Nonprofit Influencers

Nonprofit Influencers – Whether a nonprofit Executive Director, Development Director, Board Member … you owe it to yourself, your nonprofit, and the positive social outcomes you are a part of creating, to always be learning!

Reading just about every book on nonprofit leadership, fundraising, generative governance, etc.  works — but an even better method to stay on top of nonprofit trends, issues, and get exposed to new ideas is to follow an array of nonprofit experts and nonprofit thought leaders on Twitter.

Twitter is like a drinking from a fire hose, with several million fire hoses to choose from. Where to start?

Influencer marketing for nonprofits

Here’s a great guide of nonprofit influencers on Twitter. I follow many of these folks, and divide them in to Lists which makes it much easier to focus on specific information.

Lists are a tremendous help on Twitter. If you’re not using them, you should. You can follow other Twitter users and then create lists of various user feeds based on subjects / issue areas they cover.

For example, different lists on Fundraising Experts, Fundraising Consultants, Nonprofit Branding, Nonprofit Governance, Nonprofit “Think Tanks”, Grantmakers, Nonprofit DEI, etc. Then, when on Twitter, just click on the list you want to review and you’ve got curated content based on that issue area.

How nonprofits can work with social media influencers

Over the last 13 years I’ve use 11 lists to keep up with the sector. Twitter also suggests lists created by other users who made their lists available to other users. This is a great way to find new users to follow.

Other than serving on Boards of Directors, I get more out of following key nonprofit leaders and organizations on Twitter than any other experience of source of information. A few examples:

• @SSIReview had an article on cohort capacity building. I’d never heard of it until then, and in less than four months I’d written a successful six-figure foundation proposal for a nonprofit to fund cohort capacity building across several of their affiliates.
• Learned about and read @AnandWrites revolutionary book Winners Take All
• Transformed much of how I approach fundraising through @VillanuevaEdgar
• Outstanding inspiration and from a number of nonprofit fundraisers @PamelaGrow, @HMAssociates, @brockwarner, @joewaters, @FundraiseHumber, and many other leaders on this list.

Final Thoughts

It is overwhelming to keep up with Twitter. It reminds me of subscribing to the New Yorker, and despite my best intentions, ending up with a large stack of past issues on my desk just mocking me for not reading each issue.

But don’t let perfection get in the way of progress — just enjoy a week of solid activity on Twitter, then get busy, then check back in a month later. It’s invaluable information as well as inspiration.

Please share some of your nonprofit lists with me when you have a chance – @thatmikecrum.