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It’s about stewardship, not always dollars

Individual nonprofits have not yet raised billions via social media and even online giving still only accounts for a mere fraction of the $300 billion given to charities annually. So, what are they good for, you ask? Plenty, actually.

Fundraising coach and consultant Pamela Grow, writing in the recently published “The Essential Fundraising Handbook for Small Nonprofits,” recommends that stewarding donors should be a regular role in your organization’s social media. Ask yourself, “What would happen if I thanked one donor every day for the next year?” And you can, thanks to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, you can thank donors publicly, and easily (just be sure that they’re not your anonymous donors).

Grow suggests creating brief YouTube videos that thank donors for their gifts, with program staff recording a one- or two-minute thank you video. Flip-cams and smart phones have made sharing photos and even creating videos fast and simple, and YouTube has made sharing easy and public. She challenges charities to get creative: try recording a whiteboard animation thank-you. If your agency works with children, have kids create some thank-you cards to display and share via Facebook or other social media.