A group of Limmud volunteers have been responding to the London riots in a very practical display of tzedakah and gemilut Chassidim. In an email to eJewish Philanthropy prior to Shabbat, Raymond Simonson, Limmud's Executive Director, told us: "We found a couple of days ago that Haringey Council’s Customer Service Centre in South Tottenham was responding to the fact that a number of families have been made homeless (at least temporarily if not worse) as a result of the riots in Tottenham. People live in flats above shops that have been set on fire, so their homes have been badly or permanently damaged. Many have lost clothes and possessions. They feel frightened and alone and are confused how they have ended up victims in this. We asked if they needed anything and found out they need bedding, … Continue Reading
Nonprofits: Are Your Facebook Fans Engaged?
Participation is the key for getting value out of your Facebook Pages Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, brands, businesses, Web publishers, individuals. I‘ve been digging deep into research about Facebook fan activity lately, in preparation for a few upcoming presentations about social media return on engagement and Facebook engagement. I was delighted to find recent research about Facebook fan engagement from Michael Wu at Lithium and from comScore. Placed together, this research offers three very practical takeaways for nonprofits and brands managing Facebook fan Pages: relevant benchmarks of how deeply fans engage with Pages, the effect of fans on website visits, and how likely fans are to engage with your organization’s services or purchase … Continue Reading
Social Justice in the Social Media Age
by Florence Broder When Allison Fine was in Israel in May, she said Israelis have so much to say, it can’t fit into 140 characters. Yet Israelis are a population that live for text messaging - it’s even how they pay their parking meter. I constantly try to make sense of the disparity between the two Israels: one being the hi-tech center of the world; the other, a country not that can’t use the tools to communicate. During June's Israeli Presidential Conference, everyone applauded the great coverage on Twitter, but I couldn’t help but ask why was it all in English? Where were all the Israeli Hebrew tweeters? However, the developing protests in Israel paint a different picture. The need to communicate has made tweets a catalyst for change and a revolutionary spirit. Empowered by social … Continue Reading
Resource Links
If you are not familiar with our Resource Library, have a look. We developed this section as a way to assist you in connecting with others, reaching a greater audience and keeping current on the newest tends. We also encourage you to check back often as new links are added on a regular basis. Some recent additions: 39 Questions Your Nonprofit Can Answer with Facebook Insights Facebook Pages include a reporting module called “Insights” which enables Page admins to understand how to better use their Page to market their cause and organization. Following are just some of the questions you can answer with these reports. A Consumers Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems This 140-page report provides an overview of what donor management systems do, recommendations for systems … Continue Reading
Judaism On Demand
The web has redefined the way we live and communicate Jewishly by Raissa Hacohen and Danny Oberman Accessibility and meritocracy have become the mantra of the young generation. As daily activities have moved online and become more accessible, can the Jewish experience really be that far behind? What do these developments mean for the Jewish people today? We can certainly learn many lessons from recent history - about what not to do as well as what to do. In 1993, Microsoft set out to develop the world’s first online encyclopedia, called Microsoft Encarta. Investing a considerable amount of time and resources, Microsoft hired a team of experts who composed over 62,000 articles. Their product was available online for a yearly subscription or by DVD purchase. Eight years later, a … Continue Reading
Staying On Top with Tech
Three important new articles for managing your organization's tech strategy: E-mail Is Social E-mail should be working hand in hand with the other digital messaging channels and each channel should complement and leverage the strength of the other. Is Your Blog Really Mobile Friendly? Is your blog or website mobile-friendly? And if not, how do you make it more mobile-friendly? The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing The thing about Facebook is, for a platform that’s used by millions and millions of people, it can be kind of … complicated. Particularly if you use it for business. So let’s get you some specific how-to advice so you can get rolling without getting frustrated. So how do you get your Page started? And how do you get more people to Like your Page? What are the … Continue Reading
Making the Most of Facebook Groups: NATAL
I love Facebook groups. Really. They can be the center of great community engagement and a campaign if used correctly and strategically. Facebook groups serve a different purpose than pages; groups are great for encouraging niche topic discussions and action, while pages are generally more focused on general agency communication and general community engagement. One Israeli organization, NATAL, so effectively utilized Facebook groups that Facebook featured it on its own Nonprofits page. NATAL, the leading trauma center for victims of terror and violence in Israel, created a highly successful Israeli blood donor awareness and registry campaign that successfully leveraged Facebook groups. One of the most urgent needs in case of emergency is quickly locating blood donors, and NATAL wanted to find a … Continue Reading
Allison in Israel: Day 4
by Allison Fine Another day in Israel, more fascinating events. The first event was a packed house at Tel Aviv University’s Communications Department. This was a full-circle moment for me as I spent a semester in college at the university. I never expected I would be back for a talk on social change (I was going to say social media for social change, but who could have ever predicted that even a few years ago!) A participant named Hadas Eyal asked a question about measuring social change catalyzed by individuals rather than NGOs. It was a great question for which I didn’t have a great answer. It turns out Hadas is doing her dissertation on just this question, the use of social media for individual activism! At every stop, I have met really smart people with stories or research to share. … Continue Reading
Allison in Israel: Day 3
by Allison Fine Day 3 started with a long drive down to Ben Gurion University in Be’er Sheva in the Negev in the south and ended just a bit north of Tel Aviv at the Microsoft Building. Quite a journey in many ways! The event at Ben Gurion was hosted by Dr. Hagai Katz the director of the Israeli Center for Third Sector Research. He and the program were very impressive. An issue that arose during the session, and that has come up a few times also, was the complexity of working in dual language environments. Many organizations are working with donors who speak English, volunteers who speak Hebrew, and other constituents who speak Arabic. Complicated stuff. But it’s important to remember that not only are the languages different, but these are also different conversations. We talked about the … Continue Reading
Allison in Israel: Day 2
by Allison Fine Day 2 in Israel was jam packed and action filled! The day began with a Tweet Up organized by Dan Brown of eJewish Philanthropy. Participants included Charlie Kalech (who very kindly tried for a long time, alas in vain, to get my iPhone working, stupid AT&T!), Margot Stern, Miriam, Schwab and Florence Broder just to name a few (apologies to folks I left out.) They described the current state of Israeli use of social media for change to me. There is a huge amount of texting going on, and Facebook is also huge. The use of Twitter is low, they surmised, because widespread use of smart phones is just beginning. One very interesting notion shared was the idea that Americans are much more individualistic than Israelis, more likely to put their ear buds in and be in isolation in … Continue Reading
English