Judi Sohn of the Colorectal Cancer Coalition: Blogging for Cancer Advocacy

Judi Sohn, Director of Operations and Communications, for the Colorectal Cancer Coalition.   

Judi manages and designs all print and online publications, manages and maintains the ever-growing website and directs information technology.  She writes a personal blog called A View from Home and is a contributing writer to the GigaOm blog, Web Worker Daily.

Judi attributes her interest to technology to her "gadget geek" dad.  "My father was the original gadget geek. We were the first ones on our block to get a VCR in the late 70s. The thing was as big as my desk. We used to go to Radio Shack together on weekends just to browse and hang out together."

She later pursued studies in graphics design at Savannah College of Art & Design and worked as a typesetter and paste-up artist where she was first introduced to digital design skills.  "The newspaper brought in four Mac Iifx computers to start doing ads electronically. Even though I didn’t do that much with computers in college, I was the one who ended up training the other paste-up artists on how to use the software and the computers."

She moved back to New York and worked for an advertising agency that was owned by four women. As the agency's accidental techie, the agency sent her to networking and computer troubleshooting classes.  "I learned QuarkXPress by fire, designing and laying out all the handouts for clients! For the first booklet I had to cut up the ouput and glue to boards for the mechanicals because I had no idea how to do what I wanted on the computer. By the 20th booklet a few months later, I was handing the service bureau the Syquest disk to print as-is."

Soon after getting married and having her first child in 1996, she launched her own graphics design business so she could have flexible work hours and take care of her children.  "I started doing some freelance work during nap time. A logo here. A brochure there. One day, I was on the phone with a client and my daughter was being fussy and she puked all over me. Luckily, the client understood but I decided right there that my little at-home biz was what it was so I named it "Mom at Home Design."   

Judi’s journey into colorectal cancer advocacy began in 1999 when her father died of Stage IV colorectal cancer just nine months after diagnosis.  "Shortly after he died, I went online with his username/password and found that he was involved with the start of the Colon Cancer Alliance organization. They were looking for some help with logos and graphics and I volunteered. I ended up working with the organization as a volunteer for over a year, building their website up to over 450 pages of content."

While she has worked with clients in many different industries, she prefers to work with nonprofits.  "I love doing projects for causes, not sales. I love the people who worked for nonprofits."

She has worked for the Colorectal Cancer Coalition, an action and advocacy agency, since 2004, and has helped build it from the ground up.  C3’s mission is to make a difference against colorectal cancer. Initially starting off as a consultant, she assumed the full-time position of Director of Operations.  As to her transition from freelance to full-time staff person she notes,  "It is nice to draw a salary after nearly 10 years of freelance work.  This job has been incredibly fulfilling for me, in ways that I couldn’t imagine when I accepted."

The second thing she did after hiring an attorney to get the organization's tax-exempt status was to hire a well-known cancer blogger for her organization.   "My only requirement to her was not to let more than 3 days go by without an entry. Some folks in the organization looked at me like I was nuts, but they trusted me and it was the best thing we could have done. Our website is a top search result for many keywords, all originating from Kate’s blog entries.  Kate is also now our Director of Research Communication. She has an incredible ability to take the most complex science and turn it around into language anyone can understand. It’s a lot harder than it looks."

The organization also has an Advocacy blog.  "We need to draw attention to colon cancer.  This only happens through patients and their famliies. So we are working hard to connect with as many people who are affected by colorectal cancer as we can.  A blog can do this."

She follows technology trends and tools closely, particularly those that make work in the organization's distributed offices more efficient. "Through my reading and participation in blogs and forums, I learned about Salesforce.com and I already knew the impact that it was having on the business world. So when I heard that they were giving it away to qualified nonprofits, I jumped on it and it’s the best thing we could have done on many levels. Above all, the technology has to be seamless. It has to do what it needs to do and then get the heck out of the way."

She uses her personal blog, A View From Home, to help her keep informed of technology.  "I used to be one of those Mac snobs, so that’s where I started building an audience. I’m a geek wannabe. I understand this stuff enough to be dangerously chatty at cocktail parties but I’m no programmer. I use my blog to help work things out for myself. If I have a “eureka” moment about something, I’ll blog it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to remember when something happened or what the circumstances were that led me to a given point, and I’ll search my own blog to get that reference. It’s always fun when I’m Googling for something and my own site pops up in the results."

Her employer, C3, applauds her blogging efforts. "My personal blog does give me the opportunity to put “Judi” into topics related to my job that I couldn’t do when I’m directly representing my employer. Sometimes it gets a little embarrassing to have someone I work with read my blog and comment on it. Like after you have a guest over and you see evidence that they’ve been snooping in your medicine cabinet."

Her advice for those that work for nonprofits and do not blog anonymously. "Before I hit the “publish” button on any post, I always ask myself, 'if the New York Times linked to this would I be okay? Is this something I would be comfortable posting on a bulletin board?' Since I’m the type of person who likes expressing her opinion, the answer is usually “yes.” I will sometimes use my blog to help drive visitors to C3 in the first place since my site is more established and gets better search engine traffic. C3’s referrer logs show that this tactic is often successful."

Judi recommends the following nonprofit technology blogs:

Emily's World

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

Studio 501c

  Here are a few nonprofit technology posts from Judi's blog

Nonprofit blogging: keep your eyes on the road

9Charities 

Nonprofit technology: The next frontier

Logic Puzzles and Democracy

Beth Kanter is the BlogHer Contributing Editor for Nonprofits and Social Change and blogs at Beth's Blog and Cambodia4kids.

Photo Credit:  Used with Permission from Flickr User c3colorectal