Five Ways to Use Social Media for Fundraising

With the recent success of so many cause-driven crowdfunding campaigns for good causes (think Pepsi’s Refresh Everything or Chase Community Giving), non-profits, arts organizations and other institutions are flocking to social networks in droves, hoping to cash in on current corporate social responsibility trends.

Tim just had firsthand experience using social media for fundraising via his fundraising efforts for the Climate Ride and Barrel of Monkeys, a Chicago theater and education company that features Tai of Mightybytes as a member, just received two grants thanks to their efforts with Chase Community Giving. In that spirit, we thought we would share a handful of tips for maximizing your social media fundraising efforts.

Research from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth U.S. Charities’ Adoption of Social Media Report for 2009 shows some impressive statistics, including the fact that 93% of reporting charities have a Facebook profile and 87% a Twitter account, percentages that far exceed those of businesses and corporations.

Still not sure if social fundraising is right for your cause? Check out some of these statistics:

• Over $27 million has been donated to nearly 30,000 nonprofits through the Causes community application. It is used on Facebook by over 140 million people since its launch in 2007, according to Causes.com.
• 24,611 bone-marrow registry sign-ups resulted from a combined social media and traditional campaign of friends of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur diagnosed with leukemia. A book titled The DragonFly Effect  chronicles this astounding response.
• $41 million dollars in donations poured in for The Red Cross in January, 2010 following the Haiti earthquake via mobile phones using premium text messages. Mobile giving plays a role in social networking as well, especially considering how many mobile social media apps there are now.

Here are five ways to use social media with fundraising and community response for philanthropic causes, plus some resources and results.

1. Smart Social Donation Software

Use a credible online donation resource with social tools that make it easy to share content. The ClimateRide drove fundraising efforts with DonorDrive. Using this socially aware fundraising tool, participants and teams can promote their fundraising efforts via Facebook (some used Twitter as well) to solicit donations, share milestones, and communicate with donors before and after the event.

There are several companies that offer fundraising and donation software with social media integration. Look around at what leading nonprofits are using to see what fits your needs. Here are a few to explore:

• DonorDrive
• DonorPerfect
• Convio

2. Microgiving & Crowdfunding

Using social media tools to share your message and drive investments, donations, loans etc. has created opportunities for sites like Microgiving.com, which uses crowd funding techniques and Facebook apps to help members request funding for ideas, needs, nonprofits, and so on. Other crowdfunding resource sites include:

• IndieGoGo
• KickStarter.com
• Quirky.com

3. Corporate Cause Efforts

Large corporations have learned the marketing power behind corporate social responsibility and are churning out cause-driven campaigns by the dozens. One of the most well-known examples is Pepsi’s Refresh Everything. Featuring user-submitted ideas and a democratic voting system to help individuals, groups and non-profits secure funding for projects, Pepsi has significantly increased brand awareness while simultaneously fostering a culture of community centered around giving.

Pepsi’s not the only brand on this bandwagon, however. A few more corporate giving programs that operate through public voting and traffic drives include:

• Bing’s “Our School Needs” Competition, which is likely to increase school use of the search engine as a result.
• Chase Community Giving on Facebook has open voting and an Advisory Board to select final winning charities to share $500,000.
• American Express and Take Apart Members Project offers three ways for the public to participate: vote, volunteer, and donate. Voting participation drives selected charities to receive $1 million in funding from American Express.

4. Ask for Community, Not Cash

Your organization might consider creating its own social fundraising app, or register with companies like Causes.com which makes social tools like online games, apps, etc. to raise money for registered nonprofits. Participating in these social activities helps raise donations through sponsor revenue. Check them out at Facebook.com/causes. Their social tools build communities that drive funding through birthday donations, games, and more. Check out their success case studies blog. If you are going to pass some time on Facebook playing application-based games, why not play one that can make a difference while you are having fun?

The (Lil) Green Patch and The Nature Conservancy was referred to as the “grandaddy of green Facebook apps,” over 6. 3 million users grew virtual gardens, sharing and sending seeds, plants, tools to other users. Sponsors of the game contributed money to save the rainforests in Costa Rica for The Nature Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre program. Claims state that (Lil) Green Patch saved over 70 million square feet of rainforest according to Fast Company article about it. The game was announced to be discontinued in 2010 after acquisition by gaming company, Playdom.

Another company, SocialVibe, cites itself as “the leading social utility connecting people with brands, empowering them to engage with sponsors and share branded content with their social graph to benefit a cause of their choice.” Facebook members can use this application by completing and sharing branded activities (from sponsors), according to SocialVibe, thus making an impact (earning points) for the charity of their choice. There are over 50,000 fans of the SocialVibe Facebook page currently and the company states its community has raised over $700,000 so far for over 40 nonprofits.

5. Use Video

Volunteer testimonials and participant videos will convey passion, educate, and help you share important information about your cause. Clever viral videos posted to video sharing sites like Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr, and so on can help you potentially reach millions of people across the globe. If you are a small organization or participant, even a short video made with your digital camera or mobile phone can be a handy tool in driving awareness about your cause. Just remember to keep your content short, engaging, and to the point. The WWF channel on YouTube is a great example of an effective nonprofit model.

Some other sites of note discovered in researching this article are below. These are worth staying in touch with for social media and and nonprofit efforts.

• Frogloop.com
• Frogloop’s Social Networks Calculator Tool (from 2008 but still a great tool)
• Beth’s Blog: How Networked Nonprofits are Using Social Media to Power Change
• The Chronicle of Philanthropy
• Nonprofit Technology Network

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but rather a good place to get started with social fundraising. If you have any other must have resources or suggestions, please let us know!

Want to know more? Be sure to peruse our other articles this month in our blog series about innovative fundraising and social media charitable marketing:

• Barrel of Monkeys: Chase Community Giving Winner
• Grant for Good: A Year’s Worth of Services
• Lessons from the Climate Ride: Driving Social Donations
• and even our 10 Tips for maximizing your Twitter account.