Resources, guidance and leadership to advance the strategic practice of communications in philanthropy.

Webinars? We’ve Got Those.

Webinars? We’ve Got Those.

Check out our collection of webinars featuring discussions about what works in communications, how to be more effective as well as trends, new reasearch and other developments worth noting.

Monitoring Your Online Territory

Monitoring Your Online Territory

Posted by: on Jan 25, 2012 | No Comments

Guest Post: Mitch Hurst, MH Group

As social media becomes more ubiquitous organizations need to better understand how their issues are being influenced in online conversations. There’s a lot of talk about “listening” to discussions taking place online and, particularly for organizations that serve broad constituencies, monitoring social media to gain a better understanding of how issues are playing out.

A Quick Word With…

A Quick Word With…

Posted by: on Jan 22, 2012 | No Comments

A Quick Word With… is our ongoing series in which people from foundations of all sizes and types tell us about themselves, their work and where they draw their inspiration.  This installment features Stefan Lanfer, Knowledge Officer, Barr Foundation

Are You Tapping the Wisdom of the Crowds?

Are You Tapping the Wisdom of the Crowds?

Posted by: on Jan 19, 2012 | No Comments

(At our 2010 Communications Network Conference in Los Angeles, James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, offered some suggestions on how foundations can tap into the collective thinking of crowds.  In her guest post below, Rebecca Arno, Vice President of Communications, The Denver Foundation and Chair, Communications Network, shares some examples of how new communications technology is supporting crowdsourcing in philanthropy. Her post is reprinted with permission from CausePlanet.)

Social media has great power to connect people within and across communities–geographic communities, communities of practice and interest and communities of faith and belief. How are nonprofit organizations mining these connections to achieve their missions? Crowdsourcing is often the answer.

How to Make the Most of Google’s New Analytics Tools

How to Make the Most of Google’s New Analytics Tools

Posted by: on Jan 17, 2012 | 4 Comments

Guest Post: Jai Sen, Sen Associates

Analytics. The very word excites some and sends others running for the hills.

But there is good news. Google Analytics has emerged as the tool of choice for communications professionals, and Google has put some real muscle behind improving it. As of this writing, most everyone should have access to the new version of the application.

Count On Us When Countdown Begins (VIDEO)

Count On Us When Countdown Begins (VIDEO)

Posted by: on Jan 12, 2012 | 2 Comments

His title might say president, Pittsburgh Foundation, but in his heart Grant Oliphant, a former chair of the Communications Network, is still every bit of a communicator (and a damn fine storyteller.)

A case in point: late last year, Oliphant was a featured presenter at Tedx Pittsburgh.  His talk was a meditation on “countdown,” a word which  didn’t appear in the English language until 1952.  Back then, it referred to the process popularized by NASA of counting backwards from 10 to a rocket launch.  Today, though, the world usually means marking progress toward “a particular moment in time…a countdown to war…a countdown to summer.”