Should your Nonprofit be Blogging?

Based on the ability for non-technical resources to publish information, the ability to create archives by topic, and the direct/ongoing connection between writer and reader the medium enables, it's fair to think that more and more nonprofits will be (should be) creating blogs to handle ongoing communication with their key constituencies.

It's not hard to imagine a blog with a section devoted to volunteers (maintained by a non-technical Volunteer Coordinator), a section devoted to the current capital campaign (maintained by a non-technical Admin in the Development office), and a strategic section devoted to the 3-5 year plan for your organization (maintained by your non-technical Executive Director)...

Check out the following links for more information and different points of view on the topic:

• August 2004 article about 4 examples of blogging in the nonprofit community at TechSoup.org
• Debbie Weil's business blogging overview (676K .pdf in new window) - focuses on for-profit organizations but the content is a great introduction to the medium and I'm sure you're capable of drawing parallels to your own organization.

This blog started after reading Debbie's primer and represents the initial research that most experts recommend doing prior to taking on a full-time public-facing blog for your organization. My experience thus far is that you really need to have a list of topics stashed away to the side so that you've always got one ready to discuss that is relevant - otherwise you'll end up writing about how your body clock got confused on a Friday morning.

The PBA Pottery blog affords me flexibility of subject matter - which is something to consider as you start defining ways you could leverage tools like this one to meet your audience(s) where they are...

Give the links a read and drop a line to panderson at rhumblinepartners dot com if you have any questions or just want to keep yappin' about the topic...