Last year Google+ began enabling page admins to reserve custom URLs for their Google+ Pages, but the service was offered to a relatively small number of verified pages of well-known brands and celebrities. However, last week Google+ began rolling out the ability to reserve a custom URL, such as google.com/+nonprofitorgs, to all page admins provided that your page has been active...

Updated: View 2019 Holiday Shopping Guide The National Retail Federation is projecting that the average American holiday shopper will spend on $738 this holiday season generating more than $602 billion in total sales. That’s a lot of consumer spending power that when spent consciously can help finance nonprofits and good causes worldwide. It may cost a bit more to...

The Mobile Web is often discussed as a future trend that nonprofits have time to prepare for, but the reality is that by the end of 2014, the majority of your supporters and donors will be viewing your website, email communications,  blogs, and social media content on smartphones and tablets. In truth, the Mobile Web is already here. Going mobile...

Looking at cute images, particularly those of baby animals, has been proven to increase our brain’s concentration levels for a short time afterwards. The Power of Kawaii (a Japanese word meaning “cute”) can help nonprofit social media managers be more productive and also help counterbalance the flood of negative images that we are exposed to as a by-product of emerging...

A follow-up post to Five Online Fundraising Best Practices for NGOs and Five Social Media Best Practices for NGOs, below is a list of 25 resources that regularly tweet and retweet useful fundraising and social media advice and information valuable to NGOs worldwide, particularly those engaged in international development. By studying their tweets and utilizing the resources they advocate for,...

The African Wildlife Foundation’s Annual Safari Sweepstakes promotion is as close as it gets to perfect. The design and branding is modern and mobile-optimized, visuals and call-to-action graphics are prioritized over text, and social media is integrated throughout the entire process of entering the sweepstakes. Not only by entering the contest may you win a trip of a lifetime, but...

As a follow-up to Five Online Fundraising Best Practices for Small NGOs in Developing Countries, below are five social media best practices specifically tailored for small NGOs in developing countries. Once your NGO has laid a foundation for online fundraising success by launching a mobile-optimized website, an e-newsletter, and having the ability to accept online donations, your NGO is...

Facebook now also recommends pages in the news feed, but only if your nonprofit has opted-in to have your page recommended. Until today page recommendations only occurred when individuals liked a page, but now recommendations are also given when individuals like a status update in the news feed. Facebook has not officially announced the new functionality, so it may...

Thanks to Microsoft Citizenship Asia Pacific, I’ve had the great honor to present a series of online fundraising and social media trainings to over three hundred non-governmental organizations (NGOs) throughout Asia Pacific over the last three years. The experience has made me acutely aware that access to information about trends in nonprofit technology, online fundraising, and social media often...

With the launch of new a LinkedIn Groups design, the company resolved one of its most pressing problems – LinkedIn Group spam. Group management had become cumbersome and time-consuming for many admins of medium and large groups. Flagging irrelevant discussions as promotion posts or deleting them altogether can take up to thirty minutes a day and if you didn’t invest the...

Nonprofits were the early adopters of social networks. The were active on Myspace, YouTube, and creating Facebook Groups long before most of the companies that are often praised for being the pioneers of social media. One of the reasons was that social networks were free to join and lacked monthly fees. Enterprising nonprofit staff (usually GenXers) with a love...

The number of low-cost or free online resources and tools available to nonprofits today is astounding. Many nonprofit professionals are overwhelmed by the all choices and as mobile media continues to grow, prepare to be mind-boggled by all the new technology options that will be available to your nonprofit in coming years. That said, to be alerted of new...

With more than 225 million registered users worldwide, LinkedIn pages have the potential to be very powerful for nonprofits. The vast majority of nonprofit staff, board members, volunteers, and funders use the site on a regular basis to network and make connections. Thus far most nonprofits have concentrated on using LinkedIn groups to build their brand inside the LinkedIn...