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).

• Vivanista Hosts Question Session « Vivanista | Living Well. Doing Good. – "Have you ever wanted to ask a fundraising expert a question you just can’t get your arms around? Like ‘how many times can I invite my Facebook friends to a fundraising event before it’s considered spam?’ Or ‘do I really need spend the money for a back-up venue if my outdoor event falls on a date that it rarely rains?’ Well, now’s your chance! Starting  August 5th Layne Gray, Vivanista Founder, is going to answer 3 questions per week – submitted by you, and reply directly via video response. Ask her anything (it should probably relate in some way to fundraising or Vivanista, although she’ll most likely answer any questions about pugs whether you ask her or not). If she can’t answer it she’ll find an expert who can!"
• Facebook gets into texting game with Facebook Messenger — Tech News and Analysis – "Facebook has already started to supplant traditional email providers as a dominant way that people communicate online. And now the social networking giant is poised to delve even deeper into users’ messaging activity with a new mobile app with SMS-like functionality."
• KnowHow’s impact — Knowhow Nonprofit – Here's a great example of how you can reinvent the way your organization reports it's impact! And it doesn't have to cost a ton: this video is made with basic tools that are free to use. Have you made a video like this? Would love to see your other examples of annual reports that break the mold!
• Wikipedia Rolling Out Article Rating System – What Do You Think? – "Love it or hate it, you can't say Wikipedia is slow to innovate. The giant encyclopedia site announced this weekend that it will now roll-out site-wide an article rating system that allows page visitors to rate an entry on a scale of 1 to 5 on trustworthiness, objectivity, completeness and quality of writing. Article raters have the option of self-identifying as a subject matter expert for whatever article they rate."
• The Social Website: Integrating Social Media into Website Design and Function | NTEN – "If you're considering revamping your website to include social elements like the Facebook Like button, streaming from YouTube, or adding information from a social site through its API, it can be overwhelming to know where to begin. There are many ways to “get social,” and so many reasons for doing so. Primarily, it's about creating a fundamentally engaging experience for the website visitor that brings them closer to your organization."

Location: Phone & online chat

Topic: Questions, conversation and ideas about communications for nonprofits

Description:  This month’s Communications Roundtable focuses on communications struggles, lessons, and best practices for working internationally. Movement building, campaigning, and scaling programs and services across regions, borders, and countries is incredibly important to making lasting social impact. Bit it also comes with very real obstacles for communication: from translation and language barriers to cultural differences that may impact your programs or reception of your services.

Related Links:

• NTEN Roundtables
  

Location: Phone & online chat

Topic: Questions, conversation and ideas about communications for nonprofits

Description:  This month’s Communications Roundtable focuses on all those messages, appeals and campaigns that stack up this time of the year. What’s appropriate, when to send, and what works? How to use holiday-related language, which stories to highlight, how to encourage the community to action when it is a cold and busy season?  This is an opportunity for you highlight your work as well as get feedback from others about end of year actions. Join me with your questions and your examples to share!

Related Links:

• NTEN Roundtables
  

Location: Portland, OR, USA

Topic: Strategic Communications

Description: I’m really excited to attend the Portland Camp as part of the NetSquared Camps Pilot!  I’ll be helping lead a discussion on social media and communications strategy.

Related Links:

• Portland Camp details
• Wiki and notes

In Ben’s words:

CharityComms 2020 is a presentation where key figures in charity communications have teamed up to produce a snapshot of the most significant communications trends of the coming decade.

Contributors come from a wide range of well known charities, including Amnesty International, Macmillan Cancer Support, UNICEF, Friends of the Earth, The Scout Association, and many more. There’s also a group of well known influential thinkers who have contributed, including Jonathan Waddingham at JustGiving, Rachel Beer at beautiful world, Steve Bridger and Amy Sample Ward.

I’m flattered to see the quality of contributors that we’ve brought together for this initiative and hope you see this reflected in the quality of the ideas, insights and inspiration contained in the presentation.

Ben asked me to participate in this very fun and insightful project to highlight and share our views of the top 5 trends for the next decade for technology and social media that will impact charity communications. What were my ideas?

