Earlier this year, we took a look at the US Air Force's social media policy. I still think that not only is a social media policy for employees increasingly becoming a legal necessity for your nonprofit, but it might also be the most important thing you can do for your marketing and PR.

Here's another one to check out. Timo Luege has just finished putting together a social media policy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and he's posted the policy on his blog (via). Of course, the IFRC is a huge conglomeration of individual Red Cross and Red Crescent chapters around the world, spanning a multitude of social and political mores. How do you craft a policy that's applicable to every IFRC employee (or, for that matter, not downright objectionable)? "I realize that the parts about 'neutrality' and 'keeping your manager in the loop' might sound very restrictive to some people," Timo writes, "especially those from democratic countries." He goes on to explain that the IFRC code of conduct is actually more restrictive than the social media policy. Rather than squelching employees' freedom of expression, the policy actually empowers them to communicate thoughtfully on behalf of their employers. That empowerment means setting clear boundaries. From the policy:

The IFRC believes that sharing of information and experiences benefits the whole humanitarian community and ultimately the beneficiaries we serve. Feel free to share and discuss your experiences in e.g. vaccination campaigns, field communication, building of transitional shelters etc. If IFRC staff is perceived to be knowledgeable and helpful this will reflect positively on you and on the organization.

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Here's an idea from our friend Laura at Idealware: what if you measured any communications method by whether it would have more or less impact than spending the same amount of time calling donors on the phone?

…You could spend that time simply calling donors and constituents at random, to thank them, or to ask them a quick set of questions (how did they like the services they used? what do you do well? not so well?). If you've never done this, it can be pretty magical. Often people are amazed that you've called, happy to talk, and have useful insights. It gives you a great sense as to who your constituents actually are and what they care about. And not coincidentally, my experience is that it fosters great new connections. People want to volunteer, wanted to ask you something, and, not coincidentally, donate at considerably higher rates after. Nothing starts a conversation like, well, an actual conversation.

I love the way Laura articulates this. When we adopt social media strategies, we often tell ourselves that it's not just about donations, it's about starting a conversation. There are plenty good reasons why it's important to keep conversations going with supporters, but are Twitter and Facebook always the best way? If your goal is to have a conversation, then why not pick up the phone and have one?

This is not to say that there's no place for social media; rather, I think that the phone test can actually help you articulate the purpose of any communications tactic, be it a fundraising letter, a donor event, a print ad, or a Facebook page. If you can clearly identify who the target audience is for a particular effort and what action you want that audience to take, you can put together the right campaign for achieving that goal. It might be a letter, an email blast, or a social media campaign, and it might be a phone call.

Whether you're a regular TechSoup user or haven't heard of us til now, we've got a free webinar coming up that will likely show you something new about how you can get more out of the variety of (free) services we offer to nonprofits and libraries.

Learn How TechSoup Can Help Your Organization

Join TechSoup.org content creators, community leaders, and customer service support on November 12 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Pacific for a tour of how your organization can use all that TechSoup has to offer to improve your technology and help reach your mission. TechSoup, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is working toward a time when every nonprofit and social benefit organization will have the technology resources and knowledge they need to operate at their full potential.

We'll walk you through the process of registering and requesting donated and discounted products from more than 35 donor partners like Microsoft and Adobe. We'll also take you on a virtual tour of other resources in TechSoup's tech arsenal including;

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Since Windows 7 launched last week, there has been a flurry of activity from nonprofits and libraries looking to start using the new operating system. TechSoup has written a bunch of articles, blog posts, and forum threads to help people figure out whether to upgrade and how to do it. One thing we haven't really mentioned here yet, is the cool contest that Microsoft is hosting right now — specifically to benefit nonprofits and other social benefit organizations.

Organizations are encouraged to create a short video submission to tell the world how Windows 7 could help them change the world. For example, if you've got smoother running systems, maybe that leaves more time for you to do your real work of providing domestic violence counseling to women, children, and families in need. Or maybe upgrading the public computing lab you run for local lower-income community, will help people access job-hunt, language learning, and healthcare information easier. Whatever it is, tell your story. Here's more, direct from Microsoft:

This week through TechSoup Limited, we've been running a special discount on NOZA, a database of philanthropy data. This database has more than 43,000,000 (million) donation records in it — where you can search for individuals, corporations, and foundation donation records to see who they've supported in the past, how much they've given, and look for those donors who may be likely to also support your cause. The special discount ends today at 5 p.m. Pacific time, so place your request now.

The promotional offer is for a 30-day subscription that gives you unlimited access to the database and all those donor records for the grand total of $99. The subscription starts when you activate your account (between now and December 31, 2009) and gives you unfettered access for the next 30 days, so you can research for the best donor prospects to grow your organization's support. It's available to 501(c)(3) nonprofits and public libraries. Also, libraries and nonprofits can make their subscription available to individual community members and patrons to help them research potential donors for community, school, and local programs.

