This article is interesting because it talks about using Facebook and other social media tools as online fundraising techniques and how effective they have been.

It would seem that non-profits are eager to figure out how to utilize social networking as part of their online strategy, but only 2.4% of non-profits were able to raise over 10k through Facebook in 2010.

Only about 48% of non-profits were using Facebook for online fundraising, about 20% used Twitter, and only about 9% were using YouTube. Most of the organizations that used Facebook were only raising about $1,000 or less.

Heading in to 2011 most nonprofits (92%), regardless of organization size are using at least one social network like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and close to nine out of ten nonprofits (89%) have a presence on Facebook – up from 74% in 2009. By comparison only 70% of small businesses use Facebook as part of their online strategy.

This article also talks about non-profit organizations and how they aqurie their customers. Most organizations were using search engine marketing. The least popular method was social media, which was only used by 7% of organizations to gain customers.

By far the most effective channel was paid search marketing, which 90% of respondents put in their top three biggest sources of acquisition.

This article talks about how organizations are seeing a growth in donations in the past few years. This information comes from the eNonprofits Benchmarks Study.

The eNonprofits Benchmarks Study is an industry-leading study that examines fundraising response rates, average gift amounts, advocacy response rates, and e-mail click-through rates, among other factors, to set benchmarks by which nonprofits can measure their online performance.

Most groups saw a 10% increase in dollars raised online from 2009 to 2010, the same percentage increase those groups saw from 2008 to 2009, but slower than those nonprofits were seeing from 2006 to 2008, prior to the recession.

It also says that there is a substantial increase in use of social media by non-profits.

For every 1,000 email list subscribers, participating nonprofits had just 110 Facebook users and 19 Twitter followers. "Our side-by-side comparison of email, social media and mobile text programs shows that while the newer tools are growing faster, they still haven't caught up with email." says Sarah DiJulio, Executive Vice President for M+R Strategic Services.

This report is interesting because it gives many statistics on how non-profits are using technology and how technology is improving the many different aspects of non-profit organizations such as fundraising. Non-profits that utilize social media are obviously going to be better off and will get word out about their organizations better, especially to younger generations. 

I recently came across a top ten list of social media habits in successful NPO’s.

The list is very interesting and alarming. And since most of us have not exhausted all the benefits and dangers of this new networking tool, the list is extremely helpful.

Some great things to consider:

·         Social media does not save time, it requires it. Daily and weekly updates are essential.

·         NPO’s are discovering that the more time invested, the greater the return.

·         Don’t let social media reduce marketing costs, but conjoin the new with the old for more effectiveness.

·         Dedicate your NPO to social media.

·         Outsource if necessary.

The rest of this article very thoroughly examines these situations.

One of the best pearls of wisdom here is to start slowly and incrementally.

Also, since your NPO needs visibility, social media can help.

However, there is still accountability for organizations crossing into online networking. Creating in-house rules on whom and how social media will be used is important.

 Social media is also extremely useful for integrating and strengthening the culture within an NPO.

There are few cons to social media, but a lot of caveats. Organizations can learn a lot from the mistakes of others…

An article about a new non-profit organization explains how P2P Cancer Survivors is using technology to link cancer survivors and cancer patients together for support.

“Our foundation is not intended to be a place to get professional help. We leave that to the doctors and counselors. We want to use the power of the Internet and the “human connectivity” element that it facilitates to provide a venue for people, especially those in the fight against the disease, to communicate to get some much needed relief and consider it a safe harbor to let out their emotions and feelings”

The organization allows people to communicate through the internet. It is free any anyone who is affected by cancer, directly or indirectly, can join. This is not a new idea; it’s much like a support group. But perhaps the internet will start to be more widely utilized in support group situations like this, not just with cancer. It also allows people from all over the world to be connected rather than the typical support group situation where you may only have people in your area. You would also be able to find someone going through something that is a closer match for you.

Bob Price from the organization says

"Our foundation is a ground breaking use of technology that allows cancer affected people to connect and to do it on an individual level and within groups by cancer type for a customized experience."