How Does Your Nonprofit Use Flickr?

Latest post 12-20-2008 11:44 PM by Rog. 7 replies.

How Does Your Nonprofit Use Flickr?

11-26-2008 11:48 AM

We've heard from many nonprofits and public libraries that they've started using Flickr to not just store and display their photos, but also to connect with constituents and show their impact in the community - including those that have Flickr Pro accounts they received as a donation through TechSoup.

How is your organization using Flickr? What sort of photos do you post and how do you encourage people to join in?

RE: How Does Your Nonprofit Use Flickr?

12-02-2008 3:03 PM

I do have a personal flickr pro account, our org does not.

Our org mainly engages our volunteers and the public through our org website.

One drawback of flickr is it is hard to narrow your audience field, and collect meaningful metrics on the actual viewers of the photos. Photo theft and IP issues are also issues on flickr, thats not limited to flickr, anyone can steal photos on a website also. Flickr just makes it easier since thier search and tagging works very well.

Thanks - Andrew Lan
President, Orchid Alliance of Asian Americans
http://orchidalliance.org

RE: How Does Your Nonprofit Use Flickr?

12-04-2008 7:30 AM

There are quite a few examples in our blog post:
Five Ways Nonprofits Can Use Flickr to Reach New Audiences

RE: How Does Your Nonprofit Use Flickr?

12-04-2008 10:58 AM

TechSoup also has a good article by nonprofit tech expert Beth Kanter: How Nonprofits Can Get the Most out of Flickr. We also hosted a webinar a few months ago on using Flickr and Twitter at your nonprofit.

One thing I'd like to point out is that technically, you shouldn't have a single Flickr account for your organization. It's better to have an account for yourself as an individual, and then create an image pool for posting images of your organization in action. This way, volunteers and other friends of your organization can also post images, and you can provide visitors a much more dynamic view of the work your organization is doing. This is why TechSoup Stock offers accounts in bundles of 2 and 5.

Andrew, I have to admit that I'm surprised by your concerns about photo theft. If you're using your pictures to tell your nonprofit's story, isn't it great if other people want to share your story? I'm a strong believer in licensing your photos under Creative Commons.

Cheers,
Elliot

RE: How Does Your Nonprofit Use Flickr?

12-08-2008 9:29 PM

I'm seeing Flickr being used more frequently in conjunction with tools like Eye-Fi, the SD card that magically turns into a Wi-Fi device when put inside a camera.

[All they have to do is config the Eye-Fi card with a Wi-Fi SSID and then every time they turn on the camera (and are, of course, within range of the AP), they will auto upload all the newest pics.]

RE: How Does Your Nonprofit Use Flickr?

12-09-2008 12:52 PM

Wow, Rog! That's really cool. I had no idea such a thing existed.

I spent months debating whether to buy a Kodak Easyshare One when it came out. It had a wifi connection, but would only automatically send photos to Kodak's photosharing site. I didn't want to switch to a new service from Flickr.

Elliot

RE: How Does Your Nonprofit Use Flickr?

12-09-2008 9:32 PM

Back in 2006 I wrote a short post on nonprofits use of Flickr.

Re: RE: How Does Your Nonprofit Use Flickr?

12-20-2008 11:44 PM

Yup, it works awesomely. I use it all the time all over the world for work. I have problems with it working outside the country, but I've had it work quite well in some rather remote areas of the United States. It uses the same wireless network as the iPhone, I believe. Here is a review of it, in case you're interested.