More and more people use the internet to guide them in their philanthropy. Every organization has a donor culture, most have several. It is important as you develop and grow your online community that you have an intentional culture. What are your online goals? Are your goals: to have more people learn and read about your issues, to secure more online donations, or to be as up-to-date as other nonprofits?
Create some kind of opportunity for your community to engage you online via a comment box, forum, or Facebook page. As people visit your website you are sending a message regardless of if you try to or not. Potential donors will look at your website and evaluate you. Are you an organization that they can give money to? Can donors ask questions and have a conversation about the difference their money has made? That is not always important to all donors, but is important for younger donors and emerging philanthropists.
Our local opera has a special group for young opera goers to which they have created their own board and run private youth-focused events. I think this is a great way to bring a younger generation into the opera world. When you are creating an online community, you want to think about your audience this way too. Who is reading your website? Where is your reader’s place there? Have a post that is catered to that group or talk about an issue that they would be specifically interested in.
Related posts:
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }