Tag Archives: donate

If I can’t find what I’m looking for on your web site, who else can’t?

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I saw an online article about an initiative in Afghanistan and I immediately wanted to donate money to it. So I followed the directions in the article, went to the web site, and looked all over for the promised “donate” link.

It wasn’t there. I even used the “find” tool. Nada.

Test your web site to see if anyone coming onto the site can find what they might be looking for. This is a great test to be undertaken by new volunteers. You could get a group of volunteers to use their smartphones or laptops (you should have a mix of devices and browsers being used) to go to the home page and try to find:

  • your information on exactly what services or activities your organization provides. They should rate how easy it is to find and how easy it is to understand.
  • your organization’s physical address.
  • your hours of operation (if applicable).
  • the “donate” link, and if they do, to click on it and see if they find all the info they want to donate to your organization. They should rate how easy it was to find the information on how to donate and how easy it is to donate (you do allow for online donations, right?!?).
  • information on what a donation pays for. They should rate how easy it is to find this information (if they ever do).
  • the “volunteer” link, and if they do, to click on it and see if they find all the info they want to donate to your organization. They should rate how easy it was to find information on how to volunteer and on what volunteers do at your organization, on how easy it is to use your online application process (if you have such), etc.

Here’s another test: ask them what they think, based on looking at your web site, your organization’s attitude is regarding volunteers. They could rate, on a scale, what messages your web site information regarding volunteer engagement says:

  • We involve volunteers because we don’t have to pay them; they are cheaper than paying people.
  • We involve volunteers to do the work staff doesn’t want to do.
  • We offer a variety of opportunities for volunteers, in terms of the amount of time they have to commit, the nature of the service they will provide, where they will provide service (onsite, online, in the office, in the field, etc.).
  • We value our volunteers.

You also want to hear if the web site works well on desktops or laptops and smartphones.

You could have volunteers do this from their home, over a week, and have an online survey for them to fill out, or you could have volunteers come into your conference room for an hour, bringing their devices, serve them some cookies or pizza and have them do the testing and feedback together, in-person.

On a related note, someone from your organization should also see how easy it is to find your organization online at all. Go to Google and Bing (yes, do it on both), and search for:

  • the exact name of your organization. Is your organization’s web site the first in the search results? Does it come up at all on the first page of results? If it doesn’t come up at all, or doesn’t come up early, it’s probably because you don’t have the exact name of your organization on several pages, if not every page, of your web site. Make sure you have this full name on “about us” on your Facebook page as well.
  • the acronym of your organization and the name of your city. Is your organization’s web site the first in the search? Does it come up at all? If it doesn’t come up at all, or doesn’t come up early, it’s probably because you don’t have the acronym and the name of the city where you are on every page of your web site.  I’m stunned at how many nonprofit web sites I find that never say what city (or state) they are in nor what cities they work in.
  • the word volunteer and the name of your city, and, perhaps, a word related to your organization’s mission (children, arts, homeless, dance, teens, women, etc.). Does your organization come up at all in the results? If it doesn’t, or doesn’t come up early, it’s because you don’t have the word volunteer and the name on your city on various pages on your web site.

Also try to find your organization on Twitter, if your organization has a Twitter account. Use a variety of names and acronyms that people use for your organization in your searches. Can you find your organization’s account? If not, then it’s probably because of how you describe your account on Twitter. Your account description also should have the full name of your organization and your acronym – do NOT use your mission statement instead! If you use your mission statement instead of your organization’s name, then it probably won’t be found by people looking specifically for your organization on Twitter.

If you have room in your Twitter description, you can also put in keywords to help people find you. What keywords? It depends on what your organization does, or the target audience for your Twitter account. For instance, in my own, personal account, I use these keywords, because I want people that are interested in these subjects to be able to find me when they do a search for such:      , , ,  

In your Twitter description, if you have room, you might want to put the hashtag for your area, if you want people in that area to find you. For instance, if I wanted to target people in Portland, Oregon specifically, I would put in #PDX in my Twitter profile (instead, I put it in tweets that target people in Portland specifically). If I wanted people in Oregon who wanted to volunteer to find me easily on Twitter, I would put #volunteer and #Oregon in my profile (again, instead of doing that, I put those keywords in tweets that relate to that subject specifically).

You can apply these recommendations for Twitter to your YouTube channel as well, to increase the numbers of people viewing your organization’s videos (if you have such).

Altogether, these are things your nonprofit, charity, NGO, school, government agency or other community initiative can do in ONE day to immediately improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Also see:

2018: time for USA nonprofits to be demanding

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Did you know Meals on Wheels is being hit HARD by big budget cuts?

And Meals on Wheels isn’t the only one: many of the nonprofits that provide critical services and improve our quality of life and protect the environment all over the USA are NOT funded primarily by charity – by individuals and corporations giving money – and that means their already precarious funding situation is about to get more dire with the current federal government and philosophy of the majority of Congress. That’s not a political opinion: that’s a reality.

