Seeking Young Donors

A growing number of charities are taking advantage of new technologies to reach teenagers and young adults. Among the approaches that have shown promise — albeit with some challenges:

• Hundreds of charities now post information about their organizations on social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Getting the content right is not always easy for charity officials, however. Do Something, a New York group that encourages volunteerism nationwide, hired Natalia Lavric of Ohio University (above) to help make sure its postings are appealing to young people.

• Some charities are attempting to take advantage of Americans’ growing appetite for video games by designing their own digital games and events

• As cellphone owners exchange tens of billions of text messages every month, charities hope to persuade people to give and volunteer by simply hitting a few buttons on their mobile devices. But so far such appeals have proved too expensive for most groups to use for mass solicitations.

You’ll find more about the techniques described in these articles at http://philanthropy.com/extras.