Here’s an article that should be of great interest to any company with a ‘Paying it Forwards’ policy.  Don’t let the social networking terminology deter you from this fast growing avenue for fund-raising ideas. It’s time to understand why this approach should be part of your organization’s overall fund-raising strategy. Fund-raising is all about telling as many people as possible about your mission and reaching them where-ever they are and right now many people are networking online.

The reach of member communities, which includes Social Networking and Blogging sites, increased its active reach 5.4 percent during the past year, according to a Nielsen report and Nielsen Online has NetView panels in the United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Australia.

The Growth

From these countries alone, there was an incredible growth of 18% in time spent online between December 2007 and December 2008.  And although that number is significant, what’s mind blowing is the time people are spending online in these Social Media communities.  According to the Nielsen Online report this number exploded 63% to 45 billion minutes.  Facebook time increased by a mammoth 566%, (from 3.1 billion minutes in 2007 to 20.5 billion minutes in 2008).  According to the survey, these communities even beat ‘email’, once seen as the New Frontier only a few years ago, in their Active Reach by December 2008.  So this gives you an idea of how BIG this ‘technology’ is and the worth of looking at including it as part of your Fund-Raising Strategy.

Here are some clear definitions of The Basics:

Facebook

Is a free Social Networking site that is operated and privately owned by Facebook Inc.   Users can join networks organized by:

• City
• Workplace
• School
• Region

And connect and interact with others, including friends and family and send them:

• Messages
• Pictures
• Updates
• Personal profiles to notify friends about themselves

Most importantly for fund-raising, people can join ‘groups’ and ’causes’, such as non-profit organizations and/ or support individual fund-raising efforts.

Twitter

Is a free Social Networking and Micro-Blogging service that enables its users to send and read other user’s updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s Profile Page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as ‘followers’). Tweet to your friends, family, colleagues and network about your organization’s great work, inform them of an upcoming fundraiser, call for volunteers – it’s positively tweet-a-rific!  However its an important part of Twitter etiquette that you similarly tweet about other people’s products, organizations, business and social in order to develop a two-way street.

Widgets

For fund-raising purposes,  widgets can be associated with different campaigns within your website or direct people there from other locations such as Facebook.  A widget is anything that can be embedded inside an HTML page (in other words a web page) and this can add some content to a non-static  page.  Generally widgets are originated by third parties but they can be homemade.

It’s time to step up to the plate in this new and exciting world of fund-raising  where the opportunities are open for business and social purposes.   The great thing about these tools is that they are virtually free and in the case of Facebook and Twitter, completely free.  Combined with tradiiional fund-raising methods there is a dearth of online opportunity.  And consider how Social Networking can enhance your overall fund-raising strategies by bringing  in fresh ideas, attracting new audiences and potential donors.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_M._Dockter

The author is a non-profit professional with over 20-years of fund-raising and non profit management experience. For more fund-raising ideas, free tools and results oriented resources, please visit her website at http://www.fundraising-guide.com