Category Archives: Community Relations/Outreach

Should you leave Twitter & Facebook for the fediverse?

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It’s a mouthful, but bear with me:

The non-profit, distributed, community-oriented fediverse might be something you need to check out and use, for your personal and professional activities – and maybe the nonprofits you work for.

More and more users are leaving Facebook and Twitter to join such communities because they are uncomfortable with the corporate policies and the owners of the companies. Some nonprofits feel that they have an ethical duty to NOT be associated with such.

Most folks are staying on Facebook and Twitter, but creating profiles on other platforms, including the fediverse, just in case they decide to change their social media patronage altogether.

The fediverse is similar to social media networks like Facebook or Twitter, but it’s not controlled by any one corporation. To you, the user, it will feel like any social media channel, but how it is set up and organized in the background is very different from for-profit platforms.

The fediverse is a network of social media servers that share one another’s content. If I set up my account on one server and you set up your account on another server, we can still see and repost each other’s content because the servers are part of a “federation.” To the user, it feels just like, say, Facebook – you see all the content of those you follow – you will have no idea they are signed up via a different server than you unless you really look for it.

The only challenge you will probably ever face as a user on a fediverse is when you sign in – you have to remember the address of your server. I do this the same way I track my passwords. But, again, otherwise, a fediverse feels just like any other social network.

The most famous example of a fediverse is Mastodon, which is a lot like Twitter. When you join Mastodon, you have to join via one of its servers. Most people join via the “social” server – it’s the first one you see when you go to the site to create an account. Each Mastodon server has its own policies and administrators. If you do not like a change in policies on the server you have joined, you can leave one for another without losing followers. Most servers follow the Mastodon Covenant, which requires a basic level of administrative service as well as active moderation against various forms of hate speech. But, honestly, as a user, you probably won’t ever have to deal with ANY of this.

An added bonus: “Mastodon’s robust REST APIs are based on ActivityPub, a W3C standard”. That means Mastodon has a commitment to accessibility!

This article in InfoWorld by Andrew C. Oliver offers the best argument I’ve seen for creating a Mastodon account and for thinking very seriously about the consequences of supporting Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with your content.

As for me: I am on Mastodon and am using it more and more. I still have an account I use for professional reasons on Twitter, a Facebook professional and a personal page, and a mostly-personal Instagram account. But I like having alternatives – especially Mastodon and Reddit (and I’m getting more and more benefits from Reddit – including lots of traffic for my blog and two consulting jobs). I haven’t deleted my personal Twitter account but I use it primarily to encourage people to follow me elsewhere (difficult to do, since the Twitter algorithms now seek out such content specifically to downgrade it and keep it from being viewed by most followers).

For the nonprofits I work for, including TechSoup: I do have profiles for them on Reddit, and was able to reclaim TechSoup’s Reddit group, and posting there has resulted in some traffic here on the TechSoup community. But I still haven’t put any of them on Mastodon – mostly because I know that, in the case of one of the nonprofits I work with, none of their clients or donors are on it. But that could change… and I need to be ready.

What about you and the nonprofits you help/work for? Are they exploring other social media platforms with an eye to not over-relying solely on just one channel? Remember: no social media platform is forever. Eventually, the one you love most will go the way of AOL communities, MySpace, Friendster…

Also see:

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

For detailed information about leveraging online tools to support and involve volunteers, whether they provide their service onsite at your organization, onsite elsewhere, or online, get yourself a copy of The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. Online platforms and social media channels come and go, but the recommendations here are timeless. You will not find a more detailed guide anywhere on this subject than than The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.

If you have benefited from any of my blogs or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

The delicate, peculiar task of promoting a charity’s gala

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A gala charity event is a sophisticated, upscale party hosted by a nonprofit. At a gala, guests dress up in formal clothes, enjoy what is supposed to be very good food, socialize and are entertained in some way. Gala guests pay a lot of money to attend and then are further solicited for donations or to bid on auction items, many of them high-end, with the money raised going to the nonprofit.

