Make Your Organization Web 2.0 Too

As soon as I finished posting about moving your organization's website from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, I see in my feed reader (via The Agitator) that Todd Cohen at Philanthropy Journal has published a report on how nonprofits are using new media to engage constituents. Todd makes an excellent point about needing to change your operational paradigms, not just the look, feel and functionality of your web presence:

"Nonprofits that simply plug new media into old ways of doing business may be bound for the scrap heap.

To survive and thrive, nonprofits must adapt to the engaged new-media world in which individuals with easy access to computers, mobile devices and wireless connectivity are transforming the way charitable dollars are raised and social causes are promoted.

The challenge for nonprofits is to wed tried-and-true principles of operating, fundraising and service-delivery with the emerging new-media culture that engages the collective power of individual voices, values and assets for the common good."

Some ways in which we're still operating under old ways of doing business, according to the report:

• Using one-size-fits-all approaches and not providing information and services to people based on their individual preferences.
• Holding on to traditional organizational boundaries and not re-organizing and re-tooling around new ways of working with stakeholders.
• Treating communications with stakeholders as a one-way medium, rather than engaging stakeholders in conversations and developing the organizational brand.
• Not listening to younger workers who may be more in touch with the ways in which the world is changing.

The report is definitely worth a read and should be considered in conjunction with any web site changes you make. There's no point in making your site 2.0 if your organizational policies and approaches are still mired in the 1.0 ways of doing business.

Comments

[Brent MacKinnon]

I like this post Michelle. I'm seeding these ideas into my organization and keeping the conversation going. There are many challenges in promoting web 2.0 with non profits but your commentary is helping me a lot.
Brent
Street Kids International

[Michele Martin]

Sounds like you're making progress, one idea at a time, Brent. I go back and forth on being excited about tools one day and about how thinking is changing on another day. Or at least how I hope it's changing. I'm glad to hear that you're seeing successes in keeping the conversation going.