Instagram's newest addition

Over the summer, Instagram added sponsored advertising to their services. I was very annoyed by it and didn't like this suddenly surge in completely irrelevant ads on my Instagram. I wasn't sure if these ads were even doing what the companies pumping valuable marketing money into these were accomplishing what they needed to.

Then I read this article about how this kind of advertising could make an impact on the non-profit world. As someone who is very keen on discovering new organizations that I could be involved with and also creative ways in which these kinds of organizations can build awareness and donations.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/instagram-gets-advertising-what-can-mean-your-nonprofit-wayne-elsey?trk=pulse-det-nav_art

Building Civil Society By Making Money Online

While we know that internet advertising offers tremendous business potential, display ads and other online marketing tools are playing a critical role in building civil society and the social sector. In previous generations, small non-profits required capital to start fundraising programs and build a base of support, limiting new organizations. Today, with relatively little money, people can launch efforts to promote all kinds of change.

This blossoming of civil society has helped countless worthy causes find their base, and has brought new and diverse issues to the forefront of public consciousness. It's also made a significant impact on financing for non-profits. In the past, small donors have been expensive to maintain, coming in primarily through the mail and telemarketing. While low-level donors collectively can add up to big money, the investment -- even for organizations with large existing bases of support -- has been very high. Many non-profits have given up acquisition, effectively dooming their programs to long-run failure.

But these days, minimal investments can offer pay-off from in acquisition. Blackbaud's 2011 Donorcentrics Report indicates that gifts acquired online are, on average, larger. They tend to come from households with higher incomes, and have much larger cumulative giving.

This is an especially critical renaissance of acquisition coming at a time when the population of major donors is aging. Today's micro-philanthropists are tomorrow's major donors. Any organization that doesn't understand that today's continuum of giving starts with social media, display ads and online donations will lose money in the generational shift of wealth.

There is a flip side to the non-profit bonanza online: it is leading to a proliferation of charities doing similar work and competing for the same finite philanthropic dollars. Many of these organizations could join forces to make an even bigger impact. Nonetheless, it's a particularly exciting time to be thinking about revenue generation in the non-profit space.

Crowdsourcing for Social Good

I recently came across a really interesting use of crowdsourcing by way of an iPhone app. Through "The Extraordinaires" app you can perform tasks that have been parsed into small elements for not-for-profits. These small individual efforts then accumulate to produce a larger result.

An example of the work that is being done on The Extraordinaires is shown at left where iPhone users can help scan pictures of individuals that are missing in Haiti. You can check out this and other similar apps on mashable and read up on other uses that The Extraordinaires are finding for crowdsourcing on their blog.

Site is for Good. Doing Good is Hard.

As promised, here is the link to Kevin Bacon's jump into philanthropy: sixdegrees.org It's a cool concept: connect do-gooders through social networking by playing the celebrity card.

I personally think the whole concept would work more effectively if they played up the "game" aspect of six degrees a bit more. It's difficult from the website to immediately understand what the point is (other than to donate money to your favorite celebrities' charities).

Watch the message from Kevin below to understand his master plan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7T9go4wVMc
(Sorry, I was not able to post the video itself.)