In preparation for this promotional offer, we sat down to interview Craig Harris, the CEO and founder of NOZA, about his fundraising background and how NOZA can be put to use by nonprofits and libraries. He also guest blogged earlier this week about developing a major gift fundraising program.

When asked about his background, Harris wasn't shy about what's helped him learn the ropes of fundraising for nonprofits. "I don't consider myself an expert," Harris claimed. "I've failed at a lot of my fundraising endeavors. I come from the school of trial and error… mostly error. In the evolution of my fundraising career, I've gleaned some of those best practices that are relevant to nonprofits. My fundraising came by accident."

This week, Craig Harris, the founder and CEO of NOZA, Inc. is sharing his wisdom on developing a major gifts program at nonprofits. NOZA (a TechSoup donor partner) is a Santa Barbara based technology company that has developed a platform to convert unstructured web data into searchable databases. Prior to founding NOZA, Craig founded South Coast Strategies, a fundraising consulting firm. Craig graduated from U.C. Santa Barbara in 1995 and then spent two years as Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay. Upon finishing his Peace Corps service he began his nonprofit career as the founder and first executive director of Servicios Ecoforestales Para Agricultores (SEPA), a large agroforestry demonstration farm in Eastern Paraguay. Eligible nonprofits and libraries can request a special NOZA discount through the end of this week.

Where do major gifts come from?

Major gifts come from three primary sources: (1) Corporations (2) Foundations (3) Individuals.  According to the annual GivingUSA Foundation statistics (PDF) charitable giving in the U.S. topped $307 billion in 2008. Here is where the money came from:

• Corporations:  $14.5 billion (5%)
• Foundations:   $41.2 billion (13%)
• Individuals:      $251.9 billion (82%)

While foundation and corporate giving play a major role in U.S. philanthropy, most of the money comes from people. Having spent several years as a fundraising consultant, I've worked with organizations that excelled at major gift fundraising, and I've worked with organizations that couldn't raise a major gift to save their mission. One of the common threads for the successful organizations is that they followed the money, focusing the majority of their time and resources on individuals. Those that failed typically hid behind the relative ease and comfort of shotgun blasting grant proposals and letters to foundations and corporations. In fact, I'm yet to find an organization that was able to develop and SUSTAIN a major gift program from only foundations and corporations. While the relative proportion of individual/corporate/foundation giving will vary from organization to organization, for those just getting started with major gift fundraising, my advice is to focus on individuals.

Why do people give major gifts?

What is the number one reason why people make major gifts to nonprofit organizations? Because they were asked. During my early years as a fundraising professional, I once heard a line during a fundraising workshop that I've always remembered: "People don't give money to causes. People give money to people with causes."

Are you tracking your data through multiple spreadsheets, emails and sheets of paper found throughout your office? You're not alone.

Join us on Wednesday, October 21 at 10 a.m. Pacific to learn about Telosa's Exceed! Basic, a tool that can help you organize your data, especially that which is donor related. Not only will you learn how to get your data into one place, but we'll discuss how you can use this tool to streamline and automate many of the routine, yet time-consuming tasks associated with fundraising and donor management.

If you haven't done so already, you've got to check out the submissions we've received so far for the Digital Storytelling Online Event that's been open all month. You can see the video submissions on YouTube and check out the photo submissions on Flickr. There are some inspiring digital stories in there from nonprofits far and wide.

But don't worry. If you've not had time to get your five-photo story uploaded to Flickr or your 60-second video onto YouTube (you can also create a GoldMail story), there's still time. We've extended the Digital Storytelling Challenge deadline over the weekend so you've got until Monday morning (9 a.m. Pacific) to throw your digital stories into the proverbial ring.

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Our friends at NTEN have launched a survey to examine nonprofits' data ecosystems. Your first question is probably "what is a data ecosystem?" NTEN describes it as follows:

The nonprofit ecosystem is a way of thinking about how data is shared by and flows across the different departments and activities in your organization. Similar to the interconnectedness in natural ecosystems (for example: marsh, birds, plants), we think of the data ecosystem as the interconnectedness of software tools and the data they hold. Thus, in a well functioning data ecosystem, tools are connected so that the information gathered from online donations, for example, is easily commingled with the information gathered from an event which is commingled with the information collected about other supporters. In a poorly functioning data ecosystem, each pool of data stands alone with little or no interconnectedness.

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The Chronicle of Philanthropy isn't known for giving away money, but for talking about how to get it. They've come up with a contest to benefit a few lucky nonprofits. Here's the deal: