Off-Leash: The Inaugural Edition!
Welcome to the first edition of Off-Leash, our weekly round-up of all the news, tips, and links worth a click. I hope that this newsletter is illuminating, informative, and even, at times, entertaining. This is a work in progress, so if you have any feedback or ideas for future editions, please let us know in the comments below.
Now without further ado…
1. Web browsers are taking a page from Cookie Monster’s guide to healthy living and ditching the cookies. Well, they’re at least going on a diet. Cookies are tiny bits of code saved to your computer or mobile device that tells a website a little about you—like if you’ve been there before. This helps keep you logged into your favorite news sites or your Netflix account. These are called first-party cookies. But cookies also allow advertisers to track you around the internet to help companies like Google and Facebook serve you tailored ads. These cookies—third-party cookies—have gained the most ire from privacy activists and conscientious consumers. But completely blocking third-party cookies isn’t the answer (too many websites rely on third-party advertising networks to help them make money). So what's the best way forward to protect people's privacy and still enable websites and advertisers to make money?
Gizmodo explains how each of the world’s most popular web browsers is handling the issue.
2. Give yourself a break and put down the phone (after you read this post, of course). Endlessly scrolling through social media is bad for your mental health. This isn’t news, and yet, since the start of the pandemic, most of us probably find ourselves using social media differently.
“It used to be that Sunday nights in bed were spent digging through Twitter for Game of Thrones hot takes, or armchair quarterbacking the day’s game. Now, the only thing to binge-watch is the world's collapse into crisis. Coronavirus deaths (473,000 worldwide and counting), unemployment rates (around 13 percent in the US), protesters in the street on any given day marching for racial justice (countless thousands)—the faucet of data runs nonstop. There are unlimited seasons, and the promise of some answer, or perhaps even some good news, always feels one click away.
But it’s not. Right now, people are living at a time with no easy solutions, a moment with a lot of conflicting “facts” in a rapidly changing landscape.”
It’s not all bad news, though. While the writer doesn’t have the cure for all of society’s ills, one way to cap that feeling of dread while you scroll: stop scrolling. Put your phone down, pick up a book.
Check out the full read on WIRED.
3. You can enjoy two full days of this conference, all from the comfort of your couch. Thanks to the good folks at Causevox for hosting the third annual Digital Fundraising Summit last week, which featured nearly two-dozen speakers on topics ranging from digital communications, marketing, and fundraising for about 3,500 live participants. I had the privilege of presenting a new topic for us, Cruise Control: 10(ish) Practical Ways to Get More Done in Less Time, highlighting some of the tools and tactics we use at Good Dog Strategies to get more done.
In case you missed the event, you can visit Causevox to purchase access to the full Digital Fundraising Summit notes and recordings for only $60. And you can access my slides from the presentation (complete with links to the tools I mentioned in the presentation) for free here.
4. Where do nonprofits go wrong with communications? That’s the topic Sarah Durham and Joan Garry, host of the “Nonprofits are Messy” podcast, discuss on Big Duck’s very own podcast, “The Smart Communications Podcast.” Here’s a clip from their conversation (emphasis mine):
“… nonprofit leaders have to be five-star storytellers in order to be a thriving nonprofit. Every one of your stakeholders has to be able to tell a terrific story about your organization. Why? Because everybody is in the business of trying to invite more and more people to know and do more for their organization. You’re all in the invitation business. If you don’t get the story right, people aren’t going to come to your party, and people is power. Whether that’s donors, volunteers, your next staff member, your next board member, the people that you need to mobilize to write a petition, people is power. I know that’s not grammatically correct. So those are the big things for me is that nonprofits need to recognize that they are in the storytelling business. And because they’re in the invitation business.”
We’re big fans of storytelling, too. Listen to the full episode or read the conversation transcript from Big Duck’s website.
5. With the long weekend at our doorstep, pencil in some time to be bored. It’s going to be a busy fall. Why? Because it always is. So this weekend, permit yourself to be bored.
“I’m a big believer in boredom…out of curiosity comes everything.” ~ Steve Jobs
Allowing yourself to take a proper break and not distract your mind with busy work or to-dos allows it to wander and be more creative. The team at Toggl has put together this persuasive piece to help convince you that an investment in doing nothing can be an investment in your creativity.
That’s it for this week’s edition of Off-Leash. We’ll be back next week with round 2, so let us know what you think in the comments below.
