Pixel advertising is a form of internet advertising that is increasing in popularity. Publicity surrounding a pixel advertising website created by a British college student who needed to raise money to pay for his education has created great interest in this type of advertising.

The website, called the milliondollarhomepage.com, has earned its creator, Alex Tew, hundreds of thousands of dollars since he launched it in August, 2005. Tew’s website homepage is a grid that is divided into one million pixel blocks. The pixels are sold to advertisers in blocks of 100 pixels, each measuring 10 x 10 pixels. Each pixel block becomes part of a colorful mosaic of advertising on the website. At $1.00 a pixel, when the page is sold out,Tew will have raised one million dollars for his education with this creative advertising technique.

Could your nonprofit organization, club, or group raise one million dollars by selling micro advertising pixel blocks? It is possible. Anyone can set up a pixel advertising website and The Million Dollar Homepage has inspired many businesses and organizations to create their own pixel advertising campaigns. Your organization may already be selling advertising space in your programs or other printed materials. Selling pixel advertising is just like selling any other form of advertising except that the advertisement appears on the world wide web for as long as you keep your website up. The potential of millions of people seeing their advertisement, for a year or longer, is a great selling point to advertisers and donors.

What do you need to get started with pixel advertising fundraising? If your organization already has a website you can set up pixel advertising on a page of your existing site. Or, you can buy a new domain name and set up a website solely for your

pixel fundraising. You will need a web hosting account for your site and a pixel advertising software program. You can buy a software program online and install it yourself or have it professionally installed. Your organization will also need to set up an online payment processor,such as PayPal. When your website is set up you will need a person in your organization to administer and monitor the program. You’ll be able to sell all the advertising online through the software program as well as process the payments online.

Does trying to raise one million dollars sound a bit unrealistic for your organization? When you set up your software program you will be able to set your own selling price for the pixels. So, your organization must decide how much money you need to raise and what the theme of your advertising website will be. If you want to raise fifty thousand dollars, then you would sell your pixels for five cents a pixel. This would make a one hundred pixel block cost only five dollars. You can also change the minimum number of required ad block purchases. If your minimum required ad blocks are one thousand, then your minimum ad block would cost a very reasonable fifty dollars per ad space. You would also only have to sell one thousand ad spaces in order to earn fifty thousand dollars. Even if you sold your pixels for a penny a pixel, you could still earn ten thousand dollars from one pixel ad page.

How can nonprofit organizations use pixel advertising? You could sell pixels and donate the money to a charitable organization such as The American Red Cross. Or, set up a pixel page to raise money for a specific project such as building a playground, or a spring school class trip. Pixels don’t have to be sold to only businesses. A school group could sell pixels to alumni or parents of a graduating class. A graduating class could set up a pixel page and raise money for their graduation night party.

The possibilities for fundraising with pixel advertising are limitless. A well-designed and promoted pixel advertising campaign has the potential to raise money and awareness for your organization. This form of advertising fundraising is well worth considering as a part of your organization’s fundraising strategy.

Historically, organizations have started measuring their performance and thus this is considered a part in establishing business. However, they usually relied on the financial data. Later on, they found out that even if they were performing well on the financial area, they still failed. This is why the balanced scorecard has been introduced. The BSC does not have a narrow focus; as a matter of fact it gives information about the performance of the company in various areas namely the customers or the stakeholders, the employee productivity and the internal processes. These three along with the financial records are the most important factors that affect the success of the business. In this case, you really have to measure them successfully. Even though today the BSC is being used by most for profit organization, there are non profits that are actually familiar with this. In order for you to adopt the balanced scorecard in nonprofit organizations, you should really know what the BSC is about and how to implement it strategically.

The balanced scorecard is a great tool but you may realize that not all the companies that have used this methodology are doing well in the industry. This is because they do not really know the processes involved here. For profit organizations have had a hard time utilizing the BSC effectively and you are right at guessing that this is not an easy framework that you can use for your non profit organization. You will need a team or an expert that will take care of the process plus there should be time and money dedicated to the BSC system. The senior management’s support is also required so that there would be more people who will be committed in performing the whole performance assessment using the BSC for NPOs.

