The awards will honor nonprofits in four categories: Best Small Organization, Best Medium Organization, Best Large Organization, and Best Storytelling Video. The winner of each category will be awarded several prizes, such as monetary compensation as well as a featured spot on YouTube’s homepage on April 5th. See YouTube’s video about this year’s contest for more information:

This is the 6th year for the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards and the third year that YouTube has partnered with See3 Communcations in order to present the event. The window to submit is only this month – as in, February 2012 – and all videos must be submitted by the 29th of this month (good thing it’s a leap year so you have an extra day to get those videos in). In order to submit, though, you are required to be a member of YouTube’s Nonprofit Program. The winning videos for each category will be selected via public vote between March 14 and March 28 and the winners will be announced April 5.

If you’re new to the world of nonprofit video or you’re a nonprofit looking for a little inspiration, check out last year’s award winners:

One is “The Playbook Guide: YouTube for Good”. This is described as “a how-to resource specifically targeted at nonprofit organizations, with sections on how to create content, raise funds, connect with other community members and more.”

The donate button has also been made more prominent.

“Nonprofits are an important part of the YouTube community, and their videos have educated and inspired audiences since the early days of the site,” says YouTube’s Valerie Streit. “There are hundreds of nonprofit organizations with millions of views on YouTube, and dozens with more than ten million views, like Greenpeace, Khan Academy and UNICEF.”

There are over 16,000 nonprofit organizations that are involved in the program.

For more daily infographic round-ups, go here.

Xobni looks at the value of “who you know”:

Craig Newmark looks at how the top 50 nonprofits do social media:

GigaOm shared this infographic looking at GSMA info about the “connected life” by 2020:

There are added benefits to the professional side of things as well, however. LinkedIn Senior Manger of Corporate Communications Krista Canfield tells WebProNews, “By enabling professionals to list their volunteer experiences on their LinkedIn Profile employers, business partners and co-workers are able to see another dimension of your professional identity.”

“It shows that you’re a passionate professional who’s adept at multitasking,” she adds. “An analogy would be a college student who’s pursuing a degree while also working part-time. If you’re comparing that college student side-by-side to another college student who’s just going to school, then you might consider the college student who’s also working part-time to be more driven and harder working.”

“It’s also worth noting that you can develop new skills during your volunteer work which will help you become a multifaceted professional,” Canfield tells us. “You may be a sales person by trade, but perhaps you helped organize your non-profit’s most recent fundraising event. Noting that experience, and the skills that you learned during that experience (‘event planning,’ ‘event marketing,’ etc.) can make you a more attractive employee and business partner.”

Canfield says she’d advise professionals to not only add their volunteer work, but to also add LinkedIn Skills to their profile if they’ve truly mastered new ones as a result of those experience. LinkedIn Skills can be searched here.

“Adding LinkedIn Skills will help you come up in relevant searches when business partners, clients or hiring managers are doing a search for people like you,” she notes. Certainly a good thing to keep in mind.

“I’d also add that viewing a member’s volunteer experiences on their LinkedIn Profile is another way to find other professionals that have similar passions or interests to your own,” she says. “If before a business meeting you check another member’s LinkedIn Profile and see that he or she helped build a house during a Habitat for Humanity project (just like you did a few years ago), that can be a great conversation starter and a nice way to find common ground with that other professional.”

There are other ways to utilize LinkedIn in the nonprofit realm. Nonprofits can set up company pages, for example. “To date there are more than two million LinkedIn Company Pages,” says Canfield. Listed nonprofits include the American Red Cross, DonorsChoose.org, The Humane Society of the United States and many others.

“You can click the ‘follow’ button on a company page if you want to get updates when someone leaves or joins that company and to get updates when that company has posted a job opening on LinkedIn,” says Canfield.

“Nonprofits are encouraged to set up LinkedIn Groups,” she adds. “I just did a search and there are currently over 83,000 nonprofit groups on Linkedin.”

