The Power of Community

ECHOcommunity exists to connect agricultural development workers at all levels with the key resources that they need to be most productive.

In the 30+ years that ECHO has been disseminating life-changing information, we have learned that the most important resource we have is each other.

We consistently see demand for our research and technical documents, but building connections with peer workers is one of the top-rated benefits of ECHO conferences and events around the world. Three years ago, to that end, we endeavored to bring that networking experience to everyone, at any time, through the power of the Internet at ECHOcommunity.org.

Today more than 9,000 members can find peers and experts near them, as well as people who may be geographically distant but face the same challenges. Together members are able to find real, interactive, solutions to their questions.

We are pleased to announce that, starting immediately, organizations that have agricultural development workers in the field can leverage the power of ECHOcommunity for their own, private, member groups.

As members of your organizations’ knowledge and communications platform hosted at ECHOcommunity.org, your members benefit from a broad toolset designed to help them connect. Communications between you and your members are private and secure, and at the same time you benefit from access to the open communications tools, information and resources available to the entire ECHOcommunity.

Keep track of your members without a lot of management.  Your members will have a full ECHOcommunity profile making it easy for them to find out more about each other even if they are geographically distant and have never been able to meet in person.  Membership is fully managed by ECHO, so all you have to do is encourage your members to join, and add them to your private group.

You receive the benefit of being able to quickly and easily message your entire group, and can allow members to do the same. No more building, sharing and maintaining email lists!

We’ll make your members feel right at home with a customized home page tailored to your brand. You can set the priorities and tools accessible to your group on the home page and you have the option to create as many additional pages as you may need.

Additional pages allow you to keep private, up-to-date information available for your members without knowing a lot about web development, security, and hosting.  We currently offer unlimited* online file storage for important documents and files you need to share. Unlike other services you don’t have to maintain separate accounts and permissions for the members of your group.

You can set up a group calendar, provide important event details, and even keep track of who will be attending your upcoming events. Whether your meetings are online, or on another continent, your calendar is secure and up to date.

Keeping members in-touch with your mission is important. You, and your members can post updates and success stories in your organization’s blog.  Group blogs are best used for internal communication. There are lots of good tools out there for promoting your organization to the greater web, but when you want to blog for only those who need to hear, you have access to a full blogging system with images,  comments, and subscriptions.

Facilitate discussions that last. Email is an incredible tool, but when you need to conduct and preserve conversations that last for other’s benefit forums are the best tool. ECHOcommunity offers a basic forum function for all groups that allows private conversations that encourage collaboration and longevity of knowledge.

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Why use ECHOcommunity?

If your members are not specifically involved in agricultural development, or your organization already has an excellent set of tools like those listed above then the ECHOcommunity platform is probably not for you. However, if you need a low-maintenance way to connect your members, and want to leverage the power and support of the entire ECHOcommunity then we’d like to talk about whether or not you could benefit from this new opportunity.

As a non-profit organization ECHO strives to provide accessible pricing for the services we offer. Your yearly cost depends on the size of your organization but is generally less expensive than using any two of the tools offered from for-profit vendors.