How Tweet It Is! Mastering Social Media for Fundraising Success

Social media, online fundraising, going to the dentist — these are all things that tend to scare traditional fundraisers, regardless of age. It’s often believed that older professionals are reluctant to embrace new technology.

But that shouldn’t be the case. This new medium is cost-effective and environmentally responsible. It gives nonprofits nontraditional ways to acquire, profile, and cultivate donors and new constituents. When a fan/user/friend retweets you, promotes or fundraises for your cause, your organization has the access to his or her personal information, given the user's privacy settings allow for it. Social media helps you learn more than you currently know or have on your housefile from traditional direct-mail or special-event donors.

Conversations = cultivation
Gaining permission to access people’s social networks allows nonprofits the ability to reach a wider audience with little to no expense. You can “gaze” into their lives and find ways to link into their interests and ability to support your organization financially and socially/virally.

Recent research demonstrates that those using social media platforms — particularly the two most popular, Facebook and Twitter — are diversifying in age. The fastest-growing demographic on both the Internet and Facebook is 55-plus.

What you need to know for true fundraising success is that you need to focus on cultivating relationships year-round. Consistent, thoughtful cultivation is something that most development professionals already focus on in the annual campaigns, and it must be applied online as well.