Thursday, February 18, 2010

Innovation

Today, everything is about new and improved. 2.0 and 3rd generation are so outdated; it's time for 3.0 and 4th gen. New products and new innovations. The non-profit world is also under siege with demands to innovate. Donors want to see new and exciting programs. 21st century ideas.

However, at HFBA, this raises a dilemma. How do you innovate sacred and ancient burial rites?

The answer is you don't. The rites are the same. However, there are other areas where innovation are appropriate. Looking through original burial applications from the early 1900s, one sees handwritten records written in Yiddish. Several years later, English is used. By the 1940s, all of our applications were typed. In the late 1980s, our intake was done using DOS based computer programs. And since 2004, we've been using  custom web based data management software.

How do we reach out to our donors? In addition to mail, HFBA sends out monthly e-News updates about our programs. Within the past few years, we've maintained active Facebook and Twitter profiles. We have this blog. And last month, we initiated a monthly YouTube video (in addition to our other HFBA films).

No matter the cause, there is room to innovate. HFBA has embraced this cause. Hopefully, you'll take advantage of some of what we offer. And if you do, tell us how we're doing.

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