September 23, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
A new report that looks at how foundations are using interactive Web 2.0 technology, such as blogs, podcasts, and social networks, in their communications has been announced — appropriately — on the blog run by the Communications Network, a membership organization for people who handle public relations at foundations.
Some foundations are already embracing technology tools that allow for two-way communications, write the report’s authors David Brotherton and Cynthia Scheiderer.
The Daniels Fund, in Denver, for example, set up a Facebook group to communicate with young people who receive college scholarships from the foundation and to try to foster a sense of camaraderie among the students. The fund took that step after it realized that students were not using its Web site or responding to e-mail messages.
“For them, e-mail is kind of the 8-track player,” Peter Droege, vice president of communications at the Daniels Fund, says in the report.
The paper also discusses misgivings that many foundation officials have about new interactive communications technology.
“Foundation concerns are, by no means, insignificant,” write the report’s authors. “They include the worry of losing control over the foundation’s message, allowing more staff members to represent the foundation in a more public way, opening the flood gates of grant requests, or the headache of a forum gone bad with unwanted or inappropriate posts.”
The authors argue, however, that foundations have to reach out beyond traditional communication channels if they don’t want to lose influence among important audiences.
“To decide not to join the myriad online conversations and networking opportunities is to cede territory to others who may have less means, knowledge, or experience,” they write.
What do you think? Has your nonprofit organization or foundation incorporated Web 2.0 technology in its communication or program efforts?
