Update: Here's a followup post with some more thoughts on the nonprofit community's relationship with social networking tools.

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.

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The results of two new surveys paint a bleak picture of the effectiveness of social media for fundraising and volunteer recruitment. The first from Philanthropy Action, has the depressing title, "Social Networking and Mid-Size Nonprofits: What's the Use?" The survey is based on responses from about 200 mid-sized nonprofits (defined as having revenues between $1 and $5 million annually) between July 2008 and March 2009. It concludes that:

Social technologies are not delivering much in terms of fundraising or attracting volunteers. While the majority (of respondents) began using social networking with an expectation that it would help the organization attract donors and volunteers, results have been particularly disappointing in those categories. More than 70 percent of respondents indicated that they had raised less than $100 or did not know whether they had raised any money.

However, despite poor results to date, "the overwhelming majority of respondents... say they are going to increase their investment in the use of social networking."

A second survey, from the Cone communications agency, reached similar conclusions.

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.

Last night, we held our Digital Storytelling Challenge Awards Party here at TechSoup headquarters in San Francisco. We screened highlights from the more than 100 video, image, and GoldMail submissions and celebrated the great work nonprofits and libraries are doing to tell their unique and important stories. These stories help convey the work they do, advance their missions, and highlight the communities they're working within by giving a visual (and sometimes audio) story to help supporters connect with their mission and values.

If you missed the party, here's the full line up of our awardees:

• First Place: Kramden in 60 sec by the Kramden Institute awarded a Flip Video camera.
• Second Place: Dragonfly Forest by Dragonfly Forest awarded Adobe Audition software and a Flickr Pro account 
• Third Place: Tabor Kalaka 2009 by The Community Foundation of Odorheiu Secuiesc awarded Adobe Production software.
• Fourth Place: 30 Ways to Create Peace by Legacy International/Global Youth Village awarded a Goldmail Synergy account.

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Earlier this summer, we talked about the Adobe MAX Awards, an awards program that recognizes multimedia achievements in the for-profit, nonprofit, and government sectors. We were particularly excited about this year's awards, as Adobe added a Social Responsibility category.

Well, the finalists are in, and now it's time to vote! Be sure to check out all of the social responsibility finalists; they all look intriguing. If you already recognize one of the finalists, that's because METRAC's Finding Zoe was honored last year in our Show Your Impact contest.

Voting is open only through Tuesday, October 6, at 12 p.m. Pacific time, so cast your vote now. And don't forget that donated products from Adobe are available at TechSoup Stock.

Here's a blog post I wish I'd have written. Mark at Queer Ideas takes on the concept of voice and tone in nonprofit communications. "I've come to the conclusion that the instructional approach that so many brand guidelines take to defining 'tone of voice' simply doesn't work when it comes to specifying how non-profits must use language," Mark says. "Most direction is either unnecessary or confusing."

He then goes on to examine some of the words we use in our in-house style guides or when talking about how to write fundraising and communications materials:

Positive: What's the point? I'm writing for a charity. I'm hardly going to be negative about what a donor can achieve with a gift. Neither am I going to present the challenge a charity faces as being insurmountable.

Honest: Cripes, lucky this was there otherwise I'd just lie about everything the charity does.

Respectful: And there I was just about to kick off with a long tirade of patronising and sarcastic abuse. Phew! That was a near miss.

On he goes, and the point is clear: words like "passionate," "caring," and "honest" are great sentiments, but they don't offer much practical guidance. They don't tell you how to craft your nonprofit's story, where to place the "ask" in a fundraising letter, or how long a piece of copy should be. Those are hard questions, and they need better answers than a simple feel-good word.

Mark suggests that the best thing you can do for your nonprofit's branding is to focus not on tone, but on empathy. Study what your audience reacts to; write for them. As we've discussed here before, nonprofit professionals are often very different people from donors. Sometimes the message we most enjoy writing isn't the one that resonates most with supporters. Jeff at Donor Power Blog takes it a step further: "If your belief, or theory, or intuition about fundraising is based on your own personal experience, you are wrong."

CARE2 is holding a webinar on strategies for successfully welcoming, cultivating, and converting new leads into donors. Holly Ross of NTEN will moderate a panel with Heidi Hess of Children's Defense Fund and Greg Zelder of the California State Parks Foundation. They will review data about nonprofits' speed and type of responses to newly acquired email subscribers, then focus on specific online engagement and conversion strategies that have worked for them — as well as approaches that have failed (and why).

What: While They're Hot! Converting Fresh Leads into Donors

When: Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 2 p.m. Eastern

For the last three years, OneWebDay "has attracted a global network of partner organizations and individual activists committed to broadening public awareness of Internet and web issues while deepening a culture of participation in building a web that works for everyone."

This day is considered a day of action for digital inclusion, much like Earth Day has become a day of action for environmental issues. Grassroots organizers and individuals around the world are raising awareness, taking action, and encouraging change on a broad host of issues where web and Internet technologies are concerned. From expanding access to free WiFi, to creating public computing spaces, to expanding crowdsourced translation services for web content, OneWebDay is bringing together ideas and action for making the web truly a place for all.

In 2008, OneWebDay organizers documented volunteer-driven events in 34 different cities across the world. This year events are happening in over 50 cities in 20 countries!

OneWebDay is all about your passion for the web and your creativity. Visit the OneWebDay site to learn more and find out how you can participate!

What: NTEN is holding an online workshop on social media using a Choose Your Own Expert format. They've gathered a group of nonprofit social media experts to help you devise a solid organizational strategy and learn the secrets of a variety of social media tools.  After an opening plenary by Beth Kanter, you'll choose one of 4 breakout sessions:

Free Range Studios, the "Creative Agency with a Conscience," has announced its annual YouTopia Grant (formerly known as the Gratitude Grant). Free Range Studios will be donating their services to one lucky nonprofit and one socially responsible business. Past recipients of the YouTopia Grant include Sustainable Table for whom Free Range Studios created the award winning viral video, the Meatrix, now viewed over 20 million times and translated into 43 languages.

Free Range Studios also walks the talk. From the day Free Range Studios opened its doors it has been a socially and environmentally responsible company. Free Range Studios uses Triple Bottom Line accounting, renewable energy including wind power, and most recently Free Range Studios became a B Corporation.