Social media has become one of the preeminent marketing tools for nonprofits looking to engage with donors and raise awareness about their cause as well as companies and social enterprises looking to incorporate a charitable component into their businesses.

It allows organizations to reach a large and diverse audience quickly and inexpensively. It can also be a way for organizations to connect with potential donors on a more personal level by sharing stories and updates about their work and community impact.

Philanthropy on social media helps those in need of donations to connect with a broader audience and raise awareness about their situation. And social media enables even more assistance, going beyond financial support to provide a way to mobilize volunteers and supporters.

However, it’s important to remember that social media can be a crowded and noisy space, and it can be difficult for nonprofits to stand out. Organizations need to develop a clear and consistent message. Companies and individuals can create powerful opportunities for charitable donations and acts of service by engaging with their audience in sincere and meaningful ways.

The effects of social media on philanthropy

The growth of social media has significantly impacted philanthropy for communities and those in need worldwide. Consider the effect of China’s “99 Giving Day,” which was the product of goodwill organizations and social media crowdfunding. Every September, Chinese companies donate millions to charity; their contributions are matched by the Chinese Internet company Tencent. Through this combination of social media marketing and philanthropy, millions have been raised for those needing medical treatment.

These viral social media campaigns have made it easier to learn about charitable causes, connecting philanthropists with organizations that align with their values. Social media campaigns have also enabled donors to share their philanthropic activities with their social networks, inspiring others to give. Remember the viral ALS Bucket Challenge in 2014? That social media campaign produced massive results for ALS research, netting more than $115 million and producing a life-changing new ALS drug.

The explosive growth of social media has also led to some challenges for philanthropy. Due to the large volume of social media posts and viral campaigns, it can be difficult for organizations to stand out in a crowded and noisy online space. It also presents a problem when measuring the impact of social media efforts on charitable giving. Additionally, the proliferation of online fundraising platforms has made it more difficult for donors to determine which organizations are reputable and which ones may not be using their contributions effectively.

Strategies to stand out from the crowd

For those seeking to bring social media into their philanthropic efforts, here are five strategies that can help organizations stand out from the crowd.

1. Develop a clear and consistent message: It’s crucial for nonprofit and social good organizations to have a clear and consistent message that reflects their mission and goals. Distinct messaging will help differentiate the organization from others and make it easier for potential donors to understand the mission statement and values.
2. Engage with your audience: Social media is a two-way conversation, so engaging actively with your audience is essential. Organizations and individuals should respond to comments and questions, share updates and stories about their work, and solicit feedback and ideas.
3. Use visually appealing content: Social media is a visual medium, so it’s important to use visually appealing content to capture your audience’s attention. This might include photos, videos, infographics, or other types of media that help to tell your organization’s story. Last year Project Angel Food partnered with the television network KTLA to create a successful telethon, raising over $1.1 million in an effort to combat food insecurity.
4. Use hashtags and tagging: Hashtags and tagging can increase the reach of your content and make it easier for people to discover your organization on social media. Use relevant hashtags and tag other organizations, influencers and individuals who may be interested in your work.
5. Partner with influencers: Influencer marketing can be an effective way to reach a larger audience on social media. Consider partnering with influencers who align with your mission and values and who have a large and engaged following. In 2019, I partnered with MIT for its Pi Day 24-Hour Challenge. We donated $15,000 to support the efforts of teams worldwide, all creating innovative new solutions for global problems.

By using social media effectively, organizations and philanthropists can connect with thousands of worthy charitable causes worldwide, bringing aid to millions of people (and animals) in need. The awe-inspiring power of bringing people together to assist one another is one of the most significant technological innovations of the century. Let’s use it to do some good.

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Post by Mary Jo Johnson

The biggest asset of a nonprofit or social enterprise is its employees. The knowledge and experience its people bring will determine its institutional knowledge and dictate the direction in which it needs to head. This knowledge is ever-changing and needs to be both accessible and adaptable. So it’s critical to establish processes that determine how knowledge is disseminated throughout every effective organization.

This is where knowledge management comes in. 

What is knowledge management?

Knowledge management is the process of creating, structuring, using, sharing and retaining knowledge within an organization. Or simply put, it is the handling of knowledge and resources in an efficient manner inside an organization. 

Knowledge management has three main components:

1. Accumulation
2. Storage
3. Sharing

By accumulating knowledge from the various experiences of employees and creating a platform to store it with the goal of sharing and disseminating that knowledge to people, you’ll create and enable a learning culture. 

Tapping into two types of knowledge

There are two types of knowledge within the knowledge management sphere. The differences between them is a fundamental concept of knowledge management. 

1. Explicit knowledge. This is the type of knowledge that is codified and easy to teach. This is what’s found in books, mathematical equations, processes, memos and the like. This type is easily shared. 
2. Tacit knowledge. According to Michael Polyani, tacit knowledge is “things that we know but cannot tell.” This is knowledge gained through experience and practice, like learning how to balance on a unicycle.

Knowing the distinction between these two types will help greatly when coming up with strategies for sharing knowledge across the organization. 

