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.

The post 5 strategies to stand out in social media appeared first on Socialbrite.

Strategies to combat the epidemic of hopelessness

Post by Eric Anderson

We all know the sinking feeling of having a long to-do list of big items. Often, we wind up overwhelmed, not knowing where to begin, so we don’t begin at all. For many of us, simply shutting down when faced with many challenges is a coping mechanism. We feel better when we don’t look at the long list of things we need to tackle, even though averting our eyes just adds to our long-term stress.

Many of us feel a similar pang of hopelessness when we look at the myriad crises happening every day in the world around us. There are so many, and they are so momentous and complicated, that we feel unable to effect change. Climate change, political gridlock, the pandemic, homelessness, war, wealth gaps, and racism are all around us, and they’re only getting worse as the days go by.

It’s true that, as individuals, each of us has only limited ability to impact an issue as big as climate change, for just one example. That may even leave us feeling powerless, especially as we see the harm these crises cause to the world and the people around us. Like wildfires, the impact of global catastrophes can spread quickly. Yet it is action, not avoidance, that will inspire others to do the same and, ultimately, create a culture of effective activism for change.

Taking tangible steps toward hope

For nonprofit organizations and communicators in particular, we have a responsibility to find ways to inspire constituents to act on important issues that affect us all. We can do that not just by rehashing the nature of present problems but by outlining specific tangible steps we can take toward change and by highlighting the inspirational stories of people already making a difference.

Here are three suggested things to try to inspire grassroots activism:

1. Go where your audiences are most comfortable

It is especially important to meet our audiences where they already are. That is, if your users are on digital platforms, that is where you should spread your message.

For some, these digital messages for change may come across as ineffective. Slacktivism gets a bad rap — if an action is relatively easy to take, it must be pointless, the reasoning goes. But that view is built on an outdated bias against activities in the virtual world. There’s nothing morally superior about attending a march in person or distributing flyers in your neighborhood if you can accomplish the same goals more efficiently on social platforms.

Whether your medium is digital or physical, it is imperative that you choose to broadcast your voice in a way that works best for you and your audience. Even small actions such as taking the first step or rallying support on social media can inspire more action. This is what will breed more momentum; you just have to decide to begin.

2. Keep moving forward

This philosophy is similar to climbing a mountain. If you stand at the bottom and look up, you may lose the energy you need to climb to the peak. But if you start walking and stay focused on putting one foot after the other — and keeping your eyes just a few feet ahead of you — you’ll soon be able to look back and see how far you’ve traveled. Similarly, by taking small steps for actionable change, we can ultimately reach the summit and look back on all we’ve accomplished in our endeavors.

The same rule applies for organizations as well as individuals. Be realistic in the fundraising or cause campaigns you plan to launch to make sure you have the required resources. Then roll it out one step at a time.

3. Use actions to inspire more activism

When working to inspire grassroots activism, it’s important to make tangible but manageable requests. Your audience is your most valuable asset. As advocates for your cause, they will be ready and willing to commit their time and energy, though it is your job to ensure your requests are effective. Take specific steps that won’t burn out your supporters. Instead, asking participants to take on small, achieveable tasks ignites them to get even more involved. This is especially effective if you provide a rewarding experience and offer positive reinforcement that highlights the substantial differences their actions are making.

Final thoughts

If you are ready to see change, now is the time to begin. Be sure to give your audiences a clear roadmap. Show them that it leads to a better world, but stress that they can make progress one step at a time. Tell compelling and relatable stories of people who have engaged constructively and how they found it rewarding and impactful. Finally, strike a hopeful tone by highlighting tangible solutions that can make a positive difference right now.

Fortunately, as you would when climbing a mountain, you can manage a big challenge with clear directions, inspiration and encouragement. All you have to do is take the first step.

The post How to inspire grassroots activism appeared first on Socialbrite.

Post by Nancy P. Howard

SEO might not seem like something that’s top of mind for many nonprofits. SEO … isn’t that something that tech or marketing firms do? Well, if your goal is to get your campaigns and your organization’s mission to show up in the search rankings, then search engine optimization needs to be a priority.

Below we outline a time-honored strategy that explains how to make your website or blog’s home page and key pages turn up higher in Google search results and in other search engines. The key trick is strategic use of backlinks.

What is link building and why is it important?

Link building or growing a backlink profile is the process of collecting links from other websites that are directed to the nonprofit’s website or blog. So, for example, Forbes could be citing an article with expert opinion from the nonprofit’s website and linking to this article.

