During July and August, the Postal Service is offering an upfront 2-percent postage discount on Standard Mail and First-Class Mail letters, flats and cards (presort and automation) that include a two-dimensional barcode or print/mobile technology that can be read or scanned by a mobile device. (QR code) Why not try to use this as an incentive to drive online gifts for a special need. Learn more.

Clearly the postal service is recognizing that mobile technology is changing direct mail and has decided to look out ahead. Nonprofits do enjoy a special mail rate from the USPS, but plenty of organizations forgo that for first class at times to ensure delivery and present a different message.

Of course for-profits are in a great position to take advantage of this if they can move fast, too.  Could be some work for marketers.

I have not had a use for index cards since college. A few recipe cards can be found in my kitchen, but except for a few old  family favorite recipes, I made the shift to other paper-based systems and then to Epicurious long ago. But is it a coincidence that the aspect ratio of the iPhone and iPad is that of the lowly index card? This low tech tool is still the best for sketching out an app idea quickly over a cup of coffee.

I have used a variety of other methods and seem to  come back to the tried and true index card and bulletin board technique. Of course, at some point the idea has to be put into a electronic file and gussied up a bit to show others. Actually, photos of individual cards made into a simple slide show can work in a pinch. Still, Blueprint (iPhone and iPad) works pretty well. It has enough widgets to pretty much cover all elements needed  for the average screen and to illustrate shifts between screens. Play mode is pretty slick. But all good projects start with index cards. Some manufacturer is happy.

Blogging for clients is seriously impacting my ability to keep up with my own. Well that is not a horrible situation to be in, but still. Now I am immersed in building an iPhone app. I guess don’t expect too many posts. Stay tuned though to check out that app when it is done.

Inspired by April 25ths quote of the day -

No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.

Lily Tomlin

Apple’s Newsstand is going to do for the publishing industry what iTunes did for the music industry. How much of a game changer? The week Newsstand was launched, electronic subscriptions to The New York Times increased seven times. I love my iPad, and have already realized that I will subscribe to more magazines having it. I stopped so many subscriptions over the years as I became buried under past issues, some of course, not read. No more guilt of recycling so much paper and ink – even if it is soy-based!

So why should a nonprofit take notice? One company has launched a publishing app that offers an incredibly inexpensive way to publish newsletters and journals electronically. PubsReplica offers professional associations and other nonprofit corporations the opportunity to publish in digital print replica format for a flat rate of $250.00 per issue. They say: “There is no set-up, hosting or other hidden fee. Alternatively, you can choose to publish your magazine for 15 cents per download. Again, there would be no other fees. It is completely up to you which price model you would like to adopt. We can accommodate traditional, members-only or free subscription models.”

The savings for national organizations may seem obvious, but consider the benefits to smaller, more local organizations. An electronic newsletter can reach more potential donors than the current methods that most organizations use: donate and then we start mailing to you and report past activity. How many organizations could market themselves far more effectively be providing rich content that does not get lost with other mail circulars? Emailed newsletters limit content and even the best email service cannot ensure that email is opened when most people’s email boxes are overwhelmed.

Sponsors could be treated as featured advertisers with embedded links to their websites, offering a measurement that corporate donors would appreciate. The newsletter can shift from a pretty tame donor communication to an effective stewardship tool to engage leading donors. Or this app can open up the possibility to create an entirely new publication. PubsReplica provides a sample publication, the Utah State Bar Journal.

More sites are either going dark on January 18th or joining in the protest in some way.  Google, Scrbd and WordPress are joining Wikipedia to voice opposition against H.R.3261 — Stop Online Piracy Act (Introduced in House – IH). Okay, reading all that is a commitment. Those in opposition believe that there are other, smarted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet. Those in opposition believe that global intellectual property rights should trump all and that the ideal of a free and open Internet can still exist.

Since Wikipedia will be dark, here is the beginning of the SOPA citiation as of the day before:

The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.

Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites. They cite examples such as Google’s $500 million settlement with the Department of Justice for its role in a scheme to target U.S. consumers with ads to illegally import prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies.

Here is one take on it all.

