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Making a connection
If you haven't spent much time on nonprofit community sites, the chief difference between them and the typical Web site is how content is developed. On a typical site, your organization determines what goes where, who writes it, who posts it and who updates it. In an online network, the content is mostly developed by members of the community. Members have their own profiles, create groups or forums around topics they want to discuss (like "insulin pumps" or "diabetes and women"), share photos and videos, blog, and comment on the posts of others.
All this sharing creates a sense of connection not just to other members of the community, but also to the organization behind it, of course. In a way, you could say that active community members are self-cultivating — building their own relationships with the organization — so perhaps they are more primed to give.
Don't get me wrong: There's plenty of work for the organization behind the community to do. You've got to help moderate conversations, for example, to make sure people don't go off the rails (like posting pornography or misleading medical information, let's say), offer useful resources and tools, and help the befuddled learn the ropes. How much time this takes is variable, but most organizations are finding it's anywhere between 20 minutes and a few hours of one staff person's time every day.
Of course, there are many ways to build community sites, and Ning is just one solution of many. Before you dive in, check with your IT gods to be sure you're developing something that works within your larger objectives. Go! Share! Give! Get!
[Editor's Note: Brandraising is a new iteration of the popular FS department WebWatch, where Sarah Durham explores nonprofit branding efforts in a big-picture way, including — but beyond — the Web site.]
Sarah Durham is founder and principal at Big Duck (bigducknyc.com). Reach her via e-mail at sarah@bigducknyc.com or on Twitter at @BigDuckSarah.
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