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.

The post How nonprofits can benefit from knowledge management appeared first on Socialbrite.

Editor’s note: Awario is offering 50% off its Pro and Enterprise plans to any nonprofit. Head over to awario.com and let the team know that Socialbrite sent you.

Post by Julia Miashkova
Social Data Analyst, Awario

Doing good requires goodwill — plus the right tools. Without either, doing good is not as good as it could be. This is especially true to the nature of nonprofit work. To mobilize the public and inspire change, nonprofits need the right tools, and this goes for social media marketing more than anything.

There’s enormous potential in making the most of social media’s potential. Social media is there to build bridges — to local communities, mass media, donors, volunteers, influencers and everyone involved in helping to spread the word your cause. Meanwhile, social media tools are there to help nonprofits with all of the above.

How nonprofits can use social listening

Social listening — tracking and analyzing mentions of any keyword online — is one of the biggest buzzwords in social media marketing. Listening in on social media conversations around a cause brings a slew of insights important for the success of nonprofit campaigns. Here’s what social listening tools can do for social good:

1. 1. Reputation management
   2. Community outreach
   3. Influencers and media outreach
   4. Fundraising
   5. Surveys, polls and research of any scope

The best part is, social media listening is automated to near perfection. All there is to do is pick one of the many social listening tools available today — the rest is pretty much left to the impressive technology behind them. Let’s see how it’s all done.

Reputation management

1Step 1 of social media listening is setting up a mentions monitoring alert. This usually takes as much as a keyword (a name, topic, hashtag, etc.) and preferences such as languages, regions and social networks to monitor. Once the alert is there, nonstop reputation monitoring is underway.

By looking at all mentions of a name or organization, as well as the sentiment behind them, nonprofits can get an instant and reliable assessment of their reputation. Over time, this translates into continuous reputation monitoring and clear insights into any fluctuations.

Social listening is all about real-time results. Whenever there’s a spike in negative mentions or just a negative mention against largely positive feedback, the tools are there to enable instant interaction with the user. This way, reputation management boils down to joining all relevant conversations as soon as they pop up online.

Community outreach

2Social media is the place to connect with communities. By knowing what drives engagement and inspires action across target audiences, nonprofits can better plan their messaging and activities with communities’ needs in mind.

What kinds of posts resonate best with local communities and beneficiaries? What are the biggest topics buzzing at any given moment? What social networks are most effective in spreading the word? With social media listening tools at hand, all of these insights, and then some, are available in a couple of clicks.

Social listening is how nonprofits get to know their communities. From there, it’s growing social media following, raising more and more awareness of the cause and getting people involved.

Influencers and media outreach

3One of social media listening’s many use cases is finding and monitoring niche-specific media outlets. Whether it’s staying in the know of what’s being done to help the cause globally or securing the support of relevant local mass media, social listening tools provide a comprehensive overview of the media landscape.

Finding and connecting with influencers is another basic application of social listening. By filtering all relevant online conversations by reach, it’s easy to see the biggest names that are already talking about the cause and could become advocates of specific nonprofits.

Interacting with influencers and transforming them into goodwill ambassadors doesn’t have to be a massive headache. Social listening tools allow for instant in-app engagement with the posts, which makes influencer marketing a tangible objective.

Fundraising

4Securing the funds might be one of the most time-consuming and stressful tasks all nonprofits need to do to keep their operation going. Luckily, social media listening is there to take lead on this one as well (and then, ironically, bring leads).

Leads are the people looking to contribute to the cause but lacking the guidance and resources to do so. Social listening tools have baked-in features meant to analyze the entirety of online conversations around a topic and detect potential givers.

In addition to identifying individuals willing to get involved in the good work, social listening can be employed to discover grant announcements and other sponsorship opportunities. As always, all that’s needed is a mentions monitoring alert with keywords specific to the nature of the grant.

