Three Reasons Why Philanthropy and Nonprofits Need Social Media

While vol­un­teers, friends, old class­mates, and poten­tial donors are hang­ing out on blogs, Face­book, and Twit­ter, foun­da­tions and non­prof­its are almost nowhere to be found.

Cor­po­ra­tions and busi­nesses, on the other hand, are start­ing to get the hang of social media. And social media isn’t even the best plat­form for them; it’s a much bet­ter plat­form for phil­an­thropy and nonprofits.

Here are three rea­sons why:

1. Social media is about build­ing rela­tion­ships.
Foun­da­tions and non­prof­its thrive from pro­vid­ing access and infor­ma­tion to their con­stituents and grantees and donors and vol­un­teers. We’re all aware of the ben­e­fits of galas and com­mu­nity brief­ings. These kind of events help peo­ple feel like they’re part of an organization’s mis­sion. They feel closer. Wouldn’t it be great to have an event every day?

 This is what social media offers. Hun­dreds, even thou­sands, of an organization’s clos­est allies can take part in a per­sonal con­ver­sa­tion with the staff, the board, other donors, and each other in real time. It’s where peo­ple can learn about the small details that com­ple­ment an organization’s big­ger moves. This is often the dif­fer­ence between feel­ing like an out­sider or an insider.

2. Social media is incred­i­bly inex­pen­sive.
How much does it cost to cre­ate a Face­book or a Twit­ter pro­file? Noth­ing. How much does it cost to cre­ate a blog? Noth­ing, if you imbed a pro­file from a free site, like Blog­ger, or less than a $100/​year, if you pay for a blog­ging platform.

Orga­ni­za­tions often com­plain that blog­ging or using Face­book or Twit­ter occu­pies a lot of staff time, and this esca­lates the costs. But rel­a­tive to what? If orga­ni­za­tions pri­or­i­tize post­ing and com­ment­ing on social media, the effort isn’t nec­es­sar­ily very time consuming.

How much time do orga­ni­za­tions spend cre­at­ing advertisements, newsletters, brochures, and case state­ments? Weeks, months, and some­times years. The infor­mal­ity of social media allows orga­ni­za­tions to bypass the exten­sive back-​​and-​​forth edit­ing and screen­ing that often bloats the time required for other com­mu­ni­ca­tions. And, with a sched­ule, post­ing and com­ment­ing on social media can be done like clockwork.

It takes an hour to post a blog. Posting entries three times per week takes three hours. Posts and responses to com­ments on Face­book, Twit­ter, and other forums can be lim­ited to an hour per day: 20 min­utes at the begin­ning, again at noon, and again at the end of the day. Spread­ing the duties among staff mem­bers, and even trusted vol­un­teers, can really reduce the work­load for any one per­son. Even if one per­son is respon­si­ble for all duties, they total only 10 hours per week (three hours for blog posts, seven hours for other posts and com­ments): 1/​4 FTE. This isn’t a huge commitment.

3. Social media allows orga­ni­za­tions to lis­ten and have a two-​​way con­ver­sa­tion.
If I had a dime for every time I heard foun­da­tions wish they could hear more from the com­mu­ni­ties they serve, I could lit­er­ally start my own foun­da­tion. Social media allows orga­ni­za­tions to lis­ten to their con­stituents in two ways. First and most obvi­ously, con­stituents can read and com­ment on blog, Face­book, and Twit­ter posts. The back-​​and-​​forth com­mu­ni­ca­tion can go on and on.

Less obvi­ously, but just as impor­tant, orga­ni­za­tions can also search Face­book and Twit­ter for any­thing any­one says about them, and in real time. This per­mits orga­ni­za­tions to “lis­ten in” on the con­ver­sa­tions oth­ers are hav­ing about them. An orga­ni­za­tion can iden­tify the speaker and directly answer their ques­tions and con­cerns, quickly. Talk about responsiveness!

Orga­ni­za­tions don’t lose con­trol of their mes­sage by becom­ing involved in two-​​way inter­ac­tions through social media. Instead, they become more respon­sive and authen­tic, which actu­ally pro­vides more power, not less.

The time is ripe for phil­an­thropy and non­prof­its to over­come their hes­i­ta­tion and get more involved with social media. And the only thing to lose is the uncom­fort­able feel­ing of stand­ing on the side­lines and hesitating.