Tips for Nonprofits Meme
Tips for Nonprofits Meme
Elizabeth Able, of Able Reach Arts and Web Development, recently started a blog meme in support of nonprofits that have an online presence. She asks that we write one tip on ways nonprofits can benefit from having an online presence and have others do the same.
Snowcrystals.com shares a wealth of knowledge
Elizabeth Able, of Able Reach Arts and Web Development, recently started a blog meme in support of nonprofits that have an online presence. She asks that we write one tip on ways nonprofits can benefit from having an online presence and have others do the same. Tips can have similarities so long as each offers new insight into the topic.
This meme comes with four guidelines:
- Offer one tip
- Tag three people. Bonus points for including blogs that support or represent nonprofits.
- Please link back to the original entry page. If you link, Elizabeth will contact you about including your tip in a compilation of tips generated by this meme.
- Remember to pass on the guidelines
Now that we know the rules, here is my tip.
Share your knowledge and expertise in the form of educational resources
Nonprofits come in many shapes and sizes. Whether they are confronting issues relating to poverty, arts & culture, health care, education or public policy, each is likely to have specific and in-depth knowledge relating to their mission. While their Web sites will often focus on their core mission, volunteerism, fund-raising and related issues, much can be gained from sharing their broader knowledge base as well.
In this case, when I speak of knowledge, I’m not referring to the facts and figures used in support of the cause, but the more in-depth knowledge or data related to the topic. Thus a public art organization, that uses its site to announce projects and explain how art benefits society, may also want to publish related resources such as:
- A walking tour of public art in the region served by the organization.
- Interviews with artists explaining how they came to the field, what education this required and where they seek their inspiration.
- A history of the role of public art from ancient times to the present with images and links to more specific resources.
- Pages explaining how sculptures are made, from the design process to the casting of metal and other techniques.
Benefits of knowledge sharing
Sharing such knowledge can support an organization in many ways. In most cases the expertise and knowledge is already in the minds of the staff—who draw on this information in their own work. Sharing it with others benefits society by providing information resources, but also supports marketing and fundraising.
- Educational resources geared to K-12 students and/or the general public help the organization to reach a wider audience geographically and demographically. This builds name recognition and supports the organizations brand, enhancing the reputation of both the organization and its staff through the quality of its content.
- Sites providing educational outreach may be eligible for additional funding from foundations and government agencies that support such programming.
- Informative, and fun, resources help to stimulate interest in the topic thus cultivating readers towards becoming future donors, volunteers and champions to the cause.
Bastions of Knowledge: Examples
Many faculty and staff here at Case have heard me discuss sites I call “Bastions of Knowledge,” places where faculty and staff can share their expertise with the public. As mentioned above, such sites provide educational outreach and support marketing. A site that becomes known as one of the leading resources in a given field bolsters the organizations reputation, but can also draw additional traffic to the rest of the organization’s site. Two of my favorite examples are:
- Snowcrystals.com, produced by Kenneth G. Libbrecht, chairman of the Physics Department at Caltech
- This site has anything you could possibly want to know about snowflakes, from the physics of how they develop and the impact of temperature on crystal formation, to some stunning photographs of individual snow crystals. If you Google the term “snowflake,” this site shows up as the number 2 result—out of 9,050,000. A search on “snow crystal” puts them 1st out of 366,000 results. When you consider the number of children studying snow in school, the adults who are curious to learn more and scientists interested in crystal formation and/or considerations of temperature, you have to imagine that this site gets a lot of traffic. Professor Libbrecht didn’t have to share his research with all of us, but in doing so he has provided a fascinating resource and made more people familiar with his department and Caltech.
- The eSkeletons Project, University of Texas at Austin
- The e-Skeletons project doesn’t rank quite as high in Google, it comes in 8th out of 6,760,000 on a search of the word “skeleton.” but that’s still very impressive. So is the content. This site provides images of individual bones, from all orientations, from 12 primate species including humans. Animations, FAQ’s and other information make this a terrific resource for teachers and students alike. As a K-12 educational resource, the site also receives both corporate and government support.
In Conclusion
If you’re working for a non-profit or similar organization, go ahead and share the information in your head. You’ll provide a service to others as well as yourself.
As per the instructions of the meme guidelines, I’ll tag Mano Singham, Jeremy Smith, Lev Gonick and Gina Prodan, as I’m curious to hear what they have to say on the matter.
WordPress/Automattic Publisher Blog
WordPress Publisher Blog is (going to be) written by various team members at Automattic and their goal is to help all publishers get the most out of WordPress. They will cover features that are often overlooked, highlight plugins that extend WordPress functionality and showcase interesting sites being built with WordPress. They are looking for publishers […]
WordPress Publisher Blog is (going to be) written by various team members at Automattic and their goal is to help all publishers get the most out of WordPress. They will cover features that are often overlooked, highlight plugins that extend WordPress functionality and showcase interesting sites being built with WordPress. They are looking for publishers working on innovative projects using WordPress and would like to field questions from users. From the comment that Raanan left on PressedWords, it would appear that they want to focus on large WordPress installations that are doing lots of custom work and help publishers find the proper resources.
