Kivi Leroux Miller December 13th, 2006
Welcome to Kivi Leroux Miller’s course blog for “Blogging for Nonprofits.” Instead of a PowerPoint and paper handouts, you’ll be viewing this blog and the links in it as your course materials. If you want paper copies, you can print out the blog back at the office.
Kivi Leroux Miller December 13th, 2006
What Is a Blog?
Blogging Lingo
Some key terms:
How Blogs Are Different from Other Online Tools
How Nonprofits Can Use Blogs
When NOT to Blog
EXERCISE: Your Questions About Blogs - Post Them to This Blog!
Use the login information Kivi gives you and then write a new post in the category “Questions about Blogging.”
Kivi Leroux Miller December 13th, 2006
Go to www.Wordpress.com and we’ll set up a practice blog.
We will also look at a Blogger site to see how these same elements work on another platform: http://www.kivi-blogschool.blogspot.com/
EXERCISE: Come back to this blog and create a new post in the category “Practice Blogs” that gives us the link to your new practice blog at wordpress.com.
Kivi Leroux Miller December 13th, 2006
Why Does Your Organization Need a Blog
Gauging Your Readiness to Blog
23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers - Is a Blog Right for You?
Several Models for Nonprofit Blogging
1) Straight Advocacy: Trying to motivate action and effect change
See Darfur Actions Alerts and Accessible Airwaves in blogroll
2) Letting Supporters Inside: Make personal connections between staff and supporters with behind-the-scenes detail, personal experiences and emotional reflections
See IFAW Animal Rescue, Easter Seals Recreation Camp, Drug-Free America Parent blog, and Greenpeace in blogroll
3) Building Community: Helping volunteers, clients, or other groups come together under your umbrella
See Interplast, ACS Fabulous at 50, and March of Dimes NICU in blogroll
4) News and General Publicity: Getting your public information and news commentary out more quickly in a organized, straightforward way
See ASPCA and Nomination Watch in blogroll
5) Issue Expert / Professional Development: Covering a topic not specifically related to your mission, but of importance to you or your field more generally
See Confessions of a Nonprofit IT Director in blogroll
6) Events Coverage: Promote an event and archive what happened
See National Recycling Coalition and N-TEN in blogroll
7) Internal Reporting: Help keep staff informed about each others’ activities
See article excerpt on Austin Free-Net.
EXERCISE: Go back to your practice blog and write a post about the type of blog you’d like to create.
Kivi Leroux Miller December 13th, 2006
Excerpt from an article in Nonprofit Quarterly, Winter 2003, entitled “What’s a Blog and Why Should Nonprofits Care?”
Ana Sisnett, executive director of Austin Free-Net, a community technology nonprofit discussed the use of blogs by her organization in this article . . .
“When she encouraged her staff to blog about their work, Sisnett recognized another benefit of nonprofit blogging: She could now easily keep up to speed on her staff’s work and the progress of various, concurrent projects. Soon, between the executive director, the technical staff and volunteers, Austin Free-Net had three staff blogs full of updated and archived information that could easily be incorporated into strategic plan updates, VISTA reports, press releases, newsletters and grants. When a colleague, a sponsor or even a journalist needed information about a project or issue, Sisnett could refer the interested party to a blog.
Free-Net’s experiments with staff blogging fit a trend developing in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. According to Teresa Crawford, Technical Director at Advocacy Project and a leader in the movement to provide technology assistance to international nonprofits, blogs with an “internal focus” have made it easier for organizations to capture the knowledge of teams and support their collaboration. “Rather than only a linear discussion list for a team,” she points out, “individual and collaborative blogs make it possible to see ties among team members and issues they are working on.”
Kivi Leroux Miller December 13th, 2006
Writers (Bloggers)
Readers (Subscribers)
EXERCISE: Go back to your practice blog and write a post that explains who will write and read your blog.
Kivi Leroux Miller December 13th, 2006
Writing Style
Topics
Linking
Fundraising Considerations
Other Elements
Also see Making Blog Content More Valuable to Readers
EXERCISE: Go back to your practice blog and write a post that describes the type of content you would include. What categories might you have? What type of posts?
Kivi Leroux Miller December 13th, 2006
How Bloggers Spend Their Time
Making Time for Blogging
Kivi Leroux Miller December 13th, 2006
Hosted v. Installed
Pros and Cons of Various Platforms
Kivi Leroux Miller December 13th, 2006
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