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Planning for the internet

Most organisations would not adopt a new strategy, such as opening a new office or expanding their level of activities, without first doing some very careful planning.

Planning helps to ensure that the time, money and energy invested in any new strategy are not wasted. Without good plans new ventures can easily go wrong due to poor timing, unreasonable expectations or even adopting the wrong approach in the first place.

Planning is often a difficult issue for small nonprofits with few staff. But don't be daunted. Even thinking through some of the issues discussed in this section is better than nothing and will pay dividends. Good advance planning of your online activities maximises the benefits to your organisation and reduces the risk of problems and mistakes.

This section explains how to go about the planning process, what an internet or online activity plan should contain, the opportunities and challenges, the various levels of online activity and how to assess which one suits your organisation. For example, is email all you will ever need, or should you be considering online fundraising or providing online services?

Involve your stakeholders

The planning process should involve the people who hold important roles in the organisation or who provide important advice. But whether it is developed by one person or a team, the goal is to produce an internet plan and to implement a practical schedule for reviewing and updating it.

You need to establish:

• who should be involved in the process and who to consult (you need to make sure representatives of every key group in your organisation from board, management, staff and volunteers and from each key area such as frontline staff and admin are involved);
• the responsibilities of the planning group;
• what the plan is to include;
• the timeframe for delivering the plan;
• a process to keep everyone informed about the plan; and 
• when and how the plan will be reviewed and updated.

Make sure the internet adds value

There are many ways the internet can be used to help an organisation conduct its day-to-day activities. When developing an internet or online activity plan be sure you know what the possibilities are for your organisation so they can be incorporated into your planning.

If the internet is going to add value to what you currently do then you need to identify and anticipate all the opportunities, challenges and threats of being online. These are the types of big picture questions and issues that an organisation should consider as part of the planning process.

Technology is only a tool

'[The study] examined the circumstances and settings in which ICT is implemented and used by small, medium and large organisations across a range of different industry sectors. The study is significant as possibly the most comprehensive Australian survey of ICT use and management. The results were surprisingly straightforward and probably confirm something you already know: it is not the technology alone but the way you use it that matters. Technology is simply a tool.'

From Achieving value from ICT: key management strategies

Undertake a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis. It is an effective way of identifying and discussing responses to the changing landscape in which all organisations operate. Such an exercise might raise and address issues like these.

• What new information, services and products might be possible via the website?
• How are the demands and expectations of members, clients, other audiences and online users changing?
• What internal procedures and processes used in running your organisation could be improved or even replaced by using a website – e.g. what workflow re-engineering is possible that would improve outcomes for members or clients and produce greater efficiencies?
• What new laws, social habits and consumer patterns are emerging that you need to respond to?
• What impact will your online activity have on your current partnerships and what new ones might or should emerge?
• What will happen if you do not develop an effective internet plan?

What level of online activity is right for you?

Before launching into or expanding your use of the internet, you need to ask what is the appropriate level of online activity for your organisation. For one nonprofit anything more than using email and banking online might be a waste of time and diversion of energy and resources. On the other hand, another nonprofit might find that a website with online donation and e-commerce facility is feasible and meets its organisational goals.

To establish the right level of online activity you will need to identify the aims of your online activity.

Knowing what you hope to achieve with your use of the internet is fundamental to selecting the level of internet activity you will engage in, how much time and money you will be prepared to put into it, and how you will judge whether it has been a success or not. For example, if you don't know the aim, how will you be able to tell a web designer what you want on your website or what new skills staff might need to make it a success?

Using the web to connect with difficult-to-reach clients

DepressioNet is an independent, nonprofit organisation providing information, help and peer support via the web.

The website supports people living with depression by increasing understanding of the disease and its causes and effects, and by informing people about their options for effective treatment and management. Users are able to access comprehensive information 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

By integrating web functions such as chatrooms and a message board with mental health practices it provides a safe, anonymous service for those seeking health information who feel outside their comfort zone. People who do not usually use the internet will often go online if they are desperate.

