{"id":38,"date":"2019-04-20T06:57:30","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T22:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/?p=38"},"modified":"2019-04-27T17:47:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T09:47:34","slug":"social-profit-why-non-profit-organisations-should-harness-the-power-of-social-media-to-increase-engagement-%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/2019\/04\/20\/social-profit-why-non-profit-organisations-should-harness-the-power-of-social-media-to-increase-engagement-%ef%bb%bf\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Profit: Why Non-profit organisations should harness the power of social media to increase engagement \ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
social_profit_tclark<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Queensland woman Rochelle Courtenay read an online article about women living in poverty being forced to use toilet paper to manage their periods. Today, Ms Courtneay is the public face of a not for profit organisation with a nationwide reach and over 4000 volunteers. In a market flooded by non-profit organisations, each competing for the same funds and volunteers, Ms. Courtenay was able to successfully build a charity organisation with incredible reach and engagement. This paper will argue that the key to Ms Courtenay\u2019s success in establishing Share the Dignity was in her smart use of social media to engage her audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Keywords<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Social media, social networking, non-profit, charity, volunteers, web 2.0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The not for profit sector in Australia and around the world is expanding rapidly, making it ever-more\ncomplicated for donors to work out where they want to spend their time and money. In Australia alone, there\nare more than 56,000 registered charities, and this number grows by approximately 4 percent each year\n(Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, 2019). Despite the fact that this number has exploded,\nthere is evidence of a promising subset of non-profits raising large amounts of money through online\nengagement (Kanter & fine, 2010). Goldkind & McNutt argue that social media and related online tools are\nallowing non-profit social service organisations to engage with their audience, mobilise volunteers, and drive\npolicy change (2014, p. 56).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Queensland woman Rochelle Courtenay read an online article about women living in poverty being forced to use toilet paper to manage their periods. Today, Ms Courtneay is the public face of a not for profit organisation with a nationwide reach and over 4000 volunteers. In a market flooded by non-profit organisations, each competing for the same funds and volunteers, how was it that Ms. Courtenay was able to build her charity so successfully? This paper will argue that the key to Ms Courtenay\u2019s success in establishing Share the Dignity was in her smart use of social media to engage her audience. Through an analysis of the current research, and using Share the Dignity as an exemplar, this paper will discuss the ways in which other non-profit organisations can achieve similar success if they harness the power of social media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharing for Dignity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In only four years, Share the Dignity has grown from a single collection drive of sanitary items in\nSandgate, Australia, to a nationwide organisation that has so far collected more than 1.7 million items with\nan impressive equivalent dollar value of more than $15 million (R. Courtenay, personal communication,\nMarch 2019). The organisation now holds collection drives (Dignity Drives) for pads and tampons in April\nand August, and a Christmas collection of used handbags filled with sanitary items and toiletries in November\n(It\u2019s in the Bag) (How we Help \u2013 Our Charitable Activities, 2019). Their most recent project, known as the\nPinkbox Dignity Vending Machine, has seen more than 100 specially made vending machines installed in\nschools, domestic violence shelters, homelessness centres and public spaces to distribute free \u2018Period Packs\u2019,\neach containing two sanitary pads and four tampons (\u2018Dignity Vending Machines, 2019). They are currently\nin talks with the education department of each state and territory to begin rolling the machines out in some\nof the most disadvantaged schools across Australia (R. Courtenay, personal communication, March 2019).\nThey have established corporate partnerships with big names like Woolworths, Bunnings Warehouse and\nCanon (\u2018Corporate Partnerships\u2019, 2019), and more than 4000 active volunteers are registered with the\norganisation (\u2018Volunteer\u2019, 2019).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, Ms. Courtenay took her push to end period poverty in a new direction, and launched an intense\nand ultimately successful online campaign to remove the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from the sale of\nsanitary items in Australia. The application of the tax on sanitary items had been the subject of controversy\nsince it was introduced in 2000, as it effectively classified the products as \u2018luxury items\u2019. In an interview\nwith ABC news in2018, Rochelle called out the tax as archaic, and asked \u201c”why are condoms, lubricants and\nnicotine patches all untaxed, yet female items that we don’t have a choice in are taxed?