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With web technology raging full speed ahead and fundraising needs only growing, now is the time to maximize the value of your website to the fullest. The Soapbox User Summit on Thursday, April 19, 2012 in DC will be jam-packed with the tools and knowledge you need to take your website to the next level. If you’re wondering what you stand to get out of this event, or if your boss needs convincing, we’ve put a list together of the top 7 reasons why you can’t afford to miss this phenomenal event. Be forewarned, this article has to do with an often intimidating topic, but don’t run away screaming just yet, my accidental techie friends. Yes, we’re going to talk about C-O-D-E, as in the string of seemingly incomprehensible letters and numbers that make your website what it is, but *spoiler alert* we’re showing you a way around it. So here’s the problem: sometimes the code that you need to do magical things with your website is way too cumbersome to use often or doesn’t play well with your content editor. Think: WYSIWYGUIAGYC (what you see is what you get unless I arbitrarily gobble your code). In those circumstances, it would be great to have a shortcut for that windy path, which is why we’ve introduced Soapbox Shortcodes to our Non-Profit Soapbox platform. Soapbox Shortcodes is a WYSIWYG-safe macro syntax that allows you to easily add complex HTML with a simple shortcut, or shortcode, saving you time and frustration and opening up doors to even cooler features for your site. Data cleanliness and data integrity. Ah, such fun things to work on, right? Kind of like spring cleaning, but for some reason all the more frustratingly painful. Since spring is coming early here in North America, we thought it could be useful to share some new insights we've had on this topic of data cleanliness, especially for inbound data to Salesforce. A few of us penguins worked through this last night and today as we're gearing up for a new release of our Soapbox Engage products, and I thought I'd share some of the highlights of a good brainstorming session that could be useful for others thinking about matching rules. Our discussions generally broke down into three main areas: 1) Matching scenarios to keep in mind 2) Matching rules 3) Data updating rules Let's dive in to our best practices... We've served up pudding recipes for Constant Contact and MailChimp in our price comparison with Soapbox Mailer for Salesforce. They are two great services in their own right. Anyone who has looked at options for email marketing within Salesforce, though, knows this little pudding taste test won't be worth the digital bits and bytes it's printed on without sizing up Soapbox Mailer for Salesforce against the obvious choice in the marketplace. Next flavor: Vertical Response. Still got your spoon from yesterday's Constant Contact taste test? Good because it's time to dig in to a second price comparison between Soapbox Mailer for Salesforce and another email marketing service. Today’s flavor: MailChimp. Yesterday, we claimed Soapbox Mailer for Salesforce is affordable. They say the proof is in the pudding, though, so we’ve whipped up a few recipes to tickle your taste buds so well even Bill Cosby would be proud. First flavor: Constant Contact. In January, we proclaimed “We are the 99%!” and challenged our sector to do better at providing effective, affordable tools for non-profits - tools that integrate their website, constituent relationship management system, email marketing platform, and social media strategy. We took this challenge personally and sought to lead the fight to provide these effective, affordable tools. That wasn’t empty 2012 campaign rhetoric that has infected us through watching too much CNN lately. We meant business. And we’re here to deliver. We’re proud to announce Soapbox Mailer for Salesforce. Email your donors, members, supporters, advocates, ex-girlfriends, future boyfriends, foreign dignitaries, the entire state of Texas, people named Bob - whomever you want - directly within Salesforce for less. How much less? Try 10¢ for every 1,000 emails with a $19 monthly subscription fee. Already a Non-Profit Soapbox or Soapbox Engage client? We’ll waive the $19 monthly subscription. Yep, that’s “waive” as in not charge you - zip, nada, zilch on the subscription fee. You’re not looking to just send 1,000 emails per month, though, right? Let’s make this a bit more interesting. Say you’ve got a mailing list of 10,000 that you email five times a month. That’s 50,000 emails - or $5 for the emails plus the $19 subscription fee for a grand total of $24 per month. Or, if you’re already using Non-Profit Soapbox or Soapbox Engage, that’s just $5. As my grandmother would have said, you can’t beat that with a stick. We’ll be launching Soapbox Mailer for Salesforce officially in a few weeks. You can sign up for first dibs now, though, and we’ll contact you when it’s out of the bubble wrap. Or, if you’re interested in more details, read on, my brethren and sistren!
