These are a few of my favorite blogs
	Posted by Sally Heaven at Apr 17, 2009 10:19 AM CDT Categories: Research

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These are a few of my favorite blogs

It's Friday!  Every Friday, Diane Rehm of NPR's The Diane Rehm show does the Friday News Roundup.  In homage to her show, which I very much enjoy, today I decided to do a "Sally's favorite nonprofit-strategy-and-technology blogs roundup."  So head 'em up and move 'em out, git along little dogies, and let's start the virtual tour of nonprofit blog goodness.  Yee-haw!

Let's begin our tour with Frogloop.  Ever since Allyson Kaplin of RAD Campaign became the editor of Frogloop, Care2's nonprofit online marketing blog, Frogloop has experienced a Renaissance of regular, valuable postings both from Allyson herself and guest bloggers.  Here you'll find tips about list building, using twitter, nonprofit video, email communication strategy, and more, more more.  One of my favorite series of posts this year was from Robin Reed of the National Women's Law Center about optimizing Google ad campaigns.  Check out the posts, I dare you to not learn something.  Ribbit!

Next, the Beaconfire Wire.  There's a lot to find out from this blog, but I have to say that one of my favorite regular features of Beaconfire Wire is the Beaconfire Survey, where they survey their employees to get impressions of nonprofit technology issues.  What do they think of the new Facebook?  The new iPhone?  Firefox 3?  Find out here.  Of course, I can't mention this blog without also praising my all-time favorite posts by Elizabeth Engel, who did the best explanation I've ever seen about the nonprofit RFP process and must-know Do's and Don'ts.  My favorite line:  "...don’t do an RFP unless outside forces (i.e., your boss or board) are conspiring to force you."  This is a must-read for anyone engaging in an RFP process.  Beaconfire, demystifying things and burning bright!

Moving on, mobile-style, to Mobile Commons.  The Mobile Commons blog is a great source for trends, success stories, and the latest news in mobile activism and fundraising.  Read this post about how integrating text messaging with fundraising resulted in the Humane Society of the United States (with help from the Watershed Company) raising more money.  That's change - and folding money - I can believe in.  Text ya later!

Sea Change Strategies.  The Sea Change blog averages 2-3 posts per month, but you can bet that when a post comes out, you'll want to read it.  For example, this recent post from Mark Rovner about whether social networks are well suited to be used as philanthrophy tools - do we have an impending tragedy of the commons in the works?  I don't know.  I'll have to think about it, and I bet you will too.  I think of the Sea Change posts as communications from the Oracle at Delphi - rich in meaning, posing more questions than answers, with the goal of getting you to think about the question in relation to your strategy, rather than spoon-feeding you the answers.  Know thy online strategy!

Let's wrap up with The Agitator.  The Agitator lives up to its promise of fundraising and advocacy strategy with an edge.  You can trust the editors to bring you the cutting edge of trends and tips, as well as delivering their comments with an edge - witness Will Email Fundraising Die?  I especially appreciate how Tom's personality comes through.  Tom, you deserve a raise!

Okay, thanks for coming with me on this virtual roundup of my favorite blogs, y'all.  I keep up with all of them using my favorite feed reader, Google Reader.  If you're not using RSS, woe is you because it's hard to keep up otherwise - give a feed reader a try.  Happy reading!

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