Dear Esteemed Experts:

My non-profit organization is member-based, works on political advocacy, and is highly attuned to building good activist networks and groups using the best tools that technology has to offer.

However, at this point, we get invited to attend 15-20 different conferences (from policy to technology) throughout the year. We, like many others I'm sure, can only afford to send staff to 2-3. I'm increasingly having a harder and harder time vetting all of the professional conferences oriented to the non-profit community in order to focus on just the "best bang for the buck" events.

I would LOVE to know what others think are the top 3 to 5 MUST-ATTEND conferences in the land for activist-driven non-profit groups.

Hi Valerie:

That is such a great question! What we need is a wisdom of the crowds site that lists nonprofit conferences and we all rank them.

I don't think in terms of specific conferences, excpet for perhaps, NTC - from NTEN. I rotate and try to go to:

-Fundraising/Marketing Conference - Tactical
-Philthanthropy
-Social Change/Activisim
-Blogger/video conference

I asked colleagues before I sign up - I examine the speaker list and agenda - and match that again my personal learning goals. I also consider the size of the conference and see if I can a sense of the networking opportunities.

With that said, earlier this year, I worked on a project for compumentor where I developed a list of conferences for nonprofits that came through expert/peer recommendations. These were the ones for social actvistis:

Social Change and Politics

Name of conference:Cause Marketing Forum

* Name of sponsoring organization: Cause Marketing Forum
* URL: http://www.causemarketingforum.com/
* Date of most recent or upcoming: May 16-18
* Location: NY, NY
* Frequency: Annual
* Description: Business and nonprofit executives – Supercharge your cause marketing efforts with crucial advice from the pros.
* Speaking/Presenting Options: n/a
* Deadline: n/a

Name of conference:Personal Democracy Forum

* Name of sponsoring organization:Personal Democracy Forum
* URL: http://www.personaldemocracy.com/conference/2007
* Date of most recent or upcoming: May 18, 2007
* Location: NY, NY
* Frequency: Annual
* Description: Technology and the Internet are changing democracy in America. Personal Democracy Forum is a hub for the exciting conversation underway between political professionals, technologists, and anyone else invigorated by the remarkable potential of technology to engage citizens in the democratic process.
* Speaking/Presenting Options: Call for speakers
* Deadline: several months before conference

Name of conference:Politics Online Conference

* Name of sponsoring organization: Institute for Politics
* URL: http://polc.ipdi.org/
* Date of most recent or upcoming: March 15-16, 2007
* Location: Washington, DC
* Frequency: Annual
* Description: Entering its 14th year the Politics Online Conference, hosted by the Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet , has firmly established itself as the premiere conference for online political professionals in America, regularly attracting over 500 attendees from across the globe.
* Speaking/Presenting Options: n/a
* Deadline: n/a

Name of conference:Social Justice Fundraising Conference

* Name of sponsoring organization: Grassroots Fundraising
* URL:http://www.grassrootsfundraising.org/raising_change/index.htm
* Date of most recent or upcoming: August 4-5, 2006
* Location: Berkeley, CA
* Frequency:Annual
* Description:Together, we examined the role fundraising plays in base-building, community-building, and movement-building. We promoted skills and strategies for building organizations that are supported by their communities. We built relationships and shared stories and solutions. We discussed the politics of funding. And we did this as people of color, young people, monolingual Spanish-speakers, people from many regions of the United States, and seasoned fundraisers.
* Speaking/Presenting Options: n/a
* Deadline: n/a

Name of conference:Socially Responsible Supply Chains

* Name of sponsoring organization: Standford
* URL: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/csi/programs/ser.html
* Date of most recent or upcoming: Apirl 3, 2007
* Location: Standford University
* Frequency: First Annual
* Description: mprove your bottom line through social and environmental practices. This one-day event will bring together corporate and nonprofit leaders, policymakers, and academics to share best practices for creating sustainable supply chains that can improve business performance.
* Speaking/Presenting Options: n/a
* Deadline:n/a

