How Can Your Nonprofit Benefit from Pinterest?

Today nonprofits have so many social media tools at their fingertips ? it can be quite overwhelming to determine which social media platforms are worth using or which ones will most effectively reach a desired audience. Pinterest is a growing social network medium for nonprofits and companies because of its visual storytelling format that showcases products, news and ideas. It can also serve as a library of sorts, providing a place to store articles and ideas that you would like to explore when you have more time. There are a variety of different ways nonprofits can utilize Pinterest to create a picture driven collection of information in hope of spreading their value and mission.

Pinterest Boards can be created for any and every topic. Check out Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden?s pinterest profile below. This nonprofit has created boards for flower pictures, events, weddings at their venue, Richmond news, gardening ideas, classes offered, etc.

How can your nonprofit use different boards to showcase your mission and values? More examples include animal rescue organizations creating a board for animals waiting to be adopted, art centers creating a board to show recent work, community organizations creating a board with holiday potluck recipes?the possibilities are endless!

Idea Boards: The Pinterest board below is from the HandsOn Greater Richmond profile and serves as a space for the team to collect volunteer appreciation gift ideas. Pinterest boards can be used as a storehouse for lesson plans, gift ideas, recipes, blog post ideas?anything that could be useful to a specific nonprofit organization. Use idea boards for internal purposes or direct clients to a particular board to share ideas and helpful information. The Spark Mill consulting firm has created numerous boards that share tips on how to be more creative, strategic, efficient and more. The whole idea is to showcase information, tutorials and stories. GiveRichmond plans to continue producing ?How To? articles like this one and post them to Pinterest for your future reference. *Important tip: Install the Pin button on your internet browser so that you can immediately pin something you come across on the internet. Several people can be added to the same board to collect ideas in one location.

Product boards can be used to display items available the Pinterest. When an individual ?pins? a picture of a product, the image is seen by all of the individual?s followers ? this rapidly increases the exposure of a particular item as friends ?share? pictures of products with each other. The Richmond Sports Backers have a Pinterest board exclusively for their products, and each picture links to the Sports Backers online store. This way, the user is immediately directed to the online store after clicking the picture and is prompted to purchase the item or view similar products.

Want more tips on social media for your nonprofit?  Come to ConnectVA’s Social Media for Nonprofits Conference on 3/19 @ WCVE/Community Ideas Station – featuring Heather Mansfield of Nonprofit Tech for Good!

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GiveRichmond/GiveSouthsideVA is a program of The Community Foundation Serving Richmond & Central Virginia (TCF). As strategic partners with ConnectVA, TCF and GiveRichmond/GiveSouthsdeVA encourage smart giving by identifying trends and success stories in local philanthropy through their Smart Giving blog series. If you have ideas about topics you would like to have covered, please comment below!