Vote for Opportunity's SXSW Interactive 2011 panel proposals.

Ever wonder how nonprofits write successful blogs, turning high readership into active support? Believe me, it’s a challenge. 

No matter how interesting your nonprofit’s work, if you don’t offer a variety of content on your blog–a range of technical, informative and human interest stories–it won’t engage supporters. If you’re the editor of a nonprofit blog–or even a for-profit blog–and are challenged to turn passive readers into activists, vote to bring http://www.opportunity.org/Opportunity[/intlink]‘s proposed panel discussion “Is Your Nonprofit Blog a Snoozer?” to SXSW Interactive 2011. We’ll discuss our experiences with nonprofit blogging, and bring in several editors and leaders from a variety of successful organizations who’ll give helpful advice and lend their expertise. 

Opportunity has been to SXSW before. Last year, we stirred up some buzz with our discussion, “http://www.opportunity.org/blog/%e2%80%9cwill-kiva-kill-your-nonprofit-donations-2-0%e2%80%9d-nope-not-ours/Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0[/intlink],” led by our very own VP of interactive marketing Ruth-Anne Renaud. 

Vote for “Is Your Nonprofit Blog a Snoozer?” at panelpicker.sxsw.com. 

Blogging not your thing? Check out “http://www.opportunity.org/blog/bring-opportunity-to-sxsw-2011/Life After Blackbaud[/intlink],” a proposal by software engineer Jonathan Neddenriep for a panel discussion on switching from nonprofit-specific CMS and CRM platforms to general market service platforms. Vote for Opportunity’s interactive proposals and we’ll see you at SXSW 2011. 

Note: This Friday, August 27 is your last day to vote to bring Opportunity to SXSW.

A demonstration at the Dorkbot event at SXSW Interactive 2010. (Courtesy: sxsw.com/Photo credit: Jonathan La Chance)

Bring Opportunity to South by Southwest (SXSW)! Jonathan Neddenriep, our software engineer, is proposing one of two interactive panels featuring Opportunity at SXSW 2011 in Austin, Tex.

His panel is called “Life After Blackbaud.” He says it will explain how http://www.opportunity.org/Opportunity[/intlink] “left nonprofit-specific technology platforms and hasn’t looked back.”

More details:

Traditionally, nonprofits have used CMS and CRM platforms from dedicated nonprofit technology companies such as Blackbaud and Convio. However, these are usually expensive and lack the feature set that commercial organizations take for granted. [...] Opportunity International has transitioned from Blackbaud to general market software platforms. [...] This technical talk will explore the rationale and process used so that other nonprofits can do the same.

Opportunity has a great track record at SXSW. In 2010, our VP of interactive marketing, Ruth-Anne Renaud, got a lot of buzz when she sat on a panel called, “Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0.” The panel detailed the person-to-person online fundraising strategy first introduced by Kiva that has now been absorbed, adapted and transformed by other organizations, including Opportunity via our donation site OptINnow.

Go to the SXSW site to read the full description of Jonathan’s expert technical panel. If you like what you read, we encourage you to vote to bring “Life After Blackbaud” to SXSW 2011. We’ll see you in Austin.

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Non-Profit Technology Network’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference and present on two panels: one on the changing face of donations online and what that means to charities today, and the other on how to approach big issues (and unfortunately, last I checked, poverty is still a big issue).

It was a great conference attended by over 1,400 people who work for various nonprofits from across the spectrum. They were all there to find out how they can: a) do more with less, b) leverage technology to further engage and excite their supporters about the work they do, and c) find best practices from other nonprofits who are seeing success.

Any time you get a chance to be around that many people all actively concerned with the greater good, you have a tremendously positive experience. I had the opportunity to share how we built OptINnow.org to provide a deeper level of engagement with our supporters. OptINnow connects these supporters with our amazing clients around the world who are using a small business loan from Opportunity International to work themselves out of poverty and impact their communities.

During the panel discussions, I talked about how OptINnow provides a way for people who have been with us for a long time to see the faces of the people their donations have impacted.  It also allows those who are new to the world of microfinance and Opportunity to learn about the incredible tool of microfinance. We really look at OptINnow as a jumping off point for new and existing supporters to better understand our work and further their impact on reducing global poverty by funding individual entrepreneurs. More importantly, they can see the incredible, long-lasting impact of investment in Opportunity’s banking infrastructure in poor countries, and get involved with our work at a deeper level.

 Visit optinow.org to explore our online giving platform – and to help fund a loan for an entrepreneur of your choice.

Click here to read the story posted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy about our panel and the lessons shared by Opportunity, Donors Choose, Care2 and BeaconFire Consulting.
Have questions about OptINnow.org – feel free to post them here on the Blog and I will be happy to respond.

The festival includes presentations and panel discussions, and I will be representing OptINnow in the panel discussion, “Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0”. I will be joined by a group of remarkable panelists including: Skylar Woodward of Kiva, Milo Sybrant of Amnesty International USA, Michael Cervino of Beaconfire Consulting, and Katie Bisbee of DonorsChoose.org. It is a great opportunity for Opportunity International, in particular OptINnow, since this panel is already is being marked as one of the festival’s top panels.

SXSW Interactive has become a focal point for nonprofits who see technology as integral to accomplishing their missions, and  are looking to learn, share, and dream about what’s possible.

The “Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0” panel will focus on the relatively new person-to-person online fundraising strategy first introduced by Kiva and now being absorbed, adapted and transformed by other organizations, including Opportunity. By being an innovative online fundraising platform that not only connects donors to clients, but also creates an online community, teaches visitors about microfinance and provides various ways to get one and one’s networks involved, OptINnow will undoubtedly be a strong voice at the table.

The panel will explore tough questions about the donations 2.0 model and social media and how they apply to nonprofits of all industries and have fundamentally changed donors’ expectations on transparency and accountability. The person-to-person/ donor-to-client model is common with microfinance organizations; however, the question remains whether this model will be relevant for other nonprofits, in particular advocacy organizations like Amnesty International. 

Participation in this panel and our attendance at many others will most certainly be a learning experience for all of us. Being surrounded by innovative organizations, ideas and leaders will expand our views and ideas for OptINnow. The SXSW Web site says, “Year after year, the festival is a launching pad for new creative content.” We look forward to being part of this launching pad: being involved in the conversations, working with other nonprofit leaders and learning how we can make OptINnow a better fundraising, educational and engagement tool for donors.

If you’d like to learn more about the discussions and what people are saying about events as they are happening, The PepsiCo Zeitgeist allows you to take the pulse of SXSW without having to read through hundreds of thousands of Tweets from Austin. Go to http://sxsw.com/node/4335 for more information.