Using social media to attract donors
Howard Lake | 12 January 2009 | News
Fundraising online used to mean having a website and using bulk email tools. But charities who think that is enough are going to be left high and dry unless they understand that the world is changing. In fact, it has already moved on, and tomorrow’s donors are using social media tools to conduct their daily lives. Sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are the places where, increasingly, communication happens these days. This represents a complete change of mindset when working out how to reach people with your fundraising messages.
The challenge is not so much a technical one, although you’ll need to understand enough of the technology in order to integrate data into your systems, it’s the conceptual challenge of understanding how people now expect to communicate, who’s in control, and how to get your message across.
So, enough of the challenges, what are the opportunities relating to donor acquisition using social media?
Firstly, equip your current donors with the tools to use social networking to reach out to their peers and recruit new donors for your cause. You can do this by offering them a fundraising ‘widget’ (like a badge) to display on their profile page on Facebook, MySpace or similar. This will then be visible to their friends, who can click through to a personalised sponsorship page or your charity’s website. This process known as ‘friendraising’ brings you new donors for nothing, and social media makes it all possible.
Secondly, use social networking sites as research tools to build a list of potential supporters for an event. For example, if you’re an organisation planning an awareness event in Birmingham, you might spend a few hours in front of Facebook and MySpace to find groups with similar interests and causes to you in the Birmingham area, and communicate with their members. You may also have existing donors in that area, so communicate with their friends, or better still ask them to do it on your behalf.
Third, post an interesting video on the YouTube non-profit programme. This gives you greater visibility than simply having a video on the regular site, and increased branding and upload capabilities.
Lastly, use Twitter.com to post daily status updates to your site. Twitter is so-called because it’s like birds in the trees tweeting to one another – short updates, little and often. Your updates should be compelling, maybe a little provocative, but should always include a URL should a follower wish to take action. Followers of your updates might not yet be donors, but the constant drip-feed of updates about your cause might persuade them. A good example of a recent tweet from a conservation charity in Kenya is “Stop – no more donations! We now have enough for construction of 1st toilet. Anymore received will go to 2nd. URL…”.
As ever, there’s no magic in the medium, it’s all about how you use it. One thing is certain though, by failing to understand the change in communications represented by social media you’re going to find communicating with prospective donors in the 21st century increasingly difficult.
About ASI
Robin Fisk is Fundraising Technology Expert at ASI.
Advanced Solutions International (ASI) is the leading global provider of software for associations and non-profits, serving the industry since 1991. The company’s premier product, iMIS, is the only complete, upgradeable, web-based, not-for-profit business software system. iMIS has served nearly 3000 customers worldwide. ASI distributes its solutions through a direct sales force and a global network of local solution providers backed by award-winning technical support.
www.asieurope.eu
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.