Name of conference: Yearly Kos

* Name of sponsoring organization: Yearly Kos
* URL: http://www.yearlykosconvention.org/about
* Date of most recent or upcoming: August 2-3, 2007
* Location: Chicago, IL
* Frequency: Annual
* Description: An annual convention gathering people from all walks of life who belong to the Netroots community, the US-based (but globally focused and inclusive) non-partisan grassroots political action community that uses the Internet and blogs as primary tools for: expressing viewpoints, building consensus, acting to change the status quo, mobilizing huge numbers of people and informing each other and the world about current events, grassroots actions, networks, meetings, policy and more.
* Speaking/Presenting Options: n/a
* Deadline:n/a

Name of conference: National Conference on Civic Engagement

* Name of sponsoring organization: AmeriCorps/Texas Campus Compact (TXCC)
* URL: http://www.texascampuscompact.org/
* Date of most recent or upcoming: Feb. 15-18,2007
* Location: Austin, TX
* Frequency: Annual
* Description: This highly collaborative event will bring together many stakeholders in higher education and community and civic engagement, and will be the first of three National Conferences held in Texas. Future conferences are tentatively scheduled for 2009 and 2011. In order to ensure a successful conference and to present Austin as the perfect host city for this first National Conference, Texas Campus Compact and the University of Texas at Austin are actively seeking community partners and allies to assist in sponsoring this formative and meaningful event.
* Speaking/Presenting Options: n/a
* Deadline: n/a

Name of conference: Hands On Network Leadership Conference

* Name of sponsoring organization: Hands On Network
* URL: http://www.handsonnetwork.org/2007-leadership-conference
* Date of most recent or upcoming: March 15-17, 2007
* Location: New Orleans
* Frequency: Annual
* Description:The 2007 Hands On Network Leadership Conference is a gathering of some of the most dynamic leaders in the volunteer and community service sector. From cities and towns as diverse as Seattle to New Orleans, executive directors, board members, program managers, volunteers, corporate and nonprofit partners will come together to exchange best practices and rejuvenate each other through a celebration of our work empowering communities through innovative service and civic engagement.
* Speaking/Presenting Options: n/a
* Deadline: n/a

Yay! This is a wonderful list. Thanks so much for sharing it!

What are the best social networking sites and tools out there to help connect our members?

Hi there. I can point you to two great resources. First, Blogger Beth Kanter's recent presentation on the topic at http://fundraising20.wikispaces.com/Money+for+Mission . Second, you can build a fundraising widget for free that works on nearly all social networks at www.sixdegrees.org (full disclosure: that site is run by my organization). Information on how to use Six Degrees is here.

If you want to set up a group for your members on a social network, check out www.change.org. if you want create a private social network, try www.goingon.com. If you want to add some social network features to your own website, try www.kickapps.com.

Here's a question we received from UUSC. We are looking for information about courses (either in-person or on-line) that address writing and editing for the web. Any suggestions?

check this resource
http://www.writing911.com/database/idx/17/013/Writing911s-Free-ENewsletter/article/How-to-Sign-Up-and-What-You-Will-Receive.html

I shared the link to a recent M+R Strategic Services report called Digging into Enewsletters with partners.

Marianne from Our Voices Together posted these questions in response.

"Many thanks for this; it’s quite interesting. Just wondering whether MRSS’s expert analysis also looked at how to best craft the subject line to get the enewsletter opened. Are open rates higher if the subject line communicates urgency? Humor? Familiarity/regularity (i.e. July newsletter)? A suggested action? An item related to current events? What about a variety over the course of the quarter/uear? Also, did they notice any difference in open rates based on who the enewsletter came from? I.e. what if the “sender” is a prominent member of the organization or someone with name recognition vs newsletter@myorganization or mary@myorganization? Thanks!"

