Extra Credit Assignment Web 2.0 Strategy

The House Inc. has never had exposure to Web 2.0. Until recently, they had an outdated site that was basic frames and html (http://web.archive.org/web/20080127133344/http://www.thehouse-inc.com/ ).

Recently, they've realized the importance of becoming connected, if not for their own organizations sake - then the sake of the children that they seek to help.
A redesign with some basic java scripting and a modern look has given the spot new life - http://www.thehouse-inc.com/

This redesign is part of a larger step of The House Inc. step onto the virtual stage.

The next steps to involve leveraging the social networking sites for two important functions:

1. Establish and maintain an online presence
2. Setup an infrastructure for Micro-level and larger donations.


The Online Me
The importance of establishing and maintaining an online reputation cannot be understated. Indeed, you are who are, based on the info people find on the internet. All info then, should reflect the kind of organization you are, your goals, successes, and needs.

The organization should have a Facebook page, a MySpace page, a Twitter account, and an easily accessible blog. The point behind maintaining this effort is to increase the organizations social capital. Since this is a non-profit organization, they rely on donations of money, services, and labor. In requesting such donations, no one should need to ask the question, “What is The House?”

If this sounds like a lot of work - that is because it is. Organizations are routinely employing people to monitor these areas and keep them updated on a regular basis. On top of just posting organizational news - any event that the organization hosts or attends is always photographed and/or recorded to video. Anything that happens in the physical space needs to ultimately be shareable to virtual space within a reasonable turnaround period.

Dollars and Sense
Traditional sources of income for non-profit organizations have revolved around the acquisition and maintenance of governmental or private grants. These grants were sometimes hotly contested for amongst charities and social groups, so competition always meant you were never sure if your income would suddenly dry up.

The organization should have either a centralized collection point for all donations that each of the social networking venues will link to, or a distributed donation system across many different sites that is managed by the organization’s internal financial staff.

Micropayments are the concept that in requesting large sums of money, people are less likely to give. But in requesting relatively small amounts from large, aggregate populations, achieved greater earning potential than the grant system could ever offer.

Micropayments are a unique way to leverage social media. With just a link on your web 2.0 outlets, you can drive people to donate directly to a PayPal account or interface with the donations function setup within sites like Facebook.

Campaigns like Give Five by the United Way demonstrate what is possible with a cause, simple flash animation, and a donation center. As a final example - the recent campaign for President Barack Obama heavily utilized these web 2.0 sites for community outreach and micropayment collection, “In February 2008 alone, the Obama campaign raised $55 million dollars, $45 million of it online. And the candidate hosted not one fundraiser.”