Fundraising Goes Social

While social media isn't a magic solution for nonprofits to raise millions of dollars (see Frogloop's article - Slam Dunk or Snake Oil? Everyone wants to Raise Money with Social Media. But is it Possible?), you can't deny that this evolving medium is more and more integrated into many nonprofits outreach strategies. Can nonprofits also use it to raise a little money too? You bet. Check out these three cool tools that nonprofits can experiment with to generate a bit of extra revenue.

Crowdrise

Actor Ed Norton recently helped launch Crowdrise, a slick new website that gives ordinary people an easy way to crowd source fundraising. Users create personal fundraising pages and then share them on social networks to raise money. Crowdrise also provides incentives to users by awarding bonus points towards prizes. For example, participants can earn 100 points for every vote you get from the Crowdrise Community and get 10 Points for every $1 your raise for charity.

"People use Twitter or Facebook because it's a way to share their personal narrative but we wanted to give people a platform to say, these are the causes I care about, I am volunteering and sponsor me," Norton said in an interview with Reuters.

Crowdrise takes a 5% cut of all the donations and a $1 transaction fee for donations under $25 or a $2.50 transaction fee for donations $25 and over. Charities receive a check from Crowdrise (minus processing fees) every 30 days.

RT2Give

Did you know that there are approximately 50 million "tweets" sent across the twitterverse each day, according to the Case Foundation. Why shouldn't some of those tweets be used to raise money for charity? RT2Give is Twitpay's proprietary fundraising solution for nonprofit organizations. It handles secure processing of donations in one step over social networks such as Twitter. 

Just last month for World Malaria Day - Malaria No More, the Case Foundation, and Malaria Envoy teamed up and used RT2Give to raise money for life saving bed nets. Each $10 donation was matched by the Case Foundation up to $25,000.

The tweet read: Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria. Nets #endmalaria. So do retweets. RT2Give $10 http://rt2give.com/t/425

During the course of the campaign on Twitter they raised $11,290. No, it's not buckets of money but it will help purchase several bed nets for those in need. 

Square

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter wanted an easy and secure way for people to do credit processing with their smartphones. So he developed Square which allows anyone to accept payments through their smartphone. After signing up for Square, users are prompted to provide their address. Then users will be sent a free Square card reader and sticker.

Another great aspect of Sqaure is if a person frequents a place that accepts Square, Square will let you know that this person is a repeat customer. This could also be beneficial to nonprofits - particularly for nonprofits that host events, fundraising parties, and do canvassing. Also, Square's ability to recognize repeat customers or donors is valuable. Organizations like Charity Water have already had some success using Square.

Remember, donors want choices, so nonprofits should be using multiple channels to connect with supporters. Will social networking fundraising tools bring in millions of dollars? No, not right now. But it's good to test new tools to raise money and give donors options on how to donate money.

Is your nonprofit experimenting with any of these tools? Has it been successful? A disappointment? Let us know in the comments sections.

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Comments

[barbra batshalom]

THanks so much for sharing this information.
This is a great looking tool!
As a nonprofit, we've historically generated 70% of our own revenues, and have not done Any donor drives or outreach.

With economy in a dive, we took a hit as did everyone else, and saw that we really need to start reaching out to our community and to support the programs that have been bringing so much value. This looks like the perfect tool - especially since we don't have dedicated capacity to spend on donor outreach. Would love to hear some success stories!
Barbra

[Miriame Barbarich]

Also check out - www.givealittle.co.nz - they're doing great things.

[volunteerBIG]

Its good to see others also striving to make change in the world!
Crowdrise looks like a great tool for people to really get involved in making donations! Outsourcing is a huge part of volunteerism, and in the world today there is not enough that a person can do with regards to volunteering. Alone, a single hour of volunteer work has been valued at over $22, so it is key, in these economic times to work to make a better world with volunteers.

Thank you so much for sharing this information, for our company is based on a foundation that is ever-evolving and our goal is to make an impact on the volunteer workforce that will change it for the better - forever. Would love your help and knowledge of the industry. Keep in touch.

[Danae]

And spend a minute checking out IndieGoGo. http://www.indiegogo.com. Over 4,500 creative, cause and entrepreneurial projects in 120 countries raising money to turn ideas into reality. http://www.indiegogo.com/about/howitworks

Lots of cool benefits too!

See Keys to Crowdfunding Success too:
http://www.indiegogo.com/blog/2010/01/keys-to-crowdfunding-success-on-indiegogo.html

5 Benefits of Crowdfunding (Money is just 1!)
http://www.indiegogo.com/blog/2010/01/benefits-of-crowdfunding.html

Cheers
Danae