Hi everyone. Just a reminder that all of us Blogbaudians have picked up and moved into new digs over at blogs.blackbaud.com. Come by and see us!

Product Blogs

• The User’s Edge — The official blog of The Raiser’s Edge
• The Ledger — The official blog of The Financial Edge
• The Spotlight — The official blog of The Patron Edge
• The Book Bag — Blackbaud’s school software blog

Personal Blogs

• Connections — Steve MacLaughlin, Director of Internet Solutions
• Navigating the Fundraising Universe — Jim Bush, Enterprise Bus. Architect
• Webby Things — Chad Norman, Manager of Internet Marketing

Corporate Blogs

• From the Doc Side — The Product Documentation Team Blog
• Blackbaud News — Up-to-date Blackbaud News

Industry Blogs

• NetWits — Internet marketing, communication, tools, and technology

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As part of our upgraded online community, some new blogs are coming to life over at Blackbaud.com:

The User’s Edge: The Official Blog of the Raiser’s Edge
The Ledger: The Official Blog of The Financial Edge
The Spotlight: The Official Blog of The Patron Edge

There are also a couple of personal blogs: Steve MacLaughlin’s Connections and my own Webby Things. The infamous Jim Bush is next, along with a few more brave souls we’re coaxing out of the ‘baud. Stay tuned for more, or just subscribe to Blackbaud Blogs (rss) and let us come to you.

I just ran across this amazing WWF campaign designed to raise awareness of exhaust emissions in China. This demonstration not only achieved its goal by catching eyeballs as people walked by, but its original concept attracted television and newspaper coverage from not only around the county, but around the world.

The text on the balloon reads, “Drive one day less and look how much carbon monoxide you’ll keep out of the air we breathe.”

The takeaway here is to always be on the lookout for original ways to get your message out there. Getting impressions via alternative methods can have great results, as seen here.

Via, AdGoodness.

After a few days of server chaos, we are finally back online - sorry for any inconvenience. Due to the issue that caused the meltdown, we had to switch the location of the blog install. So, if you were getting content via our RSS feed, please note the new URL.

Attention Junior Achievement chapters - this post is for you! Well, it’s actually for everyone, but Junior Achievements are famous for their bowl-a-thons. These are great, interactive fundraising events that have proven successful for many years - but could they be better?

So, I’m bowling on my Nintendo Wii the other night, and got to thinking about how easy, fun, and approachable the system is as a whole. Even my parents like it! Maybe this bowling game could be put to good use? How about a Wii-a-thon?

Maybe this can actually compete with a real bowl-a-thon, but for certain organizations hosting a Wii-a-thon might appeal to a more youthful audience. This could increase participation, donations, and media awareness. Nobody is really doing this yet, so this might be a good opportunity to get noticed in your community.

Here are ten reasons why a Wii-a-thon might be right for you:

1. Bowler’s average scores are higher (more $$$).
2. You don’t need an available bowling alley.
3. Participants can wear their own shoes.
4. Physically limited bowlers can participate.
5. Bowl-a-thons could span time and location.
6. There is no cost if you have access to a Wii.
7. Bowlers can rock & bowl to their own music.
8. Participants won’t smell like a bowling alley when they get home.
9. Multiple locations could be used to increase participation.
10. Actual bowling is tired, Wii bowling is wired.

Happy bowling!

Yesterday, I received an email from Woody Clark, a trust representative from 501(c) Agencies Trust. He has written a short paper on how nonprofits can reduce their unemployment insurance costs, and thought the nonprofit community should know about it. Saving money…who wouldn’t want to do that?

It’s a quick read, so I’ll type no more:

In your State, as in all States, a Nonprofit has two options for Unemployment Insurance while a For Profit Corporation only has one. Typically, a Nonprofit and For Profit pay for unemployment claims through State Unemployment Insurance tax (SUI). But unlike their counterparts, Nonprofits have an alternative choice – to become a reimbursing employer. This means that it can pay the state only for claims paid out to former employees.

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Everest Y&R came up with a great viral campaign for Support, a non governmental organization registered as a charitable trust in Mumbai, India. Their campaign to bring awareness to homeless children was a huge success in coffee shops around India, and got good coverage throughout the world media.

By simply slipping these cutout children into existing table tents, their message was delivered to a captive audience with minimal impact on the community - exactly the way guerrilla campaigns should go down.

The text reads:

Over two lakh children live in places you can never imagine. Help the Children. Donate.

I think it’s important to show that guerrilla marketing efforts should still be implemented when the situation calls for it, despite what happened in Boston two weeks ago. Campaigns like these resonate strongly with an audience who is increasingly turned off by TV, print, and email advertisements.

via Ads of the World

It’s February 1st - have you updated your Web site’s copyright date yet?

If you haven’t, you’re not alone. Forgetting to update is commonplace, and I see it all the time. Data was needed, so yesterday I checked out the top 100 nonprofits. What I found was shocking.

I expected a few would have forgotten, but not 34%. I even saw a few that still were listed as 2005 - wow! But don’t feel bad - the top 100 for-profits didn’t fair much better, with 18% forgetting to update.

Are you still reading? Have you checked your site yet?

