Five Twitter threads for fundraisers for May 2019
Howard Lake | 24 May 2019 | News
Sometimes one tweet is not enough. Thankfully Twitter threads provide a useful vehicle for more detailed thoughts, arguments and ideas. So here are five recent threads which fundraisers might find useful.
Threads give you an opportunity to write a series of related thoughts, either for publication together at the same time, or added to over a period.
They are often created by participants at a conference, sharing quotes or comments from one speaker, or from several speakers across the day.
Equally, they work well for concatenating an argument or idea that requires more length than a single tweet but possibly less than a blog post.
Threads on blog posts tend not to appear in full, so to get the full length impact of a thread (and they don’t have to be too long), you should click on the embedded tweets below.
1. Charitable giving in 2030
Kirsty Marrins this week captured some key comments from Rhodri Davies of Charities Aid Foundation when he spoke at the Third Sector Fundraising Conference on the future (or futures) of charitable giving.
Up now is @Rhodri_H_Davies to talk about charitable giving 2030 – AI, empathy machines, VR, AR… #TSFRW19 pic.twitter.com/8rbvHbTPBW
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— Kirsty Marrins (she/her) | Copywriter (@LondonKirsty) May 22, 2019
2. Brave corporate partnerships
Meanwhile Richard Sved was at the first day of the Institute of Fundraising Yorkshire Conference, and produced this thread about the session run by Jonathan Andrews of Remarkable Partnerships.
"I started my career at unilever, selling Pepperami…
I want to build corp partnerships that create incredible change in society. The magic happens when we step outside our comfort zone."
Next up: Jonathan Andrews on brave corporate partnerships. @PartnershipsHQ #iofyorksconf pic.twitter.com/KQCOYXKeQi
— Richard Sved (@richardsved) May 23, 2019
3. Record your own presentation
Givepanel ably demonstrated how to use a summary of their own presentation in a thread at this week’s Charity Meetup.
Note not just a series of photos of their slides but a concluding tweet which directs people to their site and a blog post with more information about their service.
We’re at #CharityMeetup! Excited to be sponsoring this event and to have the opportunity to talk to charities about harnessing the power of Facebook Fundraisers 💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/JewkkxeBvu
— GivePanel (@givepanel) May 23, 2019
4. Urgent increase in environmental funding required
The Environmental Funders Network created a thread in response to the open letter by prominent scientists to philanthropists and foundations to increase substantially the amount they give to environmental activities that tackle the climate crisis.
'Even though we both had extraordinary business careers, I think that we would both have said that this is by far the most rewarding work we have ever done, meeting the most interesting, thoughtful, enjoyable individuals.' @KrisTompkins_, former CEO of Patagonia . (1/8)
— Environmental Funders Network (@greenfunders) May 24, 2019
5. Pawsome sharing of slides
Threads can therefore be a valuable opportunity to get to see some of the content and debate from a conference which you can’t attend, and to follow the thinking process of someone on a particular topic.
There is no single place in which to find Twitter threads, unlike the (similar but different) Twitter Moments or likes.
You can explore your Twitter feed to find any recent ones created by people whom you follow, or just use your browser’s search function to search for ‘thread’.
Or make sure that you follow relevant people on Twitter who make the effort to share useful content in this format.
Here is one from BBC journalist Steph McGovern which features a fine example of how to stand out from the crowd when asking a celebrity for support.
Like all TV folk I get lots of charity requests — this one from @LinkDementia has made me+my mam laugh out loud (for the right reasons). Trustee Mark has sent two versions of an email asking me for help…one written as a ‘BBC version’ and then another ‘Middlesbrough version’ 🤣 pic.twitter.com/ZLgmQkqwaN
— Steph McGovern (@StephLunch) May 21, 2019
- Have you spotted any helpful threads about fundraising, or by fundraisers recently? Share them in the comments below.
Or highlight some Twitter thread creators whom fundraisers should know of and perhaps follow.
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.