Letter from Paul

Volunteers have always been a critical part of running any membership based organization.  And today, a strong volunteer base is probably even more important than ever before as you are literally required to achieve more results with less staff. 

What we’ve heard from many of our clients is that the key to success is empowering volunteers by giving them the tools they need to make a real impact.  More than anything, it seems, volunteers today want to feel that their time is well spent and that they are making a difference.  That’s really why Harris Connect has designed most of its online tools with varying levels of accessibility – tools that allow you to give volunteers rights to manage chapter pages and events, extract data and send broadcast emails.  At the same time, we’ve given you the flexibility to set the controls and limits that fit in with your organization’s internal philosophies.

Our chapter pages, in particular, have helped our clients establish a much stronger local presence in cities and countries around the world.   But beyond that we’ve made it easy (and perhaps even a little fun) for your chapter and club leaders to manage events and communications in an online environment that is not cumbersome or frustrating.  And our new self-directed online training sessions will make learning the “tricks of the trade” even easier for a more rewarding volunteer experience.

Building these bonds goes a long way toward establishing a more viral, self-sustaining social network among your alumni.  In fact, as sites like MySpace.com continue to gain in popularity – many of our clients are setting their strategies on building more personal, one-on-one connections.  In fact, the University of North Carolina recently launched their social networking effort – TarNation – using Harris Connect’s tools.  What they found is that the concept drove more of their alumni to register for their online community.  Within 36 hours of their broadcast email announcing TarNation, UNC saw an increase of 4.6% in registered users.  In addition, 1,622 registered users updated their alumni records compared to the average of 120 they historically see in the same time period.  These numbers seem to indicate that social networking is something alumni are interested in exploring.

In this issue of Online Connections, we’ll take a closer look at what some of your peers are doing with their volunteers specifically in terms of chapter pages and the tools that dovetail with that functionality.  I think you’ll see how beneficial this capability is to creating and sustaining bonds with and among your members – and ultimately laying the foundation for your own social network.  On the flip side, our feature story focuses on how non-profits in general work to keep volunteers active.

I am excited about the potential of social networking at the alumni and member level.  As such, our next issue will focus more closely on how you can use Harris Connect’s online tools to help you take advantage of what is clearly the next generation of Web usage.  If you have thoughts or ideas to share on this topic, I would certainly welcome your contribution.

Sincerely,

Paul