How CAN Twitter be harnessed to help raise funds?

I worked on Twestival back in February of this year, and I've had the opportunity to talk to a lot of colleagues about the power of Twitter to raise funds. I'm writing a post now to put all of those ideas down onto [digital] paper, and hopefully it will help some of them to raise some money.

The first thing to understand about Twitter is illustrated below. Think of Twitter as a very, very large network of users. If the person at the top of the chain tweets a message that seems to be for a good cause, there is a very high likelihood that people following that person will RT, or ReTweet the message. That can very quickly mean that 1 simple message can turn into 30 people seeing it in a number of minutes. It can be thought of almost as a pyramid scheme, but hopefully it's being used for good!

Twestival NYC harnessed the idea of crowdsourcing even beyond just ReTweeting a message. Paull Young came up with the 20-20-20 idea. Buy a ticket to Twestival for $20, raise $20 to give, and tell 20 friends about Twestival. This is a great example of a memorable way to get people to donate money AND mobilize their network.

A lot of donations come from specific challenges. I read about a woman in Fast Company who challenged a room full of geeks to not only donate as much money as possible, but to get their friends to donate as much money as possible. This is another key piece of the puzzle - turning it into a competition.

Beth Kanter teaches non-profits and individuals how to use social media tools like Twitter, blogs and widgets to raise funds and awareness. Although Kanter has spearheaded several unusual funding efforts, her most effective was at the Seattle Gnomedex 8.0 Conference in August of this year, where she raised over $2500 in just 90 minutes by challenging highly connected geeks to tap into their extensive Twitter networks.

It started with a mass tweet asking people to help her “send Leng Sopharath, a young Cambodian woman, off to her junior year of college in good health.” Tweets and retweets traveled through the online community, and by the end of the conference, Kanter had collected almost $4000. She acknowledges the results as a “special success story,” but believes it’s an example of how the power of networks can be utilized by non-profits.

We were very motivated during Twestival ... NYC wanted to be the city to raise the most money, and we were. Everyone that worked on Twestival kept that in mind, and it was a friendly competition, but we did NOT want to lose to another city. If you can figure out a way to get the charitable to compete, you've got another compelling way to get people to give.

To wrap up, here is what's important when trying to harness the power of Twitter to raise money for charity:

1. Come up with a succint message. You want something shorter than 140 characters so that it can easily be ReTweeted.
2. Include a link. The link can utilize URL shorteners like http://www.bit.ly so that the url fits more easily into the Tweet.
   
3. Be sure the link goes somewhere that allows the person to read more about the cause AND includes a place for them to donate and/or get involved.
4. Include "Please RT" in the message. Studies have shown that messages are ReTweeted much, much more frequently when that is included.
5. Engage with the people who are following the account that Tweets your message. That is the best way to get followers that are dedicated to your cause.
6. Tell a story on that webpage.
   

What made charity: water so powerful was their website. After all the money was donated, you could go to their website and watch the wells being drilled this summer. Beforehand, you could see videos and interact with the charity to learn more about their cause. They've also very effectively harnessed the power of visuals.

At Twestival we had jerry cans that water is hauled in. We also had a photobooth with a bathtub that people could have their photos taken in. Those photos were branded with the charity:water logo and the Twestival logo and put up on Flickr. People got their photos after the party and put those up on their Facebook profiles. This FURTHER extended the reach of charity:water all over again. We also created a Flickr Photo Pool for partygoers to add their photos to, and if you search for NYC Twestival on Flickr, there were a TON of photos taken.

Word of mouth has the power in this situation, and your brand is a conversation, as they say famously over at Federated Media. The more that you can get your charity involved in a conversation with people, the more effective you will be at getting people to remember you cause.

Check out what charity:water is STILL doing to raise money through the power of social media. Check out charity:water's head honcho, Scott Harrison, and see how he is using the power of his personality to grow his project.