Of course, don’t skimp on your traditional marketing efforts. It is about integration. An individual has a mail piece at home, he/she sees new info on Facebook, and they’re more likely to mail in a check and/or give online.

I agree with you wholeheartedly that the older the Facebook demographic gets, the better its potential as a legitimate fundraising channel.

Over at least the past year, as you have followed and commented on the emergence of the social media platforms as possibly effective fundraising tools, I have agreed with your general thinking that they deserve careful consideration, but that one should be thoughtful and cautious with the level of reliance upon them.

There are so many aspects of a platform like Facebook that I personally find a bit transitory and unfocused — almost frivolous — in nature. But, if it can be demonstrated that the older segments of the population truly are adopting this mode of social communication, then it makes sense to continue our evaluation of its fundraising potential. After all, it is still the case that older folks are generally the ones with most of the money!

One last caveat. Even if the social media platforms continue to emerge as legitimate and effective fundraising tools, it does not mean we can abandon most of the other old-fashioned and proven methods of constituent cultivation and relationship management. In my view, those activities can be helped along — even started — by social-media communication, but they also require careful, sustained and much more intimate or “hands-on” approaches than something like Facebook alone can accomplish.

Just my thoughts. Thanks.