Hi Marianne,
those are all good questions but, unfortunately, they were not things we were able to look at in this round of research (we have to limit hte number of things we analyze at any given time if we hope to get these little analyses out with any regularity at all :))

All good things to look at in the future, though.

We have done some amount of testing on subject lines in the past but not specifically for enewsletters.

Sorry I can't be more helpful at this time.

Best,
Eve

Dear Marianne,

One good rule of thumb for marketing your e-newsletter is to think of it like a daily newspaper. In other words, headlines “sell” more than the name of the newspaper itself. Timeliness and urgency are important, but so are headlines that simply provoke curiosity by compelling the recipient to read on.

I subscribe to Alternet, the online progressive news magazine. Their subject lines/headlines make or break whether or not I click open the email. Remember that the subject line can accommodate no more than 50 to 60 characters. Alternet makes the most use of the limited space by splitting it with a divider, which you may consider, too.

Here’s an example from Alternet:

Why Many Women Don't Vote | Modern Day Jim Crow

Chances are if someone is receiving your e-newsletter, it’s because they signed up for it. That makes having it come from a “top dog” less important. That said, as a general principle, personalizing your communications is a good idea (no one likes to receive notices from “The Management”), so the e-newsletter could come from your communications or outreach director or another living, breathing human being in your organization.

You should consider reserving prominent people within your organization for the “from” line if you are likely at some point in the future to send out special requests and actions. By isolating these events, you are more likely to get a second look when you really need to rally the troops.


Bonus tip: If you’re worried that something in your subject line will condemn it to spam filter hell, you can run it through a free content checker ahead of time. Here’s one such service: http://www.lyris.com/resources/contentchecker.

Lisa

There's a lot of research about subject lines, both on eNewsletters and other types of email. Most of it was conducted with the commercial world in mind, but there's no reason I see to suspect (barring other research!) that it's invalid when it comes to nonprofit enewsletters. Some research links:

The best research I know of on email newsletters is by the Neilson Norman group: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/newsletters.html Unfortunately, it's $400 for the full report

Here's some other sources that may be useful
http://www.returnpath.biz/resources/archives/2006/05/subject_line_re.php
http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/copywriting/subject-lines/
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=2228311

The upshot is that there are a lot of best practices, but, as usual, no substitute for actual testing various subject lines with your own audience.

Laura

I'm sorry my response comes a little late. In my experience, any subject line that can increase your user's curiosity is a good one. So humor or reference to a current event the email relates to are both good tactics. Lines like "July Newsletter" will not be successful in that it fails to give the user a true reason to open the the newsletter.

At Free Range, we test different subject lines through our DIA (Salsa) system. Over time, we hope to see patterns of what really gets folks to open our mail- the Free Range name? A powerful fact? Humor?

So in a nutshell, I say go for the interesting (but keep it short) and test, test and then respond according to your test results.

Hope this helps,

Susan

Here's a posting from Eve Fox at M+R Strategic Services and a question we received in response to it.

I wanted to share some interesting information from a successful online fundraising campaign we launched on June 7th for our client, the Save Darfur Coalition. The campaign focused on the coalition’s Divest for Darfur advocacy campaign although the funds raised were not restricted to any one program or campaign goal. We set a public goal of raising $400,000 online by Friday, June 15th.

We’d planned a series of three stand-alone email appeals to the email list as part of the campaign. We managed to meet and surpass the $400,000 goal, raising a total of $415,711 online in a week and a half’s time. However, we would not have gotten there had we stuck with our original plan of sending out just three email appeals.

Click here to read the full article.
http://www.nonprofitintegrator.org/?p=98

QUESTION:
From Marty Wrin, Grassroots International

Wow, those are some great results!

Any idea how many names they have on their email list?

Is this the first time they’ve had this type of success?

Thanks for posting the article.

Just wanted to respond to Marty Wrin's questions.

Their list at the time was roughly 900,000 activists and donors (roughly 400K of which were fairly new to the list).

