Best of the Web: February 2014

Best of the Web: February 2014

The Idealware “Best of the Web” is a monthly roundup of the top nonprofit resources from the Idealware blog, our Facebook page, and our Twitter feed to help you make the right technology decisions. Please forward it along to anyone you think might benefit from it. 

How To Handle Your Nonprofit's Technology When Staff Members Leave (The Databank)No matter how many people are at your organization, staff members coming and going is unavoidable. Thankfully, many of the technology headaches associated with it are avoidable. Some basic planning and essential information can go a long way in lessening the impact turnover can have on your tech infrastructure.

Career Reflections: My Biggest Data Fail (NTEN)Going over budget, having heightened expectations, and doing insufficient research are all easy traps to fall into when performing a major system overhaul. Friend of Idealware Peter Campbell wants you to learn from his mistakes in this excerpt from NTEN’sCollected Voices: Data-Informed Nonprofits.

Rethinking the Printed Newsletter: Did You Jump to Email Too Soon? (Nonprofit.About.com)When a communications channel works--when it makes a connection between a nonprofit and its audience--it doesn’t become less effective overnight. When social media came around, people predicted the end of email; when email came around, people predicted the end of pen and paper. You can still get great results from direct mail campaigns, and envelopes still play a big role in many nonprofits' fundraising strategies.

Your Headlines Suck. Here’s What You Can Do About It (Convince & Convert)When it comes to headlines, there are plenty of tricks you can employ to get people clicking, but the article, blog post, or picture has to deliver on the promise of its title or you run the risk of losing a click down the road. This article looks at ways to walk the line between clever headlines and blatant click bait.

Take Advantage of the Gchat Extras (New Organizing Institute)In many offices, Google's chat tool, Gchat, has taken the place of the water cooler. If you love it because you can stay social while keeping a quiet workspace, let the New Organizing Institute show you a few extra features that can extend its usefulness.

Checklist: How to Choose a Design Agency (Capulet Communications)There are a lot of moving pieces to keep track of when embarking upon a website project. Between complex technical issues like migrating your content to a different CMS, and more personal issues like keeping your team on budget and on time, you shouldn’t hastily assume that your designer will be a good fit for your needs. Having a checklist of qualities to go over when considering different design agencies can help--and in this post, the Capulet Communications team does the work for you.

Thanking Your Donors: Q&A (Idealware)Thanking your donors can, quite literally, be an afterthought. In this blog post, our own fundraising champion Andrea Berry talks about why you can never say thank you too much, and how a little extra attention can lead to bigger returns in future campaigns.

18 Ways to Improve Your Facebook News Feed Performance (Social Media Examiner)Many articles have claimed that Facebook is trying make paid content more appealing by limiting the number of views pages organizations get. The good news is, good content will still get your fans talking no matter what Facebook does. This article outlines a few things that have worked for others that you might consider experimenting with to boost your Facebook reach without reaching into your wallet.

What's On Your Phone, Elizabeth Pope? (Arts Management and Technology Laboratory)A familiar name around here, our own Director of Research and Operations spoke to Arts Management and Technology Laboratory about her favorite iPhone apps for Idealware and for home. In her own words, "There are lots of productivity (and time-wasting) apps out there, but your phone should be a source of pleasure and fun, not just work!"

Bring Unicorns Back to Our World: The Problem with Outcomes (Blue Avocado)Measuring your outcomes is important, but the definition of what exactly constitutes an “outcome” can get so blurry that it loses its meaning. This article takes a humorous look at how it feels to be a nonprofit stuck in the constant cycle of showing impact.

Would you like to suggest a link for Best of the Web? Email it toinfo@idealware.org. 

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