Social media connects people like never before. With the average person spending 13 hours a week online, it's not hard to imagine why.
Being able to distribute information globally at the click of a mouse empowers advocates to quickly raise awareness and funds on a shoestring budget.
In February 2009, more than 200 cities around the world held Twestivals, which rallied the Twitter community together for an evening to raise money and awareness for charity: water. In total, they raised about US$250,000 and were able to provide clean water for over 17,000 people by using Twitter as their primary tool with additional information on Vimeo and Facebook.
According to a study by NetWitsThinkTank, an online resource for nonprofits, fundraisers who adopted integrated social media tools increased their fundraising by as much as 40 percent compared to their peers who weren’t using the available online tools.
The results are clear, online fundraising is clearly more successful and far-reaching than traditional fundraising techniques – and with more immediate impact.
