With the potential of technology to reach a much larger audience quickly and inexpensively, more and more organizations are using an online presence to reach donors, members, customers, volunteers and supporters.

1. Making Your Website Work for You
March 27, 2009
Stephen Rockwell
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2. Today’s Agenda
• Introductions
• Web 2.0 – What is It?
• Building Networks Online
– Donor Community
– Sector-specific Networks
– Community Planning Efforts
• Action Steps You Can Take This Week
2

3. Exploring 2.0: The tools that are
changing the game
• Social networking websites (myspace, linkedin, change.org)
– On-line communities
• Blogs, podcasts, videocasts
– Multimedia by and for the masses
• Microblogs (Twitter Facebook Updates)
• RSS (Real Simple Syndication):
– Interconnected news for/from your site
• Tagging (del.ici.ous):
– Sharing bookmarks
• Wikis:
– Producing knowledge collaboratively
• User provided and rated content (digg, youtube,
allrecipes.com):
– Wisdom of the masses determines content
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4. Tech. Background: A short history of
technological change
1st Generation Media – 500 years, One-Way Communication
Printing Press
Photography Radio Television
Book/Newspaper
1826 1896 1920s
1453
Text Pictures Audio Video
Digital Movie
Internet World Wide Web Digital Music
Online
Text/ email Images MP3 1994
1997
1969 1990
2nd Generation Media – 30 Years, Multi-Modal Communication
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5. Technology fundamentally changed economics
of content creation and who has access to the
keys of the network.
• The marginal cost of production and
distribution of content ~ $0
• 80% of non–“hits” are now produced –
new voices, democratized filtering
– Networked empowered organizing takes
advantage of a wider range of stakeholder
perspectives to move the mission.
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6. 2.0 Ramifications: Online engagement
and fundraising become the standard
• Wall Street Journal
gives MySpace friend
updates
• Changing Campaign
Fundraising and 88,000 81,000
Organization Myspace Myspace
• Nonprofit Strategy friends friends –
– What can we learn caught up
from the campaigns?
Q2: $25 Q2: $26
• Fundraising
million million
• Community organizing
and mobilization
100,000 50,000
• Operations and
donors donors
business processes 6

7. How Does 2.0 Affect Your Organizational
Partnerships and External Relationships?
• Draw a diagram of how your organization
fits with its partners, donors, funders etc.
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8. What kind of organization: networked or
inward looking?
• Are you this? • Or this?
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9. Networks and Nonprofits
• Communities are built on connections –
human networks
• Technology can help individuals know the
network and doing so more tightly knits the
network together
• Nonprofits may require more use of social
networking than companies given their
volunteer and donor needs
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10. Network Evolution
Stage I – Scattered Clusters Stage 2 – Single Hub & Spoke
Stage 3 – Multi Hub Small World Stage 4 – Core Periphery
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11. Today’s Agenda
• Introductions
• Web 2.0 – What is It?
• Building Networks Online
– Donor Community
– Sector-specific Networks
– Community Planning Efforts
• Action Steps You Can Take This Week
11

12. Your site in a web 2.0 world:
Five Strategic Challenges
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13. 1. Content
• Locating, drafting, editing, and posting
timely content the first challenge.
• Broaden writing, editing team w/o HTML
• Making content consistently formatted,
printable, downloadable
– News, calendars, Tips
– Including graphics
– Aging of content
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14. Combat the downward spiral
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15. Content Management:
Build an upward spiral
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16. Permissions for Roles
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17. 2. Presence
• Once you have content, how do you elbow
for presence among so many other sites?
• What makes your content stand out?
• What makes first time visitors become
repeat visitors?
• How can you increase attention of target
visitors?
• Are you look at your web presence
holistically, rather just your website?
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18. Presence Tools
• Indexing and searchability
• Cross referencing within site
• Connecting to Email news
• Aggregating (RSS news)
• “Tell a Friend” and easy downloads
• Tagging (del.icio.us)
• Blogging
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19. Example: news feed sign up live!
19

20. 3. Engagement
• Once people come regularly to your site,
what can they do?
• How does the site connect to your goals,
your services profile, your organizing?
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21. Engagement Tools
• Surveys
• Calendar, Jobs
• Register for classes, , programs, events
• Contact the media
• Petitions, Contact public officials
• Organize a meeting
• Request a service, refer a client
21

22. Events on Calendar
22

23. Event sign up
23

24. Example: Take Action
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25. 4. Constituency
• Who are your supporters and how can you
work better with them?
– Events, donations, manage training and other
services
– Organizing volunteers and other activities
• From a set of tools to an integrated
environment
– Connection to email, internal databases
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26. Categorizing Web Actors
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27. Building Relationships
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28. 5. Community
• Does everything depend on you?
• Will you become a network centric
organization?
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29. Community Building Tools
• Internal projects and committees
(workspaces, shared documents)
• Develop policy and knowledge
collaboratively (wikis)
• On line training
• Expanded blogging, chat
• Users create their own discussions,
forums
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30. Example: discussion forums
30

31. Workspace example
31

32. Donor Scenario: A New Take on the
Annual Appeal
• Annual appeal traditional resources:
– Development director and staff
– Letter and Email
– Board support
• 2.0 Resources
– Engage friends on social networking sites
– Create incentives for donors to ask friends to
contribute
– Have individuals blog with personal stories to support
campaign
• Raise money for the cause and not solely the
organization? Work with similar organizations?
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34. 34

35. Sector Scenario: You are an Out of school
Program Seek to Build a New Website
• Key Questions For Website Design
– How can a portal be both a place for transacting the
business of education, while building a community of
support?
– How do we construct windows to the site that are
suitable for the different audiences: students, parents,
educators, guidance counselors, college
administrators, student loan administrators?
• Key Questions for Content
– What applications should be included?
– What partners need to be at the table for building
tools?
– If you build it, will they come?
35

36. Today’s Agenda
• Introductions
• Web 2.0 – What is It?
• Building Networks Online
– Donor Community
– Sector-specific Networks
• Action Steps You Can Take This Week
36

37. Action Steps This Week
• Amend your communications and web
strategy to include a 2.0 adoption bath.
• Start a blog through a free service and link
from your site.
• Set up an account for your organization on
social networking site.
37

38. Action Steps for the Next Few Months
• Experiment – There’s a lot more that we don’t
know than we know.
• New Website - Engage stakeholders in planning
for new site, use open source CMS to deliver on
2.0 capabilities
• Ongoing strategic technology management –
Develop strategic technology plan or integrate
tech. with existing strategic plan.
• Develop communications strategy that includes
2.0 – provide staffing and marketing resources
• Engage outside expertise as necessary.
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