Like most charities, Give2Asia is constantly trying to find a better way to build up its online community. We know that people go online to find out about charitable work in Asia, and increasingly people are making donations and connections online with groups across the globe. There are plenty of examples of nonprofits who have created entirely new models for philanthropy using the Internet. Kiva.org, for example, has built an impressive community online by allowing individuals to become micro-lenders to entrepreneurs who may simply need $100 or $200 to start a business in regions such as Africa or Asia.
But there are other ways to harness the Internet that do not require inventing a new business model. This blog site, for example, is a way for Give2Asia to share stories of its work, raise awareness on specific issues, and in general increase public interest in philanthropy for Asia.
Recently we’ve had more and more donors and nonprofits ask for advice on how to market their own organizations and causes using the Internet. We’ve also seen some examples of people doing it right and want to share those examples with you. Here are some quick notes to help people think about their own online fundraising.
Content is King
Blogs are replacing newspapers and magazines. They cost very little to operate and simply require regular, short updates to keep people engaged. Like newspapers and magazines, Blogs allow people to create subscriptions. (Notice the RSS link near the top right of this web page.) Subscribers to any blog can have newly published content pushed to them every time an update is made. The technology exists to do this easily, but developing a regular stream of content can often present a challenge. Luckily for organization and people engaged in philanthropy to Asia, there is often new content to share. Also, blogs don’t require feature stories; a 2-3 paragraph piece or a few photographs will do.
Finding Your Audience
Setting up a Blog is easy. Typepad or Blogger are two available services, and there are others. Finding or connecting with a community online can be the hard part. Social Marketing has helped to solve this problem by allowing people to organically create networks of interested followers who have self-subscribed to specific kinds of updates.
For example, Facebook allows a nonprofit organization to create a “Cause” and then collect tax-deductible donations to any U.S.-registered 501(c)3 listed in the GuideStar database. Facebook does this through its partnership with Network For Good. Using this system, Give2Asia was able to raise nearly $10,000 on Facebook last summer for the China earthquake relief and recovery. Some of our clients, such as the Gwen Moore Children of China Fund, have set up Facebook Causes for their fund at Give2Asia and contributions coming through Facebook are clearly marked for their specific fund. The benefit: people on Facebook can share the cause with their friends who may be interested, thus widening you circle of supporters. Network for Good does take a percentage fee for this service.
Other similar services to Facebook are out there, and are targeted toward a much more specific audience. For example, Ammado.com is a social networking site meant specifically for networking nonprofit organizations globally with corporate philanthropy decisionmakers.
These services can also be used for distributing content, such as blog articles. Blogs can be set up to automatically post new articles on a Facebook page for all of your friends and followers to see. Twitter is another service that allows you to post alerts and links when you have a new article about a specific cause in Asia, or when you simply want to share where you will be on any given day. Twitter is unique because it can send alerts to your followers’ mobile phones and other devices – so that you can reach your followers immediately no matter where they happen to be.
There are plenty of other services out there to help network online. We’ll share more later.
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