As a free way to access a large population of potential supporters, social media seems like an attractive platform for fundraising, but nonprofits are finding it difficult to convert their social media followers into donors. The social media audience is, in general, a casual one. They're there for fun and socializing, not to be asked for money.

Social media can be a useful addition to your existing fundraising strategy, though — it can supplement your events, emails, and direct mail appeals. Social channels are also a good place to build new supporter relationships, move supporters "up the ladder" and thank them for their donations. And while it's probably best to avoid making frequent donation requests through social media on your own behalf, tools like Facebook and blogs can be a great way for your supporters to reach out to their own friends in a personal fundraising appeal to support your organization.

Promoting Existing Campaigns

Social media is best used to support or promote your bigger fundraising campaign, as opposed to trying to fundraise through social media alone. For instance, you can use photos and videos on social sites to entertain or to inspire your supporters, or use blogs to tell longer written stories. Videos allow more extensive content than Facebook or Twitter alone, which makes them ideal for telling detailed, creative, and engaging stories about your organization.

Moving People Up the Ladder of Engagement

Sharing pictures, videos and blog posts on social networking sites is also a good way to "break the ice" with new supporters. Illustrating the work you do can attract people already sympathetic to your cause, while a compelling story may convince those unfamiliar with your cause to take notice. Here, the goal is not the donation, but engaging new people in the discussion. Once new supporters notice you, they will hopefully be interested in learning more about your organization and becoming more invested in your mission. Publically thanking donors using social media tools, and showing the work that their donations support, can also be a great relationship-building tool. Not incidentally, "thank yous" also show potential donors the amount of support you have from others, and encourage them to join in.

Using Tools Live at Fundraising Events

During a gala, walkathon, or other fundraising event, your donors and participants could use social media to discuss the event with their friends. For example, you could set up a "Facebook table" with laptops where attendees can post to their friends when they make a donation, or just to tell them about the event. In a walkathon setting, you could use Twitter to liveblog from your accounting room, letting your online supporters follow the progress to your fundraising goal. This could also motivate people to make last-minute donations online or in person.

Social Media as Friend-to-Friend

Social media channels like Facebook are excellent platforms for friend-to-friend fundraising, also called group or distributed fundraising. In its most basic form, this is simply enlisting your current supporters to invite their own friends and family by email to donate money to an organization you support. Many organizations have engaged supporters to raise funds on their behalf through walk-a-thons or offline events, including everyone from staff and volunteers to program participants and current donors. Now, online tools like Causes.com or WhatGives!?, and popular crowdsourcing tools like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, readily integrate with Facebook and other channels, making it easy for your supporters to share a campaign with their friends. For instance, a Facebook "birthday campaign" is a popular way to encourage personal friends to give to a cause in honor of their own birthday.

Finding Potential Donors

Some social media channels can be used for less direct fundraising efforts. Browsing networks for and friending other organizations, foundations, and potential donors may not immediately result in donations, but can build relationships for the longer-term. For example, LinkedIn provides tools that make it easy to see who in your network might know a major donor or a staff member at a local bank or foundation that you'd like to approach.

This article was created by Idealware. For more articles about technology, go to www.idealware.org.

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