For today's assignment, you needed to choose a non-profit site. List your choice and discuss their founding, mission, and give examples of the ways that they engage followers and solicit new ones. How do they seek to appeal to new followers? How is the site different from the commercial sites and news media sites we have looked at? How do they convey their status is verbal and non-verbal ways? What do they have in common with commercial sites, i.e. what do they need to do the same as commercial sites?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Non-Profit Blogs
[Yes, your instructor is still ill -- there is a second blog post that will appear at the end of class time: be sure to do both assignments]
For today's assignment, you needed to choose a non-profit site. List your choice and discuss their founding, mission, and give examples of the ways that they engage followers and solicit new ones. How do they seek to appeal to new followers? How is the site different from the commercial sites and news media sites we have looked at? How do they convey their status is verbal and non-verbal ways? What do they have in common with commercial sites, i.e. what do they need to do the same as commercial sites?
For today's assignment, you needed to choose a non-profit site. List your choice and discuss their founding, mission, and give examples of the ways that they engage followers and solicit new ones. How do they seek to appeal to new followers? How is the site different from the commercial sites and news media sites we have looked at? How do they convey their status is verbal and non-verbal ways? What do they have in common with commercial sites, i.e. what do they need to do the same as commercial sites?
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The site I chose was the American Cancer Society Blog. The American Cancer Society was founded in 1913 by a group of 15 people that consisted of businessmen and doctors. Its mission is to increase awareness about cancer and promote healthy lifestyles to try to reduce the risk of cancer. They seek followers by running campaigns and engage current followers and gain new ones by organizing events such as Relay for Life to increase awareness.
ReplyDeleteThe blog includes many events and happenings that are going on with The American Cancer Society, as well as new research. This site is different than many of the commerical and news media sites we have looked at because its purpose is more goal oriented. It's not just about a certain product or item, getting news or information, or just to interact about a particular topic. Its purpose is cancer awareness and research. People can still comment on it to discuss things about the articles posted there. That is one similarity to many of the commercial sites we have looked at. It still wants to engage people and get them talking about the information there. Some nonverbal clues about its status are the American Cancer Society logo on the side of the blog, as well as the very formal and professional way the blog is written. It doesn't really ever just come out and state its purpose, but we know based on the organization this blog is put out by.
The non-profit organizations that I chose is To Write Love On Her Arms. There founding was originally just to tell a story, they wanted to help others.To Write Love On Her Arms mission statement is to help people who are struggling with Depression,Addiction,Self-Injury, and Suicide.They are around to encourage and inspire people who suffer from these diseases.Ways they engage followers is by having celebrites head up all there campiagins. A supporter can buy a T-shirts either in a store or through Hottopic. They also have a national TWLOHA day where supporters for one day will literally walk around with LOVE written on there arms. Many followers made this there profile picture on Facebook. They appeal to new followers because they are trying to save lives. They want to make a difference in someones life and help them through a hard time they are having , so that person can live a long fulfilled and happy life.This site is different because there blog has a black background with white print unlike the other sites who have this reversed.There are completely no ads on this page.A person can comment on any posting. A person can write to them and get help if they need it. One thing that is advertised though is SocialVibe, this is website where you can pick a Non profit organizations and by logging on everyday and other little tasks you gain points and those points are turned into money for the cause of your choice. They convey there message through Musicians, Poets ,and News stations. Non verbally they present themselves by supporting the music that supports them. By being a sponsor of a tour. They also have things like TWLOHA day. Things that are similar between TWLOHA and other blogs is that want to be read. They want people to know about them. They have a blog entry everyday that reports on success with people to success raising money. I do not think that they need to do anything more like a commercial site. They already have a great basis and will continue to grow and help many people.TWLOHA has helped many teens and adult to spot hurting themselves and saved many lives. I think they are doing a great thing by helping all of these people who are having a harder time with life.
ReplyDeleteThe non-profit organization that I chose is the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Founded in 1980, the Make-A-Wish Foundation all started with one little wish and now reaches more than 174,000 children around the world. The organization all started when hearing the story about Christopher James Greicius, a 7-year-old boy who suffered from leukemia, his dream about becoming a police officer and the aspiration to make his dream come true. This story inspired the start up of a foundation to make all the kids who have life-threatening diseases dreams achievable. It is only made possible because of the many volunteers, donors and medical partners that donate their time and money to make every kids wish a reality. Their mission statement is to “Grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy”, and they do just that.