Most galas are considered successful if they break even financially – galas that raise large amounts of money after expenses are paid are quite rare. So why have galas if they don’t bring in much money? Because most board members and other supporters may want to socialize with each other and celebrate – they’ve sat through many meetings, they’ve shouldered a great deal of leadership responsibility, they’ve discussed and debated all year long, and now they want to have an enjoyable time. It’s a time to renew, reflect, and reward themselves for work well done. And it can also be an important social event in a community: this may be a chance for aspiring and current politicians to network and an opportunity for business owners to show they are interested in community affairs.

Gala events have been a mainstay of nonprofits for many generations. But galas have also always faced criticism from people who see them as inappropriate, especially for nonprofits focused on issues regarding poverty and inequity. And such criticism seems to be growing among younger people. As one article put it:

Why juxtapose calls to feed the hungry, house the homeless and cure cancer with champagne toasts and caviar hors d’oeuvres? As researchers who study charities, we understand why opulent bashes that raise money for good causes seem puzzling. These inherently contradictory events intended to help people in need double as vehicles for the rich and famous to show off their largesse.

Those feelings among at least some community members can make marketing a gala difficult – something I have been facing as I promote the annual gala for a small nonprofit focused on affordable housing and housing equity. I want to make sure I reach people beyond the board who might attend, but I also don’t want to do anything that reminds this nonprofit’s clients or thrift store patrons that we’re holding an “opulent bash” they probably can’t afford to attend.

Market a gala the wrong way and you could end up with not just a poorly attended event that costs money instead of earning it, but also a public relations problem.

The gala will happen, the board members and others attending will have a fun time and, hopefully, feel re-energized about their volunteering with the organization. We might even manage to introduce some new people to the organization. And we certainly hope to at least break even financially.

While galas may eventually be abandoned, for now, they still have an important role at many organizations, including the one I’m supporting. That’s undeniable.

That said, here are two comments about galas worth considering.

A gala is not major gift fundraising, nor does it really have anything to do with philanthropy… in rare cases, it provides enough net revenue to justify having one. A gala is almost 100% transactional in nature. In other words, it’s not about connecting a donor’s specific passions and interests with the need you’re addressing. To be honest, it’s creating an avenue for you to invite donors and their friends to, for one night, feel good about what you do.
That’s not Philanthropy.
Can it be useful for cultivating major donors? Yes, in some cases. Can it inspire some folks to become donors? Yes, in some cases. Is it possible to make more net revenue by doing a gala than by cultivating major donors? No.
From veritus group.com.

Use your galas as a chance to continue showcasing your work, but be mindful that they may not be the centerpiece of your fundraising strategy forever… Don’t let the changing landscape around events catch your organization off guard. Galas may not be going anywhere in the next few years, but they’re likely to lose importance as millennials take on a greater share of our donor bases. Now is the time to rethink your plan and get ready for those changing dynamics.
From Team Kat and Mouse.

Also see this article, Nonprofits turn to tech to court younger more diverse donors.

Are you also facing difficulties in promoting a gala? Do you face challenges in marketing at a nonprofit because of how certain activities could be, or are, negatively perceived?

And speaking of fundraising:

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

How nonprofits can leverage LinkedIn

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It’s clunky, it needs a design update, it rarely gets referred to any more in articles about social media, but LinkedIn can be a valuable resource for nonprofits and other community groups and they should be using it regularly. Using even just the free features on LinkedIn will increase awareness about an organization’s work and it may lead to better board recruitment, more event attendance, more program participants and more donors, as well as greater awareness of progress among current supporters.

