Web Design

1. CHANGE TO MAKE:

Get online if you aren't already

It's 2010, and I hope you're online. If you're with the times, you're collecting donations on your website with a well-crafted, compelling and consistently branded donation page. You are using an e-mail campaign tool, not Outlook, to communicate with your community of 
supporters. You have a social-media strategy and are committing the time you need to achieve your clearly articulated, measurable goals. You continually assess how all of these efforts are performing against your targets. Your online and offline outreach is seamlessly integrated.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - For actor Edward Norton, philanthropy and activism are practically in his genes so launching a website on Wednesday to encourage charity fundraising seemed natural to him.

Norton, 40, joined forces with a couple of Internet savvy friends to create Crowdrise (www.crowdrise.com) that gives people a free way to create their own fundraising pages to share through social networks, winning points and prizes along the way.

Technology, properly applied, can be a great enabler. But, having glimpsed the possibilities, the challenges of achieving it can be frustrating to fundraisers, who want to provide their supporters with a smarter online experience.

Have you seen our new Web site? Check it out at fundraisingsuccessmag.com. And while you're there, take a look at the Outrageous Hope blog! If you like what you see, sign up for an RSS feed, leave a comment, drop us a line. If you don't, then let us know that too!

Check out the new FS Web site at fundraisingsuccessmag.com. And look out for our new blog, Outrageous Hope! If you like what you see, sign up for an RSS feed, leave a comment, drop us a line. If you don't, then let us know that too!

Back in 2008, many Americans got their first taste of social networking for good through the Web site mybarack
obama.com (or "MyBO" as it came to be known). The site engaged Barack Obama supporters online with a goal of inspiring action offline — attending events, canvassing, phone banking and, of course, donating.

Since the 2008 elections, the Republican Party has been revisiting its image with an eye toward appealing to young people and independents. As part of that process, it recently relaunched ?GOP.com, with a new design, updated content, a social-networking component and social-media integration. Fire up your Web browser and check it out — I'll wait.

Lynn Edmonds, president, L.W. Robbins Associates
Loyal donors are being conservative but holding on. Since the spring, we have seen a slight increase in giving in some audiences but not all. And in certain cases, we have been able to reactivate lapsed donors by decreasing the gift asks.

For many of you the upcoming holiday season will be the busiest time of the year for donations, and an increasing portion of those donations are arriving via your Web site. As a result, more of you are paying attention to your online donation pages. If you’re like many of our clients, all kinds of people are providing input, opinion and even demands about what your online donation pages should look like: "Center this." "Add that image." "Add this video." "Make it look more like that other charity’s donation page." Any of this sound familiar?

Charleston, S.C., November 13, 2009 — Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), the leading global provider of software and related services designed specifically for nonprofit organizations, today announced the release of Blackbaud Sphere Grow™. This new “Grow” version of the company’s popular web-based emarketing and event fundraising solution, Blackbaud Sphere, provides nonprofits an affordable turn-key solution with a guided implementation and ongoing consulting services.