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Editor’s  note: Periodically, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. With so many social networks out there, every one appeals to a different audience. This week, we thought we’d ask: Which social networks do you have a profile in?

Eve, Creative Director: Facebook, Linked in, and Dogster

Lynn, Principal Consultant: Facebook and LinkedIn

Jeff, Principal Consultant: Facebook (more lurker than active but have over 100 friends), LinkedIN (I use this quite a bit for connecting with former colleagues, partners  and even for recruiting), Terrapin Alumni Network (have profile but found few of my college classmates were on yet. It was early after its launch so worth another look), and MySpace (I believe I have a profile but haven’t used it but once).

Michael, Principal Consultant: The active ones are LinkedIn & Facebook for me.

Kate, Administrative Assistant: I currently use Facebook regularly, after having canceled my Myspace profile a few months ago. I also have a random smattering of profiles on blogs and other things that may tangentially be considered “social networks,” but they’re ill used, so I’ll leave them out.

Andrew, Project Manager: Facebook and LinkedIn

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: I’m on Facebook every day, Flickr once a week, LinkedIn once a month, and Twitter when I go to conferences and such as a way to micro-blog. I was really pulling for Essembly to make it, but it never got anywhere.

Taylor, Software Engineer: I only use Facebook.  When it first opened up I was attracted to its privacy settings and it seemed much more reputable than myspace.  As it has loosened up, i.e.:

• Opening fb up to users under the age of 18
• Allowing external developers to design their own applications,
• Adding the ability for external sites to send feeds about your actions to your fb profile,

I have considered ending my account, but what it boils down to in my mind is that if you are careful and stay informed about your privacy settings and how they change then fb is a fairly secure place to be.  It is also an incredible networking, information sharing and social media tool.

Tim, Functional Consultant: In order from most used to least:

• Facebook
• Shelfari
• MySpace
• LinkedIn
• Flickr
• Twitter

Erika, Operations Manager: I use LinkedIn.  It’s not only a great way to keep in touch with former colleagues, but it’s also a useful recruiting tool.  It enables me to post job openings for Beaconfire and send them out through my network (or post directly to the entire LinkedIn network).  Personal referrals are still the best way to find a job and, from a recruiting standpoint, it’s always better to find candidates who are recommended by people you know and trust.  It reminds me of the old shampoo commercials…”you tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on…” 

Brad, Functional Consultant: Actually use: Facebook, LinkedIn. Have but don’t use: MySpace, Friendster, Yahoo Mash, Twitter (might use Twitter more). Also, it’s not a social network exactly, but I use Highrise to manage my contacts

Ali, Marketing Consultant: Amazon, LinkedIn, Facebook, Delicious are my four big ones.

Elizabeth, Senior Consultant: I use Facebook and Linkedin pretty extensively.  ASAE has started their own internal social networking feature, and I’m cooperating, but I think the horse may have already bolted on that one (there are multiple ASAE and association groups on both FB and Linked).  I joined Naymz because several people asked me to, but I never use it.  And the DC Rollergirls are all on MySpace, so I keep up with derby news there, but I don’t have a profile set up.

Mark, Functional Consultant: Here are mine…

• Yahoo groups
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Linked In
• Flickr

Marissa, Functional Consultant: I’m in Facebook and Goodreads, though I use Goodreads more as a place to maintain the list of books I want to read, rather than a social network.

Kristin, Project Manager: Linked in, Facebook, Yahoo Groups

With new social networks popping up every day, this is bound to increase. In case you’re keeping score at home, of the 16 Beaconfire employees who answered, 15 included Facebook and 12 included LinkedIn!

Editor’s  note: Periodically, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. All of us Beaconfire are civic-minded, volunteering and donating to a wide range of non-profit organizations. This week, we thought we’d ask: What non-profit organization would you want to work with and why?

Kesah, Client Manager: I would love to have the opportunity to work with the Tipitina’s Foundation.  They provide support for Louisiana’s music community and strive to preserve  the state’s musical culture.  After Hurricane Katrina they were quick to respond to the needs of New Orleans’ displaced musicians and continue to help in the rebuilding effort.  Their Music Office Co-ops provide technical resources and training for local artists.  This organization supports New Orleans, music, and technology, all things I am passionate about.