\u201d (Courtenay in\nSweeny, 2018). After approaching then Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull at a press event in the Northern\nTerritory in January 2018, Ms. Courtenay harnessed her social media following to launch an online petition\nto \u2018axe the tax\u2019 (R. Courtenay, personal communication, March 2019). Within a month, there were 100,000\nnames attached to the petition, and by the end of 2018, both major parties had backed her proposal to remove\nthe tax, passing an amendment to the GST act that would change the classification of sanitary items from\ntaxable luxury items to untaxed medical supplies (\u2018Axe the Tax Period\u2019, 2018). Ms. Courtenay claimed the\nvictory to be the proudest moment of her life (Courtenay, 2018).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Share the Dignity story is one of success, but the methods used to reach the level of engagement required to make such a difference are quite different to traditional modes of communication in the non-profit sector. With the exception of newspaper articles written to publicise their initiatives, Share the Dignity have never formally advertised their cause in mainstream media outlets such as television or radio. Instead, Ms. Courtneay relied on people sharing her message on their social media channels, and focused on building an engaged following across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (R. Courtenay, personal communication, March 2019). At the time of writing, the organisation now has more than 164,000 Facebook followers (@sharethedignity), 32,700 Instagram fans (@sharethedignityaustralia), and 2,674 followers on Twitter (@sharingdignity). Quinton argues that \u201chaving a well thought out social media policy can be immensely powerful for a charity\u2019s brand,\u201d (2012, p. 28), and it appears that Share the Dignity are well on their way to harnessing such power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rise of Social Media <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the rise in popularity of the World Wide Web as a communication tool, the main way in which\npeople communicated through media was by using public broadcasting such as television or radio, which\nallowed for anyone with access to be the audience and meaning that \u201cthe broadcaster had no direct control\nover who makes up their audience,\u201d, (Miller et. al. 2016, p. 2). With the arrival of the Internet and the Web\nas a communication tool, this began to change. Today, the number of people who use online communication\ntools rises every day (Kaplin & Ward, 2013, p. 6), and using social media has become a normal part of\neveryday life (Gazibara et. al. 2013, p. 120).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media is a term broadly used to describe the technologies that support user generated interactions\nand networking (Goldkind & McNutt, 2014, p. 58). Social media platforms are said to facilitate he spread of\ncontent through \u201csocial interaction between individuals, groups and organisations using web-based\ntechnologies,\u201d (Smith & Gallicano, 2015, p. 83). These technologies, Miller et. al. posit, have provided the\npotential for a level of communication and interaction that previously did not exist (2016, p.1).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obar et. al. describes social media as \u201ca group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological\nand technological foundations of Web 2.0. and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated\nContent,\u201d (2012, p. 7). The most popular social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest,\nLinkedIn, and Snapchat (Nielsen, 2017), and 3.4 billion people actively use social media in 2019, a figure\nthat is up 9 percent from the previous year (Kemp, 2019). Gazibara et. al. state that every social media\nplatform is different, and people usually use more than one at a time, (2013, p.119).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite concerns around online privacy which were prevalent in the media during 2018 (see Ho, 2018;\nHuffman, 2018), Facebook continues to be the third most visited website in the world, and active monthly\nusers continue to rise year after year, with a growth of 9.6 percent in 2018 (Kemp, 2019). Closely following\nFacebook in the popularity stakes are Instagram (894.9 million users) and Twitter (250.8 million users),\n(Kemp, 2019). The popularity of social media channels is now such that people are spending more time on\nFacebook and other social networking sites than on Google, and these sites dominate the top five websites\nranked by traffic, (Kaplin & Ward, 2013, pp. 1-2).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media has been credited with changing the way that societies pass around information across the\nworld (Gazibara et. al., 2013, p. 119). Whilst it\u2019s been noted that the Internet as a whole has played a role in\nadvocacy in the non-profit sector since as early as 1997 (Obar et. al. 2012), social media presents new\ncommunication opportunities that are dramatically different to those offered in the Web 1.0 era (Lovejoy &\nSaxton, 2012, p. 337).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kanter and Fine stress that social media is \u201cnot a fad or a trend,\u201d and warn that as the use of social media becomes more ingrained in everyday life, it is fast becoming something that shapes \u201cthe way that young people think, connect, engage, and work together,\u201d (2010, p. 5). According to Kanter and Fine, \u201csocial media builds social capital,\u201d and organisations that \u201cbuild, nurture, strengthen and use this capital,\u201d are better positioned to reap the most benefit from social media as a communication tool (Kanter & Fine, 2010, p. 33). Integrating communication strategies in the non-profit sector that utilise this connectivity will ensure that organisations can continue to reach these young audiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social Media for Change<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