The cycle of knowledge management

The cycle of knowledge management has seven stages:

1. Acquisition. Acquiring knowledge either through research, training, and education (explicit knowledge) or through daily experiences and know-how (tacit knowledge) should be done across the organization — individually or as a group. Gathering and exploiting knowledge is the first step of the knowledge management cycle. The tendency of a nonprofit organization (NPO), the vast majority of which have modest resources, is often to pass on this knowledge verbally when it would serve the organization better to codify it.
2. Codification. This is the process of putting the knowledge that’s acquired into words. Not all knowledge can be translated into verbal or written language, however. This step involves creating job aids, training materials, write-ups, tests and other printed or written material or any form of media for consumption.
3. Storage. This step is where repositories come in. These can be databases or manuals where people can go to access codified knowledge.
4. Retrieval. This is the act of accessing stored knowledge. Retrieval should be simple and efficient.
5. Distribution and presentation. This is making all that knowledge accessible to the people who need it. Knowledge can be presented in different formats and in different ways. This could come in the form of reports or training modules and presentations.
6. Application. After knowledge is gained through distribution and presentation, it is now time to apply what was learned. This is where an NPO will plan its activities according to the knowledge it has gained.
7. Creation. Because of the application of knowledge, an NPO can now gain new experiences that will give way to the creation of new knowledge from the new experiences and the cycle starts all over again.

Knowledge management tools

Knowledge management tools are systems used by organizations to share information. These can be customer relationship systems (CRMs) or knowledge bases or learning management systems (LMS). A good knowledge management tool like Slab will allow you to integrate all of the organization’s tools in one knowledge base and allow everyone in the organization regardless of tech-savviness to easily search, access, use and create content.

How nonprofits can take advantage

Revenue generation

As all nonprofits know, fundraising and revenue generation are key to helping the organization function and achieve its overall mission. Having a knowledge management tool allows an NPO to keep track of all its data regarding donations and incoming revenue, as well as to keep track of potential sources of additional revenue, not to mention the knowledge and connections that every fundraising event and outreach program will create for the organization. Knowledge management systems allow organizations to keep their books organized and accessible to the people who need them.

Volunteer and paid employee engagement

Volunteers participate in and support NPOs and their efforts to provide for their causes without expecting monetary compensation, and these volunteers have a wealth of knowledge and experience. Codifying their knowledge into a knowledge management tool can ensure that the explicit knowledge that the volunteers bring can be cascaded across the organization. The same goes for paid employees. Engaging both the volunteers and employees through knowledge transfers will not only broaden their experience but will also develop a culture of learning for the organization. This ensures growth for both the NPO as a whole and the employees and volunteers individually.

Sustainability

Sustainability is not just about going “green.” Sustainability for nonprofits means that the organization will endure changes in economy and political climate. It also means that the founders, stakeholders, donors and volunteers find long-term value in the organization. It also means that the NPO needs to take care of its assets, a.k.a stewardship.

A good knowledge management system will help an NPO achieve long-term viability by making knowledge and data easily accessible. Donors and stakeholders need reports and write-ups about the activities and programs of the NPO they support. They need to see that their donations are going to the right place and that the assets of the NPO are well taken care of and accounted for.

Conclusion

Knowledge management and knowledge management tools play a vital role in helping to buttress nonprofit organizations’ operations by making data easily accessible and therefore easily disseminated.

Take advantage of tools like Slab to enable team members to find vital information fast, without having to use multiple platforms and learning to navigate new tools. This helps foster growth through creating a learning environment in the most efficient way.

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Post by Alma Causey

With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, nonprofits and social enterprises have had to rethink their marketing strategies. Nonprofits have been scrambling to develop appropriate communication strategies to approach their stakeholders during these trying times.

With contributors sticking close to home and social distancing in force, it’s harder than ever to conduct outreach for even the most worthy cause.

In this post, we will share some principles that you can incorporate into your social media marketing strategy to keep your user base intact.

Social media marketing during COVID-19

When times are tough, staying connected becomes all the more important. Underscoring the importance of social media, people are turning to these platforms to keep themselves connected, informed and engaged.

Instagram and Facebook saw a 40 percent increase in usage during the early stage of the coronavirus outbreak. But the rise in social media traffic and online activity does not indicate that online outreach is business as usual. You’ll need to adjust your messaging to adjust to the new realities.

Foster relationships

1If you’re concerned about the durability of your nonprofit during these challenging times, you’re not alone. With people retrenching and the economy contracting at a historic 33 percent annual rate in the previous quarter, it may be the right time to focus on relationship building rather than fundraising and revenue generation.

This is a good time to experiment, to host conversations about a variety of subjects of interest to your target audiences, and to create valuable evergreen content on your blog to enhance your organization’s SEO.

Engage with the audience and forge relationships to develop goodwill for your brand and strengthen your position for the long run. Engagement can be driven simply by offering information about your ongoing causes, sharing your plans through visuals or multimedia, and even humor.

Be empathetic

2The ongoing pandemic is affecting everyone in one way or another. People are experiencing lifestyle transitions; some are working from home; others have been laid off because of the economic slowdown.

People are also experiencing a wide variety of emotions during these times. So make sure you double your efforts to be empathetic toward your followers and take care in what you post. Show your human side and share a few experiences about how the pandemic is affecting the people you serve or work with. That builds a bond and gives readers a sense that you understand what they’re going through and that you care about them.

There’s no need to mention the crisis explicitly every time in your content, but take into consideration how your content could be interpreted by a person facing a different reality than yours.

Consider influencer marketing

3One form of marketing that might prove more productive than paid ads during and after the pandemic is influencer marketing. Influencers are people with a large following on social media and who carry considerable sway over consumers’ spending decisions. Influencer marketing has a human element that can promote organic growth and provide a higher ROI compared to ad spend.

However, do’nt get caught up in numbers when pursuing an influencer marketing strategy. Look for people who share your vision and are ready to give their 100% to help you achieve your goals. You can recruit them to become ambassadors for your cause. You can enlist them to attend virtual events.

Conduct research and use hashtags to find influencers in your niche. You can also use micro-influencer platforms like Fohr and Apexdrop to connect to influencers and bloggers and drive traffic to your social media channels.