Tim, Functional Consultant: I’d love for Beaconfire to be working with a LGBT advocacy organization like the Human Rights Campaign.  They are a great organization who seem commited to online advocacy and put a lot of energy into furthering debate on issues of concern to the LGBT community.  They use Convio for their campaigns, and given the issues they are concerned with, it seems like they would be a great fit with Beaconfire.

Marissa, Functional Consultant: I would love to work with True Majority. I love their mission, I love Ben Cohen’s ice cream, and I love their Oreo cookie piece. True Majority gives progressive activism a sense of humor backed by logic and facts. I’ve been carrying around the True Majority Scroll Pen for years.

Kate, Administrative Assistant: I would like to work with RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network,) because I very much admire their work, and because I think that their online crisis hotline is a very innovative use of technology. It can be very daunting for a survivor of sexual assault to pick up the phone and talk about it with someone they’ve never met, and RAINN has addressed this with a way for survivors to get the information they need from a real live person via secure IM. Personally, I don’t even order pizza delivery from anyone who doesn’t have an online ordering option, as I find the phone call far too daunting.  With this in mind, I have no problem believing that far more people will be accessing RAINN’s counselors than before.

Milo, Marketing Consultant: I’d love to work with a client who’s completely native to the Web (like Kiva, Moveon.org, Google.org, etc.).  These organizations are comfortable in the online environment and like to bush the medium’s boundaries. As a result, they’re consistently breaking new ground in the online campaigning space.

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: I’d love to work with Americans for the Arts – they’ve got a great mission, a constituency that would be fun to market to online, and a trusted national brand. It would also be nice to get some use of my arts admin degree again!

Taylor, Software Engineer: I would love to work with Habitat for Humanity.  There impact is equally seen locally as well as all over the world.  I like that the organization focuses on getting people involved and to volunteer their skills just as much as is does raising donations. 

I am also a big fan of Grassroot Soccer because it uses the international passion of playing soccer to unite people in the fight against AIDS.

Finally it would be great to work with the ONE campaign because of the hundreds of great organizations that it unites (including some of our clients, Heifer, Bread for the World and The Hunger Project).

These are just a few of the many, many non-profits we’d love to work with. Are you looking to redesign your website, add some kick to your marketing work, or transition to a new software solution? Give us a call - we’d love to see how we can help you reach your goals!

Editor’s  note: Periodically, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. We’ve either just launched or are about to launch a number of big projects lately, so we’ve been doing a significant amount of quality assurance. As a result, we wondered: What is one QA tip everyone should be aware of?

Mark, Functional Consultant: Start QA with a complete, well thought-out and usable test plan.

Jennifer, Project Manager: Always compare the deliverable against the original specs, and any subsequent change orders. Always.

Lynn, Principal Consultant: Include people on the QA that know nothing about the application or tool. They’ll be sure to interact with the tool in ways you never thought of (which is what your users are bound to do!)

Kristin, Project Manager: After our QA is done, make sure everyone is clear about acceptance of the final product.

Brad, Functional Consultant:

• The people that design the test plan should have been involved in gathering requirements. The people who conduct the testing should not have.
• When testing, TRY to break the interaction. Simply reproducing the “right” steps doesn’t prove anything.
• Writing bug tickets is an art. You should always include the page/action that produces the error, and what the expected result should have been. If possible, include the relevant spec. Bugs written in the form of “submitting the form didn’t work” are incredibly common, but not useful.

Marissa, Functional Consultant: Every day, all day, I keep as many different browsers open as the memory on my computer allow. I try to bounce through all of them equally throughout the day (although Firefox is my favorite). That keeps me constantly aware of what my work is doing in the whole slew of browsers, minimizing bugs once we get to the formalized QA process.

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: Before an email goes out, we like to run it through deliverability monitoring software to make sure major ESPs don’t see any red flags. It’s also helpful to have someone completely uninvolved in the process read the email to make sure there are no comments left in like “[Find out if this is true before we send!]”

Beaconfire includes a rigorous QA process in every project, to make sure everything works as intended before going public. Look for more posts on this topic in the future!

Editor’s  note: Each week, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. We like to think of ourselves as ahead of the curve, so rather than focusing on Web 2.0 or Web 3.0, we’re already planning for Web 6.0. So this week, we asked the Beaconfire staff: What advances will be considered part of Web 6.0?

