Social Media

Following the release of Facebook’s new “donate now” feature for nonprofit brand pages, a few intrepid and well-meaning fundraising and marketing experts rejuvenated an existing petition imploring Facebook to issue grants to nonprofits in order to create ads gratis.

The idea behind this campaign is that, although the “donate now” button is a great addition, its visibility will be greatly reduced due to the fact that Facebook’s algorithm favors users and brands who use its paid products, such as ads and sponsored posts. Nonprofits, in general, lack the ad budget to keep up.

Social media has revolutionized the way people communicate and has become a central player in the nonprofit field. With the help of social media, nonprofits can easily organize events, raise money and find new supporters, all with just a few clicks.

Unfortunately, like anything else that carries power, social media also carries inherent risk. Just as you can easily improve your nonprofit’s reputation with a few clicks, you can just as easily damage it.

Here are a few ways you can operate safely on social media, while still using it to help your nonprofit thrive.

Ted Hart speaks with Clare McDowall, owner of Socially Good and founder and coach of 3:17 Consulting, about social-media communications for nonprofits on his Nonprofit Coach radio show.

Social media can complement other fundraising strategies and help keep your fundraising goals at top-of-mind awareness. Here are five ways to integrate your fundraising campaign with your social media.

Instagram gives nonprofit organizations a great way to connect with the communities they serve as well as to gain new supporters. However, you want to avoid these six mistakes when utilizing the photo social-networking service: 1. sharing bad photos, 2. not tagging anything, 3. having an inactive account, 4. never liking photos, 5. not following people in the community and 6. not realizing the big picture.

NGOs are leveraging the Vine platform in a variety of ways, including inspiring people with positive messages, promoting events and spreading awareness. Our picks: UNICEF uses creativity to raise awareness around an event, UN Women inspires people, Greenpeace USA uses an expert and RED creates awareness.

Nineteen nonprofits, including the American Red Cross, Livestrong Foundation and UNICEF, now have the ability to receive donations through their Facebook pages with a donation feature that Facebook made available to them last week.

When supporters land on a charity’s Facebook page, they can select the “donate now” button (on the top right of the page), enter the amount they want to give and their payment information, and share the fact that they gave through their news feeds. Facebook says 100 percent of the online contributions will go directly to charity.

Here are six potential trends that I think will emerge over the next year or two in crowdfunding: 1. Success stories will spur the growth and acceptance of the entire space. 2. The rise of the niche platform. 3. Platforms will become more social. 4. Certain verticals will stand out. 5. The crowdfunding space will contract. 6. Peer-to-peer lending will go mainstream.

It sounds dramatic, but it’s true: Many organizations still apply “best practices” for short-term wins that data suggest leave them far, far worse off in terms of achieving their long-term goals. As I’ve recently reported, if I weren’t providing market insight and analysis for museums and nonprofits for a living, I’d want to be a host of the show “Mythbusters.” Here’s a myth-busting roundup of my three favorite situations in which executives and board members most frequently celebrate their own decline.

As your nonprofit prepares for a holiday fundraising campaign, hundreds of other charities are doing the same.