According to the Nielsen Social Media Report, \u201csocial media is one of the biggest opportunities that\ncompanies across industries have to connect directly to consumers,\u201d (Nielsen, 2017, p.2), and engagement\non social media platforms has been connected to positive public-organisation relationships (Smith &\nGallicano, 2015). As previously noted, the non-profit sector is burgeoning, and standing out in the field is a\nchallenge for all organisations who hope to be successful.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lovejoy and Saxton argue that social media can help in this goal, stating that social media has opened\ngreat avenues for communication between organisations and the public (2012, p. 338), and subsequently\ncreated opportunities for an interactive dialogue that is qualitatively different to that provided by websites\nalone (p. 339). As users become more engaged with social media, they expect to find the information they\nare looking for on their social network sites, (Gazibara et. al. 2013, p. 120). Kaplin and Ward argue that to\nsolve the issues that affect society today, a close examination of how the non-profit sector can evolve needs\nto take place, (2013, p. 201), and as more forms of social media emerge, it becomes more likely that this\nmedium might be the perfect way for non-profit organisations to engage with their followers.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the limitations of traditional media outlets such as television or print is the restriction on whose\nvoices are heard, but social media provides opportunities for individuals whose voices were traditionally\nsilenced to be heard (2010, p. 143). It is through these previously unheard voices that non-profits are best\nable to create empathy with their followers and encourage engagement. The comments section on almost all\nFacebook and Instagram posts from Share the Dignity seem to reflect this, with recipients of the organisations\nservices often writing about their experience, and others responding empathetically. To further capitalise on\nthis, the organisation features some of the most moving comments in their monthly newsletter \u2013 Aunt Flow,\nwith a call to action relating to whatever their current fundraising initiative might be. It should be noted that\nmenstruation is traditionally a taboo topic in much of society, and although the comment feeds are publicly\naccessible, many commenters appear to feel quite comfortable sharing details of menstruation that would\npreviously have been hidden from conversation.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to providing a voice to the previously unheard, social media also allows non-profit\norganisations to mobilise widespread support with very little financial or time outlay (Kanter & Fine, 2010).\nThis was certainly the case with the Share the Dignity campaign to remove the GST from sanitary items;\nsignatures appeared on the online petition rapidly and across every state of Australia in a campaign that have\na zero-dollar budget. Kaplin and Ward state that in previous times, \u201cit would have cost organisations so much\nmore time, resources and money to connect directly with people, gather and share stories and resources,\nmobilise action, and reach people any time, everywhere,\u201d (2013, p. xv).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is perhaps the power of social media to increase non-profit donations that is most notable though. Kanter and Fine warn that organisations cannot be seen to simply ask for money, \u201cbut must establish trust with potential donors first to make fundraising appeals creditable and meaningful to people,\u201d (2010, p. 140). In honour of International Women\u2019s Day in 2019, Share the Dignity put out a call to action for followers to help them raise funds to install sanitary item vending machines into disadvantaged schools in Australia. The campaign featured across the organisation\u2019s social media channels for two months leading up to the event and featured a series of videos that highlighted the plight of girls who do not have access to sanitary items and the effect this has on their education. Each video was less than 40 seconds in length and fit within the guidelines of short and easy to understand messages outline by Kanter and Fine (2010). The campaign ultimately raised over $100,000, enough to install 10 vending machines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re Online, What Now?