To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• SignOn.org Beta – Have you seen the new petition tool from MoveOn.org? "SignOn is a service provided by MoveOn.org Civic Action to allow anyone to set up their own online petition, share it with friends, and stay in touch with the signers of their petition using email." What do you think? Have you tried it yet?
• 30 Super Useful Nonprofit Hashtags – Twitter Chats, Too! « Company K Media – Kerri has an excellent round up of some of the most popular hashtags on Twitter related to the nonprofit and social impact sectors, as well as hashtags to follow to join in regular Twitter chats. Check it out and add yours to the list!
• Women Deliver » Updates » Winners Announced for the Women Bloggers Deliver Competition – Congratulations to my friend Toyin Ajao! Check out this very cool initiative and follow the stories of the three women selected to blog for Carbon for Water! "We are so excited to announce the winners of the “Women Bloggers Deliver” competition! Over the past few weeks, we received over 250 applications from bloggers around the world – from California to Kenya, and from Mexico to Iraq. The competition, a partnership between Women Deliver and Vestergaard Frandsen, was held to draw focus and attention to the just launched Carbon for Water project, a public health intervention that will contribute significantly to health and development efforts that are transforming the lives of families and communities hard hit by the lack of clean water. The three winning bloggers will accompany community workers as they distribute LifeStraw® Family water filters to almost a million households in Kakamega, Kenya."
• What We Lose if We Lose Data.gov | Freedom to Tinker – "In its latest 2011 budget proposal, Congress makes deep cuts to the Electronic Government Fund. This fund supports the continued development and upkeep of several key open government websites, including Data.gov, USASpending.gov and the IT Dashboard. An earlier proposal would have cut the funding from $34 million to $2 million this year, although the current proposal would allocate $17 million to the fund. Reports say that major cuts to the e-government fund would force OMB to shut down these transparency sites. This would strike a significant blow to the open government movement, and I think it’s important to emphasize exactly why shuttering a site like Data.gov would be so detrimental to transparency."
• Social Actions Transition: Introducing the GuideStar Team – My Social Actions – As Peter and Christine announced in March, Social Actions has a new home in Guidestar – here's an update of where the transition is at and introductions of the two Guidestar staff who will be instrumental in pushing Social Actions into the future!

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Freakonomics » Ten Reasons Why I Would Never Donate to a Major Charity (How to Be a Superhero, Part 2) – "“Giving to Charity” is another myth we fervently uphold as part of the Great American Religion — just like “own a home” or “send your kids to college.” It’s time we stop blindly believing in mythology. I’m not saying don’t give. I’m not saying don’t be spiritual or don’t be good. But do it with thoughtfulness, with true spirit, with a true desire to help. More harm than good is done when you blindly throw money at most charities."
• eAdvocacy Readiness Assessment – A terrific round up of resources from Aspiration – if you're looking to get started with or ramp up your online engagement efforts, check out these tools first! "Welcome to the pre-release version of Aspiration's eAdvocacy Readiness Tools. Aspiration uses these tools to help organizations identify deficits and establish best practices in their eAdvocacy work. These tools are in beta-test phase and available to users like you to help us make them better and more useful to you. We invite you to let us know about any problems you encounter by emailing tools@answr.net. We'd also love to hear your suggestions about how to make the tools more useful for you."
• Are you writing the blog posts that people are looking for? | Natasha Judd – Great post from Natasha with tips for getting more targeted with your blog content! "Blog entries are a great way to bring people to your website. They provide fresh content related to your organisation or business – the type of fresh content that search engines love. Other bloggers are also more likely to link to your blog posts than the home page (or services page) of your website, and those links can bring both referred traffic and a higher ranking on search engines. So, how do you create the sort of content that people are looking for and linking to?"
• Facebook Flap Puts Girl Scouts In Center of Controversy – Social Philanthropy – The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas – The Chronicle has a great story covering an opportunity for organizations to learn from side-steps of others instead of repeating disaster: "Girl Scouts of the USA found itself at the center of a social-media controversy this month when the Rainforest Action Network, an environmental group, used Facebook to protest the group’s use of an ingredient in the cookies it sells to raise money."
• Videos Posted by Non-Profits on Facebook: Non-Profit Resource Center [HQ] – Looking for tips and resources for building up your organization's presence on facebook? Well, the folks at facebook have put it all in one place for you! A couple notes: there are PDF guides you can download and a "share your story" feature so you can highlight the way you use facebook and get attention for all your hard work. Check it out!

Why Blog?

