The Charity Place - Fundraising and marketing for people and organisations that make the world a better place

I'm delighted to report that the first NFPtweetup, held last night (4.30-8.30pm, GMT), seemed to be enjoyed by those that took part, and provided a useful forum to bring people together and start exploring all things Twitter for nonprofits.

This is primarily a heads up for anyone reading this blog who may not have heard about NFPtweetup yet. This event is taking place between 4.30-8.30pm (GMT) on Monday, 24 November and is open to anyone working in the not-for-profit space who either uses Twitter or has an interest in the applications of Twitter, and other social media, for charities and nonprofit organisations.

Over a week ago now, I noticed a post on, Valleywag pointing out that, after having tweeted throughout his campaign for the Presidency, Barack Obama's Twitter account had since gone surprisingly quiet... For charities, it is important to understand that the connections you are making with your supporters using social media are with real people — not just user names or avatars — and real people have feelings.

I'd seen several great presentations that focus more on social media as a concept - and talk more hypothetically about how they can be used - and had also spoken to quite a number people who work at charities who had even attended social media presentations and were still a bit bewildered about what they should actually do...

While browsing on Kiva earlier on, I couldn't believe my eyes at first when I noticed that someone created a 'Team Obama' in the communities section. Not only that, the Team Obama community - set up on 4 September - has already loaned a total of $107,625 to date, to a variety of entrepreneurs all over the world (before you reach for your calculator, that's an average of $73.71 per person).

Fundraising by politicians and political parties isn't something that would usually inspire or interest me, but what Obama's team achieved is so relevant to charities who may still be wondering whether there's anything in this social media thing, aside from a load of buzzwords.

There are some compelling statistics in here to convince anyone who thinks social media isn't big and important...

Tripadvisor is giving $1 million away to charity and has nominated five causes that it will split the amount between

I just received an email from Oxfam with the most unusual ask I think I can ever remember getting from a charity: To knit a square for a giant, knitted petition.