Washington Post: "Though Popular, 'Causes' Ineffective for Fundraising"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/21/AR2009042103786.html
What if we replaced “Facebook” in this story with “your website”?
The key points would read like this:
- Your staff doesn’t participate in conversations on your website.
- Your staff doesn’t actively recruit donors to fundraise on your behalf on your website.
- You don’t use your website as a distribution point for content your supporters can use to promote your cause.
- Instead of coming to your website you send your donors to a technology company page with our logo on it.
- On your website your send donors away to a technology company site to “check out” and pay.
Pretty much describes what most fundraising organizations are doing with their web sites and it is also an accurate description of how most fundraisers use Facebook.
And it doesn’t work very well in either case.
I applaud the work the Causes folks have done. It may not be the best solution, but the problem is not Causes.
Billions will be raised from personal networks in the next few years. Those dollars are going to go to organizations that are active in those networks.
Donors want to interact with *you* not a stack of third parties. Social networks are just another place to connect with your community. And just like any other form of outreach, you need to go to the
community and participate.
So take the conversation to sites that support you. Take it to the blogs. Take it to personal pages. And yes, take it to Facebook.
It is easy. We’ll show you how to do it right.
It is less time and effort than one big mailing.
