What do you think is the most effective way to promote a non-profit online, and why?

Non-profit organizations need marketing, and luckily for them, it can be done online for less. It just takes some time to develop. Here are some things charity & non-profit groups can do to promote themselves.

We’ll Use African United Partnerships for these examples. Start a blog------------ Yes, this is obvious, but the way you craft it really counts here. To be really effective, talk about what you are doing.

Tell stories about what is going on. Most importantly though, show the results that donations are doing. Keep it positive and show people that their donation money is being put to good work, and to make them feel good about helping out.Fundable.com.

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This site is totally dedicated to fund raising. It allows users to set a timeline and dollar amount for your cause. Its quick and easy to use, to boot.

The only thing to be aware of is that if you don’t meet your goal within the deadline set no money gets donated at all. If you are confident you can make it though, this is a great, easy tool to use. For an example of this, check out the page for African United Partnerships .

fundable.com/ Squidoo----------

. This was originally started for charity groups, so this should be a no brainer. You can eve submit your group to be added to their list of charity/non-profit groups.

This means that any user creating a lens can have a portion of any profits made on it go to your group. Be sure to join groups to take advantage of this. Once again, check out the lens from African United Partnerships to see how it’s done.

Blog Networks. --------- Once you start a blog be sure to claim it on a blogging community like MyBlogLog. Com and BlogCatalog.com.Be sure to follow other blogs here to grab their attention as well.

Mingle. --------- Don’t just build these things and sit on it. Talk to people!

Read other blogs and comment on them. Send them emails with helpful things. Make them see you as valuable.

When the time comes, they will return the favor. Main Site. --------- Make sure you have a professional looking main site that details your cause well.

Also, make sure there is a very clear, easy way to donate. It doesn’t help to get people rallied for your cause, but be confused on how to help. Here, we see that AUP (http://africanunitedpartnerships.org) has a professional site with obvious donate buttons on every page.

The important thing to note is that you really have to focus with these and take the time to cultivate them. Use the powerful social aspect of these tools to build links and relationships with other people.It is also important that you look professional. People want to make sure their money is going to a good cause.

Leverage the power of relationship building combined with good design on your sites to build that trust and audience. The web has some powerful methods of reaching people around the world. Take advantage of it to spread the word.

-----How to use a blog to promote your non-profit organization---------- Using a blog to promote your non-profit is great because it's FREE! It's a free way to keep your donors informed on what is happening, gives your employees/volunteers a way to share their experiences, and spread the word about what you do and how you are making a difference. Below are some services you can use to host a blog, as well as some blog marketing tips that will help you once you create a blog.

There are several services that will host a blog for your non-profit. The most popular is probably blogger. Com which owned by Google.

It's a free service and gets preference on search rankings since it's owned by Google. Another is Typepad.com. This costs about $9.95 a month to use the service, but it has some extra features such as scheduling posts that come in handy.

There is also WordPress.Com which is a good one as well. It's known best for its ability to make a blog that looks very unique, much like a webpage. Once you have a blog you have to find ways to market your blog so that people will actually find it, read it.

The first step is to go to out.Fundable. Com0 and register for a free account. Feedburner is also owned by Google and has some amazing features for your blog.

Then you will want to go to out.Fundable. Com1, out.Fundable. Com0, out.Fundable.

Com1, out.Fundable. Com0 and create accounts for all of them. These are all free, and they are resources that will help you to market your blog and find new traffic.

After you have set this all up, you will want to allow everyone at your non-profit to make posts. Give them access to the blog and tell them to post whatever they want. The more fresh and relevant content that you display on your blog regarding your non-profit, the more traffic you will receive.

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How To Promote Nonprofit Fundraising Events---- http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Promote-Nonprofit-Fundraising-Events&id=415799 4. How To Promote A Non Profit Organization, how to get more visibility to raise money and funds----------- http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=61580 5. Making the Nonprofit Visible----

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I think creating a blog would be an excellent option to begin your presence online. You could also spend some money and do a little ad promotion using Google's Adwords.

A good strategy would be to do research on what other online non-profits are doing. You can get a good overview by seeking them out on Twitter. Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook are all good tools to reach people.

When you do reach them, you'll want to have a site to send them to. The initial page must be very clear and legible, avoiding too much text which no one reads. A clear path to the "Give" button if there is one, is essential.

I believe the best example ever of a non-profit site is Kiva. Org of which I've been an active lender for nearly two years. Their site is simple and to the point, yet it has all the information you could possibly need.

Your website is priority number one. Its no good for people to find you if what they find is no good. Your site must be up to date and provide clear information about who you are, what you do, and how to reach you.

Provide information on grants you're currently working under, partner agencies or sites (and links to them). Be sure your site is accessible and usable. Offer value to your sites visitors.

Offer information, resources or a way to access your services. Blogs are a good idea, but be sure you're keeping it up to date on a regular basis (at least once a week) otherwise, don't do it. Social networking is a good way to market, but I would absolutely not have various volunteers doing the updating there.

You want to be sure you have a consistent message going out, and having too many hands will potentially lead to irreversible damage to your agencies image and reputation. Again, if you're going to do this, be sure you can keep it upto date. Get your partner agencies to link to your site.

Get on listings by government agencies which serve your clients.

I think the other answers are vexcellent and the main thing I would say is look at the links and tips provided by the others in this thread, get inspiration, then look at yourself. What do you want visitors to do when coming to your site? What are the goals of your organisation?

Need more volunteers, donations, steer public opinion on a debate? Write this dwon then start to plan based on this. The actions you want people to do will in part steer your channels.So write down the key actions/items which tell you your non-profit is doing well.

Then look at how your website/web activities can support you in doing more of these items. Once you work that out think about the channels you need. Make a marketing plan then with measurables for a specific period of time, then do that consistently and monitor the results.

You don't have to do any specific activity just because it's there, just do the ones that give you most bang for your buck. Hope that helps, Good luck!Chris.

I run a non-profit and we have had the most success (public outreach, marketing and book sales) with having specific volunteers manage our profiles on social networking sites. The volunteers express a time commitment and do about 90% of what needs to be done. Our NGO provides all the multimedia.

Please contact me directly if you'd like to see examples. Anonymity is fine thing.

Working for a environmental non profit organization I can tell you the best thing to do is allow it to have a sense of global impact. The site design should look extremely professional. And your volunteers should have a way to interact with each other from the web.(Like A web portal).

Look here it can help you Promoting Your Nonprofit Event Online bethjbates.com/index.php/2008/09/15/prom... nonprofit suggestions nonprofitprforum.blogspot.com/2007/08/wh... How to Promote Your Nonprofit nonprofit.about.com/od/nonprofitpromotio... softerware.com/blog/labels/donor%20email... non profit business communitymediaworkshop.org/npcommunicato... How to Record, Edit, and Promote Your Nonprofit's Podcast http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page5510.cfm http://www.scribd.com/doc/7795111/Nonprofit-20-Blogs-online-videos-and-Facebook-to-promote-your-mission http://www.helium.com/items/302600-how-to-use-a-blog-to-promote-your-non-profit-organization mnaonline. Org/pdf/nonprofitwebsite.pdf.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.