1. Social Media Use by Small Nonprofit Organizations
Scott Tidmore
UWW 191G

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Social Media Use by Small Non-Profit Organizations
Small- and medium-sized NPOs (nonprofit organizations) face significant hurdles to fully using
social media as a tool to interact with all stakeholders. This is generally a result of limited
staffing, little or no budget for social media, and a lack of expertise in using available tools
effectively. The already-overburdened communications and development personnel in a small
organization often have social media added to the stack of existing duties, even when their
expertise may or may not fall in line with social media needs. (Rosenthal & White, 2012; Bulik,
2012) In order to become more effective and to serve the needs of their stakeholders, small- and
medium-sized NPOs must include social media and emerging Web 2.0 / 3.0 technologies into
their marketing and outreach efforts, and they must set aside resources specifically for use in
social media projects.
The use of social media tools is nearly ubiquitous across the nonprofit sphere, with 98% of
organizations using at least one type. (Barnes, 2014) Most organizations rely heavily on websites
and email marketing as their primary means of stakeholder interaction while using interactive
tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to bolster their communication efforts. (Leroux
Miller, 2014; Barnes, 2014) In smaller organizations, social media tools is often seen as a means
to level the playing field with regard to public visibility, in comparison with larger nonprofits and
commercial institutions.

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Definitions
Social media are online tools, communities, networks, and technologies which enable the
aggregating and sharing of information and communications between multiple parties. Examples
of social media include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, among many others.
Small- and medium-sized NPOs are defined for this writing as those with $10 million or less in
total assets.
For this writing, stakeholders are those individuals and organizations with an interest in the
operations, programs, and/or well-being of an NPO. This includes members, clients, employees,
aid or funding recipients, donors, board members, and the communities in which the NPO
operates.
How are NPOs Prioritizing Social Media?
The priority and role given to social media as part of an overall communications strategy
depends on the size and program focus of the organization. According to the 2014 Nonprofit
Communications Trends Report, large organizations are focusing their communications efforts
on brand awareness, thought leadership, and PR while smaller NPOs are focusing on the
acquisition and retention of members and volunteers. (Leroux Miller, 2014)

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In practice, this means smaller organizations are more likely to use their limited social media
resources to provide advocacy and outreach information of specific interest to existing or
prospective members and donors, or to make direct appeals for volunteers and donations. It also
means that smaller NPOs spend less time using social media to interact with stakeholders like
employees, board members, and potential community partners. This leaves an important part of
the organizational narrative blank, offering nothing for those prospective supporters to share with
the community at large.
Large NPOs, on the other hand, spend more time and resources on building a brand, making the
organization more identifiable and ultimately creating a larger outreach base from which to draw
volunteers, members, and donations. Brand building allows an organization to build a story about
the business, giving prospective members, donors, and volunteers a sense of history and stability.
For smaller organizations to thrive, they must follow this example and spend as much time and
effort building an image and base for the future as they do focusing on the immediate needs of
today's donations.
Storytelling with Social Media
“...it's about nonprofit folks stepping back from their role and really rethinking what it is
going to motivate that individual to not only care about what it is they care about but what is
going to get them to take action.” - Suzanne Smith, Social Impact Architects (Lasica, 2010)

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The heart of the nonprofit mission is motivating action from individuals. In order to do this
successfully, NPOs have to move beyond cold facts and figures; they have to tell stories.
Knowing that 1 in 30 children in the U.S. were homeless in 2013 (Kedmey, 2014) provides basic
information about homelessness but telling the story of William, the 15 year old runaway who
left home to escape an abusive father, personalizes the issue and allows individuals to understand
why their time and donations are important.
Storytelling is important across the spectrum of nonprofit communications but it is critical to
social media interaction. The users of social networks expect to find compelling and entertaining
stories when they connect to social networks and they want those stories in high-definition, high-
quality audiovisual presentations. Those users also want to help shape those stories by
commenting on them, sharing them with friends, and adapting them for use on other mediums or
across other networks. Providing this kind of personally interactive experience is necessary for
small NPOs to flourish in the modern media climate.
Small- and medium-sized NPOs can meet the challenge of providing compelling stories both by
adapting existing media like photographs, video, and digital presentations for use in social media
offerings and by creating new content with the multitude of Web 2.0 tools which are freely
available. Organizations can use tools like Prezi (http://www.prezi.com) or SlideShare
(http://www.slideshare.net) to create multimedia presentations from existing content, then share
them with stakeholders without the need for additional I.T. infrastructure. More adventurous

