Social Media for Nonprofits and Coalitions | By Amy Delamaide

CCSR presented a Compassion Kansas workshop yesterday for nonprofits and coalitions interested in learning more about optimizing their organizations' use of social media.

We had one handout detailing our assumptions going into the workshop:

Our Assumptions

1. We like social media and think it is useful.
2. We believe that it is no longer on the cutting edge, but that it is mainstream.
3. We believe that social media is most useful for nonprofits when it is used with targeted purpose, rather than as a diffuse, shotgun approach. Nonprofits rarely have the time or resources for anything other than acting with purpose.
4. We believe that when it comes to social media, participating and consuming information is just as important as broadcasting information.
5. We are users of social media, not experts.
6. We can’t teach you everything about every social media website.
7. For a nonprofit organization, your online presence must be consistent with your stated charitable purpose. We assume you will use social media as one method for carrying out your mission and strategies.

We had three presenters from local nonprofits using social media well. They described their roles and responsibilities for social media in their organizations, what they do well in social media, and some of the decisions their organizations have made about why and how to use social media.

• Thomas Stanley, Kansas Leadership Center
• Chandra Stauffer, KMUW 89.1
• Olivia Fletcher, Numana, Inc.

Then we presented a case study from a national nonprofit: "The Case of the Rogue Tweet." Sources for that case study included:

• American Red Cross
• CNN Money
• Tactical Philanthropy
• The Chronicle of Philanthropy
• Dogfish Head Brewery

It was great to have about 30 people thinking about social media and how to use it as one method for carrying an organization's mission and strategies.