Geoff Livingston talks Decentralized Grass Roots Fundraising in a Digital World

Meet Geoff. He’s the co-founder & chief marketing officer at Zoetica where he works with Beth Kanter and Kami Watson Huyse. He also blogs at GeoffLivingston.com. This year he joined a few of us for the Ignite Panel at Blackbaud’s conference where we talked about how social media is helping non-profits change the world.

After our panel I got a few minutes to talk to Geoff about his work in the non-profit space. More specifically we discussed grass roots fundraising and the rapid growth of online platforms that allow people to raise money for the causes they support. Check out the video.

Watch the Video from #bbcon

It’s a very interesting discussion and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic.

Questions for you …

• Will the fragmentation of online fundraising effect non-profits? Negatively? Positively?
• Are the fees charged by the various new online fundraising platforms to high for mass adoption to occur? Why? Why not?
• Is the lack of control something that non-profits can deal with and/or embrace?
• Will the grassroots decentralized (i.e. not organized or centralized by specific non-profit organizations) model be sustainable and/or enough to affect real change in the world?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Frank Barry

Frank Barry, director of new growth ventures at Blackbaud and blogger at npENGAGE, helps nonprofits use the Internet for digital communication, social media, and fundraising so they can focus changing the world. He’s worked with a diverse group of organizations including LIVESTRONG, United Methodist Church, American Heart Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters, ChildFund Int’l, InTouch Ministries, Heifer Int’l, University of Notre Dame and University of Richmond. Along with writing for industry publications like Mashable and Social Media Today, Frank facilitates discussions, presents solo sessions and organizes panels for industry conferences such as NTC, SXSW, BBCon and numerous others. When he’s out and about he enjoys talking to interesting people about how they are changing the world – check out his interviews. Say Hi on Twitter – @franswaa or Google+