Guest post by Debra Askanase, reprinted by permission from Community Organizer 2.0.
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I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to keep up with all the news. Many of us have our own curation practice, but one of the most efficient I have is to keep an eye on those in our community who are curating the news for us. While I trust the curators thatI’ve selected on Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest and other social channels to find and share relevant news and information, I especially love the nonprofit news roundups. It’s the most efficient means of reading the nonprofit news that I need to know.
These news roundups usually include a brief summary of each selected article, and sometimes the blogger’s reasons for including an article. It’s this added bit of editorial content that pushes the blog news roundup to one of my favorite types of curated content. On Twitter, someone will tweet that a post is a “must read,” but in the news roundup, I know why. After a while, it’s like reading an Op-Ed journalist you’ve come to know – you look forward to their editorial comments.
I love stumbling upon a curated content post and discovering bloggers I haven’t heard of, ideas I didn’t know about, and posts I missed. Here are some of my favorites:
NTEN’s Member Roundup
Each month, the Nonprofit Technology Network offers a member roundup of nonprofit technology news blogged by its members. I love the giving back aspect of this — that NTEN is appreciating its members’ work with a special shout-out. Of all the roundups I read, this is the one that always sends me places I’ve never been, reading bloggers I hadn’t heard of before. A must-read. For an example, read NTEN’s September member roundup.
Nonprofit.about.com’s Mixed Links
Joanne Fritz does a fabulous job every other week selecting nonprofit news articles, resources, and blog posts from around the web. She always adds her editorial thoughts to the links selected, sometimes offering them up with a wry sense of humor. The Mixed Links roundup is usually divided into two or three grouped subject areas, depending on the links selected. They might include fundraising, social media, marketing/communications, and volunteering. For an example, here is the latest Mixed Links roundup.
Nonprofit Blog Carnival
The Nonprofit Blog Carnival is a roundup of the best articles submitted by bloggers, around a selected monthly topic. The topics and hosts of the blog carnival change monthly. The blog host determines a content theme, and bloggers are invited to submit any (relatively recent) published blog post on that theme by a certain date. The selected posts are published on the host blogger’s site as a themed blog post roundup. Joanne Fritz at About.com administers the carnival. The theme for the August 2013 blog carnival was “Playing Well With Others,” hosted by Kivi Leroux Miller.
Nonprofit Blog Exchange
Emily Weinberg has been offering the Nonprofit Blog Exchange, a monthly roundup of blog articles relevant to those in nonprofits, since 2005. In fact, this is the first news roundup that I discovered, and I read it monthly. It’s a simple curated list, divided by category, with about 20 links to articles. Her blog also offers a resource list of nonprofit blogs to read – about 150 of them! This is theSeptember Nonprofit Blog Exchange.
NPEngage’s Nonprofit Weekly Roundup
NPEngage is a newcomer to the nonprofit news roundup scene, but a strong one. The weekly roundup, curated by Madeline Turner, always opens with her personal musings from the week – not usually related to the news, and thoroughly enjoyable! Her editorialized, curated links are short and sweet; the roundup usually consists of five to 10 links at most, with a summary attached. For an example, here is the latest Weekly Roundup.
Mixed Links for Marketers
Kivi Leroux Miller curates the Mixed Links for Marketers, published regularly on her blog. Her roundup is direct and to the point: a one-line summary of the content and the link. Unlike the other blogs which curate a broad spectrum of nonprofit content, Mixed Links is focused on marketing communication. This is the latest Mixed Links for Marketers post to peruse.
Others?
Yes, there are surely other nonprofit news roundups that you read, and I should know of as well. Please leave your favorite news roundups in the comments.
Note: One might say, “Debra, what about Alltop?” This “granddaddy” of roundups is a curated list of nonprofit blogs and their latest blog posts. Since Alltop is simply a curated blogroll, it does not meet the criteria of a curated article roundup.
