Study Examines Donors’ Views of Online Networks

November 12, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute

Americans seem conflicted about the role of social networks as a way to support the causes they care about.

According to a new survey, while nearly eight in 10 people who use online media think that companies and nonprofit organizations should use the technology to raise money and awareness for causes, fewer than one in five have made a donation using the tools.

In September, Cone, a Boston marketing firm, asked 587 people who use new media about how they employ the technology to interact with companies and nonprofit organizations. (For the study, the company defined new media as “dialogue among individuals or groups” on social networks, blogs, Twitter, online games, mobile devices, message boards, and sites that allow people to share photos, audio, and video.)

Nearly three-quarters of Americans said that new media raise their awareness about causes but do not motivate them to help. Thirty-nine percent said they didn’t trust that their efforts would actually help the cause.

To read the report, go to: http://www.coneinc.com/research.

About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.