The notion that list growth, fundraising and/or advocacy is “a campaign” with a finite start and end date is something of a misnomer. There are rare, exceptional cases where a perfect storm aligns in which a campaign succeeds spectacularly. In these cases when people have a deep personal concern about a policy problem that is covered in the media (or emerging in the media), the marketplace is ripe for a campaign. That personal concern is highly motivating, critical to a campaign and something we think of as the “Do I Care” factor.

When the “Do I Care” of constituents meets with a spectacularly simple, compelling campaign message and call to action, rapid and radical growth is possible. This “perfect storm” is truly for the vast majority of organization.  For most, the break-through campaign is difficult to achieve and not necessarily something that their online marketing strategy should be based. Fortunately, the experiences of the past have taught many organizations that the “online (more…)

With all the talk about Slacktivism going around lately, both pro and con, I was impressed to see it in fine form yesterday, all over Facebook.

Slacktivism is the fine art of one-click activism, and it’s been panned as a way to feel good but accomplish nothing.  But from the time I woke up yesterday to the time I went to bed, I watched this statement grow and spread through my Facebook network, and it didn’t feel like an empty gesture:

No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.

It’s simple, direct, and easy to join in. It got the attention of the White House, for one. I’d be surprised if plenty of Congresspeople didn’t see it, too. But the striking thing to me is that, in a debate that’s been known for anger and misinformation, this simple, positive message spread so fast and far. Where a few people might have spoken out in favor of health care reform of their own accord, this statement had (probably) thousands of people speaking out with a single voice and showing their support for an issue in desperate need of supporters.

I haven’t heard where this effort started – whether it’s the careful plan of an anonymous cause marketer – but I like to think it was a spontaneous, grassroots statement.

As a marketer contemplating the implications, I’ve got a lot of lingering questions about what this means.  How many people posted it?  How far did it spread?  On a closed network like Facebook, it may be impossible to find out.  There’s no signup to track, or link to click – just a plain-text post to your status.

But we can ask about the impact: Did it change the debate? Probably not too much.  Did it get attention? Most definitely. I don’t know whether it spurred dialog or just made a statement – if you have any anecdotes, please share them in the comments!

I, for one, found this to be a very inspiring example – Slacktivism at its best.

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If you think this is cool, here’s one last bit of shameless self-promotion: today is your last day to vote and comment for our panel Can Double-Clicking Change the World? at SXSW and bring together some of the finest minds in the field (including the recent addition of Clay Shirky!) to continue this discussion in Austin.

While it’s not a new term, a few months ago, “slacktivism” became the topic of a firestorm debate among nonprofit advocates, online marketing professionals and social change proponents after a series of media stories including an article by Warren Clements of Toronto’s Globe and Mail, “A slacktivist and his crackberry are seldom parted.” The fire doesn’t seem to be going out any time soon.

While the definition is its own debate topic, most agree that it is the act of doing something that requires very little effort and has only the perceived effect of impact. Or in the words of Urban Dictionary, “the act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem.”

So do “click actions” like signing a petition and becoming a Facebook fan actually make a difference? We want to get the best and brightest in a room at SXSW and go at it. Help us out and vote for our panel “Can Double-Clicking Change The World? Slacktivism 101″, leave a comment and come to SXSW in March to join the debate with Jacob Colker (Co-Founder and CEO of The Extraordinaries), Premal Shah (President of Kiva) and Jason Cooper (Online Coordinator at Kaboom.org).

And in case you’ve missed the debate,  I’ve done some of the reading for you…in the true spirit of slacktivism.

