Emerging website strategies favor immediate engagement
During the dot.com boom, when bright young things were scrambling to grab the six figure pay packets, the dream of those who stayed working with the web to push a social agenda lay with the idea of the promise of a connected world. The potential of mass human networks, controlled by at the grassroots seemed to promise freedom from the existing media monopoly. As the knowledge based society flowers in the new millennium, progressive civil society activist groups have dismissed a sense of disillusionment with new media. We know that some things do work, and that the medium can deliver the message.
Collectively, we're trying to use the web to connect to people - to engage people, to activate people, to change people in order to change the world. We're actively building communities and seeking to find out exactly how to harness their potential. This is radically changing how we use the web.
Over 30 years, Greenpeace has a history of public involvement with its campaigns. What started as a grassroots organization developed into a well known spearhead of the environmental movement. Greenpeace's public involvement occurs within the framework of a diversity of campaign strategies that can see our targets include not only the public, but specific groups such as politicians, commercial giants, unions, schools and institutions.
For the new generations that accept incredibly rapid development, it would almost seem natural that of course we'd want to involve the public - to motivate them, to interact with them. I mean this is the age of public relations where company CEO's take ‘customer relationship management' more seriously than they take ‘wife at home relationship management'. But it's not necessarily the easiest thing for a non profit to do. Why? Business is based on and measured by the bottom line: profit. Non profits are not fundraising agencies - they are activist entities. Customer relationship management is the lynchpin of a fundraising approach, and when it comes down to whether a non profit will spend money on achieving campaign goals or fulfilling fundraising strategies, most non profits would put that money into achieving concrete goals. It all boils down to that although we desperately need to (and WANT to) work with the public to achieve change, public interaction is not inherently an easy thing for a non profit to do.
If you think about what an activist organization is, and how it works, you'd be amazed at what is accomplished by a small group of committed people. When you think about the millions strong anti war protests that took place all over the world recently, you can see that the public is not stupid, and nor is it as complacent as some might wish. We need to harness that energy to make lasting worldwide change.
So it's been a hard step to take; to move away from writing 12 pages in beautiful copy, with gorgeous pictures, about our ‘save the oceans' campaign, and shift towards a strategy based on making the public do something straight away. We're doing it. All the non profits are.
The new phase is about engagement and participation. What that means depends on which non profit you care to look at.
http://www.weblobbying.com/ is a powerful example of how email can effectively act as a lobbying tool. You'll note the absence of pretty pictures and the concentration on clean information architecture. This is the first page of their site - they resisted the urge to brand more heavily, in favor of allowing more opportunity for activism.
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/index.cfm is a site that also displays a minimal amount of the typical ‘pretty pages' features. Fascinatingly they are extending the reach of the message through supporting a community based radio, whose talks are made available online. Their front pages are a mixture of news and calls to interact.
http://www.moveon.org One of the most successful activist sites on the web, MoveOn profiles calls to action on its front page. News takes a secondary relation in the third column. They can send faxes, stream real media and are currently managing a list of 20 000 supporters.
http://www.amnesty.org Amnesty, at 40 years old, is one of the oldest and most well known non profit organizations in the world. Their front page reflects their development strategy - you can see that haven't yet entirely discarded the legacy of previous phases. They still list reports, press releases and their campaigns on the front page. In line with the general direction for non profits, all of their top articles link to strategies designed to engage and motivate the public.
Greenpeace International has taken a two headed approach. We maintain almost a whole website http://act.greenpeace.org/ devoted to what we call cyberactivism, wherein people can send ecards, talk about issues in the forums, join issue groups… actually you should check it out. You can even join a cyber flotilla. The main page at http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/ talks about more news and features related work, harkening back to the previous phases of development that concentrated on dynamic news.
These are just a few of the activism sites out there that are at the frontiers of non profit web development. The non profits moving towards public engagement, relationship management and online activism.
All the views expressed herein are strictly personal. I have worked for five years as a staff member of Greenpeace, although I am no long employed in a full time capacity.
5:39:41 PM 
|