The first step is to create organizational metrics, which should be well though of and selected based upon research. The trick here is to figure out the aspects that you would really like to measure and then determine how you can measure them. Aside from that, you should also think about the fact that it is a requirement for you to ensure that the measures are connected to the main goal of the company. Otherwise, you will end up looking for or jumping at measures that you only want to use yet do not really contribute into the success of the firm.

In order for you to know the right measures for the balanced scorecard in nonprofit organizations, you should look at the strategic plan of the firm. The said plan contains the essential details that will give you an idea on what to measure and how to do so. Now, there are different BSC categories and they are revenue and funding, donors and board members, internal operations, product and service recipients, resource allocation and staff development. The categories state which area you should be focusing in depending upon the goal of the organization.

The BSC is definitely an excellent management tool for both for profit and non profit organizations. However, you should bear in mind that this is should not be believed as a means to an end and certainly not an end it itself. For the balanced scorecard in nonprofit organizations, it is all about the pieces of information that you have gathered and how you are able to use them to your advantage.

Frustrated because your governing board members lack zeal for the cause and won’t raise money?

If you’re the CEO or a board member, your nonprofit organization needs you to galvanize that board. It’s board development time. But…

What if certain extenuating circumstances suggest a direct approach to the governing board is not a good idea at this time? Try advisory councils.

Advisory councils are a great way to re-charge the juices in a nonprofit organization’s leadership and advancement experience. Here are a few reasons why:

• Recruits individuals who may not (yet) qualify for governing board membership.
• Expands opportunities for attracting new talent, perspective, and participation to the organization, people who are honored by the appointment and eager to contribute.
• Attracts additional leadership to the organization without threatening current governing board members, i.e. you need not be forced to invite one to leave in order to invite another to join. And, if there’s a problem on the governing board, you can by-pass it by choosing to wage that battle another day.
• Engages leaders who want to serve but do not want to assume fiscal responsibility (governing board only) for the nonprofit organization.
• Interests potential members who are often over-committed but still want to be involved, so they like the typical council’s limited number of meetings per year.
• Helps focus members, thus raising probabilities of success, via “single-purpose” councils. If your council exists to “give or get,” members who accept an appointment have already made a commitment to be financially involved.
• Offers an opportunity to increase diversity among the organization’s influentials.
• Acts as a farm team for developing leadership for the governing board and other organizational opportunities.
• Represents the organization or one of its departments, matching council members’ professional expertise or interests in a best fit.

There are more reasons why advisory councils can be your leadership or advancement panacea. Add your own experiences to the list.

Perhaps your nonprofit organization reserves to the governing board the authority to appoint councils and/or members. This can be appropriate, depending upon your organization’s history and needs. But you may want to expedite the creation of advisory councils and the recruitment/appointment of members by developing a brief advisory council blueprint and then request the board pass a resolution empowering the CEO to develop advisory councils and enlist members later as the organization may require. You can also use the blueprint as a job description for orienting new council members.

Here’s an example of what an advisory council blueprint might entail:

Mission: To advise the CEO on matters pertaining to leadership in the organization and the community.

Counsel: Expertise, insight, strategic thinking, innovative ideas, networking, trend analysis, encouragement, vision casting, leadership, advocacy, mentoring, support, community opportunities and contributions.

Membership: Members will be appointed for their leadership, expertise, wisdom, and contacts, which they can use to build the effectiveness and reputation of the organization. They shall be people of good character whose lives and work will by association be a credit to each other and the organization. Members will be appointed by the CEO.

Terms: Members will serve without terms (or you can develop terms) for as long as the CEO and the council member consider the service mutually beneficial.

Members should attend meetings faithfully and agree to support the organization financially on an annual or project basis.

Meetings: Councils will typically convene four times per year in meetings called by the CEO. Special meetings may be called from time to time.

Authority: Councils serve in an advisory capacity with the consent of the Board of Directors. Advisory council recommendations will have no legal or binding authority upon the organization but will likely influence the course of the organization’s development.

One last thought you should make a cardinal rule: The worst thing you can do is appoint advisory council members and then not use (converse, convene, listen, engage, etc.) them. Putting people on a council that goes nowhere wastes their time and disrespects their talent. Fool them once and you won’t fool them twice.

Advisory councils are a wonderfully flexible and potentially high-impact tool. Skillfully employed by a CEO or board, advisory councils can act like a chlorine shock to the organization’s leadership pool. They can help make things clear so you can once again see where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.