Susan Gordon, Causes

Facebook provides an unprecedented opportunity for nonprofits: 200 million monthly active users, about half of whom are signing in and communicating with their friends on a daily basis, is an organizer's dream.

But can nonprofits fundraise effectively using Causes?

Our top fundraising cause is the Nature Conservancy who has raised $262,984 to date, and we've seen another 15 nonprofits raise over $50,000 so far. Across the platform, users have donated over $9 million in 24 months and our daily donation total is up 10x over the past 12 months.

We're not promising a magic bullet for fundraising. But we have developed some excellent tools that, when combined with your knowledge of fundraising and messaging, can bring in donations from new donors who you have never before reached.

In what's being referred to as a modern land grab, Facebook will start allowing it's 200 million users to pick user names for their profiles (and Pages) beginning at Midnight (Eastern Time) this Saturday, June 13th, on a first-come, first-served basis.

There's already quite a bit of hub-bub about this move, with criticism over the process -- and even the decision to provide this feature at all. (Mashable addressed these concerns and posted a poll to gauge opinions.)

Here are some helpful facts:

Flickr: kool_skatkatIt's been a little while since I posted one of these members-online round-ups. Let's just say I've been saving up for a really good one.

There's been a lot of sharing of tips, examples, and resources among NTEN members in our online community lately, so I want to highlight those today.

There was a question on the DC 501 Tech Club and NTEN Discuss lists about Facebook vs Twitter. Here are some of the resources members shared to help tackle the question:

Flickr Photo: varnentYour job isn't going to exist in a few years, and it ain't the economy's fault. Blame it on social media.

If you're implementing social media smartly at your organization, you already know it raises more issues for nonprofits than it solves. Chief among them: who does it? If social media is about individuals conversing authentically with a community, who's in charge of the conversation?

You'll find most people responsible for social media in marketing departments. But shouldn't program staff be involved, as well? How about leadership?

I'm fascinated by the ways social media is changing how organizations structure themselves -- and in particular, how social media is redefining job titles in our sector. To whit: the second coming of the online community manager.

ReadWriteWeb has a new report out, "The Read Write Web Guide to Community Management", that marks the ascension of the online community manager (2.0). They do a great job summarizing exactly why the role is so challenging:

In a scenario ripe for Hollywood exploitation, protests have erupted in Guatemala over the slaying of a lawyer. According to Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing:

Protests are taking place today in Guatemala City to demand justice for an attorney who was assassinated on Sunday, and who claimed in a posthumously released YouTube video taped before his death that if he were to die, it would be at the orders of Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom.

All sorts of applications of technology are tied up in the protests:

• The video making the claims was posted on YouTube, making it widely available and difficult to suppress.
• The protests are currently being live streamed, with intermittent police interruption.
• There is, inevitably, a Twitter hashtag used by the protesters.

Now, if only somebody could whip up some code to send the Twitter stream through a machine translator so I didn't have to rely on my rusty Spanish...

According to a survey conducted in March 2009 by NTEN, Common Knowledge, and ThePort, social networking has become an integral part of nonprofits’ online strategy. You may have already suspected that, but now you can get some hard numbers to justify that Facebook page you've been keeping so tidy and au currant. Then you can go all Matt Damon on your ED:

“You like apples? Of the 929 respondents to a survey, nearly three-quarters (74.2%) have a presence on Facebook, and 30.9% have one or more social networking communities on their own web site. How do you like them apples?”

But don’t take our word for it. Download the report and read it yourself. It’s free!

> Download the Social Network Survey Report

And if you're keeping track at home, that's two reports we've helped release during the NTC. Will there be another? Tune in tomorrow, same NTEN time, same NTEN channel.

Community doesn't just happen: It's built slowly, person by person, relationship by relationship.

I remember the days when you weren't someone's friend unless you'd personally delivered the pizza and ice cream after a break up. What happens to the notion of community when you move it online, and being someone's friend is as easy clicking a mouse? How can a nonprofit balance its own needs with the needs of the community? And where SHOULD you build that community anyway?

These are the questions that Jeff Patrick, President of Common Knowledge, is going to tackle in his session at the 2009 NTC, "Evolution of Online Communities: Social Media for Social Good". We had a chance to talk a little bit about how the online tools have come closer to our idea of what a relationship is, and what that means for the sector:

NTEN folks probably know we're big fans of haiku (thanks in most part to Holly's particular appreciation of the form). We're glad to see member organization ZeroDivide shares our appreciation and is deploying it for educational and rewarding purposes:

The ZD Technology Haiku Contest!

From their site:

I came across a great white paper about the use of social media by marketers. You can download the whole report for free. Kudos to Michael A. Stelzner, the author, for putting this together and making it available.

It should be reassuring for many nonprofit professionals to learn that EVERYONE is relatively new to this stuff. One of the most common things I hear from nonprofit staff is something along the lines of, "I'm just learning about social media. Do you think I can keep up with this NTEN webinar or that conference session on this topic?"

My answer: a resounding YES!

We're all just learning about this, actually -- which is why the nonprofit community should be excited about getting in on the ground floor with these marketing tools and strategies. Too often, we in this sector think we're automatically at a disadvantage. Social media is an area the nonprofit sector has been, in many ways, leading the way!

Let's explore:

Nancy Schwartz, Getting Attention

As the nonprofit landscape gets increasingly complex, money and attention are tougher than ever to get. And, because your org is discussed on infinite communications channels, it's more important than ever to brand your organization, programs, and campaigns.

When you do so -- conveying credibility and value in a way that's easy to remember and repeat -- you'll build long-lasting relationships with donors, volunteers, members, the media, clients, and more. But it's more challenging than ever in our 2.0 world.

Here are seven keys to effective branding in a social media world: