Nonprofits tap online networks to raise funds



By Lini S. Kadaba



Inquirer Staff Writer

Living Beyond Breast Cancer has won supporters for one of its biggest fund-raisers with e-mail blasts, brochures, and personal calls to big donors.



But that's so yesterday.



For the first time, the nonprofit based in Haverford is posting to its new Facebook page information on this year's Yoga Unites event, which takes place Sunday. It also is tweeting on Twitter as @YU4LBBC and uploading video to YouTube.



Of course, Living Beyond also blogs, and it shares photos on Flickr, including one of women saluting the sun on the steps of the Art Museum, where the annual Yoga Unites takes place.



As a result, the number of teams signed up for the event has nearly tripled, the group reports.



That's the bottom-line promise of "social giving," which uses online networks to raise awareness and, ultimately, money. Organizations with a cause are "friend-raising" on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and elsewhere to bolster that old-as-money objective: fund-raising.



How does it work? Social giving exploits online networks, which offer exponential possibilities for building personal relationships. Once an organization makes a connection to an individual, that person can leverage his or her personal contacts - the old "friends of friends" gone viral. When campaigns also include interactive contests, creative video clips, and real-time information, donating money becomes less of an obligation and more of an experience.



Read on at;

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/technology/20090515_Nonprofits_tap_online_networks_to_raise_funds.html

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