All a Twitter

It was 10 minutes past the time I was to meet someone in the lobby of the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel during the Nonprofit Technology Conference last month. I wandered through the atrium and took a seat alongside Rick Christ, president of NPAdvisors.com, and explained to him what was going on.

“Twitter her,” Rick said. “Twitter her, and ask her what’s up.” I gave him the “blinkies” look — perfected during 22 years of parenting — that says, “What you have just said to me is so ridiculously out of the question that it is nearly incomprehensible.”

To his credit, he held a straight face for a full 10 seconds before laughing out loud (excuse me, before LOL) because he knows as much about Twitter as I do — the name, the fact that it has something to do with social networking and that everybody, apparently, is using it.

Later, feeling like I was 127 years old, I logged on to www.twitter.com, created an account, got immediately confused and clicked out, retreating to the juvenile comfort of MySpace and the somewhat more grown-up safety of LinkedIn. I am, you might say, a Twitter quitter.

Twitter was all the rage at NTEN, which makes sense since it’s the Nonprofit Technology Network’s conference. But many of the fundraisers who sat alongside me amid the crowds of highly caffeinated technogeeks shared my Twitter jitters, which made me even more acutely aware of the fact that there’s a whole lot the fundraising sector needs to learn about. Even if your IT team is in the know, that knowledge doesn’t always filter down. That not only can cause a disconnect between staff segments, but also leave you ignorant of some cool, new, potential fundraising venues.

It’s OK (well, almost) for me to be a technophobe; the only thing I risk losing is the respect of my more techie friends and the occasional “SaraMoonShine is baking cookies!” mood update; but for fundraisers, the stakes are higher. Hover outside the loop of new technologies, and you could be missing out on important opportunities to trumpet and fund your mission. It can be daunting, true — but as you sign up to exchange “tweets” with your newfound friends on Twitter, no one is suggesting that you abandon direct mail, telefundraising and the other media with which you’re comfy. With a little juggling, a little foresight, a little luck and a little guidance, you can do it all. And you can realize a lot of success. That prospect, of course, can set any fundraiser’s heart atwitter.

PS: If you weren’t at NTC this year, plan on being there next year. It’s an awesome conference, full of life, where sessions are highly interactive — with speakers bantering with attendees and one another rather than stoically making their presentations. It had a vibe so powerful that even during the last session of the conference (at 3 p.m. on a Friday), the energy level was still off the charts. Bravo, NTEN!

Margaret Battistelli
Editor-in-Chief
mbattistelli@napco.com

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS
Leslie Mollsen and John Biggins — co-CEOs of South Barrington, Ill.-based fundraising agency American City Bureau.

Willis Turner — a senior copywriter at Richmond, Va.-based direct-mail agency Huntsinger & Jeffer.

Katya Andresen — vice president of marketing at Network for Good, a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits raise money online, and author of the book, “Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes.”

Jeff Brooks — senior creative director at Lanham, Md.-based database marketing agency Merkle.

Kimberly Seville — a creative strategist and freelance copywriter. Reach her at kimberlyseville@yahoo.com

Timothy Churchill — former senior associate editor for FundRaising Success magazine.