Chabad Leverages Social Media Presence for Big Bucks

Chabad has a long history of harnessing its considerable social media influence to generate results in varied competitions. The latest, the Kohl’s Cares competition, where $10 million will be given to the top 20 schools with the most votes on Facebook. Currently, these top 20 slots are dominated by twelve Jewish schools and led by the Chabad-Lubavitch network (with 8 schools out of the 12 – see  list below). The competition runs through September 3rd. Each of the top 20 schools will receive $500,000. Voting is open to anyone with a Facebook account who “likes” Kohl’s or is a “fan.” Each person is allowed up to 20 votes, with a maximum of five votes for any individual school. All nonprofit public, private and charter schools with a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status are eligible... Continue Reading

What Everyone Should Know About Website Statistics

It’s important to track a few key website statistics on a regular basis and yet not get lost in a sea of numbers. But, which are the most important? Visitors (both new and repeat). This is the number of people who have come to your website for the first time or who are coming back for a second time. This is important, because it is the size of the pool of people from which you are trying to generate support. The larger the number of visitors, the more potential for engagement. Action takers. This is the number of people who self-select on your website and do something to give you their contact information. It could be signing up for a newsletter, requesting more information, or viewing a video, but there must be a form where they give you at least their email address and sometimes additional... Continue Reading

Your Website is Not a Panacea

from Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN): The Web Is Dead? What Does that Mean (to Nonprofits)? Wired has a fascinating series of articles up about the future of the Web. Everybody interested in the actual “technology” part of nonprofit technology – as differentiated from what technology can help your organization accomplish – should probably give it a read … For everybody else, here are some highlights: Your website is not a panacea. Not to belabor the point, but if companies backed by millions of marketing dollars are having trouble making money from their websites, it’s unreasonable to think that just having one means you’re going to see an uptick in donations. But you know that. It takes a lot of work. You have to tell your stories. You have to build community.... Continue Reading

Creating Change – One Tweet at a Time

by Florence Broder A little over a year ago the Jewish Agency for Israel launched its social media campaign. At the time, the decision was to communicate our message aggressively and to reach out to a new audience by using the latest portals. When social media accounts were opened, it was a no brainer to create a Facebook page, YouTube channel, and Flickr stream. Twitter, was the wild card in the batch. How could anything important be communicated in 140 characters, essentially a tweet? It seemed a bit ridiculous. Quickly I immersed myself in a new language of RTs, hashtags, URL shorteners, and the entire twitterverse! Originally, my name was not listed on the Twitter account but there was a disconnect. It seemed artificial for an entire organization to have one voice. There are just so many voices,... Continue Reading

On the Web: High Holidays or Groundhog Day?

by Yoram Samets As we approach the High Holy Days – the most important of all Jewish holidays, the time of year we solemnly ask for forgiveness from our loved ones, take on the deeply moving task of spiritual self reflection and introspection, and welcome our estranged family members to experience these days of awe in our synagogues – is your Jewish institution’s website any different than it is at say, Tu B’shvat or Groundhog Day? I mean, really different? For synagogues, JCCs, schools, federations, bureaus of Jewish education and other Jewish institutions and organizations, this is a time of year when new faces appear, new relationships are formed, new commitments are made, old friends are brought together, and leadership and activity can shine. In other words, this is the one time... Continue Reading

Designing Social Media Engagement

Social media is ALL about engagement. However, it’s not so easy to create engagement. In fact, it’s darn challenging, as so many organizations and brands have discovered. Creating engagement is one-third natural confluence and two-thirds design. Thoughtfully designed social media programming generates the natural confluences of interest, participation, and content that ultimately … creates engagement. A comprehensive social media strategy should include designed participation opportunities on every platform that add value and creates deeper loyalty. The key to designing engagement is understanding the value that you can add to each channel and conversation, and programming for it. No one wants to visit a Facebook Page that is a replica of the content offered on the website. No one wants to subscribe... Continue Reading

Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide Released

Social media can be useful to your organization… but how useful? For what? What tangible results are people seeing from it? A new guide, created by Idealware in partnership with the New Organizing Institute, walks you through a step-by-step process to decide what social media channels make sense for your organization via a workbook, guide and the results of more than six months of research. The Decision Guide walks through: What social media is, and why it might be useful for you; How your goals, audiences, and metrics should drive the decision making process; Specific information on the tangible value nonprofits have seen in using Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Photo Sharing Sites, Video Sharing Sites, and more. Choosing an effective social media mix; Integrating all your communications; A workbook... Continue Reading

Why You Can’t Think About Social Media In A Vacuum

Social media strategy and practice is so much richer when ideas are shared and commented upon. Beth Kanter famously sets up wikis to share and gather knowledge for almost all of her projects, and uses her official Facebook Page to source ideas and get feedback. Linkedin groups emphasize knowledge-sharing. Brands have marketing and project management teams that collectively think about their social media. We are all trying out social media in new ways, while dealing with a geometrically increasing amount of data and information, and staying on top of ever-evolving platforms and new channels. We all need a social media support team. Last week, I had the privilege of working with a nonprofit team to brainstorm for two days about their social media. Not only was it fun, but what came out of the two days... Continue Reading

4 Steps to Online Fundraising Success

A presentation for the Association Foundation Group by Allyson Kapin, Founder of Women Who Tech and Partner at Rad Campaign and Jocelyn Harmon, Director of Nonprofit Services at Care2. The art and science of fundraising online View more presentations from JocelynCHarmon. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

How to Easily Take Donations Online

from Idealware: How to Easily Take Donations Online What tools can help you collect donations via credit card through your existing website? With a number of excellent options that allow even small nonprofits to accept credit card donations on their website – such as Click and Pledge, Network for Good, QGiv, and GiftTool – there’s no reason for any nonprofit to consider online donations out of their reach. Remember, of course, that donations won’t come pouring in just because you can take them online. Think carefully about how you will encourage potential donors to go to your website. How will they know that online donations are an option? How will you ask them to give? How will you integrate your online donation capacity into your direct mail and offline campaigns? How will you... Continue Reading

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