Something that was lacking in the presentation and outward appearance of the Nonprofit was the social media usage, namely their Twitter/X presence. Their latest post on that platform was from 2024, which is rather outdated considering the numerous events they have hosted since then. As a little mockup, I have created a sample twitter post that explains and promotes one of their newer events, which I think could be applied across all future events to better reach a wider range of people.
In seeking out to create a newsletter for 3D Girls, Inc., I was met with several challenges. The first being the manner in which the mockup would be created. Given my limited experience with the WordPress interface as a whole, I opted to make this a more demonstrative example that would serve as an example of how a potential newsletter might be formatted, rather than a fully functional product. And as such, chose to use Canva to create a template email newsletter. Canva offers a variety of easily available templates, and I was able to pick the one most suited to a newsletter. This process of decision and initial brainstorming took around 30 minutes.
This is a basic sample of a new layout for the 3D Girls, Inc. “events” page, to better highlight and showcase some of their events with a better interface for the viewer. The original interface was designed in a way that would require the viewer to click “read more” for any amount of information about the event presented above, which often had the effect of being vague to the point where it was unclear what the event would entail.
This simple change would ensure that every visitor to this page would be prompted with a brief little summary of information that would inform them of the general gist of the event, after which they would be able to read more if they so choose. This would also ensure a potential increase in throughput for this page and may help with retention.
The completed newsletter mockup showcases some of the past events of 3D Girls, Inc. While this mockup is rather simple, this proof-of-concept design can be expanded and reiterated to be fully used as a monthly newsletter aimed towards the nonprofit’s donors.
This mockup took a combined total of around 60 minutes to make and is styled so that there is easy access to the information on the resources and programs that 3D Girls, Inc. hosts for the month. While some of the information on there is vague, a more comprehensive version of the newsletter might be further refined on with more time.
Photo by Tim Arterbury on Unsplash
The Levels of Why “Iceberg” Approach
Nonprofit organizations have always had a leg up on businesses in terms of what they provide, namely in the way it is usually presented with a people-first approach. Many nonprofits are founded by and for people who have a lot to give for good causes and are willing to put forth quite a bit of effort for making these dreams behind such causes into reality. But with the blood, sweat, and tears poured into working the gears behind a complex system of support, many nonprofits completely neglect other aspects of their brand, in many cases having a less-developed website or social media presence.
One organization that can be looked at in terms of this is the nonprofit organization ChopArt, a noble cause dedicated to providing support and aid to some of the homeless youth living within Atlanta, a largely under-represented percentage of the populace of homeless in the area. Founded in 2010 as an outside service provider, ChopArt has since helped many more in areas around the world before launching its Atlanta program in 2012. It focuses on community service to local teenagers and children who may be facing homelessness by offering them a way to express themselves through art, as well as providing counseling and general support services. Their vision and goal certainly deserve to reach far more people, and there are certainly a multitude of ways in which they could do that through a few changes or adjustments to the methods in which they promote their organization.
Meghan Casey outlines a model that would be especially useful in such cases in her book The Content Strategy Toolkit: Methods, Guidelines, and Templates for Getting Content Right, 2nd Edition, specifically describing a model structured like an iceberg, with each new step down of the iceberg being another level of depth to consider in a review or analysis of an organization to determine ways to better help them achieve their goals. The four-pronged system involving critical analysis at the Event level, Pattern level, Structure level, and Mental Model level should certainly be useful in looking at the Nonprofit organization ChopArt and determining ways in which they could better reach their audience to accomplish their goal.
Event Level
Analysis at the Event level starts with observing the basic happenings at any project or event. This can be applied both broadly to the NP under research, or even the general process of researching these NPs in groups. To start with the NP itself, or ChopArt in particular, the website as a whole can be looked at from a surface-level perspective. First off, it was stated to be created by Weebly, which, while being a good initial starting point for beginners, does lend itself to decreased flexibility and lack of domain ownership, which a more sophisticated program such as WordPress possesses. This is most certainly not a primary concern of such a nonprofit organization that has its hands tied in other aspects, but it would make it more accessible and presentable to a wider range of people if it was more polished.
