Media for your Message

All nonprofits share the need to use media to broadcast their message. 

That may sound a bit modernistic, but it's not a new concept. 

Michelangelo was using the media of his time to convey a message.  On the header of this page, we see an excerpt from the Sistine Chapel,  Michelangelo's Creation of Man.  Being in the public domain after all these centuries. it is available from Wiki Media under the GPL license.  By the way, the young lady looking on and next to God the Father is Eve.  

 

Your nonprofit's message is probably a bit different than what Michelangelo was portraying here, but it begs the question of how media can be harnessed to promote a non-profit message.

• How is your nonprofit using the modern media to convey its message?
• Do your volunteers or staff have access to modern tools?
• Can you "hook in" Social Media like Facebook and even Twitter to help gather your supporters?
• How long will it take you to email all of your supporters, and who will pay for it?
• How do you collect donations online?
• How do you track donations online or offline?
• Can you readily identify supporters and their key demographics?  How do you keep in touch?
• When is the last time you sent a supporter a Thank you card for a Donation?
• When is the last time you sent them a Birthday Card - or wrote them a personal note?
  

Wondering How do you begin?

Our 8 Steps to a Nonprofit Website

If you read the bullets above, and thought about the questions, you may realize that your nonprofit could use some improvements.

The first thing to do is to define your mission and your message.

Why does your organization exist?  That's your mission.

Your mission dictates your message.

Michelangelo's masterpiece elegantly and powerfully communicates the message that mankind was created in the mind of God as a unique creature -- at the center of creation.

Michelangelo''s work is emblematic of the Italian Renaissance and the emergence of a Christian Humanism, perhaps eons removed from the Dark Ages. This picture is not just an artistic illustration.  It is a philosophical statement.

Can your masterpiece convey your organization's relatively simple mission and message?  

Can you manage your message?

What then are some steps for creating your nonprofit website?

1.  Define Mission and (initial) message

2.  Get management endorsement/authorization to build a website.

3.  Identify web platform that will be advantageous to your organization and who is going to help you establish or manage the site

We recommend First Cup Site Creator:

• Intuitive, In-Context editing where you can see your changes and design immediately
• No programming or development/software engineering background needed
• Easy to create an aesthetically pleasing, high quality site
• Tons of Features
• Used by designers to quickly create sites for small businesses
  
• Real people customer support

If you choose another platform, such as Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Dreamweaver, etc. you will need a "Developer" or you will need to have some technical experience. 
You will also need to determine who is going to help you when there is a problem...

No Matter what Platform you choose, you will need to define

• Who is going to build and update and maintain your site
• What training will they need?

• What tools will they need?

We think items 1, 2, and 3 are the biggest hurdles in many nonprofit organizations.  That's often because nonprofit managers think "IT" is always horribly expensive, and relatively unimportant to what they see as their "mission."

It's time to redefine how nonprofit managers view IT.  If 400 million people are using Facebook, some of them are people who either would support your mission (if they knew about it) or already support your mission.

4.  Define your website's audience

5.  Develop website Content for that audience

• Supporters?
• Board members for your think tank?
• Clients?
• Students?
• Alumni?
• Look at your Mission.  How do you convey your Mission to that audinece in a Message they will understand?

6.  Purchase Domain Name and Build website (Unfortunately or fortunately , 4, 5, and 6 often happen together and iteratively over time.)

• Fundraising?
• News?
• Look at the audience and get them involved