Friends that Fund and the Importance of Governance

One way to judge an organization on this is through their use of Facebook and Twitter. Do they allow audiences to write on their Facebook wall? Do they respond to inquiries? Do they tweet back at followers? Just because an organization has a Facebook page does not make them involved with their audience. A sincerity must be present to be taken seriously and to be respected. This interaction also helps to build an organizations credibility. 

I found chapter ten to be quite repetitive, but I think it's due to the importance of the message. Today's non profits need to be open to the changes in today's world if they want to gain the audience and donations they are seeking, ultimately making an impact in their overall cause. Non profits are not increasing the number of donations received because they are not taking advantage of the benefits social media can provide. It's also crucial that these organizations start to reach out to the younger generations. Reason one being they are they future. If they deem a cause important now, there are more chances that they will continue to support said cause throughout their lives. Also, the younger audiences are those who are active in social media and who use it to actually seek out information. 

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/
2010/11/03/everything-you-need-to-know-about-
todays-facebook
-announcements/

These donations just don't happen, though. It's crucial that an organization develops a relationship with its audience and donors. These relationships take time and definitely more energy from the organization's side. Your non profit needs to look at partners as people, not just a dollar bills. Often times partners can add a lot to an organization's details rather than through monetary support. These contributions are even sometimes more important. To do this, it's important to establish 2-way conversations with partners and donors. If they feel like they truly play a role in an organization, their dedication will increase drastically. 




Credibility is huge in the world of non profits. If an organization's reputation in questionable, why would someone trust them enough to hand money over? It just won't happen.


Governing boards within non profits need to follow the lead of social media. The traditional avenues of governing boards will no longer be effective in today's world. One common trend seen is that current board members recruit their friends to the board. Boards then become like-minded cliques, which is never good for an organization, non profit or not. These boards should be networked and conducted mostly online so an increased number of individuals have access and can donate their input. All of this will increase an organization's chances of becoming transparent, which is another avenue to increase credibility.