Though regardless of its relevance or placement on the list of order of importance to the nonprofit, it still is something that stands out upon first glance, which is important at this stage of auditing since it is “what we are typically reacting to when we start a content project” (Casey). Everything regarding presentation is undoubtedly important, and as such everything about the framing and structure of the website, from the font of the text used to the placement and ease of access of important links are important. For example, the purpose of the nonprofit, while something that is stated and clear to find, could be narrowed down and more comprehensive so that any visitors to the site will have an easier time finding the information they need. Furthermore, the video embedded is far too long and not concise enough for any volunteers interested to get a good gist of the organization. The Event level can also be applied to managing a project, as was its initial purpose.
Pattern Level
The next level of analysis is the Pattern level, which involves drawing connections between the case presented with ChopArt in particular and nonprofits in general at large. Looking at this in comparison, it is clear that a lot of social media leverage is undervalued and underutilized. This tendency of nonprofits to undermine their social media influence is something that can undoubtedly directly contribute to the amount of reception their activities get. According to the article “Nonprofits, Social Media and Mission”, social media’s constant evolution ensures that “learning how to harness the unique characteristics of microvlogging platforms will best be observed through the platform’s early adopters” (Morgan et. al). This follows the simple principle that the ones to first adopt such a platform will be the ones that will pioneer the utilization of social media to its fullest potential, and as such it is crucial that certain NPs take the initiative to take this step. ChopArt would certainly benefit from this, as a lot of their collaborative art-creating events would do great as short-form social media posts.
Structure and Mental Model Levels
The final two levels of analysis are the Structure level and the Mental Model level. While the Structure level is largely based upon actual implementation of the similarities observed within the Pattern level analysis, the Mental Model level goes deeper into analysis on a personal level. These analyses often consist of multiple intersecting facets, especially since the type of leadership very much influences these. For one, the values of the organization or nonprofit (in this case ChopArt) very much reflect upon the kind of leader that heads it. For instance, “social power motives represent individuals’ need for social influence”, according to the article “Power motives, personality correlates, and leadership outcomes: A person- centered approach”, which directly correlates to the ways in which nonprofits express their goals and motivations. A NP with a higher degree of reach and one garnering more attention is also likely led by someone who deeply values the nonprofit’s cause. In such cases, it is also likely that the leader may overlook other aspects of the nonprofit’s presentation that might not directly pertain to the main goal at hand, such as social media promotion or digital outreach.
For this flyer I chose to use Canva, as I feel it is most well-suited for promotional material such as this. I tried to design an infographic that was simplistic yet still managed to convey all of the necessary information pertaining to the event and when it will take place. I picture a flyer such as this to be attached to a social media post on a website such as Twitter, which will further explain the event along with this post.
Photo by Alin Andersen on Unsplash
As with any emerging technology, many different groups are certain to use it in any way they can. One of the best ways, however, that any technology can be used, is to better the lives of others for little to no cost. One such organization is 48 in 48, which utilizes the digital medium to create websites for other nonprofit organizations to help them gain traction and reach the people they need to help to the best of their ability.
They offer free services to nonprofit organizations in creating websites, as well as provide free marketing services such as logo creation and others. Their initial purpose of providing 48 websites to 48 nonprofits in 48 hours has since grown and expanded to a much broader reaching service worldwide, taking part in community events and providing experience for volunteers by allowing them to register to create websites.
While 48 in 48’s main mission is to create websites for nonprofits in a 48 hour period, they also allow corporate sponsors to help further support their charity work and better help give back to their community of skilled nonprofits that just need a little push to get their show truly on the road.
For the updated website I chose to try and make the blog page slightly more personalized, which included changing the page background to a slightly different color and also figuring out how to change the font of the text. I also experimented with connecting the blog post to a larger main website, which features a header with hyperlinks that allow the blog post to be accessed.
48 in 48 overview: cited by Ryan on Discord
48 in 48 volunteer page: cited by Olivia Ruiz on Discord
48 in 48 About Us: cited by Inaaya Chapman on Discord