Author: Becky Leven

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Update – Network Outage Indivdual Landing Pages

We are currently in the process of creating landing pages for the approximately 40 websites that were effected by the network outage.

As noted, previously we are mobilizing all available resources to address the situation as quickly as possible, but with new information it is unlikely that affected websites will be fully functional for several more days.

We are working to have at least some of the affected websites back today, in the meantime each individualized page will state that the network outage is due to your service provider.

 

 

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Update – Running Back Ups Prior to a Restore

We still working to resolve the network outages that some of our T4 clients are experiencing.

We are in the process of restoring several large data stores prior to attempting to bring them online.

So far we have not run into any unexpected obstacles in restoring data bases and are therefore are still expecting the servers to be back up and functioning to full capacity within the 24-48 hour timeline previously posted.

We will continue to post updates to the blog.

 

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Network Outage Update

We are aware of the continued outages on some of our data servers and apologize to those who are experiencing those outages

The servers experienced a traffic overage due to high traffic over the holiday weekend. We are in the process of migrating sites to a higher capacity server and anticipate all servers to be functioning at full capacity in the next 24-48 hours. We appreciate your patience.

We will continue to keep the blog.tendenci.com updated as we have further information available.

Thank you again for your patience while we migrate.

We have our team focused on this issue and are working to have all servers back up to full capacity as soon as possible.

 

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Ring, Ring. Tendenci is Switching Phone Systems!

Tendenci community!

We are making the jump – phone system in the cloud.

Our new phone system is more dynamic and mobile.  We also love to hear your voices and this system will allow for clearer transmissions.

We’ll be switching over phone systems this weekend.

If you have any trouble reaching us this weekend or early next week, please send us an email at support@tendenci.com

 

 

Have suggestions for new modules?
Have questions on setup?

Check out our new community forum: http://community.tendenci.com/

Connect with Team Tendenci and the Tendenci community.

 

 

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Tendenci Presents at OSCON: Make your Open Source More Open – Conquering the Accessibility Challenge

OSCON 2015 Presentation in the Main Hall

Tendenci was honored to be invited to speak at OSCON (the Open Source Conference) this July in Portland to run a work shop on the accessiblity challenge in software and web applications.

CEO of Tendenci, Ed Schipul was joined by blind motivational speaker Rachel Magario along with moderator Becky Leven from Tendenci to run a workshop examining some of the challenges and tackling workshop participants own individual projects on the accessibility front.

You can view the workshop slides on slideshare: https://www.slideshare.net/upload?quickupload_experiment_source=newsfeed

 

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SXSW V2V – Proprietary to OS: Giving Away $6 Million is Harder than you Think

SXSW V2V DJ by eschipul

What would it take for you to give away $6 Million worth of source code?

What types of road blocks would you expect in the transition from a marketing company with a proprietary  software to an open source software company?

These are questions that our CEO, Ed Schipul explored in his talk at SXSW V2V in Las Vegas where he was invited to speak for the SXSW V2V annual conference.

Big themes that emerged from the talk were cultural perspectives of “open source” vs. “proprietary” thinkers, the value of focus within a company, and serving the client above all else.

You can view Ed’s slides on slideshare at: https://www.slideshare.net/eschipul/giving-away-6-million-is-hard-removed-videos

Look out soon for the video release of the talk on youtube!

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Translating Data: Making Sense of the Patterns

Graph showing visitor engagement on different applications on the site

If you lived through the 70s and the 90s,  you know that trends are cyclical.

How many times have we seen bell bottoms and big sunglasses make a come back?

 

Picture of Woman with Big Sunglass and Man in BellBottoms3220590102_3b880061a8126654542_72801c1990  

Of course this isn’t limited to fashion. A detailed look into your Google Analytics charts will reveal that your organization has cycles, predicable ones you can plan for.

So how do you read this data and equate the data to your organizations live campaigns?

1) First, collect your data. (Everything you do on a recurring basis including dates). Create an aggregated list of anything involving donor/volunteer/member communication including:

a. Events

b. Newsletters

c. Fundraisers

 

2) Find your data store. (Google Analytics is free to install and has a lot of useful data.)

3) Choose your relevant date range. I like to look at two or more time frames. Typically a year’s worth of data, a smaller three month period of activity, and a one month period.

4) Run your analytics for the type period then look for patters in your data!

Types of patterns you are looking for are

a. Spikes

b. Sequential Dips

c. Dead Spots

 

Case Study:

We partnered with one of our clients, a large nonprofit organization, to increase donations an engagement of their audience in nontraditional ways.

To achieve this we turned to the data recorded on their website:

Disclaimer:

The graphs below are pulled from a report in the Tendenci software (the cms software is free for download on https://www.tendenci.com/ – click on “For Developers”). These same practices can be applied with Google Analytics or whatever your analytics of choice is.

This graph shows site activity grouped by module/plugin (for example any event page that was clicked on during the time period would show up as orange)

This key shows which colors are associated with activities on the website

 

This is an engagement graph of activity on a client website.