A definite daily read!
7 Advanced CSS Menu, A Great Roundup!!
New techniques are being developed and updated all the time for creating unique menu techniques. We keep an eye on the recent developments and collect new ideas and methods for our readers and after all the great appreciation this post got 13 Awesome Javascript CSS Menus, i thought it would be nice to get you […]
New techniques are being developed and updated all the time for creating unique menu techniques. We keep an eye on the recent developments and collect new ideas and methods for our readers and after all the great appreciation this post got 13 Awesome Javascript CSS Menus, i thought it would be nice to get you a fresh round-up of 7 Advanced CSS Menus techniques, that might be useful for you in your next design project.
1) Advanced CSS Menu
Check out this great CSS advanced menu tutorial by Nick La, showing us how to slice up the menu design step by step and putting them together with CSS.
Note: there is an IE6 bug where the hover effect doesn’t display properly. To fix that, you can use Javascript to specify the to display block on mouseover.
2) Advanced CSS Menu Trick
A new concept by altering the non navigation items on hover state which will focus the user’s attention on the item they have hovered on, and create a new look and feel for the site overall. Works perfectly in any modern browser, yet still be fully functional in your older version of IE as well.
3) Son of Suckerfish Dropdowns
The Famous Suckerfish Dropdowns is now back and they’re more accessible, even lighter in weight (just 12 lines of JavaScript), have greater compatibility (they now work in Opera and Safari without a hack in sight) and can have multiple-levels.
4) Tree Frog slide and fly menu
This menu has a vertical sliding first sub level then two flyout levels and demonstrates how it is possible to change positional styling from ‘absolute’ and off screen to ’static’ and expanding the menu vertically.
5) Mike’s Experiment
A useful CSS technique for providing pop-up descriptive content by extending nav menus with tool-tips, alerts, notifications, or additional info.
6) 8 web menus you can’t miss
8 Great CSS based Menus, you just can’t miss.
7) Drop Down Tabs
Drop Down Tabs comes with 5 sleek examples to let you quickly pick your favourite to use on your site. Customize each example’s CSS to modify the look as desired. We got you covered alright!
You can find great resources at the links below:
- 13 Styles Focuses on CSS menu design and also offers free menus for download.
- 14 Free Vertical CSS Menus designed by exploding-boy, simple and various styles.
- CSS only drop-down menu
- Deluxe CSS Dropdowns and Flyouts
- Centered Tabs with CSS
WordPress Theme Releases For 1 / 23
Two Column Themes Orange and Black This is a widget ready two column theme with contrasting colors. It makes use of orange and black colors. Content area is quite big allowing to fit in more content, sidebar is to the left of the page. Sidebar comes built in with Recent Entries and Recent Comments so you do not […]
Two Column Themes
Orange and Black
This is a widget ready two column theme with contrasting colors. It makes use of orange and black colors. Content area is quite big allowing to fit in more content, sidebar is to the left of the page.
Sidebar comes built in with Recent Entries and Recent Comments so you do not have to install those plugins.
Demo | Release Page | Download
Simpleton
Simpleton is a two column theme which makes use of simple colors. The theme comes built in with recent comments and recent themes. The sidebar is big enough to fit in two rows of information.
The theme is widget ready.
Demo | Release Page | Download
UnGrid
UnGrid is a three column theme based on grids which is widget ready. The theme features an integrated banner management and a featured about section.
Font color is a bit light and could do better with a darker shade. Features a extended footer section to display more information. Comes in Greenish / Pink and Blue colors.
Demo | Release Page / Download
Three Column Themes
iPhone Theme
Widget Ready theme with vast use of rounded corners for headers. The main header area is a bit small which makes it hard to have a custom logo. Makes good use of gray color throughout the theme.
Sidebar is divided into two columns with additional space to show off 125 X 125 banners.
Demo | Release Page | Download
MackOne
A fluid theme based on dark colors consisting of red and black. The background and graphics are appealing. Makes use of white text for better visibility on the dark background.
The theme is widget ready and comes built in with related posts, Flickr support, recent comments, WordPress native tags and Socializing options.
Demo | Release Page | Download
Blue Iris
Blue Iris is a fluid three column theme with widget ready sidebars. Colors are mostly made up with variations of blue. The theme has a wide content area making it easier to add wider images.
The header section and sidebars can do with a bit of improvement. Sidebars are fitted in too close together.
Demo | Release Page | Download