Many nonprofits and libraries are using Facebook to interact with their constituencies and reach out to new audiences – but what’s the best way to get your organization started on this hugely popular social networking site?

In this webinar Kami Griffiths will interview social media consultant John Haydon, who will walk through the essential steps to establishing and managing a successful Facebook presence for a nonprofit or library. We will also hear from Gabe O’Neill of Kids Are Heroes, who will share lessons learned from developing their own Facebook page. Get practical how-to information, learn best practices, ask questions, and leave with action items that will help you create an engaging Facebook presence for your organization.

There are a lot of well-intentioned people in the world with groundbreaking ideas to make a real difference.  They'll sit down and strategize how to raise the funds, what they're going to do and where they're going to go.  However, often times a very fundamental piece of the equation is left out: Story-telling.

This is not your 5-year-olds definition of story-telling, this is the concept of effectively spreading the word about your mission in a passionate and compelling way, and at the same time, reaching those people who want and/or need to hear it.

Originally published on the TechSoup Blog.

There's been a lot of discussion over the past week about Causes leaving MySpace and becoming a Facebook-only application. In a sense, the news isn't that surprising (being a for-profit company, Causes must focus on platforms generating the most commercial interest), but it's raised a lot of questions about how closely the nonprofit community aligns itself with commercial tools.

My colleague Amy wrote in a Stanford Social Innovation Review column, "The debate around social media and the Internet in general as a leveling force is still heated from all sides. Yes you can claim that anyone has the power to blog, but that's really only the people who have access to the tools and the time and the empowerment. The access debate aside, the removal of Causes from MySpace where there are active communities of supporters means 'equal opportunity activism' is defined by only certain communities." If nonprofits have the goal of making more resources available to more people, what happens when the tools we're using seem to undermine those goals? Amy points out danah boyd's much-discussed research on the socioeconomic and racial differences between MySpace and Facebook users. Justin Massa goes so far as to call the move redlining: "Causes' justification sounds an awful lot like what financial institutions and the real estate industry used to say about poor and minority neighborhoods."

Marshall at ReadWriteWeb snaps:

Causes co-founder Sean Parker poses sitting with crossed legs in his photo on the company profile page; his mission statement begins with the words "According to the historical Buddha..." It's hard to imagine a beneficent religious figure that would ditch MySpace for Facebook, isn't it? Perhaps "the historical Buddha" would choose to pull up stakes from the 11th most popular website in the world if the people were too shallow and go to the hip social network where the money-raising action is.

This is a lightly revised note that I shared with 157 fellow Net Tuesday Organizers this past Friday evening, concerning Causes' recent announcement to 'abandon 184,674 users' on MySpace. Here's a quick way for you to share it on Twitter & Facebook.

Dear friends,

I hope this note finds you well on a lovely evening. Or morning. Or afternoon. We're a truly global bunch - so this note could find you at just about any time of day or night. Which offers somewhat of an introduction to something I want to share with you.

So much of the work we do is around connecting people across boundaries, from different countries & time-zones (from Douala to Tokyo to Vancouver) to different ethnicities, classes, and cultures within our own communities. While we don't have a stated mission, it may be fair to say we use the web to strengthen the fabric of our social ties with the intent of weaving together a better world. We use and push for tools that break down barriers, help diverse voices get heard, and bring more of us together for the beautiful array of changes we all seek.

Sadly, Something recently happened in the world of web tools for social change that seems to go against this -- of what we aspire for and work towards with a democratic web.

Did you know that two thirds of people around the world who are blind are women?

To highlight this fact, Sightsavers has launched a Women and Blindness campaign in collaboration with iconic photographer Rankin. Working with six renowned make-up artists he has produced some incredible images, and we've launched a micro-site to showcase them:

 http://www.sightsavers.org/rankin

It would be great if you could view the site, share the link with your friends, family and colleagues, and become a fan of Sightsavers on Facebook and Twitter!

I've written up a summary about how we are using Facebook combined with news to support online organizing to stop climate change. This is based on our work with Hot Dish, the climate change news publication with the action team contest I posted about earlier. There are a bunch of examples and screenshots to help describe and explain the various capabilities available with this type of approach. We also just added a live chat feature on our news story pages that is worth checking out.

http://blog.newscloud.com/2009/03/applying-hot-dish-technology-to-online-organizing-.html

I want to share news about a project I've been deeply involved in the past few months which may provide some new ways for mission driven organizations to combine news and social networking to raise awareness for their causes and improve their effectiveness.

Crossposted from Rootwork.org.

Just a quick note to say I'll be speaking as part of Social Actions' free "Using Facebook for Social Change" webinar on Thursday, along with Susan Gordon, the nonprofit coordinator of Causes, and moderated by Beth Pickard and David Karp of Firstgiving.

You're invited to join in a live and open text chat to discuss how you can use Facebook for social change. This is your opportunity to share experiences and ask questions about how people and orgs can do outreach, inspire action, and fund raise on the Facebook network.

The webinar is part of Social Actions' Change the Web Conversation Series.

I'll be talking about some of the successes the Genocide Intervention Network has had in using Facebook and Causes to engage its member base, increase the impact of advocacy campaigns, and raise (a little) money.

RSVP for the event, happening Thursday, Feb. 26, at 11 AM PST/2 PM EST. (Note that if you're not already a member of Social Actions, you'll need to sign up before you can RSVP, but it's free.)

I invite you to ask questions in the comments below ahead of time and I'll do my best to answer them during the event!

--Ivan Boothe, Rootwork.org

I was talking to someone about the growing importance of Facebook to fundraising, but was pulled up short by the following comment:

But Facebook users are all 20-somethings. Our supporters are all in their 40s and 50s. We have an older audience - they wouldn't know how to use Facebook!

Not true, according to the latest stats. Facebook isn't just grabbing the youth demographic, it's gobbling up the baby boomers as well.  Find out where your donors are hanging out...

Net Tuesdays are free monthly gatherings for social changemakers and web innovators to network, socialize and share ideas about how nonprofits and social benefit organizations can use the social web for social change. Net Tuesdays are an initiative of NetSquared, a Project of TechSoup.

January's Event