New Study: Social Media Use By Foundation Leaders

The Foundation Center released a report that documents the usage of social media tools by foundation executives based on survey responses from 73 members of the Center’s Grantmaker Leadership Panel.   The report outlines which social media services are used regularly or occasionally by foundation leaders, which blogs are read by CEOs and how often, the perceived usefulness of Web 2.0 in philanthropic work, and highlights the social media activity of two “power users” in the field.

Other findings include:
More established forms of online communications — e-newsletters and Listservs — are regularly used by foundation CEOs at a much higher rate (65 percent and 45 percent, respectively) than the newer social media tools.
The most-read blog by far among foundation chief executives is the Huffington Post (with 53 percent reporting that they have read it at least once in the past six months).  (My blog was named on the list with 11% respondents indicating they have read it in the past six months)
Nearly three-quarters of respondents believe social networking services have been at least somewhat useful in furthering the work of philanthropy in general, but only half said it has helped further their own foundation’s work.
In addition to the report, the Foundation Center has an extremely useful aggregation site called Glasspockets that among other features let you quickly browse the social media presences of 66 foundations.     What I really like is that you can compare different social channels across foundations pretty easily.  For example, you can browse Facebook profiles at once.    This was so useful, I added it to my Social Media and Foundations wiki.