1. “For [Jacob] Colker, the idea of spare-moment do-gooding is ‘transformative.’ He takes the long view of short attention spans…it’s sometimes hard for people to find the right organizations to volunteer for, and it can be equally hard for organizations to capitalize on the various skills that volunteers bring to the table… But microvolunteerism, Colker says, ‘is perfectly suited for the Millennial Generation. They are used to text messaging, MySpace, Facebook, get-in, get-out, instant gratification. For them, going out and cleaning up a park — that’s not necessarily attractive to them…’” – Linton Weeks
2. “Are the publicity gains gained through this greater reliance on new media worth the organizational losses that traditional activists entities are likely to suffer, as ordinary people would begin to turn away from conventional (and proven) forms of activism (demonstrations, sit-ins, confrontation with police, strategic litigation, etc) and embrace more ’slacktivist’ forms, which may be more secure but whose effectiveness is still largely unproven?” – Evgeny Morozov
3. “Sure, each new technology comes with Faustian ambivalence, but even though the Twitter protesters may not have lead to any substantial change (yet), I’d argue that the worldwide attention (and sympathy) for the cause of the Iranian people was significantly enhanced through the hundreds of thousands of Twitterers who used #iranelection (especially given #CNNfail). Was this ad-hoc Twitter community a political movement? Maybe not. But it politicized and generated social power that can instigate political change.” – Tim Leberecht
4. “These groups will need help to find ways to break down their efforts into bite-size pieces while maintaining the thread of connection between these immediate actions and their intended longer term results. And it is exactly these results that are at risk within the micro-environment. It is quite possible that we will become frantically busy doing a lot of change stuff that does make the doers feel great (which is important ) but doesn’t add up to the systemic social change needed in communities. Does busy mean the same thing as impact?’ – Allison Fine
5. “VolunteerMatch is different from slacktivism services because we’re using technology to help nonprofits and volunteers create enduring relationships based on real-world contributions of time and energy (and often skills as well). Whether these contributions are on-the-ground service roles like working in a soup kitchen or reading, or whether they are “virtual” opportunities like providing Web design or grant writing help from home, the support VolunteerMatch volunteers provide can often be measured in sweat rather than clicks or page views.” – Robert Rosenthal
6. “But we have to recognize that just because someone is using social media as a part of their “strategy” does not automatically mean they are using it strategically. There are ways to waste time with campaigns that, in the end, don’t really bring about social change, but there are ways to waste time with direct mail and organizing rallies too. This flaw is not that the tools are ineffective; it’s rather a misuse and missed opportunity by the organization.” – Kristin Ivie
7. The recipe for effective slacktivism is embracing technology to attract and organize mass amounts of people combined with an authentic belief on the part of the slacktivist and action sponsor that it will make an impact, add in a dose of creativity and recognize that a click is part of a portfolio of other actions – numbers, stories, face to face meetings, etc. – both offline and online. Ideally a click action is used as an entry point for new supporters, or supplemental, and that most people engage in many forms of action when they care about an issue. – Ali Cherry

Don’t forget to vote for our SXSW panel “Can Double-Clicking Change The World? Slacktivism 101″.

On a recent vacation to New York, I was able to really take the time to visit the Bronx Zoo and see all the new baby animals in their glory. Normally when I visit the zoo it is for client meetings with the good folks at the Wildlife Conservation Society and I don’t get to see much besides the seals and a few deer on the way to their offices. (Yes there are deer at the zoo.)

Well, visiting the Zoo for real was quite impressive! I’m still wowed by how great it was and I had pretty good expectations having learned about the great work they do. Have you been? If not, the next time you find yourself in New York make it a priority (and be sure to plan your trip on the Web site, which we implemented last year).

If you can’t make it to New York, consider telling your friends and family who do live in New York to make sure they support efforts to keep funds from being cut for the Zoo as New York state deals with its budget shortfalls.

It’s nice to be able to see all the great work our clients do close. This client’s work is just a bit more cuddly than others. Keep up the good work.

Heifer International, Beaconfire, and Forge FX have teamed up to launch Heifer Village: Nepal – an online game that takes players deep into the lives of Nepalese villagers who are striving to overcome poverty and hunger.

Heifer is a non-profit organization that uses an innovative and proven method to reduce poverty and hunger around the world: they give families living in poverty the gift of a goat, chicken, or other farm animal, along with training in sustainable farming practices. Heifer’s gift recipients use their animal’s milk, eggs, and other products to feed and clothe their families, and can sell the extra to support themselves financially. Our goal with this game is to educate players about Heifer’s unique approach to ending hunger and poverty.

But your goal is to stay alive! You’ll put yourself in the shoes of a 12 year old Nepalese girl whose village is struggling with poverty. You’ll go on a series of missions to seek out life’s necessities — starting with firewood in an area that has seen extensive deforestation. The challenges you’ll face mirror those that Heifer’s real-life partners in Nepal deal with every day.

The game is in beta – which means it’s fully playable but we’re still tweaking it and working out rough spots. We’d love your help in making this game the best it can be. We hope you’ll visit www.heifervillage.org/nepal and try it out. After you’ve played it, we’d love to know what you think. Please leave a comment on this blog post to let us know:

• Did you have any problems getting started?
• Did you know what to do?
• Did the controls make sense?
• Could you find your way around?
• Were you able to complete the missions you received? How difficult was it?
• Was it fun?

