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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. 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!

Last week, a whopping 10 Beaconfire employees headed down to New Orleans to learn about how nonprofits are using and can use online technology, and also to connect with others doing work like ours. Here are some of our reactions to the conference:

1. “This year’s NTC had an energy and edge more than any other. The conference reflected the reality that space is changing fast…innovations are popping everywhere and integration isn’t just something to talk about, it’s getting down. It felt very familiar, like 1999 all over but this time smarter, more focused and intentional.” - Michael Cervino
2. “Always a rewarding experience. An interesting spread of perspectives from the most basic to the most advanced.” - Eric Eckl
3. “The major vendors such as Convio and Kintera are making real headway on open APIs since last year’s NTC. And, new products coming on the market seem to know that having an API is an important element of their marketing collateral, even if the API is not really written or just partially written, just waiting for a partner or opportunity to really flesh it out. While the goal of making it easy to connect different systems and exchange data is still far away, it’s encouraging news. On the downside, it’s also clear that the progress on the API front has not helped to answer the fundamental question for nonprofits who experience the pain of siloed data but need to make the case before making the leap: what will it cost me and what are the benefits of integrating my organization’s data? If I invest in a data integration project now, what is the ROI in organizational efficiency and effectiveness? There is much interest in how organizations can better use their data – for example, interpret their web site statistics using Google Analytics or present their data using dashboards and rich media. This year’s NTC confirmed for me that this issue is still relevant and in need of answers.” – Jennifer Stuart Bagnell
4. “Bigger and better than ever. Sessions were solid and many of the speakers were experts in their field. Nice to see more large organizations. I’m continually amazed at the diversity of the nonprofit sector in terms of subjects, size, and maturity of online programs, however they all share a passion you don’t find in other sectors. Great fun.” – Jeff Herron
5. “On the tech side - less buzzwords and more substance. Vendors have begun delivering on their promises of opening up their systems and new start-up products know they can’t compete unless they offer extensive APIs and data exchange components. Unfortunately, non-profits are still struggling to figure out how it applies to them. Next year, look for more real-world examples of how organizations are benefitting from the freedom of owning their data.” - Alan Gallauresi
6. “NPO’s are experimenting more effectively with social networks and how they can be leveraged to further their goals. However, results often are still more qualitative than quantitative, with strategies for success and effective campaign execution still being worked out…Many NPO’s are continuing to leverage the ever-growing, free, and powerful Google tools on the Web (Search, Google Analytics, Google Checkout, Google Sites, etc.) and within the organization (Google Apps, Gmail, Google Calendar, etc.)…More players are ramping up constituent based software that allows for modules to be plugged in and provide integrated features for donations, advocacy, email marketing, fundraising and CRM.” – Mark Leta
7. “In our world of email and IM, it was a great opportunity to connect and put names with faces!” - Kristin Niemi-Gillig
8. “With the rapid advancement of online technology, nonprofit marketing and communications strategies are (or should be) reverting back to basic principles of human communications. With more and more constituent and donor touch points from blogs to mobile advocacy to social networking, successful efforts will be those that are the most simple, tangible, authentic, high quality, and those that empower their supporters by giving them an unfiltered voice to connect and relate to a community. These are some of the concepts we’ll help nonprofits think through.” – Ali Cherry

It’s only a week away and I’m sure you are already setting aside clothes to dress to impress, or at the very least thinking about what sessions you’ll be attending. This year, there are 5 reasons to come see us at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference, where more than 1,000 people come together to “talk about what works, what doesn’t work, and what is in the works for those using nonprofit technology to further a cause.”

1. We’ll be at the Science Fair from 3-8pm on the first day of the conference, Wednesday March 19th. As organizers point out, the NTC Science Fair isn’t a typical conference exhibit hall as it’s only on the first day to avoid competing with everything else on the agenda. Come visit us at booth #60 to get a special gift and hear about all what we do, and more importantly, what we can do for you. Also, since we’re a Silver Sponsor of the conference, we’ll have a table set up throughout the conference where you can catch us during the breaks.
2. Our CEO and the Board Chair of NTEN, Lynn Labieniec will be speaking on Thursday, March 20th from 1:30-3 on “Getting the Big Picture: Using Dashboards to Track Your Data.” A great way to start the afternoon.
3. On the same day at 3:30, Alan Gallauresi, a Beaconfire tech lead will talk at the session “Will Your Data Be Yours? Evaluating Data Exchange in Software.” Don’t miss it.
4. Eric Eckl from our marketing team will follow that by “swallowing a flaming a sword while riding a unicycle, blindfolded!” and also speaking on “Now You Have a Lot of User Generated Content: Tracking and Using It?” from 3:30-5pm. Sure to be entertaining.
5. And finally, last but not least, Vice President Jeff Herron will talk at the session “The Joy of CMS: Implementing Sustainable Content Management Systems (The Painless Way to Keep Your Web Site Current)” on Friday, March 21st at 3:30pm. Any session with the word “painless” in it is worth going to!

