The non profit world

Tomorrow morning I'm starting a real job. After being off work for more than two years it's certainly a bit intimidating. I didn't get laid off, I had quit my previous job, at a well known internet company because I just couldn't stand it. But that's not why I writing this.

In those two years, one thing I did was to sign up with a non profit organization that provides technical professionals, like myself, to other non profits that need help. I learned a few things about that world in my time with them.

First of all, just because it's a non profit doesn't mean there's no money. Staffers have jobs that they want to keep, directors are rewarded in ways including prestige and social status, and there's a whole ecosystem of consultants and advisers looking to make a buck.

One of my tasks was to evaluate and recommend a new software system for an agency that had come into enough money that they needed help keeping track of it. I dove into the "donor management" software market and found a bunch of companies looking to sell their products. I could accept that, after all these companies need to make enough money to stay alive. What I didn't expect, that happened right off the bat, was the offers for me to make money by recommending a certain product. I was told, via email, by two different companies that if I could get the agency to pick their product there was an immediate %15 in it for me and future arrangements where I would the the preferred support provider.

That sounds like a kickback to me, and not only is it unethical, it's illegal. I had no idea this was out there and I had no intention of participating. That was one troubling problem but it was easy to avoid. I just refused to recommend those products and slept soundly.

The bigger problem was what these systems do. Simply put they help you collect cash for your organization. People donate because it makes them feel good so these systems help find ways to make potential donors to feel good. One way they do that is to collect as much personal information about you as they can to create linkages. Did you go to they same school as another donor? Play at the same golf club? Kids go to the same school? Vacation at the same resort? What's your dog's name?

These linkages allow the fund raisers to apply subtle pressures like, "your friend Bob gave us a generous gift", or "your old school is a big supporter" etc. Never said out loud like that but applied with code expressions like: "Oh, we know a lot of people over there" or "he's my uncle's wife's best friend".

Pardon me, but I don't want anyone collecting this type information about me and I think it's wrong to do it for people that have donated some money to an organization. Once you donate you become like a quartz vein in the gold mine that can be followed to great reward. I find the whole idea really creepy and I guess that's why I don't what to participate further. The profit world is a lot more straightforward and in the end honest. Wish me luck in my new job.

Internet Business

When you search for something in Google there is a list of results presented. Did you ever wonder how that list is ordered? Google uses a semi-secret algorithm to decide which site should show up on the top of the list and which second and down the line. Gaming that algorithm is big business and it can mean the difference between success and failure for an internet business. If a person searches for say "basketball shoes" they are much more likely to go to a site and buy a pair of shoes if it appears high up on the results list. In fact being on the first page of the list makes all the difference since people will rarely go to the second page and beyond unless they are looking for something very specific.

I'll let you research how the list ordering is determined, the internet is full of information on that. And there are lots of search engine optimization (SEO) companies that will gladly sell you expensive services to improve your sites listing. Be aware that a lot of the information out there is not very useful. The game is always changing since as SEO companies learn to beat Google, Google in return will adjust their algorithm to result in what they think is a list that accurately represents how the search results should be displayed.

Consider how a small company with good SEO can carve out a profitable niche for itself. For example: airport-data..com. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) publishes on an hourly basis the current weather conditions at airports throughout the country. They are nice enough to present the data in a standard format that is very convenient for others to pick up. That's what airport-data.com does, it's computers grab the data from NOAA's sites and publishes it on airport-data's site. Doesn't sound like much of a business but in fact it's brilliant. The other thing that's on airport-data's web site is advertising. Companies have paid to have airport-data's site littered with ads that they think people looking at airport information will be interested in. Airport-data.com has also been set up to show up high on the Google search results. For example if someone, like me, searches for "weather ccr" like I do for a local weather report, airport-data shows up first on the list, I click on it and get my information and airport-data makes a few pennies from the ads. It's a beautiful little money spinner, the data is free, setting up and maintaining airport-data.com doesn't cost much and the money rolls in.

As you're clicking around the net thinking everything's free and wonderful, take a moment to consider who's making money and the ways you are actually paying. You pay in ads cluttering up your screen and you pay in sluggish response while all this ad stuff happens behind the scenes.

Notes: ccr is the Concord airport near my house.
this article is an interesting overview of web advertising.