As a non-profit organization, it is more important than ever to turn to social media. Starting with Facebook, of course! Did you know that on average, one out of 14 people in the world has a Facebook profile? This can raise significant awareness for your non-profit organization, and Facebook will also provide you with the tools to gain exposure for fundraisers and charity drives.

Here is how to begin: 

1. Start out the process by clicking on “Create a Page for My Business” at the bottom of your personal Facebook page. You do have to be logged in to see this link.
2. In the next step, you must differentiate that your business is a non-profit under the category “Brand or Product”. This drop-down menu will let you select non-profit, where you can then enter the name of your organization.
3. Click on “Create Page”, and you have done it!

Now you need to go the extra mile and fill out detailed information about your organization, add images, add applications and start to circulate your page to your friends, so that they can “like” it and pass it on to their circles of friends. 

The benefits to creating a Facebook page for your non-profit are many because it allows you to quickly connect with other like-minded organizations and supporters who may not have been aware of the cause you represent. This is also a quick way to streamline blogs, interviews, videos and other resources to all of your followers. You can quickly increase traffic to your main website through Facebook, and all announcements regarding upcoming charity events can be updated immediately to your followers. 

Even better, you can raise awareness on Facebook by using the power of the event. 

You can start out by gathering more followers for your non-profit by creating groups that other Facebook users can like and pass on to their friends. These groups may relate to homelessness in your city, a children’s museum or even raising money for a cause overseas. To maintain further interest, make sure to add an event at least once on a weekly basis. This will help to update all of your fans, and you can invite any people who are interested. It is important not to spam your friends since they will quickly be turned off, but when used thoughtfully, events can be quite powerful. 

To give you an example, start out by creating an event for an upcoming charity gala or dinner fundraiser. This could be your annual Christmas dinner, where all proceeds go to a local homeless shelter, and your online Facebook event will allow you to quickly and electronically invite even more people. The event can post all of the information, including the costs, donations, dress code, location and where to RSVP. You can also encourage those attending the event to pass the invite on to their own circle of Facebook followers for maximum exposure. 

Using this tool for your non-profit on Facebook will not only save you serious money on advertising and printed invitations, but it will help you reach even more people than you would have on your own! 

Bethany Ramos is a writer for The Coffee Bump.

Recent economic news has highlighted the precarious nature of nonprofit resources streams.  A sizable portion of nonprofit organizations (particularly those who have come into existence since 1985) have government funds as a major portion of their revenue streams.  These funds might come in the form of grants, contracts or service arrangement fees, but what they all have in common—the funds come from government coffers.

In the current economic environment, nonprofit organizations that derive a sizable portion of their revenue streams from local and state funds are at continued risk.  We already know that the federal government t is supplying sizable stimulus funds from future revenues.  The money they are providing exists only with the ability to deficit spend.  States on the other hand are normally prohibited from deficit spending.  Recent reports suggest that states will have problem balancing their budgets for a number of years.

Why?  Two of the principle sources of revenue for state and local governments continue to be at risk.  They might be increasingly at risk if a recovery is not forthcoming and tax rates are reduced.  The two sources in question are real estate and payroll taxes.  Real estate tax revenue will remain weak as long as the ‘housing crisis’ continues.  Payroll tax revenue will remain weak as long as there is sizable unemployment.  If the weakness in these two segments carry over to other revenues streams like sales tax, the problems of government finances grants and contracts will only get worse.

What does all of this mean for nonprofits?  The obvious, reduced government revenue has and will continue to translate into a reduction in government support for programs provided through the nonprofit sector.  This reduction will result in program cuts and additional cuts in employment.  Current studies are reporting that 82% of human service organizations are reducing services.  These cuts are occurring in a time of increased demand for the very services that are being cutback.  The dilemma is that not only are services not being provided but also the number of providers (employees) is being reduced.

Add this dynamic to the ongoing housing crisis.  With real estate taxes being a major portion of local governments’ revenue, the longer the crisis continues, the longer the reduction in funds available to support services continues.  Government cutbacks will impact employment not simply from the reduction in the number of local, state or federal employees, but also from the reduced support of nonprofit agencies providing services to their constituents.

