Food Bank Blogs

VolunteerMatch is focusing on the issue of hunger this month and they have been writing about it on their blog. Their blog has an entry titled Inspiring and Influential Blogs About Hunger.

Since I like finding new nonprofit blogs, I decided to look for food bank blogs. However, I was disappointed with what I found. Not many food banks have blogs and ones that did were not updated.

Even though there were not many blogs for food banks, the ones I found gave me great ideas for nonprofit blogs.

Ideas:

• Write an end of the year review post that highlights what you did each month.
  
  The Food Bank of Delaware Blog recently posted their 2012 Year in Review. They also did this for 2011 and 2010.

• Include an image, photo, or video with each blog entry.
  
  The Greater Chicago Food Depository Blog does this.


• Add categories/tags to each blog post and list them on your blog. The list can include include donate, donations, volunteer, supporters, events, news, and campaigns.
  
  Most of the food bank blogs I found have categories or tags which make it easy to find information on blogs.

Food Bank Blog List:

Food Bank of Delaware

Greater Chicago Food Depository

Hunger Matters - the Second Harvest Heartland Blog

Bank on It: A Food Bank Blog

Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee

Vermont Foodbank Blog

The Power of Nonprofit Bloggers

Today is Blog Action Day and this year's theme is "The Power of We". As the organizer/blogger of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange, I read lots of blog articles about topics nonprofit organizations can learn from.

These articles have ideas, tips, and case studies about different topics that include the following:

• Blogging
• Website Content
• Designing Websites
• Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest)
• Analyzing web, social media, and e-mail metrics
• Online Fundraising 
• Videos and YouTube
• Storytelling
• E-Newsletters
• Donor Communication

These articles have the power to help nonprofit organizations achieve their goals.


There are also nonprofit bloggers who write blogs for nonprofit organizations. These bloggers have the power to share stories about their organization, post news related to their mission, and find new supporters & volunteers.


What power does your nonprofit blog have?

How Nonprofits Can Use Pinterest

I have started thinking about how nonprofits can use Pinterest.

I think museums, zoos, aquariums, and organizations that have to do with animals and the environment will benefit the most from this website. They have the content to share that people will want to pin and repin. People like to pin photos of animals, nature, and art. They will go to websites for these types of organizations to find photos to pin.


Content Nonprofits Can Pin on Pinterest

• Do you have lots of pictures on your website? Organize them into different categories to make boards with.
• Pin photos from campaigns, events, and programs.
• Do you have an online store? Pin photos of the items and include the price.
  

Examples of Content Nonprofits Have Pinned

Wildlands Network pinned photos from their website onto a board called What We Do. This is a great way for people to see what the organization does.

Smithsonian pinned pictures from their website and organized them into boards. The boards they have created so far include football and Black History Month.

Kids Wish Network pinned pictures of wishes and programs.

ASPCA pinned pictures of items in their online store, photos of adoptable animals, and photos of rescue & adoption stories.

National Wildlife Foundation has a board called Animal Appreciation Days.


Links

Steal These 42 Creative Pinterest Ideas for Nonprofits (from frogloop)

Five Pinterest Best Practices for Nonprofits (from Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog)

11 Must-Follow Nonprofits on Pinterest (from Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog)

Interested in Pinterest? (from Connection Café)

Pinterest For Nonprofits: 7 Organizations To Watch (from Huffpost Impact)

Should your nonprofit be using Pinterest? (from Ragan's PR Daily)

How Pinterest Can Help Your Animal Nonprofit (from Pawsitively Design)

How your nonprofit can use Pinterest (from JVA's Nonprofit Street)

Types of Nonprofit Blogs

I've been thinking about the different types of nonprofit blogs.

Nonprofit blogs can be divided up into two major categories -

1. Blogs for a nonprofit organization
   
2. Blogs about nonprofits

Blogs about nonprofits can be divided up even more. Types of blogs about nonprofits include technology, fundraising, communications, and volunteering. These types can overlap.

Are there any other types of nonprofit blogs?

Nonprofit Infographics

I have seen lots of nonprofit infographics related to social media, fundraising, and communications. But there are not many related to missions of organizations or what organizations have accomplished.

I found two examples so far created by nonprofit organizations-

• Share Our Strength shared data about Hunger and Children in America
• The American Red Cross shared data about 2011 Large-Scale Disasters

Sharing data is a topic being discussed in the nonprofit sector. Here are a few articles about this topic-

• Data for Promotion, Engagement, and Reporting (from Stanford Social Innovation Review)
• How Nonprofits Make Data Fun and Informative (from The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
• Four Ways Nonprofits Can Increase Their Impact with Data (from NTEN Blog)

Six Reasons to Start a Nonprofit Blog

A new year is a great time to start a blog for your organization. Here are reasons why you should start a blog:

1. To write about events
2. To share news and stories related to the mission of the organization
3. To post volunteer opportunities
4. To post information on ways to donate money to organization
5. To post information on how the organization uses social media
   
6. To spread the word about the organization