Comments for What's the best way for a non-profit group to interact online?

Comment from Dick on 2009-03-29

2009-03-30T02:03:08Z

I work with several non-profits that struggle with this too. Additional suggestions:

1. Coach everyone to avoid the "amen" comments, no one wants an email saying "I agree", etc. We call that a waste of good electrons.

2. Pick a subject or format for the subject and always us it. If your group is xxx, the subject line should always start with "xxx - ...". That makes it much easier to searach for all the emails from your group.

3. Don't assume everyone got your email. Sometimes spam filters eat the emails. If you are sending email to someone at their business address, you may find emails are going through great then one day corp IT puts on a new spam filter and they don't get your emails. Of course they don't know they aren't getting your emails...

4. Not everyone checks their email everyday (or even every week). Just because they have an email address doesn't mean they use it.

5. Offer alternatives - One group I work with has 12 of us on the board and the exec dir wants to send out board meeting reminders, agenda, etc. We offered a free email address from our web hosting site. If a board member doesn't want to check their email regularly, we tell them to bring 12 stamped self-addressed envelopes to the office and we will mail their email to them. Some do that, some start checking their email.

Dick

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Comment from Nancy Weitz on 2009-03-29

2009-03-29T16:20:16Z

I'm an e-learning consultant working primarily with public sector organisations, helping to create online communities for discussion, knowledge-sharing, learning and socialising. While this depends on choosing the right tool for the job (the technology), this is only the first step in a process of changing the culture of work for most people involved. The "if you build it they will come" mentality of most well-meaning implementers is a false hope. It takes: buy-in from the leaders; sustained enthusiasm; training and support; keeping things fresh; making sure the tool MUST be used in order to meet the goal (no easy alternatives); and a friendly, trusting and secure environment. The good news is that all this effort usually pays off. Most people get used to using it, and they usually begin to depend on it and wonder how they got along without it. As far as technology goes, free options include the straightforward threaded discussions in PHP-BB (and similar) that come with many web-hosting packages to full-on courseware like Moodle. As long as you require invitation-only access with logins and passwords, these are private. There are also externally hosted options, such as Ning which is designed for private groups.
N. Weitz
Architela

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Comment from metta on 2009-03-25

2009-03-25T21:55:47Z

I want to set up a website or...a safe place for cancer patients to share their experience and feelings and to support each other. I won't be soliciting money: I do want to let people post their birthdays, so other members can send them greetings. It would be nice if they could also safely post mailing addresses (optional) in case one member needs something another can provide. I am a cancer patient who has had all the uneducated advice I need. Eventually, I also want to provide links to good cancer resource sites. Last, I would like to have a separate section for each kind of cancer. I want any info they submit to be private. Safe site and privacy is key. How do I do it? I am a beginner. I read the above article and saw that there may be more than one way to do this, but beyond that, I don't know what to choose or how to get started and how to use whatever method I choose. Is it even possible?

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Comment from ron on 2009-03-24

2009-03-24T18:37:12Z

Hi Leo,

I'm the CEO of Akiva, and we've had a lot of success working with Tech Soup. Our product is the "bulletin board" type (WebBoard) you describe above. BTW, we've found most professionals prefer the digest model unless they are actively working on a project. Anyway, Tech Soup is a great channel since they offer near free enterprise software to non-profits that actually want to implement new technology. Akiva gets to help the community, Tech Soup continues to grow, and the non-profits get to work a lot a smarter. I think everyone wins in that scenario.

Ron
www.akiva.com
info@akiva.com

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Comment from Wes Lingerfelt on 2009-03-24

2009-03-24T16:21:38Z

Leo, I'm the webmaster for a local non-profit and I find that setting up a website for use by the organization has been very beneficial. All of your ideas and suggestions are right on but they should be organized in association with a website taylored to the organizational mission.

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A comment on: What's the best way for a non-profit group to interact online?

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Comment from Jennifer on 2009-03-24

2009-03-24T15:59:20Z

This topic is an every-day problem for me as well. Seems we all suffer from user-related issues. I use email to communicate with my volunteers. Some check it more often than others, but I stress at the start they need to have and use email in order to participate in our organization. I also set up a private Yahoo group and spent many hours uploading tons of resources that will assist them in their volunteer experience. There's no way to track which functions or documents are being accessed, but it's fairly apparent to me that most of it's not being utilized, which is not only disappointing but frustrating when they ask me questions that are answered there. They do use the message board more frequently but even that is under-used. Also, I made the Yahoo group an optional thing, since it requires a Yahoo ID to access all the features, so not all the volunteers belong to it. A good resource for nonprofits is techsoup.org. They have many discussion boards and one is dedicated to volunteers and technology. To Esther, Gmail is a good solution, but I use our domain email with Thunderbird. Tbird allows multiple address books which helps keep things organized.

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Comment from Esther on 2009-03-24

2009-03-24T15:20:18Z

Thanks, I just emailed this link to folks at my church, who really need to think about our email list. One person is forwarding email to over 100 people from her personal account. Not only do we have no email when our designate is on vacation, her provider caps the number of emails she can send at one time, and permits only one "mass mailing" per hour.

We probably don't need to get any more sophisticated than another email mechanism. My IT-savvy spouse is willing to set up a non-profit Google Mail account for us. Wonder if anyone's looked into that?

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Comment from Rahul on 2009-03-20

2009-03-20T16:01:40Z

Looks like this is a people problem. I too have seen this in for-profit commercial organizations too. And in occasion, the tech improvement was rejected just to not give the person proposing it any credit. after that person left, the idea was implemented and the boss toook credit for it. A definite people problem and technology can't solve it.

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Comment from Mat on 2009-03-20

2009-03-20T11:58:41Z

I work for a profit-making organisation, and all the same problems occur! I've tried out many technology-based solutions, but implemented far, far fewer. That's probably a good thing - not all business problems can be solved by technology. But it's also indicative of the fact that people prefer what they know to what they don't. Simple as that. Alright, it might take more time, be more difficult, more stressful, less effective. But they KNOW how to do it, they don't have to learn something new and, maybe, they secretly like the fact that they can spend twice as long doing it. Makes 5pm come that bit quicker without adding to their workload... "Why didn't you meet this deadline?" "I was working on that email you wanted sent to 175 people, which took me two hours!" "Oh, right. Erm, Monday then..."

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A comment on: What's the best way for a non-profit group to interact online?

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Comment from Rose Ledbetter on 2009-03-19

2009-03-19T20:27:43Z

I work for a 501c3 and the frustration you describe is a daily thing for me. Suggessting anything from on line auctions to a page on facebook to software upgrades to "cloud" storage will meet with shock, horror, and immediate resistance. As an example, I tried to introduce e-faxing to my association (14 small offices or home offices in the state) and could have saved each office as much as $50 a month to use a fax service that operates on an email system they already know how to use! Nope, didn't trust it, don't understand it, too complicated. Ooops, I have to go bang my head against the wall, it's what I do whenever I'm tempted to think.

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A comment on: What's the best way for a non-profit group to interact online?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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