As federal spending reverts back to pre-stimulus levels, the number of individuals facing unemployment grows.  What impact this might have on exacerbating the employment or housing situation is unknown.  The reduction, however, translates into fewer dollars for governments to provide services.

The housing crisis does not appear to be abetting.  Foreclosure activity may slow down, as the current administrative problems are resolved, but nothing in the current discussions suggests that foreclosures will end.  Employment is at best swapping the decline in government jobs with a growth in private sector jobs, and resulting in ongoing job insecurity and decreased spending.  These two factors combined will mean continuing budget problems for state and local governments.

What does all of this mean for those who can think long-term about budget issues affecting the non-profit sector?  From where I sit, this means another five to eight years of government-funded programs being funded at levels below FY2008 levels.  For some states, it may mean five to eight years before the downward trend stops.  Assuming that there are no significant reductions on the availability of government resources, five to eight years is optimistic.  If there are significant reductions in government revenues in the coming years, the time to recover—as well as the impact of program cuts—will grow significantly.

Some of those reductions are already in the works.  Stimulus monies will end.  The new Congress might reduce taxes.  Foreclosed houses and a depressed housing market do not foretell increases in real estate tax revenue.  Unemployment swaps between public and private sector do not forecast significant increases in payroll taxes, and may suggest greater pessimism on the economy and reduced overall spending.

These combined features suggest that those nonprofits who rely heavily on government revenue need to examine their options for new and different streams of revenue, reorganization to minimize non-programmatic expenses, or the possibility that their ability to continue to operate may cease.

The next five to eight years appear to be ones of great challenge for all and great opportunities for the imaginative in the nonprofit sector.

John C. McGee is a non-profit executive who specializes in regulatory compliance issues at the state, federal and international levels as they impact non-profits’ capacity to perform.  He has served as an advisor, presenter, writer and consultant to local, affiliated groups and independent agencies on nonprofit management, internal controls, fiduciary reporting issues, grant reporting and review processes.

Tactical Philanthropy…
How Much Do Americans Give? An Illustration
This post looks at a recent USA Today infographic that shows the breakdown and trends in U.S. charitable giving. Here are some of the key findings:

• Charitable giving in 2009 was at an all-time high with $303.8 billion. While it is down slightly on an inflation-adjusted basis, non-profits focus on year-over-year giving in non-inflation-adjusted terms.
• Donations from individuals make up the majority of philanthropy. These, along with bequests, account for 83% of charitable giving, while foundations account for 13%.
• Corporate giving appears to be significantly down from its high in 2005. However, when viewed as a trend line since 1999, it shows that corporate giving is growing at a sustained rate, and the trend line growth rate appears to be increasing.
• Many people believe that donations are not focused on human service charities, but the massive allocation to religious organizations (a third of the total) masks the fact that a significant portion of religious organizations provide human services.

Sean Stannard-Stockton looks at these charts with an optimistic eye and thinks that we’re in the middle of a long-term transformation of the philanthropic sector. What do you think about this data?

Socialize Your Cause…
Put Yourself in Your Donors Shoes
Graeme Russell looks at a recent tweet from @101fundraising that asked, “Do you know what it feels like to be a donor of your organization? Add your name to your own database.” This message encourages non-profits to think about how donors perceive them—is your organization making the effort to find out how donors feel and if they are getting the right message? Since surveying your donors can be labor- and cost-intensive, Russell recommends putting your name into your database to make sure donors are getting the right information. Another reason for including yourself in your organization’s database is to check the delivery times of information. How long does the letter take to get to you, and how does the email look when you get it in your inbox – does it all meet your expectations? In business, it can cost about eight times the amount to gain a new customer as it does to retain an existing one, and this figure is likely similar for a non-profit—can you afford to lose a donor? By taking the time to open your donor database, add your name to it and encourage your staff to become supporters, you can better understand what your donors are seeing.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I’m not sure how to tweak this old saw to make it express the importance of replacing outmoded Content Management Systems for Non-Profits with Web 2.0 solutions…but the analogy is there. To use another slightly cheesy metaphor: if your non-profit is still fiddling around with graphics and updates on a static HTML or ‘brochure-style’ site, you may be polishing the brass on the Titanic. That ship has sailed.

