We present: The web of trust

Published December 16th, 2011 Tags: , , ,
| Björn Lampe, How it works, betterplace works!, betterplace.org, evaluation, feedback, projects, web of trust | No Comments »

On the betterlace.org project pages you can read the following text concerning their trustworthiness: „We suggest that you support projects, when you know the carrier organisation or the project responsible, or if a trustworthy person recommended the project to you – or if the web of trust convinced you of the project’s trustworthiness.“ Now, what is the exact meaning of „web of trust“?

The Web of trust is meant to give the page visitor an overview over the project and gives an answer to the following questions: shall I trust the project? Shall I donate to the project? We from betterplace.org think that beside the important role of the project carrier and the project-carrying organisation, notably the people who already donated are warrantors for the trustworthiness of the project. Therefore we created a new tab called „donors and opinions“ on the new project pages.

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There you will find all the people, which already donated to the project. Next to their entry, a little Euro icon is shown. You will also find the positive or negative opinions of persons who expressed themselves about the project. Next to their name you will find the correspondent thumbs up or thumbs down icon. Finally on this page there are also the comments of users, which have been „on site“. Next to their report there is an icon with the words „on-site“. Out of this three group of people – donors, opinion givers and on-site visitors – interested parties can get a broader impression of the project. To filter the entries, simply click ‘Show on site-reports and opinions only’. Then you will see on the first look all the different opinions of people, which have been on-site, or just opinions of those who gave their general opinion about a project.

In addition to the described elements and the project description itself, the tab „News“ is also an inherent part of the web of trust. There, the project carrier reports on all the current events around the project and also about how the donations are actually used.

Bildschirmfoto 2011-12-16 um 14.22.53

And sometimes a picture can tell more than a thousand words and thus the project pictures can reveal a lot about the evolution of the project. When scrolling over the project photo with the mouse, there will be a little reference about the amount of other photos in the gallery. The gallery itself is to be opened by a simple click on the main project photo.

Bildschirmfoto 2011-12-16 um 14.25.27

All this elements are part of the web of trust indicator on betterplace.org. Some organisations, which present a project on betterplace.org, extend this trust network, by putting some further information about themselves on their project pages. Like external distinctions, official seals or via a positive celebrity statements. Finally, it  remains your own decision to figure out what you see as the most important factor inside the web of trust. We from betterplace.org can only give you a lot of different ways to inform yourself the best you can.

If now you feel like checking out a few projects, than have a look on our PROJECT OVERVIEW or find interesting projects on our MAP VIEW. If you log in to betterplace.org via Facebook, you will also be able to see who of your friends is part of the web of trust of a project. How this is working exactly, is explained here.

That’s how the administration of the new project pages is working

Published November 30th, 2011 Tags: , , ,
| Björn Lampe, How it works, betterplace.org, design, fundraising, projects, web of trust | No Comments »

The new project pages are not only giving a lot of new features to the page visitors, the administration of the project pages will change too. Everything that the project manger needs to know is resumed in this blog post. First of all: nearly all the administrative functions can be accessed directly from the new tab „administration“.

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Under Project you can edit your project, write new blog posts (that will appear under „news“), manage your photos (for example to set up the second profile picture as we explained in this blogpost), edit your organisation and delete your project (as long as there has been no donation to it). Caution: transitionally, when clicking on the different administration tools, you will be directed to the old administration pages. However, all changes will be shown immediately on your new project pages. The old administration pages will be adapted during the next weeks.

Under Donations, you can forward your project donations towards your different needs, as well as ask for the payout of your collected donations. The respectively available sum will be indicated.

Under Needs you will be able to add new needs to your project at any time.

In the future, we will put more functions in the administration tab – please be patient.

The administration of the different needs will be in the right side bar:

Bildschirmfoto 2011-11-29 um 10.57.25There you can translate your need descriptions (if you are maintaining a bilingual project) and indicate when you raised money from elsewhere. As long as there has been no donation on the need, you can also edit or delete it. From the moment a first donation has been done, editing will not be possible anymore.

If you have further questions regarding the new project pages or its administration, you can contact our support team at any time. Just send an e-mail to projects@betterplace.org

betterplace.org presents: donors and opinions

Published November 30th, 2011 Tags: , , , ,
| Björn Lampe, How it works, betterplace.org, evaluation, feedback, fundraising, projects, web of trust | No Comments »

The biggest innovation on our new project pages is the new tab „ Donors and Opinions“. Here you can find the list of all the donors as well as the opinions (former „advocates“) and the posts of the „on site visitors“. Fitting to the politic of transparency proper to betterplace.org, critical opinions and critical „on site“ report will be allowed. The little thumbs showing up and down and the little numbers just beside them, give a quick overview about the exact number of positive or critical opinions. Every donor counts as a positive opinion, because we think a donation is (almost) the strongest way to argue for a project.

