Welcome to our monthly e-newsletter! Feel free to contact us at info@enomad.net with any comments or questions; if you would like to view our previous e-newsletter, click here for January 1007.   Color Means Everything In the nonprofit world you tend to see a lot of blues especially with health organizations like Children's Hospital or Orange County. Nonprofit Food Banks tend to use earthy tones like Capital Area Food Bank, the Oregon Food Bank and the Worcester County Food Bank Purple and Orange are another popular color combination with art organizations i.e. the Mix Foundation and the California Philharmonic. The colors you choose for your website are very important; they are part of your branding, another opportunity to reflect what you are all about. Basic color theory shows that each color has a different positive and negative meaning; this is especially important for nonprofit organizations that deal with negative subjects like cancer or AIDS. Colors in the blues and greens are more soothing and relaxing for health related topics and may be better suited than red or black which can be energetic and sophisticated colors only when used properly. The AIDS Foundation Houston, for instance, uses red and black - colors that could have very bad connotations - in a sophisticated way, cleverly incorporating them into heir logo, and softening the overall look with some blue. CLICK HERE for a list of Positive and Negative Color Meanings

Thursdays, March 1, 8, & 15 California Association of Nonprofits (CAN) eBay As a Fundraising Tool, Online Webinar   Nonprofit Times 2007 Salary Survey Inflation Deflates Chief Executive Salaries   March 8, 9, 16, 2007 Volunteer Center of Orange County 3-day Grantwriting Course, Santa Ana, CA   Nonprofit Times NPT TechnoBuzz Web Donors Aren't Being Integrated into Other Fundraising   March 19, 2007 Charity University ePhilanthropy 101, Live Teleclass

Tools for Your Board 5 Steps to a Web Site Plan of Action 1. Find out how much traffic you have coming to your site. Contact your web host and see if they have a free traffic statistics program and activate it. If they don't, purchase a separate program (they run from $50 to $200) and you'll need to know what operating platform your website is using (usually either Linux (PHP) or Windows. Web Log Expert is a good one (for PHP / Linux) 2. Check out the websites of organizations very similar to yours. See what they are doing or not doing - pay careful attention to the ones that look well-designed to see what content they have, what colors they are using, what types of interactivity they have. Bookmark features that you like. Search for similar sites through Mission Fish 3. Set up a focus group of current or potential donors, volunteers and consumers as part of you Marketing Committee. Use the focus group to determine the likes and dislikes of your current website and needs and wants for your new website. The focus group can be utilized before during and after any website development to monitor and make recommendations. See Basics of Conducting Focus Groups from Free Management Library. 4. Develop a plan that includes phases to complete what needs to be done; each phase should have goals, completion dates and action steps. The more informed you are about what is going on in the web world around you and the more prepared you are with your needs clearly spelled out, the easier it will be to not only locate a service provider and get started but manage the ongoing project more effectively. It's like accounting, you need to know the basics to be able to know if it's being done right. 5. Set aside funds in your budget to implement your Website Plan of Action. You've already budgeted $2,000 to print 2,000 brochures that will be seen about, well, 2.000 times. Your website is probably seen that many times per month - at least. Spend some money to keep it up-to-date and use it as your main marketing tool. Budget Tip: Your website can be considered part of your Program Budget if you have significant elements of your program on the website i.e. if your mission is to provide resources, advocacy etc.and that is reflected in your website.     Client Profile Seed Business Network needed their old tri-fold brochure updated for 2007 and an accompanying email postcard to be sent out by board members to their donor contacts. The email postcard links back to the Donation page of their website with more details about their annual campaign progress and the new brochure in pdf format to download.