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Online, Order is Overrated
Another observation about local nonprofits is that they are very small, in geographic scope, in staff, and in budget, yet large in ambition. Some of our clients have more employees dedicated to the web site than these nonprofits have on their total payroll (not that many of them have been paid lately). It's also clear, just from the few organizations I researched, that there is substantial overlap of services from one nonprofit to the other, and little coordination between them (in spite of the good work LANO is doing there). When I spoke to them about this, I assured them that this should not deter or discourage them. I tell them, "We tried order here. It didn't work too well." They know exactly what I'm talking about. Big didn't work for FEMA. Maybe small will work better for these groups. Quick decision-making, responsiveness to the community, low overhead are all virtues here. I'm reminded of how "big" didn't work on my last trip here. Not only were our search group's orders (presumably handed down from some FEMA brain trust) vague, constantly changing, and impossible, but we were given virtually no resources to help us do our job. However, we got much of what we needed from other volunteers who were working for other nonprofit organizations. We got some medical supplies for our search dogs from SPCA volunteers who were in the ward rounding up lost pets. We got more medical supplies from some nurses who were volunteering with Heart to Heart (www.hearttoheart.org). And, after daily unanswered requests to FEMA for a veterinarian to check our dogs, the SCPA folks showed up one day with a volunteer vet from Oklahoma who was there with the Humane Society of the US (www.hsus.org). And of course, we ate whatever the Salvation Army and Red Cross were cooking. What worked, in each of these cases, was that volunteers on the ground saw needs and responded to them. Never once was a form filled out or a big-wig consulted. Don't be Linear As I struggled to come up with some advice for these fledgling and shoestring nonprofits, I realized there was no need for them to follow the path of our larger clients and other groups who are now being successful online. There's no need to "catch up" with what others have been doing online. Most big nonprofits spend lots of time worrying about their "legacy database" and integration with their direct mail and phone campaigns. If your database is in a shoebox, however, "migration" just ceases to be something to fear. This is part of the recommendations made to New Orleans area nonprofits in August of 2006 by Rick Christ, a managing partner in NPAdvisors.com. Rick also volunteers as a Search and Rescue Field Team Leader and instructor with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. See also: "Observations on New Orleans Nonprofits" "Basic Web Recommendations to Small Nonprofits" "Ten Free (or almost free) Web Tools and Ideas" October 2006 | |
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