We have run other successful fundraising campaigns for them previous to this effort and since. While quite good, the results for the June campaign were not record-breaking - I shared them to give a better illustration of how the various techniques we used worked to get us to the goal. If these are not the same kinds of results you are used to seeing, I would not get demoralized as Darfur is a relatively easy issue to fundraise around, for obvious reasons (it's a terrible tragedy, the urgency is obvious to all, it's in the news every day, it has a lot of celebrity spokespeople, etc.)

Hello. I work for a nonprofit that is seeking to promote its work through comments on blogs. The idea, I think, is to insert ourselves into existing conversations and networks and contribute our work to what is already being said. Does anyone have experience with doing this? It seems like a full-time job all on its own. Any idea on how to focus and to be strategic, other than just doing technorati searches for relevant blogs and blog posts? Thanks so much for your help.

Bree, this can be a very labor intensive project, though not always. Regardless, it is worth the effort.

To help ease the process, you can set up a Google alert on their blog search engine (http://blogsearch.google.com) for your keywords. These can be delivered via email, RSS, or Atom. Technorati also allows you to set up RSS feed for any keyword search. In both cases, you run your search normally on those sites and then subscribe to the feed or alert. This will give you a steady feed of relevant daily blog posts.

In order to prioritize which blogs to engage, you will still want to check Technorati for the authority rating. The more blogs that link to the one with the post you want to comment on, the higher the priority.

You should also subdivide your priority targets based on the topic of the blog. Figure that blogs that are highly relevant to your issue(s) are reaching your core constituency. Blogs that focus on other topics, but in this instance has commented on your issue, will help you reach new audiences.

Another way, though problematic, to assess the priority of blogs is to use Alexa.com. Alexa provides traffic stats (though not perfect) that can help you assess the size of a blog's readership.

Many blogs also include a link to Site Meter or some traffic stats service on the bottom of their homepage. This is another, more accurate way to measure the site's readership.

If you have limited staff resources, these tips can help you triage your blog responses.

As for the engagement itself, it is best if you develop a relationship with the blogs you comment on. A one-time comment won't get you very far. But engaging in a conversation with the blogger and the other commenters will help you establish a credible voice in the discussion. Even if you only engage on a single issue, check the responses to your comments frequently and carry on the discussion.

Another tactic is to reference comments and posts on other blogs, linking to them as you do. If you are able to weave comments and posts on several blogs into a coherent conversation, everyone wins. Bloggers get more exposure, readers get more context, and you get your message out more effectively.

Finally, and most importantly, whenever you post to a comment to a blog, make sure you are familiar with what that blogger has written, both on your issue and others. It is essential that you convey an authentic understanding of the blog community you are engaging on every blog you engage.

-Alan

Dear Bree,

You've asked a hard question, and one that reaches beyond blog commenting to the issue of ROI on the multitude of new communications channels (and yes, participating in the conversation is indeed a channel) that keep popping on to the scene.

Alan's done a great job of summarizing how to identify those bloggers who are most influential in your organization's field or issue arena. I recommend that you note the "top ten," and then focus on reading and commenting on the "top five."

Track posts from the top ten on Bloglines or another blog reader that allows you to edit, save, etc. That's the best way to track key blog conversations, and far less onerous than getting updates via email.

Bree, go beyond just commenting. Email these "top five" and let them know who you are and what you get out of their blog content. Let them know you'll be spreading the word about their blogs.

Just one caveat, blog commenting is far more productive if you're blogging too. When you do, you can request blogroll (the list of recommended blogs and/or favorite reads on most blogs) placement and, even more importantly, provide a venue for conversation on your key topics for the "top five"
bloggers and other bloggers and readers.

Bree, I see that the Center for Public Media has two blogs in place, so you're all set to jump into commenting. Let us know how it goes.

Thank you both for these great suggestions - I really appreciate your taking the time to answer my questions. It seems like it's not an easy answer, though not impossible. Please feel free to add any other thoughts or ideas that you might have. Thank you again!
-bree