I recently gave a keynote speech on “Using Social Media to Enhance Nonprofit Learning” at a conference sponsored by The California Wellness Foundation. I included a list of resources for nonprofits, thought I would share them with you here. I know there are many others out there, so please add a comment and tell me about the resources most useful to you!
“How To” Guides for Using Social Media
- Twitter Jumpstart – The Complete Guide for Small Non-Profits – Everything you need to know about using Twitter for your nonprofit, by John Haydon
- Case Foundation Social Media Tutorials – The Case Foundation and its talented staff live and breathe social media, and their website is a wealth of resources. These tutorials include the basics, effective blogging, and using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
- The Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide – This guide walks you through a step-by-step process to decide what social media channels make sense for your organization, and it includes a consultant directory if you want to hire someone to help you implement your strategy.
- Social Media Strategy 101 – A very detailed slide show about developing and implementing your social media strategy
- Nonprofits on Facebook – This is a Facebook page designed to help nonprofits “harness the power of Facebook and bring positive change to the world”
- YouTube: A Step by Step Guide for Nonprofits – This is a 26 minute video tutorial by Marc Osten
- The Networked Nonprofit – A new book by Alison Fine and Beth Kanter
Blogs to Follow to Learn More About Social Media and Nonprofits
- Beth’s Blog – Beth Kanter delivers great blog posts every day, and is one of the leading experts on nonprofit use of social media
- John Haydon – Lots of useful and fun tips, strategies and ideas about using social media for your nonprofit.
- Mashable – “The top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture,” there is a ton to learn about social media from this site alone.
- Case Foundation – As described above, the Case Foundation is an innovator in social media, including sponsoring and then evaluating the America’s Giving Challenge.
- Open Road Advisors/Larry Blumenthal – Larry previously worked at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, helping them to implement their social media strategy, and his blog is designed to help foundations and nonprofits effectively use social media. One of my favorite posts is “Tips on Connecting With Foundations Via Social Media“
- Nonprofit Tech 2.0: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits – Includes some practical posts, such as “10 Blog Content Ideas for Nonprofits“
Finding Nonprofits and Foundations That Use Social Media
- GlassPockets – The Foundation Center has created a website that lists social media channels used by foundations, including Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube. It is continuously updated by foundations that want to be transparent about their grantmaking.
- 130 Foundations That Tweet – I created this list about a year ago. There are many more foundations on Twitter now besides this original group of 130, but this is a good list to get you started.
- Case Foundation’s List of Funders That Tweet – You can follow this list for more foundations on Twitter
- 50 Young Nonprofit Influencers You Should Be Following On Twitter – From Rosetta Thurman
Social Media Policy
- 10 Must Haves For Your Social Media Policy – Useful tips from Mashable
- Creating A Social Media Policy For Your Nonprofit – From Wild Apricot, this post includes many links for other social media policy resources
- Air Force Blog Response – I first saw this on Beth Kanter’s blog, and I admit my first reaction was to roll my eyes. Then I actually read this and thought it was brilliant! A clear, simple approach to responding to blog posts that empowers the individual to make smart choices.
Research on Nonprofit Use of Social Media
- Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report – The Nonprofit Technology Network published this in 2010, and it includes interesting findings about how nonprofits are using social media.
What resources have you found most useful for your nonprofit or foundation? Please share them in the comments below!
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Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2010.