Here’s how your nonprofit or community program should be using the free features on LinkedIn:

  • Your organization should have a profile on the site and should ask all of its employees, former employees, board members and other volunteers to link to it in their list of job and volunteering roles. Your organization should also ask all of these people to regularly “like” the posts by the organization, if they feel comfortable doing so (but emphasize it is NOT a requirement).
  • Your organization should post public events to the LinkedIn events feature and then share these on the organizational profile.
  • Your organization should post updates to its organizational profile on LinkedIn – just like you do on Facebook, but perhaps with a more formal tone. Remember: LinkedIn is a web site for professionals to talk about their work and expertise, not for cat memes.
  • Your organization can ask employees, former employees, board members and other volunteers to share your organization’s LinkedIn status updates and to comment on such – but only if they feel comfortable doing so. Remind them that this is not a requirement and there will be no repercussions for not doing it (except for maybe your marketing manager!).

In addition, staff members can also join various LinkedIn groups and participate in such – but it’s their choice what they join and you should never ask them what groups they are on. But you can remind them that they should share info about your organization IF it’s on topic for whatever group they are on. These activities can further create awareness of the organization and a positive image.

You can also use the fee-based features on LinkedIn for paid roles. If you post a job, you ABSOLUTELY should reveal the salary in that posting. You can also use the job posting feature to post volunteering roles – I recommend using it for board member recruitment, but in such listings, making it clear that it’s an unpaid role, emphasizing the time requirements, and being explicit that not all applicants will be accepted.

I’ve been using LinkedIn on behalf of West Tuality Habitat for Humanity. I also used it some years ago to recruit board members for a cultural arts organization that funds nonprofits in the county where I live in Oregon. It has absolutely been worth the time investment – and most of the time, I’m just cutting and pasting info I’m already posting to Facebook or our web site – there’s been no need to create unique content. It takes seconds, not minutes, to keep info up-to-date on LinkedIn.

Is your nonprofit leveraging LinkedIn? How has it been working out for you?

Also see:

Social media is losing its influence for nonprofits – what to do?

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Here are comments from this article from December 2022 that every nonprofit and community group needs to consider:

This year, social media mostly stopped offering a window into the lives of our loved ones. It turns out that the social part of social media, which helped shape human behavior online and off for more than a decade, is proving to be something of a fad. It’s withering in the sad, slow way that internet habits do; eventually, the people who send public birthday messages on Facebook will be as rare as the ones who still have AOL email addresses.

In 2022, even the social media companies gave up on salvaging friend-related content. The networks rely on having enough in people’s feeds to keep them entertained during a scroll, so they can slot in ads between every few posts and make money. And there just isn’t much of that personal posting happening anymore…

The kind of service Facebook and Instagram will provide going forward is different, focused more on users’ interests than their friends…

There doesn’t seem to be a popular-enough startup waiting in the wings to connect people to their friends…

You can read the entire article here.

I find it sad for a whole range of reasons that this is happening, but for this blog’s purposes, I want to focus on how this change affects nonprofits and other community groups: this change makes it harder to reach our audiences via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And with the demise of small newspapers (or any newspapers, for that matter) and community radio stations, we don’t have other communications avenues to fall back on.

I find myself constantly begging employees and volunteers, including board members, to “like” or comment on the social media posts of whatever nonprofit I’m trying to help, because it’s the only way we can get the content in front of more people – these nonprofits have no budget to buy higher placement on Facebook, Twitter, etc. But the reality is that it’s a very hard thing to teach and sustain among staff, regardless of their ages. Without constant reminders, it just doesn’t happen.

It’s probably why I have liked Reddit so much more than other online communities: it’s old-school Internet, where I see the posts on the groups I subscribe to, and I can control what I see so, so much more than on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. And I was astounded when I had to recruit board members for a local nonprofit and got a healthy slate of candidates mostly from posts to subreddits for cities in our county in Oregon.

What’s the answer? I think for small cities, an answer might be to revive something that was done 30 years ago:

Back in the early 1990s, long before Facebook and Twitter, and even before the World Wide Web began dominating the Internet landscape, there were different platforms that various individuals, groups and communities were using to share resources, have discussions, etc., and some city governments, like Cupertino and San Jose in California, were quick to try to harness such to create more transparency regarding information and decision-making with their constituencies. Back then, Free-nets and community networks were the rage among the small number of advocates for Internet use by everyday citizens, like Virtual Valley Community Network, a series of community bulletin boards via FirstClass and serving cities in Silicon Valley, California by San Jose-based Metro Newspapers, the most popular being Cupertino’s CityNet. I was involved in CityNet, just as a user, as well as Virtual Valley and Mac-focused online bulletin boards back in the early 1990s, when I was living in San José – I was much more excited by them than the World Wide Web, which, to me, was just a series of online brochures.

