Nonprofit Bridge

This week has featured a flurry of comments about whether nonprofits are taking advantage of new social media tools such as Twitter.  Seth Godin says no but the Chronicle of Philanthropy gives several examples to  show how some nonprofits are doing things right.   See also social media guru Beth Kanter’s attempt to reconcile the two sides.

My take: smaller organizations such as Charity:Water will continue to take the lead on showing larger nonprofits how to raise funds and engage constituents in a variety of new ways.  Larger organizations are still trying to deal with what Clay Shirky‘s observation during his year’s  Nonprofit Technology Conference: nonprofits have already lost control of their branding and messaging .

Here’s a newly released report on How Nonprofits are Using Web-based Technologies to Reach Their Goals.   Not surprisingly, many organizations are still experimenting to discover what works.  On the for profit side, some companies are using outside firms to manage their Twitter and Facebook presence;  my take – social media works best if it’s coming directly from organization staff.