Getting online where the younger generation is....

My first lecture(s) of the fall marathon were fun and rewarding. I met with a group of Easter Seals staff in Cincinnati. Great folks doing great things. We discussed generation change in two ways: first generally for the organization as a whole, and second around HR--hiring, recruitment, retention issues.

In between, I spent a lot of time talking to participants about what their organizations are doing (and not doing) in this arena, and their responses synched perfectly with the early results from a mixed group of nonprofits I'm researching for the Foellinger Foundation in Fort Wayne.

To wit: the vasts majority of nonprofits are not going after younger people where they live and communicate---and for high school and college kids, that's on MySpace and Facebook. I've posted before ("Let 'em in and Prosper", "Using Web 2.0") about the value and benefits of using social networking, either through the big portals, or sites like Ning, where you can create your own network. But if you want to go after the younger set, MySpace and Facebook are de riguer.

Of course, TechSoup has a number of articles on how to get on with Facebook and how to benefit
from that interaction.
Check out: A Beginner's Guide to Facebook, and Promote Your Cause on Facebook in Six Easy Steps

Check them out....