Yesterday marked the unveiling of a new website for nonprofits called Jumo. Founded by Chris Hughes (a co-founder of Facebook and online director for the Obama Campaign), Jumo gives nonprofits a new medium for publicizing their work and seeking donations.
Hughes contrasts his vision for Jumo with the current leading social media platform for nonprofits – the Causes application on Facebook, which has 24.3 million users per month. Hughes states: “Causes does a good job of enabling people to either give some money or to raise some money for a non-profit they already know about.” While causes gives users a heavily-trafficked venue (Facebook) for promoting nonprofits that they already support offline, Jumo will help users discover new causes to which they can donate time, money, and resources.
Hughes has already raised about a fourth of the $2 million that he hopes to raise before Jumo’s official launch. He expects Jumo to go live in September or October.
If you’d like to learn more about the nonprofit space in social media, here are a few of my favorite blogs that provide excellent, innovative social media advice for nonprofits:
The Nonprofit Marketing Blog, run by Katya Andresen (the VP-Marketing at Network for Good). Katya blogs about interesting news stories that relate to new media and nonprofits, and she provides insightful commentary about the evolution of marketing strategies for nonprofits.
Beth Kantor’s Blog: Beth is the CEO of Zoetica (a nonprofit media strategy firm) and the author of The Networked Nonprofit. Beth’s blog is full of creative ideas, generous linking, and top-notch case studies about nonprofit utilization of emerging media.
Philanthropy 2173: a provocative blog about the future of philanthropy. The author, Lucy Bernholz, is currently building an interesting piece entitled “Open Philanthropy: A Modest Manifesto;” which highlights best practices and creative ideas for helping philanthropy navigate a changing digital landscape.
