These guide­lines were adopted on Oct. 27, 2009:

Online Tech­nolo­gies, Social Media, and Bread

Our Goals
Our goals in mak­ing bet­ter use of new online com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools (e.g., Web 2.0 tech­nolo­gies, social media, or social net­work­ing sites) are:

• Expand and strengthen Bread’s advo­cacy work for poor and hun­gry peo­ple
• Expand our mem­ber­ship
• Bet­ter com­mu­ni­cate with exist­ing mem­bers and tar­get audi­ences
• Strengthen our rela­tion­ships with our mem­bers
• Ful­fill our mis­sion to end hunger here and abroad.

Our Online Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Model
Increas­ingly, more Amer­i­cans are not only con­sumers of infor­ma­tion on the Web, but are actively par­tic­i­pat­ing in online con­ver­sa­tions and cre­at­ing con­tent. It is impor­tant that we inte­grate social net­works and other online tech­nolo­gies into Bread’s com­mu­ni­ca­tions work.

In order to inte­grate all of Bread’s online com­mu­ni­ca­tions work, we have adopted the wheel as our model. At the core of Bread’s com­mu­ni­ca­tions strat­egy is a stronger, redesigned Web site, www.bread.org. Radi­at­ing from the core and inter­act­ing with each other are online com­mu­ni­ca­tions plat­forms where peo­ple already con­gre­gate and where we want to estab­lish or strengthen our presence.

In addi­tion to push­ing out Bread’s core mes­sages and actions, we will seek to engage var­i­ous audi­ences by facil­i­tat­ing con­ver­sa­tion, aware­ness, and action about hunger.

The radials—e.g., blogs and social media networks—are rel­a­tively new and exist pri­mar­ily in a “cloud.” We have to exper­i­ment to find out which ones will work best for Bread. On new plat­forms, we have to be flex­i­ble in our engage­ment, rec­og­niz­ing that they may have good or bad consequences.

Through this inte­grated model, Bread staff, activists, and mem­bers will lever­age our sto­ry­telling across all media platforms—from tra­di­tional media like print, radio, and tele­vi­sion, to online plat­forms like the Web and social net­work­ing sites.

Our Prin­ci­ples
As an organization,

…we will estab­lish a Bread pres­ence wher­ever tar­get audi­ences or con­stituen­cies already con­gre­gate online. Bread’s com­mu­ni­ca­tions depart­ment and des­ig­nated site man­agers and/or teams will main­tain Bread’s offi­cial sites in social media net­works and other online plat­forms. We will actively invite and/or engage our con­stituents on these plat­forms if they are not already engaged through other means or if these new plat­forms will enhance our inter­ac­tion with them. In most instances, we will sign up for all social net­work­ing sites, regard­less of whether we will use them at all, so we can pre­serve our name in these sites.

…we will ensure that once we estab­lish our pres­ence in a social media site, it will be updated reg­u­larly accord­ing to the con­ven­tions of each site. In many cases, we will appoint a site man­ager and/or team that will coor­di­nate with other Bread staff in cre­at­ing its con­tent. As is the pol­icy, ulti­mate respon­si­bil­ity for all of Bread’s edi­to­r­ial con­tent in all media plat­forms rests with the direc­tor of communications.

…we will be flex­i­ble as we encour­age exper­i­men­ta­tion and test­ing of new social media tools and func­tion­al­i­ties not cur­rently used by Bread. Social media tools are new and devel­op­ing rapidly. If no poli­cies cover future tech­nolo­gies, we will be prac­ti­cal and flex­i­ble in deal­ing with them using what­ever resources we have. How­ever, we will adopt only those tools and plat­forms that will help us advance our mis­sion, and not because they are trendy or cool. The main forum for dis­cus­sion and coor­di­na­tion of such exper­i­ments is Bread’s eTaskforce.

…we will encour­age Bread staff and sup­port­ers to use social media and Web 2.0 tools. The essence of an online com­mu­nity is that it exists so we can sup­port oth­ers and they, in turn, can sup­port us. The more peo­ple we have Tweet­ing or talk­ing online about hunger and poverty, the bet­ter it is for our mis­sion. But while we encour­age Bread staff to use these new tools, their social media sites shall be per­sonal sites.

…we will pro­vide train­ing and resources to Bread staff. Such train­ing will only encour­age famil­iar­ity with and accep­tance of these tools as agents of change. As much as pos­si­ble, these train­ing and resources shall be pro­vided online.

…and as appro­pri­ate, we will pro­vide train­ing and resources (e.g., tips, ideas, and guide­lines) for key Bread activists. These will include an overview of Bread’s cur­rent pres­ence on social media plat­forms as well as stan­dards and style. These resources will be gath­ered and updated reg­u­larly by the Orga­niz­ing Depart­ment and the site man­agers and/or teams.