Bildschirmfoto 2011-11-28 um 15.04.15

Directly on this site, there will be again the possibility to ask directly a question to the project manager, or to just tell an opinion. Furthermore „on site visit reports” can be related and donations can be done directly to the project. To give an opinion or to write an „on site visit report” will be possible only for registered users of betterplace.org, but anonymous donating will remain possible.

When clicking on the „on site visit report“, we are furthermore asking questions about the relation towards the project, as well as details about the source and the exact dates of the visit. Doing this, we hope that each visitor can make himself a broad opinion about the worthiness  of the “on site visit report”.

betterplace.org presents: the project news

Published November 30th, 2011 Tags: , ,
| Björn Lampe, How it works, betterplace.org, feedback, fundraising, projects | No Comments »

The second tab on the new project pages is the „News“ tab. The little number behind it indicates on the first sight how many news have already been written.

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The news are written by the project responsible and give information about the actual status of the project. There are replacing the old „project blog“ that we had on the former project pages. Of course all the posts can be commented at any time.

Likewise, the blog posts concerning the out-payements and the forwarding of the donations will appear under the new tab „News“. So, every single donor can trace his donations and see transparently how the project manager is using them.

The right side bar from the „project overview“ will still appear when opening this tab. Like this, a donation to the project or to a single need will be possible at anytime.

betterplace.org presents: the new project overview

Published November 29th, 2011 Tags: , , , , , ,
| Björn Lampe, How it works, Photos, betterplace.org, feedback, fundraising, projects, social media, web of trust | No Comments »

As mentioned in our blogpost yesterday, the project profile pages on betterplace.org will have a makeover this week. The project overview is the core element of these new pages. Since are some major changes in comparison to the previous project pages, we will now explain all the new points one by one.

Bildschirmfoto 2011-11-28 um 13.30.181. Project name: on top of the project page the project name still appears. Beneath that, the project manager and (if existing) the correspondent organisation are linked.

2. Project photo: the project photo is now much bigger than on the old project pages. When scrolling over it with the mouse, information about the other photos will show up. With a simple click on „show more pictures” a photo gallery with all the project photos will pop up. You will find more information about this here.

3. Geographical location: from now on the place where the project is situated will be shown on a bigger map. Inside the map there will also be a second project photo.

4. Progress bar: also the project bar, which is giving information about the current amount of financing of the project, was enhanced and placed in a more central position.

5. Project statistic: from now on, in addition to the progress bar, there will be project statistics, showing at first view how many people already donated to the project and the exact amount that is missing for full financing.

6. Project donation: with this donation button, the project page visitors can donate directly to the project. The project manager can then decide himself to which of his needs he wants to distribute to the donations. For more details about the different ways of donating on betterplace.org, please have a look at this blogpost.

7. Project description: this is the box for the project description. With a click on „read more“ the full project description will open. To close it, just click on „show less“. At the end of the project description there is the new field „more information“, which covers a links to the page news of the project, information concerning the registration date and gives some more information.

8. Project carrier: if the project was registrated under the patronage of an organisation, the organisation logo will appear at this place. A click on the logo leads directly to the organisations page on betterplace.org.

9. Donors: here the five most recent registrated donors on betterplace.org with an own user picture will be shown.

10. Information about the project: here, with a simple click donors and interested parties can get an answer on their questions, like the tax deductibility of their donations (only if the organization is a tax deductible in Germany) and the trustworthiness of the project. We are also indicating, that we are forwarding 100% of the money to the project manager (or carrier organisation).

11. Questions to the project manager: to guarantee a maximum of transparency, project page visitors can ask public questions. The question can be displayed in full by clicking on it. Then, if the project manager did already answer, the response will appear as well. With a click on ‘ask question’, a new question can be asked.

12. Needs: of course you can still donate to concrete needs of the project. The list of these needs is in the right side bar. A click on „see details“ will open more information about the single needs.

13. Completed needs: here you can find the full list of completed needs of the project.

14. Help to spread the project: at the end of the project page there will be 5 different ways of spreading the project: via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or by embedding a widget on an external website.