Go global

4Although the coronavirus is a global pandemic, it’s affecting some regions worse than the others. For example, Taiwan, South Korea and New Zealand have done a better job in containing the virus.

The spread or slowdown of the virus in different regions will affect your social media traffic. So this may be a good time to diversify the regions you’re targeting to increase traffic from abroad.

Platforms like Facebook allow you to run targeted ads and put your product or services in front of new supporters. By targeting consumers in different geographic locations and markets, you can mitigate the risk and improve the returns.

Focus on the audience

5The pandemic has forced nonprofits, brands and businesses to reorient their priorities. Revenue generation has taken a back seat while consumer sentiment is now driving the marketing strategies.

Adding value to the lives of users through your content is now more important than ever as a marketing strategy. Any content that can inform, educate and motivate people is bound to gain traction during the pandemic. Look at what your nonprofit peers are doing — or not doing. Can you do it better or differently?

If you can offer solutions to some of the life problems faced by users, it will go a long way toward fostering goodwill and generating more engagement on your social media posts.

Conduct live streams

6Video content, especially live streams, is an effective tactic to connect with your supporters on social media. This is why it’s not surprising to see Facebook and Instagram Live views doubled in a single week during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Therefore, nonprofits should leverage this medium and allocate resources to YouTube, Facebook and Instagram Live, as well as webinars. Can you organize an online gathering of stakeholders or thought leaders in your sector? Perhaps host a weekly Zoom call or check-in. It can help you create content in a way that users are coming to expect.

Final thoughts

While the current crisis has impacted nonprofits on an unprecedented scale, we believe that organizations can weather this storm through smart social media marketing. Engage your users across a number of online and offline channels and use this time to build a community that will help you achieve long-term success for your cause.

The post How to do social media marketing during the pandemic appeared first on Socialbrite.

Editor’s note: Wiza is offering its Pro account for free (with 100 email credits) to any nonprofit. Head over to Wiza.co and let the team know that Socialbrite sent you.

Post by Stephen Hakami
Founder & CEO, Wiza

You may have heard about about the tactic of sending cold emails, but you’ve written it off as a marketing strategy for your organization.

It sounds a bit questionable, maybe even a little spammy. But might it actually generate more donations?

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: yes, and there’s a great way to go about it that doesn’t violate the recipients’ trust. 

Why try the cold email approach?

People like to support causes they care about, especially if they have money set aside for charitable giving. But if they don’t know about your nonprofit’s needs or cause, how will they support you?

Your communication or marketing team knows it’s essential to get the word out. So we’re here to suggest that sending personalized cold emails can be much more effective than sending mass emails. Let me explain. 

Cold emails are very effective at generating donations because you can personalize them. 

They also provide a helpful means of learning more about potential supporters. By emailing, you can easily track open rates and responses to your cold emails. You can see what content and information resonates with potential supporters — and what needs work. 

So how do you actually reach out to your potential stakeholders with cold email? 

How to send cold emails for your nonprofit

Below are some cold emailing techniques specifically tailored for nonprofits. Whether you’re just getting started or you already have a strategy in place, these tips can help you get the most out of your email performance.

Personalize it

The key factor to a successful cold email campaign is personalization. 

With mass emails, it’s not really specific to the recipient. But when you send cold emails to individual leads, you can use their name, reference their professional career and even mention causes they’ve listed on their LinkedIn profile.

Use this knowledge to your advantage. Seeking to make each email personal not only gives you more promising leads to begin with, but it also increases your chance of getting a response. 

Optimize your subject title and opening line

If your subject line piques the recipient’s interest, you’ve got them hooked. Then you just need to reel them in with the opening line of your email. 

But how do you improve your subject line and first sentence?

Tips to increase your open rate

Here are some suggestions:

• The subject line shouldn’t focus on you, it should focus on them. Try these as titles:

• • “I have a question for you”
  • “How do you ___?”
  • “What causes will you support this year?”

• Don’t start your email with your position title or even your nonprofit name. Instead, try these:

• • “I noticed you were interested in ___”
  • “It looks like you might care about [this cause] …”
  • “Are you looking to get involved with [a movement]?”

Tell a story

Storytelling is a powerful tool. If your nonprofit helps people in need, share those stories in your cold emails. This will help people connect with your mission and get on board with what you’re doing.

It will also show them how important their support is to your organization.

So instead of just saying, “Your donation will help feed one person for six months,” share how an individual was helped by people’s donations. Show them rather than just tell them. 

You’d be surprised at how many people are happy to share their stories about how your nonprofit helped them. Share those stories with potential supporters so you can get more donations and, in turn, help even more people.

Alert leads of your events

Do you have an event coming up? Reach out to your leads and let them know. With this method, there’s a clear call to action: Come to our event. This especially works if it’s a free event that encourages donations.

This could be anything from a holiday event to a food drive to an auction. Whatever it is, make it clear in your email what they can expect if they come. Also, tell them what they’ll get out of it.

Then, as the event date approaches, send them a reminder email to elicit a higher response rate. 

Send a thank-you email

When someone donates to your organization, make sure you thank them personally. Even if you got the chance to thank them in person, still send a personalized follow-up email. 

Here’s what to include in your thank-you email:

• Say thank you at the very beginning of the email
• Tell them how their donation is helping, reinforcing their decision
• Ask them to share on social media what your nonprofit is doing

So, yes, you should be cold emailing leads as a nonprofit. And, yes, they can generate more donations, if you do it well. Using these methods, you’ll be able to improve your cold emailing strategy.

