Twestival: Are Fundraising Groundswells A Massive Opportunity or Distraction for Nonprofit Organizations?

I've been experimenting with online fundraising in an age of social media since 2006.  It is evolving from individuals leveraging their personal networks to groundswells.  

Last week, I wrote about Twestival, the most recent example of fundraising on Twitter and a networked fundraiser of a scale we haven't seen before.  I titled the post "Look Out Here Comes Everybody To Raise Money for charity:water on Twitter" with a wink to Clay Shirky's work.  In the comments, there was quite a lively discussion from nonprofit professionals raising some cautions and concerns. 

This made me curious:

• How did Twestival get started?  What is its relationship with charity:water?
• What was the role of the nonprofit, charity:water, in working with Twestival?
• How did the relationship originate?
• How is the event being organized?
• What does this say for nonprofits in an age of connectedness?

First, let me recap what Twestival is.

On February 12, 2009,  Twitter users will meet up in over 100 plus cities to socialize offline, meet other Twitter users, enjoy some fun, have a few drinks, and raise money for charity: water.  This event combines the lessons learned from previous fundraising activities on Twitter:

• A local, face-to-face component based on the popular "Tweet Ups" or "Net2Tuesday" meetups
• Decentralized event organizing, it's grassroots and anyone can organize a local event
• The charity isn't the central organizer of the event - it appears that they are letting their stakeholders run with it and not imposing "branding and messaging" standards.  Each localized event is putting its own unique flair to the event.
• Micro donations using TipJoy
• Focus 24 hour event with broadcasts and all local partners participating to raise awareness (a sort of Blog Action Day on steroids)
• They have announced a goal of raising $500,000, based on each city establishing its own goal.

I'm attending the TwestivalSf in San Francisco - anyone else?

In the comments, there was quite a lively discussion from nonprofit professionals raising some cautions and concerns.  I've summarized some of themes below:

Is this a swarm of independent mavericks or a carefully crafted and managed groundswell?

David Kinard, nonprofit marketing consultant, mentioned a big concern about peer-to-peer fundraising: the big picture is lost, and the impact to the greater good is diminished.  He also had concerns about the apparent disjointed effort underway.

I guess I look at it like this: if you give a hundred people tools to lay bricks, you'll likely get a hundred small structures. If you give a hundred people the tools to lay bricks and get them working off a shared plan, then you can build anything you want. I am all for equipping believers of a cause to go out to the world and do good...but I am less enthusiastic of sending out a swarm of independent mavericks.

Allison Fine observed that the big picture goal of efforts like Twestival is to begin to develop larger ecosystems of activists that are connected and coordinated with one another.  She notes, "The focus of leaders in the sector needs to be how to better work within these ecosystems to meet their own missions as well as meet the larger needs of communities."

Marcia Stepanek, who writes the CauseGlobal Blog mentions an interview with Clay Shirky where he describes the importance of new leadership:

What I think is coming is a new type of leadership style that will expand into other kinds of collective action—in particular, real-world collective action. And so, for a traditional institution, this is really a moment where, if the organizational structure doesn't change, then the institution is essentially going to find itself working at cross-purposes with many of its members. This is a challenge that people in the Obama administration are facing; that people in nonprofits are facing; that people in many institutions are facing: how to change the organizational structure enough to accommodate Web-enabled, ground-up, collective action—self-organized groups of members or supporters or constituents that, because they're using new technology tools, are demanding interaction at far higher levels than before. This is something that really is unprecedented. Those organizations which fail to exert new leadership will risk losing support.

This lead me to ask what exactly were those new nonprofit leadership skills?

Marcia suggested that the skills are similar to those of a symphony orchestra conductor.  Shirky adds to this point:

There is an Israeli conductor, Itay Talgam, who gives a talk on leadership styles using orchestra conductors as the example. And the critical thing that a conductor does is synchronize the orchestra because the complexity of self-synchronization is hard at that scale.

As someone who trained as a classical flutist and has played in a symphony orchestra or two, the conductor's role is pivotal for that synchronicity but if the musicians know their parts, the score, and someone gives the downbeat, they could play without the conductor.   Especially if the players in the orchestra have been playing together for years! 

David felt this was less of an issue of learning new leadership skills, but simply a distraction.

What I fear is not that swarms of cause-wired activists will force new forms of leadership, but that the leadership will be distracted from doing the right work in the right order because they have to deal with the unintentioned disruption these good-hearted people likely create. If large communities of independent change-agents force sector leaders to take their eyes off the ball of their primary mission, then I think we've done more damage than good.

