Facebook Changes Will Help Groups Communicate With Supporters

March 5, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute

Planned changes on Facebook will make it easier for nonprofit organizations to use the social-networking site to communicate with their supporters and raise awareness for their causes.

The new “public profiles” –- which will also be available to media organizations, politicians, celebrities, and others –- will function more like an individual’s profile. Charities will be able to share breaking news and information, which will stream directly into their supporters’ newsfeeds, as well as links to photos or videos that the organizations post.

Currently, supporters have to visit organizations’ pages to stay abreast of the information on those sites.

The new public profiles will also include a “wall” where supporters can leave messages and comment on the information that is posted.

Examples of the new public profiles are available on the site for the American Red Cross, Service Nation, and Stanford University. (A Facebook registration is necessary to see the examples.)

What do you think? Will the changes make Facebook a more effective tool for communicating with donors, volunteers, and potential supporters?

About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.