April 1998
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
Connections
Nonprofit World focuses on Internet
National online conference scheduled for Charlotte
Nonprofit World, a national series
of conferences on nonprofits and the
Internet, will be held Oct. 29-30 in
Charlotte.
The Charlotte event, to be held at
the Adam’s Mark hotel, will be part of
Philanthropy ’98, the fifth annual con
ference for North Carolina’s nonprof
it sector. Both Nonprofit World and
Philanthropy ’98 are services of The
Philanthropy Journal, which publish
es the Philanthropy Journal of
North Carolina.
Nonprofit World will examine
online tools and techniques nonprofits
can use to raise money, market their
ideas and deliver services. Speakers
include regional and national online
experts and nonprofit leaders.
More than 500 people from 40
states attended the Philanthropy
Journal’s first national conference
on nonprofits and the Internet, which
was held in Washington, D.C., in
January The Journal also will pre
sent Nonprofit World this year in
Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Los
Angeles, and in 1999 in Atlanta,
Denver, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul,
New York, the San Francisco Bay
Area, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
'The A.J. Fletcher Fbundation in
Raleigh, which has launched an initia
tive to support nonprofits’ use of tech
nology and last year sponsored an
Internet session at Philanthropy ’97,
will be a sponsor of Nonprofit World
in Charlotte.
'The theme of Philanthropy ’98,
which initially was scheduled for May
12-13 in Greensboro, will be nonprof
its as entrepreneurial organizations.
Call Shannon Leskin, director of
event services and development for
Journal, at (919) 899-3758.
'Giving Voice to Your Heart'
Nonprofits get media relations boost
A national group offers media
assistance to nonprofits.
By Patty Courtright
Nonprofit organizations that
want a stronger voice in communi
cating the value of what they do
have a new tool available to them.
'The “Giving Voice to Your Heart”
initiative, sponsored by
Independent Sector in Washington,
D.C., provides core press releases,
speeches, op-ed pieces and the like
that organizations can tailor for
specific uses.
“Organizations can use all or
part of our material and amend it to
their needs,” says Peter Shiras, vice
president of programs for
Independent Sector. ‘“The program
really comes alive when people take
the basic concepts and adapt them
to their own area and issues.”
The result of extensive research
with leaders of nonprofits, the pub
lic, the media and legislative repre
sentatives, the “Giving Voice to Your
Heart” program evolved as part of
Independent Sector’s long-term
strategy to strengthen the under
standing of nonprofit organizations
across the country, Shiras says.
Through in-depth interviews,
focus groups and a national survey,
the group was able to assess public,
legislative and media perceptions of
nonprofits as well as to identify
what the leaders of nonprofits
believed to be their most important
messages.
Three key themes evolved from
the research: Nonprofit organiza
tions make a difference in the lives
of people locally, nationally and
internationally, the nonprofit sector
puts shared values, such as com
passion and altruism, into action;
and the nonprofit sector is success
ful because of citizen involvement.
While the program is too new to
show any measurable results,
Shiras says, many groups and indi
viduals have requested information
about it.
Donors Forum, a Chicago-based
membership association of founda
tions, has decided to put “Giving
Voice to Your Heart” to work for
them.
A couple of years ago. Donors
Forum worked with United Way of
Chicago and other groups to
research nonprofit issues, such as
what nonprofit leaders were think
ing, how poli
cy makers
felt toward ^t T •
GmngVoice
toYourHeart
not seeing America's Nonprofit Organizations
Children’s Alliance of Seattle, an
advocacy organization for children
and families, plans to use the
“Giving Voice to Your Heart” pro
gram to help local groups tell their
stories more effectively.
Because nonprofits as a rule are
inexperienced in using communica
tion tools for advocacy purposes
and in explaining what they do, the
“Voice” campaign will help spread
the word, says Steve Lansing,
Children’s
Alliance project
organizer.
“Many times,
nonprofits are
taken for grant
ed in their com-
m u n i t i e s, ”
large increases in
donations. 'The result was a need to
educate the public about what non
profits are and how they operate.
These all are areas the “Giving
Voice to Your Heart” campaign tar
gets, says Valerie Lies, Donors
Forum president.
“We chose to participate in the
“Voice’ campaign so we could take
advantage of Independent Sector’s
message research, then tailor the
message to the Chicago area and
apply it to our needs,” she says. “We
want to empower all the nonprofits
in the Chicago area to use the key
messages provided.”
When Donors Forum initiates its
campaign in June, the biggest chal
lenge the group eoqoects to face is
changing the attitudes and percep
tions of a diverse population. Lies
says. For instance, people often
don’t think of organizations they
deal with every day — such as
churches and day-care centers —
as nonprofits, she says.
“'Throu^ the communications
campaign, we must build connec
tions to organizations that Impact
people, not only as volunteers but as
prospective donors,” Lies says.
Another nonprofit, the
Lansing says.
'The ‘Giving Voice to Your Heai't’
material will highlight nonprofit
organizations in various areas and
remind people that nonprofits are in
need of care, he says.
“Anything you can do — even a
small thing — is a positive step,”
Lansing says.
The “Voice” campaign is not lim
ited to members of Independent
Sector, Shiras says. In fact, the
group will work on a one-on-one
basis with any interested nonprofit
organization. Every two months,
participants will receive new mate
rials geared for that particular sea
son. Fbr instance, current materials
offer tax tips to coincide with the
./^ril 15 tax deadline.