Participants on the website feel a sense of community and trust. There is a registration system and guidelines for interaction, and the site's moderators put boundaries around the discussion. This helps keep the site a place where people can interact safely.

The idea that people share a common circumstance and that they are not alone in their struggle contributes powerfully to the sense of community. A sense of sharing and connection is a vital source of strength for many of the people who use the site and are desperate for that connection. One site user believes the depressioNet website saved her life. She found comfort in speaking to other people suffering depression, and the friends she made gave her the strength to keep going.

Anonymity, availability, flexibility and interaction are key factors that contribute to the site's success. Anonymity is a particular feature of the site and, rather than a negative, it can give help and support to people who would not otherwise be willing to access information because of the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Anyone, including the relatives and friends of those with depression, can access the site. DepressioNet's operators believe they reach people who would not otherwise seek help and that the organisation is meeting the challenge of making the technology fit users' needs and circumstances.

See the case study.

What to do

Below are a number of activities that can be improved by using the internet. Explore each one to see whether it has possibilities for your organisation, whether it should be incorporated into your internet plan, and if so, to what extent.

• Communications
• Promotion
• Customer relationship management
• Researching and information gathering
• Banking
• Online purchasing
• Staff training

Conduct a brainstorming session with others in your organisation, other stakeholders and those that may have useful views to help determine the aims of what you want to do online and where the priorities should lie. For example, consider whether the aim is to:

• provide practical information to members and the public;
• improve awareness of the organisation;
• create efficiencies and time-saving;
• help client groups help themselves, e.g. meet the needs of school students doing projects without taking up your staff time;
• recruit new audiences;
• promote specific services;
• educate and train members, clients and suppliers;
• create debate and groups of interested people;
• support specialist activities; and/or
• raise revenue.

Once these have been prioritised make a definitive statement about the aims and purpose of what you want to do on the internet and seek feedback.

Identify your target audience

Most organisations do a great deal of thinking about the range of people they consider to be members, clients, supporters and other stakeholders and how best to satisfy their needs. The same amount of thinking needs to go into working out who your internet activity is aimed at. Is it aimed at existing members or is it hoped new members and supporters will be found?

Here are some issues to consider when thinking about this question.

• You cannot control who visits your website – it is accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world, any time of the day or night, all week long. Not only will your traditional supporters and stakeholders visit your website but also many others.
• Different sections of your website may appeal to different audiences.
• Your website gives you relatively cheap access to new audiences.
• If your website is being used to create or offer new services or information, you may need to engage with entirely new audiences in new locations.

Consider the various categories of audiences you wish to target and then list them in order of priority. The more specific you can be, the more useful will be the result. The following list is a useful starting point.

• Existing clients/members
• New clients/members
• Referral agencies
• Sponsors/donors/friends
• General public
• Media
• Managers/executives
• Staff
• Associated organisations
• Policy makers
• Funding bodies

When you have considered your priorities, think about where each of them is located – in your state, nationally or overseas. What age group(s) are you targeting and is there any common characteristic? For example, if young people are your main member/client group then they would not expect to see a very formal, corporate-looking website and this may put them off engaging with you online.

Ask people

Be careful of preconceived ideas about your internet activities. For example you may have some idea of what your stakeholders and the general public will use your website for, or how they will respond to your emails, but you could be making assumptions that are incorrect.

Before you go too far with your planning, ask your audiences. Talk to your staff about what sort of questions and phone calls they get and what could be dealt with via the website.

Talk to clients and members about what sort of information they would look for most and what they would want most urgently.

You should to talk also to outsiders – members of the public and other potential users of your site. One way of doing this is to recruit some users to a small focus group by advertising on your own website if you already have one, the site of a related organisation, or try finding some users on a newsgroup that might be interested in your organisation. You don't need a lot – six to nine people is plenty.

Focus groups can help you assess user needs and feelings about your organisation and about what sort of online activities would work. The group typically lasts about two hours and is run by a moderator who maintains the group's focus.

