While many organizations, particularly small businesses and nonprofits, intentionally avoid engaging in public policy advocacy.  Myths about violating IRS or articles of incorporation guidelines and regulations have convinced some it's not even possible for them to do so.  However, all individuals and entities in this country have the right to engage in the public discourse that often dictates how aspects of their operations work.  While 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations cannot endorse candidates or parties, they can take a stand on legislation and initiatives that would impact their mission.

Navigating the legal implications of engaging in advocacy and dealing with the often complicated and awkward strategies and ethics can be an unfortunate deterrent to organizations that could sometimes benefit from those services the most.  When an organization opts out of this important component of any successful strategy, here are just some of the opportunities and realities they're neglecting:

• At least 70% of the regulations and policies governing how your organization operates is passed and enforced by local officials who are very accessible.
• Billions of dollars in government grants go to applicants without any competition and other times no organization applies for them at all.
• The laws and regulations impacting your potential employees and customers decisions on where to live and do business is already being influenced by organizations with competing interests.  Any organization who does not engage in these public discourses are powerless to economic and social changes that have harmful effects on their ability to do business.

Here are just some of the things we can do with your organization to bolster its public policy influence:

• Arrange meetings or on-site visits with elected officials.
• Online advocacy campaigns on issues impacting your operations and/or mission.
• Identify and monitor potential legislative threats or opportunities.
• Identify and develop a strategy for obtaining government grants and/or contracts.
• Develop a method of responding to threats or opportunities in a timely and effective manner.
• Participate in lobbying efforts organized by like-minded affiliates.

While public policy advocacy has benefits for most organizations, it may not be an ideal solution for your organization.  The first step is discussing your goals and needs - contact me and we can get the conversation started.

By far - the number one reason projects fail is a lack of proper coalition building. I've written about how damaging it is to our youth-serving efforts when we don't engage young people in the early planning and implementation stages. This simple and easy to avoid misstep can be vital to carrying out any type of project or service aimed at a particular audience.

Beyond that - properly engaging other organizations, allies and partners can make the difference between a good project and a fantastic project. Building coalitions in your programs, services and policy efforts can also help sustainability efforts by increasing the number of invested players. There are numerous gains that I can help you capitalize.

What is "New Media"?

New media is a broad term generally applied to delivering information in a manner that utilizes modern technology. Today's technology allows for us to accomplish this in some exciting and efficient ways. Here are a few common examples:

• Putting a product announcement on YouTube
• Creating a Facebook page to interact with customers
• Developing a web site to promote a new book

Everyday, new ideas and technologies are being developed to take these concepts to the next level. Here are a few innovative ideas being used by organizations like yours today:

• Enabling supporters to share their own personal reasons for donating to your organization with their friends in the places and ways they already use  to communicate
• Allowing clients to send a text message from their mobile phone to find HIV/AIDS testing locations near them
• Educating members of your community in free forums they can access from anywhere and invest in personally with content, time, talent and resources
• Hearing directly from people utilizing what your organization has to offer in real-time and using interactive tools they'll actually want to use
• Transforming the way we collect survey data at events - moving it away from the constrictive tables and into the crowd

Why should you care?

Everyone has a story to tell. Whether it's what your organization does to help people, how your company improves the productivity of your customers or why others should care about what you're doing. How you deliver that message to others matters - especially when you're trying to motivate them to do something like donate or buy your product. Utilizing new media allows you to deliver your story in an innovative and interactive way that an ever-growing audience responds to.

You've probably heard the staggering numbers about online and mobile tools. Facebook now has over 500 million users - which means that there are more people on Facebook than the total population of North America. While sheer mass is a good foundation - actual behavior is more important. Here are some statistics from a 2010 study that indicate why these massive foundations should have an impact on how you do business:

• Thirty-two percent of respondents have recommended a product/service/brand to friends via a social networking site
• Thirty-seven percent learned about a new product or service from a social networking site
• Thirty-two percent of Twitter users re-tweet content provided by a company or product
• Mobile texting has increased more than 450% over the past few years
• Text message based donations are expected to reach $15 billion

When I started my company over fifteen years ago, I began by convincing small organizations they could benefit from using personal computers and office networks. After that it was selling them on the importance of creating a web presence. Today, both of those ideas are second nature in running an organization of almost any size. In a similar way, the notion of using new media tools like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and mobile phones seems to resonate more and more with people. However, many people hesitate because they're not exactly what sure "it" is and can't imagine using it. That's where I can help...

How I can help your organization

I've worked with organizations that have a budget of $15,000 develop a new media strategy that helped them achieve many of the same goals as the plans for $1M+ organizations I've worked with. In many cases - adopting a new media strategy proved more effective and less resource consuming than previous efforts to reach young people. Plus, many of these same strategies helped increase their credibility with other demographics responding to other outreach efforts.

Here are some ideas we can discuss and develop together:

• Utilizing volunteers to maintain a presence on Twitter that educates followers
• Creating a Facebook Page that integrates with your current online communications
• Figuring how to better unify your existing social media efforts - many of which may have been created at different times and now lack a consistent "look and feel" that helps build your brand
• Launching a new campaign to raise awareness or funds utilizing new media, perhaps in addition to already established best practices for your organization
• Developing an internal document, that is easy to understand, to help your volunteers, staff and board understand how to use all these new tools

Wikis are an increasingly trusted and utilized way of collecting lots of information from a limitless number of people and organizing it in a way that's both easy to navigate and easy to expand. These vast collections of information can take on a life of their own with user-contributed content or designed for more presentation based or internal use.

Wikipedia launched wikis into our daily lives and the system it runs on, MediaWiki, is open-source - which means your organization can utilize it for free. However, setting up a wiki initially can be a daunting task - especially if you have a number of specific requests or desires to make it as user-friendly as possible.

I've had the rewarding experience of setting up a number of public and private wikis as well as contributing to dozens of Wikia, Wikipedia and other MediaWiki projects - including my company's own WikiQueer. Setting up your organization's wiki can be a convenient, fun and affordable process - contact me to get started.

I've spent my life thus far operating and advising nonprofits and small businesses.  I appreciate the lean budgets that these organizations operate on and I try to make my pricing as affordable and respectful as possible.  Please contact me and I'm confident we can work out arrangements that will suite both your project and budgetary needs.