CASE 12.3 SOCIAL MEDIA: A FUND-RAISING CURE OR A POTENT VIRUS? Bridget Flores, chief development officer for Community Solutions Corps (CSC), a thriving social service and community health focused nonprofit, was brimming with excitement. CSC had over 100 employees and served homeless families and at-risk youth. CSC was well known for its strong one-on-one mentoring model of service delivery intended to provide continuous care and stability for individuals whose lives were often in chaos. Youth especially responded favorably under this model, building trusting relationships and close bonds with program staff, sometimes for the first times in their lives. Bridget smiled broadly as she entered the weekly program staff meeting for the youth division of CSC. "Well folks, we have finally come into the 21 st century," she announced. "I am happy to report that, at long last, we have taken our new website live, and we will launch it tomorrow in conjunction with our annual fund-raising campaign." Bridget turned on her laptop and projected the website homepage on the screen. The staff responded with a round of applause. "This is such an improvement," Liam Nelson, CSC youth programming director said, complimenting Bridget. "Finally, a site that makes us look like the professional organization we are," he continued. The rest of the staff members nodded in agreement as Bridget walked them through the site and explained its functionality. "And here is the part I am most excited about," she said. "The site is completely compatible with social media so we can really bulld our profile and enhance our fund-raising efforts." "That's really cool," said Maddie, a newly graduated social worker who had started with CSC as an intern the previous year. "I'm glad you think so," Bridget replied, "because we are going to need all of you to help us launch this thing with a bang." She want on to explain that the annual fund drive had a virtual component that included social media. She asked all of the program staff to make sure they 218 CASES IN NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT "liked" and shared the campaign announcement on their personal Facebook pages. +currently, CSC has about 200 Facebook friends, and we want to get nat number up .... way up," she told the group. "We think this will be an effective way to attract donors. It will go a long way toward making cSC real for people, so when you the share the page be sure to write a linde blurb about your personal experience at the organization, Keeping it real makes it meaningful." Also, to make it fun for you, we are going to have a little contest. Toll your friends if they make their donations through the website there is a place where they can mention your name. The employee that gets the most referrals will win a $500 gift card, so be creative and get the word out. Tweet it, Instagram, Facebook, whatever... let's take this thing viral* "Awesome," Maddie said, obviously reflecting the sentiment of her coworkers, who all appeared excited to promote the campaign. Over the next week, Bridget closely monitored the website and social media associated with the campaign. Within one day of launching, the CSC Facebook and Twitter feeds exploded with employees sharing stories and pictures that made the work of CSC come alive in ways that they had never been able to achieve in previous campaigns. At the same time, donations increased, and the number of new donors was quickly rising.As the week progressed, Bridget gave the staff contest updates, letting them kow each day the name of the employee who was in the lead to win the $500 gift card. This spawned friendly competition between departments and employees. Because of the close relationship between staff and clients, it wasn't long before some of the youth took notice and joined in the social media frenzy themselves. A sense of excitement grew throughout CSC as the campaign surpassed its original goals in short order. In the second week of the campaign, Bridget recelved a call from Lydia Erantley, a long-standing member of the board and major donor to CSC. "Hetlo, Lydia," Bridget answered the phone cheerfully. "How can I be of service to my favorite board member today?" "Good morning, Bridget," Lydia said warmly, "I am calling to congratulate you on the terrific success of the campaign. We got a board update last night. Very impressive." 219 "Oh, thanks so much," Bridget replied. "All that work on the wabsite really paid off, that's for sure, and out employees and volunteers are really getting the word out on social media, We have over 1,000 people following csc now, "Well, that's partly why I'm calling today," Lydia said. "I dor't mean to put a damper on everyono's enthusiasm, but I have some concerns." Lydia explained that she had been looking at all of the stories appearing on the Facebook page. "The stories are great, very moving," she told Bridget. "However, I'm worried about the privacy of our clients. Did they agree to have their stories and pictures shared? "Nothing formal was signed or anything," Bridget replied. "But wo did ask that employees only use the first names or pseudonyms when they shared stories. "T'm sure you did, but that doesn't keep other people from tagging their real names to photos and such. It's virtually impossible to keep that from happening. People can even track the location of the picture. Although everything seems to be positive in nature, it worries me that we aren't in control of our message anymore, and we might be putting our clients at risk." Beginning to feeling a little nervous herself, Bridget attempted to assure Lydia. "I don't think anything bad will come of it. I will double check our page and delete anything that could put us at risk." "That would probably help, but the cat is really out of the bag since these things have already been shared over and over in cyberspace. And that raises another issue," Lydia added. "When I was looking at Facebook, I saw some really creative posts by a young woman named Maddie Donaldson." "Yes, she is one of our social workers," said Bridget. "Very popular with our teen clients: "I know. I met her briefly when I was volunteering last month," Lydia commented. "I was impressed by her ability to relate to the kids we were working with: "So, what's the problem then?" asked Bridget. When I saw her comments and stories, I clicked on her name, and that took me to Maddie's personal Facebook page, which was not private. iknow she is a good worker and all, but there were lots of pictures of het out drinking with friends and at least two posts about marijuana u.9. Frankly, I don't care what Maddie does on her own time, but anyche can see this. I am not sure it is consistent with the messages we are trying to convey to our teen clients." -Obviously, I did not foresee that being a problem, Lydia. I am really sorry. How frustrating. We are making such headway with our campaign," she added. "I will raise the issue with our executive team today in our afternoon meeting." Lydia thanked Bridget and hung up. Bridget swiveled in her chair and opened the CSC webpage. Case Questions 1. What are some of the potential legal issues raised in the case? 2. What policies and procedures should nonprofits have in place for social media? 3. Given the issues-raised in the case, what are some strategies that nonprofit leaders could employ to effectively use social media? 4. Should Maddie be reprimanded? 5. If you are Bridget, how do you lead this discussion with the executive team