If you read our blog, you know that we really care about social media for social good. Our team puts a lot of time and thought into how we can help nonprofits use innovative techniques and tools to help their organizations build awareness, support and donations, through our programs and content. For instance, we have Josh’s Learn the Lingo series which attempts to break down the social media tools you hear about but may not understand, so anyone can easily get started. Or, our Tech for Good posts, where Eric takes it a step further and muses on what’s happening in technology and how it relates to nonprofits. Maybe it’s my online communications background, but for me, one of the best ways to learn more about something is through stories and examples of how others do it, and do it well.
Last month, we released an Assessment and Reflection Report authored by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine on America’s Giving Challenge, a program we launched in order to test and encourage the power of individual giving online. As part of this report, Beth and Allison featured three case studies on organizations that were successful in mobilizing their supporters during the Challenge. The case studies are based on interviews with remarkable individuals leading their Challenge efforts and winning $50,000 each for their causes.
I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight these organizations again in case you missed them. Below are short summaries to pique your interest! Make sure to check out the report if you haven’t already, and let us know of other organizations that are successful in using social media for social good.
Love Without Boundaries: Amy Eldridge
Love Without Boundaries (LWB) works to support over 1,500 children from over 100 orphanages in China. Amy Elridge and five friends had all adopted children and were desperate to do something more for children in Chinese orphanages. The organization was born in 2003, out of a sheer goal of helping these children and grew from a small organization helping individual children to a substantial foundation supporting children across China. They have been working to embrace new technologies, with a website, a vigorous blog, several Yahoo! Groups, and an active use of Skype between American volunteers and Chinese contacts. At the time of the Challenge, they were relatively new to Facebook, but after their site was hacked during the winter holidays, they joined the Causes Giving Challenge in an attempt to recoup donations. Despite their late start and initial hesitancy with the tools, LWB embraced the world of social media as well as utilized traditional fundraising techniques to emerge as a Challenge winner.
Students Helping Honduras: Erin Kelly
Students Helping Honduras (SHH) is a great example of how you can quickly mobilize supporters, and how much can be accomplished in just a short period of time. Founded by Shin and Cosmo Fujiyama after a 2005 visit to El Progreso, Honduras, SHH is an organization that aims to inspire and empower at-risk Honduran orphans. Originally a small group of students that fundraised and collected donations between two colleges, SHH is now a non-profit organization with chapters at college campuses across the nation. After hearing about the Challenge through an email from a friend only two weeks before the Challenge's end, Erin Kelly was convinced that it was still worth a try. Kelly, her chapter and others went into overdrive, employing multiple social media techniques and proving that youth movements and efforts are powerful driving forces to pay attention to.
IDEA League: Steven Hollister
IDEA League (International Dravet Syndrome Epilepsy Action League) is a volunteer-run nonprofit organization working to increase awareness about Dravet Syndrome and raise funds for research. IDEA League was founded in October 2005 by parents whose children suffer from the disease, which causes severe, unpredictable seizures. After reading about the Challenge in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Steven Hollister motivated the organization to get involved. While originally not a user of social networking or other social media tools, Hollister understood how to tell a story and fundraise using traditional methods. Taking what he calls a leap of faith, he jumped into the Challenge, deploying traditional fundraising techniques, while testing out new ones using social media, and the combination proved to be a stellar success.
Tags: AGC idea league love without boundaries social good social media students helping hondura
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