Personally, I think the campaign is wonderful and will be successful.  However it is a double edge sword – if the projects that receive money accomplish little, Pepsi will receive little reward and much blame for squandering millions of dollars and having nothing to show for it.  However, if Pepsi finds a couple of outstanding programs that do amazing work, then they will benefit from the good work, while being praise and rewarded for giving back to the community.  It always helps to know you consumer dollar can come full circle back to your community.

This 21 century corporate community partnership idea is nothing new, but how they go about getting the information out to the masses and not just existing nonprofits is.

In the end I think this will benefit Pepsi more in the long run then any Superbowl Ad.  How many of those ads do we see three months later?  This campaign could go on for years, will minor adjustments and changes and thing of the brand loyalty they can create.  I just hope Pepsi has a long term strategy for this campaign and these project – there is nothing worse then a corporation throwing one time money at a long term problem with no long term planning.

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If this is the move for the commercial world, I’m happy.  I will be happy to drink Pepsi if I know a portion of the money they make is being reinvested back into a community of need.  It’s doesn’t have to be my community, nor do I expect Pepsi not to make a profit, but knowing they are giving back in a meaningful way makes it easier to choose a Pepsi product.

What do you think of the Pepsi Refresh Project?

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Here are my thoughts on Facebook presents for NPO leader
Before you go out an start trying to increase your presence on Facebook – the first questions is, do you have the time to maintain the presents?  and I do me you personally.

Maintaining a presence on line takes effort, just like maintaining a website, blog or calendar. It’s not just about building the presences, but it’s about keeping it.  If your ready to maintain your presences, there are three general approaches:

1. See who your friends are friends with, you will find you may have a lot in common with them.
2. Search for subjects your interested in and friend people who also find those subjects interesting.
3. Post interesting information on your Facebook page and people will find you. (also useful on Twitter)

This will take some work and will not happen over night, but given time and commitment your Facebook presences should increase.

Do you have other things that have worked well for you or your organization?  We’d love to hear about them.

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Does your staff use technology; do your volunteers use technology? do your donors use technology?  Then why are you thinking strategically about technology?

Technology has become one of the cornerstones of operating a nonprofit – we use email to communicate, cell phone to call and text information,  Websites to provide information, services and collect donations, and yet Technology is not part of your organizations strategic plan.

Now this is not to suggest that you should throw out you strategic plan already in place and start again – that would be crazy!  But what I am suggesting is that your organization take some time and make a technology plan.  Then the next time you’re in strategic planning mode you can use the plan as a junping off point.

What should going into a technology plan?  Start with where want to be and work backwards from there.

Inventory what you have and what you think you might need in the future consider everything from the phone systems to servers.  What you think you might need may very well change right along with technology.  Please don’t forget to considerany purchase cost maintenance and staff needs?

Look at how you presently use technology and how its changed – five years ago you bought a server, now with cloud computing is a server necessary? There are dollars to be saved by looking at these items.

What others areas of technology do you need to look at?

If we Work backwards from  where we want to be we can learn our next step . You can see all the places where technology can help you succeed -  Still need help figuring out the details – drop us a line at info@ishouti.com

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Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research offered figures showing that 92% of technology buyers considered themselves engaged in some form of social media.  Who do you know, that is not engaged in buying technology?  Are your donors engaged in buying technology, then they are most like, 92% chance they are involved in social media.

If the donors are out there utilizing social media, then building a development strategy around social media to engage them seems like a no brainier.  Are you ready to build that strategy and engage donors?  That’s why iSHOUT interactive is here to help.  Call us at (408) 431-1363 or email us for a free analysis of you social media strategies

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Has everyone forgotten the economy just hit bottom, we hope and the recovery for most Americans is still yet to come.  So how does former labor secretary Robert Reich expect us all to get a flight to Washington DC to to march about health care – September 13, 2009 is less then a month away.

The same goes for Cleve Jones and his LGBT march on Washington, which is set for October 10-11.  In this case Congress is not even in session – they are break for Columbus Day!

I think both of these movements would be better served if the learned how to use social media and created a virtual type march.

1. A virtual type protest/march is much more cost effective for everyone involved.
2. Many more people could take part in a virtual protest.
3. Jointheimpact.org showed us how effective organizing virtually can be.
4 protesting locally, in multiple locations, show just how expansive the issue is.

I guess I’m just over this whole idea of having to pack myself up and go to Washington DC to get heard.  I ‘m betting utilizing social media, I can get heard just as clearly from my laptop.  The best part is my congressional member will respond to the email.

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