There are tips on nonprofit use of LinkedIn in the company’s learning center.

There is a great description of the program available at www.google.com/nonprofits – including answers to all the basic questions anyone interested in the program is likely to have. If you are wondering how to apply, the specific services that Google offers, what types of organizations are eligible or what the specific terms are, please do check out the site.

Once you do, here are a few observations about the most interesting aspects of this program and how your nonprofit might best take advantage of it:

1. Get the right technical support. You may be tempted to think that Google making lots of technical resources freely available means you will be able to get by with internal less technical support … actually, the opposite is true. To get the most out of many of Google’s services, you need a smart and savvy technical person who can understand how to integrate all the free tools and really leverage them. If don’t have a great technical person, do everything you can to find one.
2. Prioritize creating video. Whether or not your nonprofit is actively using video right now, Google’s announcement should provide you with the motivation to start immediately. Extended features on YouTube that corporate brands pay tens of thousands of dollars for will be free for nonprofits – and taking advantage will be a great way to spread your message through a medium that people are more and more likely to engage with.
3. Move fast to become a case study. While Google’s announcement is new, they will be looking for success stories to feature. As a result, the quicker you can move to be part of the program, the more likely you are to get featured. This is one of those situations where being an early adopter will almost certainly pay off.
4. Start with “citizen cartography.” One of the best buzzwords to emerge out of the session at Google was the idea of “citizen cartography” – a slightly sexier way of describing the act of adding geographic information and context to Google Maps or Google Earth. Whether you use some of the newer digital cameras which include GPS tagging of images or input data about the locations that your nonprofit serves, there is a way to add your data to the global archive of geo-specific information that Google has which can be an easy way to start adding your mission and content to the global collective of data.
5. Visualize your data. One of the hottest trends of the year, creating a more visualized way to share your data should be high on your list of priorities because chances are you have data that is underleveraged simply because it is hard to tell a story around it.  Google’s new “Fusion Tables” service will allow you to upload your data and turn it into a visual that can help to tell a more cohesive story. Grab your best spreadsheet, upload it and start to visualize your data now.

Overall, Google’s announcement is exciting news and is bound to lead to more innovations and smart tools to help nonprofits. During the session, I asked the question of whether there would be more ways for nonprofits to collaborate with one another to help each other leverage the platforms and share both success stories and failures. The short answer was that there will be.

Ultimately, focusing on that may lead to Google tackling the biggest problem in the nonprofit world today … duplication of resources. There are dozens of organizations all fighting to raise HIV awareness. Another dozen focused on homelessness. And the list goes on and on. It is inefficient. If anyone can enable collaboration on a global scale around the key issues, it is Google. Imagine the impact that a global network of nonprofits could achieve if they were able to efficiently work together to build on one another’s successes.

Enabling that kind of collaboration really could change the world.

Originally published on the Influential Marketing Blog

 A donation was made every 24 seconds via eBay Giving Works, the company’s nonprofit fundraising program in the U.S., raising more than $91 a minute for nonprofits. Overall, donations were up 7 percent last year, compared to 2009, and nearly 9 million items were listed for sale, with all or a portion of the sale price donated to a nonprofit, more than double the items listed in 2009.

“Through Giving Works, eBay continues to drive innovation in online philanthropy, enabling millions of people to easily donate to organizations they care about and support people and communities in need,” said eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe.

“eBay Giving Works shows that when you give people the platform and tools to make a difference, they do. People care, and they are willing to give whatever they can to help. Fifty-five million dollars is a lot of money. But what’s most impressive is that in a tough economy, people gave what they could.”

Since the eBay Giving Works program was created in 2003, eBay buyers and sellers have raised $230 million for U.S. and U.K charities—with an average donation of $4.01—and currently lists more than 650,000 charity items on the marketplace, all designated with a blue and yellow ribbon.