The new project pages on betterplace.org

Published November 28th, 2011 Tags: , , , ,
| Björn Lampe, How it works, Photos, betterplace.org, fundraising, projects, web of trust | No Comments »

We have been working on it for a while, now it is done: the new project pages are to be launched within a few days. The main aim was to develop a project profile page that is more clearly laid-out and more informative. Notably the topics transparency and community involvement will be accentuated. In the same time, we simplified the administration functions of the projects to be more easy to use for the project manager.

In this and the next blog posts, we will explain to you step by step the different functions of those new project pages. We will show you what has changed, where you can find again the elements you know from the old project pages and how the administration of the new pages works.

From now on, the project overview (more info here), the news (more info here) as well as the list of the donors and opinions (more info here) will be shown on three different subpages. The switching between those subpages will happen by a simple click on the upper tabs (like shown in the screenshot):

Blogpost 1.1
The right side bar (dashed and framed) gives information concerning the actual full amount of the donations, the numbers of donors, the actual financing percentage of the project and the amount of money that is needed for full financing. Below it you will find the different needs of the project.

What is probably catching your eye on the new project pages is the stronger focusing on the project photo: It is now bigger and thus more saliently placed. With a simple click on „show more pictures“ (which opens when you scroll over the picture with your mouse) a photo gallery with all the project photos will pop up.

Blogpost 1.2

Henceforth you will find a little map indication right next to your main project photo. There you will find the exact location of the project. Furthermore there will be a second project picture that will give an inside in the work progress of the project.

Project managers can enter the exact location of their project by their own. For doing that, just click on „administration“, then on „edit project“ and finally on “location“  to enter the exact location of the project. Also the project manager can choose what picture they want to use as the second, smaller profile picture. For doing that they click on administration, then on „manage photos“ and choose then the second picture by putting a check mark where it is said „ use as he second smaller profile picture“. Don’t forget to save. (Attention: This will only be possible, once the new project pages are launched on betterplace.org)

Blogpost 1.3

The five best ways to fundraise successfully via betterplace.org

Published November 2nd, 2011 Tags: , , ,
| How it works, betterplace.org, fundraising | No Comments »

Have you just registered your very first project at betterplace.org? Or are you already an old school betterplacer who did not receive much funding yet? No worries, in this blog you find five hints how to make your fundraising project a success.

1.    Inform everybody you know about your fundraising project!
Your project profile at betterplace.org is online – now you definetly should spread the word about it. Talk to all those persons that have been donating already and to all those that you know as interested in your work. Call their attention to your new tread at betterplace.org, ask them to leave comments as advocates or visitors and/or to make a (little) donation. The easiest way to solicit them so is by sending a personal e-mail or – if you have one – a newsletter with a corresponding announcement.

2.    Link your project with your homepage
People interested in your work do visit your website. That is why right at your homepage there should be a link that leads to a donation possibility at betterplace.org. Even better would be an integration of your betterplace.org-widget or donation button at your homepage. How that works is explained in detail here.

3.   Advertise offline, donate online
Even if you don’t have the email address of each interested person and each donor: more than 70 percent of your potential donors are online (numbers apply to Europe and the US). Thus, point to your presence at betterplace.org, for example, in your next printed newsletter, flyer or printed info letter. Then everybody can decide for him/herself how to donate best – offline or online via betterplace.org.

4.    Social media? For sure!
More and more people are using social networks such as facebook – doubtless some of the people interested in your project as well. So advertise your betterplace project in the web2.0. If you have a facebook fanpage you can even integrate our donation button or widget there.

5.    Donating without cash?
Donatiting without cash is possible at our platform as well. Besides monetary donations you can ask for donations in kind and/or in time, depending what you need precisely. Maybe thats also a way to get your followers engaged. Check out what others have asked for.

The donation button for organizations

Published November 2nd, 2011 Tags: , ,
| How it works, fundraising | No Comments »

Since January 2011 we provide a new tool for organizations: the betterplace.org donation button for the homepage of your organization. Practically it works like the integration of a widget at your homepage. Only instead of using the widget code you take the code of the donation button.

Best thing about this button is that you can integrate it at the facebook page of your organization, too. How that works will be explained here:

1. Firstly, you would need to install a facebook application that works with the computer language HTML – we recommend Wildfire App. For installation, please click at ‘Install this app’. If necessary log into your facebook account and accept the assignment of permissions. Then, the application ask to which facebook page it should be added – so choose the name of your organization page and click at adding.

