Using Social Media for Raising Funds

If you are raising funds for your business, social media makes it easier and more effective than it was in the past. You are now able to reach a much wider audience and your results are often more effective.

An extremely successful way to raise funds for your business is through a technique called crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is solidifying your idea, creating a solid and appealing storyline and pitch for your idea, and promoting the idea in a huge way to people who are potential funders of the idea. You do this through social media channels, viral video campaigns, etc. A marvelous advantage of crowdfunding is that it allows you to build a strong customer base quickly by appealing to a large number of micro-funders at once.

It is now very simple to solicit funds through social media using fundraising badges or widgets, social networks such a as Twitter and Causes (which is a part of Facebook). Regarding the transactions themselves, PayPal and Network for Good are both set up to do that quite easily and smoothly.

Without having the stress of the transactions and all that is involved with that aspect of fundraising, you can now concentrate on communicating your message as sharply and succinctly as possible as well as targeting the right people. You worry about the communication and the transactions will be taken care of (almost by someone else). Targeting the correct people means that you will be seeking people who will help you to spread the word on their websites. That sort of syndication is very effective and won’t eat into your budget very much.

Available Tools

There are many tools that are available nowadays to help you to raise funds for your business. Some of the tools are designed to work most effectively with small businesses and other tools are designed to work more effectively with medium-sized and large businesses.

The following are some of the most effective tools that are specifically for fundraising with small businesses:

• Kickstarter: Kickstarter’s philosophy is that a good idea that is communicated properly has the potential to spread broadly and quickly. The tool is based on the premise that a large amount of people can be a significant source of funding and support. With Kickstarter, no project is launched unless it has been completely funded up front. This eliminates the possibility of failure. This is a tool that motivates people to get involved with various projects for all sorts of causes.
   
• GlobalGiving: An online marketplace for philanthropy where people can post an idea and it will be funded. GlobalGiving connects donors with community-based projects that are in need of support, both in the United States and abroad. You, as the donor, choose the project that you want to support, make a contribution (which is tax-deductible) and receive regular progress reports so that you can see exactly what your money is paying for.
   
• ChipIn: This is one of the most popular widgets used by fundraisers now for distributed fundraising. The tool is very user friendly that can be installed on your website or social media profile pages. It is basically a “donate” button that comes with a thermometer, which measures the progress of the campaign. It is free to subscribe to ChipIn but you will need to set up a PayPal account in order to process donations.
   
• ChangingThePresent: This is a nonprofit that connects you with 1500 meaningful and nontraditional gifts, such as “adopt a tiger for $40” and “stop global warming for $20.” You can browse by nonprofit or cause for gifts for friends or colleagues. ChangingThePresent encourages donors to make donations of any and all amounts through their home pages. The most exclusive profile costs $100 per year.
   
• Causes: This is run by Facebook and is a great way to draw a lot of attention to worthwhile causes. Causes lets fundraisers solicit donations from their contacts as well as recruiting volunteers who also want to get involved in a specific cause. Many people also use the website for social reasons and they can get involved with fundraising ideas by posting Causes profiles on their own Facebook page.
   
• SixDegrees: This is an affiliate of Network for Good, which allows social networking with a conscience. You can support your favorite causes through the site by creating or donating fundraising badges. You can also check out other people’s causes. The tools that SixDegrees use make it very easy to give. You can check the progress of your cause at the top of the badge.
   
• Razoo: This is a unique way of raising money online. Whether you are interested in running a fundraiser for someone else’s cause, raising money for your own organization or donating money, Razoo gives simple tools to you to help you meet your objectives. It helps donors to find worthwhile and inspiring opportunities and helps organizations in various ways.
   
• PincGiving: This assists charities and corporations with their philanthropic goals. You can give to the charity of your choice in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. You can also raise funds through your own website and create a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign or access millions of dollars in grant money (in the currency of your choice).
   
• SocialVibe: This is a micro-fundraising social media service that connects nonprofit organizations with people with brands. This gives them to the power to engage with various sponsors as well as sharing branded content. If you use the service, you are not obligated to donate money at all because the corporate sponsors do all of the donating. You will, however, be encouraged to donate advertising space on your social networks by adding the SocialVibe widget to your social media profile pages.

There are also many effective tools for bigger fundraising efforts:

• Artez: This furnishes a package of online fundraising tools that allows you to customize your fundraising campaign for your organization’s specific needs. People can simply make donations and buy tickets to a specific event.
   
• Care2: This is an online community whose members are actively involved with environmental and social causes and it is also a platform for fundraising and activism. The merging of nonprofit organizations, philanthropists and socially responsible businesses in an effort to help other people is very effective in helping to raise funds and support for very worthy causes.
   
• Convio: This tool furnishes fundraising, marketing, advocacy and a database with donor tools to nonprofit organizations. Convio’s module lets users take their vision and translate it into online or integrated marketing programs that can collect, engage and convert people into becoming loyal donors. Individual and team fundraising pages can be created and they have reporting and analytics capabilities.

There are several elements that go into a fundraising campaign to make it a success. Some of those elements are a call to action, which asks for donations directly or communicates a message to people who might want to get involved; an immediate way to donate funds (by credit card that is connected directly from the posting and is processed through the website of the organization that is requesting the funds; and a social media sharing tool, which is designed for readers to be able to spread the word through their social media channels.

Conclusion

There are so many ways to raise funds through social media channels. Many of the organizations that have been mentioned here are excellent and can help you to really make a difference. They are easy tools to use and to navigate and you should give them a try to see which ones work best for you and your business.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.