Mobile applications gets a lot of attention today. The market is growing every day. Cellular-News recently reported that this quarter’s worldwide smartphone sales increased 96% compared to a similar period last year, and that smartphones now account for nearly 20 percent of worldwide phone sales. Apps are admittedly a great way to reach out to new audiences.
But for non-profits, developing mobile apps can be a tricky undertaking. There’s a lot of hype around apps, and it’s hard to know how to approach the smartphone market. Planning for a mobile app that fits into a non-profit’s mobile communications strategy can make the difference between a great app and an app that doesn’t meet expectations. For non-profits wanting to develop apps, it’s important to make sure that they are meeting a real need – both for the organization and for users. Before launching an app, there are four questions non-profits should ask themselves:
This week, the US Center on Citizen Diplomacy is hosting the U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy in Washington, DC. in partnership with over 1,000 NGOs conducting citizen diplomacy activities. MobileActive.org is participating in a roundtable discussion on the Role of New Media in Advancing Citizen Diplomacy. The panel will address both policy recommendations and recommended tools for facilitating the use of new media in citizen diplomacy. A live webcast of selected Summit sessions will be available here beginning Wednesday.
Groundcrew offers features that non-profits, businesses, local communities, and individuals can use to mobilize support, simplify logistics, motivate actions, and respond quickly as situations arise.
rally community members around a particular issue
gather them in real life squads,
mobilize and address these squads in real-time,
coordinate them spatially, as individuals or in groups.
Finding the time for volunteering can be difficult. Many volunteer organizations require training and lengthy time commitments; those who want to volunteer may not be able to dedicate the large chunks of time needed for traditional volunteer opportunities.
The Extraordinaries delivers micro-volunteer opportunities to mobile phones and web browsers that can be done on-demand and on-the-spot. Available as an iPhone application, The Extraordinaries enables organizations to connect with their supporters through these micro-volunteer opportunities, strengthening relationships and leveraging crowds for varied work such as image tagging, translation and research.
Finding local charities can be difficult; Catalista uses a mobile application to help users find local nonprofits and charities in their neighborhoods.
The Extraordinaries, a new project by Mobile Voter (disclosure: I sit on the board of Mobile Voter) seeks to revolutionaize the way we volunteer. We wrote about its precursor before. Busy people in the West rarely volunteer for lack of time to go to an organization. Most volunteer opportunities require training, vetting, and time commitments. In fact 46% of non-volunteers in America, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, say they don't because they are too busy.
