Responsive web design (often abbreviated to RWD) is defined as an approach to web design in which a designer intends to provide an optimal viewing experience — easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling — across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones). Stated simply, a nonprofit website that is responsively...
With 90% of your nonprofit’s supporters and donors now accessing the Internet on multiple devices every day, nonprofits really need to prioritize mobilizing their Web content. Ideally, your nonprofit’s CMS (content management system) has been updated to include responsive design, but the problematic reality is that most CMS services commonly used in the nonprofit sector are as behind on...
When nonprofits launch or consider launching a smartphone app, an iPhone app is usually their first choice with an Android app a distant second. Launching a third version of a smartphone app is extremely rare, but with the release of Windows 8 Pro on October 26 for desktop and tablets compatible with the design and functionality of the Windows Phone, nonprofits...
When nonprofits consider launching a smartphone app, most often they automatically default to launching an iPhone app. But thanks to a strategy focused on bringing low-cost smartphones to the masses worldwide, Google’s Android surged to a whopping 68% share of the global smartphone market in the second quarter of 2012. That’s four times the 17% global market share held by Apple....
For the mobile social media manager, Instagram is a must-download photo-sharing smartphone app – and with more than 80 million users who to date have shared over four billion photos – its quickly becoming a community that early adopter nonprofits have added to their regular list of must-do’s. The social networking component of Instagram is smartphone-based and most of the interactions...
Contrary to its title, the last four chapters of Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits are dedicated to mobile technology and mobile fundraising. I am firm believer that social media will be the foundation of the Mobile Web and the book was written to help prepare nonprofits for the coming shift from desktop and social to social...
It’s been challenging for the nonprofit sector to create iPhone and Android Apps that people want to first download and then repeatedly use – at least in large numbers. In general, your supporters have minimal interest in downloading a budget-friendly app that only includes a news or blog feed, a link to your YouTube Channel, and “Donate” option. For...
Soaring tablet use and an online commons increasingly battling information overload has fundamentally changed web design as we know it. Bigger pictures, less text, larger fonts, and easy-to-tap and click buttons and navigation are the new Web design aesthetic. That said, consistency in Web design is becoming more complicated with each passing day. Do you attempt to create one...
With smartphones now outselling PCs and tablet sales surpassing even the most conservative of estimates, the majority of your nonprofit’s supporters will likely be browsing your website on mobile devices by 2013 – and unfortunately most nonprofits are not prepared for this dramatic shift in Web communications. That said, the following is a short excerpt from Chapter 9 of Social Media for...
At the end of the Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits is a nine-page “Nonprofit Tech Checklist” which I have copied and pasted below. Each item on the list is discussed in the book and some items won’t make sense unless you have read the book, but most will. I hope you find it useful....
Mobile Wallets are going to dramatically transform how consumers purchase goods and services. Many predict the end of cash and physical credit cards for both point-of-sale and online transactions within the next five years. Not one to shy or fear new technology, I’ll be one of the first to ditch cash completely and transfer my credit cards to a...
One in four Americans now access the Mobile Web daily, yet only a tiny fraction of nonprofits have a mobile website. I have been watching this trend for almost two years now and there’s seemingly been almost no progress in the use of mobile websites by the nonprofit sector in that time which at this point leaves me mostly...
As a follow-up to last week’s post on how to create a Foursquare Page for your nonprofit, listed below are five different types of “Tips” that your nonprofit can post on Foursquare Venue Pages using your nonprofit’s Foursquare Page (not your personal Foursquare account) to both gain new followers and inspire the Foursquare community. That said, some things to...