Social Networking: A New, Cool Fundraising Tool
How did funds get raised before the Internet? This crosses my mind whenever I embark on a new fundraising venture, because I’d estimate that 95% of my fundraising occurs online. At first, this consisted of setting up a fundraising page on the charity’s website and then using email to encourage everyone I know to visit my fundraising page and make a donation. Now, social networking has entered the picture as one of the most powerful ways to raise money for athletic charity events.
Some of the most popular social networking sites are MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, although there are countless others that serve similar purposes. They all allow you to set up a profile page where you can share personal and professional information, update people on changes in your life and/or career, connect with friends and colleagues, and promote causes, hobbies, and interests that matter to you.
Here are a couple of features that most social networking sites offer that can help you promote your cause and raise funds for your athletic charity event:
Share current news. Let your network know what you’re doing by posting updates on your status or sharing what kind of projects you’re working on now.
Make appeals. Post a note or announcement about your athletic charity event along with a link to your personal fundraising page.
Share photos and videos. Most social networking sites allow you to post pictures and even streaming video about your activities. This is an entertaining way to advertise your cause.
Acknowledge donors. Be sure to post a message to each person in your network that makes a donation; if the messages can go out for your whole network to see, even better. This will motivate others to follow suit.
Join related groups and events. Check to see if there are special pages within the social networking site dedicated to groups and events that relate to your cause. This will expand your network even farther and bring more people into your circle of influence.
This is just a sampling of ways that social networking is a new, cool fundraising tool. What additional ways have you used social networking to raise money for your cause? Post a comment here and tell us about it.
Hi Carrie,
My top two sites for social networking are Twitter and Facebook. I used to use MySpace, and still have a MS account, but found Facebook to be more adult friendly. My daughter loves MS though. I also have a LinkedIn account, but don’t do very much with it.
Hi Lynn,
Thanks so much for mentioning Twitter! I haven’t gotten into that yet, but I’ve heard it’s really good.
Take care,
Carrie
Just wanted to comment on LinkedIn… Oh, what a great tool! Take a look at my profile http://www.linkedin.com/teresaholladay and you’ll see how to use it to advantage.
* Even though I’m an IT Professional, I use my marathon photo for my profile.
* You must actively work to expand your network. People contact you from years ago and say, Hey, what are you up to? And you tell them about your Team in Training or other charity event.
* Join your professional groups and as people see who’s in the group, they see that you’re involved with charity.
* Use the website links to put the link to your fundraising website.
* You can even add your blog there.
I really love this tool and I haven’t even begun to explore the best ways to use it!!
Woops, sorry, I didn’t have the correct link above:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/teresaholladay
There are a lot of nonprofits and cause enthusiasts on Twitter – some are on my follow list.
http://twitter.com/sandrasims
Also check out the Twestival – live events yesterday (Thursday the 12th) held in cities around the world of Twitter users, all to raise funds to provide healthy drinking water for people in developing countries.
http://www.charitywater.org/twestival/index.html
These are all such great ideas and resources. I wonder if it makes sense to try to keep up with all of them or to find one or two social networking sites that you really like and concentrate your efforts on those?
I’ve seen some great fundraising efforts on Twitter – Tweetsgiving, Twestival being just two.
My personal favorite? 12for12k, helping not one but 12 charities all year. Awesome stuff!
http://www.12for12k.org
Had a chance to speak with some one from Charity Water the other day. Turns out “Twestival” ended up being the most tweeted word on the Internet on Feb 12th…