by Kevin Martone, GIJP Technology Program Manager

Camp is an incredible place for kids to learn, grow, meet new people, and have new experiences. Camp staff and board members should follow this lead and make sure they are continually learning as well. This is why the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy (GIJP) offers its annual conference free of charge to all of its participating organizations.
 
This is also why GIJP Business Systems Analyst Joe Ruotolo and I attended the recent Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) organized by NTEN. We joined 1400+ nonprofit staff members, including a growing group of Jewish nonprofit professionals, to learn how to utilize technology to improve our nonprofit communications, fundraising, and management.

Some key takeaways that we can all use in our work include:

• Stories are our most powerful tool for communication. Here are some key tips from a session about how to tell great stories:
  • Everyone in your organization should be collecting/telling stories: staff, board members, counselors, campers. For camps, this is easy – stories are as much a part of camp lore as campfires, swimming, and bug-bites.
  • Don’t recreate the wheel. Use stories that already exist!
  • Repurpose/reuse stories across channels. A longer story that can be used during a camp visit or in an eNewsletter can be shortened for a Facebook status update or Tweet.
  • 10 great stories are better than 100 mediocre stories. Don’t worry about the quantity, focus on the quality of the stories.
  • Pictures and video are effective vehicles for telling stories.
  • Consider guest bloggers for additional stories/content.

• Start with Mission –> Strategy –> and Goals (You’ve been working hard with your GIJP Mentors on that Strategic Plan for a reason!). For true success, everything has to tie back to moving your mission forward.

• Your communications have to be focused on your audience, not your organization: “Cause 1st, You 2nd.” Check your website, brochures, Facebook Page, eNewsletter, etc. – if the content is focused on what YOU do and not on your audience, get to work. Start with personal stories (see above). Focus on your IMPACT.

• YouTube now offers a customizable video player and the ability to allow users to upload videos to your YouTube Channel. Camps could use this for moderated video contests. Click here if you haven’t already signed up for a free YouTube nonprofit video channel.

• Use tools and templates to make your job easier and more effective. For example:
  • Create email/eNewsletter templates – don’t design every time
  • Create Press Release templates. Train staff in how to use.
  • Create a listening dashboard in Google Reader or Netvibes to make managing your social media efforts more efficient. For more information, here is a longer list of free tools that can help nonprofits use social media more effectively.
  • Create a “Central Info Bank” to store stories, quotes/testimonials, photos, stats; makes sure everyone has access. You can use a free tool like Google Groups or Dropbox.

   

In Summary…There are LOTS of nonprofits facing the same challenges as our camps. And many are overcoming those challenges with both technology and non-technology solutions. The key? Start with a strategy and goals and then DO IT! And remember to continually learn…just like your campers.

Want to learn more? This brief recap of the SXSW® Interactive 2010 Conference in March gives 10 quick takeaways from that conference for nonprofits that dovetail nicely with the Nonprofit Technology Conference.

Want even MORE information? Search for the NTC official hashtag on Twitter (#10ntc) or check out our live tweets from the conference at @gijp. The Foundation for Jewish Camp was also there – check out their tweets as well: @FdnJewishCamp. Many other Jewish organizations were present and tweeting as well!

And last (but certainly not least!), check out Beth Kanter’s blog – she offers great insights and examples about how nonprofits can use technology effectively. For example, here is her post about social media measurement based on her session on the topic at NTC.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments!

Do you know someone who is bettering their community through service and outreach? I just learned of an initiative of the UJC/The Jewish Federations of North America that aims to “celebrate the selflessness and courage” of these individuals. They are even giving the winner $25,000 to help support their cause!

The initiative is called Jewish Community Heroes. It is being billed as the “largest-ever Jewish social-networking effort” because of their use of social media and “crowd-sourcing” to both collect nominations and allow users to vote for the five finalists.

The five nominees who receive the most votes will be honored at this fall’s General Assembly (GA) in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 8-10, 2009).  A panel of judges will select the Jewish Community Hero of the Year from among the finalists.

Any individual, who is at least 13 years of age and a resident of the United States or Canada is eligible to be a nominee, provided that their work impacts a community in North America.

“Jewish Community Heroes celebrates those in our communities who exemplify tikkun olam (repairing the world), one of the three core values of UJC/The Jewish Federations of North America,” said National Young Leadership Media Co-Vice Chair Lisa Kudish in a press release.

