Michael Stein posted an interview with Michael Gilbert at GetActive's Word of Net yesterday, and the results were as interesting as you'd expect, given their extensive involvement in the nonprofit technology field. Gilbert made a particularly good point on the question of whether ample resources (i.e. staff time, money, and management support) are preconditions for successful nonprofit technology initiatives:
I am not convinced of the generalization that more resources devoted to Internet strategies are the key to success. Rather, I think success is the key to more resources. In other words, I think that careful change management, with an eye toward the right first steps, can be far more powerful than asking people to pour resources in and wait for results down the road.
So it's the culture, stupid? But although I agree with Gilbert's emphasis on the importance of organizational culture and change management, I'm not convinced by his continued prioritization of email over websites:
The Internet has not changed in any way that fundamentally undermines those rules. [i.e. (1) Resources spent on email strategies are more valuable than the same resources spent on web strategies, (2) A website built around an email strategy is more valuable than a website that is built around itself, and (3) Email-oriented thinking will yield better strategic thinking overall.] You still get a higher return on investment on money invested in email. You still get better websites when you design them around your email strategies. And the better you are at thinking about email, the better you become at thinking about relationship management strategies in general.
At the root of Gilbert's philosophy is an absolutely correct emphasis on relationship management and attention to ROI. Listen to your constituents and don't waste money on useless bells and whistles--and that advice will hold true forever. And email isn't going away anytime soon--nonprofits must continue to think seriously about their email strategies.
But the Inbox isn't the only place to meet your constituents anymore--try their aggregators--and websites aren't static, glossy brochures--they're lively public spaces, with comments, guest bloggers, and wikis creating opportunities for direct participation. And although these tools are still in their infancy, usage is exploding and they're dirt-cheap and easy to implement. The Internet may not have changed, but the tools we use to access it certainly have, and nonprofits should be taking full advantage of them.