Image at top: Victoria Nevland / Creative Commons BY NC

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Begin to master Twitter for your organization with these five steps

Post by Ashley Halsey

Interested in using Twitter on behalf of your nonprofit, social enterprise or cause? Great, that willingness to take the plunge is a big step all by itself. Before you forge ahead, make sure you do the necessary prep work.

How do you promote your mission or cause and engage with your followers while maintaining a healthy and respectful relationship with them? Every organization’s approach will vary somewhat, but here are several steps you need to take to have the largest impact and effect real-world change.

Master the basics

1There are some basic mechanics you’ll need to know about Twitter to help you create tweets that work well on the platform and follow the rules of the website. For example, all tweets need to be written within 280 characters, and although you can stack multiple tweets on top of each other for a kind of long-form content post, short and sweet tweets are the most effective.

You’ll want to vary your tweets, retweet some respected figures or thought leaders in your space and add images and links to your posts. If you want to track how many people are clicking on your links, use a site like bit.ly.

Optimize your Twitter bio

2“Before people start reading your Tweets and decide to follow you, they’re going to take a look at your profile to see if they want more of what you have to offer,” advises Sarah Turner, a social media marketer at Writinity.com and Researchpapersuk.com. “So you need to take time to set up your profile to make sure it has an impact and attracts the right followers.”

She suggests using a high-quality profile picture and a high-quality banner across the top. Try to avoid using generic photos but instead create custom imagery that displays information about your NPO, she adds.

For your bio section on your account page, you have 160 characters to sum up what you do and what kind of impact you’re trying to make on the world. Try to include one powerful hashtag here to increase your chances of being discovered, but keep it to one or two.

Also, make sure all your basic information is filled out, including your location and a link to your website.

Define your nonprofit’s Twitter voice

3Every organization has its own brand. Given that Twitter is an especially personal platform, you need to work on defining the voice of your brand and how you’re going to sound. There are several ways to approach this.

As a profit, you’ll want to choose your Twitter voice to resonate with your target markets emotionally. If you’re trying to market to young mothers, you’ll write a tweet differently than if you were targeting a 50-year-old male donor.

The most important thing to remember is that you need to come across as genuine and authentic. People can tell a mile off if you’re being fake and putting on an act. While you want to inject some personality into your tweets to stand out, it can pay to have one person in control of posting your tweets because then it’s easy to keep the voice consistent.

Make your tweets engaging

4“It’s important for people following you to want to interact with your tweets. You want engagement,” advises Linda Ferrinho, a nonprofit blogger at Draftbeyond.com and Lastminutewriting.com. “As an NPO, chances are you want your followers to take action on what you’re saying, to react emotionally to your message. You want to inspire and educate them.”

There are lots of ways to achieve this. Begin by adding a relevant image to your tweet, which boosts your retweet rate by about 35% on average. Note, you can attach up to four photos per tweet, so use these wisely.

You can also attach videos up to 140 seconds in length or attach a GIF either via a link or by using any of the GIFs from the Twitter database. Another handy feature you may want to use is a poll, which is great for getting people involved while hearing about their opinions on your NPO topic.

Use hashtags strategically

5Hashtags allow you to organize and share content under a specific subject — or to latch onto a trending topic. When someone searches for the topic or clicks a hashtag, your content will appear as part of the thread. While the concept is simple, it’s important to make sure you’re using the correct hashtags for the tweets you’re creating and that you post about trending topics to further boost your potential reach.

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Google Trends: getting a handle on topical conversations.

Post by Daniela McVicker

Content creation is a critical part of getting exposure and spreading awareness for your nonprofit’s message. While content creation may sound challenging with a limited staff and resources, it can pay off in a big way if you use the right tools.

Below we outline seven tools and resources you can use for free or minimal cost as part of your organization’s content creation strategy.

Google Trends

1Let’s start with the basics. Google Trends is a tool that helps us find the inspiration we need for writing appealing and interesting content.

Our target audience will want to read about topics they’re interested in. This means we need to do some research to see what are the trending and most searched topics or keywords — and how it may tie to your nonprofit’s mission.

Google Trends is a tool that can help us do just that. You can:

• search for a term or topic
• analyze the interest for that term by region and period of time
• find out which subregions are interested in the term the most
• get the data necessary for choosing the perfect topic

This tool will make the brainstorming phase more guided and results-oriented. It helps you arrive at a decision about which topics to focus on and backs it up with evidence and data.

BuzzSumo

2Similar to Google Trends, BuzzSumo is another tool that can help us understand which topics are trending online. It can also help learn what people are searching for the most.

The tool allows us to:

• explore ideas and get inspired
• track the current situation within our cause or niche
• find influencers and see what they’re doing
• analyze popular articles and posts to get insight

The tool does all the analysis and all that’s left is to draw conclusions and apply them to your content. It’s a valuable tool that provides the right data for your content or marketing team to draw from.

Canva

3When we search the Web, we look for interesting blog posts or social media posts to read. So your content team will want to make sure your posts are accompanied by an appealing visual.

A visually arresting image can make potential readers stop scrolling and pay attention. This is why it’s highly important that you make your content rich in visuals.

The No. 1 tool people from around the globe enjoy using is Canva, a free graphic design tool.

Canva makes it easy to:

• create stunning social media posts
• create attention-grabbing infographics
• make your content visually rich
• add brand identity to your content

The tool is easy to use. It has endless options and features that are simple to master. So it’s a worthy addition to help with executing your content creation strategy.

Grammarly

4If we want people to take us seriously, we need to act like true professionals. That means that the quality of our written content needs to be a top priority.

A tool that analyzes and helps you polish your sentences, Grammarly should be a part of your team’s content workflow.

