Posted in NewsNotes Archive
|
NEWSNOTES Vol. 85 September 2009 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
BoardConnect® ResourceConnect® NEW Center |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| In This Issue | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Dear Friend of NEW,
Fall has us feeling energized and ready to take on the challenges we all face. We know you are focused and passionate about your mission -- as we are about ours. NEW wants your organization to succeed!
This month we're talking with social media guru, Linh Song, Director of npServ at NEW. Catch her on the Nonprofit Buzz radio show on September 24 and read her piece below. Learn how you can successfully raise money with an expanded online presence.
An upcoming special event with a speed-dating spin has us excited about the potential for matching individual talents with nonprofit organizations. We’re looking forward to trainings on financials, online media, volunteer management, and more. Take advantage of the offerings included here and don’t hesitate to call 734-998-0160 or 313-887-7788. Information, office/meeting space, board development, IT support! How can NEW help you?
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lead Story | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Linh Song, MSW, npServ Director Nonprofit organizations are facing new challenges in a down economy, with pressures to cut costs while reaching larger constituencies. The promise of social media can be compelling, especially if it means the possibility of finding new supporters and donors. But the process can be overwhelming. Should you start with Twitter? Facebook? What could you possibly put up on YouTube? For the past 6 months NEW's npServ Team has answered these questions while local nonprofits struggle with creating a social media strategy. We’ve found that while organizations must develop some online presence beyond their website, there are many misconceptions about what’s involved. Social networking is not about throwing marketing material into the “internet ether,” but a means towards building communities. These communities need to be wooed, informed about your work, and include the community that your organization already serves. Fortunately, the npServ social media series can help guide these efforts. One local group, Affirmations, attended our “Basics of Social Media and Online Fundraising” workshop and raised $15,000 in 3 weeks. Affirmations not only joined the social media bandwagon, they barreled down the information highway with clever outreach efforts using Twitter, YouTube, and their email newsletter. “Your workshop was fantastic and was really the catalyst in our reshaping an existing campaign to better achieve successful results. I feel like the resources you gave us were like the bible of social media. Before taking your training, we were somewhat tentative about social networking and mistakenly believed that we needed to utilize the same sort of messaging in social networking that we use in the rest of our marketing. You gave us confidence and knowledge about how social networking operates differently than traditional marketing options, and how we can try new things and succeed! We still have a long way to go, but I definitely think we are well on our way. Thanks again!!!“ Cass Varner, Communications Manager, Affirmations Ultimately, Affirmations and the other organizations who’ve attended our social media workshops have come away with a long-term view of what nonprofits can do with social media. More importantly, they understand the true value of social networks beyond the hype. The bandwagon has become a standard of practice -- so now the question is: Are you ready?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