See you on Wednesday!

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.

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.

I’ve always been a big fan of Facebook Causes. I’ve written about the potential for non-profits, features that I’d like to see in future upgrades, and compared it to its contemporaries. Now, I’ve been eagerly following the Causes Giving Challenge. The Challenge, sponsored by the Case Foundation, gives organizations an additional financial incentive to jumpstart their Facebook organizing.

The contest basically works like this: organizations start a new cause, and every day the cause that received the most donors gets $1,000 from Case (in addition to whatever they bring in via Facebook). In addition, at the end of the the challenge, which runs until February 1, the organizations that get the most total unique donors get larger prizes totaling $200,000.

The campaign gets a good writeup in the New York Times:

“Philanthropy shouldn’t be defined as a bunch of rich people writing big checks,” said Jean Case, who founded the Case Foundation with her husband, Steve, founder of America Online. “Small amounts of money given by large numbers of individuals can be combined to do great things.”

“We’ve always asked how we can leverage our resources to engage a larger population, how can we get the most Americans involved in charitable giving and action,” Ms. Case said.

Some thoughts on why this is a big deal for giving via social networks below the fold…

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If you work for/with a nonprofit and your success is dependent on technology, the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference should be on your calendar. And don’t think this is just for techies! The agenda is still being formed, but you can count on sessions for nonprofit leaders and folks from communications, marketing and fundraising, as well as the technology staff. We’ll come together to talk about tools and strategies that are reshaping how we go about our mission focussed work. The 2008 conference is in New Orleans March 19-21st and you can learn more at www.nten.org/ntc. See you in New Orleans!

Full disclosure: I’m the Board Chair of NTEN and think the world of the good work they do…

Three of Beaconfire’s online campaigns and marketing clients are coming together this holiday season to change the way people think about giving. Conservation International, Heifer International and Share our Strength are asking people to take the Better Present Pledge to make at  least one alternative gift this year instead of a material present. A gift to end hunger, save the environment, and lift a community out of poverty will make you feel great and look great at the same time.

Beaconfire is managing the groups’ partnership, built the Better Present Pledge microsite (http://www.betterpresent.org/), and is producing the email communications stream that introduces new donors to the three organizations, then asks them to give. We’re also working with exciting media partners, like MSN Shopping, to promote the Pledge to entirely new donors.

The microsite includes cool features like a widget that automatically updates with a count of pledgers and how much they’ve pledged in alternative gifts.

We also built an Alternative Gift Calculator that lets people tabulate their total holiday spending, and suggests a possible alternative gift in their price range from each of the three partner organizations. Try it out on the Better Present Pledge homepage.

Conservation International also put together a fantastic overview video about what the Better Present Pledge is all about - you can check it out on YouTube.

We’re really thrilled to be working on such an exciting campaign for the holidays - in addition to our work with the Better Present Pledge campaign, we’re also working on a lot of other exciting holiday marketing with Heifer International, Conservation International and Share our Strength. Be sure to sign up for email with all three groups if you haven’t already.

Congratulations to Jenny Bowen, Executive Director of Half the Sky. She has been selected to carry the Olympic Torch in Beijing.

Jenny was selected through an online election. She was the top vote-getter.

Half the Sky offers nurture and enrichment programs throughout 36 orphanages across China.

We applaud Jenny and Half the Sky for all their good work.

Beaconfire welcomes INFORMS and the American Federation of Teachers as two of our newest clients both of whom were looking for Beaconfire to gather user input to guide improvements to their respective sites.

We began work with INFORMS in the past week to prepare for interviews with their members as they begin the process of improving their Website. User research is an important step in any project and for INFORMS offers an opportunity to explore user needs, validate findings from market research and begin to prioritize areas for improvement. As the association for Operations Research professionals, INFORMS knows the value of research and is wisely leveraging it to guide their Website improvements.

Just last week, we learned we had been selected by AFT to conduct a usability audit of their intranet/extranet tool for local union leaders, not surprisingly called LeaderNet. This project will include user interviews which provide a change for key stakeholders to share perspective, feedback and desired changes. We will combine this input with our Expert Review of the site to identify specific areas for improvement and recommendations. The idea is to identify fixes that AFT can implement quickly as well as make a case for longer term changes. Once those changes have been further flushed out, we’ve recommended user testing to validate and refine.

We’re excited to get started with both clients.