Small Nonprofit Uses Social Media, Crowdsourcing to Best 70 Organizations in Online Fundraising Contest

By the end of the challenge, held June 8-30, Critical Exposure raised $15,669 from 614 donors, winning an additional $3,000 for acquiring the greatest number of unique donors and $2,000 for finishing second in overall donations -- for a total of $20,669.

Crowdsourcing -- the act of calling upon a large, undefined group to perform a task -- played a major role in the organization's success. During the competition's last days, Critical Exposure placed an open call to supporters, providing them with sample Facebook updates to post, Twitter messages to tweet and emails to send.