I've had a policy since September 2005 of tracking and talking about what's going on in New Orleans every place I make a public appearance - even at my events on Internet marketing.

In fact, I put on a special marketing workshop this past November in New Orleans for some of my clients as a fund raiser. Part of the workshop involved briefing my clients on current conditions there.

Since this is a video discussion, let's consider this question:

What would have happened to the people of New Orleans had there no been video and live video news?

I think it's safe to say the death toll would have been many, many times than what it was.

The vicious idiots in charge of FEMA, Homeland Security and other government agencies responsible for rescue and relief efforts would have gone on patting each other on the back for the "heck of a job" they were doing until the corpses piled as high as the Superdome.

So I say "thank God" for video. Video, and Internet video,  can still play a roll  in helping get the word out about this and other travesties.

(Maybe if video had existed in the 1940s and someone had been able to sneak footage out of the concentration camps, some of those victims might have been saved too.  Who knows?)

Anyway, what has happened in the last year plus since this government-induced disaster?

Some numbers:

* 102,000 families are still living in FEMA trailers (which by the way were sold to US taxpayers at THREE TIMES their retail value.) And that doesn't count the hundreds of thousands of people who are living in other cities and states, unable to return to their homes.

* As of November 1, of the $10.4 billion granted by the federal government to rebuild Louisiana, only 18 - yes 18! - of the 77,000 homeowners who have applied for rebuilding aid have received any.

* Many New Orleans public schools still do not have drinking water for the children - this in a tropical climate - and private contract security guards outnumber teachers in many schools.

From a 12/6/06 article in the New York Times:

"People are being left to fend for themselves, while being hampered if not prevented, from fending for themselves." Raymond A. Jetson, the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps."

What does all this have to do with Internet marketing?

Thoreau once asked: "What's the use of a house if you don't have a tolerable planet to put it on?"

I ask what kind of a country are we if we throw our own injured citizens to the dogs when we have all the resources needed to help them back on their feet.

What can you do:

1. Educate yourself  -  Don't buy the party line that New Orleans brought its problems on itself. If that's true, do we intend to leave people in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami and other places subject to catastrophe in the rubble if they suffer a reversal too?

Fact: Katrina didn't damage New Orleans, the collapse of the federal levees did. The levees weren't even breached by flood waters. They crumbled because of poor construction by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Fireman from the high vantage point of an office building filmed what actually happened to the levees - and when - and were ordered not to show the video to anyone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwMvC5QU194&mode=related&search=

2. Talk about it - The average person thinks New Orleans and the Gulf are back to normal and everything's fine. It's not. It's an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe and who's suffering the most? The young. The elderly. The handicapped.  Working people at the bottom of the economic ladder. It's a national disgrace.

(I don't have the space to go into it here, but Big Oil is culpable as well. They've wreaked tremendous ecological damage on the bayous that used to modify the effect of storms on the region. They've also skillfully managed to keep there role in the catastrophe out of the news media.)

3. Visit New Orleans - The core area of interest to visitors with its incomparable food and music is back online. Go, enjoy yourself, spend and tip lavishly - especially in locally owned businesses of which there are many.

The people who are back in New Orleans are the ones who want to be back there. They are bloodied but not bowed.  They're brave, resourceful folks who love their city and are dedicated to restoring it.  Make no mistake,  the city is a traumatized place, but it's also the home to a positive and creative energy the kind of which you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else in our mall and suburbia-based nation.

Bottom line: New Orleans is an important American city - historically, culturally, economically - and for the rest of us morally.

"Am I not a man? Am I not a brother?"

This slogan appeared during the movement to abolish slavery. We need revive it as it applies to New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf.

When you make your trip to New Orleans to see for yourself...

For music: Frenchman Street. Half a dozen smoking music clubs on one block. No cover charge. Just throw something meaningful in when they pass the hat.

For food: It's hard to go wrong.  Ask the locals for their secret spots. They'll tell you with pride.  The web's a good place to start researching.

By the way, the IAOC's own Steve O'Keefe is a peerless resource on the wonders of the city.

When working with non-profit organizations, it's important to follow your heart because without exception, they all need our help. Even though you're doing business, you will find yourself over-committing and over-giving your time and resources naturally.

Multiple Sclerosis is an awful disease and for some reason its occurrence is significantly higher here in Colorado. They've not identified why. Also, twice as many women get it as men. Overall a mystifying disease.

So these young guys approached us earlier in the year and said they needed a website that could take donations because they were going to hike The Colorado Trail and give the money to MS. Why? Because one of them had been diagnosed with it at the age of 22.

