Saturday, August 23, 2008

Social Network Fundraising

I was going through my Twitter updates this morning, and saw a post from Danny Sullivan with a link to Beth Kanter's blog about social network fund raising. This is a novel idea which I've done in the past on a small scale, but it never "clicked" with me that it could be more successful.

The basic idea is to request donations from your friends and colleagues via your social network links. You put the idea out there and let people respond, or not, as they desire. No nagging, no phone calls, no guilty feelings - just doing something to help someone else.

I belong to an email list with a group of friends from the Army. Any time one of them is involved in a fund-raising activity, they throw out a short message asking for assistance.

Many of you may be thinking "DUH!" I have a difficult time asking people I know for donations in person, on the phone, or via direct email. But, though Twitter or MySpace, a simple posting is all that's needed any everyone has the option to help or ignore. That method appeals to me much more. It might also help me reach a larger audience of potential donors.

Later, I'm going to post a list of charities we regularly give to. Anyone is free to assist no not as they see fit.

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