photo by freeparking
A recent article in the Washington Post about the perceived ineffectiveness of Facebook’s Causes application to raise money has kicked up a lot of upset among fund raisers and other nonprofit pros.
You’ll find excellent responses to the article out there from Allison Fine, Beth Kanter and Jeff Brooks. The main takeaway is that, unless you’re running for president, social media is a far more effective friend raiser than fund raiser.
That really shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s worked in the nonprofit world for any length of time. Every institutional advancement professional I’ve ever worked with understands that relationship-building precedes the ask. Unless the ask is for pocket change.
Real money comes with time. Fund raiser gets to know the donor, what motivates. Donor develops an understanding of the organization’s mission, its potential to make an impact and how a gift actualizes that potential. Successful fund raising is the matchmaking process of the right donor to the right cause. Social media at this point can facilitate and accelerate that process, but it doesn’t replace it.
Serious money is raised by people, not direct mail and Facebook pages. I seriously doubt anything will replace the slow, methodical getting-to-know-you process that great fund raisers do so well.
So while the Post article wasn’t particularly revelatory about its subject, it did serve as a pointed reminder that most media outlets do a lousy job of covering the nonprofit sector. It’s ironic given all the debate about the nonprofit model as a potential savior of journalism.
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