Social networks can be so important for communicating with folks who support (or will support) your cause. The high speed and low cost of such outreach can offer huge dividends, but mostly those dividends are paid in good will and spurring interest. Online donations are certainly growing, but as a report from Blackbaud this year […]
#PHILANTHROPY: Evidence Of ‘Emerging Charitable Markets’ & How To Tap Into Them
An article on yesterday’s E-Jewish Philanthropy caught our eye because the authors did a really interesting bit of research into the top givers in US in this calendar year. The study by Robert I. Evans and Avrum D. Lapin demonstrates how useful a careful parsing of statistics can be for fundraisers, and how that parsing […]
#PROAGING: Olympics & Social Media Suggest Shrinking Digital Divide
NBC might have gotten some bad press for giving away results before showing them tape-delayed in the lucrative hours of prime time. These Olympics have both been the ‘first Social Olympics’ and the first to struggle to understand what such instantaneous communication can mean to corporate and sporting interests. And, as it turns out, most […]
#PROAGING: Majority Of Senior Citizens Online & Many More Using E-Readers
The fine folks at the Pew Internet and American Life Project marked a notable milestone in the history of electronic communications this past spring: “53% of American adults ages 65 and older use the internet or email. Though these adults are still less likely than all other age groups to use the internet, the latest […]
#FUNDRAISING: The Holiday Season For Donations Begins Now. Ready?
The pools are open and busy. The grill has cooled down since the July-4th Picnic. The MLB All-Star Game is tonight. It’s July. One of the traditional/old-fashioned ways to disrupt the heat is to hold a “Christmas in July” party, and your nonprofit or charity should be having one. Why? To celebrate the good work […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: NTEN 2012 Report Shows Real ROI Growth Over Past Year
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Okay, so you have been developing your nonprofit’s presence on the staples of social media new for a couple of years. Facebook page? Check. Twitter account? Sure. But how much time do you want to put into keeping up with those outlets? Has your organization seen any growth in volunteers or donors thanks to the […]
#COMMUNICATIONS: Is Your Organization Moving At The Speed Of Mobile?
With the rise of the smartphone and its ability to be the computer for millions of people around the world, mobile technology is becoming more powerful and less expensive every few months. And with those technological changes come changes of habit and expectation. One of the changes we and many others have commented on is […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Twitter Continues To Expand Through Mobile Devices
The Pew Internet and American Life Project has brought us valuable statistics and reported notable trends in internet use over the years, and a recent report focused on the growing use of Twitter as a means of social networking. Twitter could be described as a social networking platform that punches above its weight class. Twitter […]
#INTERVIEW: Derrick Feldmann, CEO of Achieve, Discusses The Millennial Impact Report Coming June 11
Derrick Feldmann is CEO of Achieve, a creative fundraising agency that produces The Millennial Impact Report, an annual research study of Millennial Generation donors. (The 2012 report will be released on Monday.) The agency also hosts the only national virtual summit, MCON, on Millennials annually. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of […]
#TECH: Why & How To Send One Text Message To Your Nonprofit’s Constituents
Ever more people want to communicate with their mobile devices, and they want to communicate on their mobile devices with text messaging. The distinction between those under about 25 and those older is striking − with the under 25s responding to emails, and even aural phone messages, with text. But even those who actually make calls […]
#CIVICS: Apple’s Billions In Tax Dodges Come Under Scrutiny
Apple Inc. is making it difficult to feel sympathy for Apple Inc. When the blogosphere challenged Apple the business and Steve Jobs the CEO to act like a good corporate citizen by offering some philanthropic goodwill, we took a fairly conciliatory position that Apple’s job is innovative technology and Apple’s innovative technology has been a […]
#FUNDRAISING: 2011 Was A Good Year For Email Outreach By Nonprofits
With all the excitement about all the social networks and all the purchases that Facebook has been making lately, it’s worth remembering that not only do more ‘traditional’ media exist but they also can be of greater value than the newest platform that has all the media and investor eyeballs. Such should be especially remembered […]
#Tech: The Net Is Not Quite Dead, But It’s Not Your Mom’s Web Anymore
First of all, an adjustment/correction to yesterday’s story: Facebook pushed back its rollout of Timeline across all accounts until tomorrow, the 31st. Facebook did this rather quietly and did not state why, but you now have about 20 hours to get your Timeline up-and-running, as we outlined yesterday. (Thanks to Cody Damon of Damon Strategic for […]
#TECH: RSS Readers To Help Save Time & Sort Out News & Emails
We continued our series on Tumblr yesterday with some guidance to get your nonprofit’s blog out via an RSS feed that allows people to subscribe to your site. When they subscribe, they get automatic updates and summaries of whatever is going on in your blog. The great aspect of setting an RSS feed for your […]
#PROAGING: Social Tech Rewiring Social Connections For Millennials
Each generation seems predisposed to believe the next generation will be materially better off but intellectually or spiritually weaker. Whether it’s Socrates complaining about writing over memorizing, John of Salisbury lamenting the rise of law schools in twelfth-century England, or Grandpa Simpson opining about how much better everything was in his day, thinkers tends to […]
#PROAGING: AARP Explores Benefits & Challenges of ‘Technology For All’
With much fanfare, the first babyboomers moved into the official era of retirement last year as they celebrated 65 years of life. They were the first ripples of a ‘Silver Tsunami’ of Boomer retirees who will bring changes to entertainment, to Social Security, medical services, to retirement life. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) […]
#SocialNetworks: Senior Living Communities See ROI On Social Media
Outreach to older Americans through social media might have once seemed a bit like trying to create an oasis in a desert: a great deal of effort lost in the sand. But survey after survey has demonstrated how use of social media has become an important part of the lives of millions of seniors. Which […]
#ProAging: GAP Index Highlights Global Challenges Of Care For Aging
http://vimeo.com/18687471
The fact of the aging of the global population is something our readers are likely at least acquainted with. The phenomenon has arisen as life expectancy has lengthened even in developing countries and populations in developed countries often are not having enough children even to replace themselves. The result is that most national populations whose […]
#ProAging: SM Savvy Encourages Cross-Generational Connection
With Thanksgiving a mere 36+ hours away (30 of which might be spent in a ticket line or sitting on a runway or hoping the traffic finally gets moving), we are all thinking about re-connecting to family and old friends. That we do so via social networking platforms has become the assumption among the Millennials […]
#Health: Study Shows Advantages Of Conversation No One Wants
Remember Obama’s Death Panels? No, they didn’t exist. But like ‘cooties,’ the scared and the immature just kept repeating that they were waiting to snatch us up. What the Healthcare Reform Bill wanted to institute was the opportunity – nay, the expectation – for families to have regular consultations with their doctors about end-of-life/palliative care […]
#ProAging: Mandated Cuts In Medicare Stifle Expansion Plans
This past October 1st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) put into effect new regulations concerning the payment or reimbursement of services to skilled nursing facilities and certain types of housing for older Americans. The reductions in payments were targeted at 3-4%. As the regulations were being finalized late this summer, we posted reactions […]
#ProAging: How Might The 7 Billion Humans Age?
