By Allison Fine

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Many charities require their employees to maintain separate personal and professional online identities, but that may be antiquated and counterproductive thinking, says Debra Askanase, a digital strategist who has worked at several nonprofit and community-development organizations.

By encouraging employees to keep separate accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere, she says, nonprofits are stifling the voices of some of their most passionate supporters.

In this episode of Social Good, Ms. Askanase explains the best ways for employees to balance personal and professional postings and why nonprofits should use their social-media policies to encourage sharing rather than simply to police their employees' online activities.

Allison Fine, a nonprofit leader and expert on technology and communications, discusses how charities and foundations can more effectively use social-media tools to spread their messages and raise money. Ms. Fine incorporates suggestions and questions from readers into her podcasts and invites you to e-mail her at afine@demos.org. Look for new installments on the first Thursday of every month.