More WebProNews Videos

WebProNews recently spoke with Doug Ulman, President and CEO of Livestrong, the nonprofit behind the famous yellow wristband and a huge cancer-fighting movement. 

You probably know that social media has been huge for nonprofits, but listening to Ulman’s story is truly inspiring, as it really shows just how powerful these new tools can be – not just for business and communication, but for making a real difference in the world.

"Social media has been critical to allowing us, not only to engage with individuals who are part of the movement, but giving them a platform and a voice," Ulman tells WebProNews. "And again, for a nonprofit that’s always watching how we spend money, these tools are free. So, it’s a free way to over-communicate and be very transparent and authentic with millions of people who’ve been touched by cancer and who want to help in some way."

"Cancer transcends all barriers," he says. "Cancer does not discriminate. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you live, what color your skin is, what religion you are…it is a deadly disease, which is now the number one cause of death around the world, and everybody’s been touched. So, if we can give people a platform, people who want to give back, people who are so resilient, people who want to make the world a better place, if LiveStrong can be that platform, then we’ve achieved our goals, and social media is the only way to do it in a scalable fashion that doesn’t cost way too much money."

"We used to literally lick envelopes and stamp newsletters, staple them and mail them out," he continues. "Those days are long gone. I mean, now we can communicate in real time. You know, so if I’m here today, we’re telling people what we’re doing. If we have programmatic activities, if we have support programs for people with cancer, we can talk to people in real time every day, and get more people who can benefit from the services, so it’s transformed not only our work, but I think in general, it’s transformed all the nonprofit sector."

The Origin of the Wristband

Of course the yellow wristband, which has now even gone digital itself, has played a huge role in getting people excited about the cause. Ulman shared a little about how the Wristband took off and helped shape the movement. 

"This yellow wristband, this iconic symbol of hope and inspiration and activism and empowerment, allowed people to be a part of this movement, and so it transformed us from a cancer nonprofit who’d been around for six or seven years to an organization who was touching many more lives, and giving people a voice in this process,’ Ulman says. "And so that’s how it sort of transformed from a cause to a movement."

"We had a great partnership with Nike, and they came to us with this idea to make a yellow wristband, and to sell six million of them," he remembers. "We thought they were crazy. We didn’t think we could ever possibly do that, and it just took off. I mean, the LiveStrong mantra was put on the band. It was a program we had developed a year earlier. Nike started giving them away to some of their athletes. We started selling them, and one thing led to another: the Tour de France, the Olympics, the Presidential election, people wearing them in all walks of life, but the value of it was that no one ever told you to wear it. It just happened organically, and it happened because everybody’s been touched. So, it’s been phenomenal to watch, and even to this day, we’ve sold 72 million of them, and this year we’ll sell at least 5 million, so it continues to go really, really strong."

The part of about everybody being touched by cancer was truly illustrated during Ulman’s keynote at Blogworld, in which he asked those in the audience to stand up if they had survived cancer, new somebody that had survived cancer or had lost somebody to cancer. Nearly everybody (if not everybody) in the large room stood up. 

"We’re really focused on two areas," says Ulman. "One is providing direct service to individuals and families that are affected by cancer, and we do that through LiveStrong Survivor Care, an 800 number you can call and get support and help. Our website offers that support and help as well. We’ve got all kinds of other programmatic initiatives, which are aimed at improving the quality of life for people with cancer. And on the other hand, we are a platform for advocacy. How can we give people the opportunity to give back and to help? And helping has traditionally meant giving money, and we dont’ believe in that. If you want to give money, great. But we want your time. We want you expertise. We want your energy. We want to help you accomplish your goals, and get your support. And so, if we can provide great, direct service, and we can give people a platform, then we’re gonna make a huge dent in the cancer burden around the world."

The channel was featured on YouTube’s home page over the weekend, and YouTube discussed it in a company blog post, speaking with Founder Mark Horvath.

