Regular visitors to eJewish Philanthropy know we believe strongly in the use of social media / social networking within our non-profit world. There are many variations for an organization to choose from; no "one size fits all" approach. Hopefully, we are encouraging you to consider the various possibilities available and pointing you in some useful directions.

Perhaps just writing a blog on your organization's web site and monitoring comments is what will best for your non-profit. Certainly the "big" tool (and I can't stress this enough) is the use of video. The important thing, though, we hope you will keep in mind,

any ...

Facebook messaged the 4,600 fans of the FacebookPages Page with helpful hints on how to make your presence on Facebook go viral (by messaging all of your fans, for example). Check out some key strategies from the most successful businesses on Pages, including:

• Regularly adding engaging and useful content
• Letting fans participate in the conversation

To read about some winning strategies—along with the nuts of bolts of how to create and manage a Page—here's a link: Insider's Guide to Viral ...

Celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary with a new dance from Moses. Brought to you by Birthright Israel.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH3crBQyyhY[/youtube]

Chag Pesach Sameach

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem

A selection of recent articles and postings around the nonprofit world you may find of interest; first in our Jewish world followed by some links to recent non-profit blog posts. Study: Consultants May Hold the Key to Future of Synagogues A new study examining efforts at long-range planning in synagogues found that -- under the right conditions -- outside consultants, if armed with an understanding of both the business and the nonprofit worlds, can help congregations formulate strategic blueprints for the future. But the encouraging findings contained in "Strategic Planning in Congregations: Capitalizing on Opportunities for Organizational Change" came with a few caveats. Annual Survey of State Laws Regulating Charitable Solicitations Did you know that over 40 states ...

Several weeks ago we wrote about a special Purim Solidarity Rally for Israel. What was unique about this event was your ability to participate from wherever you were; in other words it was going to occur on-line. Now that the rally has passed, we asked Eli Feldblum (one of the event architects to tell us about the specific results and provide us with some background into using social media for philanthropy. “Word of mouth” has long been recognized at the most effective way of marketing a product. One person telling a friend about a product or service is as organic as advertising gets. Absent the usual skepticism that comes along with traditional advertising, word of mouth marketing imparts its message to ...

A selection of recent articles and postings around the nonprofit world you may find of interest... About the Economy What does this uncertain and difficult economy mean for fundraising and philanthropy? Changing Our World President Chris Watson offers a sector briefing. Are Tech-Savvy Millennials the New Voice of Philanthropy? There are many broad generalizations made when it comes to speaking of whole generations, but young people today are certainly showing an interest, and a tech-driven level of sophistication in their volunteering and charitable support, that might make fundraisers take a second look at these young donors of time and resources. From the Association of Fundraising professionals Blogging the NTEN Conference There was no shortage of cyber chatter surrounding last ...

Back in December, I wrote about viral marketing and the preview launch of this site. At the time, I mentioned a conversation I had a few weeks before with Carlton Evans, Marketing Director for The Tribe and how by using only a viral marketing campaign they won film festival awards and reached success on iTunes. Being curious four months later, I decided to check-in and see how this word-of-mouth, a.k.a. 'viral' phenomenon has proceeded. You can judge for yourself:

• The Tribe hit the number 1 position on iTunes most downloaded film list
• Reached over 150 thousand people
• Won 11 awards including Grand Jury and Audience prizes
• Screened at over 80 film festivals plus over 100 additional public ...
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  Tags: social networking, web 2.0

As we wrote about on December 23rd in, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II Takes Up YouTube, today we find a very different use for this video channel as governments are learning to leverage the Internet and control their own message. The Office of the Prime Minister (here in Israel), has now followed suit. According to Haartez, "The government recently posted three videos showing images from the terror attack at Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva earlier this month in which eight students were killed." The paper continues, "TheMarker has learned that the Prime Minister's Office was actually behind the uploads to the popular video site. This is the first time that a government body has used the site in response to a terror attack. The first ...

Billed as a "a one-stop shop for tools to help advance your organization's mission in a smart, cost-efficient way," the newly launched Google for Non-Profits portal offers quick links to the most commonly used tools in the Google suite of services. It also highlights some cost-saving benefits that are available only to nonprofits. This site features ideas and tutorials for how you can use Google tools to promote your work, raise money and operate more efficiently. And to get inspired, you'll also find examples of innovative ...

In an about face and under pressure, facebook has given in and allowed users in communities such as Maale Adumim and Ariel to list themselves as living in Israel and not Palestine! According to a story just posted by Reuter's... "Complaints by Jewish settlers angry at Facebook for listing them as residents of "Palestine" prompted the popular social networking Web site to allow users to switch themselves back to Israel. Facebook users living in Maale Adumim, Ariel and other large Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank protested when the site automatically listed their hometowns as being in "Palestine." A group of settlers accused the California-based company of having a political agenda." continue reading here