When we founded Conscious Capitalism Florida earlier this year it required reaching far and wide across our founding team’s network to find new and strengthen existing connections that would help us launch and maintain successful non-profit venture. While combing through existing contact networks and meeting with people I directly knew  or could be introduced to was the first step, connecting with contacts further removed was going to be essential.

I’ve been on LinkedIn since just after the company’s founding in 2002 when the network was comprised of mostly Internet Technology professionals and the IT recruiters looking to hire them. The network was always a back-burner priority for me, I’d keep my profile up to day, but never engaged with the site much. My consulting and marketing work over much of the last decade relied on personal referrals and my personal network.

This year things changed. I’m not just selling a website package or consulting clients on their marketing strategies, although I still maintain that line of business.

Conscious Capitalism Florida is advocating an idea, an idea that businesses, when led with purpose, liberates the heroic spirit of business and raises humanity to increasingly successful levels of greatness. It is a broad message with a wide target audience.

Fortunately when I added Conscious Capitalism Florida to my LinkedIn account we were presented with a new opportunity to engage with LinkedIn. LinkedIn has begun reaching out to non-profit organizations and offering their Talent Finder account to those organizations for free. I attended a webcast hosted by LinkedIn in February and was given access to the premier account following the webcast. The Talent Finder account is worth $1,000 annually and LinkedIn is providing us with five years of access at no cost.

This is LinkedIn’s way of giving back to the community by connecting non-profits with wider networks. It is also a brilliant idea for getting an increased level of daily visitors to the website. I now us LinkedIn daily to stay connected with existing contacts, read relative news and updates on the business and non-profit sector, and of course dig through my network looking for new individuals that might be interested in learning more about Conscious Capitalism Florida.

The next webcast is Wednesday, October, 2nd at 2 p.m. EST and you can register here.