Earlier this week, the human race passed the 7-billion mark, and continues to expand. Much of the attention given to that milestone as focused on the many thousands of births that take place each second all around the world, but especially in India and subsaharan Africa. Yet, the other side of the demographic story must […]
#ProAging: Which US Cities Offer The Best Lifestyle To Their Older Citizens?
Dave Letterman offers only a “Top 10” list, but Bankers Life and Casualty has just published its Top 50 “Best US Cities For Seniors 2011” and the list contains a few surprises – though, admittedly, not so many laughs. The list was drawn up with an effort to establish some stable criteria that were, in […]
#Tech: Halloween Weekend & Scary Stories Of Cloud Computing
Apple launched iCloud a couple of weeks back with much fanfare. The service is meant to improve the lags, vulnerabilities, and complications of MobileMe. And neither is particularly bleeding-edge technology. Apple’s efforts (as is so often the case) were to simplify and beatify the experience of cloud computing for the consumer (whether on Windows or […]
#Finance: Postage Rates For Nonprofits Realigned. Do Yours Go Down Or Up?
The Nonprofit Times has a story we wanted to pass on to our readers about the adjustments to US Postal Rates that will have an impact on nonprofits and their mailing budgets. The news is important, but not dramatic. The story quotes Anthony Conway, Director of the Alliance for Nonprofit Mailers, who was rather sanguine about […]
#ProAging: Guidance For Older Americans Looking For Work
The unemployment rate of 9.1% seems pretty bad psychologically, especially for Americans that can remember the myth of unemployment rates of 2-3% a decade or so ago. But the unemployment rate flattens out some really horrific numbers: For African-American men between 20-30, the rate is about 18%, for example. And all these numbers get somewhat […]
#ProAging: Social Security Recipients Enjoy COLA For First Time In Two Years
Social Security has built into its law and budgets a ‘Cost of Living Adjustment‘ (COLA) tied to inflation and/or rising prices. Those prices have, if anything, fallen during The Great Recession, so recipients have not seen a COLA since 2009. But the Social Security Administration published its formula this week to account for a 3.6% […]
#ProAging: Study Shows Americans Optimistic and Unprepared For Heath In Retirement (Part 2 of 2)
Last Thursday we shared a report conducted by National Public Radio (NPR), who has been presenting the findings of their in-depth survey concerning how recent retirees and soon-to-be retirees (those over 50) view retirement. The report was conducted by NPR, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. The takeaway of the survey shows that those […]
#ProAging: Study Shows Americans Optimistic and Unprepared For Retirement (Part 1 of 2)
Over the last few days, National Public Radio (NPR) has been presenting the findings of an in-depth survey and study of how recent retirees and soon-to-be retirees (those over 50) view retirement. The report was conducted by NPR, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. The findings show a general […]
#Tech: Pew Internet Project Breaks Down Use Of Communications Tech Across Generations
The contours of the findings of the Pew Internet and American Life Project report on ‘Generations and their Gadgets’ you probably already know: Younger Americans use more mobile devices than older Americans. Older Americans generally access the internet from a desktop computer, whereas those under 35 tend to do so with a laptop/netbook. Etc. But […]
#Aging: Nielsen’s Latest Survey Of Social-Media Use Shows Continued Expansion Among Those Over 55
It may not be news to any of us that the use of social media continues to grow. Nor is the fact that mobile acces to social media via cell phones and tablets grows faster still. What the Nielsen survey for the third quarter of 2011 demonstrates, though, is that the most interesting statistics of growth […]
#Aging: A Good Read On Changing Retirement Opportunities For This Rainy Day
As the Eastern seaboard tries to find somewhere to put all this rain, besides on top of all the rain Irene left us, you might be looking for a good policy read to while away the dark and stormy night. Researchers Richard W. Johnson, Barbara A. Butrica, and Corina Mommaerts of the Urban Institute of […]