Micro Fundraising on Twitter: Red Kettle Campaign, Wellwishes cracks $2,000 mark

May 2010

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I've seen first hand how you can leverage your Twitter network to raise money for a good cause really fast. There are at least three micro fundraising campaigns that have launched in the last week. It's time update the history of fundraising on Twitter post I wrote that last month after the Tweetsgiving campaign raised $10,000 in 48 hours. Community learning also happens fast. I asked some questions and Avi Kaplan and Stacey Monk shared their reflections.

This month, we have seen others take those learnings and put them into action. The key to success is that money (in small amounts) flows into good causes based on the social capital that Twitter users create by building and cultivating their networks. The Twitterverse is generous!

As I wrote last week, Laura Fitton (@pistachio), has launched a bold experiment in using Twitter for micro fundraising. Her campaign, Well Wishes, is hoping to raise $25,000 for Charity: Water, in two dollar donations. There are matching donations from Tipjoy the service that is handling micro payment processing. It's as easy to donate as a 140 character tweet. As of this writing, she has raised $2,150 from 279 people from small donations contributed via tip jar. And according to a comment from Laura on this post, once it reaches $5,000, they will receive the first $5,000 match.

Laura left a comment describing the vision for micro fundraising.

I know that structuring it this way - with a tiny ask amount and a whole new service to administer the payments - makes it inherently tougher. But I have a vision for a world where mobile social networks have an easy built-in currency for in-the-moment giving, (with low overhead fees!) and this is a step towards that.

Imagine it for public radio: hear something great on the drive to work? What if you could effortlessly tip a dollar or two in appreciation? Or tweeting your order & payment ahead to your coffee shop? Or donating to a cause during a presentation or speech that motivated the giver?

In tough economic times anything that can spread the load more evenly, reduce friction and make giving more spontaneous could go a long way towards making up some of the pinch nonprofits are feeling in this downturn.

The Salvation Army has also launched a Kettle Campaign on Twitter. The goal is to raised $10,000 on Twitter. They are also using the TipJoy in the same way as the Well Wishes campaign. Approximately $2,000 has been raised as of this writing.

TweetmasFuture launched its fundraising on Twitter campaign earlier this month. As of this writing the campaign has raised $12,000 out of its $20,000. This campaign is a mult-channel strategy and is using a online donation web page versus micro donations made via Twitter.

I can't wait until these fundraisers share their lessons learned. Not only is the Twitter community generous, but those who have implemented campaigns have been contributed to the community knowledge by sharing their lessons learned.