"We’re always inspired by the people who use YouTube as a way to document how the other half lives, and Mark Horvath is a great example," writes YouTube Nonprofits & Activism Manager Ramya Raghavan. "As the founder of Invisible People. tv, a project that encourages homeless people across the United States to tell their stories on YouTube, he has sparked a discussion on the site about poverty and hunger. Mark’s videos are a raw and real depiction of what it’s like to live in a tent city, under an overpass, or within a cardboard box."

Hovrath has collected hundreds of interviews with homeless people around the world, and the InvisiblePeople.tv YouTube channel has many of them available to view.

The purpose, the channel says, is to make the invisible visible. "I hope these people and their stories connect with you and don’t let go," Horvath says. "I hope their conversations with me will start a conversation in your circle of friends."

The channel is the #44 most subscribed to nonprofit on YouTube.

"We know from our work with nonprofits that most realize the potential of social media and are experimenting with it, but many are not maximizing the full opportunity," said Paul Massey, Social Impact co-lead.

"This survey validates that there is widespread experimentation, and suggests that, in the future, nonprofits that fully participate in the two-way conversations that make this medium so powerful will reap the greatest benefit."

The majority of nonprofits believe their online presence helps raise awareness (92%), keeps audiences engaged (86%) and reduces costs compared to traditional media (77%). Social media is viewed as being successful in helping nonprofits reach broad audiences (67%). Sixty-one percent say the rewards outweigh the risks. For these reasons eighty-five percent plan to make greater use of social media in the next two years and (78%) most require more social media expertise to keep communicating and receiving support for their work.

While social media is viewed positively among nonprofits, there are still a number of challenges. Sixty-seven percent of nonprofits feel that traditional media, including coverage in newspapers, magazine, television and radio are more effective at supporting fundraising efforts than social media (67% vs.22%).

Executives in nonprofits are more skeptical about social media’s ability to help them with hard-to-reach audiences such as donors (45%), media (39%) and policy makers (31%).

"While two-thirds of nonprofit executives believe social media has a positive impact on their communications with external audiences, they are less convinced about social media’s resonance with donors, journalists and policy makers," said Social Impact co-lead Stephanie Bluma.

"What these results imply is that organizations need to develop more targeted and sustainable digital connections with these critical yet narrower audiences. In the months ahead, digital engagement strategies will need to show value on multiple fronts from brand-building to advocacy to fundraising."

The one area where social media is widely believed to have more impact than traditional media is in mobilizing supporters (58%), an important audience for nonprofits.
 

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Nonprofit websites score 73 on the study’s 100-point scale, below many other online industries, including online banking (83), e-retail (74), e-government (74) and automotive websites (78).

"Between President Obama’s well-publicized call to serve and his recent support of the Serve America Act, nonprofits are receiving a lot of attention and interest," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results.

Larry Freed

"Meanwhile, our country is in the biggest financial crisis of our time, and most nonprofits are struggling to remain afloat. This study shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that nonprofit websites have long been underestimated and misunderstood and actually have tremendous power and influence over donor and volunteer behavior."

Highly satisfied visitors to nonprofits are 49 percent more likely to donate money to the nonprofit and 38 percent more likely to volunteer when compared to dissatisfied visitors. Satisfied visitors are also 66 percent more likely to use the website instead of a costlier channel as the main resource.  ForeSee found by attracting visitors to the website for information and donations, nonprofits can reduce costs, build loyalty, and drive donations.

"Good nonprofit websites offer a unique opportunity to cut costs by reducing the use of more expensive channels like direct mail and call centers, all while making people more likely to donate and volunteer," added Freed. "It’s a win-win."

The study found that functionality is a top priority for nonprofit website improvement followed by image and content. Nearly one-third of donors chose not to give online because the website functionality was poor.

While the economy has led to an overall decline in donation, the study shows that 83 percent of those who donated online in 2008 gave as much or more than 2007. In addition, people who chose to donate online tend to give more than those who use other channels, indication that nonprofits should strongly encourage online donations.