We’ll use your feedback to help us as we plan the final version of the game.

Thank you, and enjoy!

On November 4th, 2009 Obama the candidate became Obama the President-elect. True believers, we called this a watershed moment in U.S history, change we can believe in, even called it a miracle. But for those of us in the design world, we recognized it as something no less significant: The complete success of Obama the Brand.

I’d like to say I was prescient enough to know Obama would emerge victorious the second I saw his campaign’s logo, but you would call me a black-turtleneck-wearing-
abstinithe-sipping-the-revolution-will-be-designed-hippie.

But I really did.

Why? Because short of the ubiquitous American brands of our generation (Coke, Harley Davidson, Nike, Chevrolet) there has not been one as seamlessly versatile, and consistently leveraged without breaking a sweat, as the O.

Much has been said about the unique choice of font (Yay, Gotham) and the multi-channel appeal to a variety of audiences, but I propose one more reason for it’s success: The unspoken sense of hope the “Obama rising” visual has conveyed to a world thirsty for inspiration. When a brand becomes more than just a graphic, but invokes a sense of “what could be if you just believe”, there is truly no stopping it.

Anyone who’s worked for Congress has stories about the goofy and sometimes contradictory rules imposed by the various ethics committees and rules. These rules are almost universally outdated, a result of governing bodies that have the unenviable role of policing themselves, and inertia is a powerful force in keeping things from being changed.

The latest casualty of these archaic rules is the twitter feed of Representative John Culberson, a Republican(?!). Culbertson won some notoriety as he suggested that a letter sent by the Committee on House Administration (pdf) implied that,

They want to require prior approval of all posts to any public social media/internet/www site by any member of Congress!!!

Now, while few Members of Congress generally express themselves with three exclamation points, this is really his Twitter feed – in his capacity as “Most Connected Congressman,” Culbertson uses an impressive array of interactive web tools, to communicate (h/t for most of the info in the previous paragraphs to Personal Democracy Forum and the Sunlight Foundation, who’ve been providing continuing coverage of this issue).

For my part, I think that it’s time we modernized the rules that govern Congressional use of the internet, for reasons I’ll go into below the fold…

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National Parks Conservation Association just launched an innovative campaign to expand America’s parklands called “FOR SALE: America’s Heritage.” The focus for the campaign is the recent report by NPCA – “America’s Heritage for Sale” – which identifies substantial tracks of land within national park boundaries that could fall prey to real estate developers if the governments does not approve the funds to purchase the land.

The Beaconfire team’s created a Google mashup using data from NPCA on park boundaries and the land within those boundaries that is vulnerable to development. The map lets constituents visualize the land at risk which heightens the understanding of the dangers to our parks. You can zoom around the map to see the parks across the country, zoom in on a park and area of the land threatened. If you’re not into panning and zooming, just pick a park from the drop down to go directly to it.

If you click on a pin or region, you can learn about the affected area and how cheap it would be for the government to buy the land — to buy the land in the top 10 parks is a mere $50 million.

After checking out the map to see some parks in peril, you can sign the petition to tell Congress to approve the cash the National Park service needs. The Google Map displays in a native Convio advocacy campaign page. You can tell your friends about the map or become an NPCA member, since the more members they have, the more Congress will listen. You can also Digg the map and petition (http://digg.com/environment/McMansions_in_National_Parks or share it with your friends on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://ga1.org/campaign/lwcf).

Congrats to the NPCA team for their great work on their report and to the Beaconfire team for an innovative representation of what’s at stake in America’s parks!

Recently, a charity called Living Streets dedicated to making cities more pedestrian-friendly, wrapped London’s Brick Lane lamp posts in football-esque bumpers to protect texting pedestrians from injury. Though the publicity stunt lasted a mere 24 hours, the effort highlighted what most of us already know: that people are addicted to being connected, even while walking.

A recent study by PEW found that more than roughly 6 in 10 American cell phone users text message. It’s no wonder that everyone from Presidential campaigns to police officers to WalMart to nonprofit causes (highlighted by MobileActive.org) seek to leverage the popularity of text messaging.

