technology

We have just set up some training courses for July and August.

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When the charity recognised the need to develop its relationships with its members, supporters and campaigners, and to develop the potential for increased support from its sponsors, it selected ProgressCRM from Fisk Brett.

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Announced on 10th June 2008, Advanced Solutions International (ASI) has combined forces with UK charity and fundraising software specialist Fisk Brett, creating the UK's no1 specialist technology provider for the not-for-profit sector.

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Hi everyone. Just a reminder that all of us Blogbaudians have picked up and moved into new digs over at blogs.blackbaud.com. Come by and see us!

Product Blogs

• The User’s Edge — The official blog of The Raiser’s Edge
• The Ledger — The official blog of The Financial Edge
• The Spotlight — The official blog of The Patron Edge
• The Book Bag — Blackbaud’s school software blog

Personal Blogs

• Connections — Steve MacLaughlin, Director of Internet Solutions
• Navigating the Fundraising Universe — Jim Bush, Enterprise Bus. Architect
• Webby Things — Chad Norman, Manager of Internet Marketing

Corporate Blogs

• From the Doc Side — The Product Documentation Team Blog
• Blackbaud News — Up-to-date Blackbaud News

Industry Blogs

• NetWits — Internet marketing, communication, tools, and technology

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In the immortal words of Kermit the frog, it's not easy being green

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Fisk Brett is offering a free consultation on implementing effective fundraising software. We will then send you a detailed report summarising your strategy, areas of potential development, and the business advantages of a fundraising solution, including ROI.

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SLIDES AVAILABLE - Evangelical Alliance of Great Britain presented a session at the Institute of Fundraising's Technology Group conference. The Powerpoint slides are now available from their website.

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At the International Fundraising Congress (IFC) later this year, Jo Swinhoe of Alzheimer's Society is co-presenting the session "The competitive edge- developing a high achieving fundraising culture."

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Congratulations to The Children's Trust which has been selected as the charity to benefit from next year's (2009) Marathon.

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Derek Baker has joined Fisk Brett as a Project Consultant, to complement the team that carries out the analysis and implementation of new customer's projects.

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"Third Wednesdays are a great way to keep up to date with new developments in Progress by seeing them demonstrated live" says Sarah Sullivan, Friends and Patrons Officer at The Shakespeare Globe Trust.

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James Redman is the latest addition to the Fisk Brett support team, taking and logging customer communication issues. As trainee support technician, James will soon become a valuable asset in the 1st line support team.

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When Cotswold Care Hospice needed to upgrade its fundraising database, it selected ProgressCRM.

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Please forgive me for straying off the fundraising theme slightly, into the world of mobile computing. This does relate to fundraising, as I, like many others, rely on mobile computing to do our work.

Back in January I bought one of these incredible Asus Eee PCs for my daughter. This little miracle of technology came singing and dancing out of its box, ready for the user to start working on it, within 30 seconds of pressing the on button!

What is so special about the Eee PC is that it is slightly bigger than your typical Bible (version irrelevant), weighs less than a kilo, hasn’t got an ounce of Microsoft inside it (Hoooooray!) and costs under £200! (OK, you have to add VAT at £35) It runs on Linus-based software, which means Open Office and other FREE open source applications, so you never have to pay for the software, which is as good (and in some cases better) than MS software

It has everything you need: software, webcam, stereo speakers, mic, even voice activated commands. You can play your MP3s, record short videos, play some wicked games (Penguin Race is awesome) and best of all it hasWiFi built in, so you can log on to any wireless network (like the one on the National Express East Coast train I’m writing this on!).

Here’s the bit I really want to get over though. I started to enquire about 3G USB broadband access, you know, the little dongles you plug in in order to access the internet anywhere. People kept telling me it wouldn’t work with Linux. However, the really nice people at the Harrogate 3 shop took time to test it out on one of their USB modems and using the built in Wizard on the Eee PC, it’s a doddle! Just look for the 3G connection in Network>Create, then search for the network (i.e. in this case 3 UK), then search for the right country and click “Finish”. Virtually 100% Internet access wherever you are.

My apologies again to those who came looking for fundraising, but one’s mind can wander off it occasionally and mine did just now!

When Wessex Heartbeat identified a need to replace its existing fundraising database, it selected ProgressCRM.

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In readiness for the Gift Aid rate change-over, Fisk Brett has issued a new ‘service pack' that updates the ProgressCRM software with additional functionality for variable Gift Aid claims.

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As part of our upgraded online community, some new blogs are coming to life over at Blackbaud.com:

The User’s Edge: The Official Blog of the Raiser’s Edge
The Ledger: The Official Blog of The Financial Edge
The Spotlight: The Official Blog of The Patron Edge

There are also a couple of personal blogs: Steve MacLaughlin’s Connections and my own Webby Things. The infamous Jim Bush is next, along with a few more brave souls we’re coaxing out of the ‘baud. Stay tuned for more, or just subscribe to Blackbaud Blogs (rss) and let us come to you.

Packaging Your Organization to Communicate Impact The Way the User Wants to Experience It

I’ve had the pleasure of consulting closely with countless unique clients with diverse missions, yet all face a common challenge. They struggle to position their organizations effectively in a manner which communicates the impact of their organization to various demographic segments. The challenge, common among most non-profits, goes beyond messaging to encompass internal operational silos, departmental or programmatic territorialism, false profiling of market segments due to lack of proper evidence, and an overall challenge in defining each organization’s role in changing the world for the community they serve in an appropriate way – all the while addressing the communications preferences of disparate populations. Does this sound like too many balls to juggle in the air? I argue this is not the case.

