Social Media Philosophy for Charity: To Commit, Champion and Celebrate.

“What if… in everything we do we give to a preferred charity…” (Quote from Charlie’s book, Unearthing)

Charlie has raised money for the Heart Foundation SA through her DeadRed WineGroup. She has also raised money over the years for the Cancer Council through “Girls Night In” and “Relay for Life” events. She supports all good causes and friends when they show dedication to their goals. She proudly supports both daughters in their own fundraising efforts.

Charities in the marketplace are already competing for head space, money and time in busy people’s lives. Social media in its nature is fun and interactive. Most people simply use it to catch up with friends.

To capitalise on this philosophy would be to join forces with friends. Why is that important? Well, to look at an age old business strategy is to always ensure your existing clients are the happiest on the planet. New clients take far more effort to convert. This isn’t BAD, just time consuming… Now, a happy old client is good. In social media land – this is known as a “friend”. And we want to keep them friendly.

So, with that in mind…

Charity: You want to promote your charity and gain support. How do you currently promote your charity? For everything you say offline, halve. Use “twitter-like speak”. meaning… convert your campaigns into simple, quick easy to cut and paste messages. So ultimately they are easily shared amongst friends. Make them “did you hear about?”, “did you see so and so” related. Conversation like.

Go on, go and shorten your charities vision and mission now. Practice.

Commit: Conversation and interaction takes time to develop strong networks and convert them to friends. It also takes persistence. So, stick with who you know first. Look at your offline networks and encourage linkages to your online social media network channels. Listen to those people who already support you. Do not initially use social media to “mass media” or gather new players ie do not force it. Focus on those you already know, encourage and promote them. It will be a natural progression for new people to come on board and join in the fun.

Now, because social media is two way, promote your offline channels to gain commitment from new people. Limit time spent on people who don’t come across and commit to you.

However if someone commits…

Champion: You have committed already to supporting your existing networks, ie your friends. Therefore you now need to champion those who have been with you through thick and thin. Or who have converted, committed and you now wish to champion. This may sound like you are forming a clique however if considered more a treat it becomes a method of thanks.

And with thanks, we…

Celebrate: Contact your friends and followers individualy. Make it personal. Dont mass message your friends. Work closely with friends individually and make them special. And dont forget to have all your staff chat about the successes of your campaigns. You may wish to ensure you have a social media policy in place – but if they want to brag about their work – let them!

Here are a couple of services to consider, taking charity fundraising online in the most innovative, thoughtful, friendly way. It promotes and champions people to do the work for you (almost cheeky), that you can celebrate with them their success. You can champion them.

CROWDRISE

Crowdrise is an innovative, crowd-sourcing community of volunteers and fundraisers that are answering the call to service, raising money for charity, and having the most fun in the world while doing it. Charities can use Crowdrise to raise money in new ways by turning their grassroots supporters into grassroots fundraisers.

EveryDayHero

You can be a hero for your favourite charity or cause by building your own personal fundraising page. It only takes a few minutes to build and email to all of your contacts and you can choose from 964 amazing not for profit causes.

Six Degrees

You’ve probably heard of the Six Degrees concept. Any one person (including Kevin Bacon) is connected to any other person through six or fewer relationships, because it’s a small world. SixDegrees.org is about using this idea to accomplish something good. It’s social networking with a social conscience. Through this web site, you can support your favorite charities by donating or creating fundraising badges — as well as check out the favorite causes of other people, including celebrities..