Blackbaud Pruning & Improving Its Orchard | The Agitator - Fundraising, Direct Marketing and Advocacy Strategies for Nonprofits

Blackbaud Pruning & Improving Its Orchard | The Agitator - Fundraising, Direct Marketing and Advocacy Strategies for Nonprofits

Get Engaged at npEngage | Nonprofit Trends with Steve MacLaughlin | a Blackbaud Blog

Get Engaged at npEngage | Nonprofit Trends with Steve MacLaughlin | a Blackbaud Blog: Change is the one constant and this blog is no exception. Today, Blackbaud launches an excited new site called npENGAGE that will take things to a whole new level.

Medium, Twitter Co-Founders' New Site, Will Open to Public Next Year - Lauren Goode - Media - AllThingsD

Medium, Twitter Co-Founders' New Site, Will Open to Public Next Year - Lauren Goode - Media - AllThingsD: The trio touched upon varying aspects of the future of digital content production and distribution, topics that would probably be boring to normal folk but enthralled the who’s-who of New York’s tech and digital media scene.

A few key points: Williams would like to keep Medium relatively high-quality, though he recognizes that, in publishing, low barriers to entry feed the content machine by making people feel good, thus spurring them to share more content (Instagram, Williams noted, is a key example of this). Also, he believes more and more media consumption will come via networks and platforms instead of individual websites.

Willie Matis – Turning your STAFF into online advocates

Willie Matis – Turning your STAFF into online advocates: Turning your STAFF into online advocates


Have you ever noticed that sometimes it is easier to get external supporters to be better advocates for your cause than your very own staff??

Improved customer engagement via social media a key goal for marketers | TMA Resources

Improved customer engagement via social media a key goal for marketers | TMA Resources: Organizations of all kinds – private and public, corporate and nonprofit – are increasingly striving to utilize social media. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks can offer significant benefits to organizations, while ignoring these channels can lead to missed opportunities.

5 Ways to Make LinkedIn Board Connect Work for Your Nonprofit | Beth’s Blog

5 Ways to Make LinkedIn Board Connect Work for Your Nonprofit | Beth’s Blog: Note from Beth: Last week, I wrote about the launch of LinkedIn’s Board Connect tool that helps nonprofit identify potential board candidates through searching the networks of their board members on LinkedIn. In the comments, there was some thoughtful discussion about best practices for identifying, screening, and cultivating board members. Geri Stengel who has written guest posts about LinkedIn on this blog offered to share some tips. An excellent addition to my collection of curated LinkedIn resources.

3 Reasons Your Blog Needs to Get More Visual | Social Media Today

3 Reasons Your Blog Needs to Get More Visual | Social Media Today: . The growth of visual engagement

The deeper trend though across social media is towards visual engagement:

Based on an analysis of 10,000 social marketing campaigns, Wildfire found 6 core practices that helped produce superfans on Facebook. The use of images as one of the six ways to improve engagement.
Dan Zarella likewise reports that posts with photos gets more likes, comments and shares.
Similar figures are reported by an infographic from mBooth; but they also highlight that 42% of all Tumblr posts are photos.

LinkedIn as a Multi-Dimensional Fundraiser’s Resource - Resource Center - AFP

LinkedIn as a Multi-Dimensional Fundraiser’s Resource - Resource Center - AFP: When LinkedIn launched in 2003, most professionals saw it as little more than an online resume—those days are long gone. Nicknamed the “Facebook of Business,” it has evolved into a highly productive tool for both for-profit business and social-profit philanthropy.

LinkedIn has over 175 million members in 200 countries. The net worth of the average user is more than that of Facebook and Twitter combined. Major gift fundraisers, are you paying attention? The prospecting power of the “advanced search” function allows you to look up donors, volunteers and supporters in dozens of ways. This is search engine optimization at its best.

Twitter Cofounder Suggests A Replacement For The Follower Count

Twitter Cofounder Suggests A Replacement For The Follower Count: Twitter cofounder Ev Williams — who remains on the company's board — hinted Monday that follower counts may soon become the second most important number to users.

"The thing I think would be more interesting than followers is... retweets," clarifying that a simple measure of followers "doesn't capture your distribution."

"The dream metric," he said, "is how many people saw your tweet."

Zaw Thet: The Global Good Challenge -- Engaging New Networks of Supporters on Global Issues

Zaw Thet: The Global Good Challenge -- Engaging New Networks of Supporters on Global Issues: These accelerating trends are fascinating in and of themselves, but in the context of empowering modern philanthropy, engagement is a game-changer. By meeting people on their devices, we can foster positive change. With a new cross-sector approach, we are able to apply the best practices from multiple disciplines, maximizing our ability to realize the promise of social media for social good.

The latest example of this new approach was launched today, when we and the United Nations Foundation unveiled the Global Good Challenge (unf.org/good, #GlobalGood, @unfggc) at the Social Good Summit.

Third Sector Research Centre starts online debates on the future of the sector

Third Sector Research Centre starts online debates on the future of the sector: opics to be considered include whether the voluntary sector has special or distinctive characteristics, how it is being shaped by its changing relationships with the state and whether it should speak with a consistent voice in order to negotiate its future.

Each subject, or dialogue, will be considered over the course of about a month through online debates and seminars in London before a ‘sounding panel’ of voluntary sector experts, chaired by Pete Alcock, director of the TSRC, meet to discuss the findings.

Social Charity Index: Charities begin to harness networked power | Voluntary Sector Network | Guardian Professional

Social Charity Index: Charities begin to harness networked power | Voluntary Sector Network | Guardian Professional: What could not-for-profits be capable of achieving if they had free access to over 12 million connected and engaged people? That's the number of social media savvy follows, subscribers and likes the top 100 social

charities are getting in the UK today, according to the second annual Social Charity Index.