When I wrote about the touching stories in a thank you letter and DVD from an animal sanctuary recently, it raised some questions for one reader. She said:

We help teenagers in foster care find adoptive families and make lifelong connections. [We] Cannot use their actual names or any details for purposes other than finding them families. We're also a small program and teen adoption is more complicated and takes longer than pet adoption....Most of our donors...do meet the teens and/or volunteer with us (or are friends of those people). How do we more effectively move beyond that group, which requires that we convey [through stories] the incredible impact and importance of donations to us?

Confidentiality for at-risk clients is just as important as telling their stories to your donors. How do you do both?

I asked two nonprofit experts who often run into this problem. Here are their suggestions...Read More...

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I'm happy to welcome Ifdy Perez as a guest! Ifdy is the community manager at Razoo, an online fundraising platform that empowers individuals and nonprofits to meet their fundraising goals through online giving campaigns. She's also editor of Inspiring Generosity, a blog that gives nonprofits helpful resources on online community management and social media tools.

A lot of nonprofits are on the fence about social media. Social media can help your nonprofit. In fact, there are several reasons to adopt a social strategy for your fundraising efforts. But let's discuss commonly asked questions first.

Will it really help my organization? Is it going to take up more time I already don't have? How complicated is it? And is it as effective as they say?

Although these are good questions, they're not necessarily the right ones to ask when you're considering adopting a social media strategy for your nonprofit. Just like any initiative your organization undertakes, the mission, planning, and execution have considerable weight in a successful outcome.

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We have an obesity epidemic, but it isn't just in our waistlines and on our hips.

It is also in our content, on our websites, in our emails, and our social media.

Accustomed to all the space in the world up until now, we have not yet adjusted to the new world of mobile.

That's despite the fact that Pew Research reports half of all adults in the US now use smartphones, and many of those also use tablets.

Most people already may be reading our content (or perhaps, not reading it) on their mobile devices, where skinny copy pays off in better readability, more attention, and more action taken.

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I know one small nonprofit that has a small staff, a one-person development department, and no marketing staff. But they want to get started with social media, and they should. It will help with communicating with their volunteers, raising funds, building their community, publicizing their events, and building their brand.

What they don't realize though is that their website is the place to start. Then adding even one social network could make a difference. The staffing problem can be solved with a tech savvy volunteer and/or having several staff (think the development person, the Executive Director, and the Volunteer Coordinator) participate. Keep it simple and don't be distracted by trying to do too much.

Guest author Marissa Garza explains several social media networks and suggests how your nonprofit can get started in Getting Started with Social Media: Where Do Nonprofits Begin?

Photo: Getty Images