May 7, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Following on the heels of efforts like Twestival and Aston Kutcher’s Twitter challenge, a new venture called TwittaCause seeks to tap the social-networking site, Twitter, for large-scale fund-raising.
TwittaCause seeks to raise $1-million for charity through a combination of small corporate sponsorships and individual pledges made and broadcast through Twitter. The project was started in January by Sam Swanson, a 23-year old student in New Zealand, who says he wanted “to try to see if I could raise money for charity without spending any money.”
TwittaCause’s first order of business: choosing a beneficiary. After soliciting nominations through Twitter, Mr. Swanson has selected the 15 most-nominated groups and is asking followers to vote on which should receive the $1-million. Among those on the list are: One Laptop Per Child, The Kempe Foundation, Epic Change, and National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Voting, done through the TwittaCause Web site, closes May 10.
So far the venture has raised only a few thousand dollars, says Mr. Swanson, though he expects donations to pick up pace one a beneficiary is chosen, and hopes to meet the $1-million goal by the end of the year.
The competition came as a surprise to some of the charities that stand to benefit from it. “It was news to us,” says Kristine Pearson, chief executive of the Freeplay Foundation, which received an e-mail message in late April that the group was among the finalists.
Since then, says Ms. Pearson, the organization – which distributes wind-up and solar powered radios to students, women, children, farmers and refugees in Africa – has been hard at work campaigning for votes by sending out press releases, reaching out to supporters through Twitter and Facebook, and even announcing the competition on a South African radio program.
“Most people don’t realize that a competition like this, while fun and exciting and stimulating, takes an enormous amount of staff time,” says Ms. Pearson. Still, she says, for a “lean” organization like Freeplay the prospect of securing $1 million in unrestricted funds is too great an opportunity to let slip.
The nomination was also a surprise to Children’s Cancer Research Fund, in Minneapolis, although Kris Huson, the group’s marketing and communications manager suspects it was the fruit of several months’ work in cultivating online supporters through Twitter and other social networks. While TwittaCause may as yet be far from its $1-million goal, Ms. Huson believes the competition can only bring benefit to Children’s Cancer Research Fund and the other groups chosen as potential beneficiaries. “Even if there’s not money at the end of the rainbow, there’s awareness,” she says.
