Social Media and the Nonprofit Sector

From Facebook to MySpace, to Twitter to LinkedIn, social media is quickly becoming the most talked about new tool for the nonprofit sector. These sites allow nonprofits to create web presence, locate audiences interested in their cause, reach new volunteers, and even raise money.

I am a Generation Y-er. I was raised on MTV, email, texting, and YouTube. I can’t remember cell phones pre-PDAs. Thus, social media was a part of growing up and I have rarely questioned its importance.

What I find interesting is that there seems to be an existing apprehension to the use of such public platforms. To me, this apprehension is not just about social media as an isolated tool, but reflects a greater national challenge for the nonprofit sector - the opposition to adapt and change.

Very few can refute that the use of social media can provide nonprofit organizations with opportunity. As recently demonstrated through the Facebook Chase Community Giving program, social media can bring BIG rewards with little effort. I can attest to this as a Board member for the San Diego Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Our organization invested little time and ZERO dollars (other than regular staff pay) on this campaign. Our supporters did the work (or “clicking”) for us. In the end, we were awarded 25K.

While social media has its obvious advantages, many question its relevance and importance within the nonprofit sector. As I become more and more involved in the trend, I am finding more and more concerns brought up in regards to control.

Unlike most business strategies, social media is built on a culture where the norms for communicating and forming relationships revolve around openness. Some ask: How can nonprofit organizations operate in this world without losing control over their image, message, and resources?

I think that this concern over social media actually reflects a greater issue, the resistance to adapt and change. The default setting for too many nonprofit organizations is to the closed side. The sector has traditionally been taught to secure, protect, and fight for survival (“survival of the fittest”). Far too few organizations today are really willing to evaluate the effectiveness of their operations, make changes for improvement, and incorporate new methods.

However, by refusing to transform, these organizations are not executing control, but becoming disconnected and weakening themselves.

I think that social media demonstrates a mindset that the nonprofit sector should adapt. We should embrace principles like openness, decentralized decision-making, and distributed action. We should let our supporters create the conversation and propel our organizations forward.