I’ve just been listening to a podcast of Lee Weinstein’s conversation with public relations consultant Donna Gibbs on how non-profits are successfully using social media
right now, where Gibbs shines a light on the social media marketing
activities — on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter — of two charities she’s
involved with personally.
The power of the Internet means that even smaller amounts by
individuals can make a big difference because of (a) the sheer volume of
givers and (b) tools that are readily available and free to use. The idea of One Million Women for Women,
an intiative of the Women’s Foundation of California, is to turn a $10
contribution via Facebook Causes application into $10 million to support women and girls in California.
About 60% of people make donations based on personal
recommendation, so it makes good sense to leverage pre-existing personal networks, such as those of Facebook users. As for the demand on resources, this Cause was set up by WFoC staff members who were already avid Facebook users, and took only a couple of hours to put in place.
How’s it working out?
The Women’s Foundation of California
is about 1/2 way to its fundraising goal on this campaign, Gibbs says —
but the benefits go beyond fundraising; they’re also recruiting new
people to join the cause, which has “added to their database by a huge
number.”
Some people made financial donations; others have simply
joined the cause. Those are people that the non-profit can now contact
to inform them about up-coming legislation that impacts the lives of
women in California, helping the organization to become a better
conduit of information and create more political activity on behalf of
its constituents.
When we think about charity and giving, a lot of times we think:
Wow, I gotta write the big check! Whereas, when you use the power of
social networks, $10 can, magnified by a million women, have a huge
impact.
Money raising is one important element,but another important element is just getting people involved. Take Meals on Wheels,
for example. In addition to nutritious home-prepared meals, one of the
most important functions that Meals on Wheels provides is the
friendship that a volunteer brings to an isolated senior — so the organization is in the process of developing a video series that focuses attention
on the human connection contributed by Meals on Wheels volunteers each
day.
The organization is also looking at a follow-on campaign that
involves Twitter to drive volunteer activitiy, with an on-going series
of “tweets” from “a young SF idealist who donates his time to a lonely
senior and in the process really learns more about himself.” The
Twitter persona will be a real Meals on Wheels volunteer, Gibbs says.
Targeting the under-30 crowd, they’re hoping to make the microblog’s
content “interesting enough that people will want to follow the
volunteer’s exploits with Meals on Wheels each week” and perhaps be
inspired to follow his lead.
It should be interesting to see how this
campaign unfolds!
The conversation with Donna Gibbs is archived as Episode 8 of the PR Works Internat Radio Show.
The recording cuts off early, just short of the 18 minute mark, but
non-profits looking for ideas for getting started in social media will
find it worth a listen —and past shows on other topics in public
relations can also be heard at or downloaded from www.smallplateradio.com/003.
Thanks to Judy Gombita for the tip on this podcast series!
