Yes, we know this is on a Shabbat; we still want to bring it to the attention of our greater New York area readers. Join the ePhilanthropy Foundation as they present a content-packed full day conference at Columbia University on Saturday, June 14th. Registration is filling up. The Conference will feature best techniques for online fundraising and what does and doesn't work for social networking online. General and advanced sessions will be held. For more information and to register, click here. If you still need to get you feet wet in social marketing, here's a suggested starting place: 11 Steps to Success with Social Networking.

The press is full of intriguing bits and pieces that suggest the “new charities” may have something to teach traditional charities. By “new” I mean organizations formed since 2000 and driven largely by new technology. Just consider three examples that offer several powerful lessons: Two “charity aggregators” in the US barely attracted any attention when they started a few years ago. After all, people don’t really go online to shop for charity…do they? But the two “online charity malls,” Network for Good and JustGive.org, have hit their stride, together increasing from US$52 million in 2006 to almost US$80 million in 2007, a growth rate of about 50% annually. Read more of this article by Richard McPherson here.

The blog-o-sphere has been carrying reports for several weeks now about the impending budget revision and upcoming staff cuts at the UJC. Apparently it became 'sort of official' yesterday. We'll stay away from playing the "he said / she said" that will surely continue surrounding this financial crisis and staff upheaval. However, we find one new budget item of the UJC particularly interesting... according to UJC Chair Joe Kanfer, "the UJC will add a $750,000 e-philanthropy initiative to the budget." Maybe, in part, it has to do with this opening, Senior Manager, Ephilanthropy, that the UJC has been trying to fill since before the GA. Among other position responsibilities: to develop, launch and help federations implement strong e-philanthropy initiatives that include data ...

The current economic situation nationwide, combined with higher costs and tighter regulations relating to postal fundraising, will make online marketing even more important in upcoming years. Vinay Bhagat, chief strategy officer for online fundraising firm Convio, maintains that nonprofits will need to invest in effective online marketing programs. He offers 10 best practices for getting started online:

• Ensure your Web site makes the right first impression. Prospective donors are very likely to visit your site before making a gift in any channel.
• Collect email addresses of current donors. Communicating online with donors enhances their value. Few organizations have emails for more than 30 percent of their active donors.
• Optimize your Web site to convert visitors to email subscribers. Target a 3 percent conversion ...
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  Tags: online fundraising, social networking, web 2.0

Hot Off The Press - being released later today: In the for-profit dot.com world, the bottom line is easy to measure — it comes down to dollars and cents. For nonprofit organizations, success is more difficult to define. How many people were educated? Informed? Served? Engaged? Activated? How much money was raised? Did legislative policy change? Corporate policy? Public opinion? The eNonprofit Benchmarks Study is the first of its kind look at the effectiveness of major American nonprofit organizations using the Internet to raise money and influence public policy. The study is a tool that nonprofits can use to measure and compare their online performance ...

The Internet may not have turned out to be everything charities (and the rest of the world) thought it would be 10 years ago. However, Harry Lynch, CFRE, chief executive officer of Sanky Communications in New York, reminds fundraisers that they shouldn’t forget what the Internet has become—especially for groups most likely to give. "Back in ancient times—say around 1998—we all knew that the Internet was going to take over the world. Remember that? How obsolete and uncool was everything else, including every other fundraising medium and method, about to become? It wasn’t to be, of course. Not even close, in fact. Yet even the naysayers, who have a decade’s worth of history and hindsight on their side, would do well ...

A selection of recent articles and postings around the nonprofit world you may find of interest; first in our Jewish world followed by some links to recent non-profit blog posts. Study: Consultants May Hold the Key to Future of Synagogues A new study examining efforts at long-range planning in synagogues found that -- under the right conditions -- outside consultants, if armed with an understanding of both the business and the nonprofit worlds, can help congregations formulate strategic blueprints for the future. But the encouraging findings contained in "Strategic Planning in Congregations: Capitalizing on Opportunities for Organizational Change" came with a few caveats. Annual Survey of State Laws Regulating Charitable Solicitations Did you know that over 40 states ...

A selection of recent articles and postings around the nonprofit world you may find of interest... About the Economy What does this uncertain and difficult economy mean for fundraising and philanthropy? Changing Our World President Chris Watson offers a sector briefing. Are Tech-Savvy Millennials the New Voice of Philanthropy? There are many broad generalizations made when it comes to speaking of whole generations, but young people today are certainly showing an interest, and a tech-driven level of sophistication in their volunteering and charitable support, that might make fundraisers take a second look at these young donors of time and resources. From the Association of Fundraising professionals Blogging the NTEN Conference There was no shortage of cyber chatter surrounding last ...

Whoa, Nelly! Web 2.0 is Cool, But … By Peter Deitz At last month’s Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans, nonprofit techies and professional fundraisers met up to discuss the emerging best practices for fundraising using social networks and social media. Their conversations were overwhelmed by one small detail. Few nonprofits have succeeded in raising large amounts of money using blogs, widgets and fundraising applications for social networks. Nine months since the high-profile launch of Facebook Causes and well over a year since the first articles on Web 2.0 fundraising started to appear, members of the nonprofit tech community seemed to be turning against the new-fangled tools for online fundraising. The traditional staples of online fundraising — a well-cultivated e-mail list, the ...

Times have changed. The new donors of today and the donors of tomorrow are far different than the donors many nonprofits have become accustomed to. These up and coming donors are tech savvy. They grew up with video games and the World Wide Web. They are comfortable completing entire conversations and interactions via e-mail or text message. They instant message and talk on their mobile phone while browsing the Internet and reading up on the latest news. According to Darryl Gordon, a vice president at Kintera in San Diego, this is a lifestyle not imagined or experienced by the typical ...