Charities Should Hire New-Media Experts

To the Editor:

The Chronicle continues to do a wonderful job of providing ongoing coverage of Internet and information technologies for foundations and nonprofits. But I wonder if others suffer the same sense of cognitive dissonance as I do when they turn to the career-network pages. There are no positions listed in The Chronicle for information managers of any stripe. Certainly with the advent of e-philanthropy, such work should be included in the Fund Raising, Management, or Executive categories of your recruitment-advertising section.

How is it that neither foundations nor nonprofits are reaching out for communications people with knowledge of the new media? It is those staff persons who will understand the Internet well enough to brainstorm creatively around the digital divide, as well as position the hiring organization to cross the “organizational digital divide” referred to by Joan Fanning, executive director of NPower, in the January 11 issue of The Chronicle (“Astride the Digital Divide”).

Jacqueline G. Read
Director, Library & Communications
Maine Philanthropy Center
Portland