There are many ways to handle your Web site’s copyright info, some of which require no updating at all. I took a look how nonprofits and for-profits were displaying copyright info, and was able to identify five buckets to drop each method into:

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We talk a lot about nonprofits using the social web to attract and engage donors, but the concepts trend more towards awareness than action. Using MySpace or YouTube to deliver your message to a broad audience is one thing - getting them to act is another.

That’s where SixDegrees.org, AOL Instant Messenger, and Network for Good come in. Someone had the brilliant idea to put these three ingredients into a giant Web 2.0 blender in the hopes of producing a tasty, social fundraising smoothie – and it looks like they have succeeded.

With Kevin Bacon as the natural pitchman, 6Degrees.org is asking donors to choose a nonprofit, then get 6 friends to give to the same organization. Network for Good is covering the online donations, while AOL’s MySpace equivalent AIM Pages handles the social aspect. The idea is to use a social network to form impromptu giving circles…got it?

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I just ran across this great viral campaign and had to share it with you all. It’s a CO2 awareness piece that conveys a well-worn message in a unique way. Sure it’s a bit guerrilla, invasive, and possibly illegal, but I still love it. Congrats to BUND (the German arm of Friends of the Earth) - this concept is a breath of fresh dirty air.

Viral marketing is hard to track using metrics, but it gets noticed never the less. Local newspaper and television coverage are both free and potent, so don’t forget to explore concepts like this at your next planning meeting.

via Houtlog

These first couple of weeks have been exciting to say the least. I really want to thank all of you who have left comments…your participation is welcome, if not needed, and you have the ears of nearly everyone here at Blackbaud. Keep those comments coming!

We have new readers arriving all the time, so I wanted to highlight some of the comments that caught my eye over the last few days.

A lot of readers were happy to see that Shaun Sullivan would be blogging, but Charlie Crystle thinks he may have found Shaun’s motivation:

It’s about time, Shaun! I figured once you stopped reading my blog you’d find the time to start your own.

Cason White really opened up the floor with his first two posts: A Dialog on Design, and Blackbaud 2.0. Cason and the entire Design team are excited to begin this dialog, and it sounds like a few of you feel the same way. Peter Gulka kept it broad when he wrote:

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Each week, billions of searches generate millions of dollars for companies like Google and Yahoo!. It’s hard to believe this much revenue can be generated simply from clicks and data retrieval. What if some of that cash could be diverted to your organization?

That question was on the minds of Ken and JJ Ramberg when they launched GoodSearch.com back in 2005. GoodSearch donates 50% of their ad revenue to nonprofit organizations…and the kicker is that users choose which ones. Here’s how it works:

On the GoodSearch homepage, choose from thousands of organizations or add your favorite cause to our list. Search the Internet just like you normally would — the site is powered by Yahoo!, so you’ll get the same high-quality search results you’re accustomed to. Fifty percent of the revenue generated from advertisers is shared with the charity, school or nonprofit organization of your choosing.

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When you read something, you remember it.
When you do something, you believe it.

That’s what Madrid agency Zapping must have been thinking when they created this awareness campaign for a European nonprofit. In order to rent these shopping carts, customers must insert a coin into the child’s mouth. The text under the child reads, “You can feed a child for two days with what you spend renting this cart, Help.”

This ad may be short on subtlety, but it makes up for that with an abundance of clarity and creativity. I love when ads make me act, make me think, and make me care - this one does all three.

via Houtlog

I recently ran across a new video sharing site for nonprofits, DoGooder.tv. Very cool. The site is live right now, though in alpha, and allows nonprofits to post high-quality videos for a small fee free. They plan to include more community and online donation functionality down the road, so this is pretty exciting.

But will nonprofits flock to DoGooderTV instead of free alternatives like YouTube or Google Video? DoGooderTV will always have a captive audience looking for nonprofit content, but whether or not organizations will be willing to pay for that placement remains to be seen. Tracking…

Update: Michael says:

The site is 100% FREE! A new version is online now that allows nonprofits to create basic home pages and upload video.

That’s great news from the DoGooderTV camp - not only because the the service will be free, but social elements like creating pages are coming sooner rather than later.

Using the Social Web, also referred to as Web 2.0, is a great way for your nonprofit to reach donors and spread your message.

Social sites are built to encourage sharing, and few things are more effective and inexpensive than viral marketing. While maintaining your own Web site will always be a priority, there are other ways to spread your organization’s story via the Internet.

Here are ten social web resolutions that can give your nonprofit an edge in 2007:

• Create a page at MySpace.com
  Your donors are getting younger, or at least they are acting younger…so should you. Reach out to them via MySpace.com this year. Setup a page for your organization, gather friends, post bulletins, and point people back to your online donation page.
• Go in-world with Second Life
  Get an account started at Second Life, and take your nonprofit into the virtual world. This is cutting edge internet marketing, so getting started now may get you closer to tech-savvy donors who are looking for something different. Have a meet-up in Second Life to discuss your annual campaign or just chat about issues. If you do it right, Reuters might show up and cover the event in the real world.

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I just wanted to kick off this blog with a big hello from all of us here at Blackbaud.

We’ve started this site to give our employees a platform to sound off on what they know best: technology, nonprofits, business, and Blackbaud itself. There are a few of us here who have wanted to blog for years, and now we’ll have our chance. We look forward to discussing topics with you, so please leave some comments!

We would love to hear what you think, so if you have a question or comment just let us know.