A Non-Profit Guide to Social Media How to build a presence in the social networking world

Social media and networking platforms have changed the game. Web 2.0 has put the power of the Internet into the hands of the user. Businesses and organizations are no longer the only ones with something to say. This can be daunting for companies and brands, but it can also be brilliant, especially for Non-profits. Today, hundreds of millions of people across the globe are online sharing information with friends, family, co-workers, and complete strangers via various social networking platforms. These users share everything from photos and videos to advice and opinions, passing on the information that they deem important to their friends and followers. The social media world is an open platform for sharing unique, personal messages, but it is also an opportunity for organizations to extend their reach, further their causes, and build awareness among a growing population of potential proponents and future donors. The power is now in the hands of the user. But it is the organization’s job to get the users talking. This guidebook to social media provides non-profit organizations with an introduction to social media, information about the major players in the game today, what social media means for their organization and best practices and tips on how to become worthy of attention on the social networking stage. Everyone wants to be noticed and these guidelines will help non-profit organizations stand out from the crowd, provide timely and relevant information, and practice appropriate social networking etiquette. This guide will also touch on why college students present great potential to become proponents for non-profit organizations online and how they could be the key to creating the foundation for non-profit organizations’ future donor bases. But college students are not alone in using social networking platforms. Social media usage among older generations continues to grow exponentially, proving that social networking has gone mainstream. Non-profit organizations need to understand that social media and online efforts are not something that they can ignore. The majority of organizations’ current donors are already using social media platforms to share information with their online friends. This guide shows non-profits how to create an online presence on social media platforms that will increase their exposure and awareness of their causes. The best thing that a non-profit can do to increase support is to get people talking. This guide shows them how

Essays on Social Preference

This thesis consists of six essays related to experimental investigation of social preference. We investigate the effects of a pure income effect on social preference in the first essay. In the second essay we explore the effects of gender in altruism and the corresponding anticipation behavior. The third essay discusses the effects of different type of rebate schemes on altruistic behavior. We study the effects of a real and a minimal identity on initiation and escalation of conflict in the fourth essay. The fifth essay investigates the effects of social cues in (anti) social behavior. The final essay tests the effects of pure framing on altruistic behavior

Public Choice

Interest in politics and the political process—topics that economists consider to be the purview of the sub-field of study known as public choice—appears to be as high as ever. This Special Issue aims to provide a collection of high-quality studies covering many of the varied topics traditionally investigated in the growing field of public choice economics. These include expressive and instrumental voting, checks and balances in the enforcement of rules, electoral disproportionality, foreign aid and political freedom, voting cycles, (in)stability of political ideology, federal spending on environmental goods, pork-barrel and general appropriations spending, politics and taxpayer funding for professional sports arenas, and political scandal and “friends-and-neighbors” voting in general elections. In bringing these topics together in one place, this Special Issue offers a mix of conceptual/formal and empirical studies in public choice economics

Digital methods for ethnography: analytical concepts for ethnographers exploring social media environments

The aim of this article is to introduce some analytical concepts suitable for ethnographers dealing with social media environments. As a result of the growth of social media, the Internet structure has become a very complex, fluid, and fragmented space. Within this space, it is not always possible to consider the 'classical' online community as the privileged field site for the ethnographer, in which s/he immerses him/herself. Differently, taking inspiration from some methodological principles of the Digital Methods paradigm, I suggest that the main task for the ethnographer moving across social media environments should not be exclusively that of identifying an online community to delve into but of mapping the practices through which Internet users and digital devices structure social formations around a focal object (e.g., a brand). In order to support the ethnographer in the mapping of social formations within social media environments, I propose five analytical concepts: community, public, crowd, self-presentation as a tool, and user as a device

Digital methods for ethnography: analytical concepts for ethnographers exploring social media environments

The aim of this article is to introduce some analytical concepts suitable for ethnographers dealing with social media environments. As a result of the growth of social media, the Internet structure has become a very complex, fluid, and fragmented space. Within this space, it is not always possible to consider the 'classical' online community as the privileged field site for the ethnographer, in which s/he immerses him/herself. Differently, taking inspiration from some methodological principles of the Digital Methods paradigm, I suggest that the main task for the ethnographer moving across social media environments should not be exclusively that of identifying an online community to delve into but of mapping the practices through which Internet users and digital devices structure social formations around a focal object (e.g., a brand). In order to support the ethnographer in the mapping of social formations within social media environments, I propose five analytical concepts: community, public, crowd, self-presentation as a tool, and user as a device

Investing in Ourselves: Giving and Fund Raising in Asia

This is the Asia overview study of Investing in Ourselves - Giving and Fund Raising in Asia, which had its origin in the International Conference on Supporting the Nonprofit Sector in Asia, sponsored by the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium (APPC) in January 1998

Reconciling the irreconcilable? An application of economics to long-term fiscal sustainability of the HIV/AIDS response in Uganda

This Ph.D. aims to propose a pragmatic approach to the long-term fiscal sustainability of the HIV and HIV response in Uganda. It is motivated by the fact that whereas financing of the HIV response has been among the dominant economic development issues over the last years, it now faces an uncertain outlook. Using a mixed-methods research approach, this Ph.D.’s empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions improve our understanding of the economics (and politics) of achieving fiscal sustainability of HIV responses. Empirically, I found that Uganda will not “end AIDS” by 2030 despite projected significant reductions in AIDS deaths and new HIV infections by 68% and 80% respectively between 2010 and 2030 under a scale-up strategy, the Fast-Track approach. From a fiscal perspective, the corresponding direct and indirect HIV-induced contingent fiscal liabilities range between 150% and 200% of GDP (in 2015 terms). To cope with these fiscal quasi-liabilities implied by the national HIV response, a novel analytical framework for achieving fiscal sustainability of HIV responses is proposed and, through a proof-of-concept, validated in this Ph.D. Theoretically informed and relying on a set of core principles, behavioral economics-inspired, explicit political analysis and, game-theoretic approaches, I empirically assess the likely evolution of future public spending and revenues through analytic policy simulations and conclude that the fiscal space created from applying this novel and pragmatic approach could meet the above-mentioned HIV-induced contingent fiscal liabilities estimated at US$ 24 billion by 2030. This Ph.D. also explores political economy considerations regarding long-term funding for the HIV response. This Ph.D. hopes to contribute to technically sound and politically achievable approaches to addressing HIV-related long-term fiscal challenges in Uganda and, more broadly, toward literature on the political economy of fiscal sustainability