Lynn, Principal Consultant: With Web 6.0, my kitchen appliances will monitor my whereabouts (probably by cell phone) and know when I’m heading home. I’ll walk in the door to find dinner ready and waiting.  No more planning ahead!

Joanna, Production Specialist: Web 6.0 will see a simplification of the internet, eliminating extraneous, distracting features and focusing back on its original purpose: a global electronic forum for creating, sharing, and viewing pictures of cute kittens.

Milo, Marketing Consultant: Web 6.0 will usher in the era of the apolitical Web.  ePundits will be banished from the blogosphere, which will turn into a bucolic Arcadia with pan flute-playing satyrs.

Michael, Principal Consultant: I’m most excited about Web 6.0 Extramind communites. The groundbreaking occular implants with direct integration to your cognitive accelerator will for the first time truly allow you to see the world through someone’s elses eyes. Add the PediPlant 6.0 extenders to walk in their shoes. Extramind communities will foster a rich shared experience bringing the human race closer to empathatic understanding than ever before.

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: Forget video and audio - if a site doesn’t have a telepathic projection interface, it’s out of date! Not just for accessibility reasons, but by the time we get to Web 6.0, attention spans will be so short that we’ll have to beam content directly into supporters’ brains.

Jennifer, Project Manager: The nonprofit sector will stand out as an innovative leader in organizational effectiveness as practitioners of chaos theory demonstrate that data disintegration increases constituents’ pervasiveness and as a result the organization’s revenue and ROI on each fundraising dollar will multiply.

Ali, Marketing Consultant: The next wave of the Internet is going to bring the olfactory system into the web browsing experience. Computer screens will be equipped with scratch and sniff devices giving marketers one more thing to think about. "Should we use spring rain or campfire scent for the protect the forest campaign?"

Kate, Administrative Assistant: Because of the advancements in one-way time travel, most of Web 6.0 usage will entail writing in the sand with a stick.

Update: Tim, Functional Consultant: With the advent of Web 6.0 I look forward to the full (finally!) adoption of Habitrails 2.0. That we’ve been able to fully leverage the advances in reliability and speed gained over Habitrails Public Beta 2 (which seemed to be in beta status for years!) through the release of Habitrails 1.0 early last quarter, has been an absolute godsend for those of us who have truly come to rely on the features previously unavailable to us. But enough is enough! It’s time to accept that Habitrails 2.0 is the wave of the future and quit supporting the creaky old legacy builds that we’ve been trying to patch together with gum and tape for so long. I, for one, welcome our new hamster overlords.

Happy April Fools day from all of us at Beaconfire!

Editor’s  note: Each week, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. With NTC next week, many of our readers will be browsing from mobile devices like phones and blackberries. So this week, we asked the Beaconfire staff: What website do you most wish had a mobile version?

Jeff, Principal Consultant: Most of the staff already know and ridicule my ability to check the metro “next train” information from my phone. This simple WAP enabled application on the WMATA metro site is by far the most useful mobile site I use.

Other must haves include fantasy football sites where you can check the score of your matchup while at the game or at your favorite watering hole without dragging around your computer.

Lastly, there is a mobile site for zipcar, my other must have transportation option. However this app is less necessary since the easiest way to access when not in front of a computer is through the automated phone system. Sweet.

Milo, Marketing Consultant: Central Desktop.  Bringing their online project management software to the next level of seamlessness will require making their tools more accessible on mobile browsers.  As of now, it’s not even possible for users to login from Blazer (the mobile browser I currently use).  

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: LogMeIn, or other remote desktop apps. I sometimes need more power than I could get from my iPod or phone, and would like to be able to enlist my desktop to help out.

I’d also like to see blogging software use a mobile version; updating Wordpress from an iPod was painful.

Taylor, Software Engineer: Google, particularly the maps and yellow pages. If I can look up locations, I can generally get the other information I need.

Kristin, Project Manager: I’d say sites that I need to access when I’m out and about. Like mapquest or google maps when I’m driving around and lost. Or like Jeff said, the metro arrival/departure info.

David, Software Engineer: Restaurant finders and gas station finders.

