Grassroots.org

Our July Member of the Month recently launched their new site to better reflect their mission, with help from Grassroots.org Volunteer, Laura Moore of Smallest Decisions. As “a grassroots all-female nonprofit theater company”, Shakespeare’s Sister addresses global issues through productions and embraces social change serving the low-income populations within communities. Their commitment to unite actresses and female directors to produce great new plays and established theatrical works is displayed in their newly created site layout.

Previously a participant of our Faces of Change video series, Artistic Director Kris Lundberg worked with Laura to design something that spotlights their events and engages the community. In addition to professional productions, they have launched an arts advocacy campaign in taking the arts to the shelters. The organization’s Women's Theater Workshop has already had a high success rate in women's shelters. It's focus is to take the skills these women already have and innately possess, strengthen their voices and prepare them for their permanent housing interviews and re-entry into the workforce. Also, their Children's Puppetry Workshop teaches underserved children the elements of story structure through characters they create in the stories they write. Check out more on their brand-new website!

If you've ever felt the need for a social media tool specific to nonprofits, this week's review on Thrive offers a solution and reveals why nonprofits have different social media goals and needs.

As always, our list of web development best practices grows with each new tool we discover! Check the archives for our previous reviews.

What kind of tool is Thrive?
As a “one-stop shop that simplifies, organizes and measures your social media efforts," Thrive manages your social networks while attracting supporters and donors to your cause.

Created by Small Act, a company dedicated to helping nonprofits "make a big impact in social media," Thrive’s user-friendly hub streamlines your efforts. Similar to other tools, you control when you Tweet or update your status on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube (other networks coming soon), target and engage those who care about your work and receive stats on all accounts.

Small Act understands that social media should be about engaging your followers, fans and friends, and that cultivating these authentic relationships helps recruit donors and advocates. That's why Thrive boasts features that sets it apart from other social media tools. With it, you can engage and understand your fan base by viewing entire conversation histories while checking for complete contact and demographic information.

How has Grassroots.org used Thrive?
You may have noticed our latest Tweets or Facebook updates being “sent from Thrive”. We’ve been using it to update our own social media networks and checking how many of you actually click our links! Don’t worry, we only check these stats and browse for relevant nonprofit news to understand how to best deliver useful content to you.

All this is possible through Thrive, but we especially love the ability to tag and write notes about our contacts based on our interactions with them. Doing this recently helped us locate new nonprofits and technology experts!

How should my nonprofit use Thrive?
Geared towards nonprofits, Thrive features granular scheduling, keyword search capability, contact management with tagging and in-depth reporting. What does all this mean?

Use Thrive to help you schedule posts and check all incoming messages, replies, mentions simultaneously. Keep an eye on who is posting what and read the latest #nptech or “education” Tweets. Pinpoint your superfans or donors by organizing your contacts list and tagging them. And with Thrive, there’s no excuse to not know how many people your posts reach every week.

How can my nonprofit sign up for Thrive?
Tell SmallAct about your current social media situation for a free trial of Thrive. Complete this form to start making your big impact in social media. While you're there, sign up for a free demo of the tool in action!

Don't miss out on GrassrootsCamp's free Meetup on SEO tomorrow! We're presenting as co-hosts of the event and invite everyone n the tri-state NYC area to sign up. There are only a few seats left so RSVP to attend and learn some Search Engine Optimization tips!

When: Wednesday, July 7 (starts at 7 PM)
Where: Merc Bar, 151 Mercer St New York, NY 10012 (Back private room)
How: Learn more or RSVP on GrassrootsCamp's website

Since 1995, Alexander Lee has been working to green up your laundry habits as the Founder and Executive Director of Project Laundry List. With a recent appearance on the Stephen Colbert Show and a previous feature in Time Magazine, the nonprofit's successful strategic plan and effective use of technology to promote their cause earned them Grassroots.org's June Member of the Month award!

Initially a student organization project at Middlebury College, Project Laundry List advocates for line drying and cold water washing cycles in an effort to reduce energy consumption. Though the nonprofit has never operated on a robust budget, they continue to land significant media coverage and secure key partnerships, proving that small or medium-sized nonprofits can make a large impact too. PLL's site design reflects their level of professionalism and transparency; scanning the homepage's stunning graphics and direct links, visitors instantly gain an understanding of the organization. Most importantly, their homepage piques enough interest by encouraging visitors to start by calculating their clothing care costs.

Most recently, the nonprofit started using the Toolbox's Language Translation tool and is working with volunteer designer, Stefania, to create a T-shirt design for upcoming online store initiatives. Summer's arrival leaves little excuse for not line drying your clothes--check out Project Laundry List's site to learn how you can start!

This week, we're sharing how SlideRocket helped us display our presentation online and how it could change how you present Powerpoints. Check out our growing list of tech tool reviews and Mike Mann's Web Development Best Practices for more insight.

What kind of tool is SlideRocket? SlideRocket is Microsoft Powerpoint meets Google Documents and Analytics. Helping you create and share smarter presentations, the tool prepares them for the social web.

How do we use SlideRocket?

We first discovered SlideRocket while looking for a way to embed an interactive, clickable guide for new members on our site. We found only presentation sharing tools that supported view-only capability. SlideRocket was able to share our presentation as we intended it to be used--members can click on each slide and be redirected to an external link or another slide.Our new member guide is now sent to approved nonprofit members to help them navigate services within the Toolbox.

