I recently attended a workshop on grant writing where one of the topics of discussion was how funders decide to award a grant to an organization. Many times the number of supporting organizations is a factor in deciding to award grant money to an applying organization. A map can be an excellent tool to show the world who your community partners and supporters are.
In this post, I'm going to show you a quick way to create a map of your partners/supporters for your website.
I've go two methods for you to look at. The first method is to use the method from Google's maps page called "My Maps." Go to http://maps.google.com and click in the upper right corner below Google's logo where it says, "My Maps." From this page you can type in a location and make a map with markers for each address on your map. Your markers can include information about your partners, including contact info and even a photo. This map can be embedded into your website by clicking the word "Link" in the upper right of the map.
If you don't already have one, you'll need to set up a Google account. You don't need a Gmail address to do it - use your regular email address and follow the instructions.
The second method is for those who have a spreadsheet of the addresses and want to create a whole page with links to those who are partners of your organization. To do that you will need a little more knowledge about html so you may want to contact your webmaster for help. To get you started though, take a look at some of the following bookmarks I've collected on this subject:
One of the best examples of how this is done is on the Digital Inspiration blog.
My inspiration for this post was from the 10,000 Words blog.
Recently Chris Peters and Mano Marks wrote on TechSoup (a source for free/low-cost software for nonprofits) an article on How to Use Google Maps and Google Earth for nonprofits. The topic is very relevant to all workforce agencies as well.
You can also check out Aardvark maps, a great all-in-one map creating web page.
Contributor Bryan Lundeen works for the Solano County (California) Workforce Investment Board
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