from the horizon

I introduced the concept of Web 2.0 in my last post (link) so I could talk about how some of the principals and technology is being carried over the not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) world. The internet is providing new tools for organizations to use, and is leveling the field for smaller organizations to compete on the same level.

Many of the things which organizations used to do in the real world can now be done virtually. Petitions, advocacy campaigns and even fund raising is now done online. Because of the scale of the internet, specialized sites such as JustGiving and FirstGiving have been set up to help any sort of raise funds online. MSF (Medicins sans Frontiers/Doctors without Borders) even has its own podcast!

NFPs are providing “widgets”, for people to add to their own websites and blogs to spread the good word. Widgets are small pieces of code, which can be easily copied and pasted into existing websites. I like this because it gives people the ability to become involved, even if only virtually, in the cause they are supporting. I’ve included a couple of examples to give you an idea what is out there.

And fancier still! This is a widget from my favourite not for profit – Kiva. It displays a random person from a developing country, who is raising a loan to improve their business. Have you got a credit card on you? Click on the link and lend them some money – how can you resist such personal marketing?

The nature of Amnesty International is irrepressible! This is a beautiful campaign against internet censorship authoritarian regimes. This widget contains a random snippet of “objectionable” text, This is an online equivalent of non-Jewish people wearing the yellow badge during the Nazi occupation, to make it harder to distinguish Jews, who were forced to wear the band. The downside of this is that my blog could now be on the list of site censored by the Chinese government.

If anyone has an index of all the available Not For Profit widgets, I’d be really interested, as it was a bit tricky hunting down all of these!

Seth Godin has produced an interesting one page “cheat sheet” to help NFPs become “2.0″ organisations. It’s mainly focused about getting more traffic to your website using fairly standard methods (YouTube videos, Technorati, Measuring traffic, finding out who’s blogging about you, Online donations and Getting people to “Digg” your website)

There are a couple of other blogs talking about this sort of stuff too, if you are interested in further reading. NFT 2.0 has an interesting post about the trends which will drive charities in 2007. Non-Profit Tech Blog has a number of posts on “Nonprofit 2.0”.

Jon Lebkowsky has written a couple of posts about how new technologies are making it easier for smaller organizations to compete with the big ones. With the help of the internet it is becoming easier and cheaper to get information to the masses. The market of NFPs could soon become dominated by The Long Tail of smaller more focused, more specialized, grassroots organizations.

This is the development which I am excited about. The rest of what I have talked about has really just been organisations used new tools to do the same job as they have always done. However these new tools have the potential to change the way which organizations operate. Because NFPs can now easily reach out to more potential donors, they can be smaller and more focused, which I believe is the best way for them to achieve their cause. Through photos, videos and direct correspondence from beneficiaries NFPs can now bring donors much closer to the cause they are working towards. I think this will lead to donors becoming more engaged in the work they are sponsoring, which I believe is the best quality control for NFPs, and will improve the effectiveness of the work.

There are disadvantages for NFPs moving to virtual world. A real picket line is much harder to ignore than an email from Greenpeace and a person fund raising on the street is probably more effective that a donate button on a website. The NFP 2.0 Blog has some thoughts about engaging people online. Ultimately a balance must be made between virtually connecting with people throughout the global village and having feet on the ground.