ReplyDeleteWhen on the site, there are many things that appear different than if I were on a commercialized site. First there are no advertisements. Non-profit organizations do not depend on advertisers to keep their business thriving, they count on the many sponsors and supporters that hold their organization together. It is also not trying to sell you a product; it simply there to inform you about the foundation and what you can do to participate in it. To solicit and engage followers they keep Wish Stories on the site, along with pictures and the many thank-you letters that follow. Also, to assure that all donations for the Make-A-Wish foundation are legitimate, they have graphs on the website to show where all the proceeds are going. The website makes it very easy for anyone who wants to donate by placing a “Donate” button at the very top.
The one thing that the website has that is the same as a commercialized website is the basic set up and graphic design features that most websites have. It is very colorful and has plenty of interesting pictures. I do not believe that this website needs much more added to it. I would encourage anyone to visit this website to hear the children’s inspiring stories that make you appreciate everything you have and feel empathy for those who are less fortunate.
The nonprofit site that I chose was Operation Smile. This non-profit organization is a “cleft lip and cleft palate foundation,” whose “medical missions allow them to deliver safe surgeries to places where they may not be available, frequently in the developing world”. In order to achieve these surgeries they “combine the talent of medical volunteers from different countries with the best practices in surgical care to meet two goals: immediately transform the children we treat while creating self-sufficient, long-term solutions”. They are a “mobilized force of medical professionals and caring hearts who provide safe, effective reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.” Open smile has been up and running since 1982 through the help of “dedicated medical volunteers” who have provided “free surgeries to children in more than 50 countries, healing their smiles and bringing hope for a better future.” Operation Smile offers six different ways that we know its real: “We reach the unreachable, we work from the heart, we apply global standards of care, we build self-sufficiency world wide, we lead the way, we continually educate and train” each of these separate headlines has a paragraph beneath it giving an explanation of how it is that they are able to achieve such world wide support. This site is much different than other sites that we have viewed because most of the sites we’ve looked at are commercial websites that have massive amounts of advertising whereas this organization site has no advertising on the website and all of their donations come from people who support the foundation. They get the word out about the organization by creating many commercials. These commercials inform donators about the organization and their mission which helps to benefit the well being of a child with cleft palate or cleft lip.
ReplyDeleteThe nonprofit organization I chose was the Humane Society. The Humane Society of the United States was established in 1954 and has the support of 11 million Americans. I chose to talk about the Humane Society because I work for the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society located in Menands, New York. The Humane Society was created to create a humane world for all animals. They work to stop the exploitation, cruelty, and neglect of animals in the United States. They take in stray animals, neglected and abused animals, and those whose owners can’t take care of them anymore. They then take care of the animals health needs and eventually adopt them out to the public. The Humane Society appeals to new followers by having commercials on television, holding events, and having a website that offers tons of information to viewers. Their website offers all types of information about the organization. They offer information about animals, their mission, how to donate, how to get involved, and basic FAQs. The Humane Society’s website is different than a news media’s website because the website is about one thing rather than news as a whole. The websites goal is to get people informed and keep them informed about animals in need of homes. The Humane Society’s website is the same as a commercial site because it is also trying to draw followers in and trying to provide information.
ReplyDeleteThe non profit organization I chose was the All Stars Project Inc, All Stars Project Inc., it was founded in 1891 and its purpose is to promote human delevopment through the use of an innovative performance-based novel. It creates outside of school, educational performing art acivities for young and poor minorities. It also sponsors community and experimental theatre while developing leadership training through the use of volunteer initiatives. Their purpose essentially is to strengthen communities. They have gained a huge following through recruiting volunteers and offering sponsorships. One of their programs called the All Stars Talent Network that takes place in the 5 boroughs of New York City, in Newark, NJ, Chicago, IL, and in the bay area in California.
ReplyDeleteThis program was designed to reach out to a majority of kids who are interested in performing on stage especially those in poor neighborhoods. The program has gotten many kids to perform on stage through the use of their volunteers. The volunteers distribute flyer, speak at schools and community centers, and set up tables on street corners to spread out the word of All Stars.
This site is far different from any commercial stie we have looked at in class. It seems innocent enough and it is not bombarded with any advertisements. The way the site is set up shows that these people care and want to make a difference. This site was very clever in conveying it's status because on the first page of the site it shows a picture of the CEO along with Dennis Walcott, New York City Deputy Mayor of Eduaction and Community development. The picture also includes higher ups from All Stars meeting with Walcott. This picture sends out their message straight and clear.
