Web2.0 business model and its meaning for NFPs

Twan Verdonck presents a new business model for the web2.0 age in his presentation @ http://www.webtwobusinessmodels.com/index2.htm.

Briefly, he proposes that the transactional model of business and consumer is being replaced with an interactive model of business and user in which business provides platform and tools so that user becomes a co-producer of value. 

Arguably, all the talk over the years of involving donors in the life of an NFP follows a similar sort of model, but I think it can be enormously helpful for us to step out of our own paradigm of charity/donor/gift transaction and think about what we do as providing a platform for partnering, whether online or in a soup kitchen.  Part of the usefulness of technology now available to us will be found in extending the “hands on” experiential nature of the soup kitchen to the wider world of charitable activity.

What community means for not-for-profits

I’m looking forward to my CASE presentation next month.  There’s so much going on online right now that it feels like 1996 all over again–when simply launching a web page felt momentous! Whether we look to Web 2.0 issues or secondlife, the opportunities to engage constituents through the web offers so much to those of us who are accustomed to the donor relations/fund-raising process that it seems a shame to let the for profits have all the fun!  In fact those of us in institutions of higher ed are especially well placed to offer our constituents platforms for community.  Specifics to come later, but there’s plenty to think about in my delicious account at this point.  If you’re looking for something to read,  I HIGHLY recommend Communities Dominate Brand.  More on that to follow.

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