-- an early version of Coca-Cola's Web site--
I remember the day I first saw a Web address printed on an advertisement. It was 1994 and I was living in NYC. Waiting on a steamy subway platform, suffocating in summer humidity, I couldn’t stop staring at one of those giant Coke ads with ice melting down the bottle. Yes, I was thirsty. Yes, I wanted a Coke. But more than that, I was intrigued. The message at the bottom of the poster read:
Check out the Real Thing online at www.coca-cola.com.
I thought: What?! Are you kidding me? Who ON EARTH is going to visit a Web site for Coke? Dial-up connections moved slower than the 1/9 train. And I couldn’t imagine waiting around just to read about Coke.
Obviously, I was suffering from heatstroke. In today’s world, companies can’t exist without a Web presence. And charities are no different. Find out how some nonprofits are taking advantage of the Web to raise money and awareness in the post The New Face of Philanthropy, written by the Federation’s New Media Manager Nicole Davenport. And stay tuned for all kinds of exciting developments as we gear up to use the Web in a big way moving forward.
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Technology is radically changing the relationship between individuals and the organizations they support. The status quo dictates that companies speak and supporters listen. Traditional media—television, print, and radio— all follow this unidirectional model of communication. But the Internet has transformed the flow of knowledge into a multilateral conversation between organization and member, and from member to member. The tools that facilitate this exchange are referred to as social media. 
During the IDF operation in Gaza earlier this year, there was a lot of talk of boycotts of Israeli goods, and divestment. You may recall that the United Methodist Church was one organization proposing resolutions urging divestment from companies doing business with Israel.
