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News for May 2005

26 May 2005

Branding Your Nonprofit Through Your Website

Alder Consulting has published a nice article on Branding Your Nonprofit Through Your Website. They explore the roles of statements, functionality, priorities, and design in influencing the brand impression made by your site. While I continue to believe that we communicate more of our brand through the interactions we have with stakeholders (for example through email), I find this to be sensible, valuable, and hype free advice. Posted: 5/26/05; 11:38:53 AM #

What's Your Content Gathering and Filtering Workflow?

Some of the nonprofit consultants whom I most respect have taken an interest in my recent exploration of the workflow for publishing Nonprofit Online News. The commentary that interests me the most is that which takes the matter of workflow seriously and therefore tries to map out the relationship between the tools used. So, take a look at Beth Kanter's content filtering diagram, as an example. Lists of software promote feature comparison conversations, but workflow diagrams promote systems thinking. Posted: 5/26/05; 11:31:43 AM #

Many-to-Many: Fear, Greed and Social Software

I remember the exhortations to nonprofits during the dotcom boom: Anxieties about raising money and being left behind their peers were played to by consultants, vendors, and advocates desperate to create a swell of adoption of new tools. I found this deeply counterproductive and unfortunately, it's still going on. Ross Mayfield explores the role of fear and greed in corporate adoption of social software tools. I am convinced that much nonprofit adoption is equally base. Posted: 5/26/05; 11:19:34 AM #

19 May 2005

Sacred Places, Civic Purposes

In 2001, E. J. Dionne, Jr, and Min Hsu Chen edited Sacred Places, Civic Purposes, an exploration of whether government should fund faith based charity in the United States. With twenty one contributors and twenty four commentators, several years later the book is still a hefty contribution to the field. My only misgiving about the book is the fundamental frame of reference asserting that good work done by a religious institution is somehow more "based in faith" than any other good work. But with the recent dramatic increase in this kind of funding by the Bush administration, this book is more relevant than ever. Posted: 5/19/05; 5:54:36 PM #

The Looking-Glass World of Nonprofit Money

Clara Miller has written a thought provoking, but infuriating piece in the current Nonprofit Quarterly entitled The Looking-Glass World of Nonprofit Money. It's thought provoking because it points out the differences between nonprofit and for profit approaches to money, and in so doing, brings to light several areas of nonprofit practice that could use improvement. What's infuriating is how condescending the article ends up being, by using the business world as utterly normative and portraying the nonprofit world as though it were Lewis Carroll nonsense. Posted: 5/19/05; 5:53:24 PM #

Frictionless Fundraising Briefing Sessions, June 2005
	Our online briefings are getting better every time we offer them. For the fourth time now, we are teaching a three part series on Frictionless Fundraising, from June 28 - 30, 2005. We'll be covering Converting Your Donors to Email, Cultivation and Stewardship, and Email Newsletters. Posted: 5/19/05; 5:24:34 PM #

18 May 2005

Everyday Software: Nonprofit Online News Publishing

Everywhere I go, people are curious about the technology that supports Nonprofit Online News. In the third article in our Everyday Software series, we go into some detail about the tools we use for Nonprofit Online News Publishing. We don't touch on news gathering or on relationship management, but look only at content management and distribution. That said, it was illuminating for us to put it together this way and we hope you enjoy the results. Posted: 5/18/05; 5:10:05 PM #

15 May 2005

On Creativity, Innovation, and Renewal

Frances Hesselbein and Rob Johnston of the Drucker Foundation edited On Creativity, Innovation, and Renewal, a collection of twelve superb essays by a wonderfully diverse group of contributors. Whiles there are some weak spots, such as Nigel Nicholson's ideas on "born leaders", overall the book is very strong. I particularly liked the chapters on Sustaining the Ecology of Knowledge and The Residue of Leadership, or Why Ambition Matters. This book would make a great basis for a weekly discussion group. Posted: 5/15/05; 4:07:57 PM #

Changing by Design

Douglas C. Eadie's book Changing by Design is described as a "practical approach to leading innovation in nonprofit organizations". He focuses on three capacities -- leadership, innovation, and implementation -- which he unfortunately calls 3CAP in an attempt to brand his approach. Eadie's clear spiritual perspective leads to a very strong chapter on executive directors and leadership. I was also very pleased to see him tackle the challenge to innovation presented by the usual roles of nonprofit boards. Posted: 5/15/05; 4:00:51 PM #

Sustaining Innovation

Paul Light should be a familiar name to you, given his prominence as a researcher and writer in our sector. I just finished an older book by his, called Sustaining Innovation. Based upon case studies of a couple of dozen Minnesota nonprofits during the early nineties, its focus is on the sustainability of innovation. For the right leader, Light's chapter on the four interlocking organizational values related to innovation -- trust, honesty, rigor, and faith -- is worth the price of the book. For the more operationally minded, his descriptions of ten structural supports for creativity will be invaluable: (1) Stay thin. (2) Create room to experiment. (3) Push authority downward. (4) Lower the barriers to internal collaboration. (5) Democratize! (6) Prime the organization for innovation. (7) Create a marketplace of ideas. (8) Prepare for stress. (9) Maximize diversity. (10) Age gracefully. Posted: 5/15/05; 3:46:58 PM #

