For a macroview, The Nonprofit Quarterly reported recently on a Craigconnect study of fifty top US charities using social media, grouped in these focus categories — Animal, Children, Cultural, Disaster Relief, Environment, Health, Veterans & Military, and Women.

All the charities compared are pretty big, and NPQ noted that all but one has a full or part-time dedicated staffer working on social media. But who knows what ‘part-time’ means. If I had fifty people on my fundraising staff, I guess I could let one fool around a bit on social media

[I'd love to know the first-year renewal rate of these orgs ... but I digress.]

For a much closer look at how a big-league nonprofit uses social media, check out this review by Beth Kanter of the Facebook efforts of the Humane Society of the US. These guys just hit the one million fans mark. And as this article describes, that doesn’t just happen.

Beth’s post asks “When is one million fans on Facebook worth more than a million bucks?”

My answer — Not yet! — is different then Beth’s. But I’m looking through the lens of fundraising; she’s looking at activism. And there I’ll concede, yes I’d like to have a million followers … recruited by my communications staff. [Then maybe they'd let my fundraising staff do a bit of testing on those fans!]

Tom

With more time being spent on social nets, and Facebook in particular (it’s now having half billion user days!), it’s a platform nonprofits have to master. And at the same time, everything that’s ‘good’ for Facebook isn’t necessarily good for marketers … or for personal privacy.

Here are three articles that might give you some perspective on Facebook.

Probably of most direct and immediate help to nonprofits using Facebook is this excellent review of the current Facebook situation by Beth Kanter. As usual, her advice (which I read as ‘cautious optimism’) is sound, and her piece includes several very useful links to related resources.

Next, I’d point you to this item from Social Media Insider giving a commercial marketer’s perspective. Advises this writer, David Berkowitz: “There is no question that marketers need Facebook more than Facebook needs marketers. What do you do about it? Be engaging. Be relevant. Figure out what’s social about your brand. Set objectives. Measure results. Budget accordingly.”

A report from his agency on the changes notes: “The new changes should generate a tremendous amount of additional content on Facebook. That means brands will have an even harder time breaking through the clutter. Brands will have to be even more strategic, creative, and relevant to their fans to stand out.”

And for those of you who worry most about privacy, this Wall Street Journal article — Facebook Defends Getting Data From Logged-Out Users — should stir your juices!

I confess to still being an email guy, and a blogger on the side. But Facebook, warts and all, is a force to be reckoned with. As Beth says, however, stay focused on results … a ‘friend’ is not a result.

Tom

The list includes a brief description of benefits of each site for donors and nonprofits, with a representative screen shot. Here’s the list …

1. Causes

2. Crowdrise

3.DonateNow/Network for Good

4. DonorsChoose

5. FirstGiving

6. Givezooks

7. Help Attack!

8. Jumo

9. JustGive

10. Razoo

11. SocialVibe

12. Sparked

Checking all these out should keep your online fundraising staff busy!

Tom

P.S. Thanks to Aliza Sherman, writing an excellent piece on ‘crowdsourcing’ on Beth’s Blog, for the pointer.

Says Pew in its latest study:

“Fully 65% of adult internet users now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61% one year ago. This marks the first time in Pew Internet surveys that 50% of all adults use social networking sites.”

And regarding Boomers, our largest giving cohort:

“… among the Boomer-aged segment of internet users ages 50-64, social networking site usage on a typical day grew a significant 60% (from 20% to 32%). ‘The graying of social networking sites continues, but the oldest users are still far less likely to be making regular use of these tools,’ said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and co-author of the report. ‘While seniors are testing the waters, many Baby Boomers are beginning to make a trip to the social media pool part of their daily routine.’”

So, Boomers are climbing aboard the social sites in appreciable numbers … 51% have now “ever” used a social site. Beginning to hold fundraising interest for me.

Tom

Add that to the latest online video usage numbers from Comscore … the average US internet user viewed 18.5 hours of online video in July. And, as usual, we ask … were any of those videos yours?

Tom

Lots of web entrepreneurs are trying to ‘do good and do well’ by establishing microsites that connect donors directly with small projects seeking donor support.

I have no problem with the do good/do well principle. And I like the direct, one-to-one connection sites like these can offer, if properly conceived and managed. And maybe they engage a new breed or generation of donors.

But I do have some concerns about accountability.

The Journal cites crowdsourcing.org, which tracks the ‘crowd-funding industry’ and has identified more than 400 websites around the world raising money for a variety of needs and causes.

Call me a cynic, but I’m imagining there are some rip-offs amongst them.

The Agitator has been asked from time to time to ‘endorse’ sites like these. We haven’t, because there’s no way we can conduct appropriate due diligence.

Personally, I’m still in a ‘buyer beware’ state of mind about these sites.

What do you think … am I too paranoid?

Tom

Smartphone Adoption and Usage

• 35% of all US adults have a smartphone.
• The biggest users — those with income of $75K or more, college degree, under age 45, African-American or Latino.
• Some 87% of smartphone owners access the internet or email on their handheld; 25% of smartphone owners say that they mostly go online using their phone, rather than with a computer.

As we’ve asked before, what does your website look like on a smartphone screen?

E-reader & Tablet Ownership

• E-reader ownership has doubled in last six months, to 12% of US adults.
• Tablet ownership, now at 8%, appears to be leveling off; 17% of those with $75K+ income own one, and 13% of college grads.
• Confirming the overall trend toward adoption of mobile devices, laptop computers are for the first time as popular as desktop computers among U.S. adults.

