Tag Archives: Jocelyn Harmon

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Most nonprofits are on Facebook now, but fewer are using Twitter well.  Read these 24 Twitter best practices, and 8 nonprofit Twitter superstars who especially do it well, led by Charity:Water, which I highlighted in a recent post.  Also, don’t make these seven Twitter mistakes.

If you’re trying to figure out how to use content curation to benefit your cause, Beth Kanter offers this great primer as well as Content and Curation for Nonprofits on Scoop.It!  New tools such as Storify and Paper.li also offer interesting ways to consolidate great content.  (But make sure you take the time to digest content you are curating.)

Not hearing as much lately about Google Plus even though it’s now open to the public, yet I keep receiving connection notices from people I don’t recognize.  Strange.

There’s no magic bullet for how to succeed in the nonprofit sector, but thanks to Big Duck and the Taproot Foundation for offering these suggestions.

Were you able to attend the recent Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits or the Convio Summit?  Here’s some ways on how to live tweet from an event from M&R (but make sure you participate in the live discussion – some of my best insights are from Q&A that takes place at events)  Also, Frogloop offers these takeaways on What Your Nonprofit Needs to Know.

If you missed last week’s chat with Andy Goodman on story telling, you can still get the recording from Nten.  Unfortunately, Andy reminded us that many nonprofits are ‘great at what we do, but not good in talking about it.’

Finally, if you’re spending a bit too much time on social media, here’s an important reminder from Jocelyn Harmon – put your most important relationships first.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Among the many tips offered at Friday’s session on Facebook Tactics That Get Results offered by M&R Strategic Services and Nten was the reminder that very few Facebook fans will visit your page – they will mostly see your posts in their newsfeed.  (So why invest in expensive custom Facebook tabs?)  Surprisingly, you are penalized for posting from third party services such as Tweetdeck and HootSuite (read more on why these posts are less likely to appear in your newsfeed then if you post directly on Facebook).

How do you get more engagement – i.e. likes and comments, which will give your posts more visibility?  Use different types of content, including photos and videos, and ask constituents to take a specific action – especially those that will result in providing their email address so you can build your list.  (Did you know that you lose 18% of your list each year through unsubscribes and email addresses that no longer work?).

Idealware offers help on measuring your results on social media and Frogloop advises on how well as how you can manage data across multiple channels.  Jocelyn Harmon offers some simple advice on why constituents don’t donate.

Many nonprofits rely heavily on volunteers, yet their importance has often been overshadowed by those of lucky to have ‘paid’ work.  LinkedIn now offers a section to highlight volunteer experience and causes, which will help nonprofits to find its most loyal supporters.

Sept. 11 was a sad day, marking a decade since we lost almost three thousand people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.  What can nonprofits learn when the unthinkable happens?  Here are some lessons and another view of the effect on nonprofits as we recover from a very emotional day yesterday.  Ten years ago, I worked for Cross-Cultural Solutions, which was able to help to coordinate recovery efforts in NYC after the horrible event.

Learn to Be a Networked Nonprofit

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Beth Kanter, CEO of Zoetica, who has shared her expertise for years on Beth’s Blog an at various nonprofit events, will host a virtual launch party Mon, Jun. 21 for her new book The Networked Nonprofit with co-author Allison Fine.  Beth has long been a proponent for social media, but that’s not all that this book is about.  It’s also about changing the culture of your organization to operate in a network, much as individuals have recently learned the importance of networking from experts like author Keith Ferrazzi in Never Eat Alone and Jason Alba in his JibberJobber career management site and his other resources such as LinkedIn for Job Seekers.

Care2 hosted a webinar this week featuring the authors, National Wildlife Federation‘s Danielle Brigada and Autism Speaks‘ Marc Sirkin, moderated by Care2‘s Jocelyn Harmon who writes Marketing for Nonprofits.  Whether you read the book, attend the virtual launch or hear Beth and Allison’s ideas on the web or at an event , don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to transform your organization to “play well with others.”

Kudos to Danielle, who admitted during this week’s webinar how challenging it can be to change a large nonprofit that often moves slowly.  (My experience has been the same.)   But whatever size organization you work for, becoming more “networked” will better enable you to serve your constituents.

Highlights from My Twitter Stream

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Jocelyn Harmon and Geoff Livingston had an interesting discussion this week on the perennial question, Is It Possible to Raise Money with Social Media?  As I’ve suggested, Geoff pointed out that while social media can be used for fundraising, its main value is in building a social community that is engaged with your cause.   While Facebook Causes has worked for some nonprofits, it doesn’t allow organizations to retain contributors’ contact information for further cultivation efforts.   A private, house network may also be a viable option;   Geoff offered the example of TuDiabetes.

At this week’s NYC 501 Tech Club meeting, I also gave a short presentation on the recently released Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report, which also analyzes the results of a survey of almost 1,200 nonprofit professionals conducted earlier this year.  Search Twitter for #501techNYC for more details on meeting.  Nten is also offering a webinar series which explores the State of Social Networking in the Nonprofit Sector 2010.

Another interesting topic is the intersection of Marketing and Fundraising, explored in the Fundraising Well (and also by Steve MacLaughlin in When Marketing and Fundraising Collide).   Nancy Schwartz offers four ways that these departments can work better together:

  1. Start at the top.  Your management team must support this partnership and establish a structure which facilitates collaboration.
  2. Articulate shared priorities to serve as the core of a common agenda.
  3. Focus on what’s working well in both areas – and do more of it
  4. Share success stories where collaboration has resulted in positive results with constituents.

Finally, has your organization considered mission inspired gifts / gift catalogs?  Also see 7 Tips for Successful Online Fundraising.

Please follow NonprofitBridge on Twitter for more.

Thoughts on Fundraising – Online, Mobile, Direct Mail

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This week’s disaster in Haiti has again highlighted online fundraising, as well as an expanded role for text messaging to raise money.  Apparently giving through your mobile phone is now a viable option and doesn’t always involve large fees to carriers – see post from Tech Soup, interview with Katya Andresen and CARE2′s advice that it’s Time to Get Mobile.  How sad it is that logistics have made it difficult to get the help to those in need quickly (hopefully this will change shortly).   Whatever channel you prefer, please give to the charity of your choice.

Hopefully, it won’t only be disasters that sends donors online.  Network for Good offers 5 Trends That Will Affect Online Fundraising in 2010.

But please don’t throw out the old tools when implementing the new.  Direct mail still has its place but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try some new approaches.  As Steve MacLaughlin writes, Direct Mail is Not Dead, but single channel communication is.

Thanks to Katya and Jocelyn Harmon for this week’s session on how to thank donors.   It’s amazing to me that some nonprofits still don’t always acknowledge gifts, other than a generic auto reply (and sometimes not even that).   And don’t only communicate with your constituents when you’re asking for money – this is a year-round dialogue.