7 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Pinterest Secret Boards

Pinterest announced that users are now able to create an unlimited amount of Secret Boards! Here are 7 ways nonprofits can take advantage of this feature.

1) Use as an inter-office collaboration tool.

Secret Boards can also be Group Boards, providing the users all have Pinterest accounts.

Create a Secret Board called “Office” or “Collaboration” and pin and share drafts of blog posts, photos, videos in progress — anything that is “not yet ready for prime time”.

This is a great tool to connect employees who work remotely or in the field.

2) Motivate internally.

Designer Tory Burch uses Secret Boards to “share inspiration internally and prep future boards” for launch to the public.

Have a Secret Board of articles, webinars and books that you would like to recommend to your colleagues. Topics can include tips on working as a team, fundraising advice and inspirational quotes.

3) Perfect captions.

If you need some feedback on captions, or you want to add hashtags later but need to pin it now (before you forget or go on to the next thing), pin to a Secret Board.

Revisit the pins later and perfect the captions, making sure the link works and that the pins are pinned to the appropriate public Board.

This is also effective if you create a slew of pins at once and want to spread them out over time, for maximum reach and exposure.

4) Social media ideas.

Your nonprofit Social Media Committee can use a Secret Board to collect articles, photos and ideas for future social media posts.

Instructions can be put in the caption — “Sue, please post this to Facebook on March 17 for St. Patrick’s Day” or “Ellen, please share to Instagram as a way to delight our followers.”

5) Event planning.

This is my favorite use of Secret Boards — I plan future events with friends all the time! We post ideas for food, venues, outfits, music — you name it!

By using a Secret Board, nonprofits can plan their annual fundraising gala or volunteer events using Pinterest but not reveal the theme or the surprise to the public.

6) Cultivate ideas that you do not want people to see just yet.

Thinking of opening a new program? Serving a new population? Expanding into a new area? Merging with a partner organization?

Pin ideas to a Secret Board and no one will know until you want them to.

7) Ideas for future presentations.

Does your nonprofit do a lot of community outreach and public speaking?

Using a Secret Board, you can collect ideas for presentations, workshops and seminars before they are ready to be shared with the public.

Next week I will lay out some ideas for nonprofits using public Group Boards on Pinterest.

How does your nonprofit use Pinterest?