We did it...for nothing. Here's their website and their effort, which is underway as we speak.

Good, inexpensive technology is sometimes all you need. These young men spread their message exclusively online, using viral email communications alone. Their story was then picked up by Denver's KCNC Channel 4 (CBS) picked up on the story and now they're raking in the donations.

This kind of success story wasn't possible without a budget before the Internet and online communications.  

One of the biggest needs we've discovered among our non-profit clients, and one of the simplest solutions to implement...single event ...   more »

One of the biggest technology issues for most non-profit organizations is the capture and management of data. To an organization that is constantly challenged for financial and human resources; the most important asset they have is their data. I'll use a high-profile example. We met several times in early 2003 with the Denver Chapter of Susan G. Komen's "Race for the Cure." They were searching for a new web vendor and we did a great deal of due diligence with them in creating a proposal. (we didn't end up winning the business).

Each year for the last decade, as one of the largest "Race for the Cure" events held across the nation with more than 60,000 runners annually, the Denver Chapter would have a monstrous challenge on their hands. Here were some of their challenges:

1. Disparate data locations. The Executive Director had the list of past race participants on her hard drive at the office. The Volunteer Chair had the list of volunteers on her laptop. The Board Chair had the list of donors on his hard drive and the National office had the only copy of any "survivors" that had participated. Indeed a mess. Answer? A master database tied to their front-end website for proper capture at the point of registration.

2. No web access. None of the hard-working staff, whether paid or volunteer, had access to the data unless they were on their own computer. Answer? The master database is housed on one server location. Any "authorized" user has access via a web connection and proper login.

3. No online collaboration. This one drove them nuts. They were using college interns and volunteers to sort through forms and postcards and event posters and race bib numbers, etc. Each area was working in a complete vacuum. Answer? The master database is tied to an intranet solution that allows "all" authorized team members to see all race-related collateral in one location. The material can be updated, downloaded, printed, delivered via email, etc. and all actions are traceable and accountable to the other members of the team.

4. No cross-referencing of data. Probably the worst evil. A decade of history...hundreds of thousands of race entries and donors and volunteers. No way to cross-reference anything. All of the form fields were in place on the race form...did you run last year? Are you a cancer survivor? Have you ever donated besides this race? Are you/have you ever been a volunteer, etc. But that data capture was not making it into a master database because there wasn't one. Answer? All registrations moving forward must be done online, either by participant or by volunteer upon receipt by mail. All historical data (lots of man hours to get it up to speed) is input into the master database as best can be. All data can then be crossed.

5. No content management of website. They were beholden to an unresponsive web group that they had to pay for each update. When I met with them in February of '03, their website was still showing event information from the October '02 race. Answer? A content management system that is tied to the master database and the intranet.

In other words, a comprehensive web-based communications system to capture, control, manage and monitor DATA. No matter the cost, it would save them immeasurable man hours and capture immeasurable lost donations. As a donor to the cause, I know they've done better since then by outsourcing their donations management here. But as budgets are always a challenge, I have a sense that they haven't tackled the internal issues completely yet.

 

 

When my two business partners and I first started The Fuel Team in early 2003, we had some noble goals.

1. As seasoned, veteran marketing communications professionals, all three of us wanted to "apply our experience" to helping non-profits.

2. As owners of a proprietary software platform, we wanted to "leverage our technology" to help non-profits.

3. As contributors to several non-profits on an individual basis, we all wanted to "organize our giving" into a more cohesive and effective effort. 

As a small marketing firm, we focused our efforts on small-medium-sized independents or Colorado-based Chapters of larger, nationals. As we began to develop our client base, we came to several key realizations.

1. Our solutions had to be incentive or commission-based. Real ROI had to be demonstrated. Our ability to get paid for our efforts was largely dependent upon our ability to either raise or save the organization money.  

2. Any technology introduced had to be extremely simple and easy to use. Resources and man-hours are extremely thin in these organizations.

3. Technology could actually alter the demographic profile of the organizations' contributors.

Throughout this week, we'll share some case studies and examples of how we've been successful and some lessons that we've learned. We encourage your comments and your questions here at IAOC Blog.

 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer so far. The blogweek entitled "Blogs and Non-Profits" has been set for the week of July 11th. We'll have participation from some executive directors of non-profits who have been using blogs, RSS and content management systems to better deliver their organization's message.

It should be an informative and entertaining week of posts. If you're interested in participating, please let me know via email at dmr@dvcotechnology.com