Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Getting attention for your organization in today’s world can be challenging. It’s no longer enough to rely solely on traditional media or grassroots engagement to get a story out to the public and garner support.

We’ve heard from our grantees that they are eager to hone their communications strategies and learn how best to use social media tools, but that the technology changes so fast, it’s overwhelming to keep up. We’re responding to our grantees’ needs with a new series of free Technical Assistance Communications Workshops to help them catch attention, raise awareness and inspire action.

Public Image Works, led by Ennis Carter of Design for Social Impact, is a three part participatory series that allows you to do a deep exploration of your organization’s identity, develop a promotional plan, and figure out where and on whom to focus your energies.

Smart Social Media for Nonprofits, led by Sue Nyoni of Conscious Technology, is a one day overview workshop on how to utilize social media for your communication strategy, followed by five online webinars exploring effective and innovative ways to use Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, and Online Fundraising Tools.

To register, please visit us on the Dodge website.

* Please note that the workshops are intended for Dodge grantees, but where possible, we try our best to accommodate other non-profits.

Molly de Aguiar, Program Associate

If you are a regular reader of the Dodge blog, you know that we’re constantly encouraging you to join us on Facebook and on Twitter too. And not just because we want to share Dodge Foundation & Poetry Festival information with you. We see these social media tools as a learning opportunity for us – we love to hear about the work our grantees and partners are doing across the state. Moreover, we want to share your ideas, information and success stories as broadly as possible. We welcome your comments, conversation and links on our Facebook page, and we look forward to following you and hearing from you on Twitter.

So consider this is an open invitation – particularly to all current Dodge grantees – to email us at blog@grdodge.org if your organization has a Facebook fan page and/or you are on Twitter. We want to connect with you. In the coming weeks, we will share who is using these tools so that you can connect with them too.

I’m going to get you started. Here are environment groups – recent or current Dodge grantees and all members of the New Jersey Keep It Green Coalition – who are on Facebook:

American Littoral Society
Appalachian Mountain Club
Bayshore Discovery Project
Clean Ocean Action
Conserve Wildlife Foundation
Edison Wetlands Association
Greater Newark Conservancy
Hackensack Riverkeeper
Heritage Conservancy
Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance
Isles, Inc.
Land Conservancy of New Jersey
Natural Lands Trust
New Jersey Audubon Society
New Jersey Conservation Foundation
New Jersey Future
New Jersey Highlands Coalition
Passaic River Coalition
Pinelands Preservation Alliance
Regional Plan Association
Skylands CLEAN
Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association
The Nature Conservancy
Trust for Public Land

We love the preservation success stories that Keep It Green shares on Facebook.

Becoming a fan is just a click away!

Molly de Aguiar, Program Associate

One of the amazing things about Twitter is the instantaneous access to a wide variety of resources, including all kinds of articles we at Dodge think are useful and interesting, not just to us,  but also to our grantees. Often, we tweet about them on Twitter, but in case you’re not a Twitter user yet, here are a few recent social media links we think are worth reading:

Mashable: The Social Media Guide is a go-to resource for social media article and how-tos. Yesterday they posted an interesting article about collaborative blogging. Their list of really informative How-To guides is here.

The Connections blog by Steve MacLaughlin has a great article on social media strategy: Creating a Social Networking Strategy (Part 0). And a useful follow-up: Social Media is a Big Waste of Time. He also has an Online Guide for Nonprofits that you might find useful.

The Case Foundation tells us that nonprofits are taking the lead in using social media – far outpacing universities and businesses. They also link to a great Social Media Strategy Handbook written by Wendy Harman for the Red Cross.

We mentioned last week that Dodge is on Twitter now; you can find us @grdodge. We’re discovering that Twitter is the perfect tool for communicating all of the useful pieces of information that come to us in our field visits, as well as through invitations and emails we receive from our grantees and peers, and through articles and books we’re reading – most of which we’re often not able to get up on our website quickly enough. Twitter, moreso than our website and blog, is the tool that helps us redistribute this information in a very timely way.

Are you on Twitter? Are you struggling with how to best use social media? How can Dodge help you sort through and learn what you need to know about social media? We’d love to know.

Wendy Liscow, Program Officer

I did it again.  I just spent an hour surfing the web.  My intention was to write a blog about some of my favorite technology and social media bloggers, and before I knew it, I was clicking from link, to link, to link, to link, to link, to link, to link. So beware: if you have any interest in learning about social media for non-profits you might find yourself on your own clicking spree.

Let’s start off with Beth Kanter who is one of the most popular bloggers on social media for non-profits. Her blog provides no nonsense information on everything from Facebook to Twitter to Flickr. She is curating the Nonprofit Technology Network’s (NTEN’s)  ”We Are Media: Nonprofit Social Media Starter Kit,” an online community of people from nonprofits who are interested in learning and teaching about how social media strategies and tools can enable nonprofit organizations to create, compile, and distribute their stories and change the world.

Check out Beth’s blog about Facebook’s New Fan Page, something that every nonprofit should investigate and decide if they want to implement.

Wild Apricot is a for-profit software company for small associations and non-profits. I haven’t checked out their software, but I have become a fan of their primary blogger Rebecca Leaman who writes on a wide range of technology topics. Check out these great posts:

Facebook Applications for Your Non-Profit
New Guide Helps Non-Profits Choose Donor Management System
What Makes a Successful Online Community
Social Media for Non-Profits:  26 Great Slideshare Presentations You Can Use

So, start clicking your way to understanding social media. But be forewarned, you are guaranteed to get “click happy.”

Photo: Vangelis Thanaidis