Here’s what Grammarly does:

• corrects spelling mistakes
• corrects grammar mistakes
• suggest sentence structure corrections
• suggest synonyms
• gives an analysis of the written content

Every nonprofit needs content that is impeccable and highly professional. All we have to do is upload the Word document to Grammarly. Then, we correct the mistakes and download the improved version. While the basic version is free, Grammarly Premium costs $19.98 to $29.95 per month.

You have other options as well, such as the online service Top Writers Review, which can provide professional help for more demanding tasks.

Hemingway

5Another brilliant tool you might consider to make your content more readable and suitable for your target audience is the Hemingway app.

The app lets the users paste the text and then analyzes the following features:

• readability
• number of adverbs
• passive voice usage
• complicated phrases
• sentence structure
• sentences that are hard to read

The tool suggests changes to beef up content to make it leaner, to the point and digestible.

Pixabay

6When we think about content rich in visuals and appealing to the eye, we can’t imagine it without beautiful images. Not every nonprofit can afford to hire a professional photographer who can create images specifically for its needs.

Luckily, there are royalty-free images you can use, and Pixabay offers a wide range of these photos.

All you have to do is:

• visit Pixabay
• type the term you’re looking for
• choose an image you find most suitable to accompany your content

A wide range of royalty-free images is available for you to snag, download and use in your content.

SE Ranking

7SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the key elements of any content creation strategy. When writing articles or blog posts, you’ll want the content to rank high in Google searches. This will bring more organic traffic and expand the number of people who’ll see your post.

That means that we have to pay attention to SEO and how to improve our content to make it perform better.

SE Ranking is a tool that can help improve your SEO efforts and make the content more SEO friendly. Here’s what it does:

• analyzes keywords
• provides insight into search volume and popularity
• suggests other similar keywords
• shows popular keyword ads

By using this tool, you’re gaining valuable insights into the terms that help you gain more visibility for your content.

How about you? What strategies have you used to streamline your content production process?

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Post by Melissa Mauro

Every nonprofit organization knows how much volunteers can help advance your mission. But attracting qualified volunteers can be a daunting task. The last thing you want to do is bring aboard eager but untrained volunteers whose involvement is more trouble than it’s worth. That’s a lose-lose proposition.

To take advantage of the grassroots energy for your cause and put it to good use, I put together this guide to help any organization looking to attract the best volunteers for your cause in nine simple steps.

Write a solid volunteer job description

1The first step is straightforward. Write the job description for a volunteer role just like you might craft any other job description for your team members. It’s important to attract recruits whose goals align with yours and who’ll be satisfied with the role they play. Include as many details as possible so the person can see whether she’d be a good fit.

When I did so on behalf of one of my nonprofit clients, I also focused on the key skills the volunteers needed to have. You don’t want someone whose skill set doesn’t meet the requirements of the position. Consult with department heads to determine where a volunteer would have the most positive impact.

Plan the onboarding process

2It’s also a good idea to consider creating a volunteer handbook. I didn’t make one myself at the beginning but then learned that it could actually be very useful. This will, however, depend on the resources available to you.

Alternatively, there is the option of creating a formal in-person training program. The point in any of the paths to take is to get the recruits on board with what the organization is about and what cause it’s working toward.

Identify the best recruitment method

3Determining the recruitment method is no less important. There are a variety of such methods, so it was crucial for me to know who I want to recruit and what they will be doing in order to understand how I will be doing it.

After I completed step one and two, I had a general idea of which recruitment methods wouldn’t work for me. In my case, I knew that I needed younger people to volunteer for me, so I decided to use social media to spread the word about my organization and the cause we were working for. The target audience influences the recruitment method.

Use your social networks

4Before I started actively looking for volunteers with the help of the job description I created, I first decided to check if there was anyone in my social network who would be interested. And I was right because there were, indeed, people who gladly volunteered for some positions I was looking to fill.

Sometimes, the best candidates could be very close and we just don’t pay enough attention to realize that. I asked my colleagues, friends, and even family members. Then, I asked my current volunteers, clients and individuals who were affected by the problem I was trying to solve.

Target the right volunteers

5Once I filled in some roles after asking around, I started looking for volunteers directly. I first looked in schools and universities as they are usually full of enthusiastic young people. I got in touch with the Student Service departments of such institutions in my area.

I also asked some local businesses, clubs and community groups. I found some volunteers at these places, too, as there are always many companies looking for opportunities. Company volunteering is a very popular practice.

Offer opportunities online

6While my first two methods of looking for volunteers were effective, I still wanted to find even more potential candidates. This is why I decided to look online and offer opportunities there. But unlike the first two methods, this one had its own advantages.

Looking for volunteers online can help find the professionals who can’t be found by simply asking around. Most employees in serious companies don’t have enough time for volunteering, so reaching them online is a better approach than doing so in person.

Explore small-scale volunteering

7Small-scale volunteering or micro-volunteering is based on the concept of people being able to volunteer for smaller periods of time to perform fewer tasks. This idea of micro-volunteering has gained popularity in recent years, so it’s worth trying out.

The aim of micro-volunteering is to make the whole process of volunteering easier. People are given a series of small tasks that they can complete at any time and places the way the volunteers themselves want to.

Nonprofit organizations get many opportunities from micro-volunteering as the tasks they offer can range from spreading a petition to collecting rubbish in the local park. It doesn’t take too much time and doesn’t place as much of a demand on the volunteers or the organization.

Set out the expectations for the position

8To make the volunteers in my organization happy, I clearly communicated my expectations to them. Sharing the expectations about the project you are working on is essential for the volunteers to feel like they are valued and to understand the cause they’re working on behalf of.

Every nonprofit has its own expectations and predictions about what will be the result of its actions and campaigns. These concepts about the future must always be shared with the volunteers so there is a clear aim in their heads.