The economic downturn and the slow crawl to recovery has been a galvanizing and sometimes frightening time for most of the Non-Profits that I’ve talked to in the past few years. Private contributions tend to decrease as personal incomes take a hit, government funding gets cut, and endowments get soaked as the market jackknifes. On the other hand, downturns can concentrate talent, passion and commitment just as they tend to force innovation.

During this last downturn there has been a kind of revolution in Content Management Systems that has been especially critical for Non-Profits and small businesses. This shift in the way that websites are managed has been about putting the power to control a company’s web-presence into the hands of ‘normal’ managers and employees—not just tech-guys and web-contractors.

As envelope-stuffing and e-mail blasts become less effective as stand-alone strategies for Non-Profits to solicit contributions, search engine optimization and fluid, easy-to-use, easy-to-update websites become more important.

Updates to CMS on non-profit websites can also dramatically change daily operations, transforming daily struggles into smooth, almost automated side-work. One non-profit told us that we’d shaved off half of the hours previously required to manage their volunteer registration and reduced in half the number of phone-calls and e-mails that they received about their recycling program. Nora Spitznogle, the Director of Operations at Second Helpings, confessed that at the start of the project she, “couldn’t tell the difference between a wire-frame and a wire-hanger,” but she explains that Smallbox took the time to make sure that she was comfortable with the process. By the end of the project, her ability to manage and update the Second Helpings site had definitely been ‘revolutionized.’

How does this CMS transformation work in laymen’s terms?

Try to imagine the difference between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ models of page and content organization and being like the difference between a collection of numerous Microsoft Word Documents and a single Microsoft Excel Document. If minor thematic or informational changes need to be made in your collection of Microsoft Word documents, you’ll need to change them one by one. You might have to hire a guy to do this. Either that or you’re likely facing an organizational nightmare that’s going to suck hours out of your work week and take a toll on your psychic-energy and morale. If you change one cell in an Excel document, on the other hand, the corresponding changes that need to be made happen automatically. By rough analogy, this is kind of the way that Web 2.0 works for you.

At our web-design business we have to wake up and go to work in the community every day just like everyone else. Non-profits are an important part of the culture and quality of life in the community that we belong to. Part of our job as web-designers is to help you make it easier to make life a little better. A new CMS for your website is likely to be a part of that process as our century speeds up.

Thomas Swanson is a Content-Manager & SEO Consultant at SmallBox Web Design

• Say thanks to people who RT your posts on Twitter. Do this at least once a week to show your followers that you appreciate them sharing your content with their communities.
• Send a thank you to a foundation for considering your grant proposal. Even if you get turned down for a grant, you should thank the grantor for the opportunity to maintain a positive relationship with them.
• Thank a volunteer. Sending a small gift, taking a volunteer to lunch, writing a thank you note and sending a birthday card are a few ways to express your thanks for his or her hard work.
• Thank a donor. Donors want to know how their gift is making a difference, so whether it’s a phone call, letter, email or text, just do something and do it often. Although long term donors and those who give a lot are thanked more lavishly, all donors should be thanked sincerely, promptly and personally every time they give.

Future Fundraising Now…
Better Landing Pages, Stronger Fundraising
According to Jeff Brooks, non-profits often send emails that offer great reasons for people to click through, but when they do, they end up on a landing page that will likely drive them away. He shares some tips from The MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog that are relevant to fundraising landing pages. First, make sure you have a clear call to action that lets people know exactly what you’re asking for. Also, try to focus copy that outlines the benefits of giving to your organization and the trust elements, such as seals of approval from third parties. Make sure to keep it simple; since they came to the page with the intention to give, remove any navigation that might be distracting. Finally, it’s important to test your landing page to check that you’re on target and the page is in line with what you envisioned.