I think it’s time we revisit these online community models. I think they could feel the gap left by the way Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms are changing, and the gap left by a lack of newspapers and community radio stations.

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Online spaces reflect your onsite vibes? What about vice versa?

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Do your organization’s online spaces reflect its onsite vibe?

I have been volunteering for Red Cross blood drives. Often, these take place in fellowship halls of churches. One was remarkable to me: the space was full of welcoming symbols and social justice messaging. The message was: “We’re so happy you are here, no matter who you are.” Later looked at the church web site, and was stunned to see that the onsite messaging wasn’t similar – that welcoming feeling was not also there online.

Do your organization’s onsite spaces reflect what you do well online?

I’ve also seen the opposite: a web site full of images of people and messaging that make me think, wow, this organization really cares about people and really makes a difference. And really wants me to be a part of it! But onsite, when you enter, those images, or similar images, are no where to be found, the mission statement isn’t in big bold letters in the lobby, and the first employee or volunteer I encounter when I walk in doesn’t make me feel welcomed – I feel like I’m bothering the person by being there.

Potential and current clients, customers, donors and volunteers want to feel like you want them to be there, onsite or online. They want to feel welcomed. They want the space to be accessible. They want the doors to open easily and the web site to load quickly. They want to know where to find things in your lobby and on your web site.

No need to hire a consultant: just ask a friend to walk into your space to ask about volunteering. Ask another friend to go to your web site and look for information about volunteering. Ask more than one friends to do this. Ask them about the experience later. Did they feel encouraged? Enlightened? Discouraged? Confused?

Use the results to develop a strategy to improve both spaces, as needed.

In the case of your in-person, onsite space, it may mean reminding staff how to answer the phone or how to greet people when the come into your space. It may mean stopping by your local Habitat for Humanity ReStore and buying some picture frames and using them to display your mission, some photos from your program (clients or volunteers – but only if you have asked folks to sign a photo release!) and a QR Code allowing people to easily donate online using their cell phone. It may mean making sure someone in a wheel chair can easily enter your establishment, or someone using a walker can find a place to sit quickly in your lobby.

In the case of your online space… go over these resources with your web designer:

Most popular blogs of 2022

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logo

We’ve celebrated another trip around the sun, and that means it’s time to look at what were my most popular blogs of 2022 – and to try to figure out why. It’s an exercise I do not so much for YOU, my readers, but for me. It’s the kind of self-analysis every nonprofit, NGO, government agency, or consultant for such should do.

There are eight blogs here that had enough readers (clicks) to qualify for being “popular”, in my opinion. And here they are.

Nine plus four emerging volunteer engagement trends (a VERY different list than you will read elsewhere) is not only the most popular blog I wrote in 2022, it is also in the top 20 of the most popular blogs I have EVER written. I was really surprised at how many people retweeted it.

The key to retaining volunteers. Another blog that got a LOT of retweets. It’s worth noting that Twitter has always been the most popular driver of people to my blogs – way more than Facebook or LinkedIn. That’s why I can’t quit it… yet.

What funding volunteer engagement looks like. A really popular blog – but I thought it would be even more so.

Seen a drop in volunteers? Quit blaming the pandemic & fix the problems. This blog struck quite a nerve, based on retweets.

How are you supporting the mental health needs of your volunteers? This blog, published in July 2022, saw a surge in popularity late in the year. Not sure why – I can’t see that someone has reposted it. But thank you to whoever did so.

How to connect & engage with volunteers remotely – even when those volunteers work onsite. More and more nonprofits are realizing that the Internet is an essential tool for supporting ALL volunteers, including those that you see onsite most of the time.