 I am particularly interested to see how they integrate their website, which was developed with Blue State Digital, a leading technology and online strategy firm that helped the Obama campaign raise more than $500 million and engage millions of volunteers, with their Facebook Page and Twitter Account. Every nonprofit can learn from their experience using these tools for outreach and engagement.

In the meantime, go ahead and nominate someone you consider a Jewish Community Hero!

I’m sure you’ve heard about Twitter. Ever since Oprah and Ashton Kutcher and CNN started tweeting, everybody is talking about the popular micro-blogging service. And then there was the Iranian election and aftermath that was “reported” through Twitter (and other social media) recently. And we’ve blogged about Twitter already in the past. Our first blog post was about the service in general, just as a bit of an overview. Our second post talked about micro-blogging more generally.

So, why another post about the seemingly ubiquitous service? Because enough individuals and nonprofits are using the service now, making it a legitimate communications channel. Sure, Oprah rarely uses the service. And Kutcher basically used it to gather followers, not to truly engage with fans. But now more and more people are joining the service. And more and more nonprofits (and for-profits) are finding it a great way to communicate with and engage their constituents. A number of participating GIJP camps have already started to Tweet as well. You can find links to many of their accounts from the GIJP Twitter account: @gijp.

What You Need to Know

Our Message Hasn’t Changed: Don’t use Twitter or any other technology without considering your overall communications and outreach strategy. Remember that the key to utilizing these social media tools is the quality of the interactions with your constituents, not necessarily the quantity of platforms on which you’ve slapped your logo. Make sure Twitter is helping you reach some specific goal. The goal could be reaching out to long-lost alumni. Or communicating camp updates to nervous parents. Or sharing information with other local organizations. If Twitter isn’t helping you reach some specific goal, don’t spend too much time on it. Find out where your constituents are and spend your time and energy on those platforms.

Some Basics for Getting Started: Here are two articles that will give you lots of great information:

1) For a primer on Twitter, the NYTimes recently ran a great overview article about Twitter and how to use it.

2) The Association for Fundraising Professionals website also posted a brief discussion of how nonprofits can take advantage of Twitter.

Sign up for www.twitter.com and start tweeting! Some tips for getting started with your Twitter account:

1. You can sign up as an individual or as your organization (or both). There are a number of tools that will allow you manage both an individual and organization account. They can also help multiple staff members tweet to a central organization Twitter account. Check out www.cotweet.com and www.hootsuite.com for two of the more popular tools.
2. Even if you have an organization account, be authentic! Engage with others: respond to their posts and forward interesting tweets (called retweeting). Make your interactions personal, just like with other social media.
3. Follow others’ tweets. When you follow someone else, you will see their tweets in your personalized Twitter homepage.
4. Learn the lingo:

• Follow/Unfollow – You can decide whose Tweets you will see in your own personalized Twitter homepage. You can also unfollow someone if you aren’t interested in what they are tweeting anymore.
• @ replies. When you put the @ sign in front of someone’s Twitter name (i.e, @gijp), it means you are speaking directly to that person. However, the tweet is still public – your followers will see the Tweet in their homepage and anyone can search in Twitter or Google to find that Tweet. If someone mentions your user name in a tweet, the tweet will show up in a special @ replies section on the right side of your Twitter  homepage.
• DM – direct message. These are private messages sent to another Twitter account. These messages are not searchable or viewable by anyone but the recipient.
• # Hashtags – allows you to “tag” or categorize a tweet for easy searching. For example, #iranelection. This is often used at a conference where all participants use the same hashtag while planning for and participating in the conference. For example, the popular South by Southwest conference used #SxSW.
• Protect your Updates. You can actually set your profile on Twitter so that only those whom you choose can see your tweets. Note, however, that we recommend leaving these updates public to allow you to find and connect with more constituents.
• Block. You can choose to block particular users on Twitter. This doesn’t block them from reading your tweets like Proteting your Updates, however. Instead, it simply keeps them from being able to follow you. They can still search for your tweets and read them, but nobody will be able to see that they are Following you on your Twitter profile. The main reasons to block someone are if they are abusing Twitter in some way (i.e., spamming) or have an inappropriate profile picture.

If you would like to learn more, we will be having a special Webinar on July 21, 2009 at 1 PM EDT to demonstrate Twitter and discuss it in more detail. You can register online at http://register.gijptech.org.

Are you using Twitter? Have any great tips for getting the most out of it? Anything we should avoid when using Twitter? Let us know in the comments below.