Eric, Senior Consultant: I’d like to see a good mobile feedreader. Email as well, of course; I find that Yahoo mail is barely passable. If I was going to tinker with my phone, though I think of it not as much as a substitute for the internet, instead I wish that there was better hardware. A better camera and a camcorder, as well as the applications to blog mobile. I’d like to see a way to upload video to Wordpress.

With the mobile revolution, web design firms like Beaconfire are paying more and more attention to making sites look good on mobile devices. Make sure you check back for more on this, and keep reading the Beaconfire Wire on your mobile device next week as we blog from NTC.

Editor’s  note: Each week, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. This post was supposed to be for last week, but was delayed due to SxSW - please accept our apologies. This Last week, we asked the Beaconfire staff: How do you tech green?

Michael, Principal Consultant: I tech green by unplugging unused devices, buying highest efficiency models I can, and never computing on the weekends.

Kristin, Project Manager: Little things include:

• Manually start my backup right when I leave for the night, and have my computer shut down once the backup is done (rather than leave my computer on all night).
• Try and turn off as many of the blinky lights as possible when I’m not using them (monitor, etc)
• And, of course, try to turn off lights in unused offices and conference rooms

Mark, Functional Consultant: My biggest move towards going green (in general) is I moved into the city into an old house and take mass transportation to and from work everyday. By doing so, I’ve offset parts of my tech carbon footprint, including leaving my home computer on most of the time in case I need to remote in to it. Though I do set the home machines to sleep after inactivity and have moved to an LCD monitor.

David, Software Engineer: I have a ‘Watt’s Up power meter device. I have audited every appliance and electronic decide in my house for idle and peak power usage, shop at My Organic Market which purchases 100% wind power energy for it’s store, wait to order from Amazon and other retailers until I have 4+ items to ship, In addition:

• All my light bulbs are compact florescent and light to energy usage appropriate.
• Motion sensor front walkway light
• Water heater turned down
• Energy efficient windows,doors, washer dryer, fridge, Hot water heater
• Luckily had radiant hot water heating, which is superior energy usage to forced air.
• Luckily an east facing home with large windows
• Checked insulation in roofing and walls for air exchange.
• 7-day programmable thermostat for energy use only with people in the home.
• Cleaned furnace and A/C unit yearly for optimum efficiency
• Insulated A/C ducts to prevent cooling loss.

The net result is very small water and power usage. I’ve been researching solar panels for a while now and have a price point I’m waiting for.

Kate, Administrative Assistant: Well, frankly, I don’t do as much as I should. I do tend to think in terms of what’s going to keep the electric bill down, though, which helps a bit. This mostly includes keeping monitors off and making sure that the computer’s in ‘sleep’ mode when not in use.

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: This question actually came up as a result of an article about how a Second Life person uses as much energy as a resident of Brazil. For me, it’s mostly turning my computer when I can, though that can be tricky when you schedule defrags, downloads and updates to run while you’re sleeping or out. I also try to avoid leaving my peripherals plugged in except when needed - it’s not only good for the environment to not leave your cell phone charging all day, but it’s also often good for your battery’s lifespan.

At the office, we recycle paper, glass, and plastic, keep the thermostat turned down (or up) during non-work hours, encourage working from home, and use motion-sensor lights in conference rooms that people otherwise forget about. Most of us also have our monitors go to sleep when not in use, and when construction forced us to use the restrooms on the floor below, we lobbied to have the stairway unlocked so we didn’t need to take the elevator.

What about you, readers: how do you tech green at home or at work? Is there something Beaconfire should think about doing to be greener?

Editor’s  note: Each week, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. RSS is becoming ubiquitous, and with the sheer volume of content on the internet, more users are finding that they need a way to manage their content. This week, we asked the Beaconfire staff: How do you consume RSS content?

Eric, Senior Consultant: I aspire to have a complete set of Yahoo! pipes to perform elaborate analyses of of the blogosphere and social media about the the people and issues of importance to me, translates snobby foreign news sources into English to make me seem smart at parties, and otherwise leap tall buildings.

But in fact, I use the built in reader in IE7 to keep track of about 2 dozen environmental and tech/marketing blogs.

Ali, Marketing Consultant: I’m a fan of Google reader. It’s one of the easiest readers to set up, I can access it from any computer and I can track all the marketing and technology blogs I follow.

