The Online Revolution for Charities Isn’t Stalled

To the Editor

The issues listed on the front page of The Chronicle’s forecast of emerging forces in 2010 (December 10, 2009) were right on the money: government in crisis, grim grants outlook, volunteerism becomes cool.

And then came number 10, the final forecast: a stalled online revolution. Uh-oh, we thought, that one’s a clunker. The online revolution isn’t stalled, rather it is at the beginning of a new phase of development and maturity.

Gartner, the technology research and consulting firm, measures what it calls the hype cycle. It is a predictable process that begins with the hype of a new technology tool or process, an explosion in use and expectations, then a fall followed by a settling of productive technology use over time. Taking social-networking sites as one example, as The Chronicle did, we have passed the hype phase and moved into the fall, meaning the loss of members and the initial disappointment that the sites are not a panacea for the future of fund raising. But we are not stalled there, we are moving quickly into a more productive phase. This next chapter will focus less on the wizardry of the tools and more on their effective use for social change.

The early adopters of social media for fund raising are seeing results both in terms of dollars and social capital raised. Epic Change, for example, raised $30,000 this year through its second Tweetsgiving campaign, three times what it raised the first year. In 2009 Twestival enabled thousands of people to self-organize events worldwide, raising over $250,000 for the nonprofit group Charity:water. Charity:water then launched its own online social network, raising thousands and thousands of dollars. Large institutions that are early adopters are also reaping the benefits. The Humane Society of United States raised over $500,000 through its spa day photo contest on the Web and on Facebook. As social media become a normal part of the fund-raising tool box, these amounts will no doubt increase.

A recent online funding contest illustrates another part of the maturation of social media processes. JPMorgan Chase launched a $5-million holiday giving effort called Chase Community Giving on Facebook. Building on the success of other online funding contests, Chase brought the contest to where people congregate online, Facebook, rather than try to re-create these social networks on its own site. It encouraged people to do what comes easily and naturally online, meaning vote for their favorites and encourage their friends to do the same. All of the elements were in place to implement a successful and generous philanthropic effort—seemingly.

It became clear as the contest unfolded that Chase had borrowed the design elements of previous contests, but had missed a crucial aspect of using social media. Chase failed to understand that transparency is a bedrock principle of social-media use. There was no leader board, it was impossible for anyone on the outside to know who was winning, or who ultimately did win by what margin of voting. And several anti-abortion and pro-marijuana groups have claimed that they were leading vote getters that were thrown out of the contest because of Chase’s discomfort with their issue areas.

In online contests like the one that Chase hosted, if a group gathers enough votes from their friends, they win, regardless of their mission or activities unless otherwise stated initially. Chase broke this promise and damaged its relationship with some people in the nonprofit community.

The next phase of development for social media includes the spread of best practices. It also includes the further development of communities of bloggers and Twitterers, observers—and the mainstream media—that hold funders and nonprofit organizations to these best practices.

The technology expert Clay Shirky wrote, “Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.”

In the next year, nonprofit organizations and foundations will continue to practice connecting with the world and their constituents in new and powerful ways. Or, like Chase, will miss the chance to do so and face a loud backlash.

Allison Fine

Senior Fellow, Demos; A Network of Ideas and Action

New York

Beth Kanter

Visiting Scholar

David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Los Altos, Calif.

Ms. Fine and Ms. Kanter are the authors of The Networked Nonprofit, a book to be published this spring by Jossey-Bass.