Social Media 4 Nonprofits…
Use Foursquare to Advance Your Nonprofit’s Mission
Many non-profits are still experimenting with social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook, but now that four percent of Americans are using online location-based services, Foursquare has provided organizations with another way to advance their missions. Foursquare awards users with points, mayorships and badges for visiting places and checking in via their mobile devices. Businesses have realized the advantages to using location-based marketing to engage their mobile customers through discounts and specials. What does this mean for your non-profit? Here are a few ways organizations can benefit from the application:

• Increase brand awareness by putting your non-profit on the map and getting your name out there.
• Asking volunteers to check in from your events. Foursquare can also help with event promotion and is a great marketing tool if you are trying to get corporate sponsors.
• Use the social networking site to help with fundraising. For example, recruit a group of local stores and restaurants to offer a weekend discount to Foursquare users when they make a donation to your cause.

To get started, you will need to register your non-profit, add tips that include details about your cause and promote your presence across other social media platforms to reach supporters. Has Foursquare helped your non-profit with its cause?

In a recent FundRaising Success column, ASI’s Robin Fisk asked: what if you were to invite supporters to help shape your organization’s strategy, as well? Imagine the impact of getting your donors to decide which projects they would like to fund. This can be made possible with crowdsourcing, a way of outsourcing something, such as a decision or a solution, to a crowd through an open call for its participation.

In order to crowdsource, you will need two things. First, organizations will need a crowd and the means by which to register ideas and votes. Most non-profits already have access to a crowd, so start by asking staff, volunteers, service users, your supporter database and eventually your organization’s social media followers.

Non-profits will also need the means to capture everyone’s thoughts. With online tools like IdeaStorm or Google Moderator, participants can create new ideas and/or vote on existing ones. These solutions also provide ways to rank ideas according to their popularity, which is easier than reading through responses on your own when using Twitter.

Once you have these two things in order, here are a few tips for getting started with crowdsourcing— and finding unexpected fundraising solutions and innovations from your supporters.

• Make your request as clear as possible. Be sure that your crowd is given a detailed description and understands exactly what you’re asking for.
• Give a deadline. By giving the crowd a sense of urgency, you will receive more results.
• Offer feedback for all contributions. Respond to everyone even if some ideas aren’t useful; encourage all supporters to stay involved.
• Give credit. People like to be recognized for their ideas, so make sure that everyone’s work is acknowledged.
• Transparency. Your organization needs to let supporters know what you will use the results for, what the decision-making process looks like and how contributors will be rewarded.

Have you tried crowdsourcing your fundraising efforts?

• Call one of your biggest fans or largest donors, and ask them why he or she supports your cause. Ask him or her to describe what you do and why it matters, and use his or her words to craft your appeal.
• Ask someone who benefitted from your programs to write the appeal based on what your cause means to him or her.
• Ask your child or a friend’s child how he or she would describe what you do. You will often get a creative response that will get you thinking.
• Make a collage of some pictures that speaks a thousand words about your work.  Try to describe what you see from an emotional point of view.

A Small Change…
What Are Your Intentions?
Jason Dick says that, as a non-profit, you need to let prospects know the direction you are heading. Is your intention to build a relationship that will bring money to the organization, or do you see your prospects as community connectors? Before a cultivation meeting, Jason will often let donors know that he wants to learn a little bit more about their connection with the organization and what caused them to make their first gift. At a stewardship appointment, it’s important to let them know that you want to thank them for their gift, and if it’s a solicitation, make them aware that you’d like to talk with them about making a gift. Since this may be difficult to apply to donor acquisition situations, Jason suggests finding some kind of value-add that you can provide to them even if it is just a conversation about the needs in the community. Do you have any other tips for framing conversations with current or prospective donors?