If a certain nonprofit’s website has a good backlink profile, it is likely to rank high in search engine results for different keywords. Higher search rankings mean that there will be more traffic with the click-through and conversion rates improving as well. There are different tactics that can help build a good backlink profile.

Now, easier said than done. How do you accomplish that?

Here’s a classic 3-minute awareness video from The Girl Effect with more than 2.4 million views.

Blogging and content creation

1One of the best ways to attract attention to a nonprofit is by having a blog on the nonprofit’s website. A blog will then have to be populated by articles, blog posts, videos, infographics, webinars, podcasts and so on. It isn’t necessary to have all of the types of content, but variety can still be quite beneficial.

For example, a video about the importance of protecting wildlife can bring awareness to the issue. It will also help a nonprofit dedicated to protecting tigers living in the wild generate more traffic to its website and encourage more people to support the nonprofit by sharing the video or donating even a small amount that could help out a lot.

Understanding what every content type is for will allow the nonprofit to better structure their strategy that will make the content’s impact bigger. Here are some ways to use content more effectively and efficiently:

• Articles: Create high-quality and informative articles that become cited by reputable websites or online outlets.
• Videos: Videos have the potential to go viral, potentially drawing traffic and tons of backlinks.
• Infographics: There is no easier way to break down a process to its core elements than by using an infographic. If the infographic clearly explains how drugs impact a person’s life, it will often be used by different relevant websites and blogs to support their content — and will link back to your nonprofit’s website.
• Webinars/podcasts: Though webinars and podcasts are not as common with nonprofits (it depends on the niche), they can still be very effective for bringing awareness to the cause and to the nonprofit hosting the webinars or podcasts.

Collaborations and partnerships

2As a nonprofit, you know that you can’t just always be asking for support from donors or other stakeholders. Sometimes you have to extend a hand and work with others.  Collaborations and partnerships have the potential for offering advantages for all parties involved.

The best way to find organizations or individuals to collaborate or partner with is by searching on social media platforms. This ensures that the potential partner has a sufficiently large online presence that will benefit your organization’s need for greater exposure online.

Once a list of potential partners is finalized, reach out abuot the prospect of a collaboration. Mutual shout-outs, hosting an event together, or other ways to partner should all be on the table. And an easy win-win is to get a backlink to your site or ongoing campaign as part of the collaboration.

Gaining backlinks

3An interesting way of gaining backlinks that has recently become more popular involves contacting the website where the backlink will be located and asking for the backlink directly. It seems a bit unusual, but from an SEO perspective it makes sense:

• Content research: First, it’s necessary to do some research and find the highest-ranking articles on a certain topic. The best situation is when these articles are a few years old. Then, it is crucial to locate the backlinks these articles got from other websites because these will be the websites to contact in the end.
• Content creation: The next step is content creation when the nonprofit creates similar articles to the one it located during research. The articles created by the nonprofit need to be the better versions of the originals with such things as extra research or statistics, improved visuals, more timely content, and so on.
• Contacting: Once the articles are published on the nonprofit’s website or blog, the final step is contacting the websites that linked to the original article and asking them to change their link to a backlink to the nonprofit’s improved article.

Donorbox wrote a guest blog post for Socialbrite that included some of its notable campaigns, including one for the Salvadoran American Humanitarian Aid Foundation.

Guest blogging

4Last but not least, guest blogging is somewhat similar to tactic No. 1 above, but in this case, the content is created for other websites instead of for the nonprofit’s website or blog. Then, this content is used to link back to the nonprofit’s website, as long as the website where the content is published allows the guest post to include backlinks.

It’s important to understand though that guest blogging can only be effective for collecting backlinks if the websites where the content is being published are relevant to the niche of the nonprofit itself. So, for example, if the nonprofit is concerned with lifting the ban on certain dog breeds, guest blogging is appropriate on websites that are connected to this cause (e.g., a website dedicated to the joys of big-game hunting probably won’t be suitable).

Backlinks are only as good as the websites they come from, which is why approaching the process of selecting websites to guest blog for should be done with rigor. It’s crucial to check the policies of the website, its rankings in search results for different keywords, and the relevance of the topic the guest article will be about.

Increasing online presence

5To put it simply, the more online presence the nonprofit has, the more backlinks it can get on a regular basis without having to use any special tactics. The problem is that to increase online presence, all the tactics covered in this article have to be used in the first place.

