Social Media

Certain ideas make so much sense that one wonders why no one thought of them sooner. Case in point: Global leaders struggled for decades to think of a way to improve education. Ten years ago, Fred Mednick, Ph.D., started his nonprofit aimed at supporting those who can best provide that education.

The Hope Institute's Jarid Brown shares five keys for fundraisers to get the most out of their nonprofit organizations' online experiences.

In February 2011, Idealware surveyed 505 nonprofit organizations using Facebook as part of their communications mix. This report, Using Facebook To Meet Your Mission: Results of a Survey, sums up the results of the survey, with takeaways as well as overviews of how much time organizations are spending on Facebook, how many have set goals and how they’re keeping track of their results. Case studies and quotes from the interviews are included to shed light on what success means on Facebook and to provide ideas on how to use the site.

Rather than using free social-networking tools such as Facebook as your main way for engaging donors online, have you thought about offering your donors a safer way to engage within the trusted confines of your website on a private social network?

If your nonprofit is making five or more of the 10 social-media mistakes below, odds are that training and a re-examination of your social-media strategy are required.

Darian Rodriguez Heyman, managing partner at the CODE Green Agency and former executive director of the Craigslist Foundation, talks about his book, "Nonprofit Management 101."

For many nonprofits, acquisition budgets have been cut to the bone, and attrition continues to eat away at the donor file. Here are 10 mostly low-cost suggestions to build your donor and prospect list, despite the ever-shrinking budget.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of America is turning to 21st-century social media, including Twitter, to garner support for its mission. The organization wants to shed its “swim and gym” image and focus on its state-of-the-art technology offerings for students. Its principal supporters are mothers and other women, so it plans to appeal to them by holding its first Twitter party on Tuesday to spread word of its Club Tech centers, which provide computers, software and technology instruction.

It's difficult to resist petting these hard workers. But Freedom Service Dogs have a job to do. And the Englewood, Colo.-based organization that trains the canines and pairs them with people with disabilities who can benefit from these working dogs' help ensure that they're able to do that job.

A new platform that allows users to donate to charity via SMS and Twitter is launching in the U.K. 

The platform, called Givey, allows users to sign up for an account which then allows them to make donations to charity via a simply coded SMS or tweet. Facebook integration will follow soon. Each donation is tax efficient, as it allows charities to reclaim the tax on donations from U.K. taxpayers.