Principled Innovation…
Mobile Apps Are Not a Waste of Time for Associations
Earlier this week, Lindy Dreyer argued that mobile apps are a waste of time for associations; however, Jeff De Cagna believes that they will play an important role in 21st century association strategic thinking and business model innovation. Here are a few of his counter-points:

• Since the Apple App Store reached five billion downloads this summer, and the current count of app downloads from the Android Market is more than two billion, Jeff doesn’t see any evidence of barriers to use.
• Associations don’t need to worry about competing with app developers—the goal of apps for associations is to create a meaningful mobile presence that delivers unique and enduring value to its stakeholders. As long as the app is useful to members and serves a purpose for the organization, it’s okay for them to be niche.
• As the number of smartphone users increases over the next few years, this makes it exactly the right time for associations to create apps that serve their community.

All of these trends create new opportunities for associations willing to invest in mobile app development as part of their strategy for value creation.

Last week during #Assnchat, we had an excellent conversation on social media etiquette. I thought I’d offer a little more clarification on my own practices, which might give you a few ideas, or more than likely be some debate fodder.

Thank Yous
There was a bit of a debate going on in the forum around RTs and thank yous. When should you send a thank you, and when should you not send a thank you? Some folks said that they prefer not to send or receive too many thank yous, as they clutter up their Twitter streams, while others thought that thank yous are something worth doing. I lean toward the side of not cluttering up the Twitter stream, but I do have some rules that I try to follow.

• If it’s someone who went out of their way to RT something I said, I will thank them.
• If it’s someone who I regularly trade RTs with, I may not thank them since we’re reciprocating RTs.
• If it’s someone who RT’d or promoted a blog post that I wrote, and I’m mentioned in the tweet, I will try to thank them.
• If a bot or spammer RTs something that I said, I will not thank them.

Solicitation
This was a fairly debated topic: how do you balance solicitation and friendship, service vs. spam? I find myself in the heart of this topic, being a vendor. Here are a few rules that I impose on myself.

• I don’t ever solicit anyone directly that I do not have a prior relationship with.
• I try to keep my tweets’ “Awesomeness Ratio” as high as possible.  This means that I try to tweet more meaningful content/conversation and less solicitation for my service offerings.
• If someone that I know is asking about products or services, I may reach out to them privately and let them know that is something my company can do.
• Sometimes I send out promotional tweets for our products and services publicly. Getting paid to do work pays for the whole party, and keeping my name and my company’s name out there is part of the job. (See the “Awesomeness Ratio” provision above, though as far as how much I do this).

Who to Follow, Who to Unfollow
First and foremost, choosing who I follow or friend is a very personal decision. Every one of the people that I follow, I follow for a specific reason.  I always keep my eyes and ears open for new people to follow, and likewise, I am always ready to clean my list where necessary. Here are a few guidelines I use.

• Most important, are they awesome?  I only follow awesome people.  If someone does not have an exciting Twitter stream, or fills my stream up with profanity or minutia, they get unfollowed.
• Is it a purveyor of news or other information?  I follow some news services and companies because I like to keep up on what they’re doing.
• When someone follows me, I look at their profile.  I see who they are following, look at their history of Tweets and make a decision on whether I want to follow them back.
• If I’m not following someone, but they RT or @mention me a lot, I will take a second look and possibly follow to see where the relationship goes.
• If I meet someone in person and think they’re pretty awesome, I will usually follow them to see if I can use Twitter to continue our newfound relationship.
• If I go a few months without ever talking to someone, or they stop tweeting for a long period of time, I will unfollow them.

As with personal relationships, these issues are not black and white. These are not rules, but guidelines that work for me. I think every single person will have different guidelines depending on their personal style and the group they have included in their social network. I’d love to hear what you have to say. Do you agree or disagree?

Garry Polmateer has been working with associations since 1999.  He has served in numerous capacities including the membership department and IT management.  In 2008, he moved to NimbleUser and currently functions as a business analyst, providing consultative services to nonprofits and associations.  He also currently resides on the board of directors for an upstate NY nonprofit.