But once the nonprofit has a big enough online presence and perhaps even a healthy social media following, it’s much easier to continue getting backlinks regularly just like big brands usually get backlinks because of their reputation.

Final thoughts

All in all, using backlinks to improve the SEO rankings of your organization’s website is not only possible but likely if you use all the necessary online marketing tactics sketched out in this article and create an effective digital marketing strategy.

Nancy P. Howard has been working as a writing expert at Online Writers Rating for a year. She is also a professional writer in such topics as blogging, IT and marketing. She loves traveling and photography and always is eager to meet new people.

The post How nonprofits can skyrocket SEO rankings with backlinks appeared first on Socialbrite.

Content marketing has risen to the forefront in recent years as an important tool (if not the most important) in the nonprofit communication toolbox. It’s about creating great content on your blog, through social media messaging, email, quarterly and annual reports, case studies, whitepapers, etc.

At its core, content marketing is about communicating wisely with your supporters. The nonprofit, social enterprise or organization is providing value by creating and sharing information, innovative ideas, and insights that makes your supporter smarter and in the know. You become a resource. The result, much of the time, is that you earn the trust and loyalty of your supporters and donors. You no longer interrupt them with “messaging” but invite them into a conversation they find value in, that resonates, that they deem worthy of sharing with others, that makes them come back and ultimately invest in you.

The issue with creating great content is that often change-makers and nonprofit leaders are unsure about how to activate the most powerful resource they have: their intellectual capital. Nonprofits can be treasure troves of insights, experience and expertise, just waiting to be unleashed and shared with the world, but often the best of ideas and expertise lies dormant within the walls of an organization.

The Readiness Dance: Share your insights despite the misgivings

There are many reasons why organizations keep their most valuable thoughts and findings internal. I call it the Readiness Dance. People will say, “Our data isn’t completely ready yet – we’re not 100 percent clear internally on our direction with this project,” or something similar. While I completely advocate for presenting breakthrough insights that are research-based and clearly thought out — in fact, that is the essence of true thought leadership — very often it’s more about that “readiness” variable. It’s less about how analyzed the data is and more about how comfortable and confident we are in sharing our ideas and insights with the world.

When nonprofits hone in on their years of experience, research, collaborations and discoveries, they can advance their mission by using those same valuable thoughts and insights to lead. Many people call this thought leadership, and I’d like to see more organizations build their capacity to lead with their thinking.

Especially for smaller to medium-sized nonprofits, thought leadership can be one of the most effective and least expensive ways an organization can build awareness of their cause and support for their ideas and programs, and influence the communities they need to reach, including decision makers, policy makers and donors. By harnessing the power of their collective insights, an organization can shape its thought leadership to inspire and move its supporters to action.

While building a thought leadership program for a nonprofit should be thought of as an organization development exercise and not just a communications/PR job, communications teams often and appropriately lead it.

Below is a short primer to help you get the conversation started with your team. I recommend getting your group together around breakfast (or Google Hangout!) one morning and running them through this little primer. I promise it will get the conversation started and make for an interesting talk about how you approach your work and the insights and ideas that lie just below the surface.

Start with the big idea or revealing insights

Every big idea starts with a vision. It has a strong viewpoint and brings new insights and problem solving to an issue. Ask yourself what original, innovative and valuable perspective you and your organization bring to the table. What do you want to achieve from it?

Overcome culture shock

Effective thought leadership programs are an organizational development function, not just a public relations function. Powerful thought leadership campaigns need to be embedded into the culture of an organization to be truly successful. Teams need to be on board with sharing those ideas and insights with the world. They are your greatest ambassadors. Does your culture support that? If you encounter resistance, ask them what about it makes them uncomfortable?

Tell a great story

Concentrate on telling one focused and clear story and communicate it using channels you know your audience engages with. Social media, online communities, associations, traditional media and speaking events like panels and conferences are all fair game.

Become a resource

People don’t like to be sold things, for the most part — even when what you’re selling is a noble and brilliant cause. That said, they do buy into solutions, expertise and problem solving. Share your insights. Spread your idea. Offer guidance and people will follow.

Inspire action

Powerful thought leadership can inspire people to act. Whatever your idea is, make sure that it is actionable. What do you want people to do? Be brave. Ask for what you want.

What are some of the ways your team is leading the conversation on the issues that drive your cause? I’d love to hear some examples. If you’re not quite there yet, I would love to hear what some of the barriers are that you’ve encountered.

The post Building your nonprofit’s thought leadership capacity appeared first on Socialbrite.

