Having been asked to name some charity blogs I know of, I thought it could work well to start up a new thread, under its own category of ''blogs''. I''m inviting readers to post their own examples, and whenever I write something directly or indirectly related to the subject, I''ll use the categories feature to help with topic searching.
So here goes:
Last July (05), Third Sector covered these:
http://jamiesbigvoice.blogspot.com/
http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/2005/
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/
One from Make Poverty History (which I can''t now find)
And there is Oxfam:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/generationwhy/blog/
The only one from the list above that puts forward a personality or individual is Jamie's, and for me, I think that is what I like about charity blogs - a clear voice, the chance to relate to someone, or at least the chance to peg opinions to someone who stands there to be engaged with and is ready to be challenged. So though I don't know many, here is a different list containing my current faves:
The Action Medical Research Parents' Diary blog with its highly personal / totally identifiable diary of the tiny lives of premature babies Edmund and Aubrey, written by father Martin - http://www.action.org.uk/parentsdiary/parents_blog.php.
Perhaps Said Dajani, their Web Editor, will post here to talk about its phenomenal success and what he attributes that to.
The Tsunami blog - http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/ - which shows blogging as a community and networking tool. There is also the 9/11 one at http://911memorials.wordpress.com/
And I am including John Burton's - http://www.worldlandtrust.org/news/blog.htm - in fact, I'm praising him simply for doing it. I think it is terrific when a CEO or senior figure in a charity is prepared to reveal themselves. After all, they lead the passion, vigour and vision that can set a charity apart. Let's see more of it.
That's really it right now. When I come to know of more and like them, I''ll be sure to post again.
Please add away with your own!
Comments
Charity Blogs -- My personal experience
I work the SOS Children's Villages Charity.
In the last year I have made two charity blogs which I designed to give a personal view on the work the charity does.
The blogs are:
http://www.twotalk.org
This is a daily conversation in photgrpahs between myself and my co-worker Mary Wolfe. It has been running since July 2009 and has attracted very positive response from the creative and mummy blogging online community.
http://www.doodleboat.org
This is a collection of the drawings of the children we care for. Each day a new drawing is published. It gives an interesting insight into the lives of the children and their culture.
My experience from making these sites and interacting with other bloggers is that there is a special place for charity blogs in alerady existing online communities. But to be popular you have to fit in with the style of writing and understand the taste in photography of that community.
British Red Cross starts blogging
Volunteers and staff of the British Red Cross have begun blogging. Although they appear on a dedicated section of the BRC website, the blurb makes it clear that "because they're personal views of being part of the Red Cross, they do not necessarily reflect the organisation's views".
http://blogs.redcross.org.uk/
Re : Charity blog sites - shall we build a list?
Aloha, I connect wealthy entrepreneurs with the philanthropy sector and have a blog dedicated to charity and philanthropy. Link above. May be useful?
Re : Charity blog sites - shall we build a list?
Gerry -
I also visited your Shantidhara blog today. Please forgive the long silence since you first wrote about it. I have only just caught up due to an error not showing any new comments...
The suicide post had my breath caught in my throat. The things of consequence to different people around the world can become such a reality check. Poor poor Sania.
See how emotionally connected I instantly became from reading just one of your postings? So I looked around the blog page for ways to connect with the cause...
There was no link I could see to the Shantidhara website. If yours is an official / approved blog for them they should certainly be linking to your blog and you to them. There was also no link to their support page, or directly to their donation page. Handled sensitively, I see no reason why you shouldn't explain to readers how they can become more involved.
I also noted all the references to Joji - but who is he/she? Be careful about things that may not be as obvious to general readers as they are to related readers or to you. This significant-sounding person should probably be labelled at each reference - 'Joji, who runs the charity' or 'Joji, who is the project leader', or whatever.
Finally, perhaps you could say more about your connection with the cause and how it came about and I'd be inclined to put that first in your profile before going into further details...
Keep updating Gerry, and building links to increase visibility. Keep up the good work!
Sarah
Re : Charity blog sites - shall we build a list?
Thanks to everyone who has commented here. I am afraid I feature of Wordpress wasn't working previosuly so I have only recently become aware of all the posts.
Jason, I found time to visit your blog today, Caring Choices, and I really liked what I saw. The interface is not much different to a classic blog, but appears so much more accessible and meaningful, with enough relevant sidebar links to add context. I love that it is collaborative but also open to all members of the public, and the advice on posting appropriately is a reminder that any user generated content can slip into bad habits without a friendly code of behaviour being prompted.
We're not building a blog list here - as the job is being laudably carried out elsewhere (see above) - but it is great to have examples of current practices and results being published for others to learn from.
Re : Charity blog sites - shall we build a list?
I built this blog recently for the King's Fund - http://www.caringchoices.org.uk. Its purpose is to enable a group of charities to host a public debate about who should care for older people. It uses WordPress but was designed to not look like a typical blog.
Re : Charity blog sites - shall we build a list?
http://shantidhara.blogspot.com/ please list, and everyone is welcome to visit the blog or the site www.shantidhara.org
Thanks
Gerry
Re : Charity blog sites - shall we build a list?
This blog is about my Charity bike ride to raise money for the Jessop Wing Neonatal Unit in Sheffield
Re : Charity blog sites - shall we build a list?
please list this charity blog
Re : Charity blog sites - shall we build a list?
Hi Sarah,
Working for a local hospice, we really depend on fundraising opportunities. We've recently hooked up to a new charity cashback site called www.charitycheckout.com. They seem to be donating a much greater percentage of spend than the previous sites we've worked with previously and perhaps thats why itsbeen such a success for us. They've recently started http://www.blog.charitycheckout.com which charts their progress.