Less is More?

The year end nears. For those of us in development, it's the final push to get those moving letters and compelling proposals to people and foundations still perceived to have deep pockets. While I'm asking for amounts from $5,000 to $20,000 and much more - there are fundraisers that are doing just fine at $25 a pop.

Mr. Obama did pretty well at that before he became President. There's an excellent report from PBP Executive Reports that looks at the lessons from the Obama campaign. Over time he grew his e-mail list from 90 thousand addresses to 13 million and attracted nearly 4 million donors. The average donation according to some reports was just over $100.

Amazing numbers! Yet there are three contradictory articles in the latest Chronicle of Philanthropy.

One report states that Social Networks Produce Dismal Results. Caroline Preston reports that out of 250 nonprofits surveyed, 74% said they had raised less than $100. Few of them could determine how many volunteers or how much money they had actually raised through their forays into social networking.

Another by Ben Gose Urges Charities and Donors to Focus on Small Gifts. Gose reports that Wendy Smith's new book, Give a Little, reminds us all how the little gifts can really add up. Individuals gave $229 billion dollars in 2007. For some context, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave just $2 billion the same year. Smith contends most of those donors are from households earning less than $100,000 per year.

Finally, Sean Stannard-Stockton writes an excellent article on tactical philanthropy using Twitter. He makes a great point that Twitter is THE new forum for discussing philanthropy. It far outstrips traditional media among young readers. All those young readers are the ones making small donations - for now. What will they give as they get older??

More significantly, Stannard-Stockton states: "...philanthropy is no longer a topic of discussion reserved for the ultrawealthy, nonprofit executives, or academic researchers. As with any topic that goes mainstream, many insiders will complain that the subject is too nuanced for the masses to understand.

But the people and organizations that can figure out how to speak authentically about philanthropy to a mainstream voice — without dumbing down the subject or talking over the heads of the newly formed crowds — will dominate the discussions about the nonprofit world in the coming months and years."

My $12.96 GoodSearch contribution this year isn't much. Some nonprofits turn up their noses at the pennies per search concept. Some don't. They are getting checks of over $1,000 this month. The pennies add up.

Heaven is in the details. Details are often very small. But they always make a difference.

Twitter Your Nonprofit ?

Do you "tweet?" That's the language of Twitter.

Twitter is the relatively new micro blogging service offered by our friends at twitter.com. These guys let you send very short (up to 140 characters) updates (tweets) to anyone that signs up to get them. Those people are called "followers." You can also restrict delivery just to your circle of buddies...or coworkers.

Followers can receive these updates on a variety of web sites or via email, instant messaging, text messages to your cell phone, etc. It all starts with a simple question: "what are you doing?"

Think of it as simple social networking on a small scale. Then again that small scale has nearly a million users right now. Some are just teenagers standing in line for a movie sending updates to friends. Others are much more sophisticated and frankly, more interesting. (Don't tell the teenagers.)

Whole Foods Market, Comcast, and Dell are using Twitter at an enterprise level. If you're having trouble with your Comcast service, blast a tweet of your frustrations to the world (the default delivery option). Customer support at Comcast monitors Twitter 24x7 for "damage control." See more on this at TBR (The Bivings Report).

Whole Foods is giving Twitter a serious try. They use it as a means of marketing and customer support. It's another way to enhance relationships with its customers. Hmmmm ..... seems like I've mentioned the importance of relationships somewhere else on my blog.

Universities, government agencies, news organizations, and significantly, the Obama campaign are all starting to use Twitter to keep people informed. Can your nonprofit make this work? Sure you can. But do you want to?

Think of two things. Who will be tweeting for your cause? Who will be the followers (the ones interested in your updates)?

If you Twitter just for internal purposes - to schedule or announce visitors for a tour, prepare for the arrival of volunteers, make a late change to an internal function - your followers will just be your staff. But if you plan to Twitter to the board, volunteers, or donors, you really need to have your act together.

Your "tweeter" needs to be informed, interesting, and able to find the balance of being consistent with new tweets without flooding the followers with drivel. Depending upon your cause, you may also have to be sensitive to certain privacy needs.

Your followers need to not be afraid of new technology. That probably means they'll be under 30, but not necessarily, and they may be some of your best candidates for volunteers and new donors.

Will it work at the nonprofit level? Why not? It's a free service, and chances are you want to improve your communications and you're looking for more volunteers and more donors. It's worth a try.

A caveat. Twitter is not especially fast. Look for competitors to get into this game soon.