The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has posted images and inspiring phrases on
the social-media site Pinterest to convey the group’s mission and values.
On Pinterest, Charities Post Moving Pictures
By Cody Switzer
Pinterest, the popular new
social network that allows people to share virtual pinboards of
photos and links, is helping the
Dave Thomas Foundation for
Adoption do something it can’t
on other social-media sites:
share its personality.
The nonprofit has 546 followers on one board on Pinterest, showing them a quote from
Jane Austen and 40 other inspiring phrases printed on note-cards, written on chalkboards,
and overlaid onto photos.
“For us, this is probably the
only place we could do some-
thing like that,” says Staci Per-
kins, director of marketing and
communications at the founda-
tion.
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PHILANTHROPY
Charities are taking a range
of approaches to using the network. The Dave Thomas Foundation shares news, resources,
and more on the site. Large organizations like Amnesty International USA ( 2,138 account followers) and AARP (500 account
followers) have joined to share
images, as have smaller groups
like the Georgia Wildlife Federation (115 account followers).
“I’m using it to highlight our
mission and what it is that we
do,” says Jonathan Tonge, membership and communications
manager at the federation.
Mr. Tonge’s organization uses
Pinterest to share some of the
organization’s large stockpile of
photos of Georgia’s native species and wild places. The same
photos are on Facebook, but
they are harder to find.
Because Pinterest is based
heavily on photos, Mr. Waters
suggests that organizations
give some thought to aesthetics when using it. A sense of
style goes a long way on the network, because it’s more than
just a gallery site, like Flickr.
The site can be a great tool for
helping nonprofits bolster their
rankings on searches, says Mr.
Waters, because it links to the
source of images.
And posts on the site hit a
key set of potential supporters, Mr. Waters says. The site
is dominated by women, a fact
that both Ms. Perkins and Mr.
Tonge have noticed, though they
have noticed more men joining
recently.
The Dave Thomas foundation
saw another possible benefit of
establishing an early presence
on the site: It has helped the
organization garner national
media attention. “NBC Nightly
News” began following the nonprofit’s Pinterest page recently,
though the broadcast doesn’t
follow the group on Twitter.
USA Today has also followed
the foundation.
TECHNOLOGY
EMMANUEL ROSARIO
Participants at last fall’s Datadive event in New York
gathered to crunch numbers for a cause.
Matching Data Scientists and Nonprofits
M;;;;;;;;;100 data scientists; nonprofit employees, and others gathered in Washington this month to put their skills to use with three charities that want to do a better
job of harnessing the information they collect.
Social Media’s Potential Put to Ballot Test
I;;;;;;;;;;;;;over a proposed California tax on cigarettes, Livestrong and other cancer charities are trying to prove that social networks can be as potent an advocacy tool as money.
Mapping Treatment for a Childbirth Injury
T;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; have created a map of health-care facilities that treat a stigmatizing childbirth injury incurred by women in developing countries, in the
hope that the effort will call attention to the condition and help
direct medical resources more effectively.
