Suggestions on how non-profits can better leverage their social media efforts.

1. Deepak Pershad’s Blog
Social Media for Non-Profit Organizations – Challenges and Opportunities
Non-profit organizations face many of the same challenges as business enterprises today, e.g. effective
planning, revenue growth, a declining economy, limited resources, and a crowded competitive
marketplace. Perhaps one of the greatest low-cost tools for growth for NFPs (Not-for-profits) is social
networking. While this post focuses on the Canadian marketplace, many insights may be translatable to
other markets as well.
It’s a crowded marketplace.
There are about 80,000 charities registered with the Canada Revenue Agency. The 72,926 charitable
organizations are comprised of, in descending order, Religion (31,757), Welfare (12,620), Benefit to
Community (12,404), Education (11,801), and Health (4,340).1
Nearly 80% of registered charities are located in Ontario (35%), Quebec (20%), British Columbia (14%),
and Alberta (11%), with the remaining charities distributed among the other provinces and territories.2
Resources are limited.
Over 40% of charities have no staff at all and 37% have 1 – 5 employees. Almost half have annual
revenues of less than $50,000 and 64% of charities operate in communities with a local mandate.
The majority of Canadian charities are small, grassroots organizations that are governed by volunteers
and, in many cases, run by volunteers.3
A depressed economy is negatively affecting charitable donations.
In addition, the recent economic downturn has taken its toll on Canadian charitable donations. In 2009,
Canadian tax filers reported a total of $7.8 billion in charitable donations (see Table 1). This was down
approximately 5.4% from the $8.2 billion reported for 2008.4
1
The Charities file.ca
2
ibid
3
ibid
4
ibid
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2. However, Social Networking is a fast-growing sphere for charitable and cause-related donor
engagement.
In the first three and a half days after the 2004 Tsunami, Canadians donated $20 million to the Canadian
Red Cross, CARE Canada, Oxfam Canada, UNICEF Canada and World Vision. Of that amount, $12 million
(60%) came in over the Internet.5
While most NFPs use social networking, there is room to grow in the social networking space. Relative to
leading consumer brands, many NFPs have low social visibility scores, as illustrated by the examples in
the table below. While NFPs clearly do not have the resources of a Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, or Apple,
there are still opportunities to extend and further leverage their social networking presence.
5
The Charities File.ca
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3. Examples of Social Visibility Scores
BRAND SOCIAL VISIBILITY SCORE
Multiple Sclerosis Society of 99
Canada
United Way of Canada 97
Canadian Cancer Society 81
Heart and Stroke Foundation 67
Autism Canada 56
Loblaw's 168
Kraft 1218
Coca-Cola 2092
Apple 5770
Source: www.howsociable.com
Caveats: The scores shown here are meant to display relative, not absolute values. Other social media
monitoring tools may display different results, due to different methodologies.
Some simple, low-cost suggestions for NFPs.
Here are some simple, no-cost or low-cost suggestions for NFPs to extend their social networking
presence beyond their website, Twitter and Facebook accounts, if they aren’t already doing so.
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4. Some Suggestions to Better Leverage an NFP’s Social Networking Presence
GOALS SUGGESTIONS RESOURCES
Extend current reach Create accounts and submit blog www.digg.com
and awareness of NFP posts, white papers, and event www.stumbleupon.com
communications information to : www.slideshare.net
• Digg www.scribd.com
• Stumble Upon www.youtube.com/create_account
Create accounts at:
• SlideShare
• Scribd
• YouTube (If video content is
available
Broaden and engage Create a Google Account for non- www.google.com/nonprofits/
the corporate donor profits and leverage the new Google + www.google.com/nonprofits/tips.html#
community features googleplus
Create a LinkedIn account and www.LinkedIn.com
Business Page
• Engage existing corporate donor
network, and extend it through
introductions to new potential
donors
• Post updates
• Post events
Build awareness of the Develop and run test campaigns on: www.Facebook.com/Ads
NFP and broaden • Facebook Ads www.linkedin.com/Ads
donations base • LinkedIn Ads www.google.com/ads/adwords27/
• Google AdWords
Begin with modest budgets (can be as
little as $200 per campaign) to assess
if such campaigns can be self-funded
Make the NFP web Consider optimizing the NFP website
presence more visible for SEO (search engine optimization)
to search engines
There are no doubt many other ways in which an NFP can increase the effectiveness of their social
networking presence, and your suggestions would be welcome.
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