Weblogs and the Nonprofit Sector

(Read the first article in the series,Weblogs: The Promise for Nonprofit Organizations.)

In part one of this series, I said I was evangelizing about blogs; This time, I'm dreaming. This article is about what weblogs can do for the sector, and it isn't for the faint of heart. I'm assuming that you have some knowledge and even some enthusiasm for this medium. (If you don't, I encourage you to read TechSoup's Introduction to Weblogs.)

What Weblogs Already Can Do

• Allow you to informally gather information from your co-workers
• Track a project at work
• Point to outside resources related to your work
• Provide a way for your constituency to engage with a less formal version of your organization
• Make it easy to frequently update your Web site
• Make it easy to turn a portion of your Web site over to your constituency, through commenting or authoring privileges
• Serve as a personal knowledge management database
• Allow you to share a variety of media, audio posts, images, and videos
• Make Google love your Web site
• Entice readers to come back to your site

What Weblogs Might Be Able to Do If We All Play Our Cards Right

• Provide an opportunity for ad hoc collaboration
• Raise the profile of important issues to a large, cross-organization constituency
• Provide a World Wide Web-sized conversation in context
• Provide access to tools to organizations that might not be able to afford them
• Create a variety of win-win situations

An Imaginary Case Study

Let me explain this second list by offering up a scenario -- a fictional, but entirely possible, case study.

The cast of characters

Very Large Enviro Organization (VeLEO):

This is a national organization with a diverse funding stream and many local offices. It is involved in campaigns at many levels. VeLEO runs a weblog and has many other interactive tools on its site. It has an active advocacy and lobbying arm.

Small, Neighborhood Creek Clean-Up Organization (SNCCUP):

This small organization is focused on cleaning up a single creek that runs through an urban neighborhood. SNCCUP runs a weblog using a very basic service, TypePad . The rest of its site is, essentially, the online version of its print brochures and other collateral. SNCCUP does advocacy and some local campaigning.

The scenario

SNCCUP has been working hard at restoring a single creek. It has a neighborhood group and listserv. It does clean-ups on the first Friday of every month. It tracks the related work of its local Board of Supervisors, state representatives, and U.S. congressperson.

The organization highlights all of this on its weblog. However, it has had a hard time getting attention. The hits on its site are low, about 150 per day. SNCCUP thinks it has potential to get more attention, but it isn't sure what to do. It does know that it needs to help vote out the congressperson who consistently votes against environmentally-friendly legislation, but it doesn't know how to get the word out to more people.

VeLEO monitors the work of a wide variety of congresspeople. It has started a sophisticated e-mail campaign. People sign up and letters are automatically sent to the correct representatives based on zip codes. It's easy to invite others to join the campaign. VeLEO is also creating a list of engaged users who are increasingly willing to put money behind their efforts.

SNCCUP keeps plugging away, posting story after story about its congressperson. In its research, it comes across VeLEO's site and the campaign tools that VeLEO is using. SNCCUP points to those tools and suggests their site visitors sign up with VeLEO and join the campaign. In fact, they decide to ask their constituents to show up on the second Friday of each month to begin campaigning in the neighborhood. Of course, SNCCUP posts all of this on its blog.

Because SNCCUP links to VeLEO's Web site, campaign tools, and weblog, VeLEO learns about SNCCUP through its referrer logs (a Web site can keep track of the links visitors followed to reach its site). VaLEO find out that SNCCUP is pointing users their way. VeLEO learns about SNCCUP's activities and links to its weblog.

The Result

The number of visitors to SNCCUP's blog climbs. It reaches nearly 1,000 on the day that VeLEO points to it. SNCCUP uses that opportunity to promote its mission, to ask visitors to sign up for its listservs, and to invite visitors to its events. In subsequent days, the hits to SNCCUP's Web site drop, but they have broken the 150 barrier. It now gets around 400 visitors a day.

Election day comes and goes. In SNCCUP's district, a new congressperson is elected. Both SNCCUP and VeLEO celebrate this success with their constituents.

Something else happens though. Other organizations doing creek work find SNCCUP because of VeLEO's initial link. They add SNCCUP to their links pages. Community organizations in SNCCUP's area find out about SNCCUP because of their joint interest in removing the congressperson. They link to SNCCUP. Because so many sites are linking to SNCCUP, Google begins to recognize it as an authority. The organization comse in higher on searches for creek clean-up and environmental issues in its area.

VeLEO also recognizes SNCCUP's expertise, and it continues to read SNCCUP's weblog, pointing to it whenever their joint purposes meet. VeLEO encourages its users to get involved with local activities. SNCCUP's clean-up days are one of the many activities VeLEO promotes, in a targeted fashion, to users in appropriate zip codes.

Last but not least, VeLEO and SNCCUP begin to talk about joint activities that promote the clean-up of urban watersheds and creeks. VeLEO pulls together many organizations like SNCCUP, and they all begin to talk about working together on a national creek clean-up day.

Understanding the Sector-Wide Promise of Blogs

My list of what weblogs might be able to do becomes easier to understand when applied to the above case study.

• Provide an opportunity for ad-hoc collaboration: By linking to one another's Web site, VeLEO and SNCCUP began a collaboration to remove a congressperson from office. This ad hoc collaboration expanded over time into an opportunity with a larger and, for SNCCUP, more mission-specific, impact. Specifically, it became a collaboration with multiple organizations that could raise the profile and improve the success of each.
• Raise the profile of important issues to a large, cross-organization constituency: These two organizations were able to tap into each other's constituency to rid themselves of a congressperson they both felt stood in the way of environmental concerns and causes. In addition, the visibility of creek clean-up and urban watershed issues was increased in the process.
• Provide a World Wide Web-sized conversation in context: SNCCUP and VeLEO engaged in a conversation that spanned the Web. In addition to linking to one another, they linked to congressional voting records, field polls in local newspapers, and research on water quality that SNCCUP had conducted. They provided comments and viewpoints to go along with those links. They also invited their site users to engage with them by using VeLEO's letter-writing tools and joining SNCCUP's in-person events. Though this conversation pointed in various directions and led users to sources all over the Web, it was based on familiar Web sites and opened a dialogue that never lost sight of the mission of the organizations in question.
• Provide access to tools to organizations that might not be able to afford them: SNCCUP couldn't afford campaign management tools and didn't have the technical know-how to put free versions into place. But VeLEO did, and the nature of the Web made it very easy for SNCCUP to point its users to VeLEO's tools. Since SNCCUP provided specific information of local interest, it knew it wouldn't lose users by doing this. It also knew that it could celebrate and share in VeLEO's success.
• Create a variety of win-win situations: VeLEO wins because more users join its campaign, making it more likely to be successful. SNCCUP wins because it is able to "borrow" tools it couldn't put in place it. It also garners increased traffic and visibility, and is able to open the possibility for further collaborations. The users win because they are able to find information that is of relevance to them and then engage with issues they care about in a variety of online and in-person ways. Finally, the environment wins because of the successful efforts.

Conclusion

"Sure," you may say, "that sounds swell, but you made that case study up. It's not possible in the real world." Technically, it is possible. There is no tool in that scenario that doesn't already exist. Organizations like SNNCUP can go to Blogger and ut up a weblog for free -- tool, hosting, and all.

This does require effort. It requires a commitment to finding, sharing, and explaining relevant information. It requires understanding that building an audience takes time and persistence. It also requires following up on small successes so that they can be turned into larger opportunities.