Jun 11, 2012 0
For a long time I’ve believed that the Community Media Workshop is a unique institution–offering resources and sharing knowledge that strengthen civic institutions’ ability to transform communities in Chicago and beyond. Our unique mission has now been presented the opportunity to expand its reach–Morocco! Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 10, 2012 0
Be found on the web.
There are potentially hundreds, if not thousands or even millions of people in the world looking for you, your services and products. These people use Search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Youtube, Duck Duck Go and many more. Good search engine optimization can combine paid search and organic search optimization. Paid search services like Google Ads or Facebook Ads position your brand, service or product on their sites to targeted demographics. It’s competitive, and can be expensive trying to outbid others for the best online display real-estate.
For most, the best option (and an option you should be doing anyway) is organic search engine optimization. Organic search engine optimization is a more natural practice for web developers, marketeers and others to help people find you by maintaining and managing a healthy, content rich, relative and well-organized website.
Join us this year at our annual Making Media Connections Conference where we will have a panel of experts who will help guide you through understanding SEO for your nonprofit. Join the conversation on Twitter by following @npcommunicator and the #mmc2012 hashtag
Nov 9, 2011 0
Michael Pink (left), principal of MAP Real Estate, and Bill Lowry (right) of The Chicago Community Trust, award $10,000 to nonprofit Community Shares
Over 150 members of Chicago’s nonprofit and business communities turned out on October 25th to celebrate a new kind of philanthropy. Two socially responsible Chicago institutions–Urban Partnership Bank and the social enterprise Investing In Communities–teamed up, one as event host and one as donor, to give $42,000 to nonprofits.
The $42,000 in funds resulted from a real estate transaction between an established commercial real estate firm, MAP Real Estate, and Urban Partnership Bank (UPB), a new FDIC-insured community bank and certified Community Development Financial Institution. Investing In Communities (IIC) enables individuals and businesses to connect with socially conscious real estate professionals and generate free funding for their favorite nonprofits. As an IIC Member, MAP Real Estate’s principal Michael Pink committed 15 percent of the commission he earned representing UPB in a lease transaction for donation, through IIC, to other nonprofits. Through IIC, this ordinary brokered transaction became a philanthropic event that generated unrestricted funding for 15 nonprofit beneficiaries. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 26, 2011 0
A blog post on blogging by guest blogger Marissa Wasseluk
Creating a blog is a relatively easy way to help get your nonprofit’s message out to the world. I feel like blogging is something all nonprofits should do – it’s one of the best ways to keep your supporters, volunteers, and potential donors aware of your organization’s issues and abreast of your latest work. Not to mention that search engines enjoy all that fresh content, and the more you create, the further forward you’re pushed in search results. That way, someone who doesn’t even know they’re looking for your organization can easily find it!
Seriously, why don’t you blog?
It may seem difficult to just start blogging (after all, to begin is the most difficult part of any task). But, once you’ve done it, you’ll be so glad you did, and you will wonder why you didn’t sooner.
Perhaps It’s your first time in this strange, new world also known as “the blogosphere”.
How do you start blogging? Well, first you figure out where you’re going to put your content. You can host your organization’s blog on your own site or link from your site to an external blog hosting site.
Some examples of free blog hosting sites:
If you decide to use an external website to host your blog, I suggest that before creating an account, visit the “about” section of the blogging sites and see what interface you think you will be most comfortable using.
Perhaps your organization has already started a blog, but you’re not sure what to do with it.
Well the short solution to this dilemma is: post content. I often get asked about how to adequately “tag” a blog post, what proper “re-blogging etiquette” is, or how to word your post so that it’s read easier by search engines. Unfortunately there is no ultimate answer to these questions. There are many different perspectives on what works best. I suggest looking up the questions on search engines or take them to the experts, so you can choose what kind of method – or combination of methods – works best for you from the solutions presented to you.
Perhaps you feel you don’t have enough time to dedicate to blogging.
If this is what holds you back from blogging, I suggest exploring the many different ways to blog – including photoblogging (a picture is worth a thousand words, after all), vlogging, microblogging, and mobile blogging. One Thousand Kites, a nonprofit focusing on social justice campaigns, uses their blog platform to tell the stories of prisoners and their families by posting audio and video clips. You may also want to consider multi-user blogs (several staff members and/or volunteers regularly contribute to your blog, as seen on the Open Books blog), or enlisting the help of guest bloggers – just ask a volunteer or intern talk about their experience working with your organization (as seen on the Falling Whistles blog or the Peace Corps journals).
Want more examples of great nonprofit blogging?
Do you have a favorite nonprofit blog? Let us know in the comments below!
To learn more tips and tricks of successful nonprofit blogging, join us at the Making Media Connections Conference and check out the Starting Your Nonprofit Blog Panel!
Jan 25, 2011 0
Workshop President Thom Clark and Grand Families leaders at the June 2010 Community Media Workshop communications training.
During my first week at Community Media Workshop, I sat in on a media training that Thom Clark, the Workshop’s president, led for a Chicago nonprofit called Grand Families. This is a group of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren because, for a variety of reasons, their children are unable to do it themselves. The stories I heard at this training were so inspiring. Many of these grandparents were moving into their “empty nester” years, possibly retirement, when they began caring for their grandchildren. One of the big issues many of these families face is space. The grandparents might be on a fixed income or living in a small apartment, making it difficult to find a home that’s affordable and big enough for the children and teenagers moving in.
Enter Grand Families. Started by Linette Kitchen, a woman who found herself suddenly raising her own grandchildren, Grand Families offers the grandparents a support system and advocates for affordable housing, healthcare and other basic necessities to assist the grandparents working hard to make ends meet for their families.
As I sat in on the Workshop’s media training with this group of grandparents, I knew they had a great news story. When WBEZ sought nominations for their “Dear Chicago” series, the Workshop nominated Grand Families. Read their story “Dear Chicago: We need a place to live” here.
Mar 20, 2009 0
Today, CMW is a booth ‘vendor’ at the first big conference being put on by Illinois Resource Net, a nonprofit based at Univ. of Illinois at Chicago. They don’t write your grant proposal for you, but they will help you navigate the process.
Richard Kordesh, co-director, just laid out federal funding so simply I totally understood it! Check it out, he says “every federal grant has a story” and they fall into some very distinct story types (please note this is just straight off of his slide presentation, I do not know that this is on the Web anywhere–so please contact Richard if you want to know more): Read the rest of this entry »
Nov 17, 2008 0
About 45 nonprofit communicators, everyone from the Battle Creek Community Foundation to the organizing group JONAH to the local Montessori school turned out for Tell Your Stories – Battle Creek, produced by the Nonprofit Alliance and led by Susan O’Halloran and Christine Cupaiuolo Thursday. They liked it! Here’s what folks said afterward and here are some notes, handouts and etc. from the day of the event. Read the rest of this entry »
Newstips by Curtis Black Chicago is the World
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