Sometimes the simplest of solutions is the best. I was fascinated with this report on NPR on solar light bulbs in the Philippines. Here in America we have numerous interest groups attempting to frame the move away from the incandescent light bulb as somehow unAmerican and a conspiracy of epic proportions.  While we whine over getting used to new technology (and the color of light is improving folks) so many people sharing this planet cannot afford to light their homes with a single bulb, having to chose between paying the electric bill or buying food.

This report on NPR, In the Philippine Slums, Capturing Light in a Bottle,  describes light bulbs consisting of discarded plastic soda bottles filled with water and wedged in a hole cut in the roof.  With the help of a tropical sun, the makeshift bulbs give off about 55 watts of light and require no electricity. This lighting program called “A Liter of Light” truly illustrates the power of a great idea and the nonprofit community.

Learn how!

Certainly not a surprise, yet a quarter of Wisconsin nonprofits responding to a survey about their financial health reported that they do not have sufficient cash reserves. Gayle Worland reported on the study in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Nonprofits appear to be treading water like many Americans. In may own experience with several nonprofit, the  past few years have been a constant to struggle to do more with less or trim activities that could be viewed as non mission critical in an attempt to hand on.  What is distressing is if more and more organizations have had to dip into savings to fill an income gap.

2012 could be the year of consolidation as similarly positioned organizations merge in order to retain some level of identity and purpose. Just as with the housing market and foreclosures there will be winners and losers. Financially stronger nonprofits may find a silver lining of sorts. If there are fewer organizations  seeking donations from a limited donor pool (as in locally based and funded nonprofits) those organizations ready to embark on a capital campaign or major service change, could find a donor community interested to learn more.  Donors with a strong commitment to a cause are most always interested to learn how other organizations are addressing the same issues. In today’s (and tomorrow’s) new normal, it will be the organizations that are creative, entrepreneurial, nimble and not afraid of change who will make it to 2013.

I am  interested in collecting real world case studies of nonprofit organizations who see the need for wholesale change and are pressing forward.

I thank Jonathan Liu of GeekDad for posting a good commentary on the implications of paper books vanishing with the rise of e-readers. So much of the discussion complaining about e-books seems to center on paper book (or newspaper) aficionados as being luddites holding on to “old technology” all for the feel of paper and smell of ink.  Well, I have whined about that at times. There are times I prefer the heft of a book and at other times love the softly lit screen of my iPad as I read in bed. Bruce Feiler had a great column in  New York Times lamenting that he could no longer snoop the books shelves of others if they had made the shift to e-books. And how does one lend an e-book? There goes my book club.

But seriously, in all this I have a choice. I have the money to buy an iPad so if some literature shifted entirely to electronic formats vs. paper, I would still be able to access it.  I work with a wonderful nonprofit in Milwaukee uses the visual arts to underscore reading comprehension. SHARP Literacy works in some of the most vulnerable schools in the city of Milwaukee. Each year, with donor support, they give books to first to fifth graders to take home and build their own libraries. For many of these children,  they are the only books they have in their home.  It may be the same in your schools system, as much as they would like to give each child a laptop or iPad, it is not going to happen any time soon, given the state of the economy and state and local budgets for education.

So what does this mean? Study after study shows that having access to books at an early age is a major predictor of success. It may soon be that the very children who already experience an uneven playing field when it comes to education will be priced out.  The Kindle may continue to drop in price, but can it drop to just a few bucks? And you do need the electricity in your home to charge it. As Jonathan Liu observes:

Gutenberg took literature from the wealthy and put it into the hands of the masses with his printing press. E-Readers are doing the opposite. Is this the fate of our country (or our world) — the rich become richer, the poor become poorer, and even the most basic tools of education and upward mobility are no longer available to those who need them the most?

He is right, it is a scarey story.

Surf’s up, so no long swims for Gypsy on Sunday. Being on the shore was a bit of therapy after reading Dan Egan’s story in the Milwaukee Journal about the demise of commercial fishing on Lake Michigan as the the quagga mussel has destroyed the fish population. It just underscores how important it is for the federal government to recognize the affects of invasive species like the quagga mussel on the Great Lakes and begin doing something to prevent another disaster. Green Bay is no longer green!

