Non-profits

As a nonprofit or association, you will need to fundraise and draw in support from as many as you can. Storytelling is a great way to do this. If you follow these tips you are bound to increase your success rate in gaining funds and garnering support for your cause.[read more]

Rumors of Facebook hashtags began to circulate in March, but now that they’re finally here we will begin to see whether they enhance user experience and functionality on Facebook, or indicate that Facebook developers are losing their creative edge and should quit copying other platforms and get back to leading social networking innovation.[read more]

When people support a nonprofit, it’s usually for deep, personal reasons. Their mom died from diabetes, or their brother committed suicide after coming back from Iraq. For them, supporting a cause is often a way to heal, give back, and become a better person – things money CAN’T buy.[read more]

What is a MOOC? Are Massive Open Online Courses changing how we learn? Is it time for the corporate world to use the power of MOOCs to be more productive and educate their workers? I think it is.[read more]

Accountant.org

Now is as good a time as any to clean up your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy. I just wrapped up a project with a local nonprofit and thought I’d share some of the things I suggested they consider incorporating into their fundraising strategy for the rest of this year and beyond.[read more]

Social media at U of H

This winter, underpaid University of Houston grad students took to social media to promote their cause; this week, the president of the university paid attention, reallocating $1 million to the dean of the department to address concerns about teaching stipends. Here's how the social protest went down.[read more]

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Communication professionals must have a set of "go-to" content for times when interactivity is declining, or your brand has had negative exposure. Here are three types of content that are sure to help boost positive interactions with your higher ed institution.[read more]

The International Rescue Committee

The International Rescue Committee turns 80 this year, but they wield social media tools as deftly as organizations a tenth their age might. This is due in large part to the efforts of their online community builder, Ruth Fertig.[read more]

Today, people under 25 make up 43 percent of the world’s population – in some countries, that number is as high as 70 percent. This amounts to nearly 4 billion young people living on the brink of the greatest technological advances and human progress while also surrounded by intractable problems.[read more]

Social media is a great tool for non-profits to raise awareness for their causes and issues. This Valentine's Day, let's remember that the rest of us in the community can do our part to share the love with a few simple clicks.[read more]

Safer Internet Day (SID) is celebrated in nearly 100 countries around the world in February of each year. Safer Internet Day 2013 – the tenth edition of the event – will take place tomorrow on Tuesday 5th February 2013, with the theme of Online Rights and Responsibilities, encouraging users to "Connect with Respect." It's a simple message, but will hopefully resonate with its young target audience.[read more]

Flicker Photo By Mike Willis

Of course, it is important to CYA (Consult Your Attorney) and if you have established a good working relationship, you should be able navigate the legal issues that pop up around social media for nonprofits and not be so scared that you can’t follow social media best practices.[read more]

There is no value in a Facebook Like, only in Facebook as a platform. Measure your ROI on Facebook by calculating the resources needed to run your efforts against what you are accomplishing. Having a better understanding of the ROI your organization has on Facebook will help you plan and allocate resources better in the future.[read more]

Businesses from across the world have joined in to express their condolences, heartfelt wishes, prayers and thoughts. Unfortunately, despite the fact that our nation is still in shock and mourning, some businesses have outraged consumers by shamelessly, or more often unintentionally, seizing the opportunity to exploit the tragedy to make more sales.[read more]

So, an ingenious new nonprofit effort called StrikeDebt was created by a team of attorneys and as an offshoot of the Occupy Movement. Their latest effort was built to keep debt out of the hands of collectors by using donations to buy it instead, and then abolish it. This campaign, called the “Rolling Jubilee” is described as “a bailout of the 99% by the 99%.”[read more]

Some of the world’s best social media campaigns from the past 12 months are highlighted [here]. They are case studies that, for one reason or another, have made us think ‘great campaign’. In deciding what is/is not a relevant case study, our social media litmus test has been to ask if they involve either online social interaction, user participation or user-generated content[read more]

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The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, a school for holistic nutrition that might not be mentioned on the nightly news, has over 61,000 likes on facebook. Other programs that deviate from the accepted concepts of good nutrition are also gaining widespread attention.[read more]

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KitchenAid is in the midst of a crisis communications firestorm after a member of its social media team sent an offensive tweet during the presidential debate. So how can you prevent a social media crisis at your organization? Here are 5 tips to help you steer clear of damaging your brand online.[read more]

I love this stuff, but it could become a shiny object or distraction for nonprofits that have yet learned how to “jutjitsu” the small data sets they are collecting internally.[read more]

Nonprofit/Shutterstock

Non-profits need to focus their social media activity on interaction and development of true community participation, rather than on increasing numbers of fans. We can empower NGO's in our communities to understand how to use social media for social good and increase community engagement.[read more]