Posted first on the Net Squared blog
The number of people blogging is still growing (just check Technorati for numbers), but the number of organizations starting blogs is rising, too. After enough staff members and volunteers touted the usefulness of blogs for conversation, news, and general transparency, it seems organizations are looking to give blogs a chance. Organizations of all sizes and sectors are utilizing this community building tool. Here are some examples of how far and wide blogs are being used to reach out to the community.
The ARK Adventure is a small organization working to facilitate random acts of kindness and passion in the communities of members/participants.The ARK Adventure Blog provides a space for the organization’s directors/staff to share ideas and ignite conversation about social change and community involvement.
African American Environmentalist Association
AAEA is dedicated to protecting the environment, enhancing human, animal and plant ecologies, promoting the efficient use of natural resources and increasing African American participation in the environmental movement. The AAEnironmental Blog is a great example of a successful organizational blog. It doesn’t get a high number of comments, but it does get some and is providing thoughtful, timely, and important pieces of news, information and commentary to the community. It also makes terrific use of the side bar panel to provide more information, relevant links (like to the organization’s main website), and actions for readers.
Dining for Women empowers women living in extreme poverty by funding programs fostering good health, education, and economic self-sufficiency and cultivates educational dinner circles inspiring individuals to make a difference through the power of collective giving. The DFW Blog covers big questions like sustainable program funding, as well as personal and fun stories like trips and meetups. Members have a valuable contribution to make to this volunteer-driven organization by participating in the blog; you can see this by reading comments to questions posed regarding the organization itself.
The EquityBlog is a project of PolicyLink to help nurture and inspire the nation’s equity movement. It does a good job of providing relevant and fresh content in an engaging way, as well as provide additional resource links for visitors. Keeping the recent comments list at the top of the page encourages visitors to participate right away.
Meyer Memorial Trust is a private foundation serving Oregon and southwest Washington providing general purpose and strategic funding for over 25 years. MMT uses a few different blogs to engage different constiuents and provide tailored pockets of information. Most notably, the MMT Main Blog, which covers organizational updates and sector-wide news, engages nonprofits and other foundations alike in an open and conversational way—just check out the responses to the blog entry discussing what the name ‘non-profit’ means to the sector.
Does your organization have a blog? Who maintains/contributes to it? How does it fit in with other communications, fundraising, or campaign work?
Amy,
The Minnesota Council on Foundations has a blog that features philanthropy and nonprofit news and insight — mostly related to Minnesota, with some national topics of interest. Philanthropy Potluck (http://blog.mcf.org/) is related to our other communications but is updated every day, compared to our e-newsletters (bi-weekly) and website (as needed). Our entire staff is encouraged to post, so we can feature perspectives based on our different roles.
– Crystal Colby
Crystal,
Thanks so much for sharing! I really love the mcf blog; it should have been on the list! Glad that other readers can see your comment and check out the blog as well.
A
Dear Amy,
thank you for mentioning DFW. I am still a novice at the blogging thing. I will continue to improve, but getting a kudo from you is really exciting!
Hey Amy! I hope all is well in London! The Women’s Museum just launched our blog last Friday at thewomensmuseum.blogspot.com. Myself (the marketing assistant), our registrar and our membership manager will all be contributing as we give the readers a behind-the-scenes look into the Museum.
The blog is the anchor of our other social media, which are currently Facebook and Twitter. The blog doesn’t exist to drive donations but to increase awareness – we’re a national history museum but awareness is limited to the Dallas/Forth Worth area.
Thanks, Marsha! I’m happy to include it and enjoy staying tuned to what you all are up to!
Hi Alyssa- I follow you on Twitter! I’m excited to watch your blog grow and see how it helps the Womens Museum’s outreach and communications, especially as far as what feedback/participation there is from the community online. Thanks for mentioning it on the blog for the other readers!
I was looking for information about the usefulness of blogs to non-profits. Your blog looks like it is brimming with the content I was looking for.
Thanks!
Thanks for finding me, Dana! I’m excited to have you join the conversation 🙂
What made you start blogging? What has been the biggest challenge or the biggest surprise?
Looking forward to getting to know you!
On Your Feet Project started its Volunteer Boston blog almost a year ago. The goal of our organization is to attract people aged 18 to 34 to volunteering who are not currently volunteering… so writing just about running a non-profit or volunteer opportunities wasn’t going to be enough. Instead, we blog about all kinds of things ranging from international news to local events or ways to be green. Basically we provide a smattering of information that tends to trend towards “how you can do good.” This allows us to draw in that audience we’re looking for. So far we’ve recruited a few new board members through the blog, but more importantly become regular reading material that serves to remind us all that we’re not passive bystanders, we can be active members of society.
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