Photo by Daniel Funes Fuentes on Unsplash.

By Nancy Ryerson

Chances are, your nonprofit has a bold goal, whether it’s eradicating poverty or curing a disease. Your organization helps make progress toward that goal every day, but of course, complex problems have complicated solutions that can take a long time to achieve.

Unfortunately, slow progress, even if it’s impactful, doesn’t always make for the most inspiring message for supporters. We put together five strategies that you can use on your nonprofit’s blog, on social media, in email marketing, and other outlets to help maintain momentum as you work to achieve your mission.

Compile a timeline that demonstrates how far you’ve come. When you care deeply about a cause, nothing other than a cure for the disease your loved one lives with, or an end to childhood hunger, feels satisfying. But showing key milestones you’ve hit along the way can help create a sense that your organization is moving closer to your goal. For example, if you’re involved in research, your timeline can begin when the first treatment appeared for the condition and track new therapy options from there. Timelines can help demonstrate that even if progress may feel slow, positive updates have moved your cause forward. Everytown for Gun Safety, for example, has a timeline on their website that combines legislative successes alongside the organization’s history and development. Teach for America shares a timeline of the organization’s history along with the progress they made along the way toward improving educational outcomes for low-income students.

Show how patients can make an impact beyond donating. Donation campaigns are important, but sharing other ways community members can get involved is one way to help supporters feel more engaged with your cause, and understand the steps involved in getting closer to your goal. Use your website content and blog to share ways supporters can help your organization move past roadblocks and reach solutions faster. For example, lack of participants in clinical trials slows the research process. JDRF shares information on how to sign up for clinical trials to help move research forward by using Antidote’s clinical trial search tool to help community members find type 1 diabetes trials for which they may qualify.

For other organizations, political challenges may create significant barriers. Sharing with supporters how to get involved in calling representatives and attending rallies can be another way to engage your community. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, for one, has a section on their website about getting involved in policy issues around CFF, such as medical research funding.

Create evergreen content explaining the mechanics of the work you do. Help your community better understand the complexities surrounding your particular mission. For example, if you fund medical research, outline the steps involved in how a new drug is approved for patients, starting with the process of research discovery. You can also detail the work your organization does in support of your larger cause, beyond what your supporters might think of initially. For example, Feeding America notes that the work of foodbanks goes beyond distributing food: they also provide programs for families to help them make healthy choices for their families, maintain a food budget, and other skills to help reduce hunger.

Use numbers to show that you’re making progress. Even if you haven’t reached your organization’s most significant goal, highlighting promising statistics, whether in a blog post or in an infographic, can help demonstrate the progress you have made in a concrete way. UNICEF, for example, creates infographics that show promising changes in specific areas related to their cause, such as number of school-aged children currently out of school. The Michael J. Fox Foundation offers a page on new Parkinson’s drugs in the development pipeline that the Foundation has funding, noting how close the treatments are to reaching patients.

Share stories from people who can offer a perspective on the progress your organization has made over time. Personal stories are some of the most powerful ways to tell the story of the progress your organization has made along the way. Try to find stories about problems your organization has helped solve for someone. Volunteer stories can work here, too, particularly if they highlight that participating made the volunteer feel more hopeful. Charity Water does a great job of highlighting stories from beneficiaries of their clean water programs who share how having access to water has changed their communities.

The path toward your goal may be long, but by sharing milestones and how supporters can get involved along the way, you can keep your community engaged throughout your organization’s journey. If you have other suggestions for keeping supporters engaged when your mission hits a roadblock, please share them in the comments below.

Nancy Ryerson is a digital communicator with experience in content, marketing, and social media in the healthcare space. She currently writes for clinical researchers, nonprofits and patients at Antidote, a digital health startup that connects patients to research through an innovative clinical trial search tool. Prior to joining Antidote, she spent three years at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, where she communicated research updates and advice on living well with Parkinson’s to the Foundation’s social media community of 750,000+ followers.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nanrye

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyryerson/

The post 5 ways to show progress toward your nonprofit’s mission appeared first on Socialbrite.

A few days ago, I was strolling along the foggy coast in Northern California when I noticed a cormorant flying in “v” formation with a flock of pelicans. A week later, I saw a pelican flying with a flock of cormorants.

I’ve been watching these birds for years and never saw them co-mingle in a flight pattern. I always assumed the same types of birds fly together. It turns out these two species bond in the hunt for food because they can catch more if they work together.