More often than not, organizations approach challenges such as user-intuitive information architecture (navigation) on their web site and through other communications channels without taking into account how unlike individuals will navigate and interpret information. An exercise recently conducted with one client’s technology and web review board unexpectedly triggered surprised looks as board members realized for the first time that individuals tasked with the same objective in reviewing, critiquing or navigating a web site will not only interpret and perceive navigation, visuals, interactivity, and messaging differently, but will adamantly argue that their views apply to all. They’re all disagreeing, but they’re all right – their way is “the right way.” One of the first lessons I learned in my career in non-profit fund development and marketing came to me from a mentor and VP at the world’s most popular cola creator. In chairing my organization’s PR and marketing committee, he operated under the mantra, perception is reality.

Perception is, indeed reality. This is an immutable truth. And each individual will perceive differently, regardless of how appropriately we package our organization with targeted messaging, visuals, and interactivity. I would imagine that if you’re reading this blog, you’re a non-profit professional. Furthermore, I would be led to believe that you have a particular interest in driving outcomes – fund development, awareness, program, or countless others. I’m not psychic, I simply determined my audience prior to crafting this message. You may be a membership, conservation, healthcare, higher education, grant making, social service, or another variety of NPO, but we all have one unifying commonality. We all seek to achieve one of the aforementioned outcomes, and we do so by our ability to influence individuals.

In order for us to successfully influence, we must understand our audience. As an example, as I choose words in this blog, I’m cautious about my use of constituent, member, supporter, prospect, client, community member, and other words. In marketing terms, these are all held equal as the consumer. However, my guess is that my use of the term consumer may prevent this information from truly resonating with my various target audiences, whether it be a marketing, development, program, or other executive-level officer.

Put it in perspective – it’s the equivalent of having a conversation with a current or prospective supporter, a VIP who you know everything about, whether it be from experience and relationship or BI. From recreational and philanthropic interests, to where his or her daughter practices ballet, you’re hopefully educated on who the individual is, what he or she likes, and the appropriate means by which they should be solicited. The same is true for audiences online – audiences that have hopefully been defined and segmented to the fullest extent your due diligence and resources will allow or, as is unfortunately often the case, assumed that you know their motivations and interests and structured your packages and appeals (aka information in the form of a pitch) based on false assumptions.

If the latter is the case, the most important lesson any non-profit afflicted by this misdirection can learn is that everyone is different – the best thing we can do is understand and guide our operations by this principle so that we can unite and target information by commonalities among these varying populations of clients, supporters, and prospects. After all, diversifying your target demographic is like diversifying funding – if you can build affinity with a new group, or strengthen relationships with existing groups of supporters, you’re better able to solicit and steward these individuals in the most personal, educated way. Go forth, and question your web site. Does it inspire you to get involved? Are you compelled to give? Do you come away from this interactive experience better educated about how your support (money, time, connections, etc…) impacts your organization’s ability to deliver a meaningful impact to the constituency it serves? This questioning could continue in perpetuity; however, if you said no to any of the above step back. Breathe deeply. Define your existing audience as it relates to your mission. Segment them as appropriate. And finally, craft an interactive experience that boils the blood and inspires – an experience that does so with the same standard of personal touch you would provide your most avid supporters.

Josh Hopkins is internet solutions manager at Blackbaud Interactive where he works with organizations around the globe to deliver executable, constituent-focused marketing strategies that drive fund development and engagement success for clients. Josh has worked and volunteered extensively within and alongside the non-profit sector, serving as chief marketing and fund development officer for the nation’s largest Hispanic social service provider prior to the Blackbaud team.

Beginning today, I’ll be posting over at the new blog — Connections. This is the next little social media experiment from Blackbaud and there will be other blogs popping up soon. I’ve reposted my entries from BlogBaud and hope to take things in some new directions. I hope you’ll give it a look…

Yesterday’s BlackBerry outage gave me a chance to catch up on some reading. (But let’s just keep that between me and you.) So here are some blogs and articles worth a look:

Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education has a new blog called Brainstorm that I’ve added to my reading list. While all of the content isn’t fundraising specific it is always wise to keep tabs on trends in any area, especially higher education.

Todd Cohen - Todd gives his $0.02 in a post called “Storm brewing for nonprofits” that deals with the impact of a recession on the nonprofit world. This whole topic is springing up a lot lately and opinions vary on what it all might mean. What I think everyone would agree on is that if you’re waiting until something bad happens to prepare or change strategies, then it’s probably too late to avoid some problems.

The NonProfit Times - They pick up on an article from MarketingSherpa about “10 mistakes to avoid with email newsletters.” One tip not on the list is to remember to always have some form of “call to action” in your email newsletters. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an ask, but never miss an opportunity to drive action from an interaction. It could be a poll, a survey, or something else that engages more than just your constituents’ eyes.

Tim Davies - A straightforward “One page guide to Google Alerts” that should help anyone trying to measure the reach and awareness of their online efforts. I remember the days when you’d pay big bucks for a clipping service or spending hours in LexisNexis trying to research a topic.

Tech Soup - Beth Kanter continues to demystify Web 2.0 with her article called “Eight Secrets of Effective Online Networking.” This article is a follow up to “Determining Your Social Network Needs” that Beth wrote a few weeks ago. These are both worth spending some time reading, thinking, and discussing at your organizations.

Garrett Keating - A great three part series about writing custom parts for Blackbaud NetCommunity. Always good to see things out there in the wild taking shape. And it shows how blogs and Wikis can peacefully coexist no matter who’s publishing the content.