The NonProfit Times - July 15, 2008 - (Page 7)

LIMITED ‘FACE’ TIME Continued from page 1 touted more than $2.5 million in donations in its first full year for nearly 20,000 different registered nonprofits, with more than 12 million Facebook users among 80,000 “Causes.” More important than the money raised, say supporters of Causes, is the engagement of Facebook users with the organization. The social networking site first was available only on college campuses, but has seen the average age of a user reach 35. Even some of the largest national organizations have only received a dozen or more donations via Causes and many said they were developing strategies in the coming months. Nonprofits generally respond to donations made on their Web Site or by mail within several days or weeks, but some either were unaware they were even getting donations via Causes or haven’t yet focused resources on Facebook. “No one should be throwing out their postage meter and entirely relying on online fundraising or on friend-to-friend fundraising, but it’s an important piece of the picture and it’s an increasingly big piece of the picture,” said Katya Andresen, vice president of marketing for Bethesda, Md.-based Network For Good. “It’s a new tool in the hands of thousands of people,”Andresen said.“You can’t replace all fundraising but it’s worth cultivating.” Groups might not see a huge re- turn, but a lot of people might become acquainted with the cause and end up donating to it in the future. Though he wouldn’t call Causes a passing fad,“it’s a fad that hasn’t really caught fire yet,” said Rick Christ, a managing partner with NPadvisors.com in Warrenton, line and more contributions online elsewhere on the Web in the future, rather than on their own sites, Christ said. More people are going to do more things on their own, whether through social networking sites, or other places like Second Life or eBay. Va. Very few Causes have raised $10,000 but many more have raised smaller amounts, he added. Although fundraising on Causes is peanuts for most nonprofits right now,“clearly, this is the front end of a wave,” said Christ, calling it one of the key trends in online fundraising. Nonprofits will see more advocacy on- “Nonprofits need to be aware of the whole Internet, not only their own site,” said Christ, who tells nonprofits that at any given moment, there are more people passionate about their cause not on their Web site than on their site. Nonprofits can either try to generate as much traffic as Facebook or go where the traffic is and “empower people to do more where they are,” he said, and right now, that’s Facebook.“When you dominate a market, you need to go to that domination and be part of that action because the niches within Facebook are bigger than the other markets that are out there. Facebook is just today, it might not be tomorrow, MySpace is yesterday’s thing,” Christ said. “It’s possible that some of your charities don’t know about the gift yet. It’s not a knock, it is however, a built-in flaw in the process,” Christ said, and something that time will probably resolve. Since anyone can create a Causes section regardless of whether they work for the nonprofit, it’s usually a volunteer or supporter who starts it without having access to the nonprofit profile, and hence to donor contact information, according to Randall Winston, director of nonprofit relations for Causes. Being a nonprofit partner with Causes gives a nonprofit employee access to a system through which they can create a nonprofit profile and manage the Causes benefiting them, which allows them to disassociate from causes they don’t want benefiting them, thank donors, or contact creators of a cause. A critical step in the Causes process is where Network For Good asks donors if they want to share their personal information with the individual charity. A “yes” and the nonprofit can continue to comLimited ‘Face’ Time, page 8 JULY 15, 2008 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.nptimes.com 7 http://NPadvisors.com http://www.fundraisinginfo.com http://www.missionresearch.com/giftworks http://www.nptimes.com

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The NonProfit Times - July 15, 2008 Web Triggers Direct Mail Response Limited 'Face' Time Building Vs. Blowing Up Contents 'Mark'ed Man Who Are They? Making The Case Predictive Modeling Business Briefs Awards Calendar NPT Jobs Resource Directory

The NonProfit Times - July 15, 2008

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