What would you do if you could build a non-profit website from scratch without worrying about any integration issues?

It’s exactly what I’m doing at the moment. In this post I’m sharing my ideas and I’d love to hear your’s.

http://sm4good.com/2010/03/01/nonprofit-website-scratch/

Based on experiences in Samoa and Haiti, I’m trying to come up with best practice for how to organize tweeting staff in a disaster context so that there is a maximum benefit for the organization.

I have identified four different approaches:

- The organizational approach
- The personal approach
- The CNN approach
- The List approach

read more about the advantages and disadvantages that I see in each approach on Social Media 4 Good:
http://sm4good.com/2010/02/15/twitter-disasters-organize-staff/

To say that the last week was “intense” would be an understatement. From the minute the earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement pulled out all stops to help the people on the ground.

Communications is only a small part of that response and social media an even smaller part. Nevertheless – here are my observations:

http://sm4good.com/2010/01/24/haiti-earthquake-social-media-response/

The Red Cross Red Crescent created a Flickr slideshow with photos from Haiti after the earthquake. This will be updated continuously.

If you want to add it to your own blog, you can use the code I posted here:

http://sm4good.com/2010/01/14/slideshow-blog-red-cross-red-crescent-phot...

The American Red Cross has been using its Facebook and Twitter accounts to promote support for relief of the Haiti earthquake victims at a national level, and has a mobile solution where people can text "HAITI" to "90999" to donate $10 to the Red Cross.

Locally my chapter used Twitter, Google Checkout, Facebook and LinkedIn to raise more than $4,000 in just six hours on our page at http://www.tricountyredcross.org/2010/01/donate-to-support-haitan-earth.html . All the funds raised go to the American Red Cross International Relief Fund and the $1,000,000 the Ameircan Red Cross has already provided to Haiti.

I have been using Flickr for about two years to increase visibility of the work of Red Cross Red Crescent. Today, I’d like to share some of the lessons I’ve learned.

Why Flickr?

I believe that most non-profits spend too much time preaching to the choir. Flickr is a great website to show what your organization is doing and why it is doing it to people whom you haven’t been able to reach.

http://sm4good.com/2010/01/11/flickr-nonprofits-lessons-learned/

The Red Cross Red Crescent and Reuters have launched a multimedia web documentary - that marks the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. The centre-piece of "Surviving the Tsunami: Stories of Hope" are four very moving interviews with people who have survived this disaster which killed 230,000 people across 14 countries. The Indian Ocean Tsunami is the largest natural disaster in living history: http://tsunami.trust.org

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (http://www.ifrc.org) is hiring a Social Media Officer. The IFRC is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with 186 member National Societies. This is a 2 year position, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Deadline for applications: 3 January 2010
You can apply here: https://jobnet.ifrc.org/public/hrd-cl-vac-view.asp?jobinfo_uid_c=1604&va...

Purpose of position:

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) views humanitarian diplomacy as an important element in supporting the collective efforts of its membership and of its Secretariat to meet the needs of vulnerable people and to address the major humanitarian challenges confronting the world today.

One of my projects over the last few months was to write and get approval for social media staff guidelines for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). I’m sharing them because I hope that they will be useful to other organizations who are working on similar documents. Besides: I wouldn’t have been able to write them without other organizations and companies making their’s available.

Here’s the news you’re waking up to this morning.  Reading the news any day of the week can leave you clenching your fists. But you can do more about this than shake your head while you drink your coffee. Here’s how you can do something about news that makes you angry - get online and make a difference! (More...)