Either be committed to quality or quit involving volunteers. A blog I worked on for months and based on SO many conversations with nonprofits, schools and community programs that recruit volunteers, as well as my own experience trying to volunteer.

When IT staff isn’t providing proper support for volunteer engagement. Another blog I drafted over months. I’ve wanted to write it for years. I wish IT staff wasn’t an obstacle for managers of volunteers but, sadly, too often they are.

A couple of months, I’ve been blogging every other week, rather than every week. I’ve had a lot of other projects going on that need my energy and time, and cutting back on blogging let me do those other projects too. But for the first four months of 2023 at least, I’ll be back to blogging every week for a while, because those other projects have given me OH so much more to say! Let’s see how long that lasts.

Happy 2023! Hope yours is off to a great start.

If you have benefited from any of my blogs or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

Also, I have exactly 18 copies of The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. And when they are gone, they are gone – as in, you will have to pay a LOT more by ordering them from Amazon. If you want to learn how to leverage online tools to communicate with and support volunteers, whether those volunteers are mostly online (virtual volunteering) or they provide service mostly onsite at your organization, and to dig deep into the factors for success in supporting online volunteers and keeping virtual volunteering a worthwhile endeavor for everyone involved, you will not find a more detailed guide anywhere than The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. It’s based on many years of experience, from a variety of organizations. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.

The ethics of nonprofits staying on Twitter

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In April 2022, I started a thread on the TechSoup community about the ethics of nonprofits, NGOs, charities, etc. staying on Twitter. Given more recent events by the new owner, I’ve weighed in on the thread with updated thoughts. I encourage you to read the thread and to add your own comments there.

An App for Good Being Derailed by An Ugly Rumor

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A woman is hidden by the target she is holding up in front of her face.

It’s the latest example of a troubling pattern regarding social media apps, especially one designed to do good: a phone-based app starts to become widely popular, especially with young people, but then becomes beset by rumors – all unfounded – that it’s a front for sex trafficking.

It happened in May 2016 to the social app Down To Lunch, in 2018 to IRL, a social app that helps users plan in-person meetups and, in 2021, to WalkSafe, an app designed to help women gauge the safety of neighborhoods. And now it’s happening to the Gas app, a tool that lets high schoolers send praise to one another.

As this article in the Washington Post points out:

Gas has never been linked to any form of human trafficking, and the app’s very structure makes it impossible, experts say. The app has limited features, doesn’t track users’ locations and can’t be used to message someone. It’s a basic polling platform that allows users to vote anonymously on preset compliments to send to mutual connections.

The false information that the app is somehow tricking children into being trafficked has ricocheted across the internet. Teenagers have posted videos on TikTok and Snapchat saying the app trafficks minors. Parents have warned other parents. On Oct. 31, the Piedmont, Oklahoma, police department issued a statement warning parents about the app and encouraging them to check their kids’ phones and the post received hundreds of shares on Facebook. The police ultimately issued a tepid retraction. The Oktaha Public School system in Oklahoma posted an announcement on its Facebook page on Thursday claiming the Gas app tricks students into giving away their locations. Local media also latched onto the hoax and shared it as the truth.

That a police department, a school district and a TV station shared such an obvious lie is outrageous. I wouldn’t be surprised if some nonprofits have as well.

How sad that this Tech4Good tool, one designed to encourage civility and positivity, is under attack by people spreading lies online.

Related resources:

Myths about sex trafficking abound in the USA.

Examples of Folklore, Rumors (or Rumours), Urban Myths & Organized Misinformation Campaigns Interfering with Development & Aid/Relief Efforts & Elections. (note there are several examples of mobs who have murdered strangers visiting their towns under the mistaken belief that such were there to abduct children for organ harvesting)

You have an obligation to be truthful online.

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Executive Directors & Board Members: Get Out in Your Communities

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image of a panel discussion

The forum for candidates running for local city council or mayor, or county-level elected office.

The opening of the community farmer’s market.

The Spring musical by the community theater.

