Rescue, Spay, Neuter, Adopt gifts and apparel
featuring Angel, the God sent dog.
Hundreds of millions of people are now using such social networking services as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube. Social networking sites are simply a way for people of similar interests to meet and share their interests. Social networks are a great way for people interested in animal rescue and animal welfare to meet, form friendships, and work together toward common goals.
As the founder of GSDAR which has as its partner organization the Animal Rescue & Sanctuary in Guyana (ARSG), I would like to encourage people everywhere to join together to help save homeless animals. Hence this basic tutorial is provided to help everyone use social networks to foster animal rescue work.
What is so amazing about social networking is that it empowers people to meet and work together regardless of where they live. Someone in North America may work with someone in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, or any where else on a common project. Social networks enable people to meet through the networks, then to share information and ideas via email or other communications, that together they can bring together their skills and abilities to achieve set goals and purposes.
Take, for example, the goal of establishing an animal rescue organization. People who meet via the Internet on-line may work together to form a nonprofit organization or society with expressed objectives, goals, purposes and a Mission Statement. They may then use social networks to meet other people around the globe who want to join, becoming members and working toward those common goals in which they are in sympathy. Thus over time a membership may be developed, funds may be raised, and the work to achieve high goals which may seem an impossible task in the beginning, becomes enabled through the empowerment of people everywhere. This is based upon the principle that it is easy to break a single stick or faggot; but when you bind together many sticks or faggots the bundle becomes very strong and difficult to break; i.e., great strength or power is achieved through a bundle or group, be it of sticks or be it of people united in a common bond.
This principle has been used for ages. People discovered long ago that if they form a tribe then they are stronger than single individuals, hence enabling them to survive and prosper. A city, state or nation works the same way; a large group of people form a government and organize for the mutual benefit of the people. Such governments may then offer services including militias or armies, for the general welfare of the people. Similarly companies form, groups of people organizing to work toward common economic goals. A nonprofit organization, church or society is much like a for-profit company, only the primary purposes are charitable or humanitarian in nature. That is the case with GSDAR and Animal Rescue & Sanctuary in Guyana (ARSG); both are established not to make a profit, but to help rescue and save the lives of homeless animals and promote the general welfare and humane treatment of animals.
Social networking can be of tremendous help to nonprofit groups and organizations. Generally nonprofits rely upon the general public for donations and membership contributions as well as volunteer service. Unless there is fund raising which is enabled by the volunteers, there is no money coming in to do the work and achieve the goals set by the nonprofit group or organization. Just like a minister may pass the plate to accept gifts and offerings after a sermon, so too nonprofits must pass the plate and take up collections in the form of membership fees or other donations. Without such offerings nonprofits have no money or other materials or property with which to operate. Hence fund raising is vital to the survival to all nonprofit groups and organizations.
Social networking is a tool or way nonprofits may gain more members and collect donations from those members so that they can do the work they are established to do. Equally important is the fact that social networking enables nonprofits to reach out and share their message with the world. Social networking is a way to tell people everywhere about a great work or cause and enlist the help of others, as both volunteers and contributing members. Hence it is vital that nonprofits learn how to use social networking. For example, if you click on the Twitter button below you can express yourself by typing a comment or making a "tweet" and then immediately follow GSDAR on Twitter. A counter appears to show how many times our Twitter button has been used; hence we encourage everyone to please click on the button below and express themselves with respect to animal rescue issues.
Moreover, anyone can copy/paste the above button and put it on their site so as to help the cause. It cost NOTHING to do this such that everyone can help the cause simply by participating in this form of social networking using Twitter. Plus we hope that using this form of social networking will not only let people know about the good work for a great cause that we are doing, but will help encourage people everywhere to join as members or make a donation and help, using their skills and abilities to empower our organization to reach its high goals.
Among the fastest growing and most popular social networking services is Facebook. GSDAR is using FACEBOOK in a novel way. Our mascot, Angel The God Sent Dog, is asking everyone to help rescue and save the lives of homeless animals. Angel has her own Facebook page as well as her own blog.