Graph showing visitor engagement on different applications on the site

 

What we noted:

  • We see a huge increase in site visits on the 4th-6th
  • Followed by a huge increase in site visits to photos on the 11th
  • And then a decrease in site activity after the 12th

So what did we find when we matched up the engagement graph with our dates of activities

Saturday, 6th was a large event

Thursday, 11th a newsletter goes out to members

When we compared to another month with a large event, we found the same graph shape.

The data tells us:

  • Before the event and day of we had lots of people on the site looking for information and directions
  • After the event we had a dip in activity but we had a lot of people visiting the photo pages to look for images of the event
  • The newsletter contained links to the images for the event so we had  a huge increase in visits to the photo page. 

So what types of actions can an organization take based on this data?

  • Have upcoming event information on your website loud and clear. People will be looking for it
  • Make sure to be taking lots of photographs at the event – photos generated a huge amount of traffic to the site
  • Newsletters or an email post event drive traffic.
  • Add a call to action on your photo pages. These pages get huge amounts of traffic post event and people are reliving the experience – make sure there is a call to action to donations or volunteering.
  • Engagement is low post event. Brainstorm ways to reengage audience after the event excitement is over.

 

The patterns are there, you just have to look for them and connect the pieces of the puzzle.

 

Want more info?

Ed Schipul is the CEO of Tendenci and will be speaking on Data Analytics at NTC 2014 in Washington DC on March 15th (Online Fundraising Strategies to Take Advantage of Your Donor Events)

 

 

Photo Attribution (in sequential order):

rchappo2002 “Mr Hicks – 1971”

Betty Tsang “vampire?”

Mick “Super Models and Big Sunglasses”

 

 

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4 Crowdfunding Tips For Your Nonprofit or Association

Globe with Crowd

You are a nonprofit or association with a great cause and a world of potential audiences out that that could get involved in forwarding your mission.

So, what if I were to tell you there is a way to accomplish the following actions, that you probably aren’t taking advantage of:

1) Engaging new audiences

2) Utilizing the super powers of your followers and volunteers in meaningful ways

3) Raising funds and awareness towards your mission

 

Enter crowdfunding

Crowd in Times Square
Leverage the crowd!

 

Crowdfunding is the ability to use the web to raise money for a project or cause.

Last week Pledge Cents – a crowdfunding platform focused on the education community gave a great presentation at Net2.

Net2 Logo

Luckily we were there to pick up some handy tips on running a successful crowdfunding campaign….

4 Takeaways:

1) Don’t spread yourself thin – choose 1 platform for your campaign – you are kicking yourself if you are sending your supporters to multiple crowdfunding sites and harming your credibility. If the platform wasn’t a good match, go with another one next time.

2) Make a realistic ask. Many people make the mistake of going for the pie in the sky. What is your minimum goal to achieve what it is you want? Start with that number and anything above that is icing on the cake.

“Why  wouldn’t we want to reach for the highest we can go?”

  • Financial reasons
    • Some crowdfunding platforms will not give you any of your funds if you do not attain a certain percentage of your goal. Example: On Kickstarter, if you do not reach 100% of your goal you don’t get your funds
    • Some crowdfunding platforms will charge you a percentage of your stated goal
  • Build street cred
    • If this is your first crowdfunding venture – let’s start realistic and build trust with new followers before jumping to the big numbers
  • Finially, it just feels good to be a winner!
    • There is no limit to how much your allowed to raise – and gosh darn it, doesn’t if feel good to exceed those initial expectations!

3) Keep your donors updated on your progress

  • If  people are donating to your cause, they have invested in you and want to know where that investment is going. Keep them updated. Upload photos and videos. SAY THANK YOU!
  • The relationship doesn’t end when you reach your goal. Follow up post campaign. If donors can see the good they have helped to create they are much more likely to donate the next time you come a knockin with your next crowdfunding campaign.

4) Make your campaign specific

  • Andyshea Saberioon from Pledge Cents  helps coach a lot of educators on their campaigns. If you send him a campaign that says you want $500 to raise money for calculators – you know what his response is going to be (paraphrasing here) “and?  why should we care?”
    • Who are the calculators for? Why do they need them? How much does each calculator cost? If you want a successful campaign, you need to tell the world your story!

 

So as an organization, nonprofit, or association what should you be doing?

 

Crowd

1)  Get out there, try running a campaign

  • If you have a great project that you just don’t have the budget for, may be the community can help you make it happen

2) Empower your members or volunteers to start a crowdfunding campaign

  • Maybe some of your members have a great idea for a project. Empower them to make change by supporting their efforts towards a crowdfunding campaign.

 

Crowdfunding is a great way to get yourself out there to new audiences, especially if your volunteers and members are involved. They are reaching out to their communities to help spread the good and your mission.

It’s 2014. Make the jump. Trust the crowd.

 

Photo Attribution: Photos by eschipul