As you know (or maybe you don’t?), we LOVE some social media for nonprofits at NetWits Think Tank.
So when Craigslist founder Craig Newmark (also a philanthropist) published a nifty infographic last week we were all over it.
Hat tip to Allyson Kapin and the folks at www.radcampaign.com for their work on it!
A few interesting facts …
- 92% of the top 50 nonprofits have at least 1 social media presence on their homepage.
- The most followers that an organization has on Twitter is 840,653 (PBS)…but on the other hand, the organization following the most people is following 200,522 (The American Cancer Society)!
- The American Red Cross was the first organization on the list to create a Twitter account.
- Food for the Poor is the most talkative organization on Facebook, and has posted 220 posts over the course of 2 months.
- The organization with the highest net income, the YMCA, only posted 19 times to Facebook in 2 months, but has over 24,000 Fans.
My one question for you …
Does social media improve fundraising online or offline in any way?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, insights, examples, case studies, etc. What I’ve seen to date shows that social media platforms like Facebook are great, but not well suited for fundraising. Yet we can see from the infographic below that nonprofits in the top tier of earning are all over social media.
We also know from our research that social media use isn’t limited to the top tier organizations. Over 90% of nonprofits use at least one social media channel.
Or maybe that’s the wrong question to be asking? Let me know in the comments below.
So, How are the Top 50 Nonprofits Doing Social Media … ?
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Additional articles on social media for nonprofits you’ll find interesting …
- The Power of Social Fundraising and Friends Asking Friends [INFOGRAPHIC]
- Facebook is Great, but Does it Really Work for Fundraising?
- 2011 Non-profit Social Networking Survey
- 3 Social Media Metrics Every Non-profit Should Track
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Good question re: social media and fundraising. The short answer, in my experience, is no… on its own, social media does not improve fundraising. It does, in theory, create opportunities for a nonprofit or cause related effort to engage a larger audience. But for the most part those folks aren’t donating – they are engaging in other ways. Additionally, so much of the social driven fundraising efforts are focused on small dollar donations, really small dollar donations, which don’t add up to as much as traditional online fundraising. I don’t have a lot of stats to back it up (nobody wants to study that as you can imagine), but experience has demonstrated that for me.
I just wrote up a bunch of this, and related, issues in my new book, Shift & Reset – http://www.amazon.com/Shift-Reset-Strategies-Addressing-Connected/dp/0470942673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1305142675&sr=8-2. Would love to discuss further if you are interested.
We are very successful using social media to publicize our fundraising events, so in this way it is indirectly a fundraising vehicle. However, we do not find SM effective for fundraising per se. We love it for engagement, attracting volunteers and even promoting our wish list needs.
I think social media can help improve fundraising online since everyone has twitter and facebook. It may not well suited to use these platforms but this can help to spread the word. Great post.