Back to Basics: The New Web Site Essentials
Navigation, page length, and site organization still matter in our Web 2.0 age.
we learn from Guidestar,
Almost every organization today, from the small one-person nonprofit to the private-sector independent contractor, has a Web site. A Web presence is essential and has been for years. And just like anything that has been around for a while, every now and then things need to be revamped and reevaluated.
With the advances in technology, specifically Web 2.0 functionality, nonprofits should revisit their Web sites and determine whether they are up to par with today’s savvy, particular Web site visitor.
In order to embrace the advancing technologies, nonprofits should first evaluate their current Web sites to ensure that overall design and layout are acceptable by current standards. Here are some basic questions to ask when evaluating current Web site design and structure:
1. Is it is easy to find the organization’s contact information? Is the link on every page?
Today’s Web users can get frustrated when information is not easy to find or is buried under pages of content.
for more Essentials click here
Nonprofit Social Networking Symposium
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.
Where New Technolgy is Taking Us
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.
Apparently Not a Rumor
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 mining, defining target audiences, growing lists and scheduling.
Perhaps they’re on to something……….
They’ve Got Mail: 10 Marketing Strategies
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 rate of unique visitors to new subscribers.
- Make every communication count. Write emails with a constituent-centric point of view, and steer clear or sending non-compelling material.
- Inspire. Provide value and be transparent to your donors about how funds are spent.
- Ask for money, regularly. Include a soft ask in every communication.
- Use multiple emails in a series to lift appeal response rates. Suppress those who respond to earlier appeals in the series.
- Make fundraising appeals tangible and compelling. People are presented with lots of appeals and offers.
- Empower volunteers. Raise money through online peer-to-peer fundraising software tools.
- Encourage monthly giving. The lifetime value of monthly donors is much higher than single-gift donors.
All Eyes On Me: Happy Birthday Israel!
Taglit Birthright Israel’s latest YouTube video is a fun-filled romp across the country in celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary on May 8th. Starring Tasha and Dishka, two Israelis from Ramle and early YouTube sensations with their Hey! clip (22 million views!), these two lip synch to the Carsitters “All Eyes on Me” as they make their way across Israel. The lead singer of the Carsitters is none other than Noa Margalit who I met at last year’s ROI120 Summit and this video was produced by Leah Stern, another ROI2007 alum and, well, me. The point of the video was to show an image of a fun and vibrant Israel - said image being more reflective of our daily reality than what one tends to see in the media. So now you know what I’ve been doing all of the last week - consorting with rock stars and traveling up and down the country in the company of serious Israeli babes.
Anyhow… here it is! Enjoy, rate, comment and share with your friends and family.
David Abitbol, is the founder of Jewlicious.com, an occasional contributor and adviser to eJewish Philanthropy on new media.
Google Israel’s Birthday Gift
Google Israel - has a new initiative in honor of Israel’s 60th birthday! They have decided to dedicate this year to “Our Children and Our Future Generations. ”
For more information and to join the campaign:
Official Website:
http://www.google. co.il/israelshel i
Google Israel campaign Facebook group:
http://www.facebook .com/group. php?gid=12838688 050
Tips For Success in a Web 2.0 World
MRM Worldwide’s digital strategist outlines three key considerations for keeping up with the new online consumer.
by By Dr. Augustine Fou
Web 2.0 has been described as “lots of video,” “cool user interfaces that use javascript,” “social networking,” “word of mouth.” Google, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, etc. have been used as examples, as have countless other companies and terms, correctly or incorrectly. But what really is the essence of this new wave of websites rising from the ashes of the first web implosion? And what are the implications for advertising and marketing?
Web 2.0 versus Web 1.0
Web 1.0 was about the tools which made getting information online easier — HTML, website creation software, standards, internet connections, etc. This led to an explosion of information online and generated the estimated several hundred billion web pages online today. Web 2.0 is about organizing, filtering and prioritizing the vast amounts of information so that the information becomes more useful, timely, and relevant. Web 2.0 was born out of necessity in the current “age of too much information.” It also has profound implications for advertising since advertising messages are part of the clutter and people have accustomed themselves to tuning everything out until such time they are interested in researching something for themselves.
Read more here.
Yad Vashem Launches YouTube Channels
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance and education center in Jerusalem, has launched two YouTube channels in advance of today’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. The channels, in English and Arabic, went live Tuesday. The English channel contains testimonies from Holocaust survivors, including archival footage, historians’ lectures on key issues related to the Holocaust, footage from visits to Yad Vashem, including those of President George W. Bush in January 2008, and Pope John Paul II in March 2000, as well as human interest stories, such as family reunions.
The Arabic channel has testimonies and archival footage about the Holocaust, with Arabic subtitles.
“We know that YouTube is one of the most popular websites today. This is equally true in the United States and Europe as it is in Arabic speaking countries. Unfortunately, there is a plethora of misinformation and deliberate lies available on the Internet. The Yad Vashem channel will counter this material, and make reliable information widely available to anyone who seeks to know more about this terrible chapter in human history,” said Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem.
“By meeting the survivors through their testimonies, and viewing the foremost experts in the field address difficult questions, viewers will be able to connect on yet another level to this pivotal, and defining event.”
Jewcy Media Strikes Partnership With Zeek
New York, NY, May 1, 2008. Zeek, an online journal that has helped shape modern Jewish-American culture, today announced that it is joining forces with Jewcy.com, one of the web’s most innovative and rapidly-growing online communities. Beginning today, Zeek’s online content will be published at www.jewcy.com/zeek.
Zeek joins Jewcy as the first content partner in Jewcy’s initiative to create a publishing network of editorial sites serving the YoCo psychographic – young, culturally omnivorous Americans looking for meaning and community.
“We are joining strength with strength,” said Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, chief editor of Zeek and formerly the managing editor of Tikkun magazine. “We’re a leader in Jewish intellectual, cultural, artistic, and spiritual life, and Jewcy is the largest and most dynamic Jewish community on the internet.”
“Zeek is the first of many partnerships to come in our effort to assemble an all-star team of the nation’s most original, creative voices,” said Tahl Raz, CEO and founding editor with Joey Kurtzman. Kurtzman said, “Zeek consistently publishes daring, groundbreaking work. This had to happen.”
Zeek will retain its editorial independence and continue to publish its print journal. Its most recent issue, published last month, is a 120-page anthology of Russian-Jewish art, fiction, and poetry.
The venture is the first such merger among the publications and organizations collectively known as the ‘new Jewish culture,’ and represents a joining of two of the leading forces in independent Jewish media. Said Kaiser, “This is a natural evolution of the work all of us have been doing, and we’re thrilled to be joining forces.”