Thank you Dan Egan and the Milwaukee Journal for sticking with this issue!

And an update. Published on 8/17/11 in the Milwaukee Journal, another in Egan’s great series. This time we explore that fact that whitefish are adapting to the changing food web and beginning to eat fish even though they have no teeth! Whether they can fight back the invasive species or not, Gypsy and I are cheering them on. What havoc we humans have on our world.

Loophole comes from the Dutch word liupen meaning to peer as in from a slit in a castle wall while staying protected.  From there it gains a meaning a gap, omission, or ambiguity that makes it possible to evade a difficulty or obligation – as in taxes.

So when is closing a loophole a tax-hike? Well of course it is a tax increase to the organization or individual who has benefitted from its existence here-to-date and it is removed. Our tax code is chock full of incentives that made sense to congress and past presidents at some point in time to encourage investment, favored industries or innovation. They have just never perfected a way to close them in the face of lobbyists.

Grover Norquist’s continued linguistic parsing that removing a tax loophole equals a tax hike ignores basic economics, common sense and even the beliefs of the endangered species – the moderate republican. Former Republican Senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson, interviewed on NPR, cut no slack. (OK Simpson is not exactly remembered as a moderate anything, but he is looking that way today in comparison.) Well he did spend 10 months with 17 other members of a bipartisan committee to offer a plan that was completely ignored. (So now we call it a super committee and expect a different outcome? Not if Mitch “there is no compromise” McConnell chooses the players.)

Simpson said of Norquist (and Republican leadership rigid stance on no taxes): “He’ll (Norquist) be irrelevant in a couple of years. Because if you can’t get rid of these tax expenditures, which are just loopholes – they’re really spending by any other name – if you can’t get rid of those and then get a better tax rate, broaden the base, lower the rates, get spending out of the code – all of that is in our plan.”

And: “if we and this government and these congresspersons are enthralled to the AARP and Grover Norquist, we ain’t got a prayer.”

And how about: “The word compromise is not a filthy word. If you can’t learn to compromise an issue without compromising yourself, then you shouldn’t be a legislator.”

Ouch.

Not everyone would agree but there is a reason to use the tax code to provide incentives in the marketplace. The increase in taxes on cigarettes, for example, resulted in a decrease in sales and increased people’s attempts to kick the habit.  The mortgage deduction was put in place as an incentive to increase home ownership. That one may not be looking as shiny and pristine as it once did.

A busted tax code that can make it possible for GE to pay NO corporate taxes in 2010 while the hardworking family who runs a toy, gift, and variety store down the street certainly does pay taxes makes no sense. (They cannot concentrate their profits from sales of school supplies, cards and gifts offshore I guess.) And while GE has increased offshore profits from $15 billion to $92 billion since 2002, they eliminated one/fifth of their US workforce and increased overseas employment. Trust me, the small store has a better job creation record. Hmmm, and much of these tax breaks came from a law brilliantly named, the American Jobs Creation Act.

Our congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle will spend the next months tied up in linguistic loops calling a loophole a tax increase, and a tax break, a job-creating-incentive and ignore the obvious that the majority of America realizes: you cannot cut enough spending to reduce a deficit created by not funding wars for a decade. Tax revenue is down because of the number of people out of work. Any of the unemployed would be most happy to begin paying into the system again in exchange for a job. But they need to know that everyone, including corporate American pays their fair share. To say that the revenue side of things is “off the table” is insane and frankly feeds a notion that the Republicans want to deliberately wound the economy so they can take the presidency. Not sure what they think they will be handing the candidate elected in 2012 or to leaders in the rest of what he see is a very connected global economy.

Seems fitting that loophole comes from a military history. Legislators (both parties) hid under the cover of terrorism and a strong economy to escalate military spending while allocating no revenue for it, whether taken from other programs or through increased taxes. How long did they think the party would last?

Get ready for the best Simpsonism, How painful will it be to get us back on a fiscally responsible path? “It’s going to be like giving dry birth to a porcupine.”