1. The mobile audience is wide and deep: Worldwide, more people have access to and use of mobile phones than the Internet. As Ethan Zuckerman of TechSoup points out, “The only technology that compares to the mobile phone in terms of pervasiveness and accessibility in the developing world is the radio.” Given the penetration, personalization and simplicity of mobile devices, there is no better tool to reach both wealthy individuals and underserved populations. In addition, you can activate young, tech savvy people using the communications channel that makes the most sense to them.
2. Simple is superior: I may be biased given my blog style is list format, but people like byte-sized – and actionable – information. In an information economy, it’s easy to be overwhelmed with the breadth of accessible knowledge. Communicating with individuals via the limited 160 characters in a text message requires the messenger to cut the window dressing and deliver messages that are simple, clear and clever to make an impact. To educate and motivate, it’s all about the words themselves (which is great since haikus are so cool).
3. Reach people where and when they matter: All politics are local and all advocacy is timely. When someone is checking email at 10pm after a long day of work, sending a letter to an elected official may be overdue. With text messaging, you can give people a specific address of a place to be, a direct action to take or short talking points while they are in a meeting or at an event so they can act on it when it actually matters. However, this means the action must be real and serious not just a faux-urgent engagement effort. The technique also allows you to reach people when their emotional senses are heightened before they lose their enthusiasm (or anger) about an issue.
4. Penetrate the “Circle of Trust”: While studies show that people will offer up their email address for almost anything, cell phone numbers remain relatively protected, both by the individual and the mobile service providers. Therefore, if your supporters give you their cell to reach them on their most personal device, you can assume you’re in the circle of trust and that your message will be read. The key is to maintain that level of trust through infrequent, authentic and relevant subsequent messages. Mobile communications elevates the level of accountability for all campaigns and requires listening to what supporters want.
5. Another spoke on the wheel of integration: Continuing to blur the lines of offline and online, text messaging allows marketers to both capture and measure the success of offline events and print advertising like never before. Supporters can text from an ad they’ve seen or post on a website a photo or podcast they record from an event. A mobile strategy is another tool to use in conjunction with traditional advertising and media, online marketing and in-person events but should not just replicate what’s being said through other channels.
6. Experimentation is expected: Because it’s still a relatively new channel, text messaging campaigns leave a lot of room for trial and error and users expect it. Advocacy organizations and corporations alike can promote their “products” in innovative ways that push the interactive brand experience envelope. Successful campaigns will think about marketing as two-way conversation and not just another medium to push an agenda.

Google Maps is a free web mapping service application that allows developers to create “mashups” with other data and embed the map on third-party websites via the Google Maps API.

Tons of groups and individuals have come up with some really interesting map tools that display everything from American Idol contestants” hometowns to localized crime data. The best part about the Google Maps, compared to its competitors, is the high level of user interactivity that allows you to drag the map and double click to zoom (by performing asynchronous network requests using Ajax so grid squares are downloaded from the server and inserted into the page). While you can translate almost any data points into a map, the keys to a successful mashup are simple: a map should make the data more useful or relevant and there should be multiple data points that, ideally, can build over time with user input (i.e. the Seven Wonders of the World map falls a little flat).

Here are some examples of interesting Google Map mashups, including one that Beaconfire built, to show the breadth of what can be done (and what we can help you do!).

