Social Media for NonProfits

In 2009, Luis and Angelica Sandoval decided someone needed to put together an unconference on social media for nonprofits. They pulled in Jennifer Navarette and Colleen Pence, and ActionCamp San Antonio was born.

In 2010, Fran Stephenson was working at Rackspace helping nonprofits learn how to better leverage their social media presence. She attended a workshop for nonprofits only to find the presenting organization had a sales agenda and the “sage” advice: you really need to hire a full-time person to do your social media. Frustrated by the experience and unrealistic recommendations, Fran approached Debi Pfitzenmaier about doing something for nonprofits in San Antonio to get them onboard with social media…something that didn’t carry with it an agenda and was actually doable within a fixed or – more likely – nonexistent budget. Together, we conceptualized a series of free quarterly breakfasts, featuring some of San Antonio’s brightest and best social media rock stars. And we invited Colleen Pence to help pull it off. Because we love her. And she’s brilliant, too.

At the same time, all three of us found ourselves volunteering (yes, we kind of have a problem with that!) to take over the reigns of ActionCamp, bound and determined to take the event to an entirely new level. And we did. Together, we pulled off an amazing one-day unconference at UTSA-Downtown, attended by more than 100 nonprofit social media practitioners.

It wasn’t a huge step to realize we needed to bring these two separate, yet closely related events, together. And so, Action San Antonio was born.

You can find out more about Action San Antonio on our blog or on Facebook.

If you are involved in a nonprofit, we hope you will join us and learn more about how to engage as a community member of the fifth estate. If you are not a nonprofit, but are still interested in being involved, we encourage you to support Action San Antonio and ActionCamp. We have several, affordable levels. Through this support, we are able to provide these services to our San Antonio area nonprofits. If you are interested in supporting this effort, please call Debi at 210.669.6911 or email us at actioncamp at pfitzpr dot com.