Strategic Innovation

Nancy Tennant Snyder and Deborah R. Duarte's book Strategic Innovation may seem, at first glance, to be of little relevance to the nonprofit sector, being a case study of the Whirlpool Corporation. In fact, the lessons are remarkably apt. The book focuses on the process of embedding innovation as a core competency, and thus has insights and ideas related to the accountability, systems, structures, policies, procedures and metrics required to support ongoing innovation. I was particularly fascinated by the chapter on Resource Creation, which explores how to create open markets for funds, ideas, and talent. I would really enjoy seeing a visionary funder apply those concepts in our sector. Posted: 5/15/05; 3:29:32 PM #

13 May 2005

ICT Development Indices
	If you work on international "digital divide" issues in any way, you are probably already familiar with the United Nations' ICT Development Indices (73 page PDF) from 2004. It covers telephony, computing, and network access across the world, with an in depth look at Africa and success stories from China, Egypt, Korea, and the Czech Republic. Posted: 5/13/05; 12:22:54 PM #

Business Model - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
	Recently, when trying to explain the concept of the "business model" to some people taking a technology planning workshop from me, I was pleased to discover that my favorite resource on the subject is the Wikipedia entry. It's solid, well-balanced, accessible, and richly linked. Posted: 5/13/05; 12:05:23 PM #

RSC Website - Tools for e-Learning
	The Wales Regional Support Center is maintaining a nice little annotated list of software applications for use in e-learning situations. They have a heavy emphasis on free and open source software and I was pleased to discover tools that I had never heard of before. It's definitely worth a look. Posted: 5/13/05; 12:02:06 PM #

11 May 2005

May Issue of Nonprofit Online News Journal

After developing Nonprofit Online News Journal for the last six months, we are now making our promised transition to being a subscription based publication. The May 2005 issue of the Journal (info page for 74 page PDF) is our most impressive one yet. We have five articles including a piece by Samantha Moscheck on nonprofits and spam, an exploration of online donor cultivation metrics by Michael Gilbert, the effectiveness of the Stanford Alumni newsletter, an intriguing look at online telephony as a community media tool, and a profile of a fascinating woman, Nobel Peace Prize winner Waangari Maathai. It also includes a Force Field Analysis Quicksheet, five book reviews, and 36 annotated resources sorted into 24 categories, including Communication and Public Relations, International Organizations, and Strategy. The current issue is supported in part by the sponsorship of Action Without Borders and the first issue to be supported by subscriptions paid by our readers. Posted: 5/11/05; 12:39:41 AM #

6 May 2005

David Barnard and Michael Gilbert interviewed on South African Radio
	David Barnard of SANGONeT and I were interviewed last month on South African radio. We talked about the role of ICTs in civil society and in development. You can listen to us online, if you like. I was pleased to see the mainstream media take an interest! Posted: 5/6/05; 6:10:13 PM #

Hai Ti!
	Hai Ti means "Listen Up" in the Oshiwambo languages. SchoolNet Namibia is using a charming series of comics by that name to teach educators and students basic platform-neutral computer skills. They are licensed under Creative Commons rules. Posted: 5/6/05; 6:07:22 PM #

5 May 2005

What Every Nonprofit Leader Needs to Know about Email
	Much of the material that we teach in our workshops is oriented toward effective process, but in our next series, we are looking at content. On June 7th - 9th, in What Every Nonprofit Leader Needs to Know about Email, we'll be focusing on: how executive directors influence tone, personal priorities in email content handling, and hidden assets in organizational email. Posted: 5/5/05; 12:49:35 PM #

3 May 2005

What Are People For?

I continue to look for books that cut across the issues and interests of our sector and have learned that, to this purpose, twenty year old essays by Wendell Barry only become more poignant and relevant with time. I recently finished his collection What Are People For?, and it repeatedly reminded me of all that is best in traditional American culture. The current corporate occupiers of the United States government would do well to open their hearts to the words of this rural philosopher. Readers of my own technology work may appreciate the irony of how much I enjoyed his essay "Why I will Not Buy a Computer". Posted: 5/3/05; 8:50:14 PM #

God's Politics

Jim Wallis is the Editor of Sojournor's Magazine and a prominent evangelical speaking out for social justice in the United States. His recent book, God's Politics, is a must read for political and social uniters. Although it's a distinctly Christian book, it's of broad relevance given the role that the language of Christianity plays in American politics these days. I particularly appreciated the arguments he makes in favor of the critical role that must be played by civil society organizations in reforging common values and nurturing political reform. Posted: 5/3/05; 8:49:07 PM #