Social Networking Sites and Our Lives

• 47% of US adults use at least one social network site (SNS), close to double the number in 2008.
• Half these users are now over the age of 35.
• 92% are using Facebook, 18% LinkedIn, 13% Twitter.

But the big news was political (the underlying survey was taken over the November 2010 elections). Says Pew:

“At that time, 10% of Americans reported that they had attended a political rally, 23% reported that they had tried to convince someone to vote for a specific candidate, and 66% reported that they had or intended to vote. Internet users in general were over twice as likely to attend a political meeting, 78% more likely to try and influence someone’s vote, and 53% more likely to have voted or intended to vote.  Compared with other internet users, and users of other SNS platforms, a Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day was an additional two and half times more likely to attend a political rally or meeting, 57% more likely to persuade someone on their vote, and an additional 43% more likely to have said they would vote.”

I’ll wager that a question about involvement in issue advocacy would have yielded similar results.

Tom

Some interesting findings …

• 52% of Americans 12+ have a profile on one or more social networks. This figure is driven largely by Facebook, which is now used by over half (51%) of Americans 12+.
• Twitter is as familiar to Americans as Facebook (with 92% and 93% familiarity, respectively); however, Twitter usage stands at 8% of Americans 12+.
• Approximately 46 million Americans 12+ now check their social media sites and services several times every day.
• Much of this frequent usage is driven by mobile access. 64% of frequent social networkers have used a mobile phone to update their status on one or more social networks.
• One in four social network users knowingly follow brands, products or services on social networks. For those who use these sites and services several times per day, this figure increases to 43%.
• Nearly a quarter of social network users indicated that Facebook is the social site or service that most influences their buying decisions. No other site or service was named by more than 1% of the sample, and 72% indicated that no one social site or service influenced their buying decisions the most.

You can download more data from the study here (must have a free SlideShare account).

Tom

The process of ‘social maturation’ for social media utilization …

1. Dormant stage — one in five companies don’t use social media.

2. Small victories — baby steps and case studies.

3. Distributed chaos — the ‘testing the waters’ stage as various pockets of the organization excitedly do their own thing.

4. Coordinating stage — management takes notice and puts the ‘governance’ and resources in place to create consistency across the organization.

5. Scaling and optimizing stage — now there’s a steering committee, a budget, policies and process … and a focus on results. This includes solving customer problems — what Forrester seems to see as the ultimate use of social media.

I can see how this progression might apply to nonprofits. I particularly like ‘distributed chaos’ … what we used to call, “Let a thousand flowers bloom”!

Where is your organization in the maturation process?

Tom

That discussion drew some comments about, in effect, the quality of new donors entering the cultivation pipeline in the first place. So I wrote New Donors … Garbage In, Garbage Out … with a cheeky conclusion: “If you can’t get a second gift out of 40% of your first time givers, you’re ‘growing’ too fast.”

Which naturally drew more comments. Today and tomorrow, I’m featuring two of those comments.

Both writers proffered new ways to look at and approach donor acquisition. I’ll call them Plan B and Plan C, assuming that Plan A is your conventional direct response (really, direct mail) approach — rent/exchange lists, subsidize initial acquisition, hope to recoup and profit via donor cultivation.

Today, Plan B, courtesy of online fundraiser Rick Gentry at Common Knowledge, who asks …

“But what if the donors are changing?

What if the Ken Burnett “relationship fundraising” and the fundraising pyramid era are moving into history?

I say the days of getting a donor for life are done, there will be no second gift.

The new generation of donors, highly exposed to masses of information and marketing-savvy will not give $100 a year to the same group for the next decade. They will give $10 to 10 different groups each year – supporting 100 groups over a decade.

They will give to the issue of the hour that touches them and then move on. And they will give via mobile and portals that deny you their contact details, and they will cut you off if you hassle them (not that you can as they only use Facebook messaging and priority inboxes).

So maybe it’s time to stop fussing over the second gift and how you raise $1 million from a 1,000 supporters over 10 years, and start freaking over how you get $1 million from 100,000 supporters in a day.”

Yikes! “…there will be no second gift.” Rick proposes the ultimate in what some of us call “catch and release” marketing. So far, It’s failed in every other form of marketing, but maybe it has a future in fundraising.

Yeah … I’d love to raise $1 million in a day in $10 gifts … if I could do it once a week!

But even then, any fundraiser in his/her right mind would attempt to hang onto at least some of those folks. Rick, are you serious … do you not want to try?

I hate to think that the “new generation of donors” would be so fickle, and so clueless about the sustained effort (and donor support) required to produce real change/results , as to actually flit about the charity landscape like a bunch of sparrows, leaving nothing but sparrow droppings behind.

Or let me put it this way, if that’s the way younger donors start out their giving careers — sample what’s out there … see what works, etc — fine … consider it training wheels. It’s better than no giving at all. But I would still hope that they discover at some stage that continuity of support will reap far superior dividends on the charitable investment they’re prepared to make.

Rick, in my book, Plan B earns an ‘A’ for audacity, but I’ll go for repeat donors any day.

And if I’m sitting in a European NGO, I’m probably thinking … Is this guy nuts?! Because many of those NGOs are sitting on monthly giving programs that put American nonprofits to shame and generate tons and tons of Euros!! See The Agitator … Eat Your Heart Out, America!

Tom