Opening Up
The assignment seemed simple enough. Find out about “open sources” and write about them for our July issue. I knew they had something to do with technology, but that’s about it. I was concerned because when it comes to me...
List Look
Following is a sampling of new-to-the-market and newly managed lists....
Web Watch: Seedco
This month we’re looking at seedco.org, the Web site of Seedco, a national nonprofit that creates new and sustainable economic opportunities for low-income Americans. We anticipated a site that reflects the organization’s principles of community, progress and results. What we...
Useful Truths: Apply With Care
If you’re of a certain age, you might remember a film they showed us in school called “Our Friend the Atom.” A piece of pure propaganda — we were suckers for that stuff back then. Its message (as I remember...
Makin’ It on MySpace
In 2001, I launched a small, Web-based nonprofit organization called eActivist.org. Like most other small nonprofits, we were strapped for cash. At the time, “Donate Now” buttons were the latest and greatest in nonprofit fundraising, and I had the highest...
MySpace Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations
Heather Mansfield, owner of Los Angeles-based Web marketing firm DIOSA|Communications and keeper of the Nonprofit Organizations MySpace site, offers the following best practices for creating a presence for your nonprofit organization on MySpace. Visit http://diosacommunications.blogspot.com for a more detailed explanation...
Scary New Worlds
A few years ago, I jumped into the virtual world known as Second Life. I created an avatar that was much thinner, much prettier and decidedly more exotic than I am (she looked a lot more like Angelina Jolie than...
Converging Technologies
When FundRaising Success first came into existence in 2003, the Internet (as a fundraising tool) hung plump and juicy, like a peach at the top of a tree, not quite ripe — and just out of reach....
From Snoring to Soaring
Most nonprofit newsletters are boring. I subscribe to about 20 of them, and only one or two are interesting enough to regularly skim. Most are full of cookie-cutter human-interest stories that elicit little more than a yawn. This got me...
Get a (Second) Life!
Working to change the real world by hanging out in a virtual one. That’s pretty much how Susan Tenby sums up nonprofits’ use of the 3-D, online, virtual world known as Second Life. Tenby is senior manager of online community...
45 Easy Ways to Cultivate High-Value Donors
Like it or not, the majority of our major-gifts prospects simply are not impressed with our technical knowledge. Instead, they want a birthday card, a phone call or a heartfelt thank-you. Below are 45 ways to nurture your higher-value donors....
It’s for You!
Mobile fundraising has arrived in the United States. In early February 2008, the Mobile Giving Foundation opened the mobile-giving channel in the U.S., providing nonprofits nationwide the ability to utilize text messaging for purposes other than constituent contact and advocacy...