• Engagement is the new investment. To be able to advocate a cause, non-profits need to engage with their supporters. Technology offers a number of ways for non-profits to connect with their communities and organizations are becoming aware of this.
• Non-profits are realizing that social media is a great way to engage with their communities. According to Smart Online’s survey, 91% of our respondents use Facebook, 63% use Twitter, 45% use YouTube and 35% use LinkedIn, amongst other media.
• Go Mobile. The survey also showed that over 90% of the non-profits use email marketing and social media in their engagement strategies. On the other hand, only 16% of the surveyed nonprofits plan on having mobile websites in 2011, while 19% plan on having smartphone applications. With more people using the mobile web, non-profits need to tap into this audience so they don’t miss out on any opportunities.

Acronym…
Why Wait for Moving Day (or a Crisis)?
Joe Rominiecki shares some interesting links about taking a serious look at what your organization is doing right and what it’s doing wrong. The articles look at two scenarios that feature some trying circumstances: a relocation and a severe product-sales decline. Yet, they both talk about the healthy process of reflection and action that the situations demanded. These articles inspired Joe to ask, “If associations wait until our circumstances force us to take stock and make significant changes, might it be too late?” He suggests a helpful practice for associations is to have a yearly “spring cleaning” day. Use this time to focus on cleaning budgets, processes and products. It would be a day to ask every staff member and volunteer two questions: “What one thing should we stop doing?” and “What one thing needs to be reinvented?”

Future Fundraising Now…
Donor Service Matters
In this post, Jeff Brooks says treating customers right can help create an army of free advertisers, while treating them wrong is only helping your competition. Here are some findings from the Customer Experience Report:

• 55% of people say they recommend a company based their experience with its customer service.
• 40% say they began purchasing from a competitive brand simply because of their reputation for great customer service.

• 85% say they want to warn others about the pitfalls of doing business with a company that gave them poor service.
• 66% say they want to discourage others from buying from that company.

What does this mean for non-profits? Organizations need to stay on top of customer care because small mistakes can add up and cause harm over time. Make sure to spell donors names correctly, get the amount of their donation correct and ensure that phone representatives are helpful and informed.

A blog (or weblog) is a great communication tool and can be used to engage donors and prospects in online conversations. You can tell compelling stories from your organization and ask for a gift.

Here are the steps to take to fundraise with your blog:

1. Know your donor audience. Do they hang out online or will you have to help them find you? Put your blog URL everywhere so people can find you.
2. Know your edge and your key messages. An edge is the platform you will use to speak from. To find your edge, figure out what is the controversy in your mission. For example, a food bank can use “People right here in our community are going hungry” as its edge.  Key messages might be “That’s not okay with us” and “we’re going to do something about it.”
3. Drive traffic to your blog. Post the link to your blog everywhere. Gather email addresss from your donors and send them email invitations to join in the blog conversation.
4. Tell your stories.  Share your statistics and facts. Help your donors see firsthand the work you are doing and the results of your efforts. Fundraising is emotionally based. What better way to convey the emotion of your cause than to show photos and videos, and have audio testimonials of your clients?
5. Invite your donors to share their opinions and views in your blog.  Engage them in conversation. Give them opportunities to give you feedback and advice.
6. Ask your donors to support your work with a gift. Offer a “Donate Now” button that they can use to make a gift right away.

It will take time to sustain a great blog and ideas for publicizing it once you have it up and running.  Here are a few tips for writing content:

• Keep it conversational.  Write like you talking to a specific donor.
• Tell stories. They’re much more interesting to read.
• Find a specific time of day to write and make it a habit to post as often as you can (at least 3 times a week).
• Ask a volunteer to help you write. (Great way to engage a volunteer!)

Sandy Rees is a non-profit fundraising coach, consultant, trainer, and author. She shows small non-profit organizations how to raise more money, gain more supporters, and strengthen their Boards. Get her free report “Ten Deadly Fundraising Mistakes” at http://www.deadlyfundraisingmistakes.com or sign up for her twice-monthly ezine “Bright Ideas for Fundraising” at www.getfullyfunded.com.