Blog or get off the pot

You may think blogs are a great idea — for other nonprofits. Or maybe you’re having a tough time convincing your higher-ups that your nonprofit needs a blog.If you’re still not sure whether your nonprofit should start blogging, here are some reasons you should consider making it part of your communication plan.

Everyone else is doing it. When you were a child, your mother probably uttered some variation on the following phrase: “If everyone else was jumping out the window, would you do it too?” You may feel that launching a blog is sort of a “me too” strategy that pegs you as little more than another lemming jumping over the edge of a cliff. Or you may believe that blogging is just a fad.Well, let’s not forget that some people thought Web sites were a fad.It’s true that blogs may eventually lose their cachet and go out of fashion—or be replaced by other media. But right now, a lot of reputable organizations have made blogs part of their communications tool kits. Those organizations include several Fortune 500 companies:

It’s still a novelty. Though a lot of corporations have blogs, blogging still hasn’t really taken hold in the nonprofit world. So a nonprofit with a blog is still light years ahead of its peers. Here are a few groups that have taken the leap: