My last travelogue got me interested in how non-profits are utilizing new media to gain awareness and raise more funds. The fact that the non-profit island on SL had more activity than others made me want to explore for my fourth travelogue the different initiatives Non-profits are taking to get their voice heard through new media. It seems like non-profits are beginning to use platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to help fill in the gaps where traditional media is falling through. Social media seems to provide non-profits with the ability to acquire attention for their cause, develop community relationships and trigger conversations in ways that traditional marketing has not been able to do before.
Possibly Relevant Posts:
- And in conclusion… (5) | andrea_arellano
- Generational Media: An Interview With My Family (7) | Jessica
- Print is Dying, So How Can We Save Journalism? (4) | Jessica
8 Comments
My initial response was, hell yea it does. But then, thinking about Facebook and stuff, I don’t know if it really helps or actually serves to drown out everyone in an endless sea of “Help the Dolphins” etc.
I didn’t intend those ocean metaphors, but you get the idea. Cool focus.
I think its really cool how you are using the conclusion from your 3rd travelogue to enter into your 4th. I would think that non-profit would be benefiting from new technology since it is a cheap way to effectively spread the word. Example? I used to volunteer for the human society and it got me interested in some of the animal rescue groups you plug in anything regarding this into google and you get tons of websites about adoptions and available dogs in other states, animals that you never would have known about without the aid of the internet.
OH also, in terms of “drowning out,” with all the endless sites and sites of non-profits out there, does the Net provide transparency? Like, do we really know what goes where and who does what with our donations? Does the Net help in that? Just throwing some ideas out. ;]
So my mom works with non-profits and is a new media queen, and she reads our class blog. She wanted me to tell you this!
Hey Jess–I saw that Andrea in your new media class is looking into how nonprofits use social media. Tell her she needs to check out Beth Kanter’s Blog and even see if she can talk to her. She is a consultant who does all sorts of things related to nonprofits and social media. Her blog is at:
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/
Also, this wiki has a lot of examples and is a training guide for nonprofits that Beth put together:
http://www.wearemedia.org/
Hope that helps!
I’ve mentioned several times on this blog how non-profits are beginning to use new media to their advantage, so it’s good to hear you’re interested in this topic as well. Just to give you two examples, here’s a project i am working on for City Lore ( http://citylore.org/ ): http://www.cityofmemory.org/map/index.php
And i also used to work at Fractured Atlas ( http://www.fracturedatlas.org/) , which is a non-profit arts service organization that helps artists find everything from healthcare and funding to venues and job opportunities. The founder and exec director has an MBA and runs the org very much like a corporation, so in a sense, i never really got a feel for how non-profits function. It felt more like a business to me, but they are totally non-profit; they have 501(c)(3) status. But anyway, the founder and exec director is also the head of a software and web development company that also does all the IT work for Fractured Atlas, so the org is regarded by many as the most tech-savvy non-profit in the arts sector. He himself created a custom database and website for the org, and from my experience of using both extensively, i can tell you that they are really effective at handling everything that the org does. All donations are easily processed online, and at their benefit events, they always have laptop stations where guests can make a donation from the FA website. Compared to them, City Lore (and many other non-profits too, i’m sure) is like a dinosaur in terms of tech savviness. If you’d like more info on either, just email me.
In one word: focus.
This is a huge topic, which you can reach broad conclusions about but should start more specific. Otherwise, you can also start with a broad description of what .ORGs need and what types of uses are there and then delve into examples.
It’s important to say that there are a lof of .ORGs that deal with new media directly as their NFP agenda (EFF, Sunlight Foundation, Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Blender Foundation, Free Software Federation… I can go on forever) yet it might be more interesting to look at some use cases of how pre-web era .ORGs adapted (or have not adapted) to the opportunities available to them by digital information technologies.
going of off what Mushon said, maybe it would be interesting to start with a really really traditional non-for-profit. Jess mentioned the Humane Society, that’s an idea, and then seeing how they’ve developed with New Media because there’s definitely a difference btw ORGs that can start a grassroots movement because the internet makes it cheaper and an old ORG transitioning to use new media.
I agree with Patricia, you should think about what non-profits you want to focus on. MAny non-profits are not charitable organizations but very profitable companies that operate under the auspices of Non-profit status. (501c companies, etc) For example, IKEA can be considered a non-profit.