I decided for my non-profit site to choose PETA. PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It is the largest animal rights organization in the world with more than 2 million members. PETA tries to help animals everywhere but this is impossible, so PETA tries to focus on four areas that animals suffer the most for the longest time. These four areas are factory farms, laboratories, clothing trade, and the entertainment industry. PETA also helps with other issues such as the cruel killing of beavers, birds, and other “pests”, and the abuse of dogs. In order to bring about help to the animals PETA works closely with public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns. They try to get new followers and members by having celebrities endorse PETA. They also get members by using the compassion of people to get them to join. PETA.org does not have any advertisements on it, which is nice, since with most websites you are assaulted with advertisements on it. Peta like news station sites has articles about animal abuse, has news that are affiliated with the subject of animal abuse. There are testimonials from celebrities about the importance of becoming a vegan or a vegetarian. PETA also wants people to donate money to the cause, so instead of having advertisements and get paid for them, PETA asks money from its members and sponsors.
ReplyDeleteThe site I chose was The American Red Cross It was founded in 1881 by Clara Barton. It provides neutral humanitarian services to the sufferers in war as well as relief to natural disaster victims. It was inspired by the International Red Cross during a visit following the Civil War. It's mission is basically to relieve suffering of victims, the site explains:
ReplyDelete"Today, in addition to domestic disaster relief, the American Red Cross offers compassionate services in five other areas: community services that help the needy; support and comfort for military members and their families; the collection, processing and distribution of lifesaving blood and blood products; educational programs that promote health and safety; and international relief and development programs."
The reputation of the Red cross speaks for itself, but they still need to engage and solicit volunteers and donations. It is active in blogs, on twitter and offers numerous options right on the site for volunteer and donation opportunities. Like a commercial site, it makes itself readily available and easy to navigate. pictures also help, showing devastation and representing the need to help. Its authority and positin as a non-profit organization is visible and widely recognized, the Red Cross symbol, present on every area of the site, indicates non-verbally to any audience that it means to help.
Unlike a commercial site, the Red cross also feels a need to represent its morality and the morality of its governing office. It also openly cites how much of each dollar is usd toward its goals, something a commercial site wouldn't mention.
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ReplyDeleteThe non-profit website that I chose was Saint Jude's Children's Hospital. This is a hospital that is known for treating children with terminal illnesses. They are always looking for donations from any generous individual. This hospital is always doing new research to help the children with their diseases. Saint Jude's was founded in the early to mid 1950s by a man named Danny Thomas. He was struggling to find his way in life and he prayed to Saint Jude and said that if Saint Jude helped him find his way, he would build him a shrine. His dream was to build a unique research hospital that specialized in the curing of catastrophic diseases in children. One of the ways that this hospital engages followers is by putting up pictures of happy children who don't look sick, and having links for donations. There are so many links on this site that bring viewers to their mission statement, how to donate, how to refer a patient to the hospital, the faculty, the cancer survival rates etc. This site is different from other sites because it doesn't link you to other websites, it only links you to sites within their site. This website is full of information regarding the research that is done, the children in the hospital, as well as the faculty. This website displays at the bottom that it is a non-profit website. Some things that this website has in common with other commercial websites is the fact that there are other links that bring the viewer further into the website. So many people know about Saint Jude's and if you want to know more this website will take you there. However, it will not take you to a Twitter or Facebook page. This is a serious website. Children in this hospital are very sick, and linking viewers to Twitter or Facebook may bring the impression that they are not everything that they promised. This is why the website only links to information on their website. I believe that so much can happen for this hospital. New research can always be done. Anyone can help. No matter how big, or small.
ReplyDeleteThe non-profit organizational website I chose was The Pink Agenda which is a website for breast cancer. The organization is committed to raise money for the cancer itself, and research. The home page of this website definitely wants to reach out to people who are familiar with this type of cancer, and want to support the funding for it. One specific thing on the main page was that they brought up the television show, Grey's Anatomy. I do not watch the show but am familiar with it, as it is based on doctors and patients. The person who created this website was inspired by the television show and wanted to make it known that is how she started this website.
ReplyDeleteThe author stated that she wants to not only find a cure, but find a way to be able to detect breast cancer earlier in its stage of form. The main page is in a letter form to make people want to help out this foundation. The color schema is of course white and pink, for breast cancer. On the side of the website there are all the people that have contributed to that website, and the foundation.
One thing, to help get the audience involved is at the bottom, they actually have a Get Involved part of the page. It gives you an email, for any questions or concerns about this foundation.