I've got one word for you that sums up the single most important thing you can do to get the word out when you most need it: TWITTER.

How's that for 140 characters or less of world-changing volunteer power?

When the earthquake devastated Haiti nearly a month ago, thousands of caring, good-hearted people from around the world descended on the island nation to lend their time and talents. Their tools varied from medical supplies to search and rescue equipment.

Thousands more fired up their computers and proceeded to spend hours upon hours a day making connections that would save lives and stretch resources. Their tool: a laptop and twitter.com.

When the 7.0 earthquake and countless aftershocks hit Haiti three weeks ago, the ensuing images and reports of mass damage, people trapped, and horrific injuries moved the world to action. And it touched us deeply at Turnbull Marketing Group. Not just because I'm from Haiti, raised in the mountains outside Port-au-Prince, but also because two of our biggest clients at TMG, Baptist Haiti Mission and ISOH/IMPACT, have extensive work in the island nation. While our hearts were in Haiti with those we know and love, we immediately had to set to work providing communications support for our clients. People's lives depended on it.

When we entered the business of "nonprofit communications," this level of crisis wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but we've never been more grateful for the power of communications or more astonished by the extent of its reaches.

As you get more involved with the online community and begin to develop your nonprofit's social media strategy, you're bound to meet up with some new technology and gadgets. It can all be a little intimidating at first and totally useless if you don't learn how to implement the tools correctly.

One of the not-quite-newest-but-still-growing tools for nonprofits are the fundraising widgets. What in the world is a fundraising widget, you might ask. That's a very good question. And what in the world do I do with one? That's an even better question.

If you don't make it easy for your donors to give online, you're making a big mistake. A huge mistake. A ginormous mistake. You get the point.

A recent article from csmonitor.com tells how online giving is increasing, both among young donors and wealthy donors who are often plugged into the Internet to do modern-day business. To make it even better, first-time donations given online tend to be 1.5 times larger than first-time donations given through direct mail.