Over the last 6 months I've seen some pretty cool results for charities and non-profits using Twitter.

Non-Profit Success Stories with Twitter

tweetsgiving

Tweetsgiving.org " Epic Change + Kbuzz

This was a very clever, well planned, successful viral fundraiser. The goal was to raise $10,000 to build a classroom for children in Tanzania.

Tactics:

  • Asked twitterers to tweet their gratitude along with website address and
  • The hashtag #tweetsgiving
  • Enlisted influential twitterers (via direct messaging) as seed evangelists
  • Chip-in for donations

Results:

  • People tweeted 3,000 gratitude messages
  • They gained 1,337 twitter followers
  • Tweetsgiving was a top trending term on Twitter for 48 hours
  • Tweetsgiving.org received 15,830 page views from 7563 visitors in 101 countries
  • More than 100 press and blog mentions, and here's one more 😉

hrguy1

One Day For Human Rights " Anca Foster

This campaign was focused on the Dec 10, 2008 Human Rights Day, and modeled after Blog Action Day. The goal was to get signatures for a petition to get the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into people's passports.

Tactics:

  • Twitter avatar mod/logo
  • Tweets
  • Badges for blogs
  • Got commitments to blog about it on the actual day

Results:

12for12k.org " Danny Brown

This is a fairly new, ongoing year-long effort for 12 different charities. Each month, a new charity.

Tactics are fluid, but they include:

  • Avatar mod, tweeting, badges
  • Chip-in for donations
  • Raffle contests

And they just did a tweet-a-thon... March 19 2009 to Raise $12,000 for the Share Our Strength charity.

Results:

  • Website traffic: 3,117 unique visitors with 6,239 page hits
  • Twitter: 100+ pages of search results for the #12for12k hashtag
  • Twitter: 300 users of the #12for12k hashtag between 11.00am and 1.00pm EST
  • Twitter: Topping numerous Twitter trend sites (above March Madness hashtag)
  • Donors: 459 contributors, raising a total of $14,847.69
  • Amount: Target of $12,000 was raised in just 6 hours. On average, more than $1,000 was being donated per hour.

Real World Results

  • Connect 546,840 families to programs that provide free meals to their children during the summer.
  • Provide 14,112 preschool children with a nutritious lunch.
  • Give 352,800 schoolchildren a glass of milk
  • Feed 420 children three meals a day for a month

Um wow.

So What Works For Charities and Non Profits on Twitter? Tips for Getting Action and Participation

  • Widgets and logos for people's blogs
  • Logo that's avatar-sized for Twitter pic modification
  • Hashtags
  • Reason for people to constantly tweet about it
  • Chip In widget
  • Get commitments to blog or tweet

About the Author: Brian Carter