The rummage sale by the largest church in town.

The open house at the local mosque.

The Day of the Dead celebrations at the Hispanic cultural center.

The local Juneteeth celebration.

Your nonprofit MUST have representation at community events. Your executive director or a member of your board needs to be there, meeting people, shaking hands, listening to their program, showing your nonprofit organization is a part of the community.

I love the Internet, including social media. Yes, still. Any nonprofit that ignores its Internet presence, or doesn’t try to do something meaningful and collaborative online, is foolish and isn’t going to last. But the same is true for onsite, face-to-face community networking: you have to show that you care as much for other nonprofits as you want them to care for you. You have to look directly into the eyes of elected officials if you want your organization to matter to them.

What does this kind of in-person networking get you?

  • More donors.
  • More volunteers.
  • More and more appropriate client referrals and larger audiences for your programs and messaging.
  • More collaboration.
  • More community support, including cross-party political support.

“But I don’t have time!” you whine.

No, the problem is you don’t MAKE the time. Of course, you can’t go to absolutely everything – but you must build a list of key events and decide at which ones someone from your organization needs to be present.

Your marketing director, the chair of marketing on your board, or a trusted volunteer needs to research upcoming community events EVERY MONTH. Get it on a calendar and let the Executive Director, board members, even the entire staff, have a look. Encourage those that could represent the organization to choose what they might be able to go to – some might already have plans to go and hadn’t thought about going as a representative of your organization.

Prep your staff and volunteers that go to events on behalf of your organization in how to present themselves as representatives:

Give them an opening statement, like, “Hi, I’m so-and-so, and I’m a board member of such-and-such organization. Great event!” It’s that simple. Who do they say this to? Anyone they think might have something to do with organizing the event.

Over time, this kind of engagement cultivates a familiarity with your organization. Your organization seems more approachable and collaborative. Someone might tell you about partnership opportunities, a great candidate for your board, even misinformation about your organization that is spreading. You may find out about a local funding opportunity you would not have otherwise. A candidate for office may decide the cause you address – affordable housing, the performing arts, domestic violence, recycling – is worth supporting as a policy or legislatively.

And don’t be surprised if your online followers increase and your online messaging starts to have a lot more reach as well.

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

When some nonprofit employees & volunteers don’t really understand what the nonprofit is trying to address & why

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image that represents a panel discussion

I believe that everyone that works at a nonprofit, whether they are the Executive Director or the janitor, is seen as a communicator on behalf of that nonprofit. People are going to ask any employee or volunteer at a nonprofit a question about what that nonprofit does and why, and the person asked needs to be able to give at least a short, accurate description and then direct the person to the appropriate staff person (that person’s phone number or email) to get more info.

Too often, I see a disconnect between non-profit staff and the staff that work with clients and funders regarding what the nonprofit does and why. For instance, an IT staff member once came into my office at the United Nations program where I worked and said, “What does this UN program do? I don’t think I really understand.” And the more I talked with him, the more I realized he had NO idea not only what our program did, but what the UN really does.

I have seen and heard non-program employees and volunteers making unfortunate, even inaccurate, statements about the issues a nonprofit is trying to address – among themselves, to their family, on their own social media, to friends, to someone who they are interacting with as part of their job, etc. The consequences are REAL: they have now created misinformed members of the community, and these people will, in turn, talk to others. Maybe they won’t donate money or volunteer as a result – and will discourage others from doing so.

I would love to read any blogs or articles about how to address such a disconnect within an organization where some employees and volunteers don’t have a clear idea of what the nonprofit they work for does, why that is the mission, etc. I’d like to read blogs and articles that also have a strong argument for why ensuring all staff understand such is vital. For instance, why do frontline employees and volunteers at a thrift store that funds a nonprofit addressing poverty, job training, addiction, etc. need to understand where other funding comes from, how services are delivered, etc.? How do you get senior staff on board with making sure all staff and volunteers see that video you just shared with donors about the great work of the nonprofit, for instance?

If you know of such, please drop them in the comments.