…and when­ever pos­si­ble, we will be sup­port­ive of social media sites ini­ti­ated by Bread’s grass­roots. If needed, we shall pro­vide them with the help to bring their sites up to Bread’s stan­dards. These sites, how­ever, shall carry a dis­claimer that they were set up by Bread mem­bers and activists and are not offi­cial Bread sites. As the liai­son to Bread’s grass­roots, the Orga­niz­ing Depart­ment will pro­vide sup­port for these sites, includ­ing noti­fi­ca­tion of changes in messaging.

..we will endeavor to ensure con­sis­tency of mes­sages and actions across all media plat­forms. We will ensure that the essence of Bread’s mes­sages remains true to our cur­rent advo­cacy pri­or­i­ties and mis­sion, no mat­ter what media is used. We will also encour­age the voices of own­ers of per­sonal social media sites to enhance mes­sages and actions being pro­moted by Bread. When­ever pos­si­ble, we will solicit ideas and sto­ries from our con­stituents to help enhance our mes­sages and tac­tics. We will change our cam­paign tac­tics and mes­sages if needed.

…we will adhere to Bread’s poli­cies, includ­ing those cov­er­ing pri­vacy and con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion, and the Bread for the World Brand and Style Guide.

..we will iden­tify our­selves clearly in what we write and what we post. When act­ing as a Bread staff mem­ber, we will always iden­tify our­selves as such in respond­ing to posts, blogs, or other social media. We shall not engage in argu­ments or “flame wars,” but in civil discourse.

…we will mod­er­ate all com­ments and responses to Bread’s blogs. We will ensure that no spam, pro­fan­ity, defam­a­tory, inap­pro­pri­ate or libelous lan­guage will be posted to our sites. Nei­ther will we use such lan­guage when we post com­ments to other people’s sites.

…we will respect copy­right rules. We will prop­erly cite our sources, and post only items that are cov­ered by fair use or pub­lished under Cre­ative Com­mons. Oth­er­wise, we will seek per­mis­sion first.

As indi­vid­u­als,

…we will not use our iden­tity as Bread employ­ees, includ­ing our Bread email accounts, in asso­ci­a­tion with per­sonal sites that are out­side the scope of Bread’s mission.

…we will be guided by Bread pol­icy staff regard­ing actions on leg­is­la­tion that we cur­rently are cam­paign­ing on. While per­sonal social net­work accounts (e.g., Face­book) should remain per­sonal, own­ers will be encour­aged to call for actions con­sis­tent with actions being pro­moted by Bread. Such mes­sages can and may be re-tooled into the voice of the owner, but not in a man­ner that could be con­strued as new Bread pol­icy. To the extent pos­si­ble, sam­ple mes­sages will be provided.

…we will be respon­si­ble for what we write and what we post. Our use of social media sites is gov­erned by our mis­sion and our credo – and by good judg­ment and com­mon sense. In gen­eral, we will tell our sto­ries respon­si­bly and not write or post any­thing that would embar­rass our fam­i­lies, or reflect badly on Bread.

…we will ensure that our blog­ging and social net­work­ing activ­i­ties will not inter­fere with our work com­mit­ments. Unless we are offi­cially des­ig­nated to work with social media, we will rea­son­ably limit our per­sonal use of social net­work­ing sites at work.

Our Process
Where Bread does not have an online pres­ence and feels that it requires one, Bread’s eTask Force will rec­om­mend a site man­ager and/or team, as the case may be, to estab­lish such a pres­ence. Site man­agers and/or teams can come from any Bread depart­ment but shall always coor­di­nate its work with the eTask Force.

The site man­agers and/or teams will admin­is­ter these sites on a daily basis and will ensure that these are reg­u­larly updated. These sites will be admin­is­tered con­sis­tent with Bread for the World’s Brand and Style Guide.

To ensure con­ti­nu­ity, the com­mu­ni­ca­tions depart­ment will main­tain a cen­tral direc­tory of all log-in infor­ma­tion and pass­words for Bread’s pres­ence in online plat­forms and social media sites. This will include all global sites, regional sites, and micro-sites that are cre­ated by Bread staff in their offi­cial capacity.

In case of con­flicts, the eTask­force shall be the forum for resolv­ing them. The eTask­force shall also con­duct a reg­u­lar review of these social media sites. Sites may be closed if they no longer serve the pur­pose they were cre­ated for.

The eTask Force
All Bread depart­ments are rep­re­sented in the eTask Force. As of Oct. 27, 2009 its mem­bers include Adlai Amor (team leader), Kari Bert, Brian Duss, Hans Fried­hoff, James Frank, Jen­nifer Coul­ter Sta­ple­ton, Mal­lory Moser, Matt Newell-Ching, Mon­ica Mills, Asma Lateef, and Gary Cook.

The eTask Force reports directly to Jim McDon­ald, man­ag­ing direc­tor of Bread for the World.

The cur­rent terms of ref­er­ence are attached.

Related

• A list of social media poli­cies at cor­po­ra­tions, news orga­ni­za­tions and non­prof­its