Hal Roark, Executive Director for the Broadmoor Development Corporation.

During today's lunch at NTC New Orleans, I had the pleasure of sitting with Hal. Hal's organization is one of the many fine organizations that are working to help rebuild the region after Hurricane Katrina - to raise a village. While many of the challenges these nonprofits face are unique, there are certain best practices that these organizations can leverage to better use the Internet to aid in the fulfillment of their respective missions. According to Hal sometimes it is not a technology question, it is simply having someone help them by sharing the 8-10 steps needed to be more successful with an online campaign or to increase Web site conversion rates, etc. 

That is truly the vision behind Convio's Connection Cafe. And, while we would never claim to have every answer, we think that the talent and experience of our client community, Fusion Partners and staff, combined with people who write the blogs we link to (an hundreds more) and the comments and feedback you, the visitors to Connection Cafe provide, can make this spot a great resource for connecting people, ideas and technology.

Join us in the discussion, provide your feedback and comments and check out our online profile . People like Hal are counting on us. As Hal told me:

"The more all of us in the nonprofit sector learn and share, the better off we will all be."  

Holly Ross, Executive Director of NTEN, started this morning with a passionate and heartfelt welcome to the participants in this year's conference. Holly's enthusiasm and excitement for how nonprofits can use technology to help solve problems and make the world better is contagious.

She then introduced David Pogue, consumer technology columnist and blogger extraordinare' from The New York Times, who entertained the audience with his view of the three hottest technologies to watch - two being voice over IP and mobile technology. As David shared his thoughts on technology the crowd cheered his singing and waved their iPhones in the air - don't think it's all geeks here, I was at a concert during SXSW where the audience held up their cell phones like the lighters of the 70s and 80s. It was an engaged and inspired crowd. (That is David and Holly in the photo.)

 As David talked about the impact of wireless technology on our culture, it dawned on me that my morning was a proof point to his talk. At 6:30, my 7-year old son called me on my cell phone to make sure I received the update for his NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket - please do not judge my parenting, the kid is obsessed with football and basketball (reading and art too). He was calling my cell phone, using voice over IP technology from our cable provider, after emailing me over our wireless home network. His expectations of feedback where immediate and on his terms.

As my son and my daughters age, I wonder how the nonprofit sector will engage with the "un-tethered constituents", as our CEO Gene Austin refers to them. A recent survey by The Nonprofit Times showed that nearly 20 percent of the donors they surveyed lived without a landline phone for the past 12 months. With the growth in mobile technology that number will continue to grow.  What should nonprofits be doing to engage these "un-tethered" supporters when and where they want to connect to their favorite causes?

I'm off to hear what Jed Alpert, CEO of Mobile Commons, Katrin Verclass of Mobile Active have to teach us. I also enjoyed watching a demo of the Mobile Commons