Amy, Functional Consultant: RSS is everywhere but I pro-actively consume RSS in two ways.  One is iGoogle – I use Google as my browser home and have set up a HOME tab with news (CNN, Top Stories), Weather, Moon Phases, HowTo Wiki and, of course, the BeaconfireWire feed.  My iGoogle also has an IA/UX tab with my favorite industry feeds (Boxes & Arrows, A List Apart, UX Matters, etc).  

I also use Bloglines to manage RSS feeds.  Bloglines has more advanced functionality than iGoogle in terms of managing feeds and I like how it lets me save articles in the feed queue for later so I can go back and re-read them when I have time.

Paul, Software Engineer: This may brand me as a neo-Luddite, but I don’t use RSS.  I’ve always preferred to actively seek information on a website rather than subscribing to a feed and having it delivered to me.  The moral of the story?  Make sure content that’s available in RSS feeds is conveniently indexed in HTML format on your website as well.

Marissa, Functional Consultant: RSS (like Web 2.0) is one of those technologies that isn’t really new, and has really always been around in some form. And everyone who uses the Internet probably consumes an RSS feed in one shape or another, even if they don’t know it. If you see a list of “latest news” on a web site in the past few years, you’ve likely consumed RSS content.

For my personal RSS use, I love Netvibes. The tabbing and rearranging let’s me keep my most important RSS Feeds up in the forefront, while allowing me to easily organize secondary feeds that I like to read from time to time.

Kate, Administrative Assistant: I’m obsessed with tracking the weather, both on my home laptop and on my iPhone. Especially since I’m new to this whole “East Coast Weather” thing, and I don’t have any windows at my desk, I use my iPhone to see what the weather’s like downstairs at least 5 times a day. I also check the weather in my hometown, as well as in Paris, London, New York, and Portland. I just like to see how we stack up. I also track stocks on my iPhone that I’ve not invested in, but I think I get some sick pleasure in watching other people lose their shirt. I guess a touch of schadenfreude’s good for the soul.

Kristin, Project Manager: Honestly, I don’t consume any RSS. I can’t even keep up with email (which is my primary "dashboard") so why add another "feed" to my list of things to try and keep up with.

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: I use a single Netvibes page as my portal at both work and home - it’s the only way I can avoid getting buried in content. I triage my content into pages - must-read items like my email, a couple political blogs, weather, and, most importantly, Beaconfire Wire live on the first tab, fun and goofy stuff, including Digg and my comic alert feed on the second (when you get the rest of your newspaper online a la carte, it’s important to get Dilbert and Doonesbury that way too), clients and other non-profits on the third, work-related tools, like Central Desktop and Basecamp on the fourth, and occasionally interesting, but non-required reading on subsequent tabs.

The key is making use of preview tooltips and titles to quickly and ruthlessly mark items as read - I’m not someone who deals well with unread items, either in my inbox or my feeds. But in the net, using RSS keeps me from having to check more than 100 sites several times a day, so it’s a real time-saver.

Editor’s note: Each week, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. Since video is becoming a more and more important medium for non-profits to use, we asked: What’s a youtube video that you would pass along? Note that these aren’t specifically videos we think non-profits should emulate, just examples of the diversity of opinion as to what makes a viral video.

Jeff, Principal Consultant: I usually pass along the videos I’m just seeing after everyone else has seen them. Here are two:

• Thai prisoners doing thriller dance
• Obama “Yes We Can” video

Eric, Senior Consultant: Cat playing the piano!

Taylor, Software Engineer: My top 5 youTube videos that make me laugh (I’m pretty sure they are appropriate)

• How to stop a kitten fight (depends on your sense of humor)
• Kick his Ask!
• Charlie bit my finger - again!
• Serious Baby… sometimes
• Grape Crusher

Marissa, Functional Consultant: Yo Gaba Gaba – the Party in my Tummy.

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: I’m generally a fan of anything that makes me laugh with or at political figures. Consequently, some of my favorites are:

• Barack Obama - The drawing board
• Any Mike Gravel music video
• Michigan for MItt
• The better John McCain “No we can’t” videos - John.He.Is and the Billionaires for Bush remix

I was also impressed by the responses to some of the user-generated content contests - particularly the Colbert Greenscreen Challange and The Office - make your own promo contest.

