My friend and online alter ego Michael Stein (yes, there is another!) offered a useful write-up way back in July 2008 about The Nature Conservancy's use of Facebook for fundraising. Michael writes:
There's been a lot of excitement in the last year about social networking in general, and about Facebook in particular. And a lot of talk about the value of social networking for non-profits. But is there really a return on investment for non-profit participation on these sites? Here's a success story. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a 501(c)3 organization that works in the U.S. and over 30 other countries to protect ecologically important lands and waters. Using tools readily available on Facebook, the organization has raised almost $48,000 in the first six months of their social-networking effort. They did this by creating a Cause and a Fan Page for the org, and by forming a relationship with an ecology oriented game on Facebook, (lil) Green Patch. Six months later the (lil) Green Patch application is one of the most popular on Facebook, with over 6 million users!
Thanks so much for your post, the tweet and the link, Michael! I've also met that "other" Michael Stein but have yet to catch up with you in person.
If you'd like to learn more about The Nature Conservancy's Facebook strategy, please see http://tinyurl.com/6eqbpy -- we think that this is an exciting new model by which nonprofits can raise support on Facebook and MySpace in a manner that doesn't take a lot of staff time and therefore offers high ROI.
Posted by: Jonathon D. Colman | November 13, 2008 at 09:43 AM