Twitter Tips for Nonprofits

By Abny Santicola

A post on the blog A Small Change last month by Jason Dick recommends a few tips based on his observations of the successes of recent Twitter campaigns by EpicChange. The EpicChange campaign raised more than $10,000 on Twitter in 24 hours; and Twestival, a campaign in February where people in cities across the globe connected via Twitter and then met up in person, raised more than $250,000 for charity: water. Click here to read more about Twestival's success.

Dick’s advice:

Set a fundraising goal that's tied to a specific project or item
Tweet the status of the campaign regularly (every hour for a one-day campaign)
Ask for and expect small donations ($10 to $20)
Set a reasonable goal. Before Twestival, Dick says the most money he'd seen raised via Twitter was $10,000.
Set a start an end time for the campaign. Dick recommends no more than 24 to 48 hours.
Because donors can't give directly through Twitter, set up a page where you can receive donations and link to it on your Twitter profile. He recommends checking out Razoo.com, which allows for the creation of free fundraising pages with no transaction fee.

Some additional Twitter advice recently shared by Jared Hughes, principal and founder of Bellwether Fundraising, in his article "Twitter: It Isn't Just For Breakfast Anymore" on the AFP site includes:

Communicate personally with followers, especially those who he or she finds you. "Go to their bio, read about their dog, direct message them back with some bit of information that shows you took the time and effort to read about them," Hughes writes.
Copy any Twitter conversations you have with them and add it to their donor files.
Look for "influencers" among your followers and build strong relationships with them.
Tweet purposefully, remembering that with each tweet, you are selling your organization.
Go to www.twellow.com (the Twitter yellow pages) to list your organization and find prospective followers and invite them to follow you.
Ask core volunteers to retweet — or repost your original tweets to their followers — for you.
Find companies on Twitter that align with your mission and form a partnership where you both benefit.