2. Now you will be routed automatically to the facebook page of your organization and you need to enter your data. When done, click at ‚submit’. At the following page you act as follows: Switch ‚Fan gate’ off. Click at fans and non fans view at custom HTML. Copy the source code of the betterplace.org donation button into the field (you find this source code at your betterplace.org organization page at the right menue bar under ‚embed donation button external’). Then click at ‚save & preview’.

3. Done! Of course you can add more text around the donation button via this application in order to make the page more detailed and beautiful. Therefore, click ‚Edit settings’. As title of the field you can choose for example ‚donate now’ or the like.

4. Last step: now you will find at the left side of your facebook page besides the links ‘wall’, ‘info’, ‘photos’ and others the new link ‘welcome’. However, in future this link shall have the name ‚donate now’ or the like. To realize that, please click at the top of your facebook page right under its name at ‚edit page’. At the following page left click at ‚applications’ and in the list you look for ‚Wildfire iFrames for Pages’. Click under that at ‚edit settings’ and type in your prefered title, save it and – done. Good luck!

Collect money the simple way: the betterplace.org widget at your homepage

Published November 2nd, 2011 Tags: , , , , ,
| How it works, Uncategorized, betterplace.org, fundraising | No Comments »

Bildschirmfoto 2011-11-02 um 12.14.57Have you registered a project or would you like to raise more public attention towards it? Then make your betterplace.org project visible at your/your organizations homepage. This can be done easily with the betterplace.org widget.

The widget looks like a little display window: it shows the profile photo of your project, its title and the current level of donations. By only one click on the widget the visitor of your homepage will be transferred straight to your betterplace.org project profile. At the left hand you see a widget example.

You can integrate it into your homepage by only a few clicks:

1. Log into your betterplace.org account and visit the page of your project.

2. Click at ‚invite network’ in the right navigation bar. If you are not the project responsible this link is named ‚spread the project’.

3. Scroll down the following page until point 4 ‚Via widget’. There you will find the source code that beginns with “<iframe”. Now copy the entire code and enter it at the favored place at your homepage. Done. If you don’t know how to do so ask your website manager. At the website of the organization Skateistan you can get the idea how it looks like in the end.

skateistan

By the way, you can also intergrate a widget at your facebook fan page. How? Simple: Instead of using the widget code you take the code of the donation button. More info on this matter can be found in this blogpost.

Oversee projects in a team

Published October 26th, 2011 Tags: , , ,
| How it works, betterplace.org | No Comments »

Projects at betterplace.org are always represented by one project manager who is recognisable as such at each project profile. If visitors of this profile wish to, they can easily can contact him/her and ask whatever they would like to know. However, most of the projects are taken care of by more than one single person – so how to oversee a project in a team? By using our access permissions!

In advance: assigning access permissions does only work for projects that run under an organisational profile, not for individual projects. Individual projects can always and only have one responsible!
In order to be able to assign access permissions to another person, this person needs to be linked with the organisation running the project. He/she got linked by firstly adding itself as employee. To do so, he/she needs to visit the organisational profile (for example, http://www.betterplace.org/en/organisations/wwf) and click the link ‚connect myself as employee’ at the menue bar on the right hand side. This request, secondly, needs to be confirmed by the responsible of the organisational profile at betterplace.org.

Now the project manager needs to visit the project profile and click on ‚edit project’ at the menue bar at the right side of the page (don’t forget to log into your account before!). At the following page he/she needs to click at ‚permissions“:

Bildschirmfoto 2011-10-26 um 15.25.29

Thirdly, it is necessary to assign a role to each employee. The roles are ‚No access’, ‚Full access’, ‚Editor’ and ‚Admin’. Additionally, each employee can be choosen to be the contact person/project manager. But what do the single roles mean?

  • ‚No access’ is self-explanatory: the employee has no access permission to the project at all.
  • ‚Editors’ can write new blogposts and upload project photos.
  • ‚Full access’ contains the same permissions as ‚editor’ plus the right to change bank account details, add new needs, answer questions to the project and request payouts.
  • ‚Admin’ has all permissions mentioned so far plus the right to transfer all those permissions to another employee of the organisation via the link ‚permissions’

Important to know: Only the one project manager/contact person receives the automatically generated e-mails from betterplace.org that, for example, inform about new donors or comments.

What does that mean in practise? Maybe you as project manager get support by the public relations department of your organisation. The person who supports you should then be able to write new blogposts and to upload new pictures. That is why you assign him/her the role ‚editor’. If the treasurer is supposed to gain better insight into the finances of your project, you assign him/her the role ‚Full access’.

If you have further questions please do not hesitate to contact us by e-mail under projects@betterplace.org.

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