Five Ways Nonprofits Can Use Qr Codes

QR codes have been gaining popularity among marketers. You’ve probably see dozens of QR codes on your way to work. They are commonly used now on billboards at bus stops that advertise a movie or consumer product. You may have also seen QR codes when travelling and visiting tourist spots such as museums, walking tours, etc.  So, should nonprofits be experimenting with QR codes as another marketing vehicle too? Absolutely.

Before we dive into how nonprofits can incorporate QR codes into their marketing and outreach and discuss fees, it’s important to define what a QR code is from a technical perspective. QR Code stands for Quick Response Code.  It’s “a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background, and the encoded information can be text, URL or other data. QR codes present a valuable method of adding web based content (basically any URL) to real-world messages, objects or locations," says digital strategist Upasna Gautam on the Eventbrite blog. 

“QR codes allow you to land a visitor much farther down whatever funnel of engagement you’re interested in moving them through. Rather than trusting a visitor to type in www.yoursite.com, a QR code can send them directly to the specific page you’d like them to see," said Henry Quinn at the Idealware Blog.”

A QR code can link directly to music, video, news—on or off your site—it can activate a phone call, send an SMS, open forums for conversation or social networking—anything that’s online and that’s going increase their engagement with your organization, you can put in front of a user with a phone, immediately, with one click, said Quinn.

Five Ways Nonprofits Can Use QR Codes

There are a variety of ways for nonprofits to use QR codes in their marketing and outreach. Here are few suggestions to think about experimenting with for your next multi-channel campaign.

1. Direct Mail: Sending out a direct mail appeal to your membership? Great, tag on a QR code in a visible place on the direct mail piece to encourage people to make a donation on your website. This is another great way to capture your offline donors email addresses so you can foster relationships with them online too. Note: The donation page should be a unique donation page so that you can track the response rates from the QR code.

Five Ways Nonprofits Can Use QR Codes

Backlink: http://www.frogloop.com/care2blog/2011/8/9/five-ways-nonprofits-can-use-qr-codes.html

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Facebook Metrics Nonprofits Need To Know

If you are a social media data junky, then you are in luck because M&R and NTEN recently analyzed Facebook statistics for the 40 organizations surveyed in their 2011 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study. They categorized organizations as small, medium, or large, based on the number of fans their pages have, and also looked at groups by sector.

Check out some of the Facebook data findings:

Comparing email subscribers to Facebook page users – On average, the nonprofits studied had 110 Facebook fans per 1000 email list subscribers. The Wildlife/Animal Welfare sector had the highest ratio of Facebook users to email subscribers at 242 per 1000. “If groups had a lot of email subscribers, they tended to have lots of Facebook fans,” said the study.  

Opting out – Unlike your email list subscribers, Facebook page users can opt out of receiving your posts in their news feed while still being counted as “likes.” The study used both opt-outs and “unlikes” to calculate churn rates. These varied only slightly by sector, and not at all by organization size, with the average for churn rate at 14%.

In a future study, it would be great to see if there is a correlation between frequency and/or quality of posts and opt-out rates.

Facebook Metrics Nonprofits Need to Know

Backlink: http://www.frogloop.com/care2blog/2011/8/8/facebook-metrics-nonprofits-need-to-know.html

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Helping Nonprofits Go Green with Microfunding

Boston-based noprofit New Generation Energy (NGE) has launched a website (http://newgenerationenergy.org/list-projects) to facilitate microfunding for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects being undertaken by other nonprofits.

The Green Energy Project Microfunding site makes it simple for individuals to learn about and support specific green energy projects at organizations all across the U.S. The site is similar to other microfinance sites that allow for green investment, but support is in the form of a donation rather than a loan, and emphasis is placed on project metrics such as energy savings and green house gas emissions reduction. Any nonprofit organization may apply to be listed on the site. This includes family shelters, community centers, schools, universities, churches, and more. All projects must be located in the United States, and all applying nonprofit organizations must be US-based. "A web-based microfunding site dedicated to green energy projects has been needed for a long, long time," said NGE's Executive Director, Chuck Lewin. "Now that New Generation Energy has developed the microfunding site, nonprofits can get funding for their green energy projects, educate the public about their sustainability efforts, and illustrate real world, practical applications of green energy technology." The site has value not only as a source of funding for green energy projects, but a project posting can also serve as a 'billboard' for an organization's efforts to become greener. Using the site, organizations can include pictures, video links, quotes from staff, and other materials to promote the organization and help drive donations to support the project. New Generation Energy says its mission is to make America's communities healthier and more sustainable through the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. NGE supports solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal, along with many different kinds of energy efficiency. Photo by Joe Shlabotnik/flickr/Creative Commons Reprinted with permission from Sustainable Business

Post originale: http://featured.matternetwork.com/2010/11/helping-nonprofits-go-green-microfunding.cfm

MS Gives Free Licenses To Oppressed Nonprofits

victorl19 writes "Microsoft is vastly expanding its efforts to prevent governments from using software piracy inquiries as a pretext to suppress dissent. It plans to provide free software licenses to more than 500,000 advocacy groups, independent media outlets and other nonprofit organizations in 12 countries with tightly controlled governments, including Russia and China."