And now, Twitter philanthropy
In a new era of social giving, nonprofits tap the Web’s social networks.
By Matthew Shaer | Staff Writer for The Christian Science Monitor/ March 1, 2009 edition
Staff writer Matt Shaer talks about financial donations for various causes being made over the Internet.
Staff writer Matt Shaer
New York
They gathered at beach resorts in Dubai, pubs in London, and a noisy cafe in Beijing. Here in New York, they flocked to a popular West Side bar. By the time the sun set on the first annual Twestival, some 10,000 attendees in 200 cities across the globe had donated more than a quarter of million dollars to clean-water efforts in Africa and India.
Welcome to the age of “social giving.” Spurred on by the success of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, campaigns like the Twestival, which was organized on the microblogging platform Twitter, are changing the landscape of modern philanthropy, say industry insiders. Out go the traditional fundraisers, with their extraneous marketing costs and rolls of red tape. In comes a new wave of digital efforts – often engineered by the same young activists that sealed Mr. Obama’s election.
“There’s a huge surge going on here,” says Allison Fine, author of “Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age,” and a senior fellow at Demos, a public policy think-tank in New York. “On one hand, as large numbers of people come to social networks, from Facebook to MySpace, causes will come into the conversation. It’s part of the genetic makeup of Americans to share their passion for causes.”
On the other hand, Ms. Fine continues, “You’ve got the technological ease of creating social networks. It’s not difficult anymore to create that networking function. The only difficulty is in creating the critical mass.”
The Twestival, which wrapped on Feb. 12, had little trouble generating buzz. Only hours after founder Amanda Rose made public her plans for the campaign in January, the news went viral, spiraling out across hundreds of blogs and Twitter feeds. Soon, Ms. Rose had secured a small army of volunteers and a team of corporate partners including TipJoy, which allowed users to contribute directly online.
“There’s an older mentality when it comes to fundraising, which is, ‘give it to me now,’ ” says Beth Kanter, a new-media consultant and blogger who has written extensively on the Twestival. “But that’s not good fundraising. When you leverage a social network, you can launch smaller, employ the best practices, and gain trust.”
Ms. Kanter has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity using her blog and a range of social networks, including Twitter. She says that many traditional nonprofits have been slow to adapt to the realities of the Digital Age. They hold out their coffers, and wait for the money to arrive, without realizing that an effective campaign is built carefully and incrementally using preexisting online groups.
“There’s a new breed of social citizen out there,” argues Fine, who writes a well-trafficked blog about the intersection of social media and activism. “I’m speaking here about millennials – the 15- to 29-year olds, for whom one of the key identifiers is a cause. A cause says something about who you are and who your friends are.” On Facebook, for instance, a user might join a group devoted to ecological preservation efforts in the Florida Everglades.
The savviest nonprofits will tap into these groups and cultivate relationships with activists. Peter Panepeto, who tracks online charity efforts for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, says two sites have been particularly successful at drawing Web traffic. The first is Change.org – a sprawling “social action network” founded in 2007. The second is Kiva.org, which allows users to give directly to needy individuals.
Both sites, Mr. Panepeto says, take advantage of Web 2.0 tools, from blogs to video to interactive databases. “Certainly all the trends we’re seeing point to the fact that we’ll see more sites like this springing up,” he says. The questions are whether they’ll stick around, whether people will keep coming back to them, and whether these sites will rest alongside existing technology or supplant it.
This last point, Fine and others say, is of vital importance. In the past few years, more than a few charity-oriented social networks have come and gone, mostly on the strength of their compatibility with other platforms. At a time when users expect a stripped-down simplicity from a website, many are loath to shuttle back and forth between a handful of sites, even if the cause is important. They want synergy, Fine says, and connectivity.
Furthermore, the proliferation of online giving campaigns could engender in some cases a sort of “cause fatigue. We’re marinating in causes,” Fine says. Nonprofits will have to find a way to distinguish themselves amid a gaggle of similar organizations; networks, meanwhile, will have to offer users superior functionality.
One new site navigating the online giving space is ActiveCause, which was founded by former consultant Craig Alberino.
ActiveCause differs from Change.org, for instance, in its interface and its mission. When the site is fully launched this month, potential donors will not only be able to interact with one another, but also to track the giving patterns of major corporations.
“A Fortune 500 company might give away $50 million over the course of a year,” Mr. Alberino says, “and it’s difficult in some cases to understand where that money went and who it was given away to.”
ActiveCause, he says, will make it easier for users to understand the philanthropic processes on a corporate level, and to direct their funds accordingly. It will also allow users to seamlessly pass on funds earned through programs such as Recycle Bank, which rewards eco-friendly behavior.
Conversely, Alberino hopes that ActiveCause will allow nonprofits to reach new audiences and to cater directly to users.
“A nonprofit is a business like any other,” he says. “Nonprofits need to market to their constituents, they need to understand their audience, they need tools in order to execute [effectively].”
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Comments
2. Shaun Griffin | 03.01.09
I think it needs to be mentioned that not only are organizations harnessing the “Human Capital” of SN sites such as Twitter, but individuals are as well.
