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4 Ways Nonprofits Should Use Social Media

By: Beth Minnigerode | 03/05/2010

Grant Thornton recently released the results of its annual National Board Governance Survey for Not-for-Profit Organizations.

It provides some insights into how much the economy has impacted nonprofits:

• Nearly nine in 10 respondents reduced expenses
• More than half delayed capital projects
• Nearly six in 10 reduced personnel

That last statistic got me thinking about how nonprofits can manage trying to do the same amount of work with less personnel. What immediately came to mind was the use of free social media tools to help make their communications efforts more efficient.

Four Ways Nonprofits Should Use Social Media

1. Use the Facebook Cause application to raise funds and build your volunteer base
2. Implement the use of Wikis and Google Docs to encourage collaboration and to help your supporters quickly mobilize and take action
3. Develop and maintain a blog to build relationships with your supporters/donors instead of having to pay to print and mail a paper newsletter each month
4. Regularly review the results from monitoring the social Web for mentions of the organization and its issues. Use tools like Social Mention and Google Alerts to keep an eye on what's being said

What other ways are nonprofits using social media tools to deal with a downsized staff?

For more on nonprofits and social media, we recommend Beth Kanter's blog.

Posted in Digital Communications