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In this socially connected world, most, if not all, non-profit organisations probably have an online\npresence of some sort, and in a study by Obar et. al. (2012), all participants noted that they use social media\nto communicate with the public. However, simply being online is not enough, and organisations need to be\nsmart about how they use the tools presented to them if they want to increase engagement.\nBortree and Seltzer found that almost all advocacy groups in their study felt that having an online\npresence was enough to facilitate dialogue, but they warn that \u201cthese organisations are missing a significant\nopportunity to build mutually beneficial relationships with stakeholders by failing to effectively utilise the\nfull gambit of dialogic strategies that social networking sites offer,\u201d (2009, p. 318). Lovejoy and Saxton\nsimilarly argue that \u201cbeing on Twitter is not enough \u2013 organisations need to know how to use the medium to\nfully engage stakeholders,\u201d (2012, p. 352).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-profit groups need to take a far more hands-on approach and designate someone within the\norganisation to follow through on social media opportunities by engaging with the followers (Bortree &\nSeltzer, 2009, p. 319). Kaplin and Ward agree, stating that the importance is in building strong online\nrelationships, (2013, p. 1). Putting the time into building this engagement is not a quick fix, and Kanter and\nFine stress that it can take six to eighteen months to build a strong online community of supporters (2010,\n139), but when done right the benefits outweigh the time commitment, as demonstrated by the Share the\nDignity example.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kanter and Fine (2010) set out what, in their minds, makes for a successful \u201cnetworked nonprofit\u201d: Transparency in the form of \u201cannual reports, financial statements and audit reports … posted online,\u201d (p.135); Simplicity, in the form of \u201ca simple message that is easy to communicate online, particularly on Twitter with its 140 [now 280] character limit,\u201d (p. 136); and Connectivity, in the form of \u201cconsistently listening online and sharing and connecting with people on multiple channels,\u201d (p.137). Share the Dignity have successfully utilised each of these steps in their online engagement, which has contributed to their success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We live in an online world (Kaplin & Ward, p. 2). The average internet user is spending up to three hours a day visiting social media sites (Nielsen, 2017), and the popularity of sites such as Facebook and Instagram continue to grow year on year. It is therefore vital that all organisations find ways to harness this popularity for their own good. For the non-profit sector, where advertising budgets may be small or even non-existent, social media provides a very attractive option indeed, if used effectively. This paper has discussed the ways in which non-profit organisation Share the Dignity has been able to achieve success in their fundraising goals through the smart use of social media as an engagement tool. The lesson for other organisations is simple; being social media savvy can open up new avenues to connect with donors and volunteers, and could very well be the difference between achieving fundraising targets or becoming lost in the overload of non-profits that donors have to choose between. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledgements <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I would like to thank Ms. Rochelle Courtenay from Share the Dignity for her time and assistance during the writing of this paper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission. 2019. ‘Are there too many charities in Australia?’ Australian Government. Available from https:\/\/www.acnc.gov.au\/for-public\/understanding-charities\/are-there-too- many-charities-australia <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axe the tax period,’ 2019. Share the Dignity. Available from https:\/\/www.sharethedignity.com.au\/axethetax\/
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bortree, D. S. and Seltzer, T. 2009. ‘Dialogic strategies and outcomes: an analysis of environmental advocacy groups’ Facebook profiles,’ Public Relations Review, 35, pp. 317-319.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Corporate partnerships,’ 2019. Share the Dignity, available from https:\/\/www.sharethedignity.com.au\/corporate- partnerships-csr-australia\/
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Courtenay, R. 2018. ‘I helped tear down the tampon tax, I know that the fight is not over,’ The Big Smoke, The Belford Group, available from https:\/\/thebigsmoke.com.au\/2018\/10\/05\/i-helped-tear-down-tampon-tax- know-that-the-fight-is-not-over-tax\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Dignity vending machines,’ 2019. Share the Dignity, available from https:\/\/www.sharethedignity.com.au\/dignity- vending-machines\/
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Gazibara, D., Jovanovic, M., and Samardzija, A., 2013. ‘Social Media Role in Communication Exchange of International Volunteer Experience’, Central European Conference on Information and Intelligent Systems, 2013.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goldkind, L. and McNutt, J. 2014. ‘Social Media and Social Change: Nonprofits and Using Social Media Strategies to Meet Advocacy Goals,’ pp. 56-72 in Ariza-Montes, J. and Lucia-Casadement, A. (eds.) ICT Management in Non- Profit Organizations: United States: IGI Global.
