TikTok has immense popularity across the globe, and nonprofit organizations have seen success leveraging this video platform to grow their brand awareness.
However, a bipartisan bill banning TikTok in the U.S. was signed into law in April 2024 over concerns of national security. The law stated that Chinse-owned ByteDance must sell its stake in the video-streaming app by Jan. 19 or TikTok will be removed from app stores.
The app had already been removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play store in anticipation of the deadline, but we’ve seen a couple of key developments with the new Trump administration:
- Jan. 20: President Trump signed an executive order pausing the TikTok ban for 75 days while he attempts to broker a deal.
- Feb. 14: The Justice Department sent letters to Apple and Google assuring them that they would not face fines, and TikTok made its return to app stores.
With TikTok’s future in limbo, nonprofit organizations must decide whether to continue investing time and effort into the social platform.
Our advice is simple: Whether it’s TikTok, Instagram Stories, Snapchat, YouTube Shorts or Facebook Reels, short-form vertical video is here to stay.
People love flipping through videos on their phone, and they will adapt to the platform that fits them best. If you haven’t jumped into this craze yet, here are a few tips to get started.
2 important Blackbaud updates
Donation form requirement: First, we mentioned a while back that Blackbaud Luminate Online was rolling out updates to the payment processing system on donation forms. The reason behind these updates was to make forms compliant with PCI standards.
Blackbaud has now announced a hard deadline of March 18 for all LO donation forms to be updated. After that date, they will begin auditing donation forms for PCI compliance.
“Forms not updated to use either the embedded or modal checkout element will be automatically updated with the checkout modal, which could potentially cause layout changes and impact processing,” according to Blackbaud. “API forms cannot automatically update, so you must take action to manually update API forms ahead of breaking changes.”
Sunset of Raiser’s Edge 7: RE7 launched in 1999 as a CRM designed just for nonprofits. Think about that for a moment—that’s 26 years ago. How many other tech platforms are still around from 1999?
Blackbaud is sending strong signs that it intends to sunset support for RE7 soon. If your organization is still using RE7, it’s critical to be proactive and make a switch.
Here are some options to consider from our friends at Heller Consulting.
Claim your GoFundMe page
The rapid rise of social media has created an incredible opportunity for people to ask their friends and family to support the causes they’re passionate about. Thus, peer-to-peer fundraising was born.
But one of the challenges that nonprofit organizations encounter is that they don’t have visibility into the people who donated to a particular fundraiser.
GoFundMe is changing that.
If you “claim” your nonprofit’s page on GoFundMe, you’ll gain access to that valuable data so you can identify those donors and begin communicating with them. GoFundMe walks through the required steps in this article.
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