Surveys, polls, and research of any scope

5Social media is the world’s biggest database of audience insights. Whatever there is to discuss, chances are somebody has already started a corresponding discussion online. Hence, in the age of social media listening tools, conducting a survey, a poll or research is only a matter of fetching the data that’s already there and applying inbuilt analytics to it.

The best part is, there’s virtually no limit to the research scope. Social listening tools process huge chunks of data in no time at all, which translates into effortless, reliable research with no additional resources needed.

The efforts put into tracking shifts in public opinion can be reduced to daily emails or instant notifications on Slack. Social media listening tools will be on duty 24/7, which ensures real-user feedback on any issue related to the cause.

Recap

Behind the overwhelming billions of social media posts are people who want to do good but don’t always know how. Social media monitoring and listening is the way to tap into all of the online conversations and guide nonprofits to their target audiences, opinion leaders, media outlets and potential givers.

By using social listening tools, nonprofits get access to all the goodness social media has to offer without hiring an entire social media marketing team. I hope this guide serves as an inspiration and how-to for transforming online conversations into valuable aids for doing good.

The post The complete guide to social media listening for nonprofits 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.

By Jessica Scadron
Social Harmony

As communications professionals, we need to be agile and forward-thinking to stay competitive. We’ve come to accept that the future is unpredictable—and that we need to prepare ourselves for the unexpected.

With technological advances, fake news and virtual reality, we started to see accelerated change in 2017. We can expect that 2018 is going to move even faster. So limber up, expand your periphery, and take a look at what I predict will be the trends to prepare for in the coming year.

Activist CEOs

I am happy to report that CEOs are coming out of their corner offices with important social messages. What a breath of fresh air to see Tim Cook and Elon Musk speak out against injustices, and hundreds of CEOs resign from Trump’s business advisory board in protest. This makes my activist heart glow.

The time is here: Customers and investors now insist that companies engender a social sense of purpose that goes beyond delivering profits to shareholders. It’s a popular trend, and one that resonates with a much wider audience. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer: “Three out of four general population respondents agree that a company can take actions that both increase profits and improve the social and economic conditions of the community where it operates.”

You’ll see growing corporate pressure in 2018. With it, keep your eyes open for CEOs taking public positions on social issues—stepping in where policymakers are failing. It will be the communicator’s job to advise these business leaders on how to build trust and confidence with their stakeholders.

Integrating communications with business functions

Throughout my career, communications has traditionally stood on its own as a service to other departments within a company or organization, which are often seen as “clients.” For example, a comms team will be called when a sales department needs to promote a specific product or a program manager wants to run a campaign for maternal health. Historically, communications has responded by providing the needed content and design to implement these initiatives. I’ve seen this slowly change over time. In 2018, we’ll see that paradigm shift dramatically.

Organizations and businesses are catching on that communications is most functional when integrated across the company—with marketing, sales, finance and programming. Look out for the consolidation of positions like “Digital Communications Manager” and “Financial Communications Account Executive.” Companies will create new positions like these to more closely associate people with the work they do. We’ll need to work closely with our colleagues in each department and understand their functions so we can effectively communicate and elevate their work internally and externally.

Data

I’ve seen time and again how important it is to make data-informed decisions. But what is a data-informed decision?

Organizations need employees trained in data analysis, such as programming, visualization and statistics, to understand their audiences, cut costs, improve customer service and reach the right funders. Companies in the wireless, healthcare and software industries are using big data in this way, and nonprofits can similarly reap huge benefits from big data. The Foundation Center manages a grand database for nonprofits to find out what and where donors are funding, and how to use data to advance their missions.

As data becomes more integral to operations, communicators must work side-by-side with data analysts to simplify the language so everyone across the organization understands the meaning, and uses it to make better decisions, like personalizing content.

We also need to be honest about data. It doesn’t lie, but how it gets translated can skew meaning. And, if you’re measuring likes, clicks and shares, understand exactly why you are using those metrics. Will they help you get closer to your goals?

