ShareVision Blog

Every country and culture has laws and codes of conduct that are understood by their citizens, especially the laws that can be regularly broken or bended without major consequences. Here in Canada, most of us have likely jay walked, parked illegally, not accurately declared all the goodies stowed away in our luggage, and perhaps been creative with our tax declarations. We have a collective confidence that despite our actions technically being illegal, we won’t likely be audited, busted or ticketed for these minor offenses, so we take the calculated risk.

Archeologists and historians cut fine figures in our collective imaginations. Plaid suited, with armies of textbooks at their side while they study artifacts and papers to decipher the complicated puzzles of the past. How will this be done in another two hundred years? What will our future historians and archeologists actually look through? Will deciphering OMG’s BRB and TTYL be a challenge? Will they be seen as some kind of hieroglyphics that will need to be de-coded? Will they be looking in the clouds?

R.I.P. old friend, you were dearly loved by all who knew you. Your time with us was short. We will never forget you and we shall reminisce fondly about how good we had it when you were in our lives. Yes, it seems unlimited Internet is now dead. Telus made the announcement in Canada last week that we would all soon be paying for our data usage. Which means we would retain our status in North America, as paying the highest Internet and cellular phones fees anywhere on the planet.  

According to annual report by the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute.

“Americans pay far more and get far less when it comes to the Internet than many other people around the world. Internet users in Seoul continue to get the speediest connections at the lowest prices anywhere in the world, with speeds of one gigabit per second costing just $30 a month. By contrast, the best speeds that consumers in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., or New York can get are half as fast and cost $300 a month.” 

“This call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes” I was told while on hold with a major corporation the other day. I began thinking about the implications of this message as it was repeated over and over interspersed with several upbeat Beatles songs. Sigh. Poor John and George. What the corporation is really trying to tell me is “we are protecting ourselves by recording you”, or more simply put “we are watching our backs”. Which then got me to thinking: Who’s watching our backs? How about our client’s backs?

Almost everyone now carries with them a handheld recording device that can be used surreptitiously with ease.  With the upswing of the use of personal devices in workplaces, organizations now more than ever before, need to step up to protect their clients, their staff, and themselves in regards to confidentiality and protection of personal information. How do we really know who is recording/downloading what and when, and what might be done with that data?  

How is your voicemail relationship fairing? I think mine is headed for a divorce! It would be fair to say voicemail and I are not getting along that well right now. She is often late with information, and is frustratingly slow to work with and refuses to pick up the kids. Yet I tell myself to be respectful as we are long time partners, and have a history together. But she has become so annoying to deal with.

As I sit at my desk every day at some point I notice the red light flashing indicating my need to dial in and retrieve a message from our voice message system. My unofficial data on this process is that by the time I do this and press two for this and four for that, the caller has usually also sent me an email, texted me, tweeted me, snap chatted me or called me on my cell. So by the time I actually retrieve the voice message I’ve often already responded and instead I spend my time on the voicemail system deleting messages while by-passing the myriad of additional options it offers me.  

Holy holiday hangover it’s 2015!

Which seems like a good time to ask how well did your agency do with donations last year? As you wrote out tax receipts and tallied up your Christmas donation totals, did you notice if your agencies donations were up or down? Did you meet your budget goals and or fundraising objectives? Did you wonder if the number of donations received online had increased?

According to the website Fundraising 123, donating online is an upward trend that can be expected to continue in that direction.

“In 2008, non-profits got about 10% of their donations online, according to a survey by Target Analytics. Given the high growth rate for Internet donations, we estimate that they'll constitute the majority of donations by 2020.

2020 is only five New Years away! Will your agency be ready?

While you are thinking about how you can tune up your agency’s donation page, here is some advice on how to increase your chances that someone is going to click on the donate button.