[Nfb-fundraising] "Four in Five US Adults Go Online" Does Your Chapter Have A Web Site Yet?

[Everett Gavel]

Here is a stat and headline I got today, from a
marketing firm's daily e-mail notification:


>       Four in Five US Adults Go Online:  Usage, Users
Profiled
>
>       The number of adults who are online at home, in
the office, at school, library or other locations
continues to grow at a steady rate,
>       having increased 10% in the past year to an
estimated 178 million* - or nearly four out of five (in
the) US...
>


Still think your Web site isn't all that important in
your outreach and educational efforts?  I'm sure some
in your chapter still think that a Web site isn't even
all that useful, and just don't understand the power
and value of a Web site.  Hopefully it's none of us
reading this.  (smile)

Through our Web sites we can share answers, hope,
inspiration, and facts.  Through the use of text, yes,
but also through the use of pictures, audio, and video.
With people in your local area, and with people around
the world as well.  Here in the Greater Akron, Ohio
area, through previous years of chapter Web site
efforts, we've helped people in Akron and surrounding
towns.  But also in Texas, and numerous countries aroun
the globe.

A Web site is one of the cheapest and most versatile,
and as the quotes and stats above show, the most used,
outreach tools available anywhere--and to everyone.
Everyday, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.  Even while
your whole chapter is sleeping.

Please, put more focus on the aggressive use of your
chapter Web site.  Do not simply let such an
opportunity pass, saying that your affiliate has a Web
site and that's "good enough."  We've gotten contacts
through our Web site who had no idea of the national or
state organization until they found us.  Each Web site
helps make the proper, useful information that much
more accessible to those who need and want it.

If no one in your chapter knows enough about the
Internet to design and maintain your chapter's site,
start looking around, and asking around.  Someone in
your community, very likely, would be willing to help
maintain a site for a nonprofit organization, on a
volunteer basis.  If not, at the very least, raise some
funds to pay out the cost of the few hundred dollars it
may cost to design a basic site, and then the small
amount of funds it will take on a monthly basis to
maintain and update the site as necessary through a Web
design company.  Just don't make any more excuses.
None are truly "good enough" anymore.

4 out of 5 people in the USA.  There is no other way to
get that good of a return on your investment, on a
regular, ongoing basis.  If you are at this point
feeling somewhat clueless as to how to begin, contact
your state affiliate and ask how to begin, or what they
do with their site.  ask to talk with whomever
maintains it.  Or call the national office and ask the
same, and ask them how a local chapter should begin.
The national office, at least, should have
recommendations if not some specific details on how to
word your domain name, and how to design a chapter Web
site logo, and more.

Approach it aggressively!  Get on it.  Just do it.
It's such a valuable and amazingly useful tool.  Don't
let this opportunity stay on the rear burner, if your
chapter even has it cooking right now.  Begin today!
Make a contact.  Send off an e-mail to your leadership.
Make that call.  Just get it going, and if it's going,
get it going on a higher level of importance than it
may be right now.  Get aggressive!

If you don't like the word 'agressive,' well fine.
Then get assertive.  Just get!  It's the most valuable
and useful tool your chapter can have. So just do it!

And God bless your efforts.


To Your Success!
Everett
www.everettgavel.com