Books: ‘Internet Management for Nonprofits’

Just as "Internet Management for Nonprofits: Strategies, Tools & Trade Secrets" advises its readers to do, the book is available via different channels — including Kindle, online, e-mail updates and hardcover — and takes on the appropriate identity in each.

Lead editor Ted Hart says the three-part book covers topics ranging from digital fundraising to how the Internet can make nonprofit management easier. Chapter one starts off with one of the more controversial topics in marketing today, "The ROI of Social Media," and gets more intense from there, delving into online security, multichannel fundraising and Web analytics. And those are just a few of the chapters.

Here, Hart explains more about how the book can benefit nonprofits:

FundRaising Success: What prompted the creation of this book?

Ted Hart: This book is part of a series of books that I've written for John Wiley & Sons related to Internet fundraising, website design and social media. So this is actually my sixth book. And the genesis of this was to 
create a work that would help both boards of directors and nonprofit administrators learn how to manage their organization using Internet services.

FS: And that's something they said they needed?

TH: Yes. As we lectured around the world and we were in contact through my radio program and through my newsletter, there were a lot of questions that we were getting about, "How do I actually use these tools to add efficiency and effectiveness to the operations of my organization?" And that's exactly what they'll get in this book.

FS: How does this book address challenges fundraisers are seeing in this economy?

TH: Every charity is challenged today with shrinking budgets and rising expectations. And what the Internet allows charities to do is to reach out to wider audiences, be more transparent, and to do a better job at both managing themselves and raising money. So it's both the efficiency and the effectiveness that all charities are challenged with, and this book helps bridge that gap.

FS: How does the book deal with the changing face of 
fundraising?

TH: I think the changing face of fundraising is more utilization of Internet services, more integration between communities, and the need to use Internet tools and social media to expand the marketplace for nonprofits. That is a challenge all charities face.

FS: In the introduction, you quote Greek philosopher Heraclitus' saying, "There is nothing permanent except change." Does this book account for predictions of major changes in digital fundraising? (Will there be major changes in digital fundraising in the future?)

TH: It addresses the fact that while being online has seemed like a good idea, it has now become more of a central feature to the future success of nonprofits. It's now no longer an interesting add-on or a feature that is optional. For charities to succeed, they must be online and they must have a strong strategy online. That is dramatically different than what any charity has faced in the past.

FS: How do you see the future of fundraising evolving?

TH: I think that where today a website is necessary for success, in the future, a social-media and mobile strategy will be required. So the integration and the depth of digital services will only continue to grow. It doesn't start and end with a 
website.

The vast majority of charities right now today are still struggling to have a well-designed, user-friendly website. And that is really going to be a baseline — that charities must solve those issues. Because the marketplace will be moving on in the next several years.

While there's a lot of talk about Facebook right now, LinkedIn and Twitter and other social-media sites, those are not central features for charities today. But they will be in the future. And while there's a lot of talk — particularly [around] the Haiti earthquake — about how mobile fundraising is starting to grow, it is not a central feature for charities today. But it will be in the future. So we're just starting to see the early wave of these additional challenges. There's talk about them, there's interest in them, but charities do not have to have a solution right now, today. They will have to have that in the future.

FS: How well is this book being received?

TH: The reception has been very strong. The interest in managing more efficiently and effectively by utilizing Internet tools is something that definitely is on the radar for a lot of charities.

FS: How will fundraisers be able to connect with this book? (On a personal level, or more as a detached, how-to guide, or somewhere in between?)

TH: I think it's somewhere in between. But it's also more than that. There are multiple levels to this book. And the reason is that this is not a straightforward, single vision of fundraising. This is a book that is also for nonprofit CEOs and presidents and boards of directors who are all challenged with meeting this standard, meeting the need for a digital solution for their charities. So this is written for a broader audience than just fundraisers. Now clearly, fundraising is an important feature for all nonprofits. So this book very clearly provides solutions to charities that are focused on fundraising. But if their entire digital solution is only focused on trying to raise money online, they are not going to meet their potential.

FS: Anything you'd like to add?

TH: I think the bigger issue here is the issue of management. The issue charities struggle with: how they manage their boards, how they manage their staff and how they manage their programs. And what this book does is help offer solutions and a blueprint to help them become more efficient and effective in the use of Internet tools, in the governance of their organization, in the program management of their organization and the fundraising of their organization. I think that's really the most important message about this book … it's the integration of these tools and it's the wholesale look at how you manage an organization, as opposed to a series of modules that fundraising is somehow disconnected from management and management is somehow disconnected from the board. All of these things need to work together, and they need tools that can allow them to succeed. FS