1. NetDoc.com: This mash-up shows hospitals around your zip code and their performance on major standards of care measures (Heart Attacks, Heart Failure, Pneumonia, and Surgical Infection Prevention) set out by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
2. We’ve all heard it: Location, location, location – the most important thing when it comes to real estate. Housing Maps is a marriage of Craigslist and Google Maps makes it easier to search for housing based on neighborhood preference and also makes it easy to search by pictures, price, number of bedrooms, city and date posted.
3. Ironic San’s Guide to Ghostbusters: Photographer David Friedman was apparently just playing around when he developed this virtual tour of the filming locations of the classic Ghostbusters.
4. Campaign Tracker: The Washington Post’s Presidential Campaign Tracker “uses information from campaigns, media reports and other sources to compile a listing of events involving presidential candidates and their spouses.”
5. This virtual protest map (which is a replica of one that Beaconfire built for a client) is a great example of how to use Google Maps for online organizing, advocacy and supporter engagement. The message was “Join the online march. Pick your sign. Get it on the map.” helping supporters see how they connect with other people standing up for the cause.
6. Like the Ghostbuster map that is a virtual tour of a movie, BibleMap.org facilitates a virtual tour of a book, The Bible. Interesting concept though I had trouble finding a book and chapter that actually had points on the map. If you want to explore it yourself, try Genesis chapter 13.
7. Unfortunately only available in the UK, Bar Crawl allows you to pick your area, rank of the bars you’re interested in going to and how many you want and it will plot out a pub crawl on a map for you, complete with address and phone number of each. An Americanized version Pub Walk doesn’t appear to be as good, mostly because I live here so know they are missing a whole lot of local bars.
8. With the tagline “Make it personal. Explore options. Find Providers,” The Funeral Site map tool is done by the national registry of American Funeral Homes. I am fortunate to have no use for this one but I imagine in a time of need, this is more useful than a phone book.
9. Washington Post’s Local Explorer: On this map you can search for practically anything in a DC-area neighborhood: crime, schools, places of worship, post offices, gas stations, metro stations, you name it. I’m not sure if there are maps like this for other cities but it’s quite comprehensive and useful.
10. Safe2Pee.org is a resource where people who do not feel comfortable with traditional public restrooms can find safe alternatives. It is part of a larger advocacy and research project tackling gender free, inclusive bathrooms and another good example of a public policy issue being addressed using Google Maps.
11. GolfFinder.net and CaddyMap.com are perfect examples of how a mashup is only as good as the data in it. I looked at six separate golf course locator tools and these had more than twice as many points on the map for the DC area, though I still can’t figure out from the two which is better.
12. Though definitely not the most attractive mashup, Hurricane Information Map is a concept well worth highlighting. It is “intended for the use by people affected by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita who have or are trying to find information about the status of specific locations affected by the storm and its aftermath.”
13. MapSkip: Launched in August 2007, this tool “makes the world a canvas for our stories and photos” and is very well done (and my personal favorite). Though they have only collected 200 stories so far, their mission is to “create a weave of stories about the places in our lives” because “…many of our stories are about places. Where we fell in love, had the dream vacation, took that great picture or, well, joined the rebellion.”
14. BookWormz, Starbucks Finder, GymPost, Bank Anywhere and Gawker Stalker can help you find your local bookstore, Starbucks, gym, bank and celebrity respectively.
15. Despite all the useful things you can do with mashups, I found a handful of odd but amusing maps that I’ve lumped together to share: “If I walk in a straight line around the world, where will I pass?”, If the Earth were a sandwich?, Who is sick?, and OurDumbWorld

For more, check out NetSquared, Google Maps Mania blog or this website.

In my family, annual holiday cards have always been greatly anticipated. When I arrive at my parents�?? home for Christmas, one of the first things I do is find the card basket (we keep all of the cards together in a basket) and settle in to �??catch up.�?� I read letters about friends and families from my childhood and see pictures of their children and learn of their accomplishments throughout the year. For some, it�??s the only time of year we hear from each other, but it�??s a tradition that goes back years.

As I look to buy my own cards for this season, I wondered what type of cards I might get that would allow me to connect with friends and family over the holidays, and to share a little about myself by promoting and supporting a cause in which I believe.

Many nonprofit organizations sell cards directly and there are also Web sites where you can buy cards and select a nonprofit to receive a portion of the purchase price (usually 10%-20%).

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The White House is famous for hiding unpopular policy announcements on Fridays when no one is paying attention. In this holiday week, it looks like two major developments are going on at Facebook that could see ramifications going far into the future, but which were probably scheduled to coincide with universities’ Thanksgiving break.

The first is the launch and response to Facebook Beacon (no relation to us, or so they would probably claim). Beacon integrates your site with Facebook and posts messages to your feed to say that you interacted with that site, so hopefully your friends will as well. The catch?

That it pops up a little notifier in the bottom right of the screen, telling you that a story will be posted on your feed unless you opt out within a few seconds. This bug already exists on such sites as Blockbuster and Fandango, and MoveOn has a quick demonstration of how it works right here.

More on the reaction, as well as a more positive new change, below the fold…

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Facebook says their newly launched Social Ads will help you ‘reach the exact audience you want with targeted relevant ads.’ I’ve been toying around with this the last couple days and think Social ads are definitely worth a closer look. The ads come together in four easy steps.  This is how it works…

Get Started - You select whether your ad will direct to a Facebook page or your organization / campaign website.

Chose Audience – Determine who you want to reach.  Rich segmentation opportunities abound.  You can chose to reach out to Facebook users by several key parameters such as geographic location (down to city-level), gender, age, education (including schools attended), interests and political views.

