A Social Media Thanksgiving
Given the recent economic developments, the conversation in the nonprofit-social-media-world has turned significantly towards raising money. While social technologies are valuable for many reasons, their potential to help nonprofit organizations raise funds in these challenging times is making even the skeptics pay attention. On a live online chat hosted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy yesterday, many questions focused on the bottom line. (Transcript is available here.)
To demonstrate the power of social media, Epic Change, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, launched a 48 hour campaign to raise $10,000 to build a classroom in Tanzania, called Tweetsgiving. The campaign launched on Tuesday at noon eastern time. My friend Michael Hoffman (CEO of See3) posted a tweet around 5pm. Four hundred and seventy nine people follow him on Twitter. I’m one of them. I learned about it from him around 10pm and posted a tweet of my own. Beth Kanter has been posting progress over the last day. Over 5000 people follow her on Twitter alone. (She’s also blogged about it.)
Status as of 3:40pm Eastern on Wednesday
So right now, at 3:40pm eastern on Wednesday, Tweetsgiving is 27.5 hours into a 48 hour campaign. That’s 57% through their time line, and 65% of the way to their goal! Amazing! To date, 223 people have contributed, which makes the average contribution just under $30. It was a no brainer for me to give a $10 contribution just based on a) recommendation of friends; b) innovative idea; c) urgency of the campaign (only 48 hour window).
The site suggests you tweet (post a twitter update) what YOU are thankful for, and then include the #tweetsgiving tag, and maybe a link to the Tweetsgiving site. This tag is the sixth most popular tag on Twitter today (behind “Black Friday”, “Christmas”, “Happy Thanksgiving”, “Magpie” and “Twilight”). This means thousands of people are spreading the word, even if they are not giving themselves to the campaign. Both are essential for success.
It’s a fascinating project to learn from. And… if you’re reading this before noon eastern on Thanksgiving Day, will you consider joining me in supporting the cause, even with a $5 or $10 donation?
P.S. Three more people donated while I was writing this post! Check the site for updates and to donate.