If you’d like to see a list of this growing community of socially responsible businesses, the new BenefitCorp.net website will grant that wish. And given that their Benefit Corp search directory is fed live from B Lab’s CRM database—Salesforce.com— you’ll be able to see the list automagically grow almost before your eyes as more and more organizations join the ranks.
But don’t just take our word for it. PICnet had the pleasure of working with New York-based non-profit, The Bridge, on their handsome new site. Here’s what they said. “Soapbox was exactly what we were looking for in terms of sophisticated and search friendly design. We are thrilled with the way our new site looks and functions. Thanks to our PICnet team!" - Ann R. Hyatt, Director of Development & External Relations, The Bridge What got Ann so excited? First, let’s look at the before and after shots. PICnet is proud to be a long-time supporter of NTEN (Non-profit Technology Network), which is why we do our best to keep the NPtech love flowing from coast to coast with our monthly 501 Tech Club happy hours. I organize the meetings for the DC “Accidental Techies” on the fourth Thursday of every month while my co-worker, Lauren Grau, coordinates the San Francisco NTENers one night each month. The NTEN Happy Hours are a great way to meet more people in your field, learn something new about non-profit management, and keep up with today’s ever-changing technology. And don’t worry; you don’t have to be an NTEN member to join, so invite your friends! This week is a very busy one on the PICnet social calendar as both Lauren and I have happy hours. Find details below. Ask any economist, and you'll likely hear the same response: as markets mature, consolidation tends to occur. So, while it's big news, it's not necessarily surprising to hear today's announcement that Blackbaud is purchasing Convio. These two publicly traded corporations have been in the non-profit technology space for a long time, and I congratulate their boards on coming to such an important agreement. Now, let's get to the real business at hand: what can be done now to ensure technology service prices go down, not up, in an era of mega consolidation? Our answer: a fresh approach with a dose of healthy competition.
And then you look at the price tags being charged to leverage all of this fancy, powerful stuff. It can be staggering. It isn't uncommon for us to attend conferences and sit in rooms with panel discussions showing off a nonprofit's custom-built solution to integrate their website, constituent relationship management system, email marketing platform, and other communication channels. The screenshots are slick. The crowd is wowed. The mind races with the possibilities for one's own organization. Until the price tag is quoted. It's usually toward the end of the presentation. It's often mentioned almost as an afterthought. "We paid $100,000 to a web development firm just for the front end web interface. The CRM setup was separate." Or, "we raised $200,000 for this implementation." Staggering. And everyone leaves the room feeling as if they live in a two-room shack and just watched an episode of Cribs that highlighted what they can never have. It's all great and impressive and inspiring - but the real question rolling around in everyone's head as they hit the hallway to go to the next session is: "Damn! How in the world could they raise six figures for a web project?!?" Bay Area non-profit techies, mark January 18th on your calendars! Our friends at Aspiration have partnered with Community Technology Network to hold a no cost nonprofit technology training at the Google campus in Mountain View, CA on January 18th. This Nonprofit Technology Teach-In aims to help you learn new techniques and best practices to take advantage of online tools for your work. Aspiration events are famously hands-on, highly interactive and follow a question-driven format. Together you’ll tackle the following questions:
Yesterday we launched the new and improved Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS) site. CUCS has been our client since 2008 and has found a new home just in time for the holidays on Soapbox 2.x. With this migration from Soapbox 1.x they are going to be able to take advantage of all of the great features that are now available, including:
Paul Howard, CUCS's Associate Director of Training and Consulting Services worked closely with us on this project. He says: "The thing I am looking forward to the most about our new site is the ability to add slideshows to our website and use customized templates to help set CUCS apart."
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