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| Changes to Nonprofit Online Classifieds and Our Mailings |
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Most of you will have noticed by now that we have made a change to our mailing schedule so that you are no longer receiving a separate mailing with our classifieds. Along with that rather welcome change is a liberalization of our policies for purchasers of ads at Nonprofit Online Classifieds: Your ad can now be of any length. It will stay up indefinitely and provides you with a stable permalink. You pay for inclusion of the link and summary in our regular mailing. As before, announcements of RFPs by funders are hosted for free. Despite the plummet of the U.S. dollar, the price remains at $19.97.
Posted: 4/14/08; 6:14:59 PM # |
| Students Say: Don't Bullshit Us |
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In Keeping It Real, Ray Ulmer summarizes some research into college outreach communication practices and the reactions of students. The last of 21 questions asked, "What advice would you give to colleges specific to their admissions marketing efforts?" The dominant theme was authenticity. I'll bet your stakeholders would say much the same thing.
Posted: 4/14/08; 6:08:43 PM # |
| Taking Community Empowerment to Scale |
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USAID is a sadly compromised organization and has become profoundly more so under the Bush Administration. I nevertheless recommend their 2007 report on community health care initiatives called Taking Community Empowerment to Scale (44 page PDF). The report examines four dimensions of scaling up - quantitative, functional, political, and organizational - through three case studies from the Philippines, Madagascar, and across the Arab world.
Most of the fourteen lessons learned can be applied far beyond the field of health care: (1) Have a vision for scale from the beginning. (2) Choose pilot sites carefully. (3) Aim for high impact. (4) Develop solid partnerships with existing organizations at all levels. (5) Involve partners from other sectors. (6) Work with and foster the emergence and growth of dynamic community and political leaders. (7) Strengthen systems and organizational capacity. (8) Promote horizontal networking. (9) Test the approach. (10) Consolidate, define and refine. (11) Document with guides and tools. (12) Continuously monitor and evaluate. (13) Recognize achievement and publicize program results. (14) Diversify the funding base and encourage community ownership.
Posted: 4/14/08; 6:02:15 PM # |
| Planning, Implementing and Managing Online Repositories |
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Saurabh Kudesia has published lessons from the KnowGenesis Online Library for Technical Communication in a First Monday paper entitled Planning, Implementing and Managing Online Repositories, which I think will be of value to a great many organizations sitting on underground rivers of information. The lessons, which sound a little generic in summary form, but which are definitely worth reading about, are: (1) Working with a content management system. (2) Initial planning. (3) Keep administrative requirements to a minimum. (4) Balancing usability. (5) Ensuring social facilitation. (6) Securing content distribution.
Posted: 4/14/08; 5:45:48 PM # |
| Study Shows Targeted Ads Make Users Uneasy |
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A while back I developed a little analytical tool called the HIMS Matrix, named after the four different experiences a stakeholder can have in regard to whether an organization is really listening to them: They can feel Heard, Ignored, Misunderstood, or Spied Upon. Targeted advertising (and I imagine similar nonprofit practices) can definitely lead to that last reaction, a conclusion backed up by a recent Harris Interactive survey. Results include the fact that 59 percent of Americans take exception to Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo tracking their online activities for marketing purposes and that the key to winning people (especially younger people) is transparency. How are you applying this to your stakeholder communication?
Posted: 4/14/08; 5:36:11 PM # |
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