Few Charities Have Social-Media Policies, Survey Finds

Nearly 79 percent of nonprofit hiring managers surveyed by The Chronicle say their groups do not have a policy governing social-network use by employees—even though all but 5 percent of those managers also say that their organizations use networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Of the 100 respondents to a survey conducted by The Chronicle in the fall via the Web site SurveyMonkey.com, nearly 57 percent of nonprofit hiring managers said they use social networks to gather volunteers, and 48 percent said they recruit paid workers that way.

In addition, more than 12 percent said they use social networks for recruiting board members.

The most popular sites used by respondents’ organizations were Facebook (used by just under 87 percent), Twitter (used by nearly 66 percent), and LinkedIn (just under 64 percent), with MySpace and Ning tying at just over 13 percent each.

Vetting Candidates

Respondents to The Chronicle’s survey said they use social networks largely to promote activities (such as fund-raising events), to recruit volunteers, and to screen job candidates. One respondent said that on two occasions, job candidates were rejected because of material they had posted on their Facebook pages.

The results echo those found in a survey released in August by CareerBuilder of 2,600 people in charge of hiring at both nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

That survey found that 45 percent of managers used social networks to conduct research on job candidates. Of those managers, 35 percent said they had found comments, photos, or other items on candidates’ social-networking sites that caused them not to hire those people.

The same study also found that 18 percent of the hiring managers who vetted candidates with the help of online social networks found content on job seekers’ online profiles that contributed to their decision to hire those candidates.