Do a search for @drew or @sg10001000 and you can see how he raised over $1,500 for the Make a Wish Foundation. He did this by pledging to tattoo the Twitter name of the winning bidder on his forearm. (So, he would put SG10001000 on his arm had I not been outbid).
It was never about the tattoo or the fact that people really cared to have that on his arm. It was a very genuine, kind-hearted, and brilliant use of new technologies - more need to embrace Social Networking and “Human Capital” for philanthropic endeavors!
Regards,
Shaun Griffin
SG10001000
3. John Haydon | 03.02.09
Matthew,
Thanks for mentioning so many examples of non-profits using social media. I did a chat two weeks ago on Philanthropy.com with Chris Garrett where folks wanted to see examples of success stories like these.
John
4. Cynthia Armour | 03.02.09
I’m new to SN and its application in Fundraising but bring 20+ years (and grey hair to prove it) to nonprofit leadership and management. RELATIONSHIPS are key to ongoing support … by engaging donors through Twitter, etc. does the charity (recipient of the donations) receive the contact information of the donor and still send that individual a thankyou and receipt?
6. Abby | 03.02.09
Hi Cynthia, I’m the co-founder of Tipjoy. When individuals donate through us on Twitter, the charity gets their contact info so that they can follow up with a thank you and receipt.
7. Heather | 03.09.09
Hi,
You can find almost 2,000 nonprofits here:
http://twitter.com/nonprofitorgs
Thanks!
8. markbybee | 03.10.09
We have a large community of migrant farm workers in dire need in Florida. Basic daily needs such as food and shelter are scarce for these folks. Social services are not available to them despite what is seen on the news. Would love to garner some financial support for them. Anyone interested please contact me.
9. Susan D Swalius | 03.16.09
OK here is my Idea. There are alot of people out of work today. Me being one. Here is a chance to help someone to do a pay forward. Right now my unemployment is gonna cover my mortgage. But its not gonna cover the utilities, and believe me I’m on this computer more hours then I can count. I must have several hundred resumes out there. here’s my proposal. If I could get just a few working Americans to just sponsor me until I find employment. Not alot just like maybe $20.00 a month so I don’t have my utilities shut off. If I can get like 10 or 20 sponsors this could work. I have alot of experience and alot of skills I don’t see me being out of work long. Just need help over the hump. In turn when I get back to work I could do the same for someone else and so on. If everyone jumps in and helps just one person this could work. I’ll volunteer my services to keep it going. If interested sdswalius@yahoo.com either way even if I don’t get any responses here I will continue to make my mortgage payments if I have to live without I will. But it sure would be nice to get this going. It’s a pay forward but it has to start somewhere.Susan
10. Kevin Beirne | 03.26.09
I have come across one of the best Non For Profit Organization in the world of Parenting. The founders of this site may not be too business savvy but they have their priorities straight. The organization I am referring to is Dictionary For Dads. http://www.dictionaryfordads.com
This site was developed in early 2006 and has been funded solely by its founders. Their mission is to improve the well being of Children throughout the world. In doing so they work diligently on educating parents, teachers and professionals on the dynamics of raising happy and healthy children. The backbone of their efforts is reflected in their dynamic resource center online and the parenting guides they provide. They do not charge a fee for anything. They do not advertise any merchandise on their site because they feel it would be an interruption to their primary goal of educating and providing resourced to those responsible for raising healthy and happy children. In their efforts they have won numerous rewards and have been asked to develop strategic partnerships with media organizations that are trying to reach parents such as Partnership For A Drug Free America.
11. Christine | 03.28.09
I think it’s nice for people to be utilizing creative ways to make do in this economy. Taking things you enjoy and putting them with things people need makes both parties happy. I enjoy writing and finding affordable ways to make it. I don’t have much money and my disability has prevented me from working a “9 to 5″ job. Basically, I freelance from home when I feel well enough to do so. Yet, I took time to setup a blog where you can go and find interesting things if you’re looking for bargains, scholarships or just small-talk. The blog is: http://value4onedollar.blogspot.com
12. Fran Cummings | 03.29.09
BRAVO to those heroic people who are doing philanthropic work either via Web or in other ways. I praise Ms. Kanter for her marvelous work and I praise Mr. Bill Gates for his outlandish unselfishness. I also thank all of those who have helped the poorest of the poor. We live in the richest nation in the world and we all have a serious obligation to help those others who have less or even nothing at all.
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1. Amy Stark | 03.01.09
I discovered the twestival initiative on February 2nd and decided to spearhead the Indianapolis, Indiana contingent.
With only one week preparation the “Indy TweetUp on the 12th to Celebrate Twestival” generated “Awareness” among a virtual audience of 3,000+, in addition to the 53 participants who attended a function around Indy (eight different locations at various times).
It’s amazing what was accomplished using only the social media platforms twitter, facebook, http://www.smallerIndiana.com and http://StarkReAlity.ning.com , with a budget of ZERO dollars. Not-for-profits that refuse to jump into social media are not being good stewards of monies donated to them.