Michael, Principal Consultant: There’s no question in my mind what the greatest YouTube is of all time: Ask A Ninja from digitalfilmaker

This comedy series with witty repartee about all things pop culture has a dedicated (albeit highly disturbed) following – including me.

Tim, Functional Consultant: There are just too many to choose from, but I always enjoy Barats and Baretta. They’re great at short bits that deliver just exactly what they intend to delver. No fluff, just funny.

• Mother’s Day
• Mantage
• Maxwel Dorian, Valedictorian
• Completely Uncalled For
• To Do List

David, Software Engineer: http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Mark, Functional Consultant: Anything with monkeys in it… especially…

Trunk Monkeys

Lancelot Link

I could go on and on… River Dance Monkeys

Kate, Administrative Assistant: Here are the only YouTube Videos I’ve ever passed around:

• Hillary Clinton’s “Caucusing is Easy” video, because it was genuinely humorous and informative (now I know how easy caucusing is!)
• Mike Gravel’s throwing the rock into the pond video, because it was weird and therefore funny.
• The cartoon parody of Mike Gravel’s throwing the rock into the pond video, because they apparently agreed with my assessment of the first video.
• “Series of Tubes” music video
• (I was also a big fan of Jib-Jab, but it hit the streets before I knew what a U-Tube was.)

The common link for me is being able to have a laugh either with or at politicians. The Clinton brand of self-effacing humor really tickled me, which was great for them, because it lead me to help get out their message. The rest were videos where the politicians involved probably would have been better off if their videos hadn’t made it into my mental space.

Erika, Operations Manager: Vista Wonders

Several Beaconfire Clients also have videos you should check out - like this introduction to Bread for the World’s Hunger Justice Leaders event or NPCA’s Teddy for President campaign ads. If you’re interested in learning more about how Beaconfire can work with your non-profit to create a viral video, please give us a call or send us an email!

Editor’s note: Each week, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. This week we asked: Should non-profit organizations market to minors?

Milo, Marketing Consultant: Cause marketing for youth is totally appropriate, especially when it’s geared toward youth engagement.  Most people would agree that membership-based nonprofits that offer teens and pre-teens the opportunity to be engaged in volunteer leadership structures (committees, working groups, board youth liaisons, etc.) provide great opportunities for kids to learn about community, leadership and civic engagement.

Cara, Project Manager: Personally, for younger kids, I think it would be great if NPO’s made more materials available for parents that they could use to engage their children and help get them interested and aware – especially living where we do, we struggle with how to make the girls understand that there is a big world out there.  I would love for organizations to provide kits/programs, created with children in mind, that we could access and work through as a family.    Some do this for educators but, frankly, I don’t have the time to take something created for a classroom and whittle it down to something that can still be used at home.  Make it easy for me (I mean really easy) and there is a very good chance I’ll use the materials to focus my kids on your key issues and, thus, introduce them to your organization at an early age.

Michael, Principal Consultant: I believe nonprofits have a responsibility to market to minors… but not “in your face” Cheetos & Coke selling strategies. Rather, they need to approach this market with the express intent of educating the next generation about the relevance of their issues to their lives & give them opportunities to step forward to share, network, volunteer, fundraise or give if they want to. Minors – read teens / pre-teens – can be active advocates for a cause. They can be influencers of peers and parents both in how they think and how they act. But, organizations shouldn’t pander to or treat this group in loco parenti. Rather, engage them on their terms – which is letting them dialogue, share, identify and be active as they want to be. In my opinion, no organization has done this better online that PETA.

Andrew, Project Manager: I am not sure that I agree with Michael, especially the statement that “Minors – read teens / pre-teens – can be active advocates for a cause. They can be influencers of peers and parents both in how they think and how they act.”

As an adult, a parent should (this obviously is not always the case) have a broader perspective on the world, more education, experience, wisdom, etc. than their children. For the most part, it is the parents’ role to guide their children, not the other way around. Now, I do not mean to imply that adults cannot learn from children. What I am saying is that non-profits are mission driven with nuanced objectives and approaches that may be lost on a minor.

I agree with the conceptual missions of a myriad of non-profits, but I do not support all of them due to concerns about specific policies, stances, politics, actions, marketing tactics, etc. Minors are more likely to overlook the cold realities and become enamored with the conceptual aspects only. Do we really want a non-profit, regardless of the altruism of their mission, to introduce our kids to the next Joe Camel?

