Merry Christmas and best wishes for a peaceful, holy New Year

Dear friends and family,

Reflecting on the Christmas message of Pope Benedict XVI, I was pleased to hear him specifically mention the “little flock of Christians” who live in Iraq.

At just 3% of the overall population, Christians in Iraq suffer great persecution from fellow Iraqis who see Christianity as a western, foreign religion.

For example, recently, a Christian doctor in Iraq was kidnapped by an unidentified group. For a month, he was tied blindfolded to a pole and unable to use a washroom or take a shower. Finally, he was released to his family after they paid a ransom for him. This is just one example of the kind of treatment Christians are suffering in Iraq.

I would like to join with Pope Benedict and call all Christians to pray for our Iraqi brothers and sisters in the Lord. For we know that Christ, the Savoir of the world, though born in the middle east, sees no boundaries on the Earth that God created.

This fall, International Teams established a new program in Iraq, led by Iraqi-Canadian, Insaf Safou. Impact Iraq is a compassion ministry that cares for refugees and internally displaced people by partnering with home churches, encouraging pastors and Christian workers in existing Iraqi churches, building up marginalized women, and developing income-generating projects for impoverished people.

Please consider helping us as we seek to support and encourage Christians in Iraq. To learn more about Impact Iraq go to http://www.iteams.ca/impact_iraq.php.

May the Savoir of the world, grant you a peaceful, holy New Year.

Blessings,

Neil Ostrander

CEO, International Teams Canada

Six Advanced Facebook Page Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations

Six Advanced Facebook Page Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations: "

Nonprofits that have been using Facebook for a year or more consistently comment “OK… Facebook is great, but how can we take our Facebook Page strategy to the next level?” Below are six advanced Facebook Page strategies in response to that question:

1) Create Customized Tabs.

Advanced strategies requires advanced tech skills. If you know html and have a good graphic designer, then you can use the Static FBML App to create and completely customize Tabs on Facebook Pages. For example, the “Get Involved!” Tab on the Special Olympics of Northern California Facebook Page and the numerous customized Tabs on the Facebook Page of The Humane Society of the United States were created using the Static FBML App.

If you don’t know html and want customized Tabs for your Facebook Page, then you have two options: 1) Pay for a service like Sprout.com or Involver.com. Neither publish their fees online for customized Tabs which usually means they are too expensive for most nonprofits. It doesn’t hurt to ask for a nonprofit discount though. Many of these new services want exposure and buzz. 2) Hire someone who knows html and Facebook, like myself. My fees start at $300 for a Facebook Page with one cusomized Tab using graphics and content from your website.

2) Create a customized Tab for your default Landing Tab.

When you click on Central Michigan University inside of Facebook it goes to a a customized Tab called Unleash the Power. First impressions are important on social media sites, and this page sends a clear message that CMU gets Facebook and is taking it seriously. Compared to other pages by universities of their size, they are definitely doing much better in terms of number of fans. My guess is that this strong first impression is making a significant difference in building their fan base.

Greenpeace International has also set their default Landing Tab to a customized Tab called Take Action. Definitely a best practice, though the Tab could be improved by adding some images and possibly a video. It’s a good start.

Once you have created a customized Tab for your default Landing Tab, simply go into “Settings” on your Facebook Page and under “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else” select the Tab you want for your default Landing Tab in the pop-down menu.

3) Integrate Facebook “Share” buttons and/or Fan Box Widgets into your “Donate Now” Page(s) and online petitions.

After someone makes a donation on your website or signs an online petition, how about asking them to “Share” with their friends on Facebook that they donated to your organization or signed your petition? At the very least, prompt donors and signatores to become fans. For example, after someone signs the online petition at Forest Ethics’ Do Not Mail campaign, they are then prompted to become a fan of the campaign on Facebook:

The campaign has almost 7,000 fans… a good indicator that this simple strategy works.I would also suggest that nonprofits add a fan box widget to the Web page that thanks online donors for their contribution.

Another possible strategy is adding “Share” buttons to your “Thanks for Signing/Donating” pages. Ideally, the Share post should say something like “I just donated to [Organization Name]!” and then links to your organization’s Facebook Page. The donor gets thumbs up from friends, and your organization hopefully gets some new fans!



4) Incorporate your Facebook Page into your Thank You emails.

Most nonprofits send immediate thank you emails to online donors and signatores of petitions. Make sure to add a simple “Become a fan of [Organization Name] on Facebook!” into your email.

5) Incorporate your Facebook Page into your mobile campaigns.

Ask your text alert subscribers to fan your Facebook Page, but make sure you link to the mobile version of your Facebook Page, such as: m.facebook.com/nonprofitorgs. Also, on your mobile website, make sure you link to the mobile version of your Facebook Page. See www.nonprofitorgs.mobi as an example. Most nonprofits haven’t even begun to think about mobile tech, but mobile Web usage is on track to hit 1 billion+ users in 2010.

6) Incorporate Facebook Connect into your organization’s blog.

If your organization blogs via WordPress.org, there is a Facebook Connect Plugin for WordPress.org Blogs. Facebook Connect allows individuals to post blog comments via their Facebook login. For those with super duper tech skills, you can customize Facebook Connect in order to add it to your website or blog, where useful. I do not know of any nonprofit currently using Facebook Connect, but Mashable has compiled a list of 10 Great Implementations of Facebook Connect. Ironcially, in 2010 your going to see MySpace on that list. They are fully integrating Facebook Connect into their website which is great news for those nonprofits utilizing MySpace.

For a complete audio and visual demonstration of beginner, intermediate and advanced Facebook strategies for nonprofits, please take the How Nonprofit Organizations Can Successfully Use Facebook Pages and YouTube webinar offered by DIOSA Communications (which is me!).

"

Psalm 36: 5,6

God's love is meteoric,
      his loyalty astronomic,
   His purpose titanic,
      his verdicts oceanic.
   Yet in his largeness
      nothing gets lost;
   Not a man, not a mouse,
      slips through the cracks.

Reading this made me feel connected.

November 2009 Weather Summary

November 2009 Summary: "A very warm and dry month with the lowest snowfall ever (possibly, maybe?)

November started out with 6 colder than average days, however that changed when the rest of the month (24 days) all came in warmer than average. Overall it was an amazing 3 degrees above average making it the warmest November since 2001. It was also the most above average month since January of 2008.

It was also the driest month since 2001 with only 34.8 mm of precipitation including a dry stretch that lasted 12 days. Almost all of it came in the form of rain as we only recorded a single day with some trace snow (November 27th).

So now the big question: was this the least amount of snow ever in November for the region? Unfortunately, it is not an easy question to answer as it all depends on how you interpret the trace readings of snow you often get at this time of year. A trace amount of snow is when there is less than 0.5 cm but definitely some on the ground. There have been many years with less than 1 cm of snow in November, for instance in 2006 we only had 0.5 cm.

Looking back in the long term records the last time there was 0 cm of snow was back in 1963. However, the daily records show that there were 6 days with trace snow in 1963 and going back further I was never able to find a year with 0 cm of snow and less than 3 days of trace snow. So using that as a criterion we can say that this November had the least amount of snow of November in the recorded history of the region which goes back to 1914.

The total precipitation for the year (819.5 mm) is very close to the average (830.3 mm). So unless we get less than 15 mm or over 350 mm in December, this year will end up in the average range for precipitation.


Summary for November 2009:
Maximum Temperature 18.0 °C
Minimum Temperature -5.0 °C
Average Daily High Temperature 9.3 °C (Long term average 5.9 °C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 0.9 °C (Long term average -1.6 °C)
Total Precipitation 34.8 mm (Long term average 82.3 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)