Augmented reality

As a social do-gooder, I’m skeptical about our ability to control our technology impulses. Frankly, it gives me mild anxiety. But augmented reality (AR) is here to stay, with the promise of making our lives easier. According to International Data Corporation, “AR revenues will surge ahead [of virtual reality], hitting critical mass in healthcare delivery and product design and management-related use cases.”

AR has come a long way since being invented in 1968, and it will continue to evolve (check out the full history). Existing museum, decorating and travel apps are already creating convenient and fantastical experiences for the citizenry.

What does this mean for communicators? We need to think differently about how we create and deliver content, from a 2D reality to 3D, and using voice, face and object recognition. Think back to how we changed our approach to writing for websites when the Internet took off or how we learned to create for mobile. AR is going to be our next big content challenge.

Video

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, video is worth a million.” – Miranda King, digital media strategist

I couldn’t agree more. Video has been the most shared form of digital content for years, and you can expect it to explode in 2018. Around the world, people collectively spend a billion hours a day on YouTube. In addition to the well-researched fact that people are drawn to video over text, video gets better search results: “Social media algorithms prefer video content because it generates higher engagement and more click-throughs than traditional static content,” according to Stern Strategy Group.

Virtual reality, raw footage, 360 video, and live streaming will boom in 2018 as people not only want to watch video, but be completely immersed in the experience. And as Facebook becomes more mobile and video metrics more available, there’s greater reason to invest in this medium.

As a communicator, you’ll want to figure out what types of video will be the most useful for your organization, and the right platforms to showcase them. Then decide how to shape your content into the most compelling video people will want to share.

Video will increasingly become a necessary communications tool. With strong communications direction, it’ll be exciting to see how video producers use new technologies to deliver fresh video experiences.

I’m exhilarated about what 2018 has in store for us communicators. It’s a new frontier to develop new skills and tell our organizations’ stories in new ways.

What are your communication trends predictions for 2018? Tweet me your ideas!

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

The post The 2018 communications trends to watch appeared first on Socialbrite.

For many nonprofits, text messaging as a communications and fundraising tool can feel daunting. I’ve worked with nonprofits who grapple with understanding if text messaging is even right for them.

Below is a graphic shared with me by TextMagic that can help you better understand what an SMS campaign could look like and if it’s right for your nonprofit.

What do you think? Had your nonprofit worked on an SMS campaign? What were the results? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

The post How to Attract & Keep Donors Using Text Messaging appeared first on Socialbrite.

Today is my 10 year wedding anniversary and it got me thinking about how we value and place importance on anniversaries. That the action of acknowledgement is important. It recognizes a significant commitment and bond. It communicates that through the years, I continue to choose you. Pretty big stuff.

It then got me thinking about how we, as nonprofit communicators and fundraisers, celebrate our donor anniversaries. Do we do it? Is it a choice we make to not do it, if we’re not doing it? And what would that anniversary “love letter” look like?

Here are some thoughts on how I might approach the messaging of that “love letter”:

• Congratulations on your first donation anniversary! We know that first donation took some faith in us and we acknowledge and appreciate that.

• Today’s anniversary date is important. On this day, we started a very important relationship. One we value tremendously.

• Here are three ways in which your continued support of us has made lives better this year.

• Your commitment to us through the years is never taken for granted, and we’re so happy you’re here with us today.

Do you know any organizations that send out great anniversary emails or outreach? Please let me know in the comments section below!

I manage a great learning and resource sharing Facebook Group called Nonprofit Communications Professionals. Come join us!

Still pouring through Mary Meeker’s essential 2017 Internet Trends report. HERE are the highlights.

Digital Credit: Can it really alleviate poverty? And how do we protect borrowers better?

Should Your Nonprofit Livestream Events? As more and more nonprofits dip their toes into livestreaming galas and other events, how do we decide what gets streamed and what doesn’t?

Why are so many of us in a rush to create new nonprofits and social enterprises and less resolute to collaborate or join forces with existing organizations doing the same or similar work? What can we do about this phenomenon and how can we be better together? This really thorough piece from SSIR tackles an issue we think about a lot.

