The ThinkTank Nonprofit Report: February 2013

By: Christian Williams, Visibility and Social Enterprise Specialist

In a region of high income inequality, nonprofits’ work is never done. And South Florida, of course, teems with excellent organizations doing their utmost to fill unmet needs. So, let’s check in on what’s happening in South Florida’s nonprofit scene this month.

New Milk Bank Helping to Keep Babies Fed

A mother’s work to get enough donor breast milk to feed her highly allergic son resulted in the opening of a new nonprofit initiative, and a first for South Florida: a human milk depot.

The opening ceremony on February 19th welcomed mothers and their babies as well as pediatric health specialists, to celebrate the opening of a deep freezer unit at The Gathering Place, a local pregnancy and parenting research center in Miami. The freezer will hold breast milk donations from women throughout South Florida, which will be given to mothers or caretakers who, for various reasons, can’t nurse the infants themselves. To learn more about South Florida’s human milk depot, including how you can help, you can visit their website for more information.

Mega-Events Helping Raise Big Cash in One Fell Swoop

In other news, several local organizations are realizing the impact that mega-events can have on fundraising efforts. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s South Florida Chapter is a great example. Every year, the organization plans a weekend of four major events including a black-tie gala and a fishing tournament, the Jeb Bush Classic, which raised over $500,000 last year. These types of fundraising events also provide outside companies with the opportunity to sponsor deserving causes. Other local organizations harnessing the quick money-raising power of mega-events include 211-Broward (for their Nonprofit Academy Awards) and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida.

PhilanthroFest and Catalyst Miami Kick Off Crash Courses in Nonprofit Promotion

Considering the economic challenges facing nonprofits today, it’s not surprising that promotional budgets have suffered as organizations try to prioritize expenditures.

With this in mind, the nonprofit networking conference PhilanthroFest and social-services group Catalyst Miami launched the Nonprofit Community Engagement Institutes, a series of workshops where nonprofits can learn to harness the power of online and offline communication channels to connect with the community.

With sessions led by communications professionals from the for-profit sector as well as several local nonprofit veterans, the first event, held February 8 at the Miami Science Museum, offered lessons in social media management, community development and engagement and raising more funds through effective storytelling.

Coconut Grove Arts Fest and Abrakadoodle Bring Out Kids’ Inner Picassos

Speaking of lessons, we know that budget constraints have severely affected the availability and quality of arts education in our public schools. We also know that exposure to the arts promotes self-directed learning, imagination and creative problem-solving skills in children.

In order to give more of Miami-Dade’s kids a chance to know the joys and benefits of artistic expression, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival and arts-education company Abrakadoodle partnered with The Children’s Trust to help celebrate the festival’s 50th anniversary with “Kids Express at the Fest.”

Every day of the festival, Abrakadoodle staffers held workshops where they taught kids between five and 12 years old to paint, sculpt, draw and design mosaics and collages. The children also learned the creative styles of art-world luminaries such as Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Frida Kahlo and, of course, Pablo Picasso.

Be it feeding babies, improving nonprofits’ promotional skills or giving more kids access to the arts, there are always plenty of great causes to support – and many dedicated people who do so – in South Florida. And that means I’ll have plenty of great stories to share with you in April. See you then!

Social Media Week Miami: Welcome to Social Good 2.0

By: Kyrsten Cazas, Community and Visibility Specialist

 

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to accompany ThinkInk’s own Chief Visibility Officer Vanessa Horwell to Social Media Week Miami, where she participated in the “Social Good 2.0: Leveraging the Power of Social Media to Promote and Grow Your Cause” panel discussion. Vanessa, along with fellow panelists Daniella Levine of Catalyst Miami, Noel Hyatt of the Broward Education Communications Network, Elianne Ramos of Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) and panel moderator Lynn Ponder of WebCityGirls, discussed how nonprofit organizations can benefit from the power and reach of social media to effectively deliver their messages and fulfill their missions.

Take a look below at Vanessa’s responses to some of the key questions asked during the panel.

Also be sure to check out @ThinkInkPR and @ThinkTankPR for great photos and helpful tips from the panel (I was live-tweeting) and you can even watch the full panel discussion here.

 

How should a nonprofit pick which social media tools and channels to use?

The most important factor is identifying what kind of exposure you are giving your nonprofit and that you are accurately portraying it. Whatever you do on social media reflects your brand (yes, a nonprofit is a brand), so ensure that your engagement style matches your organization’s brand, goals and general attitude.

Also make sure you do your research, look at different social media platforms and highlight the unique characteristics they have and what they can offer your organization. This will help you map out how they can help your nonprofit grow and get more exposure.

And instead of tapping in on all channels – because there is such a thing as overexposure – find out which social media tools your target audience is using today. One way to do this is by monitoring and tracking certain keywords associated with your organization and its mission through free social media monitoring tools. Also take the time to look back at what has and has not worked for you in the past.

How do you build a strong presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube?

“Fishing where the fish are,” nonprofit organizations can reach their target audience by monitoring what other organizations they are following and through what platform. Once you find the right platform, be active and communicate with your ‘followers” regularly so you stay on top of their newsfeed and their minds, by:

·         Writing blog posts about topics that affect your nonprofit and those whom you serve;

·         Inviting those who have received your services to contribute guest posts telling their own personal stories;

·         Creating videos to help bring your message to life;

·         Conducting interviews and featuring those who have great stories to tell or those who play a pivotal role in your mission;

·         Sharing pictures and video from events that you’ve held;

·         Posting updates regularly to keep your presence known;

·         Asking questions to get your followers talking about your organization.