• co-creation – of services, programs, campaigns
• flatter processes – less hierarchy in organizations, fewer steps in finding information and services
• portability – moving to the cloud; conversations and content moves seamlessly across platforms
• privacy and ownership – creative commons and other licensing can’t support all the rules and options we’ll need for the content we’re creating and wanting to won
• personalization – the more we create and the more we share, the more we expect to shape how we receive and browse

Check out the ideas from everyone that participated – each contributor has a slide in the below show:

Your Invitation

You’re invited to add your own five trends and an accompanying image to the presentation by sending Ben an email and he’ll update as further submissions are received.

What are your five trends you see affecting charity communications in the next 10 years?

Join the conversation by using #cc2020 on Twitter!

Location: global – ReadyTalk conferencing

Topic: The goal is to create an open space to talk about the issues that face us in our work and hopefully, to solve current challenges!

Description: You ever have one of those moments where you thought, “Man, if I just had someone to compare notes with, my life would be easier!”? Well, welcome to your life, easier!  Once a month, we’ll host a call and online chat just for Communications Staff like you. You set the agenda, and we discuss exactly what’s on your mind. You’ll get the advice and support you need in your work. Better yet, you’ll build a community of peers you can turn to anytime you need them!

Related Links:

• Learn more and register on the NTEN site
• Roundtable calendar

Location: global – ReadyTalk conferencing

Topic: The goal is to create an open space to talk about the issues that face us in our work and hopefully, to solve current challenges!

Description: You ever have one of those moments where you thought, “Man, if I just had someone to compare notes with, my life would be easier!”? Well, welcome to your life, easier!  Once a month, we’ll host a call and online chat just for Communications Staff like you. You set the agenda, and we discuss exactly what’s on your mind. You’ll get the advice and support you need in your work. Better yet, you’ll build a community of peers you can turn to anytime you need them!

Related Links:

• Learn more and register on the NTEN site

“Nonprofit marketers say their key messages are failing to connect with the people who need to hear them and that is a serious problem.  The way nonprofits talk about themselves to the public is a core competency critical to any organization’s success. The bad news is that most nonprofits admittedly are doing a very poor job, despite a great deal of effort. The good news is that fixing the problem is highly do-able and promises vastly greater success than they are experiencing now.”

The survey results included:

Most Nonprofit Messages Don’t Connect Strongly with Key Audiences:
Eighty-four percent of 915 nonprofit leaders who completed the survey last month said their messages connect with their target audiences only somewhat or not at all. Respondents represented organizations of all size, issue focus and geographical location.

Behind the Disconnect—86% of Nonprofits Characterize Their Messages as Difficult to Remember:
Most nonprofits report that their messaging suffers from lack of inspiration (73%) and poor targeting to audience wants and needs (70%), and is difficult to remember (86%). Few communicators laud their messaging for its strengths: Only 13% of organizations characterize messaging as cogent while 8% describe their messaging as potent.

Here are some comments from survey participants explaining why their messages fail to connect:

• “Our messages need to be more succinct to communicate how effective we really are.”
• “We don’t move our base to action.”
• “We have individual elements that are OK solo, but no unified path.”
• “Our messages aren’t hard-hitting or targeted enough. So they fall flat.”
• “We need to shape messages that are simple enough for staff to remember and feel comfortable in repeating it to others.”
• “Too much jargon. I can’t even understand what we’re saying.”

Inconsistency Reigns, Leaving Confusion and Annoyance in Its Path:
Less than 50% of nonprofits report consistent use of their positioning (organizational tagline, positioning statement and talking points). That means that even though most organizations have taken the effort to craft messages, those messages aren’t used consistently across channels (website, direct mail, email), audiences or programs.

More information and complete survey results, plus specific recommendations on how nonprofits can start to immediately improve key messaging, are available at:
http://nancyschwartz.com/articles/index.php/messaging-crisis-for-nonprofits/

Location: global – ReadyTalk conferencing

Topic: The goal is to create an open space to talk about the issues that face us in our work and hopefully, to solve current challenges!

Description: You ever have one of those moments where you thought, “Man, if I just had someone to compare notes with, my life would be easier!”? Well, welcome to your life, easier!  Once a month, we’ll host a call and online chat just for Communications Staff like you. You set the agenda, and we discuss exactly what’s on your mind. You’ll get the advice and support you need in your work. Better yet, you’ll build a community of peers you can turn to anytime you need them!

Related Links:

• Learn more and register on the NTEN site