Make it enjoyable & monitor their performance

9The secret ingredient to making the volunteering enjoyable is to make it fun and pay attention to your recruits. It’s important to get down to business in the right moments. However, joking around and enjoying the job is also a part of the process.

It’s crucial for the volunteers to be happy about working with the nonprofit. This will make them come back to help in the future. Returning volunteers are just as important as new recruits because they can teach the latter ones all they must know.

Final thoughts

It’s not that hard to attract volunteers for a good cause as long as there is some value to offer in return. This method worked for me and I am sure it will work for others who encountered the same challenges while looking for volunteers for their nonprofit organization.

The post How to attract the best volunteers for your nonprofit appeared first on Socialbrite.

A scaled solution for nonprofits looking to create video content

By Kyle Shannon

Stories are the lifeblood of social organizations. To a large degree, your ability to tell stories is directly proportional to your ability to succeed and grow. While charts and graphs of success are important, the stories of people you impact is the best proof there is.

Video is an increasingly powerful and in-demand way to share these stories, and yet a major challenge remains. How do you increase your ability to produce video content without dramatically increasing your budget?

If you want to create video, you effectively have two major options. There’s professional video, which is typically high quality but is limited in its scalability. It can be expensive, slow and logistically complicated.

On the other side of the coin is user-generated video, which seems great in theory. It’s authentic, often engaging and you can have as much as you want, since there are now billions of devices with high-quality cameras. The problem? User-generated video is completely out of your control, and the storytelling quality is unpredictable at best.

There is another option. Think of it as professional user-generated video. By using the best attributes of both professional video and user-generated video, you can create a hybrid approach to creating video content. Storyvine is a Guided Video platform that is designed to live in the space between the two worlds of Pro and User-Gen video, and will be discussed here, but there are numerous tools that can assist in the activities that must be managed to effectively scale video storytelling.

Here are two examples of Pro-UGC Video created using the Storyvine platform. The first video is from the National Association of Public Charter Schools:

Here is a grassroots presidential campaign video created with Storyvine:

Content strategy is key

Regardless of which tool(s) you use to create and manage your video content, it’s critical to understand that “more video” is not a strategy — video is simply a tool. Your content strategy should emerge organically from your goals as an organization. What are you trying to accomplish? What are your major initiatives? How are you measuring success? Who are your stakeholders and what do they need to feel taken care of and connected to the organization?

Answers to these questions will lead naturally to important content strategy questions. Who’s stories do we want to capture? Why will they share them with us? Who are the audiences for these stories? What are the communications initiatives we have in place that this video content could augment? And finally, whose job is it to create, capture, curate and connect these stories with relevant audiences?

Now you’re ready for the 4 C’s of creating video content in a scalable, sustainable way:

• Create
• Capture
• Curate
• Connect

Here’s a 3-minute video on how to create a video on Storyvine.

Step 1: Create the story program

Once you understand the kind of stories you want to capture, you can design everything from the kinds of question you want people to answer, to the visual design and branding of the videos that will be produced, to the communications you will share with your constituents to let them know their voice is important and might be reaching out.

By asking the right questions and eliciting a series of answers, you end up creating content that is consistent and well-structured. Here are some questions you might ask to get things rolling:

Intro: Share your name, location and why you got involved.

Q1: What was you most impactful experience with the program?

Q2: How has being involved with the program changed your outlook about it?

Q3: Give a shout-out to someone you engaged with who made a difference.

With Storyvine, we create a story template that consists of a VideoGuide (the coaching prompts) and a visual Storyboard of what the final video will look like. The video segments are captured via an iOS or Android mobile app that prompts the user what to say in a step-by-step capture process. The videos themselves are then “automagically” edited into a fully branded video within minutes.

Outside of Storyvine, you can use this same structured approach to improve the quality and consistency of your video content.

Step 2: Capture the video content

Because smart phones and tablets are so ubiquitous and contain high-quality cameras, you can capture content at events by having your team members capture the raw assets of answers to the prompting questions you created, or even have people film the clips selfie-style. There are a number of techniques to get the people you want to film to increase your ability to capture the stories you want.

Friends and close colleagues

With video, most people have a basic fear of looking silly. No one wants to go first. That said, once people see that others have done it and realize it’s socially safe, they’re much more willing to participate. So leverage the relationships you have with your friends, colleagues and even superfans whom you can cajole into getting the ball rolling. You can then show off their videos as examples for others to follow.

Events

Even though events can be noisy and chaotic, they are also often high concentrations of people who’s stories you want to capture. With a little bit of pre-planning, your team at the event (or even volunteers who can be trained at the beginning of the event) can “wrangle” participants at the event and capture more content than you can imagine.

Here’s a good example that was captured an education-centered event:

A lot of Storyvine clients use events as the launchpad for creating their first video content.

Gamification

We’ve had good success with clients creating “Video Challenges” where Person A films her story and then “calls out” Person B to film his. It works. So do friendly competitions for most creative stories.

Deadlines & assignments

Let people know they have one week to capture their content, and follow up with them one day before the deadline. Also, let Sally know that it’s her job to film two people this week, and hold her to it.

Build it into a process

This is by far the most effective approach. Let’s say you want people in your org to film testimonial videos. Build the video capture task right into the process, like so:

• 1. Sign person in.
• 2. Make sure person is taken care of.
• 3. Sign person out.
• 4. Ask if he or she will give us a testimonial.
• 5. If yes, film him or her.

Another variation on this theme is something like “It’s Thought Leadership Thursday”… make the creation of content an event.