How should my nonprofit use SlideRocket?
With SlideRocket any member of your team can collaborate on a presentation. You can add vivid graphics and visuals, import and recreate old Powerpoint files and even host HD web meetings. The service goes full circle by offering statistics for your online presentations so you can gauge visitor interest and measure your impact.

How do I signup?

All new users receive a free trial of the fully featured service after signing up. After the trial period, you can continue to pay for the edition that best suits your organization or revert to a free account with reduced capabilities.

We're excited to kick off the unofficial start of Summer 2010 with news that our 3,000th member officially joined Grassroots.org this past holiday weekend!

In just a little over a year and a half we've tripled our membership and built capacity for nonprofit communities all across the U.S., Canada and now Africa, too. Check out what our services have helped nonprofits achieve and learn more about our list of members on our map.

The team at Grassroots.org is excited about the news, but we can't take all the credit. Our partner organizations help educate eligible nonprofits about our resources, supporters and donors make it possible for us to provide these resources for free, and our nonprofit networks spread the word about our programs. We share this milestone with the entire Grassroots.org family!

3,000 is only a fraction of our ultimate goal to help 10,000 nonprofit organizations. Stay tuned as we hit 4,000 and beyond!

We've been working to streamline our site since early 2010, so we're glad to announce that the new and improved Grassroots.org is now live! Our hope is that we've made it easier for you to find the info you need (specific to your goals) and connect with us or other nonprofits via social media. Tell us what you think about it by taking our quick poll.

The new site launch comes right after we completed a review of our accomplishments in 2009. Our latest annual report features stories of change, members of our community and the year's greatest milestones. Download a copy to see them all!

Do you need some nonprofit advice? Email question@grassroots.org! Our latest question is on networking online.

Q: I'd like to spend more time networking online for our nonprofit to both create and join online communities. What are some ways I can do that and learn about new resources? Is it too late to hop into social media?

Sounds like you may have tuned in to recent news that Facebook beat out Google as top most visited site. Since then, the buzz has been about how social media is changing the way we surf the web. It's never too late to join social media or networking!

Twitter is a good way to listen in on the hot topics within the nonprofit community. We usually tweet about social media best practices-- follow our feed for resources and ideas on tweet content. This, along with Facebook, can rally supporters for your cause online. Even with their recent transition to paid accounts, Ning is great for creating your own social network. Subscribe to newsletters of relevant nonprofits and nonprofit bloggers. Join listservs for email discussions. Use online tools to help you network offline.

If you tune in to the right networks for your organization, you'll soon start seeing a boost in resources, information and supporters for your cause!

As we celebrate the mothers in our lives this May, Central Denver Mothers and More paid tribute to motherhood in style by handing out purses to moms in need via the Power of a Purse campaign. Their site's clean layout, use of social media and effective content played a part in broadcasting the event and their overall mission, which is why they're our May Member of the Month!

A local chapter of national nonprofit Mothers and More, the organization is dedicated to supporting motherhood's daily challenges while raising awareness about the barriers that moms face. Seeking to empower the modern-day mother burdened with choices and transitions, Denver Mothers and More teamed up with local supporters to collect purses for distribution to moms in need.

Why purses? "A woman's purse holds her sense of identity and symbolizes her earning power. We hope by collecting purses for local women's charities, we're instilling a sense of economic independence for moms who don't own one," says chapter leader Carolyn Purcell.

Though they had the option to create a site via their national chapter, the organization found creating one through Grassroots.org's web builder tool allowed for a level of site personalization. Their site is a perfect example of how to use the web builder effectively. "We were able to direct people to our official, easy to remember URL, include social media plugins for our site and broadcast our cause virtually," which is one of the reasons why the nonprofit successfully collected over 800 purses for their campaign!

As crucial as it is for nonprofits to build up a web presence and social media, it's important to remember sometimes we prefer speaking to you via the phone. Maintaining an organizational phone line helps with member support, development and media-related conversations. Having developed a website already, here's another way Buddy Cruise Inc. stayed connected virtually.

Buddy Cruise Inc. is a nonprofit that provides educational opportunities and resources for families while promoting awareness, acceptance, inclusion and advancement for individuals with Down syndrome. Our events are a forum for prominent educational speakers to address a wide range of Down syndrome and disability-related topics.

Buddy Cruise is unique because we not only give families the opportunity to gain information through educational workshops & events, but they are able to network with other families from across the globe that are in similar situations and form lasting bonds. All of this is done on a cruise ship allowing for inclusive opportunities throughout the ship and in the various ports of call. Families who otherwise have a very hard time finding a scenario to meet all family members’ needs are accommodated with a variety of activities for all ages and abilities.

When not cruising, the nonprofit is involved with awareness events and The Special Olympic Young Athletes Program. This is a program geared towards 2 to 7 year-olds with intellectual disabilities and their peers, designed to introduce them to the world of sports. It helps them to improve physically, cognitively and socially while preparing children to graduate to official Special Olympics training and competition when they turn 8 years old.

Through Grassroots.org's Toolbox, we are currently utilizing the virtual office resource. It has really made a world of difference, allowing us to communicate more effectively with the families we serve. We even were able to customize a phone number for our organization (1-877-BDY-CRUZ). Because of the nature of our organization we are always on the go, attending conferences, taking part or hosting awareness events or off cruising across the ocean. Thanks to Grassroots.org, we never have to miss a call! With this service we can have the calls routed directly to us wherever we may be, including cell phones and even our email. It is an amazing service we would not have known about if it had not been for Grassroots.org. Thank you for your support, Grassroots.org!

Visit the Buddy Cruise website for more information!

Pamela Arnoldson
Director, Buddy Cruise