Seth's Blog.has a good riff on engagement, big groups, fundraising and volunteering. We need to work harder in thinking of valuable things online volunteers can do to help move an agenda. Do they help you write thnak you notes? Do they call other volunteers? Do you send them phone lists and calling scripts so they can phone bank your member to remind them of upcoming events.
We are not afraid to let our members talk to each other off line at an event or meeting. We can't control it there face to face. However, we paic on the ideas that encourage our members to talk to each other in online contexts.
The big win is in turning donors into patrons and activists and participants. The biggest donors are the ones who not only give, but do the work. The ones who make the soup or feed the hungry or hang the art. My mom was a volunteer for years at the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, and there's no doubt at all that we gave more money to the museum than we would have if they'd sent us a flyer once a month.
The internet allows some organizations to embrace long-distance involvement. It lets charities flip the funnel, not through some simple hand waving, but by reorganizing around the idea of engagement online. It means opening yourself up to volunteers, encouraging them to network, to connect with each other, and yes, even to mutiny. It means giving every one of your professionals a blog and the freedom to use it. It means mixing it up with volunteers, so they have something truly at stake. This is understandably scary for many non-profits, but I'm not so sure you have a choice.
Do you have to abandon the old ways today? Of course not. But responsible stewardship requires that you find and empower the mavericks and give them the flexibility to build something new, not to try to force the internet to act like direct mail with free stamps