Meals on Wheels, like many nonprofits, does NOT get most of its funding from donations: a third of its funding comes from a provision of the Older Americans Act signed into law by President Nixon in 1972. The rest comes from state and local governments, corporate donations, and individual charity. But the OAA, like most government programs, is being scaled back, including federal and state government funding for Meals on Wheels. Among the reasons government officials are giving for the funding cuts, besides that “charity will take care of it” is that they doubt the program is needed – and say there’s no data to prove it is, let alone that it is doing anything critically necessary. As this December 2017 article in Slate notes, part of the problem is that Meals on Wheels data hasn’t been robust until recently:

A literature review in 2015 found that most studies related to home-delivered meal programs were small, unrigorously designed, and measured “self-reported dietary intake,” an unreliable metric. (Try measuring what you eat for a week.) Though senior nutrition advocates swore by the program, the lack of data made it harder to argue for more funding and may be the reason the OAA’s nutrition program has floundered. For many poverty programs, robust data are necessary for survival but not sufficient. Meals on Wheels programs are stuck in an appropriations purgatory where many don’t receive enough money to stay at capacity, much less expand, but they’re too adored to be cut much without political reprisal.

But the article also notes that, in 2013, a public health researcher at Brown University, published a paper that found “if all states had increased by 1 percent the number of adults age 65 or older who received home-delivered meals in 209 under title III of the OAA, total annual savings to states’ Medicaid programs could have exceeded $109 million.” Most of the savings would come from keeping seniors in their homes and out of nursing homes, which are more expensive. 92% percent of Meals on Wheels recipients say the service lets them live at home.

Meals on Wheels has relied on its VERY well known name and mission statement to be enough for government funding, let alone charitable gifts. No more. It needs data to prove the need for its existence and data to prove that its effective – not just number of meals delivered and number of seniors served, but how that changed anyone’s physical or mental health, let alone what independence it created and, ultimately, how much money it saved taxpayers.

And the same is true for YOUR nonprofit.

The United States federal government has just passed a massive tax cut that is giving all of these corporations and very well-off entrepreneurs and business owners a great deal of even more money. Meanwhile, several issues are at a crisis point in the USA: homelessness, poverty among people that are working full time, lack of affordable housing, opioid addiction (as well as other drug addictions), lack of access to health care, lack of access to dental care, understaffed schools in crumbling buildings, failing infrastructure, under-staffed public lands, arts groups on the brink of bankruptcy, and on and on.

So it’s time, for nonprofits in 2018 to be demanding.

Corporations, high-tech gurus and rich entrepreneurs like to tell nonprofits what they should be doing.

You should be using such-and-such fantastic new software/tech tool

You should be using social media more effectively.

You should be involving more volunteers.

You should have micro tasks and expert tasks and group tasks for volunteers.

You should be using meta data more often and more effectively.

You should have a program that addresses such-and-such.

You should do such-and-such activity.

And on and on.

Oh, but, when it comes time for funding any of those activities, they also love to say, “Sorry, we don’t fund overhead.” Let’s make 2018 the year nonprofits turn that statement on its head. Let’s make 2018 the year government officials and corporate leaders hear loud and clear that what they want from nonprofits takes MONEY.

Every time someone says,”You should be doing this,” tell them how much that will cost and ask them how much they will be able to donate to make that happen.

If a corporation asks you to give feedback on an employee volunteering idea or other philanthropic activity, say you would be happy to – and tell them what your hourly consulting fee will be.

If a corporate person says your executive director makes too much money, ask that person how much he or she makes, plus what benefits he or she gets (retirement, paid vacation weeks, bonuses, health care insurance coverage, etc.), and offer a comparison for your executive director, including level and type of responsibility.

When a business calls and says they would like a one-time volunteering opportunity at your nonprofit this Saturday from 10 to noon, tell them great, and also how much they will need to pay to cover the costs you will incur to make this happen. Make sure you charge an amount that truly makes the time and effort on your organization’s part worth the expenditure of your resources.

When a business says they need precise data that proves your organization does what it says it does, present them with an evaluation plan and how much it will cost to undertake such.

Sign up to speak during at least one city council meeting this year, to talk about what your organization is doing to address a community issue, to make your community a better place, etc. Offer specifics – not just number of activities, but testimonials from those that have benefited from such.

Sign up to speak during at least one of your city’s citizen’s committee that’s concerned with an issue your organization or program addresses (public safety, the arts, the historical commission, etc..).

Offer your own information for any “state of the community” statement your mayor or other local official prepares.

Say “NO” a LOT more. If a corporation wants you to do an event, activity or program that your organization cannot afford to do, say no. If a corporation wants you to do an event, activity or program that you don’t feel would be truly beneficial for those you serve and might actually detract from your mission, say no.

Nonprofits are going to be asked to do far, far more in 2018 than they have ever been asked to do before. They are, in many cases, going to be holding families and communities together, and be all that stands between survival and disaster for many people. They are also often what makes a community or public event or public space worth visiting, let alone living in or near. None of what nonprofits do is free. Meanwhile, corporations are experiencing record profits and corporate executives are enjoying record-breaking high salaries and bonuses. Time to charge them in full for your services and remind them of the financial costs of your work.

Also see:

How to help Nepal

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I’m already seeing these posts online:

How can I go to Nepal and help regarding the earthquake?!