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Ho, V. 2018. ‘Facebook’s privacy problems: a roundup,’ The Guardian, Guardian News and Media Limited, available from https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2018\/dec\/14\/facebook-privacy-problems-roundup <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we help – our charitable activities,’ 2019. Share the Dignity. https:\/\/www.sharethedignity.com.au\/charitable- organisations\/ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huffman, M. 2018. ‘Brittan raises new privacy concerns about Facebook,” Consumer Affairs, Consumers Unified,\navailable from https:\/\/www.consumeraffairs.com\/news\/britain-raises-new-privacy-concerns-about-facebook-\n120618.html\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kanter, B. and Fine, A. 2010. The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with social media to drive change. United\nStates: John Whiley & Sons.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaplin, A. and Ward, S. 2013. Social Change Anytime Everywhere: How to Implement Online Multichannel\nStrategies to Spark Advocacy, Raise Money, and Engage Your Community. United States: John Wiley &\nSons.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kemp, S. 2019. ‘Digital 2019: Global internet use accelerates,’ We are Social, available from\nhttps:\/\/wearesocial.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/digital-2019-global-internet-use-accelerates\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lovejoy, K. and Saxton, D. 2012. ‘Information, Community, and Action: How Nonprofit Organizations Use Social\nMedia,’ Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17, pp. 337-353, doi:10.1111\/j.1083-\n6101.2012.01576.x\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller, D., Costa, D., Haynes, N. McDonald, T., Nicolescu, R. Sinanan, J., Spyer, J. Venkatraman, S. and Wang, X.\n2016. ‘What is social media,’ pp. 1-8 in How the World Changed Social Media. United States: UCL Press.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Obar, J., Zube, P. and Lampe, C. 2012. ‘Advocacy 2.0: An Analysis of How Advocacy Groups in the United States\nPerceive and Use Social Media as Tools for Facilitating Civic Engagement and Collective Action,’ Journal of\nInformation Policy, 2, pp. 1-25.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quinton, G. 2012. ‘Charities great and small can use social media,’ Third Sector, 699, p. 28.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith, B., and Gallicano, T. 2015. ‘Terms of engagement: Analyzing public engagement with organizations through social media,’ Computers in Human Behaviour, 53, pp. 82-90. https:\/\/doi-org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au\/10.1016\/j.chb.2015.05.060
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweeny, L. 2018. ‘Tampon tax to go, with states and territories agreeing to remove GST from sanitary products,’ ABC News, Australian Broadcasting Commission, available from https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2018-10- 03\/tampon-tax-to-go-states-and-territories-agree-to-remove-gst\/10332490 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Volunteer,’ 2019. Share the Dignity, available from https:\/\/www.sharethedignity.com.au\/volunteer\/ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abstract In 2015, Queensland woman Rochelle Courtenay read an online article about women living in poverty being forced to use toilet paper to manage their periods. Today, Ms Courtneay is the public face of a not for profit organisation with a nationwide reach and over 4000 volunteers. In a market flooded by non-profit organisations, each… Continue reading Social Profit: Why Non-profit organisations should harness the power of social media to increase engagement \ufeff<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}