“'The materials have both a pub
lic policy and public education angle
and are intended to be flexible and
adaptable tor both uses,” Shiras
says. “'The success of the ‘Giving
Voice to Your Heart’ program will be
determined by the extent to which
the nonprofits pick it up and use it.”
For information about the
program, contact Independent
Sector at (202) 223-8100, e-mail
givingvoice@indepsec.org> or on
the Web at www.indepsec.org>
Nonprofit surfers
Survey shows online readers
politically active, vtired
By Sean Bailey
Philanthropy Journal Online
readers make up a wired crowd,
using laptops, home computers, cell
phones, pagers and personal digital
assistants, according to a recent
online survey of more than 1,200
readers.
More than 84 percent of the
respondents have a home computer,
48 percent use cell phones, 45 per
cent use laptop computers, 17 per
cent have pagers and 5.5 percent
have personal digital assistants.
In addition to being technically
savvy. Philanthropy Journal Online
readers are politically active. More
than 93 percent of those who
responded have voted in at least one
of the last two elections.
The Philanthropy Journal Online
conducted the survey during a three-
week period in January More than
10,000 readers were e-mailed the sur
vey and 1,202 responded.
The survey largely focused on
demographics and technology use.
Here are some Mights:
Philanthropy Journal Online
readers are fairly heavy Internet
users, many spending some time
every day checking their e-mail and
visiting Web sites. More than 90 per
cent check their e-mail at least once a
day — 70.4 percent check their e-mail
more than once daily. And more than
89 percent visit Web sites several
times a week.
Sbdy percent of survey respon
dents access the Web both at home
and work. Only 15.6 percent access
the Web only from home and 24 per
cent only access the Web from work.
In the battle between Netscape
and Microsoft for Web browser mar
ket share, Netscape appears to have
a commanding lead. More than 70
percent of survey respondents use
some version of the Netscape brows
er and more than 21 percent use a
version of Microsoft’s Internet
Explorer. The America Online brows
er accounted for 5.8 percent.
When it comes to operating sys
tems, however, Microsoft’s Windows
95 is used by 65.3 percent and the
Macintosh operating system is used
by only 12 percent. Microsoft’s
\^dows 3.1 and 3.11 operating sys
tems are used by another 11 percent
of users.
Philanthropy Journal Online
readers travel the Internet at a
speedy clip. More than 16 percent use
high speed access (ISDN or T1 lines)
and another 16 percent use the latest
56K speed modem. More than 57 per
cent use 28.8K or 33.6K modems.
For complete results of the survey
visit Philanthropy Journal Online
http7'Avww.pj.org>.
Britt leaving as nonprofit adviser
Robin Britt, adviser to Gov. Jim
Hunt for children, families and non
profits, is leaving his job at the end of
May. Britt expects either to head a
nonprofit in Greensboro or to begin a
new nonprofit there.
He hopes to focus efforts on an
initiative to prevent child abuse and
neglect and to boost brain develop
ment among children through a^
three through the use of nurses work
ing with families.
Hunt created the position of
adviser for children, families and
nonprofits in 1997 and named Britt to
fill it. Britt previously had served as
secretary of human resources and in
that job was instrumental in the cre
ation of Hunt’s Smart Start initiative.
Britt in 1987 founded Uplift Inc., a
Greensboro nonprofit that works
with low-income children and their
families.
Sean Walsh, Hunt’s press secre
tary, says Hunt has not decided what
to do about replacing Britt.
Philanthropy Journal
of North Carolina
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Vol. 5; No. 8
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Online fundraising
Service puts nonprofit Web donations on phone bills
By Sean Bailey
This is the year of “e-commerce”
on the World Wide Web and the non
profit world is beginning to receive
the attention of entrepreneurial
organizations that figure it won’t be
long before people routinely make
charitable donations online.
One new entrant to the field is
eCHARGE, a Seattle-based organiza
tion that hopes to become ubiquitous
on nonprofit Web sites, offering its
eCHARGE button as a safe and easy
way for people to make donations.
“When it comes to the nonprofit
sector, we want to stand out as pro
viding the easiest solution for some
one to make a donation to the non
profit,” says Michael Maddy, an
eCHARGE representative.
For the end user, Maddy says, the
process is simple. You visit a nonprof
it Web site. It delivers
information and ser
vices. When it’s time to
make a donation, buy a
product or acquire a
membership, the visitor simply clicks
on the eCHARGE button.
At that point, the eCHARGE soft
ware takes over. It directs the user’s
computer modem to sign off. The
modem then dials a special
AT&T/eCHARGE phone number and
charges the payment to the user’s
phone bill. 'Then the computer signs
off and redials the user’s original
Internet access number, thus allow
ing the user to continue with his or
her Web session.
The entire trans
action takes less
than two minutes,
says Maddy.
Maddy believes
people and organizations will sign up
to use eCHARGE because it is fast,
sate and puts aU the charges in one
spot, the phone bill.
eCHARGE offers an option for
people who prefer not to use their
credit card numbers online.
“It allows people to use something
they are already comfortable using to
make donations,” Maddy says.
Maddy says eCHARGE antici
pates offering the billing option
beyond phone companies. The
eCHARGE button could be config
ured, for instance, to charge any util
ity bill such as gas, electric or cable,
he says.
E-charge hopes nonprofits will
find the system attractive because it
wUl be more cost-effective than other
fundraising programs. eCHARGE
expects costs to be less than 7 per-
Look for ECHARGE, page 16