Hi Mazarine-

Thanks for joining in here! I really appreciate the variety of views you suggest and think the chord struck for me is the undercurrent beneath them all: how can organizations with small staff and/or small budgets, how can leadership and all departments be STRATEGIC in their messaging and use of social media tools. It isn’t strategic to throw messages everywhere, nor is it strategic to avoid social media when your community is already waiting for you there. It’s finding that balance and finding the community.

1. Senior leadership does not dedicate significant time to understanding the benefits of social media

and

2. Nonprofit development/marketing staff/volunteers are not given resources or opportunities to learn how to hone their message like professional marketers.

or

3. Perhaps it’s more than just leadership and staff not having the full picture. Perhaps it’s actual lack of time, the ability to spend the time finding your audience and connecting to them.

If the vast majority of the 1.9 million nonprofits in America are under $1M in budget (which they are) social media might seem like a risky time investment for their lone development staff person, when they could be doing grantwriting, events, appeals, etc.

I guess the question here is, how can we make social media even EASIER for nonprofits to connect to donors? (Some kind of instant Kiva.org?) (Overcoming-compassion-fatigue-widget?)

Nancy – I really appreciate your positive emphasis here and definitely agree. The first step is admitting the problem, right? 🙂

RT @amyrsward: Nonprofit Marketing Report from @NancySchwartz : Organizations are Failing to Connect w/ Audience – https://amysampleward.org/2010/01/26/nonp… …

@amyrsward nothing new then 🙂