It’s a great metaphor for a corporate-nonprofit partnership. Joining forces with organizations that have resources your organization doesn’t can yield exponential dividends.

As federal funding tightens and corporations take on a larger role in communities, these partnerships are becoming increasingly common — and successful.

“Whether it’s tackling the Muslim ban or protecting green spaces, nonprofits have products and services that many companies realize they need to create a healthy business environment, and to contribute to a world their stakeholders — employees, investors and customers — want to live in,” said Danielle Silber, director of strategic partnerships at American Civil Liberties Union.

Everyone Benefits

Are you with a nonprofit that wants to innovate but doesn’t have the financial cushion to take risks? Maybe you work for a company that wants to deliver services on a small scale to low-income neighborhoods, but don’t have the local understanding to do so.

Each entity has its strengths. A corporation has resources and connections, and a nonprofit has an intimate understanding of a community or issue area. Combined, the company can build a positive reputation showing its support for a cause, and the nonprofit can focus on advancing its mission.

For example, to help solve the problem of children missing school because they don’t have clean clothes to wear, Whirlpool created Whirlpool Care Counts — an initiative to install washers and dryers in schools to see how attendance rates are impacted when students have clean clothes. The pilot program was so successful, with 93 percent of participating students’ attendance increasing in the first year, that Whirlpool is partnering with Teach for America to reach more students across the country.

The Five Practices of Partnership

If you decide to embark on this kind of partnership, make sure you have senior management buy-in and ample resources to run it. Then, follow these five practices to increase your likelihood of success.

1. A shared vision: What is it that each of you are trying to accomplish? Companies often look to strengthen their brands with customers, shareholders and employees. A clearly articulated social mission helps them do that through their corporate social responsibility efforts. Nonprofits are laser-focused on their social missions such as alleviating poverty, curbing climate change, or providing healthcare, for example. Although companies and nonprofits have different reasons for partnering, both should agree on the partnership’s purpose and outcomes.

The issue the nonprofit is on a mission to solve will determine the perfect intersection for a company and nonprofit to work together. If a healthcare company wants to provide discounted services to low-income neighborhoods, the obvious partner for them is an organization whose mission is to do the same.

Look at Unilever’s partnership with Domestos and UNICEF to deliver clean, safe toilets to millions who don’t have them. In just three years, 6.2 million people received access, helping all three organizations meet their water, sanitation, hygiene and sales goals.

2. Define the partnership: Articulate the division of labor from the outset. Make sure each organization knows who is responsible for what, how decisions will be made, and which organization will lead the project. Appointing individuals will insure each side fulfills their commitments and keeps the train moving.

“Partnership terms are negotiated like any other contract,” said Cheryl Damian, senior vice president of Ketchum Social Purpose. “Not only does it drive accountability, it provides a clear understanding of roles and expectations. Many times it is during this process that organizations unearth hidden gems in terms of assets and expertise that can make the partnership more efficient and productive.”

3. Monitor and evaluate: Measuring progress is often the Achilles heel of any organization. Layer that with figuring out how to align metrics between disparate entities and the climb can seem steep.

Companies and nonprofits have different approaches to metrics. But measurement is critical to the success of the project in order to quickly build on what works, learn from what doesn’t, and keep momentum. A lexicon both partners can agree to, and realistically fulfill, will prevent mission stagnation.

In 2012, Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment (WB) created the We Can Be Heroes campaign to raise funds and awareness for the worst hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa since the ‘90s. Thirteen million people were displaced, and WB wanted to help. So they partnered with International Rescue Committee, MercyCorps, and Save the Children — three organizations equipped to deliver expedient aid to those devastated by the drought. All entities agreed that the best metrics for measuring the campaign’s success were how many people received aid and amount of funds raised. WB hit the two-year campaign goals within six months.

4. Communicate. Like a good marriage, your partnership requires nurturing to be fruitful. Don’t be shy about shaking out the rug if decision-making stalls or the partnership takes a wrong turn. Open dialogue will strengthen your collaboration and lead to better outcomes. So will establishing processes for communicating with your partner, and your internal team. Create a project work plan, schedule weekly check-in calls, and consider using technology like Slack or a project management tool like Teamwork to make collaboration easier.

And don’t forget to communicate partnership successes both internally and externally. Doing so will build excitement for the project throughout both organizations.

5. Flexibility: Remember, each organization has its own culture. Organizations evolve and grow — so must the partnership if you want to have a positive experience. Handle conflict when it arises, and be accommodating.