Unless you have specific areas of expertise regarding post-disaster situations, speak Nepalese, and can go under the auspices of a respected non-governmental organization or your own government, DO NOT GO. And please don’t start collecting things to send to Nepal either.

When a disaster strikes, thousands of people start contacting various organizations and posting to online groups in an effort to try to volunteer onsite at the disaster site. If the disaster happens in the USA, some people jump in their cars and drive to the area.

But what most of these people don’t realize is that spontaneous volunteers without specific training and no affiliation can cause far more problems than they alleviate in a disaster situation, particularly regarding disaster locations far from their home. Consider this:

  • In many post-disaster situations, there is NO food, shelter, services or gas to spare for volunteers. Many volunteers going into the Philippines, Pakistan, Haiti, Japan, even the Gulf Coast states in the USA after Katrina or states affected by Sandy, had to be absolutely self-sustaining for many, many days, even many  weeks. No shelter or safety measures could be provided to these volunteers by the government. Those volunteers who weren’t self-sustaining created big problems and diverted attention from local people in need.
  • Just because you have some equipment does not mean you are ready to volunteer: inexperienced people have been killed using chainsaws after hurricanes and other disasters, by falling limbs and live electrical wires, during their DIY clean up efforts. Responding to these people when they get themselves into a jam takes away from the needs of local people.
  • In disaster situations, you are going to be encountering disaster victims. They are going to be stressed, maybe desperate, and maybe angry. As a trained volunteer or paid staff member working with a credible organization, you are going to know how to comfort these people and direct them to where they can get assistance, and how to convince them that you have to save this person over here instead of their relative over there. If you are untrained and unaffiliated, you may become a target of their anger, because you cannot provide them with appropriate assistance, or because you provide them with incorrect information.
  • What will you do when you are accused of stealing from someone? Of harming someone? Of making a situation worse? What do you know about local customs and cultural taboos that, if you violate them, could taint all outside volunteer efforts? Aid workers have been arrested, even killed, because of cultural missteps. Who will navigate local bureaucracies to save YOU in such situations?

I could go on and on – and I do, on this web page about how to help people affected by a huge disaster. Disasters are incredibly complicated situations that require people with a very high degree of qualifications and long-term commitment, not just good will, a sense of urgency and short-term availability.

Also, more and more agencies are hiring local people, even immediately after a disaster, to clean rubble, remove dead bodies, build temporary housing, rebuild homes and essential buildings, and prepare and distribute food. Hiring local people to do these activities, rather than bringing people in from the outside, helps stabilize local people’s lives much more quickly!

If you want to help the people of Nepal, donate to CARE International’s efforts in Nepal and/or UNICEF’s efforts in Nepal and/or Save the Children’s efforts in Nepal (all of these organizations serve all people, not just children).

Here’s more about donating Things Instead of Cash or Time (In-Kind Contributions).

If you want to go abroad to help after a disaster, then here is advice on how to start pursuing the training and experience you need to be in a position to do that – it will take you about 24 months (two years) to get the minimum of what you will need to apply to volunteer for such scenarios.

Also see:

For those that want to help those affected by Sandy

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For all of you wanting to volunteer to help people affected by Hurricane Sandy, and all of you wanting to donate clothing, food, or other things to help those affected by Sandy, please see these two resources ASAP:

Volunteering To Help After Major Disasters

Donating Things Instead of Cash or Time (In-Kind Contributions)

Let’s give the REAL help that’s needed – or get out of the way and let those who know how to help do their jobs!

 

How to help Alabama & surrounding areas

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This is the address of the Alabama Red Cross serving the areas hardest hit by the tornado, including Tuscaloosa. Donate directly to them if you want help to get quickly to those in most need. The Red Cross provides food, shelter, vital information and connections to the government and health resources local people are in desperate need of right now – and will continue to do so in the weeks to come.

The Humane Society of West Alabama is in need of financial help – they’ve suffered some serious damage and can’t take in all the abandoned and lost animals in need. The Greater Birmingham Humane Society will also need help with the influx of lost and abandoned pets. Making a donation will help buy food and pay for medical services. Adopting a pet from this or any nearby shelter will free up space for other animals.

For other areas, simply look up the state and county’s American Red Cross chapter or Humane Society or animal shelter on Google.

Unless you have extensive medical, engineering, logistics, health care or emergency management experience in post-disaster zones, and unless you are *already* affiliated with an emergency response agency (American Red Cross), and you are fully self-sufficient (you have a place to stay, you have transportation and fuel, etc.), DO NOT GO. If you do, you will be in the way and you will be a drain on resources (food, gas, etc.).

If you enjoyed the Royal Wedding today, why not make a donation to any of the above in honor of such? Or in honor of anyone you love? In honor of your own pets?

Also see:
Volunteering To Help After Major Disasters
(earthquake, hurricane, tropical storm, flood, tsunami, oil spill, etc.)

Please call your local American Red Cross and get training NOW for disasters LATER. They have training specifically for disaster response!

Volunteer with your local animal shelter NOW and build up your skills and your credibility so that you will be in a place to provide critically-need help in the future.