The Internet — Possibilities and Pitfalls

The Internet, originated by the U.S. Department of Defense to provide an indestructible communications system without a central "brain," offers citizens and not-for-profits major advantages — and potential pitfalls — they haven't faced before:

Instantaneous communication.
Data, photos, action alerts, news releases can be "broadcast" over the Internet in a matter of minutes — allowing not-for-profits new speed and agility in communicating with media or directly with members or targeted audiences. Corrections and changes can also be made instantly, instead of having to reprint and redistribute.
Pitfall: The temptation to respond, and to get things done quickly, can undermine deliberative process. It is also very difficult to take back something you said in writing. (People claim that agreements on-line are not taken as seriously as handshakes in person.) The interactive media will require a new set of skills, perhaps a long learning curve, to develop trust.

Two-way communication.
For years, not-for-profits have looked for better ways of soliciting information, ideas, and funds from supporters and the general public. The Internet allows for connections previously prohibited by time, costs, and other barriers. Polls, on-line discussions, and chat can gather ideas and experiences form constituents.
Pitfall: There's an inherent self-selection of respondents; you can't assume a diverse audience, yet. (In the Puget Sound area, 48% of residents have access to the Internet either at home or at work.) And, when you invite advice and feedback, and people take the trouble to give it, they expect some kind of response. They want some indication of what others said, some pooled wisdom or information in exchange for their effort, say Internet experts. Too many not-for-profits don't check their electronic mailboxes every day, and lose supporters or communicators in the process. In raising funds, face-to-face contact will likely remain most effective.

Low-cost publishing.
The money once required to publish brochures, position papers, and booklets can be redirected to higher quality content. Electronically, not-for-profits can publish more information, more often, in a timely manner — what Robert Gilman of Whidbey Island's Context Institute (http://www.context.org) calls "information just in time, instead of information just in case." Electronic publishing could allow for collaborative publishing and links to others' sites.
Pitfall: Information overload can make your information less effective. And there's no guarantee, yet, that information published on the Net will reach the desired audiences. On the Net, not-for-profits can be more effective if they find ways to "tier" their information — packaging it in headlines, summaries, and more detailed reports. This makes it available when needed to those who want it — not buried in reams of paper or streams of data bits. Internet publishing may also require sharing credit and information, values not always popular in a world where not-for-profits compete briskly for a limited pool of donor funds.

Search engine access.
Audiences you might not have known about can find out about you through topic or issue-based searches on Internet search engines which search for key words throughout the Internet. By typing in "Cancer prevention," for example, an Internet user confronts a list of websites which may give information or direct the user to services in the cancer prevention arena. Such search engines provide not-for-profits with greater access than ever to students, young people, and, increasingly, the news media. The use of links and hyperlinks (which allow people to move from website to website with one click) between various webpages and information sources makes information potentially even more useful to others — and expands reach.
Pitfall: Not all search engines yield useful information. Some may spit out any website that uses the words, "cancer" (even astrological sites) and "prevention" (such as crime prevention) somewhere in their materials. Others charge to list sites. And not all not-for-profits, even the best ones, are on the Internet. [Not-for-profits report that the search engines most likely to yield good, useful information in 1998 are Alta Vista, Excite, and Infoseek. Other search engines include dmoz and Google!.]