Step 3: Curate the stories

If you successfully increase the quantity of video content, you now have a new challenge on your hands. Namely, who is looking at what was created and what are the criteria to determine which videos should be shared far and wide.

Our experience has been that when you use a tool like Storyvine to increase the number of videos, not every video will be perfect — and that’s OK. We see a normal bell curve of quality with the videos that come into the system. If 10 videos are created, one might not be usable, most are fine to really good, and one or two are terrific, maybe brilliant.

The highest-quality stories can even be elevated and leveraged into other kinds of content, like compilation videos of the best soundbites for a website or gala presentation.

Here are two examples of compilations created from the structured approach to capturing content as I just described. Age of Agility is a four-minute short from America Succeeds:

I Stand with PP is a 75-second short that shows the power of Planned Parenthood:

Step 4: Connect the stories to relevant audiences

The final step is relatively straightforward. In a world with as many digital channels as we have today, there are increasing number of options where you might share your newly created video content. Short videos might be used as “snackable” social content on Twitter or Instagram. Videos longer than 60 seconds might live on your website or your YouTube channel. Business-focused social networks like LinkedIn are featuring more and more video, and it’s often longer-form video.

Especially when it comes to fundraising and development efforts, don’t be shy about sending a video link directly to a person whom you feel will relate to that story. “Here’s a story of one of our people I thought you might enjoy.” That kind of personal outreach and connection will go a long way to keeping donors engaged.

Experiment and see what works for your organization. Compelling video stories will drive social engagement, and when you find a kind of video that works, make more!

Kyle Shannon is the co-founder/CEO of Storyvine, a Guided Video platform and allows companies and organizations to create professional, authentic video content … at scale. You can find him on LinkedIn or on Twitter at @kyleshannon.

The post Video storytelling to amplify the impact of your organization appeared first on Socialbrite.

Post by Jennifer Marr

Most nonprofits have a long history of relying on traditional media when they want to get the word out about a new initiative. While television, print publications and mailers remain a big part of the marketing game plan, nonprofits are realizing that their social media accounts are becoming increasingly important.

But it’s not all about just Facebook and Twitter.

Do you know what the second largest search engine after Google is? It’s not Bing or Duckduckgo or even Yahoo. It’s Google-owned YouTube. Nonprofits need to be on YouTube to reach your target audiences and move them to take action. In this article, you’ll find out how to get ahead of the pack.

Google and YouTube partner programs

As a nonprofit, you’re  in some luck when it comes to creating a YouTube channel. Alphabet, the parent company to both YouTube and Google, offers special nonprofit programs to help you achieve your goals.

These programs include Google for Nonprofits and the YouTube Nonprofit Program. They’ll help guide you through the process with the goal of building a long-term, stable subscriber base. Be warned, though, some of these programs are available based on region, so if you’re outside the U.S. they might not be available.

On channel and on video optimization

When putting together videos and your channel, you need to remember some basic optimization techniques. These are pretty simple, so let’s run down a quick list:

1. 1. Have titles that people will search for; especially questions
   2. Use appropriate tags and add a lot of tags
   3. Mention the main question or questions and  keywords as part of your video — the algorithm can convert audio to text
   4. Have a simple-to-understand and appropriate thumbnail image
   5. Write a good, detailed description, including these terms

   
   charity: water, part of the YouTube for Nonprofits program, created this video as part of its campaign around World Water Day in 2018.

   Quick tips to getting more subscribers

   The golden rules for building a following on YouTube are time, quality and most importantly consistency. Gaining subscribers and increasing engagement is not a given, but if you remember these three things plus the tips below, you can be successful. Here are some great tips on how you can gain subscribers:

   • Make your videos more personal. You’re a nonprofit, which means you’re part of a movement or cause. This can sometimes seem distant and unemotional to the user. Don’t let it be so. Engage on a personal level with your viewers. Make them feel valued. You’re not posting infomercials or television ads.
   • Host it yourself. Rather than using a professional voiceover artist, have someone from within the organization, preferably your executive director, president or marketing chief, hosting the videos themselves. This allows viewers to connect on a personal level with your brand and your cause.
   • Capitalize on trends and current events. As a nonprofit, you have to stay on topic and on brand, and you can’t get sidetracked by insignificant trends of the day or celebrity-driven news. But take a look at things like the trending topics on Twitter and stay on top of current events to see where you can hook into a topic that is top of mind for people.
   • Get feedback and improve. Creating YouTube videos is an ongoing, evolving process. Engage with your subscribers and commenters (the polite ones) and take constructive criticism to heart. Nobody is perfect out of the gate.
   • Post consistently. Grassroots activist Tim Pool, best known for livestreaming the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011, posts three to five videos daily across three channels. As a result, he consistently gets a lot of views and high visibility in YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. Now, you probably don’t have the ability to go that far, but where possible post in a consistent manner, including at least once a week. The ideal would be every other day, or three times a week. Post at the same time as well so people know when to expect your content.
   • Consider live-streaming. Live-streaming is becoming increasingly popular, especially among younger people, so if you’re doing a live event that would generate interest by the public, it wouldn’t hurt to announce it on your channels in advance and to set up a YouTube Live account.
   • Let your viewers know they can subscribe. The YouTube community is actually divided on this one. Some will tell you to “like, comment and subscribe,” all of which help boost a video and a channel. Others grown on the practice. At the very least, it’s a good idea to have a visual reminder of a call to action at the end of the video or midway through.

   Connecting viewers to your site and cause

   The above list focuses on things you can do on your YouTube channel and in your videos to get more subscribers. However, you also have to think about your channel as part of a wider effort to increase engagement and participation. Think of it as part of a network. This can be divided into three areas: on channel, on site and in social media.

