Numbers double for second nfptweetup
Howard Lake | 26 February 2009 | Blogs
The second nfptweetup was held in London last night, attracting over 60 charity sector staff and others interested in how Twitter can be used by charities. This is more than twice the number that attended the inaugural nfptweetup last November.
Kindly hosted by Christian Aid, and sponsored (again) by Justgiving, the evening began with a slideshow of single slides contributed from delegates and those taking part online. The slides answered the question “what is Twitter to you?”.
Rachel Beer (@rachelbeer) opened the event
and invited the slide contributors to explain what their slide meant.
Jonathan Waddingham from Justgiving then took over:
The whole evening was broadcast on Christian Aid radio with Paul Henderson reporting, and online participants took part via the #nfptweetup feed. Amy Sample Ward helped add reports on the evening’s content and discussions and was on hand to help those without wi-fi or a mobile device, or indeed those new to Twitter, to post their thoughts and ideas.
Photo: HNM_1977 on Flickr.com
The flood of messages using the hashtag “#nfptweetup” (or identifying tag) grew so much that the term ‘trended’ on Twitter, meaning that it was one of the top 10 words or phrases being used on Twitter at the time.
Various other sites reported that the term was very popular. @bullyinguk spotted and added some explanatory text to one of them last night:
http://www.whatthetrend.com/trend/%23nfptweetup
After the slideshow, those of us at the physical event divided into several groups on tables to discuss particular issues such as fundraising, Twitter tools, and policy.
People were encouraged to move around and take part in more than one discussion. Rachel Beer then encouraged people at each table to present a summary of the topics and discussions they had covered so that those in the room and online could learn about them.
Steve Bridger on using social media tool Yammer:
The fundraising table reports:
Farhan Rehman added his thoughts:
Discussion of integrating Twitter with other charities’ activities and other online tools:
Leah Williams discusses the issues of managing online reputation and other policy issues for charities:
The event had, once again, a very practical, supportive atmosphere with people clearly keen to learn and share.
I was not surprised but equally very pleased to see that lots of people are very interested in how Twitter can be used as a fundraising tool. I was doubly encouraged by the understanding of most people that it should not be used simply to send out fundraising asks – successful use of the tool requires a much more subtle and creative approach. @ed_walker86 noted down the fundraising discussions and has ably distilled them in How Twitter could be used for charity fundraising.
I’ll be using some of the comments and ideas in my first half-day training course on Fundraising with Twitter on 16 March in London.
As well as meeting new people, including Ben Matthews, one of the original founders of the first Twestival,
and enjoying so many charity sector and agency/supplier staff sharing their ideas, questions and thoughts, what I like most about the nfptweetups is the fact that they are not established by any agency or sector body. Following the initiative of people like Rachel Beer, Amy Sample Ward, Steve Bridger and Jonathan Waddingham (apologies if I’ve left anyone out), the events have been developed using Twitter and other social media tools and have worked because of the networked, active engagement of a wide variety of people sharing similar needs and interests.
In short, the nfptweetup embodies the values, characteristics and practical potential that many of the delegates can see in Twitter and similar tools and approaches.
Here is Rachel Beer concluding the two and a half hour event:
If you missed this nfptweetup, there’ll be another one along in three months time and you’ll be able to sign up for it. It looks like Christian Aid have kindly agreed to host it. It will be announced on Twitter (of course!) but also on UK Fundraising, and no doubt quite a few other resources.
Meanwhile, you can of course view and join in the conversation via the #nfptweetup feed. There is also advice on how to take part online at
http://nfptweetup.pbwiki.com/How-to-take-part-online
Justgiving’s Jonathan Waddingham took some photos of the event:
www.flickr.com/photos/justgiving/sets/72157614387586149/
Kevin Baughan has blogged here on UK Fundraising about discussions he took part in on Integrating Social Media into other Marketing and Fundraising Activity.
And there are also other initiatives to hold nfptweetups or similar gatherings around the UK.
You can also read my report and aggregated resources from the first nfptweetup in November 2008.
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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.