Social Media Use By NonProfit Organizations

New Hampshire Community Development Financial Authority

We were at the New Hampshire Social Media Club’s inaugural event and listened to several great speakers present how Social Media is used in their particular areas. There were presentations from government, Health care, Business, Culture, Education and the Nonprofit sectors. This was an outstanding event! The presentation from Michele Talwani from the New Hampshire Community Development Financial Authority was extremely informative with straight talk about how they use social media.

The New Hampshire Community Development Financial Authority was created 25 years ago by the state legislature. They are not a state agency. The Governor appoints their Board of Directors and they are not in the state budget. They are a Nonprofit that administers about $40 million per year for Nonprofits including Nonprofits, Municipalities and for profit companies. They are active on twitter and facebook and have RSS Feeds on their website.

Highlights from the presentation are below the video.

They started using social media one year ago to research who was out there and see what kinds of messages they could convey. They use social media to build brand and talk about their new funding opportunities, their awardees and the successes they are having. Social Media drives people to their website and they can track the results of their efforts.

People are constantly online with their mobile devices. They want to reach people in real time where they are. They have set up listening mechanisms to track what people are saying about them and respond in real time.

Michele covered opportunities for Nonprofits using social media, relationship building, expanded messaging reach, recruiting volunteers, etc. They use Google analytics to track results and website traffic and doubled since they started to use social media.

Social media takes time and she realizes that staffing is limited for most Nonprofits, however social media makes it so you can be more creative in expanding reach and rewarding donors. It build brand goodwill and loyalty.

Challenges include buy in from your board, using the wrong people and wrong skills. The people running your social media messaging are the voice of your organization – use someone experienced with your and your mission, not an intern.

Michele feels social media is an investment in their future.