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organizations can use tools like PowToon (http://www.powtoon.com) to create animated videos
which can be shared on social networks and embedded in organizational web pages to offer site
visitors an entertaining explanation of factual information.
Conclusion
For small- and medium-sized NPOs to be successful in their social media endeavors, they must
learn to offer their stakeholders genuine conversations and engaging content. Preaching to the
choir by giving out the same dry facts to advocates and supporters is no longer an option in the
modern media environment. A recent survey by The NonProfit Times suggests that, in general,
NPOs are learning these lessons and adjusting to the content-driven world of social media, with
66% of respondents stating that “becoming better storytellers” is part of their marketing strategy
for the next year and 62% planning to create “more engaging / higher-quality content”. (Hrywna,
2014) The NPO that grows from a 3-person garage operation to become the next United Way
will be the one that learns to engage stakeholders directly, through sophisticated use of social
media to drive an organizational narrative and deliver information in an entertaining and
engaging way.

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References
Rosenthal, I., & White, R. (2012, December 1). Beyond Facebook and Twitter: The Bond
Between Social Media and Non-Profits. Retrieved November 16, 2014, from
http://aladinrc.wrlc.org/handle/1961/15198?show=full
This is a 2012 Honors Capstone paper from American University. It details the adoption
of social media in small NPOs and describes many of the challenges faced by small
organizations in trying to reach stakeholders through social media.
Hrywna, M. (2014, November 5). Survey: Nonprofits Doing Better With Content Marketing -
The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times. Retrieved November 16, 2014, from
http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/news-articles/survey-nonprofits-better-content-marketing/
The article summarizes the results from a recent survey by The NonProfit Times which
looked at the content marketing of nonprofit organizations. More than 1100 NPOs were surveyed
to determine how they were executing content marketing, whether documented strategies were in
use, and what future plans were being made to build on existing initiatives.
Bulik, B. S. (2012). Rebels with a cause: Nonprofit marketers. Advertising Age, 83(7), 21.
This article discusses the challenges and day to day duties of nonprofit marketers. It
briefly explains the need for nonprofit marketing to accomplish more with minimal funding.
Leroux Miller, K. (2014, January 1). 2014 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report. Retrieved

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November 16, 2014, from http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/resources/2014-nonprofit-
communications-trends-report/
The report provided statistical and anecdotal findings from a survey of 2135 nonprofits.
The survey covered the use of social media and other marketing tools with breakdowns by size,
mission, and job titles of the respondents.
Barnes, N. (2014, January 1). Picture This: Top Charities Master Visual and Social Media.
Retrieved November 17, 2014, from
http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/socialmediaresearch/charitiessocialmedia/
This source provides statistical data from a study of the use of Social and Visual Media
by NonProfits conducted by the Spring 2014 Advanced Marketing Research Class at University
of Massachusetts – Dartmouth. 129 social media administrators responded via telephone to a
survey detailing how they were using social media and what particular sites or tools they were
using.
Lasica, J.D. (2010, May 27). The importance of storytelling to nonprofits [SD.mp4] Retrieved
from http://vimeo.com/12088549
The video is an interview with Suzanne Smith, the Chief Storyteller at Social Impact
Architects. She discusses the use of storytelling to engage nonprofit stakeholders and the impact
of visual storytelling vs textual storytelling.
Kedmey, D. (2014, November 17). Study: 1 in 30 U.S. Kids Were Homeless During 2013.

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Retrieved November 17, 2014, from http://time.com/3588844/child-homeless-study/
The article discusses a report by the National Center on Family Homelessness which
places the number of homeless children in the U.S. around 2.5 million.