As you manipulate the criteria within the Chose Audience Screen, the number of individuals your ad is targeted to reach adjusts in real-time.

Create Ad - Create a title, drop in some ad copy and upload an image.

Set Budget - Ads are pay as you go for the duration of your campaign. You set a daily budget and bid on placement by impression or click.

The payment minimums are around $5 / day the ad runs and the scenario goes like this…

For any available ad inventory, Facebook selects the best ad to run based on the cost per click or impression and ad performance.

If you choose a Pay for Clicks (CPC) model, you will also bid on how much you are willing to pay for each click on your ad. Facebook will display your ad in the Ad Space, News Feed, or both. The amount you are charged will never exceed your daily budget.

If you choose a Pay for Views (CPM) model, you will also bid on how much you are willing to pay for every thousand impressions of your ad. You will need to select if you want your ad to appear in News Feed or the Ad Space. The amount you are charged will never exceed your daily budget.

And then you launch. PRESTO!

You can find the link to Facebook Social Ads in the footer under Advertisers. When you try it out, let me know how it goes.

OMB Watch has released a report called How Nonprofits Helped America Vote: 2006 which “describes nonprofits’ electoral engagement during the 2006 election and their preparation for upcoming elections.”

The report, which is only 16 pages long, briefly describes some of the actions non-profits took on behalf of voters and voter rights across the county, and then summarizes the types of actions non-profits can take to help ensure fair elections in 2008:

In summary, nonprofits can ensure the integrity of our elections by:

1. Registering voters
   Voter registration is a common non-partisan activity for nonprofits than can make a big difference on Election Day.
2. Prepare voters for election day
   Getting voters prepared for Election Day will minimize confusion and disenfranchisement at the polls.
3. Get-out-the-vote (GOTV)
   Nonprofits can legally engage in get-out-the-vote activities that can have a real impact on voter turnout on Election Day because of the special relationship nonprofits have with many disengaged voters
4. Educate voters on candidates and ballot measures
   While nonprofits cannot work on behalf of or against candidates, there are a number of voter education activities they can legally engage in to ensure voters are fully informed when they cast their ballots.
5. Recruit poll workers and election day observers
   Skilled poll workers are in demand and nonprofits can help the democratic process by being a part of poll worker recruitment.
6. Debunk the myth of voter fraud
   Voter fraud �?? purposeful corruption of the election process by voters �?? is rare. Claims of voter fraud are used to promote laws that restrict voting. Nonprofits can raise awareness that voter fraud is a myth.
7. Fight voter suppression
   Nonprofits are leading the charge to protect voters�?? rights and the integrity of the electoral process. State and local groups have partnered with national organizations to challenge new laws and regulations that inhibit peoples�?? ability to register and vote.
8. Protect the integrity of elections
   Ensure the vote of every citizen is counted by advocating for reliable voting technologies that produce paper records and can easily be audited, as well as lobbying state and local governments to comply with all of the regulations in the Help America Vote Act.

Direct link to the Report (318K PDF)

Step right up! Place your bids on this fine movie poster, 90% of the proceeds go to Beaconfire client and (generally fine folks) the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation! No need to click over to eBay and navigate through their system, you can place your bid right here on Beaconfire’s blog!

That’s right — online auction powerhouse eBay has jumped into the widget game, making it possible for anyone with a blog or website page to run eBay transactions right off their website. That’s a fundraising opportunity for nonprofits, many of which have struggled to alert their supporters to their auctions. It’s also a PR opportunity for the clever ones. Offer something provocative for sale and see if the blogosphere buzzes about it!

Of course, this new service debuted today, so it’s all potential and no track record. But, it’s another piece of evidence that regular folks with websites can do a lot more for the nonprofit organizations they support than click yes on canned action alert language or punch their credit card into a donation form.

Hat tip to Techcrunch for breaking this interesting news.

Beaconfire’s constantly thinking about new technologies and techniques for outreach to our client’s advocates, donors, volunteers, staff, etc. Typically, though, we’re focussing on real-world consitutents. I must admit I haven’t given much thought, until today, about outreach to virtual constituents. An eye opening blog posting by Nedra Weinreich changed that. Nedra posts her interview with John Anderton, who is responsible for bringing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to Second Life (the virtual world with nearly 5 million “residents”). What are other nonprofits doing in Second Life?

