May 22, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Charities need to start using social-networking sites, text messaging, and other new online tools in their fund raising and advocacy because e-mail is becoming less and less effective at prompting people to take action, said Brian Rubenstein, associate director of Cancer Action Network, the American Cancer Society’s nonprofit advocacy arm.
As an example, Mr. Rubenstein, who spoke Wednesday at a Washington session about the Internet’s impact on philanthropy and politics, pointed to statistics showing that members of Congress each now receive an average of 1,600 e-mail messages every day — an avalanche their staffs can’t keep up with.
The barrage of messages — and concerns that people take e-mail less seriously today — has led the cancer society to take a different approach in reaching out to supporters and lawmakers, Mr. Rubenstein said. “We are using online to drive offline activities.”
The cancer society, he explained, has started using text messages, its Web site, and pages on social-networking sites to ask donors and others to visit lawmakers in person and take other actions such as dropping off materials at their local Representative’s office, attending publicity events held by politicians, and showing up at meetings where lawmakers gather.
“We have come full circle to old-school politics,” said Mr. Rubenstein. “We can no longer communicate through one blast e-mail.”