Mark, Functional Consultant: Absolutely. I would think that most parents would agree that building a sense of charity from an early age is an important activity. NPO’s marketing themselves and their campaigns to minors work towards that purpose, and as long as any direct interactions involved parental consent for kids under 13 (per Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 and any similar legislation that governs offline interaction) I don’t see an issue.

Corporate and much less wholesome organizations already reach kids so effectively through mass media - think Joe Camel and Tony the Tiger. Any parent I’m sure would rather their kids get excited about something like Conservation International’s Stephanie Colburtle the Leatherback Turtle over Ronald McDonald any day.

There are already great models to follow, like UNICEF’s Trick or Treat for UNICEF campaign, where kids are marketed special collection boxes for Halloween, engage in fundraising, learn the importance of charity and have fun doing it. I’ve also heard stories of  kids having their parents help them use online tools like Heifer’s gift registry to ask for friends coming to their birthday party to buy an animal from the catalog (donation to Heifer), rather than bring a toy or other gift. That’s powerful but not surprising that kids can grasp the importance of giving to someone else and enjoy the experience, over yet another toy.

Marissa, Functional Consultant: For educational purposes, I think it is okay to market to minors (Smokey the Bear, anyone). But I’d feel uncomfortable marketing to minors for fundraising purposes. There’s something that does not feel right about convincing children to ask mommy and daddy for money. Non-profits raise money to accomplish their mission, and shouldn’t necessarily get embroiled in the same tactics as corporations, where making money is the mission. That’s not to say that non-profits can’t take a few cues from Madison Avenue. They just don’t need to be like Toys R Us.

Kate, Administrative Assistant: I think it’s very important that non-profits market to minors. While I don’t think it’s appropriate to seek donations from them, there are so many other ways they can become involved. There’s certainly nothing wrong with encouraging a youngster to save the gorillas, see a play, mind their cholesterol, and end hunger. With all of the marketing geared towards turning minors into good consumers, there ought to be as hearty of a drive to encourage them to be good citizens. I say, pump the youth full of idealism! Maybe they’ll grow up to care about something.

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: I’d say it’s important to get your brand in front of young folks as early as possible. If non-profits cede the field, kids will grow up knowing all about Pepsi and Apple and nothing about protecting the environment or marriage equality. There are certainly some issues that might be touchy, like choice or the death penalty, but as long as organizations are concentrating on branding and issue education, cultivating young people early will make them more responsive to you and better citizens in general.

Of course, that’s not to say that you should market to them on the same channels you’re marketing to the rest of your list. Even my generation isn’t interested in direct mail, and I’ve read that even email seems too old-fashioned for today’s teens, who prefer SMS, social networks, and social bookmarks as their media of choice.

Jennifer, Project Manager: Seeing how for-profits market to minors at very tender ages through all variety of channels, from TV to grocery store shelves, why should nonprofits be any different?

Public sector and nonprofit organizations use cause marketing techniques to affect positive social change ranging from improved individual behaviors to winning hearts and minds. Nor is this the exclusive domain of nonprofits. The entertainment industry, often the torch bearer of trendy issues, is arguably better positioned to reach youth, a recent example being the animated movie Happy Feet that raises awareness about the topic of global warming. The worry is that when commercial interests drive an issue there is always the underlying motive to promote the company, sell its brand and ‘grow’ its customer base, from any age. A company may shift to a new issue du jour when the public tires of the current one, and even follow practices that are counter to its marketing messages, but it will work to retain its customer loyalty nevertheless. This is particularly troublesome with young children who lack the education, experience and mature capacities to reason and inform themselves about the issues and their messenger. One might argue that nonprofits should be held to a higher standard. That is, should their mission and their cause be above their brand and their institutional shelf life? I think it should – their mission is what makes them the special civic organizations that they are. They should ask hard questions about the goals of their marketing efforts: are they designed to increase funding and membership levels? Or are they truly focused on raising awareness and educating young people about their cause? The sector struggles with measuring the latter, but that shouldn’t deter organizations from being honest about their marketing. Otherwise, I as a parent will grow just as leery of nonprofits as I am of for-profit companies that market to my kids.

