By John T. Moore
Washington, D.C.
David Eisner, vice president of corporate relations for America Online Inc., told a lunch time audience at PNN's Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference in Washington D.C., that nonprofits are only beginning to understand and use the Internet's possibilities to achieve their goals.
As nonprofits move through the intersection between technology and philanthropy, relationships among consumers, nonprofits and governments are changing. The same is true with the relationship between grantees and grantors: Grantors will become less hands-off and will become more interactive with the nonprofit sector, Eisner says.
Eisner made the comments during his "The Future of Giving: ePhilanthropy" presentation Friday, Nov. 12, during PNN's Nonprofits & Technology Conference and Seminar series.
The "Internet time" in which we live is not easy -- rather it's exhausting, and all of the changing dynamics will happen quickly in the nonprofit sector, he says.
"The new medium is pushing us faster and harder than anything we've ever confronted," Eisner told the audience. "And as fast as you think you're learning it -- our kids are way ahead."
The good news? We have time to respond because the world is only at the start of the interactive world's development. More importantly, we are even more at the beginning in terms of the intersection between the interactive world and philanthropy.
Eisner jokingly says those using today's Internet would be near the bottom of an evolutionary tree -- below Homo Sapiens, amphibians and reptiles -- when compared to what the future holds.
"We'd be down there with the single celled creatures," he says. "So at the stage we're at now we're amoebas -- or more appropriately in this context -- amoebas dot com."
Eisner took the audience on a tour of AOL's version of amoebas.com -- Helping.org -- which was launched by the AOL Foundation.
One of the main points about this Web portal is that it gives as much control to the user as possible. Eisner says that Helping.org doesn't tell the users to whom they can or cannot contribute.
"It empowers users to get as much information about whatever they want and be able to make their own choices," Eisner says, adding that the service is free to both the user and the nonprofit.
Eisner also provided the following 10 quick tips to help nonprofits succeed by making the most of what the Internet provides:
- Don't panic.
- Make mistakes and learn from your failures.
- Learn from children and teens. Statistics indicate 62 percent of 8- to 15-year-olds are online.
- Bring everybody along.
- Remember the 70/20/10 rule. About 70 percent of a nonprofit's technology budget should be in people -- or "wetwear" -- while 30 percent should be in hardware and software.
- Don't dabble. The Internet is like the plate, not the main course. The Internet is used to serve what we do.
- Technology is important, but is not the only thing. Things like poverty and illiteracy can't be fixed by technology. Nonprofits need both face-to-face interaction and an online presence.
- Customize to users' preferences based on their previous visits. Care about their needs.
- "Multi-way" interaction is the only way. Many nonprofits look at the Internet as another way to amplify their message, rather than the a multi-way discussion tool.
- Have fun! Technology can make life more efficient, but we should resist the thought that technology is not fun.
John T. Moore can be reached at
johntm@mindspring.com