In fact, you can read Angel's blog below:
As you can see, Angel's blog is a great way to connect with people who are interested in animal rescue and animal welfare issues. A blog is just one more way to use social networking to help advance the good cause and empower people everywhere to work together to achieve those high goals that are set by a nonprofit group, in this case GSDAR. But to may it even easier for people to make a direct contribution, you can use a service like PayPal and place a donation button directly upon your homepage or website. For example, if you click on the PayPal button below or can make a donation directly to GSDAR.
Social networking does not end when you turn off your computer. Nonprofit organization may create a variety of gift and apparel items to help advertise and promote their good cause when off line. This may include everything from T-shirts and sweatshirts to postcards and buttons. Below is an example which features our mascot, Angel, The God Sent Dog, promoting "Rescue, Spay, Neuter and Adopt" as a way to help prevent the over population of animals which is a primary strategy used to reduce the number of unwanted, homeless animals which through hunger, starvation, neglect and abuse. By simply wearing a T-shirt like this everyone may help raise awareness about homeless animals. Plus when people ask you about your T-shirt this gives you an opportunity to express yourself, to share your thoughts and opinions, and to encourage others to join GSDAR and through their membership contributions and volunteer service, to help reach our high goals.
There is another aspect to social networking which is not often mentioned but which does contribute to helping raise funds and promote a good cause. The idea is for members to help raise funds by using such services as eBay. Without a doubt eBay is the larges on-line auction type marketplace where anyone may post an item for sale. The profits can then be donated to your favorite good cause or charity. In fact, services like eBay may be used to directly raise funds for churches, animal shelters or any other good cause. Currently I'm using eBay to raise funds for GSDAR through offering HOT DEALS.
The way HOT DEALS works is that a commission is earned for every item sold. The money raised may then be used to support a good cause, in this case GSDAR. But anyone can do the same thing and use the commissions they earn on eBay to support their favorite church, charity or other good cause. And guess what? You can even use a dropshipper to provide all the products you list on eBay. Hence there is no cost to you other that what it may involve to list on eBay. Of course there are many other services like eBay where you can list items freely, such as Craigslist.org. I like eBay, howerver, as it is by far the largest on-line auction marketplace and that factor increases the probability that a nonprofit may be able to earn commissions using this method. It is essentially like doing a giant yard sale of donated merchandice; however, in this case the companies are providing the products and those who market them are essetially independent agents who may earn a commission and then donate it to GSDAR, or your favorite charity or other good cause.
Finally another aspect of social networking is using affilate programs to help raise funds. There are tons of companies which now let your market their products or services as an affiliate. When someone they makes a purchase a commission is paid. GSDAR is currantly an affiliate of IPOWER (See banner below).
When you click on this link and join IPOWER a small commission will be paid and every little bit earned through such affiliate services helps. Of course there is one problem with affiliate programs of this nature and that is that you often have to reach a certain minimum amount before they pay out and there is so much competition from users that it can be difficult to reach that minimal amount unless you operate a site that have a huge amount of traffic. Thus the big guys like Google, YouTube, MySpace, which may subscribe to an affiliate program are going to reap the greatest rewards. Affiliate program work best for sites which have a huge amount of traffic and subscribe to affiliate programs related to their target market users group. Another good reason for chosing an affiliate program may be that you simply like their product or service and/or use that product or service yourself, so as a satisfied customer or fan, may want to push the same products to those who you social network with, which is why GSDAR is an affiliate of IPOWER; we like their service and recommend it to others.
This tutorial just begins to touch on the ways that social networking may be used by nonprofits to help advance their cause. The important thing to remember is that an organization or society is a group of people with common goals. They are empowered by coming together, pooling their resources, skills, ability and talents to achieve those goals. In other words, everyone is networking or coming together, to pool their talents, to make a strong body, that together what may seem an impossible dream becomes quite probably.
Finally, remember that social networking involves a host of on-line services and resources. When you use a variety of Internet services to network, you may collect these together at LINKS. Each link simply goes to another site, page or social networking service. Your LINKS may be used at the top, bottom or in the context of your webpage or website design. In conclusion we present a few of our LINKS which we hope everyone will visit. Thank you for your membership, donations, and patronage!