Focus groups often bring out users' spontaneous reactions and ideas and let you observe some group dynamics and organisational issues.

For participants, the focus-group session should feel free-flowing and relatively unstructured, but in reality, the moderator must follow a preplanned script of specific issues and set goals for the type of information to be gathered. During the group session, the moderator has the difficult job of keeping the discussion on track without inhibiting the flow of ideas and comments. The moderator also must ensure that all group members contribute to the discussion and must avoid letting one participant's opinions dominate.

The results will provide you with some useful qualitative research about what online activities might be appropriate for your organisation.

Making the internet work with your existing office systems

In developing an internet plan, it is essential to address the extent of change to existing office equipment, systems and procedures that might be required or desired.

For example, will taking membership subscriptions or donations by email or through your website mean that you have to adjust your accounting procedures and membership/supporter record-keeping?

One of the most common integration issues is that of databases. Does an existing database of members or products stay in the same program (e.g. in Microsoft Access) and format (e.g. the same field names) with its data transferred from time to time to the website? Or, should the database be overhauled, new fields added, content cleaned up so that it is accurate and then made an integral part of the website rather than sitting on someone's computer in the office? This latter solution has many advantages.

Whoever is developing the internet or online activity plan needs to approach any key stakeholders and everyone in the organisation who carries out day-to-day operations to:

• ensure they understand how the internet could be of assistance – e.g. explain about online databases, online forms, e-commerce, email ordering;
• ask in what ways the internet could be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these tasks;
• determine what the integration challenges are and the likely benefits; and 
• decide what equipment, systems and processes should be amended to take advantage of online activities, and how that should be done.

Estimating the budget

Managing the budget for your organisation's internet or online activity is an important undertaking. The budget needs to be estimated and managed each year to ensure that the online objectives are achieved.

The internet budget should be dealt with as you would with any traditional budget items. It might be seen as a unique item in the overall organisation's budget and given its own allocation. Alternatively, its various costs might be spread across other functional areas such as marketing and membership.

What to do

You may feel that estimating the annual online activity budget is a daunting task. However, it need not be so difficult to assess. It merely needs to be approached in a systematic manner.

Using a spreadsheet program as the tool, the following process can be used to estimate the annual budget.

• Identify the cost centres for all aspects of online activity in the nominated twelve month period.
• Define the individual parts of each cost centre (as far as practicable).
• Estimate the days involved in delivering each component during the period.
• Determine what functions are to be outsourced and what is to be done by staff.
• Apply an average hourly salary allocation, fee rate, cost of purchase, annual licence or lease, as appropriate, to each cost centre.
• Factor in a contingency allowance – e.g. 7.5 per cent.
• The sum total of these amounts provides an estimate of the cost of your online activities for the given 12-month period.

One budget period is not necessarily going to be the same as another. The first budget period often includes the (re)development of your website, which is a significant cost. Subsequent budget periods may require less money, but beware: maintaining, evaluating, testing and enhancing a site can often exceed the initial development cost.

As an example of one aspect of your internet budget, see the following spreadsheet on developing a website budget. You may need to add cost centres and additional personnel involved in certain stages to meet your own circumstances: Template– sample budget for building a website (Excel format, size 21 KB)

Arguing the business case to members/board

The key point about arguing a business case in relation to online activities is to describe how these activities will best meet the organisation's objectives.

In larger organisations, there is an emphasis on arguments that show a return on investment (ROI). Smaller organisations often find it a challenge to collect the information needed to make this kind of case to a membership committee or board. However for larger expenditure items they will still have to do this.

Writing your internet plan

The internet plan is a document that states the type and level of online activity that an organisation will engage in.

The plan will set the course for your online activity over the next one to two years.

Click on the link to download an RTF document that provides a guide for the writing of an internet plan: Internet project plan template (RTF format, size 44 kb).

Document ID: 1412, Last Updated: Wednesday, 23 January 2008 9:11am