Posts from — June 2008

There’s little doubt that non-profits as a group are better off because of the Web. The advent of the medium has meant, for many of them, the difference between near-total obscurity and nominal “success”. But it seems, these days, that just having a .org website and a PayPal button isn’t enough. The availability of cheap hosting and free CMSes made it easy for orgs to get up and to begin engaging their audiences online. For many of them, it was a bit like being led into a house with plumbing and electricity from a neolithic cave. And though this was a quantum leap, it seems doubtful that non-profits have kept up with their for-profit counterparts, in terms of their exploitation of the Web for revenue growth. Part of the reason for that disparity is simple lack of resources. Non-profits run lean. They can’t offer the kinds of salaries the best (or even any) online marketer would expect. But I think the bigger impediment is fear of being able to deliver a sustainable return on investment.  Until there is both the capacity to adequately measure the effects of online investments and the willingness to make those investments, opportunities like SEO, paid search marketing and the social web will remain untapped.