"Free agent fundraiser" Beth Kanter raises $6,225 using social media
Howard Lake | 14 January 2009 | Blogs
Beth Kanter, the nonprofit social media expert, blogger and practitioner, has raised $6,225 using her personal and professional online networks. She did so as a way to mark her birthday and 161 people donated to the Sharing Foundation, of which she is a board member.
This was her seventh such campaign since November 2006, and she has now raised around $215,000 for Cambodian children using social media tools.
As usual, she shares the lessons she has learned via her blog in Birthday Campaign Reflection: Will Your Nonprofit Embrace Free Agent Fundraisers?.
Her lessons include:
* Make It Personal
* Conversational Fundraising, Not Asking
* Show how a small amount can it make a big difference
* Keep It Multi-Channel, But Within Your Capacity To Implement
* Keep It Happy, Keep It Fun, Keep A Deadline, Keep It Urgent
* Saying Thank You In Personal Ways
She concludes that “incorporating social media successfully into a nonprofit marketing and fundraising plan requires a rapid listen, learn, and adapt sequence.”
She coins the phrase “free agent fundraiser” and describes herself as one. She defines this as “an individual who leverages their network using social media tools to raise money for a cause or charity”.
She then goes on to explore some of the challenges faced by charities that wish to harness free agent fundraisers and those that are alarmed by the prospect.
She quotes the example of blogger to raise funds for a Romanian family. She reports that some commentators have criticised him for focusing on just one family rather on making the money go further by fundraising on behalf of a charitable organisation.
While I have considerable sympathy for that view, I think the significance of the Armano story is the he did it. He used his networks to raise funds for a cause because his contacts trusted him. He did it as an individual.
That is both a cause for optimism, confirming (if we needed confirmation) that people do give to people online as well as offline. But it is also a challenge to charities and organisations – how do you harness this commitment and ability and channel it effectively?
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.