NPO’s are Businesses, Too :: Now, How to convince one to blog
I need your help, please.
I have a non-profit organization that I believe is a perfect fit for a blog. I want to convince them to start one. How to go about it, though. Please consider this and give me your opinions.
The non-profit is Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults, also know as Camp ASCCA.
Non-profits are businesses, too. They have to develop their revenue streams (or donor streams) just like any business. Making a payroll is a challenge no matter whether you’re doing it for a charity or a for-profit business.
Why are they a natural fit for blogging? Well, there is a lot love in the place and relationships are strong. The contributor and volunteer base is solid. The stories they have to tell, staff/volunteers and campers alike, are compelling and fun.
The camp is actually open year-round. The seasons and different recreation activities are a natural fit, too. Keywords for all their sports and recreation activities might draw in enthusiasts that would converse with the campers/staff and extend the reach of the camp.
The photos they generate on a daily basis make a natural fit for a Flickr sidebar.
I recently wrote about my experiences at the camp from many years ago. You can check that out for another view of the camp from a PR perspective.
Please visit their site and then suggest ideas for who should blog there and how they should blog. How about the categories for the blog? Should they do interviews? Should they rotate through the entire staff? What is the easiest and safest way to put a donation button on there? Would it be a viable experience?
I really want them to take the plunge. ASCCA was the best experience of my life and I want others to read the compelling experiences others are having there every day.
Thanks!
It would make an exceptional blog. It would be fantastic if they could have as many voices as possible from the bottom up. I suppose this could be in the form of a group blog or as a series of separate blogs depending on whether they have some strong voices. It’d be great if you could enmesh the content in such a way that you could see the actual direction of the organisation and the experiences of children in relation to the instructors.
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You’ve asked all the right questions and it would be a superb way of being able to explain what is done at such an organisation. Every time I come across a site such as this it screams blog to me.
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I don’t think it needs an enormous amount of tweaking, but a CMS would make the whole thing infinitely more vibrant. Static content never seems to do these places justice. I want to read about the staff and how they are and I want to know that they’re a viable and truly trustworthy organisation before I send my child there or donate. I really want to know who they are and what they do and feel the passion of the organisation.
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As for a donation button……no idea. I’d have a dedicated donations page and have it linked to in a prominent location on every page. As for setting it up though, I’m sure there are better people than I with that kind of knowledge.
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I’d seriously go for everything you suggest. The whole works. Blimey, I’d even help out on the thing for free. Or at least pester them freely to get on with it.
I second Paul’s opinion on a blog being appropriate.
As for who should blog, you should decide if the blog will be centralized or decentralized.
A centralized blog works best under the control or just 1 or 2 dedicated people.
A decentralized blog is a group blog, such as, BLOGthenticity. I would keep the bloggers down to a manageble group. The key is to ensure that the bloggers actually like to write and understand writing for blogs.
As for donations, I would put a prominent button “above the fold” and add a text link asking for donations to your comments file so that the link appears at the bottom of each post. Also, ecourage your bloggers to ask for donations in their posts. It could be as simple as “Have you donated?” or “Don’t forget to donate…”