These are pretty great and funny: 30 Creative Museum 404 Pages. From our friends at Hyperallergic.

Happy Friday!

Caroline

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock/Mallorca, Spain

The post Your Donor Sweetheart + My Nonprofit Comms Edit appeared first on Socialbrite.

Relief Web, a humanitarian information source on global crises and disasters, and a digital service of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), recently released four mobile apps that aim to serve different members of the humanitarian aid community.

Each of these app aims to solve a problem or address a challenge that will meet specific needs of humanitarians.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the apps:

ReliefWeb Crises App

– Information gathering and making sense of a fast-paced humanitarian crisis can be challenging. This app provides key figures, access to latest reports and maps, real time financial status, as well as a comprehensive overview for each crisis. All of this is kept updated in real time.

– The app allows you to quickly compare different crises and gather the history of each event, so you can follow the evolution of a situation. Some recent examples: Haiti’s Hurricane Matthew and the crisis in Syria.

Headlines App

-Humanitarian situations evolve rapidly. Headlines App provides a general overview of the latest humanitarian developments globally.

– It is a tool that allows you to follow a person or location, i.e., “Ki-moon”, “Aleppo”,
“Gender”, “Refugees”,etc., and see what has been published on ReliefWeb that matches your search.

Videos App

– Videos allow you to get a much better sense of how things look in the field better than most reports usually can. It is a resource for complex , quickly changing situations, such as the ones in Syria and South Sudan, as well as for sudden onset disasters.

– Video is becoming a preferred reporting format for humanitarians, but prior to this launch there has been a gap in specialized video platforms that can gather these videos quickly and make them easy to access. ReliefWeb editors select relevant videos from more than 300 humanitarian sources, organize them, and make them available.

Jobs App

– Job finding can be challenging in the humanitarian system due to short-term appointments, short application deadlines, and fast paced recruitment. However, finding the right people quickly is key to the success of any humanitarian operation. The Jobs App provides access to most available jobs in the humanitarian sector.

– You can create a job search that matches your interests and skills and see when there are new jobs matching your search, i.e. communications officer, jobs in Sudan,
internship, etc.

All the apps allow you to bookmark reports to read later, and importantly, to share their content via social media.

Mobile visitors to ReliefWeb have increased significantly in the last few years, according to Adrian Ciancio, product manager at the digital humanitarian information service. “In 2015, mobile visitors to our site increased by an overwhelming 71%, of which over 90% were new visitors. Although we have a mobile version of the website, we believe that the apps allow us to package, curate, and organize content in ways that better serve the needs of our audience,” Ciancio said.

The team will also be conducting an impact evaluation on all the apps and plans on gathering user feedback in the upcoming months to improve and expand on the apps.

You can download the apps here: http://labs.reliefweb.int/apps

This piece was originally published on The Huffington Post

The post New Humanitarian Aid Apps Provide Real-Time Access & Information appeared first on Socialbrite.

Instagram Stories create an extra layer of visibility for your nonprofit – whenever you want that visibility.

Like Snapchat, Instagram Stories last for 24 hours. And like Snapchat, stories are told in a series of pictures and videos.

Users who’ve published Instagram Stories within the past 24 hours appear at the very top of the home screen:

What are the benefits of Instagram Stories from a communications perspective?

Let’s dig in!

Get on the marquee with Instagram Stories

When you publish a story your profile picture appears at the top of the home screen (as shown above), giving your brand extra visibility. Once your stories expire (after 24 hours), your brand will no longer appear in the marquee.

In other words, the simple act of publishing Instagram Stories creates more visibility your brand!

Content with an expiration date:

Before Snapchat, social media content was assumed to be permanent on the Internet. In fact, Facebook updates, Twitter tweets, and Instagram posts all have a unique URL called a permalink – a permanent link to a piece of content. No expiration date.

