Charities “Way In” – Fundraisers Create Your Online Presence

The rise of online communities

Online communities move across borders and cultural differences. We spend a lot of time on the internet and the online community has become a social hub where information is shared and re-shared.

Online communities have also taken on its own social function where we as private individuals can become involved with others, comment and shape online interaction. Within our social network we can create, share and distribute information and media globally.

This kind of interaction also has ramifications for our community unplugged.

Internet is the biggest media amongst late teens, passing the TV by miles as the media most use throughout the day. Over 70% of the user demographic who are 16-20 send and receive emails daily and almost as many chat on a daily basis using messenger or Facebook chat. Many of us pop by Facebook or other social media like Youtube more than once a day to connect with friends and interact. We rarely stay online for more than a few minutes. However, think of how these minutes could be spent.

We are all drawn to online communities that are social and exciting, where we can interact and be entertained. We rarely make a clear distinction between what is purposeful online activity and social online activity. Like at a cafe, a rock festival or in each other’s living rooms, we share information and laughs.

Enter the online fundraiser

The new fundraisers are these people who take on the task of fundraising through their own social networks and use the online community as a social arena for laughs and for purpose without distinction.

A continued sharing of information and projects connected to a charity creates attention and locks in new resources for charities. A friend soliciting you through facebook or other social media is more effective than a press release from a charity. A friends referral is trustworthy because it comes from a source that the receiver recognises. With such referrals in time the charity also becomes a  trusted and recognised source. And all without the charity doing much to make this happen. The users are doing the work for them.

Fundraisers use their network to raise money for the charity that they support, and get their friends involved in the cause – much in the same way as they might if they were a member of an organization and talking to friends at a café about the work.

However many of the fundraisers may not be a member of the charity organization they support, or even want to become one. But this is something charities must embrace to be able to fully take advantage of online fundraisers.

The free pass of charities to online communities

Online fundraising means that the charities are finally finding a way in to the online community, namely through the users of social media. It has been a locked community for advertisers to grasp, but for charities there is another way because charities sport causes that engage people and easily become conversational topics.

Through an online fundraising platform can enter in to the online community with a free pass and become the topic of choice for many who want to communicate online.

Image credit: Viola Ng