(Part the First) Causes on Facebook: You Can Talk the Talk. . .
This'll be short, because I'm writing it at work, but I'm writing it now because I'm looking at what's probably the sixty-oddth email telling me to get my non-profit organization on Facebook, or Twitter, or occasionally even MySpace, and watch the massive online recruiting and donating and general flow of good karma that will pour in our direction.
Well, my organization is on Facebook. We have both a page (become a fan!) and a cause (drink the Kool-aid). We've been on Facebook for about a year, but we haven't raised any money, and only about 10 people (all within our existing "nuclear family") have joined up. Clearly this isn't working out. There are legitimate reasons for that, beginning most importantly with the fact that most of our client base aren't really heavy Facebook users -- too young, too old, too generally luddite -- whatever, they're just not online. But I suspect even if we had a hundred members we still wouldn't raise any money this way. Any people who could give my non-profit money via Facebook can just as easily do it in person. Most of them still have not, but that's a separate problem. Our hip social-networking web presence won't affect this.
What it could do is raise our visibility, which would be important if my organization had a national interest. Social network sites seem to work the best for non-profit organizations that rely on high visibility to generate grassroots interest across a wide geographic area. There may even be a special niche for interest groups that might not otherwise be able to find their needle-specific constituencies in the haystack of US web domains.
A non-scientific search of organizations familiar to me and of similar size/sphere of influence shows that the Levine School of Music, the BlackRock Center for the Arts, and the Ellington school in Washington DC do not have Facebook causes. Even the Kennedy Center (a much bigger fish) doesn't appear to be on there. Politically oriented groups do a little better: the National Center for Transgender Equality (staff = approx. 3) has over 10,000 members, but has raised just under $300 via the facebook site*. By ccomparison, The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, with which we're probably more familiar, has a bit less than 4,000 members, and raises about $165 through Facebook. I was a little surprised, but I guess you reap as you sow. Healthcare non-profits do the best yet: a relatively unknown organization with a highly specific constituency, the Pulmonary Hypertension Association has 5,400 members, and raises nearly $1,600 through their Facebook cause. A much larger charity, such as the Leukemia and Lyphoma Society, is the named beneficiary of over 570 separate Facebook causes, which bring in a combined total of about $30,000. Now we're looking at some real money, it seems -- but you have to be the Leukemia-Lymphoma society to get it.
A slightly deeper look at the numbers, though, reveals that this $30,000 comes from just 796 of a total 601,664 members -- that's a Facebook donor conversion rate of about one tenth of one percent. THAT SUCKS!
'Nuff said. *In 2008, NCTE passively raised almost $50.00 just from web searches originating from GoodSearch, a non-profit friendly search engine powered by Yahoo. More on this passive fundraising strategy to come.
Well, my organization is on Facebook. We have both a page (become a fan!) and a cause (drink the Kool-aid). We've been on Facebook for about a year, but we haven't raised any money, and only about 10 people (all within our existing "nuclear family") have joined up. Clearly this isn't working out. There are legitimate reasons for that, beginning most importantly with the fact that most of our client base aren't really heavy Facebook users -- too young, too old, too generally luddite -- whatever, they're just not online. But I suspect even if we had a hundred members we still wouldn't raise any money this way. Any people who could give my non-profit money via Facebook can just as easily do it in person. Most of them still have not, but that's a separate problem. Our hip social-networking web presence won't affect this.
What it could do is raise our visibility, which would be important if my organization had a national interest. Social network sites seem to work the best for non-profit organizations that rely on high visibility to generate grassroots interest across a wide geographic area. There may even be a special niche for interest groups that might not otherwise be able to find their needle-specific constituencies in the haystack of US web domains.
A non-scientific search of organizations familiar to me and of similar size/sphere of influence shows that the Levine School of Music, the BlackRock Center for the Arts, and the Ellington school in Washington DC do not have Facebook causes. Even the Kennedy Center (a much bigger fish) doesn't appear to be on there. Politically oriented groups do a little better: the National Center for Transgender Equality (staff = approx. 3) has over 10,000 members, but has raised just under $300 via the facebook site*. By ccomparison, The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, with which we're probably more familiar, has a bit less than 4,000 members, and raises about $165 through Facebook. I was a little surprised, but I guess you reap as you sow. Healthcare non-profits do the best yet: a relatively unknown organization with a highly specific constituency, the Pulmonary Hypertension Association has 5,400 members, and raises nearly $1,600 through their Facebook cause. A much larger charity, such as the Leukemia and Lyphoma Society, is the named beneficiary of over 570 separate Facebook causes, which bring in a combined total of about $30,000. Now we're looking at some real money, it seems -- but you have to be the Leukemia-Lymphoma society to get it.
A slightly deeper look at the numbers, though, reveals that this $30,000 comes from just 796 of a total 601,664 members -- that's a Facebook donor conversion rate of about one tenth of one percent. THAT SUCKS!
'Nuff said. *In 2008, NCTE passively raised almost $50.00 just from web searches originating from GoodSearch, a non-profit friendly search engine powered by Yahoo. More on this passive fundraising strategy to come.