But with Instagram and Snapchat stories, social conversations can have a shelf-life. An expiration date helps you:

• Create a sense of urgency: If your people are going to act, they have to act now. The story won’t be there tomorrow.
• Get and keep their attention: The stories only last seconds, pay attention, or you will miss out.
• Inject more “human” into your brand: People seek to engage with people, not brands. Brands are fiction, people are everything. Instagram Stories allow you show supporters the people behind your brand – immediate, transparent, and spontaneous.

5 Creative Examples of Nonprofit Instagram Stories

A few nonprofits have started using Instagram Stories in very creative ways. Here are five examples.

1. Do Something

Do Something engages users in a creative and fun mini-campaigns to grow and engage their mobile supporter base.

2. Stand Up To Cancer

Stand Up To Cancer invited Instagram followers to a live Q&A with Sharon Jones to discuss her new documentary.

3. PETA

PETA invited Instagram followers behind the scenes to film a new PSA about the dangers of leaving your dog in a hot car.

4. Pencils of Promise

Pencils of Promise invites followers to tap through a series of pictures that promote#BacktoSchool. Fun, interactive, and creative!

5. Monterey Bay Aquarium

Monterey Bay Aquarium entertains with cool facts and bad puns… Hovercraft!

What other creative Instagram Stories have you seen?

The post 5 Creative Ways to Engage Supporters with Instagram Stories appeared first on Socialbrite.

By Edgar Rodriguez

Is Giving Tuesday a waste of time? Good question, right?

First of all, the data says it’s been hugely successful in the past. Over 15,000 nonprofits participated last year, raising over $45 million.

Yes, some nonprofits probably raised very little money. But Giving Tuesday is NOT just a 24-hour fundraising campaign. It’s a movement that your supporters are embracing, more and more each year.

How did your nonprofit do last year?

If you participated in Giving Tuesday before, you can look at several metrics to judge your past success.

Depending on your goals, you can look at:

• Total donations ($)
• Number of new donors acquired
• Number of current donors who gave
• Number of new emails acquired
• Number of people who engaged with campaign (clicks, conversions, shares)
• Engagement with follow up messages (email, social, etc)
• You get the idea

So should you participate? I asked a few peers this exact question:

The comments I received are valuable recommendations and pearls of wisdom about Giving Tuesday, broken out into: CONS, PROS, PEARLS OF WISDOM.

Giving Tuesday CONS (WARNINGS)

Mary Cahalane

The one-off, or even one day a year, habit is bad for developing relationships between donors and organizations. If you can’t keep donors’ attention with good communications, a giving day isn’t likely to successfully fill that void, anyway.

I suspect strong organizations, with good fundraising programs already in place, could do well with Giving Tuesday as an addition. They’re ready with a strong message. They’ve got the staff to devote to that one day. And they’ve got systems in place to build on the relationships started with the one day.

Smaller organizations? Unless there’s a strong community-wide awareness of and participation in Giving Tuesday, I wouldn’t recommend putting a year-long program aside in order to participate. It’s a tool, and not every tool is right for every organization.

I’d ask:

• Do you have time for a bootcamp? What will get put aside while you’re doing it?
• What will the results of making that time be? Will they be lasting results?

Dennis Fischman

I wrote about ten reasons a nonprofit should not be on Facebook, and it all boiled down to what your nonprofit can and should do first. (https://dennisfischman.com/ten-reasons-your-nonprofit-should-not-be-on-facebook/)

I feel the same way about Giving Tuesday. IF you already take care of your donors as if they were your best friends, and you want to invite them to a party that you and other nonprofits are throwing, then great! But how many nonprofits are really showing the #donorlove that way?

Giving Tuesday PROS (CHEERLEADING)

PRO:

Caroline Avakian

I think one of the best parts of GivingTuesday are the collaborations and partnerships that are forged because of it. I was working at Trickle Up, a global poverty alleviation organization, when GivingTuesday started and we got to publish a few pieces in the Huffington Post based on HuffPo’s partnership with the GivingTuesday campaign and the NGO alliance group, InterAction. It gives smaller NGOs a chance to be a part of something bigger than them. We also forged partnerships with other orgs we were on GivingTuesday coordination calls with. It’s a win-win all around. @CarolineAvakian

Rob Wu

At CauseVox, we have seen the sheer growth of GivingTuesday as the motivating factor to nonprofits trying online fundraising for the first time. By taking part in GivingTuesday, nonprofits learn, in a very short amount of time, how to set impact-based fundraising goals, tell a compelling story, and use social media.

