Nonprofit Communications

It’s the first of the month, which is Blogtipping Day. This month I selected three blogs I hadn’t read before from the list at Philanthropy.com’s Give & Take section. It’s the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s section on the nonprofit blogosphere and they have a nice list of nonprofit blogs on the site. I’m also getting a fair amount of traffic to this blog from their list, so I owe them a little love.
On to the ‘tipping . . .

Sea Change Strategies “Research and strategy for remarkable causes”

What I Like:

1. The About Us page describes how they are different from other consultants. I’m rewriting my “about” page and I appreciate their approach. I actually read the whole thing because it was interesting and not just a laundry list of skills.

2. Helpful posts written in a personal style.

3. Nice logo, nice look.

My Tip:

Flesh out that blogroll a bit. Tell us who you like to read.

The Nonprofiteer “Nonprofits without the Nonsense”

What I Like:

1. Pooh-poohs the “pretense and pieties” of the nonprofit sector.

2. Some interesting perspectives I haven’t seen elsewhere - originality in blogging is always a great thing in my mind.

3. Substantive posts; not lots of fluff.

My Tip:

The blog is written in the third person: “The Nonprofiteer says . . .” I find it a bit off-putting.

Wild Apricot “A Blog on Nonprofit Technology”

What I Like:

1. This is an IT company blog, but the majority of posts aren’t sales pitches or product updates.

2. Very how-to and tip oriented.

3. It’s easy on the eyes - text is very easy to read online.

My Tip:

Put the full post on the main page for at least the most recent post or two. I know this is just a personal pet peeve, but I don’t like all the “Read More” links on the front page.

Please join me in blogtipping the first of each month. It’s as simple as this post. You offer three things you like and one suggestion for three different blogs. Tag your post blogtipping and if it is about nonprofit sector blogs, npblogtipping.

I’ve decided to start blogtipping as a way to help build and support the nonprofit blogging community, along with managing the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. If you are also blogtipping in the nonprofit sector, please tag your posts npblogtipping (thanks to Michele for making the call on that one).

I didn’t know about these three blogtippees until I went through my incoming links at Technorati. I think they are all interesting and hope you’ll take a moment to visit them.

#1: The Nonprofit Design Manual

What I Like:

1. This is a new blog, started in January, but it already has some great stuff, like tips on partnering with your printer.

2. Nice, clean, bright Wordpress template. There are so many dark and dreary ones out there.

3. Great niche. This is the type of information that nonprofits desperately need and I don’t see much of it available. I’m looking forward to more posts I can recommend to my readers.
My Tip to the Blogger:

Tell us about yourself. People will trust your advice more if they know something about you personally. It could also bring you more work. I see you are linking to NC resources, and since I’m also in NC and often in need of a good designer who I can sub work out to, I’d love to learn about any consulting you do.

#2: areopagitica

What I Like:

1. Another good niche: consulting for faith-based nonprofits mixed with all kinds of snarky commentary.

2. Even though it is a “faith” blog, you will find words like “bitch,” “freaking” and “suck” in posts. I know it’s not P.C. for communications professionals to endorse profanity or its lighter forms as intelligent language, but I don’t have a problem with it, and even advocate it, in the right places. This blog’s got personality.

3. Frequent posting (to put it mildly).

My Tip to the Blogger:

Tell people what your blog title means on your About page. I had to Google it. (Yes, I avoided philosophy classes like the plague during my time at UC Berkeley. So much for my good liberal education.) Now that I know what it means, I see that it’s a great title for your blog.

#3: Michael Stein’s Non-Profit Technology Blog

What I Like:

1. Interesting connections between IT needs and organizational development. I’m seeing some intense cross-overs with one of my clients right now, so I’m relieved to see someone is thinking about these issues. Because nonprofits are relying so much on technology to make their communications work more effective and cost-efficient, I end up in more IT conversations than I ever expected.

2. Gives big exposure to the Nonprofit Blog Exchange in his left sidebar (prime real estate). I think it only makes sense for bloggers who are consultants in the sector to give back to the community on their blogs.

3. I really liked this post on “feature fatigue.” People say they want lots of features, but when they get them, the product is too complicated to use. I have clients who want all the bells and whistles. Problem is they can barely play the bells they have now and don’t have a clue about the whistles. This blog is helping me understand better ways to talk about these issues with clients.

My Tip to the Blogger:

I’m a big fan of archives by tag/category, which I didn’t see on your blog.

If you blogtipped in the nonprofit sector this month, be sure to tag it npblogtipping and blogtipping (using both tags will get you the most exposure). Also please include your permalink in a comment on this post.

I have decided to start blogtipping and I encourage my friends in the blogosphere to join in the fun.

Here is what you do. On the first of each month, pick three blogs that you want to give some exposure to on your blog. For each one, list three things you like and provide one helpful tip. Short little bullets are fine. No lengthy analysis required. Tag your post “blogtipping” so the founder of this concept, Easton Ellsworth at Business Blogwire, knows you are participating. Let me know too, by commenting with your blogtipping permalink on either this post or on my upcoming blogtip post on 3/1/07. If enough people in the nonprofit sector participate, maybe we can come up with our own tag.