The average donation through social media increases each year.  How can a non-profit get creative with fundraising outreach in social media?

Each year the average donation given through social media increases: in 2010 it was $38, jumping to $55 in 2011 and again in 2012, to $59.

Here are some great tips for fundraising outreach using social media from a PR perspective:

•        Raise more funds by keeping followers active and regularly promoting fundraising events.

•        Give donors the ability to share their donation activity on their own profiles.

•        Keep the process seamless; donors should be able to give with no more than three clicks from your site.

•        Offer as many payment methods as you can.

•        Material rewards can help drive crucial funding. For example, giving away apparel with your organization’s logo can really help market your cause.

What are 5 things nonprofits can do that they might not be aware of, such as remembering to seamlessly link offline and online efforts.

·         Don’t get overextended - Sometimes doing a little bit of everything leads to nothing being well done. Look at your resources and let that guide you as to what channels you choose.

·         Timing - Tweets or Facebook posts should be scheduled to catch people in their ‘downtime.’

·         Ask questions - If your post or tweet ends in a question mark versus a period, you can expect about five times the amount of likes, comments, shares, retweets, etc.  This is because social media isn’t about monologue - it’s about dialogue. So instead of just making a statement, ask a question and invite your audience to join a conversation.

·         Be responsive - Respond to questions, tweets, posts from followers in real time.

·         Content - Your audience may not care about your organization as much as the cause you represent, try and balance out your updates by focusing more on the cause/goals your organization is working towards.

·         An Extra Tip: Collect data - Use social media to collect email addresses through online sign-ups this will give you more contacts and show you who is truly interested in your organization and your cause.

Do you agree with Vanessa when it comes to social media and using it as a marketing tool for nonprofit organizations? Comment below with your thoughts and additional tips, we’d love to hear from you!

What’s Happening In Miami’s Nonprofit Scene? A Lot!

By: Christian Williams, Social Enterprise and Visibility Specialist

Your favorite cause lover is here to let you know about who’s been making waves in South Florida’s nonprofit scene recently!

The University of Miami’s School of Communication earned some brownie points with me when they announced their PhilAdthropy marathon. Advertising and public relations students are preparing to pull a 25-hour all-night marathon to help charities with advertising campaigns. The endeavor provides the students with invaluable experience, and helps nonprofits grow by providing them with promotional materials that they possibly could not afford otherwise. The event is this weekend, February 8-9^th and I’m excited to see the work that the students produce.

I’m also excited to see the organization, Girls Who Code, expand into Miami! The national nonprofit works to close the gender gap in technology and engineering. The year-old organization pairs younger girls with top female engineers and entrepreneurs from the technology industry for 300 hours of mentorship and intensive instruction in robotics, web design and mobile development.

So how about a huge round of applause for UM’s School of Communication and Girls Who Code - thanks for your support and hard work for causes in our local community!

Image Source: Marlena Skrobe/Sun Sentinel

Image Source: The Next Web

Avoiding the ‘Second Disaster’ - The Innovative Way that Occupy Sandy Escaped from Drowning in Donations

By: Christian Williams, Social Enterprise and Visibility Specialist 

I’ll admit it - you can enroll me in NPRAA.

National Public Radio Addicts Anonymous.

I was on my typical evening commute from the office, listening to NPR’s All Things Considered as usual, and ended up getting sucked into a story about how some charities are having to TURN AWAY donations. I was stunned to hear that many charities, especially organizations that respond to national disasters, get so overwhelmed by donations that they have to say ‘No.’

Obviously, the response of the public for their neighbors in need is something to smile about; however, too many people send items that aren’t needed. The organizations prefer cash, which can then be used to purchase the necessary materials needed to respond to the recovery efforts.

However, many donors just send clothing and other items because they think they can be used in some way (somehow, the American Red Cross ended up with a box of Frisbees).

In my opinion, some donors just see the situation as a reason to clean out their closets, all while feeling good about their decision to discard an item or two by connecting it with an urgent cause. Others want to provide items instead of money because they are skeptical of the charity and don’t want their hard-earned dollars to go misused.

I was even more surprised to hear that these piles of un-needed donations prevent needed supplies from getting to their destination on time. The story described a plane with water and food items that had to be diverted to an airport much further because the tarmac at the original airport was filled with clothes. Those supplies took an extra two days to be delivered to their final destination.

So with all of these donations flowing in, how can a responding organization avoid the ‘second disaster’? One member of Occupy Sandy, the response effort to Hurricane Sandy that stands as an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, became an innovator when he swiped up a laptop, began an Amazon registry for the effort and listed the items needed in the effort toward recovery.

Diapers and cleaning supplies were listed. Clothes weren’t.

Donors were told that they could not send in individual items. Instead, they were directed toward the registry and told to provide the necessary funding for a concrete item needed in the effort.

And the effort worked. Occupy received all of their necessary supplies (including generators), and cut down drastically on the amount of junk by catering to their donors’ needs - the need to provide concrete assistance.

Sometimes, all it takes is a little out-of-the-box thinking to come up with the solution for a pressing problem.