Nonprofits Archives | machetemag

Cause-Specific Websites: The Flood Gates are Open

Nonprofits, Tech & Web

A couple weeks back I introduced the new nonprofit social startup Causecast.org. I have since learned of two great websites that put Causecast back in the ‘contender’ category – because they have been around a lot longer and both enjoy a substantial amount of members.

In fact, SocialVibe.com and Ammado.com share many of the same ’causes’ . Both websites provide visitors with a wide selection of nonprofits to follow. SocialVibe wins my vote as the most efficient, usable, and well-designed website. The website allows you to ‘join’ as many causes as you wish – once you join a cause you can contribute to the nonprofit’s SocialVibe community by submitting donations, uploading multimedia (photos, videos), writing in a cause-specific forum, and finally, you can share the nonprofit’s SocialVibe page on other social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.). The ‘One Laptop Per Child’ cause has a well-utilized page on SocialVibe.
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Youtube launches 'In My Name' video project for poverty elimination

Nonprofits, Tech & Web

Today, Youtube launches a new philanthopic effort aimed at addressing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) to end global poverty. Starting today, through November 1st, site visitors throughout the world will be able to submit videos of themselves addressing a local and/or global poverty-related issue.

If executed effectively the ‘In My Name’ project will prove to be one of the most effective povert-related campaigns ever executed, both online and offline. Youtube’s massive reach (estimated 73.5 million per month) is the main reason for the campaign’s inevitable success. Today’s teens and young adults are spending more of their free time online than watching tv and reading magazines – if any youth-focused marketing campaign is to prove effective it must have a substantial online component. The youthful and tech-saavy demographic that accounts for the majority of Youtube’s daily audience is a huge plus on its own.
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Strategic Philanthropy: Often Overlooked, Corporations & Nonprofits Both Cash In

Marketing, Nonprofits

Cause Marketing, Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Responsibility — these are todays keywords. Partnerships between nonprofits and for-profit companies can create highly successful campaigns that ensure gains for both organizations. This also works when nonprofits team up with high-profile celebrities to work on specific campaigns.

Nonprofit organizations, constantly suffering a limited amount of resources, benefit from capital funding as well as the image of the partner corporation. Corporations stand to improve their reputation as socially responsible enterprises while developing priceless emotional connections with their stakeholders.

Lately we’ve seen prominent celebrities attaching their names and faces to nonprofit campaigns…these campaigns have in turn achieved levels of brand awareness that rival that of today’s most prominent corporations. Examples of celebrity-cause partnerships are Bono and Product (Red); Angelina Jolie and UNICEF; and who can forget Lance Armstrong and his own cancer fighting organization LiveStrong.

Ethics in Fundraising

Marketing, Nonprofits

In its everlasting quest to receive funding, a nonprofit organization may be faced with various ethical concerns. Three areas that are particularly liable to ethical issues are:

1. The Sources of Funding
2. The Socio-Political Location where funds are applied
3. The Specific Causes that receive collected funds

1. The Sources of Funding
In an attempt to increase community goodwill and gain good P.R. points, a private company may choose to donate money to a nonprofit. It is important to the stability and success of the nonprofit to screen the monies received from corporations – as opposed to accepting all incoming donations.

Example: Gold Rush Casino donates money and forms a strategic partnership with the local Counseling Center for Gambling. The deal turns sour for the Counseling Center when the casino is accused of defrauding and taking advantage of slot machine users. The local community may very well correlate the Casino’s actions with the reputation of the well-intending Counseling Center for Gambling. The Center then stands to lose it’s members’ support – then sponsorships – then operating funds – and the rest is history. Continue reading …

Marketing at Three D.C. Metro Non Profit Organizations

Marketing, Nonprofits

** If you’re looking for marketing advice for your Nonprofit – please contact me at Nova Advertising **

CrisisLink (Arlington, VA)
Coptic Orphans (Falls Church, VA)
Muslim Association of Virginia (Prince William County, VA)

Introduction

Nonprofit organizations play an important role in the operation of day-to-day activities in the United States; furthermore, they can be very sophisticated international entities that are operated by “well-trained MBAs and ex-businesspeople” (Strategic Marketing, 5). The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is home to a lot of nonprofit organizations including three from Virginia that will be analyzed in this report: CrisisLink, Coptic Orphans, and the Muslim Association of Virginia. Each of the aforementioned organizations is unique in their respective missions and also overlap in certain aspects of their services. Throughout this report we will analyze how they fall into the following five aspects of nonprofit marketing: Customer Orientation, Strategic Planning and Organization, Developing and Organizing Resources, Designing the Marketing Mix, and Controlling Marketing Strategies.