It might not be new, and it might not be sexy. But blogs can help your organization in a few key ways:

Central Communication Hub

It’s important to have a place that you can link to for more information and for follow-up, instead of sharing news or updates only in a tweet or facebook message, and especially if it is just in an email newsletter. A blog can provide the space for sharing news, announcements, stories, and other information and let you reshare and distribute it all over the web. A blog can also help people find out more about you or find other ways to stay connected to you. If someone sees an interesting post from you on Twitter, clicks through to the blog, and then can sign up for the newsletter, click to “like” you on facebook, and learn about your organization – well, that’s a whole lot more engagement and communication (that you didn’t have to work for) than simply posting to Twitter and leaving it at that.

Create Community Dialogue

Another great opportunity you have with a blog is opening up your organization by allowing comments and dialogue. Whether you are asking for feedback, sharing stories, or urging people to take action, providing a place for your community to share back with you shows your openness to feedback and interest in the community. And no, the possibility of getting a “bad” comment is not enough to disable the option for people to share their ideas, support and encouragement. Most of the time, if someone has something bad to say, other community members will step up to right the remark before you even have a chance!

Multimedia Storytelling

Think blogs are boring? Well, maybe the kind you have seen are. Or, maybe you weren’t interested in the stories being told. Your blog is a chance for your organization to show just how NOT boring it is! Do you have videos, pictures, or slides? Do you have lots of different voices? Your blog doesn’t have to be plain text on a big white page. You can use videos or images, you can hold competitions for ideas, you can post your favorite links or have guest contributors. Your blog is for you to share the storytelling you want to, with the kinds of media you want to!

How To Start a Blog

So, you’re ready to get started – woohoo! Starting a blog can be similar to planning your first road trip. Here are a few basics:

Plan Your Route

Before you jump in the car and hit the open road, you want to take the time to plan where you’ll go, and what you need. Planning for your blog means thinking about who on staff, and who not on staff (board members, volunteers, organizers, community leaders) may contribute. What kind of content do you already have that you could reuse (videos or interviews from events, data or research, etc.) or stories you know you will have important information about (issues you are watching closely, political or social issues you are involved in). Getting an idea about the kinds of things you could post and the people who will post it will help you select the most appropriate platform to use and create an editorial/content calendar.

Test Drive It

There are two aspects to a proper test drive:

First, give it a go without having a blog. That’s right, I really said that. If you know who and you know what will be involved, have your “blogging team” operate as if there’s a blog, without one, for a month. If over the course of four whole weeks, you are still writing posts (even if they are just text files or emails to each other) then you know you have the stamina to get started. If you go a week and can’t get anyone or even yourself to keep going, then you may never get the blog off the ground.

Secondly, pick a platform based on the content you want to use and give it a try before you start promoting it, linking to it, and sharing it with the world. (There are lots of great posts out there about getting started and selecting a platform, including this one from ProBlogger.) Some of the leading platforms you may want to consider include (in alphabetical order):

• Blogger
• MoveableType
• Posterous
• Squarespace
• Typepad
• WordPress

Prepare to Change Directions

Just like any good road trip, sometimes the winds pushes you in a different direction, and you just have to go with it! If you get started with your blog and find that the content your community responds to (or doesn’t) is not what you had expected, that’s a great sign telling you where to go. Don’t let the what or the how determine your success, but instead whether you are meeting your goals (sharing information, getting feedback, building community, growing trust, etc.). It isn’t a sign that you have failed if your blog changes direction from talking about news items to sharing the stories of volunteers – it isn’t the “what” that matters but instead that your community is engaging and you have content to support your work and communications.

Resources:

• Global Voices has created a Guide to Blog For A Cause
• Here’s a how-to guide for Community Planning & Measurement
• Get data and information about the blogosphere from Technorati
• Start reading other blogs to get an idea of how to do it – here’s a whole dashboard full of blogs to get you started! (Have suggestions for blogs that should be added? Just let me know!)

(Photo credit: Flickr futureshape)

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Social Networking Sites Move Into Charity World – NYTimes.com – "Crowdrise, Jumo, Causecast, Causes on Facebook and others try to use social networking and crowdsourcing to build interest in charities and causes, and to help them attract donations. … But to many in the nonprofit world, the value of the sites remains to be seen. For one thing, they hand partial control over charity brand names and trademarks to users who are often unknown to the nonprofit groups they support. And virtually all of them ask users to pay to donate."
• Target community for best return on social media efforts – My recent interview with the Nonprofit Business Advisor is out! I talked with Kelly Sullivan about some of the most common mistakes or myths nonprofits have about social media, as well as opportunities to get started strategically. Would love to hear your thoughts and additional pointers you share with nonprofit leaders looking to dive into social media!
• An Important New Foundation Blog | Tactical Philanthropy – Great post from Sean about a new blog from the Peery Foundation. Does your organization have a blog? I'm interested in what you think about the reflections Sean shares and what you've learned from running your blog. "The reason I’m excited about the Peery Foundation blog is because I think that Dave and Jessamyn get that social media is best understood as a conversation and a conversation is most interesting when you focus on listening and learning. They’re even willing to take listening to extremes, such as this recent post by Jessamyn in which she attempts to crowdsource her own annual review by asking readers who she has interacted with to give her feedback on how she’s doing. While she offers the option of emailing her the response, she encourages people to post their feedback as a public comment."
• Get Your Group On: Introducing Posterous Groups – The Official Posterous Posterous – "Today we’re announcing Posterous Groups, a new service for communicating privately with your friends, family and colleagues." I use Posterous for my personal blog and have found it to be a easy platform – curious if others are using it for their organization or community group and if the groups feature is something you'd like to try!
• Yes, Finds Pew Study, People Will (and Do) Pay For Digital Content – "For a long time – right or wrong – content on the Internet has been synonymous with "free." Free music. Free videos. Free access to your local newspaper. Free blogs. And so some have worried that people might be reluctant to actually spend money to buy digital content if they can already find it (or something similar) online without having to pay. But a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project should assuage some of those fears. In fact, almost two-thirds of Internet users have paid for digital content."

Thank You

First off, a huge thank you to Matt Cheuvront, the designer who made all of this happen! I am so happy to have had the chance to collaborate with Matt; he was efficient, pleasant, and super smart, but most importantly to me, he was willing to operate in a more public way engaging with all of you who left comments and feedback. Matt was flexible and strategic and helped make decisions that would ultimately put me in a position to not need him any more – just what I was after!  Thanks, Matt!  You can check him out at Proof, his new full-service branding company (here’s a list of services, too).

A major thank you to all of you is in order as well! There would be no need for a redesign, or a site at all, if it wasn’t for all of you reading, commenting, sharing, linking, and generally driving this space. I am honored to feel like a curator and instigator here, not the one with the sole responsibility of creating value. It’s very inspiring to be part of a community dedicated to sharing and discussing and am thankful for all of you joining me!

About the Redesign

What’s new? My goal with the redesign was to create a website that provided entry points to valuable content and conversations in multiple directions; instead of a normal or default blog that just presented the reader with a list of posts, I knew from your feedback that some people are after presentations while others are looking for thought-provoking posts, some want round-ups and others want a chance to start conversations. So, here are some changes that I want to highlight that I hope deliver on that goal:

• Featured Resources: This rotating box at the top of the home page showcases resources that may have previously been buried in the site. I can also add and modify this section as I write more books (that’s motivation for you!) or come across more valuable items to share. For those that want the techie side, this was done using the vSlider plugin.
• Shortened blurbs: The recent blog posts that appear on the home page have been shortened to no longer include the full post, but just an introduction. This is done to allow visitors who don’t click through to a specific post to be able to browse more easily.
• Footer menu: This is the fun stuff! These three columns let visitors dive straight into content they are most interested in, like presentations (notes, information, links and slides), roundups (compilations of interesting content and conversations), and event popular blog posts (this is decided based on blog posts with the most clicks and visits).
• Streamlined sidebar: Now that content is highlighted in multiple ways—via the top navigation, footer columns, and so on—the sidebar is freed up to serve as an entry way to other spaces for continued conversation like facebook and twitter, and even an option to jump to the latest comments on the site.
• Presentations archive: I’m really excited about this part! I’ve transferred content that was previously on static pages into posts. Clicking on 2010 Presentations, for example, now let’s you browse through individual posts for every presentation and speaking engagement from 2010 (so far). The advantage of doing it this way means that you can easily find the conference or presentation you’re interested in, and also means you can leave comments, ask questions and follow up on specific events. NOTE: I’ve only been able to archive 2010 and 20009 so far, but all presentations will be in this format very soon.

There is one last major change still to come, and that is changing the way comments are managed. I’m hoping to move over to Disqus, but Matt and I have run into some issues and are still working with the Disqus team to fix them. This switch will provide you with many more options for following conversations and will also save me a bit of time! As any one who has commented on this site before knows, I reply to every comment via email as well as on the site. Using Disqus will mean you get my reply in one step instead of two!  We are hoping to have this enabled very soon.

About the Process

As part of practicing what I preach, I wanted to recap the process Matt and I used for this redesign to offer to you as just one of the many options for engaging with a designer and a community.

Phase 1: Finding a Designer

For me, I wanted to find a designer that was already part of the community or larger network that I am. This was important to me because I needed someone that was familiar with the kinds of content, types of readers, and so on. I took a very casual approach: called out that I was looking for a designer on Twitter and Facebook. Friends and colleagues pushed my call out to their networks, some responded with personal referrals, and some responded with interest in taking on the work. I checked out the interested designers online, looked at websites they had recently worked on, and looked for someone that seemed to hold the same aesthetic values that I did: clean, honest, content-driven.  That’s how I found Matt!

Phase 2: Identifying Goals, Needs, Direction

After Matt and I emailed to get on the same page about timeline, costs, and expectations, we set up a skype call.  Why skype? This let us use video (as we were on different continents) and feel a bit like we were getting to know a real person and made the relationship more than just transactional.  We discussed my goals, content, community, and approach to the design process. I wanted to have an open process so it was important to me to find a designer that was willing to participate and not just design. I was very happy that Matt was so enthusiastic about the approach.

Phase 3: Community Input

As part of the open, collaborative approach to this redesign, I wanted to engage the readers and contributors in an active way, not just collaborate with the designer. Matt and I discussed the most valuable way to do this, identifying a few themes that would help generate conversation about what works and what doesn’t, but also be helpful in directing to he and I the kinds of changes that may be more important or even necessary.  You can check out the blog post series, as well as all the comments, from this process using the links below:

• Introduction: A collaborative approach
• Input #1: The content you want
• Input #2: Focused on conversation
• Input #3: Adding the extras
• Input #4: Recap and reflections

Phase 4: Building, Testing, Tinkering

After gathering all the input from you, Matt and I put our heads together to be sure we had a list of the most important, and then the “would love to if possible” items.  That’s when he really got to work coming up with the design. His initial draft was very close to what we ultimately have in place now and that was due to his critical listening, lots of conversations and questions, and both of us engaging in the public input phase to really understand the users’ side of the experience.  Once the test site was up, we could play, poke and tinker to get things just right.

Phase 5: Pulling it Together

Once the test site was ready to go, Matt moved everything to the live space. Some things, like Disqus, the rotating banner, and social media links weren’t put in until this stage. The content changes, like the presentations section, weren’t made until this phase either. We did much of this simultaneously, both plugging away at the WordPress admin panel while on skype together. Matt took time to walk me through changes that effected the way posts were created or how I could administer new options, and I worked on content changes.  It was a great way to spend a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon!

Invitation

And here we are – ready to launch! I hope you’ll take this as an invitation to poke around the site, explore, and comment. Please let me know what you think, what you wish was better, and even what you like! I’m really excited to have an updated space to share with you

• winner joins a P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program expedition
• possibility to win $15,000 for your favorite charity that’s working in the front lines of the global water crisis
• every vote for your entry means P&G will donate a day’s worth of clean drinking water (2L) to a person in need in a developing country

The contest runs most of this month, so register your blog today and start rallying supporters to help get donated water to those in need, and join the Children’s Safe Drinking Water expedition!

Learn more about Clean Water Blogivation!

Have you signed up? If so, leave your blog URL below so we can be sure to check out your post and support you!

How this works:

This week, there will be 3 (yes, 3!) blog posts asking for your feedback, each with a specific topic and options. Hopefully that means it’s really easy to weigh in and you’ll give lots of feedback After all, this process is designed to make it easy for you to get even more of what you want from me!

Redesign topic #1: The Content You Want

For today’s topic, I want to talk about the kind of content that is interesting to you and keeps you coming back for more. Figuring that piece out means that Matt and I will be able to highlight content for you, design the site to feature what you’re after, and even help me write more of the interesting stuff! There are two focus areas below and some options for answers – please note there’s an “other” listed for both as I’m sure there are things I haven’t thought to include and hope you’ll feel open to listing them!

Focus: What is the content you come here for most?

• blog posts and conversations
• presentations or speaker slides/notes
• case studies or examples
• other resources (please describe)

Focus: What elements would make content easiest to find?

• search for tags or categories
• search for titles or conferences
• search for organization names or case study topics
• other (please describe)

Please share your responses in the comments – that way others can respond/reply to your feedback as well as leave their own. Matt and I will be both be responding, asking questions, and participating as well! Please share your ideas and feedback!

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Building and Sustaining Strong, Engaged Programs – Part 1 – "What does it take to build real sustainability for the work being done by Community Benefit Organizations? If we were talking about building and sustaining a house instead of an organization, we would instantly know the answer. To sustain for the long term, the house would need strong infrastructure – a strong foundation, roof and bearing walls. However, no matter how strong that infrastructure might be, if the house is to remain strong over time, it will also need people to take care of it. The same holds true for building and sustaining strong, engaged programs."
• Does Nonprofit Consulting = Nonprofit Leadership? | Rosetta Thurman – "Ever since I became a full-time nonprofit consultant, I’ve had a hard time putting myself in that category. And it’s not hard to see why. The title “consultant” can definitely have its negative connotations, especially in Washington, DC where everybody and their mama is a consultant. It doesn’t mean anything without context, but even with explanation behind it, people can look at you sideways at networking events. At conferences, I even notice the body language shift that sometimes happens when an executive director encounters one of us “consultants,” as if our aim is to pick their pockets. Oh my, would you look at the time… Instead, I still think of myself as a nonprofit leader."
• Heye-Tech: Social Media Comments Gone Wild! What to do? – "So in addition to the Air Force Blog Assessment we decided to create a comment escalation flow chart. This is intended to help our social media authors decide what action to take in addition to the reply. We wanted to have a documented process for our employees to use and to find a way to keep our Communications & Risk Management departments in the loop."
• The secret steps to commenting like a rockstar | Heroic Destiny – For all those organizations looking to increase readership and visits to your blog, this is a great read! I always recommend that organizations should spend just as much effort commenting on other blogs as writing on their own. The conversations aren't ONLY on your site, and that's okay! "Read much about blog promotion and you’ll eventually encounter commenting as a strategy to increase your readership. The premise is that people will find your comment valuable and click on your link to visit your site. However, I’ve been using a modified version with great success. Today I’m going to tell you my secret strategy that has brought the majority of my readers to my site."
• 24 tools for fundraising with social media | Socialbrite – Here's a great list of 24 tools for fundraising online – any others that you use that aren't mentioned?
• PEP-NET » Blog Archive » Best methods for undemocratic participation – "We must ensure that the addition or integration of new digital channels does not make existing power structures less socially representative, and if possible, should improve democratic systems, for example by providing voices to people who previously would have struggled to be heard. Mastery of new technologies and ownership of expensive equipment must not become pre-requisites for engagement in e-participation."

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Web Thinking Manifesto | EchoDitto – "Our field is maturing rapidly. The next generation of movement leaders is overcoming its fetish with technology and expertise as secrets to online success. Indeed, now faced with existential challenges from a fast shifting landscape, the time has come for us all to rethink our most deeply held tenets in this struggle to remain relevant. Thankfully, a brave few are trying – and they're finding answers. Looking beyond traditional online strategy, they're fundamentally transforming how they and their organizations work – shifting their entire perspective towards what we call "Web Thinking" – to better reflect the reality of our time. And they're winning. They're charting a path forward for us all."
• film music | mobygratis.com – Are you looking for music to use for free in your nonprofit's video? Well, here's your source! If you want to use it for a commercial production, that's okay: they have an easy license for that as well ("with any money that's generated being given to the humane society.").
• 3 principles for reporters and bloggers in a networked era | Online Journalism Blog – I totally agree that context is just as important as content. "Dina Rickman posed a question to me this week about the role of a reporter in our current networked age. I thought I’d expand on my response, shown above. Depending on your point of view, this is either a draft manifesto for networked journalists and bloggers – or a set of gaps in the market; new scarcities in an age of abundance."
• Zero Strategist – Holistic Social Media, Web Strategy & Innovative Design – Todd has an excellent post about Blog Strategy with insights, examples, and best of all: strategy recommendations! "This is the first in a series of Social Media/Web Strategy Articles that I am going to be writing over the next few months. The first topic is blog strategy. You might be thinking that the blog and blog strategy topic is quite dead and that it is old news. We figured that out years ago right? I would say that it is not dead at all. Rather, it is evolving past a critical turning point right now and is relevant in the evolution of technology for quite a few reasons."
• FourSquare: Novelty or Buzz Worthy? – Online Fundraising, Advocacy, and Social Media – frogloop – Have you heard about FourSquare – maybe you are already the Mayor of some of your local businesses. Allyson Kapin explores whether: "is FourSquare valuable enough to become the next Facebook or Twitter? Should nonprofits take a more serious look at FourSquare and explore ways to leverage it?"