Many nonprofits work towards causes I support, and ones I hope my children will also champion one day. But there are some organizations that promote ideas that are completely opposite and counter to what I try to teach my kids, or have less than admirable practices. I prefer that a nonprofit’s outreach to youth focus on informing and educating them so that they can make up their own minds, both about the issue and the organization.

One Beaconfire project directed at younger folks will be going live in a couple months - APS’s Physics Central is dedicated to teaching young people (among others) about the importance of physics. We’re spearheading their redesign - look for it later this Spring. That’s all for this week - join us next week where we’ll hear about the Beaconfire staff’s favorite YouTube videos.

Editor’s note: Each week, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. This week, in honor of super Tuesday, we asked: What lessons should non-profits take from the online Presidential campaign in 2008?

Michael, Principal Consultant: #1 lesson so far: Take your message and actions to the where the people are, everywhere they are. Socnets aren’t just hip - they are essential seeding grounds for support.

#2 lesson: Social media matters. Social media done well is the killer app for influencing decision to engage.

#3 lesson: Build the network, inspire the network and then the money will follow.

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: Direct mail folks, take notice: the dominance of online campaign fundraising is here (which means it’s still a couple years out for the non-profit sector, but still…). Obama and Clinton both had record-shattering months in January, with Obama raising $28 million out of $32 million online. And in the last 36 hours, Clinton’s brought in another $4 million online while Obama’s supporters have delivered $7.5 million more. Direct mail just can’t work fast enough to respond to events with the speed that email and social network fundraising - by the time something is written, designed, approved, printed, mailed, opened, responded to, mailed back and deposited, the next round of events will have come and gone. Plus these donations have come in virtually cost free.

The biggest surprise was that it looks like The Producers was right: you can make more money with a flop than with a hit. The day after he won Iowa, Barack Obama brought in quite the haul online. But it was eclipsed by the contributions he received after he lost New Hampshire. Makes me wonder if non-profit advocacy groups should make a pitch to their members after they lose a vote about "Don’t let this happen again." Of course, this could encourage development departments to ask their legislative folks not to work too hard….

Jennifer, Project Manager: A best practice in web design is to know thy audience and help them see themselves in your web site. For any public-serving or customer-centric organization, the logical strategy to match this design principle is to focus not on what your constituents can do for you but on what you do and can do for your constituents.

The presidential campaign sites tend to be all about me, the candidate. Branding and helping voters get to know them is important, but at the end of the day they are campaigning to serve the public and should speak to the people and the issues that they care about. All the sites address the issues in one way or another. Clinton’s site is particularly effective in helping visitors know her position on the issues by scanning the labels without even having to click through. Most of the campaign sites also have clear calls to action and community features to get people involved, but you have to dig below the surface to get a sense of whose interests they are campaigning for. There are a few exceptions. The Ron Paul campaign site includes a People label in the top level navigation, but it focuses too narrowly on niche audiences (gun owners, home schoolers, students and veterans). Fred Thompson’s site is another example of highlighting very niche coalitions — lawyers, veterans, students, young professionals –  that only represent pieces of the Republican base.  McCain’s site has a great top level navigation label – Undecided? - but the landing page could do a better job, for example, of swaying the left-of-center undecided voter. By contrast, Obama’s site is noteworthy for its “People” navigation which does a good job of representing the core Democratic constituency. As he continues to campaign for the Democratic nomination and gets closer to the general election, he might want to round it out with any key audiences who can’t see themselves in his list.

Kate, Administrative Assistant: This may be pretty basic, but for me, what stood out the most were the websites with an immediate and clear call to action. This worked best when the website was easy to navigate, and we were easily able to find the additional information we sought. For example: “Make History! [by giving me money! Press this Donate button!]” It easily gives me the option to say, “Oh, that’s a great idea; I’ll give you money now,” or “Hmm, I see what you’re after, but let me click on these well-organized tabs to see if I agree with your positions on the issues that are important to me.” And, another seeming no-brainer, but one that wasn’t necessarily followed by all candidates, is that the effective sites didn’t lead us away from the homepage with their links. We were kept within reach of the reminder to give them money.

Beaconfire doesn’t work on political candidates’ sites directly, but a variety of our clients are involved with this election, including NPCA (who has their very own Presidential candidate!), AFSCME, and NARAL Pro Choice America. Be sure to join us next week when we ask Beaconfire staff what they think about marketing causes to minors.