Creating a partnership can be challenging, but the effort is worth it for organizations and the communities they serve. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming if you take things step by step. If you’re considering a partnership, or are in the midst of one you’d like to reinvigorate, apply these five elements and you’re likely to cultivate strong results.

Jessica Scadron is the founder of Social Harmony, a communications firm that provides strategy and implementation to organizations changing the world. Find her on LinkedIn, Twitter and email.

The post 5 Ingredients to Make Your Nonprofit-Corporate Partnership Succeed appeared first on Socialbrite.

In June, everyone shifts into summertime mode. The kids are done with school. Summer camps and vacations are anticipated.And for many nonprofit marketers, work slows down or takes on a different pace.

The post 4 Creative Summertime Fundraising Projects appeared first on Socialbrite.

As we get ready to wind down for the weekend, I wanted to share some links from around the web that have inspired me, taught me something new, or given me a hearty laugh. Hope they do the same for you. Happy Friday!

The buildOn Instagram account is endlessly inspiring to me. A great one to follow.

+Acumen just launched some amazing free online courses. From ‘Business Models for Social Impact’ to ‘Financial Modeling for the Social Sector’ and more – it’s worth a peek.

I’m living in this T-shirt right now. I call it #empowermentchic. ;)

NTEN (The Nonprofit Technology Network) is producing two conferences this fall—in New Mexico and Oregon—and both are designed to help you develop and refresh your digital strategy. Highly recommended.

It’s so important to allow ourselves the space and time to do things differently. This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. How do I let other sectors inspire me to look at my work differently? I enjoyed reading about how Beth Kanter is working on Design Thinking with nonprofits in her blog post, Different Ways Nonprofits Are Using Design Thinking to Solve Problems and Achieve Impact

I found this post from CauseVox to be a super-detailed and informative read on peer-to-peer fundraising. A great primer to get you going.

Totally old Buzzfeed post on ’25 Situations Only Nonprofit People Can Understand’, but still makes me laugh every time I come across it.

Have a great weekend!

The post The Friday Edit – Links I’m Loving appeared first on Socialbrite.

I’ve been getting so many questions, and there’s been so much interest in this new app from the nonprofit community, that I thought posting this video Q and A would be an additional way to get the Persicope basics down, as well as some best practices and ideas on how your nonprofit can put Periscope to work.

Is your nonprofit using Periscope? Let me know in the comments! I’m doing a series of early case studies on Periscope for Nonprofts, and would love to feature how your nonprofit is leveraging Periscope for social or environmental good.

The post (VIDEO) Leveraging Periscope App for Social Good appeared first on Socialbrite.

This past Tuesday, I attended the Social Media for Nonprofits Conference in NYC. There’s always great content and discoveries to be made at the #SM4NP Conferences.  They tour around the country and are focused on providing great content and practical, tactical workshops and tools that nonprofits can put to work the next day. Full disclosure: I’m on their Leadership Council but I still know a good conference when I see one.

One of my favorite presentations came from Jereme Bivins and Jay Geneske from the Rockefeller Foundation. They were presenting one of their latest projects: HatchforGood.org. I had known about HatchforGood for a little while now but hadn’t given it a deep dive yet, so I was super excited to get this in-person primer at the conference.

Well, it’s really pretty great and it’s free. As the site tells us, Hatch acts like a concierge, connecting you to a suite of tools and a growing community to help you leverage storytelling to drive social impact and improve the lives of the poor and vulnerable around the world. The concept being that nonprofit’s stories don’t just materialize—they’re strategically planned, they’re creatively crafted, and they’re designed to achieve measurable outcomes.

Hatch has five sections, each designed to help you strategically craft, curate and share stories to drive social impact. As you answer questions, you are provided with suggested tools, case studies and resources that are customized to your needs. These recommendations will always be saved to your profile so you can access them later.
As you build your storytelling profile, you can explore case studies, look for ideas from storytelling thought leaders and even contribute your own. These resources can also be saved to your profile for later use.

Perhaps one of my favorite parts of Hatch is that it has an ‘Evaluation’ section, which helps you measure the effectiveness and impact of your work. That’s great news for data-driven organizations and an impetus for those who struggle with metrics to wrap their heads around the impact of storytelling.

Great storytelling tools that make us smarter as organizations don’t come around often so go ahead, sign up and see how others are telling stories. It may inspire you to explore new ways of telling yours.

Hatch is currently in Beta. You can learn more at HatchforGood.org

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