Social networking website created for not-for-profit sector
Howard Lake | 9 August 2007 | News
Recruitment specialists Charity People have created a social networking website for people in the not-for-profit sector. The site offers networking, forums, blogs and other tools for users, and aims to build on the company’s Forum3 recruitment event, and other recruitment services.
Launched as more and more sector staff engage with generic social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, the free service offers a range of tools including:
* network with peers in the sector and keep up with recent developments
* set up discussion groups and invite members to join
* create an online meeting place for your team, department or other colleagues
* write a blog about your experiences in the sector
* post news about upcoming events
The site is in its early days so there is very little user generated content on the forums (which includes one on “Fundraising, grant making and giving”), groups and blogs. It forms part of the forum3.co.uk site, which claims it is “the definitive jobs and networking resource for the charity and not-for-proft sector.”
The site aims to bring recruitment information and professional networking services together, which has so far not been attempted in the UK charity sector. Charity People’s Gerry McNally said: “The Network is a support tool for our forum3 event – allowing visitors and exhibitors to interact with each other before, during and after the event.”
As such, it differs from Facebook and other social networking sites because it is clearly promoting a specific supplier and event. It is also focusing on a ‘vertical market’. This is its strength of course: if sufficient delegates to its event and users of its service can be persuaded to sign up and use it then it could hit critical mass and expand considerably. However, the site will have to compete with sites like Facebook, which have already seen a good deal of activity by charity sector staff.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.