From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn, nonprofits are flocking to social media, but not everyone is prepared for the challenges and ramifications of what you post--or how to manage the process. Who is allowed to tweet? Who can comment on your posts? How do you respond if someone says something mean about your organization? How do you make use of what social media offers while protecting your nonprofit and your constituents?

As nonprofits have increasingly turned to social media, policies and guidelines to govern their use of social media have become the new frontier. The open and community-based aspects of social media can be a huge benefit for nonprofits looking to reach out to new audiences and engage their existing base, but sometimes it can seem that no one knows the right way to use each channel, or where the lines are drawn—or even how to find out.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

A good social media policy will provide clear guidelines as to what staff should and shouldn’t do when posting and interacting with the community on a day-to-day basis. Your organization can create a policy to help guide your whole staff simply by thinking about how you would like to make use of social media.

Below is an example of an e-mail blast sent by one of our customers . . .

School of Saints Faith, Hope & Charity Alumni – Winnetka, Illinois This newsletter is to highlight the current news from the Faith, Hope and Charity School as well as the FHC Alumni Organization. We will send out newsletters 3 times a year to keep you connected to the FHC Community. This is our Second Quarter Newsletter. Continue reading →

While reading my daily briefing on alumni relations discussions I came upon this Q&A that I thought was just perfect to share with you.

Q. How do you prove the value of alumni relations on your campus and within the advancement department? With tighter budgets these days you may find yourself having to justify alumni relations expenses to your boss.

A. From Michael Wall, Director of Alumni Relations, Anoka-Ramsey Community College, Coon Rapids, MN:

I think you will get four answers or types of answers:

1) You can't. (I would ignore this, as it does not help and we all know administrators and trustees who hold purse string do not often fund based on faith.)

2) Everyone knows that alumni relations is necessary; all the big universities and privates have them. (Again, no help here. If everyone knew this to be true then there would not be a need for us to justify through data.

Two left, one cold, hard science and one warm, fuzzy, and perhaps no less true.

3) Alumni Relations is valuable because we have the data to prove it. (This is, of course, on the heels of your work collecting and analyzing data, and finding that in your case it is true.) Data points for involvement, attendance, communication, and other indicators of engagement can certainly be tracked and compared to giving for the individual and group. The more engaged, we may show with data, the more likely to give and perhaps give more generously. (And, it goes without saying, and yet here I go saying it, that stewardship of the relationship, matching alumni with efforts, projects, needs, etc. that match that person's interests/concerns have a large role to play in the direction and intensity of giving.)

4) Alumni Relations is an investment in the future of the institution. Results will not show monetarily in the near term, as our alumni are still in school or paying for it and getting adjusted to the 'real world.' But the things we do in Alumni Relations- engaging them on campus as students, maintaining contact once they leave, updating pertinent life information in their record, inviting and encouraging them to return, utilizing them in substantive, productive ways to help the institution and the students through their gifts of time and expertise (volunteering), exposing them to the giving of others and the impact those donations made (on their costs as a student and on the costs for current and future students- these things set alumni up to be donors. Giving back is so, so often not a reflex, not a product of attendance. Giving back is a matter of feeling invested and invested in, and a part of the life of the institution.

That last one is my pitch because we have only paid attention to our alumni for the past five or six years. Go decades through the life of an institution without any education about what it is to be alumni and without any ongoing connection, and when you start your alumni program it is going to take time for the money to begin to roll in, if it will at all. If we knew who would give what there would be a lot fewer of us and a lot more psychics in Advancement.

That's my two cents.

With more than 750 million people signed up for Facebook alone, there’s little doubt that social media can be a powerful part of most organizations’ communications mix. But what can it be used for—outreach and engagement? Event management? Advocacy? How about fundraising? For many nonprofits, it’s far more obvious that such tools can be useful than how to use them.

Idealware created the Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide to help organizations like yours determine what results and benefits you can reasonably expect from social media, and to guide you through the process of identifying the right channels for different goals.

The Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide | Idealware.

Set Up an Active Alumni Association to Stay in Touch with Your Grads

Career schools are discovering the impact of Alumni Associations. Gainful employment rules have many requirements that can be solved by Alumni Associations. You'll be able to stay in touch with your grads to find out where they are working and possibly their earnings. Grads can help to increase enrollment, retention, and job placement. You'll see a return on investment. And your school will stand out from your competition. Continue reading →

Without an effective system to track donors and other constituents, you can spend too much time just trying to figure out who to contact and miss out on many fundraising opportunities.  But switching to a new system can be time consuming and sometimes costly.  So how do you know if you should switch, or stick with what you have? The Do You Need A New Donor Management System workbook, in PDF format, by Idealware, will help you decide.

Do You Need a New Donor Management System? A Step-by-Step Decision Making Workbook | Idealware.

Here are a few headlines from alumni groups with interesting programs:

Tulare Western H.S. yearbook seeks alumni bios for 50th anniversary edition
Visalia Times-Delta
This year, with it being Tulare Western High School's 50th anniversary, its yearbook class will showcase alumni highlights from the past half-century. ...

UTC Gold Alumni Council Has Flick On The Field Thursday
The Chattanoogan
UTC's GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) Alumni Council is creating an outdoor movie theater on Chamberlain Field on Thursday. The Flick on the Field event ...

San Vicente Catholic Alumni Assoc. Holds 3rd Golf Tournament Saturday
Pacific News Center
Guam - The San Vicente Catholic School Alumni Association will host its 3rd Annual Golf Tournament on Saturday, November 28, 2009 at the Guam International ...

Alumni Swim Meet Friday
BYUCougars.com
The meet will be Alumni-friendly with shorter events, including 50s of each stroke, 100 IM and the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle events for those wishing to do ...

The Role of Alumni (as seen from a Greek perspective)
FSU Bottom Line
I'm sure many organizations, like mine, only see their alumni once a year, usually at Homecoming. Because we join our organizations for life, our obligation ...

'Lessons from Alumni' Event Connects Students and Alums - UPDATE
Boise State
The College of Business and Economics hosted its third annual Lessons from Alumni events Oct. 14-16. More than 200 business and community leaders and students attended the kick-off breakfast in the Student Union Jordan Ballroom. ...

More than 100,000 nonprofit organizations use PayPal to raise money online – and it’s easy to see why. Fees are the lowest in the industry -- just 2.2% + $.30 per transaction.

Getting started is simple

• Click "Sign Up Today"
• Sign up for a PayPal Business account, choose Website Payments Standard and then select Nonprofit as the business type.
• Submit your organization’s tax letter and bank statement proving nonprofit status.
• Create a Donate button that can be easily placed on your website.

Visit paypal.com to complete these steps. Continue reading →

This presentation was given by Alumni Channel, Wednesday, September 23, 2009 to the elementary school marketing representatives of the Diocese of Trenton (New Jersey).

You can share your Facebook status updates, photos and more on any website with Facebook Widgets.  Create a Facebook Widget and start sharing today with "Personal Profile Widgets" and "Website or Business Widgets".
Continue reading →