The popularity of social media Web sites such as Facebook®, Twitter®, and YouTube® has given rise to promising new ways for nonprofits to raise money online. And while some industry observers doubt the fundraising potential of these platforms, the success of many online campaigns continues to prove them wrong.

Recent research conducted by Charity Dynamics and Blackbaud further confirms this trend. We investigated data from more than 1,750 events in 2009 that incorporated social media as part of their strategy. The insights gained from this data should be kept in mind by all nonprofit organizations as they gear up for future events and consider whether to use social media to support those efforts.

Twitter and Facebook as Solicitation Tools

According to Nielsen Online's Global Index, December 2007 - December 2008, people now spend more time on social networking sites than with e-mail. As such, utilizing these sites for event fundraising may become just as important as personal e-mail solicitations. To more closely analyze the impact of Twitter and Facebook, the research compared returning event participants who did not have access to social media tools in 2008 but did have access to them in 2009.

In all cases, our research showed that participants who used social media tools set higher fundraising goals, reached more donors, and raised more money.

Twitter users increased their personal fundraising goals by at least a factor of three and raised nearly ten times more online than their peers who did not use the micro-blogging service. In addition, participants who sent multiple tweets achieved stronger results than those who only sent one tweet. These results align with those generated by personalized e-mail solicitations, a technique that rewards participants who send multiple messages.

Our research also showed that event participants using Facebook tend to set higher goals and commit to stronger support for an organization. Most importantly, they raise significantly more than participants who do not use Facebook. And we see an even stronger impact when a more robust application such as Boundless Fundraising, which automates and integrates participants' ability to access their Facebook friends, is used. Overall, event participants who utilized Facebook increased their fundraising by as much as 40 percent compared to individuals who did not use the platform.

YouTube vs. a Picture

While the benefits of Facebook and Twitter are derived largely from their ability to easily connect event participants to a large number of potential donors, YouTube is useful because it allows individuals to deliver more powerful messages and fundraising appeals. By allowing participants to upgrade their fundraising appeals from static text and a picture to video, you are empowering them to:

• Make a more visceral ask;
• Actually show the impact of the organization they are supporting;
• Clearly convey why a cause is important to them; and
• Do something "catchy" to increase the viral effect of their appeal.

At the same time, our research shows that YouTube users are more likely to balance their use of online and offline channels when engaged in fundraising activities. Also interesting is the fact that, compared to participants utilizing other social media platforms, YouTube users had the best offline results.

Comparing E-Mail Fundraising With Social Media Fundraising

Our research shows that the fundraising potential of Facebook and Twitter is correlated to the number of updates participants make as well as the number of friends actually viewing those updates. So while these two platforms enable participants to share updates with dozens, if not hundreds, of friends at once, it's essential that their friends or followers regularly access participants' feeds.

E-mail, on the other hand, is (or can be) a one-to-one medium. Indeed, our research shows that tapping an event participant's social network yields a lower conversion rate than personal e-mail. While the latter historically has converted roughly 25 percent of message recipients, Twitter and Facebook feeds convert closer to 0.25 percent. It's important to note, however, that while conversion rates for Facebook and Twitter are significantly lower than those for personal e-mail, they are in line, according to a 2008 NTEN and M&R Strategies eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, with rates for direct e-mail campaigns.

Another concern shared by nonprofits is whether social media will replace e-mail as a fundraising solicitation tool and/or cannibalize fundraising that's already happening online. Our research indicates the opposite. Most participants tapping their social networks for fundraising purposes were actually sending more e-mails than peers who were not using social networks for that purpose.

Participant and Donor Profiles Using Social Media

By analyzing event data and profiles of which participants make the best use of social media, event organizers can better plan how to be more successful in the future when implementing these tools. Our research identified the following trends:

• Participants who take the most advantage of social media tools are consistently among the top fundraisers.
• Individuals who are most involved with an organization are most likely to use social media tools for fundraising.
• When more preparation is required for an event, participants are more likely to use social media tools.
• On average, 75 percent of donors attracted through social media are new to an organization, versus about 50 percent of all donors.

The research conducted by Charity Dynamics and Blackbaud provides the latest evidence that social media is, indeed, making a difference in the overall success of nonprofits' special events fundraising. Thanks to the growing popularity of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, more people are learning about special events, new donors are participating in those events, and a larger number of organizations' supporters are getting involved in online fundraising. In short, nonprofits that continue to evaluate how to best incorporate social media into their event strategies stand to benefit the most and realize new levels of success in support of their causes.

About the Authors: Donna Wilkins is the president of Charity Dynamics. Mark Davis is the director of technical solutions at Blackbaud. You can download the full research paper, "Making Event Participants More Successful With Social Media Tools," at www.charitydynamics.com/socialmediastudy or www.blackbaud.com/eventfundraising.