• American Cancer Society raised $40,000 with a virtual walk-a-thon in Second Life.
• Friends of the Urban Forest allows you to plant a virtual tree to help their program to plant real trees in San Francisio.
• Commonwealth Island in Second Life consists of a “rugged, coniferous island housing several nonprofits, including Greenpeace and ACLU”
• There’s an education campaign to help end the genocide in Darfur in “Camp Darfur”.

Second Life has a very helpful Non-Profits Wiki page with all sorts of resources that are just begging to be explored. (I can feel it sucking me in…) And TechSoup has an interesting interview with 3 nonprofits (Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York, Global Kids, and Amoration) who are all operating in Second Live. So much to learn, so little time…

This New York Times editorial is a must-read for all online activists. Thomas Friedman writes about Environmental Defense and NRDC’s success in using online tools & techniques to fight TXU (big Texas power company) from building 11 “coal-fired, CO2-belching power plants”. Through the use of a campaign Web site with email newsletters, the partners were able to turn a local energy issue into a global environmental issue and gain a seat at the table to help TXU restructure its plans. Not only is it a facinating case study, but we all owe Environmental Defense and NRDC our gratitude. TXU “agreed to cut the number of new TXU coal plants from 11 to 3, to support a U.S. cap on greenhouse gas emissions and to commit TXU to plowing $400 million into energy-efficiency programs and doubling its purchase of wind power.” That’s a win for all of us. To read the editorial, you must have a “Times Select” subscription. Or here’s a link to a reprint on the free Pasadena Star News.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both helped legitimize online social networking for serious purposes by baking collaborative opportunities into the core of their campaign — inviting supporters to friend-raise, fundraise, and even express themselves in their own words under the candidate’s banner.

There’s a sharp partisan divide over the wisdom of all this, it seems. Pete Cashmore is reporting over on Mashable that Illinois State Senator Matt Murphy (R-27, Palatine) is seeking to flat out ban social networking sites in libraries, schools, etc… This move comes on the heels of Ted “Tubes” Stevens related efforts in DC. I doubt either of these gentlemen will be mimicking Obama and Clinton’s campaign strategies for the 08 elections.

So Republicans, I’m not sure what you have against online social networking, but here’s a proposition for you. You keep Fox News and Druge Report, and leave YouTube and all those other undisciplined social networking sites to the Democrats. Each party competes for the hearts and minds of the voters in their respective channels — and the winner get Congress and the White House.

Sound good? Now check out the traffic trends (Hat tip: Alexa) below. Still sound good?

You may have heard about the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) recent approval of the AT&T-BellSouth merger. One of the conditions that the FCC placed on the meger was guaranteed net neutrality on its broadband service for the next two years. Net Neutrality refers to the battle against charging Web site owners extra for high-speed delivery and preserving the ability (the right) for equal access to even the smallest Web site. It’s the big telecom companies (AT&T, TimeWarner, Comcast, etc.) who are pushing for a tiered pricing system that will enable those who can pay to make their sites as fast as possible. You can learn more about Net Neutrality at www.savetheinternet.com and about the AT&T-BellSouth story at
www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1028_3-6146678.html.

The blogosphere is abuzz this week with rumors that Microsoft will debut the its Internet Explorer 7 in the coming days or weeks. What’s significant is that some insiders now believe that Microsoft will "push" IE7 as an update to the current browser, effectively foisting it on current IE users rather than waiting for consumers to replace their computers or upgrade to the long awaited Vista operating system.

So what would it mean for nonprofit organizations if large numbers of their supporters suddently migrate to IE7? Quite a bit. The new Internet Explorer includes a native feed reader, and its debut will expose to this communications channel for the first time.

The move comes at a time it is becoming an increasingly uphill battle to successfully deliver emails to supporters and get them to open them. Once the general Internet using public becomes accustomed to subscribing to feeds, it is likely that they will demand that nonprofit organizations offer enewsletters and other communication activities on this more secure channel.

This will be a mixed blessing for nonprofit organizations that have worked hard to build large email lists of donors and activists. Nonprofits will enjoy the ease of delivering audio and video to their supporters via feeds, and feeds enhance other online collaboration tools like wikis, blogs, and social networking sites. On the other hand, consumers will be attracted to the higher degree of privacy and security that feeds offer and it may become even harder for nonprofits to determine who is supporting them and track their activities.

We’ll be watching these developments very closely!