A few case studies from CauseXox:

• Movers & Shakers: National Domestic Violence Hotline’s GivingTuesday Campaign
• Project Renewal Raises Over $77,000 on Giving Tuesday
• Movers & Shakers: Danielle Festa of Grey2k

Kivi Leroux Miller

I was hired last year by a handful of community foundations to teach nonprofits basic communications planning and donor stewardship using both Giving Tuesday and Give Local America as hook. It’s a totally new concepts to at least 75% of orgs in training.

From the Nonprofit Marketing Guide: 5 Ways to Harness the Awesome Fundraising Potential of #GivingTuesday

Joe Waters

I think it’s great at getting nonprofits focused on building a real audience – an army! – and communicating with them via social media.

Pamela Grow

If they’re already focused on the right things, especially building a solid email list, go for it. I love what one of my subscribers did last year for Giving Tuesday.

Julia Campbell

GivingTuesday is a national day of giving and it gets a TON of media coverage. People search on the hashtag all day long. People that may never have made a donation online give for the first time on that day.

It is not something your org should overlook, or sneeze at! You may not raise millions, but you may get new eyeballs on your cause, new ambassadors to spread the word and best of all – new donors!

Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz

GivingTuesday has grown such that nonprofits have an opportunity to embrace it, and leverage the day as part of a well-planned, overall yearly communications, outreach and development strategy.

Giving Tuesday: PEARLS OF WISDOM

Noland Hoshino

Giving Tuesday and other giving days force a nonprofit organization to sharpen and fine tune their message while competing with other organizations.

Most nonprofit organizations have campaigns that last days or months. Keeping donors attention for that long can be tiresome. A giving day campaign condenses your tactics to just 24-hours with immediate results.

Farra Trompeter

Giving Tuesday has grown in popularity, recognition, and success to a point where I don’t think nonprofits can afford to ignore it.

The challenge lies in figuring out how to plug it into the rest of your communications, especially if you are implementing a year-end appeal or annual fund campaign at the same time.

Rather than create a separate Giving Tuesday campaign, I think most orgs should integrate it into their overall calendar. If you are worried that it might take away from other efforts, consider testing a single channel ask–such as a 24-hour match promoted on Facebook or a selfie sharing campaign (giving voice over money) on Instagram.

If you are worried that asking for money on this day can hurt other efforts, ask for something else. Use Giving Tuesday to ask for time, passion, activism, and other efforts that might engage your donors beyond giving money.

Ehren Foss

A successful Giving Tuesday campaign depends on:

• How much the nonprofit has already adopted these kinds of tactics and technologies (how valuable is learning/training?)
• How well it aligns with their existing strategies and programs.
• How well they can segment and steward their constituents to make sure to ask the right constituents to join them in GivingTuesday in the right ways.

Practice working together as online communications, online fundraising, and major gifts teams. What happens if a major prospect gives to Giving Tuesday or comments on a post? Does your team know how to work together?

Mickey Gomez

Taking part in a broader effort can bring new attention to your nonprofit, whether through donations, education or simple awareness. The messaging around national, state or regional giving is also quite inspiring, and confirms the power of philanthropy by amplifying giving on a single day to maximize quantifiable impact.

Where the sector needs to focus, in my opinion, is on maintaining the momentum AND further developing ongoing communication strategies that respect how donors would like to receive information after taking part in such an initiative.

The Takeaway

Giving Tuesday, like any campaign, is much more successful if you do your homework.

If you’re community isn’t as engaged as you like, maybe Giving Tuesday can be a catalyst to build a stronger community. Success largely depends on how well you plan, your definition of successful participation, and what investment (and sacrifices) you’ll need to make.

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