GHD Nonprofits Analysis

The three nonprofits I followed before, during and after Giving Hearts Day (GHD) are: Ronald McDonald House Charity (RMHC), American Gold Gymnastics (AGG), and Service Dogs of America, also known as Great Plains Assistance Dogs Foundation.

Last week’s vlog focused on still and moving imagery and their role in promoting nonprofits on social media. With this in mind I wanted to focus my attention on my nonprofit’s Instagram and YouTube account. All three of my nonprofits had low video posts so for this discussion I will talk about my nonprofits’ use of Instagram to promote themselves during GHD.

The most successful group of my campaign didn’t even utilize Instagram but I still wanted to see what kind of impact having an Instagram would create for Service Dogs of America. I searched for a similar organization, and noticed the amount amount of likes on their photos was in the hundreds. Their pictures were professional and each picture had a theme and following tags which spread the pic further. Instead, Service Dogs for America made their own picture using the hashtag #sharethelovesunday mentioning GHD
but did not use a logo so the words did not stick out. Also the pictures were hard to read because of the color choice and amount of text. Their message and service is remarkable and I think they deserve continued exposure, and being a top 10 nonprofit for GHD should urge them to reach an even wider audience.

Ronald McDonald House Charity probably had the second best still imagery posts. Their Instagram contains pictures of families that have stayed at their locations which is a touching addition that they do not link to their FB. Although this may be respectful, I think sharing those stories with other prospective families would increase word-of-mouth and shares in the community. Their campaign used more video imagery last year for GHD which appeared to be unique, engaging and cute! This year they decided to use a giant picture frame for donors to take their picture in. Although it was clever and gave them the opportunity to tag local businesses and people in the community, but the picture frame itself could have been a good marketing tool and instead was fairly plain.

American Gold Gymnastics posted multiple Instagram style photos to their FB page but received very few likes for them. They started the campaign using a rendition of their own logo into a heart for GHD but only used the picture twice. This logo would have been a cute addition to any of their material, signifying it was a GHD post rather than a meet/event post. The Instagram account did have quite a few short clips from competitions and events the teams have attended. These videos were not linked to their FB but would have been a wonderful addition to help them promote for GHD, showing where the money raised goes towards.

 

 

Brief Progress Report

Check out my brief post as Jade and I transition from building up the site and FB to fostering sustainability.

Fair Use Explained

Here’s a link to a brief explanation of “fair use” when it comes to copyrighted images. Might be relevant to some of your projects.

Implemention Update

Here’s a brief overview of my work lately… Check it out!

Experimenting while Implementing (scaaaary)

While Jade is at the Board Meeting (he is the only member in the group who owns a suit), I decided to surf the TechSoup blogs and begin playing with our nonprofit’s WordPress. Here’s what I’ve discovered!