   On channel: Include links to your website and other social media in the description but also do so again in the comments, especially if you have a fundraising campaign you want people to contribute to.

   On site: Write quality blogs of more than 600 words, preferably double or triple that (yes, longer is better). A good post answers a question related to the topic of your video. Then embed the video into the blog post. You can easily embed YouTube videos in a blog, just hit the “share” symbol and you’ll find an embed option, copy the code and paste it into the html area (called “Text” in WordPress) of your blog service.

   In social media: Focus on the new video immediately upon its release by sharing it across your social media. Some social media platforms, like Instagram, will require you to re-format your videos, but it’s well worth the work to reach a wider audience. Re-share the video over the next few days. If it’s an evergreen topic, then you can re-share regularly in the future.

   Share the love to build a wider community

   YouTube is much like other parts of social media in that pure self-promotion does not go down well. Creators are part of a community, so be aware of YouTube viewers’ expectations. It’s good to get personal (see above) and to be part of the community and not turn your channel into a beg-athon. Champion other nonprofits, tag them on social media, give shoutouts, comment on their videos as your channel, and build the love.

   Do the same with individual creators as well, even those you might disagree with. It builds goodwill and engagement, plus in the future the influencer may be more willing to help you out pro bono.

   Now you have some tips on how to use YouTube as a nonprofit. It’s a great resource and should be part of your promotional arsenal and communications strategy.

   One last piece of advice: Just get started, get on with it, learn as you go and keep making content. Let us know how you’re doing in the comments below. Good luck!

   Jennifer Marr, a freelance writer with many years of experience in the marketing sector, is looking to expand her experience with the nonprofit sector and to help them grow.

The post How nonprofits can make the best use of YouTube appeared first on Socialbrite.

Whether face to face, by email, or with trained carrier pigeons, how you ask for donations makes or breaks your fundraising campaign (note: carrier pigeons are a guaranteed attention-getter).

Your message, and how it makes your potential donor feel is mission-critical. If they feel nothing, they will give nothing.

But let’s face it, writing effective fundraising emails is not easy. But it can be done, if you follow a process to develop your own email messages. And if you’re patient.

8 steps to writing a good fundraising email

Here are eight steps you can follow to write or even rewrite fundraising emails for your next campaign:

STEP 1: Tell a good story

A good story is the foundation of any effective fundraising appeal.

Begin your fundraising appeal with a story that pulls at the reader’s heartstrings. Talk about a real person who benefited from your work.

Make the donor the hero, not your organization.

For example, charity:water talks about a woman who fell down into a well with her baby. And she was stuck in the well for over 2 days! See? Doesn’t that grab your attention?

STEP 2: Make it about them

Fundraising works best when it’s one to one, between to people who share a common passion.

E-mail is always one-to-one (no one gathers their friends around a computer to read their e-mails). View your fundraising email as a unique opportunity to develop a relationship with someone who wants to receive your emails, and is possibly open to making a donation.

Start by imagining a specific supporter that you’ve met a few times. Write your e-mail as if you’re writing a personal appeal this person.

Tell them why their support is invaluable. Connect their support to the outcome. Use their first name, And write the e-mail in second person narrative (use the word “you”instead of “we” or “I”).

STEP 3: Talk about the money

Gain the trust of potential donors by being transparent about your funding gap (the gap between funds that cover admin costs, and what is needed to pay for specific programs). NPR are masters at this with their on-air fundraisers, which I’m sure you’ve heard.

Their asks usually go something like this: ”Sponsors and grants cover administrative costs, but we need your support to make sure programs like Science Friday continues to reach people like you”.

This approach communicates transparency and responsibility – making donors feel confident about how their dollars will be spent.

STEP 4: Tell them what their money will do

$50 will not save all the chimpanzees. But it will help, and it is doable. Tell potential donors exactly how the money will be used, and what outcome will result from their $50. This approach helps donors connect the dots between their donation and the outcome they seek.

Another great example is from No Kid Hungry, In their “Build a Breakfast” campaign, they tell potential donors: “For just $40, you can connect a classroom of 20 children with a healthy school breakfast for an entire month”.

This ask is very specific, immediate, and doable! This gives the donor a sense of realistic, personal impact.

STEP 5: Keep it short

No one has time read a long fundraising email. In fact, most people will just skim it first, then either delete it or keep reading. Here are four tips:

1. 1. Limit paragraphs to 2-3 sentences.
   2. Limit the overall email to 2-3 paragraphs.
   3. Break up the text with headlines.
   4. Enter your email copy into this readability tester.

STEP 6: Ask three times

Don’t forget about the call to action! In fact, make sure you ask three times in your fundraising appeal. But don’t just repeat the same phrase over and over.

Ask different ways. For example, at the beginning of the e-mail you can say “you can make a difference”, linking to your donation page. In the second and third paragraph you can ask again: “Join others like yourself to make a difference”. Also, try asking once in between two paragraphs, in bold text.

STEP 7: Tell them they can say no

A good friend, who’s also fundraising consultant, told me her secret to success: People will often give bigger donations when they feel their personal free will is respected.

According to a recent fundraising study, giving people the choice of NOT donating almost doubles the likelihood that they will donate!

STEP 8: Don’t ask for money in the first email

No one likes to be asked to make a donation if they haven’t heard from you in a while. If that’s the case with your nonprofit, your first e-mail should encourage your potential donor to learn more about the campaign.

For example, charitywater often asks supporters to watch a video or read an article, before asking them to raise money.

Leading off with a powerful story says that you’re not all about asking for money, which helps builds trust. It also helps you connect with your potential donor on an emotional level – where fundraising happens.

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