4 Ways One Non-Profit Uses Location to Increase Engagement

While many non-profits are embracing social media for fundraising, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has found social media to be essential for bringing value to its members, raising public awareness, and building community online.

As the United States’ largest non-profit conservation, education and advocacy organization, with over four million members, NWF relies on recurring membership revenue to create change in the world. Social media helps NWF create this change by encouraging staff to personally communicate and engage individual members, new supporters, and wildlife lovers on a regular basis.

Danielle Brigida (a.k.a. The Net Naturalist) has helped empower NWF staffers to weave social media throughout their daily work, creating an impressive social media presence for the organization. More than 70 staff members are using Twitter, with many others communicating about the organization’s conservation efforts and programs through its Facebook Page.

Brigida is on the leading edge of social media use and is now focusing her sights on using location-based platforms to engage existing communities of nature lovers and the ever-broadening audience on the social web. “We’re always looking for new ways to connect people with the outdoors using the social web. Location-based technology is a great new avenue, to put a ‘where’ with the ‘what,’” said Brigida.
Here are four ways that NWF is using location-based technology to get people outdoors.

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1. Foursquare to Drive Education and Engagement

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Foursquare () is the premier service when it comes to location-based applications. It has the largest user base with over one million total users and around half a million check-ins per day. Location-based services like Foursquare are relatively new, but non-profits are already finding very interesting and exciting ways to make use of them.

Just like the History Channel, NWF is exploring the possibility of using Foursquare to promote engagement with their constituents. “What if when a person checked into an outdoor space like a park or natural landmark, we could feed them NWF sponsored tips of what wildlife they should look for, or what view not to miss,” said Brigida. “The idea is to make visiting these locations more interesting and fun by providing useful information about what can be seen and done.” As NWF works on this program, their supporters and advocates will be encouraged to add their own tips to the locations they visit so that as time goes on, coverage around the world continues to grow.

In addition to adding tips, NWF is exploring the possibility of having a branded Foursquare profile page and custom “badges” created for the organization. All of this activity promotes education, fun, awareness and engagement.

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2. Geocaching to Connect Families and Kids with Nature

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Geocaching, in many respects, was ahead of the location-based game. Started in 2000, it has been steadily growing in size and usage ever since. The unique location-based application presents some very cool opportunities for non-profits. The idea is that you can create a large-scale game of “hide and seek” for people all over the world to participate in. Organizations or participants can “hide” items called caches that others can then discover and interact with. You can then share logs or photos to further enhance the online experience.
With over three million caches hidden all over the world (according to the Geocaching website), a large user base and an impressive iPhone app, this location-based application is proving to be a great way to promote both online and offline engagement.

NWF is exploring the use of geocaching to send their supporters on educational treasure hunts involving everyone’s favorite raccoon, Ranger Rick, insightful clues, and special GPS-trackable objects called Geocoins. They are currently in the process of piloting two programs aimed at getting families outdoors.

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3. Leveraging Google Maps to Encourage Participation

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Google Maps () and “mashups” have been around for a while now, but maps are still at the heart of any location-based service or program.

One of the most visited pages on the NWF website is a Google Maps mashup called Nature Find. The website allows users to find information about outdoor areas, nature parks and events (e.g. the San Diego Botanical Gardens) by using the location-based searchable guide.
This simple, but powerful application has enabled them to provide a tremendous service to a large community of wildlife enthusiasts.

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4. Smartphone Apps Promote Location-based Interaction

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Gone are the days when non-profit supporters could only help by giving money or volunteering time. The ability to instantly share stories, pictures, videos and more has revolutionized how people interact with organizations online. The widespread use of mobile devices like the iPhone () and Droid, coupled with the instant ability to share user-generated content with location-based information has added a whole new dimension to non-profit engagement.

To complement its Wildlife Watch website, NWF partnered to have an iPhone app called WildObs (wildlife observations) built. “Our Wildlife Watch website is great, but it’s a big ask for people to see wildlife and then go back to the website to log their sighting,” said Brigida. “People are much more likely to capture the moment on a smartphone.”

The application enables supporters to quickly post nature sightings via their mobile device (iPhone, Blackberry () or Droid) while they’re out and about. Information such as what the species is, where the sighting took place, and who made the sighting is captured, immediately posted, and fed back to the Wildlife Watch map for other visitors to see and engage with.
You then end up with a largely crowdsourced archive of species and a recent observations map that the wildlife community can enjoy for years to come.

Are there any other location-based services or mobile apps that might support the mission of a non-profit? Be sure to share your ideas in the comments below.