Twestival: The origins of the  'Tweet, meet, and give"

I was curious about how the Twestival founders connected with charity:water.  I interviewed Ben Matthews  who was part of the organizational group that dreamed up the Twestival concept in London in September 2008.  The group consisted of  @amanda, @tommalcolm, @renate and @timhoang.  They all work in PR, but Ben is the founder of Brightone, a company that works with charities.  So this is a group of social media power users and pr professionals who have some experience with nonprofits.  And they were not total strangers to one another.  Says Ben, "We knew each other on Twitter."

Says Ben,  "The idea was to run a festival that got people who followed each other on Twitter to meet up in real life, but also come together to raise money for a good cause at the same time."  This small group organized the first Twestival to raise money for The Connection,  an organization that helps homeless people by providing specialist services.  "What's amazing is that the whole thing came together in about 3 weeks and generated lots of interest and around 300 attendees (with a waiting list) in such a short space of time."

Buoyed by the success of their first event,  the Twestival organizers wanted to do a second event, selecting a charity that had a global outreach and an active presence on Twitter.   They were looking for a charity that was transparent and could easily demonstrate the impact of their fundraising efforts.  Kiva, charity:water and a few others were mentioned.  

Scott Harrison, Founder of charity: water - Thanks the Twestival from Phil Thomas Di Giulio on Vimeo.

The Relationship with charity:water

This group of Twitter do gooders in London did not a formal relationship with the charity:water management staff, but charity:water's founder, Scott Harrison, was active on Twitter (@scottharrison).   As Ben observes, "Well that ticked the boxes on the accountability and global presence fronts. Whatever amount that Twestival raises, every pound, dollar, pesos, krone and whatever else will go straight to charity:water and that money will be used to directly fund charity:water projects."

When the Twestival founders approached charity:water, they listened to the organization's concerns.  The nonprofit wanted to make sure that the money raised got to charity:water.   The Twestival partnered with amiando and tipjoy to ensure that the money goes into a central source and can be easily tracked.  (See Rachel Weidinger's thoughts about the importance of a donation system respecting donor privacy, though.)

Ben also mentions that the charity:water's other concern is that the event must be a success for charity:water's own reputation.  "Their 2008 Christmas ball raised a very large amount of money, so we have a lot to live up to, but are confident that the Twestival events happening in over 160 cities worldwide on February 12th 2009, it will be a great success!"

Also bear in mind that charity:water had been aware of the event plans long before any formal announcements were made.  They have had control in whether to let, Twestival, raise money for their work. As Ben notes, "If they did feel that we were going to disrupt them from focusing on their core mission, then they could simply say have said no.  We would have identified a different charity."

It is also important to point out as Scott Harrison mentions in the video above, that Twitter power users and indeed the founders of Twitter have been supportive of the charity:water over the past year.  This large scale event is the not the first.  There were other smaller events to support charity:water on Twitter prior to the September event organized by Twestival.

The Swarm Is Organized, Not Random

The Twestival has been a grassroots effort lead by Amanda, a professional events organizer.  According to Ben, she had the vision to take Twestival worldwide and has taken on responsibility of organizing the global aspect. With over 160 cities participating, Ben observes, "It's a momentous task with an amazing amount of time an energy required to bring it all together, but she's really achieved so much already, which will hopefully lead to lots of money being raised on the night."

While Twestival is an all-volunteer effort organized outside of the nonprofit direct management and control, the volunteers are highly organized. There are guidelines of how the city organizers can run their own event.  It is not a template.   Ben says, "We didn't want to dictate what they did, as it didn't matter how big or small it was or how much money they raised. By allowing people to design their own events but under the original ethos of Twestival of raising money for a selected charity, the event becomes more self-organising. Having said that, I'm sure Amanda's email inbox is the busiest in the world right now!"

Tony Scott (@tonys), a technology volunteer, has also been instrumental in the effort. He's put together the main Twestival site that helped the cities to manage their own events.Says Ben, "It's through here that all the details, ticketing, sponsors and other info for all of the individual events are gathered. The dev blog is a testament to his work." 

Conclusion

The Twestival just announced a goal of $500,000.  So, on February 13th, we'll be able to see where this all goes and how networked fundraising evolves and what the implications are for nonprofit social media strategies and leadership. 

Questions to ponder ....

• charity:water has a presence on Twitter and has the caught the attention of social media gurus like Twitter's founders and Mashable.   Can nonprofits who have relationships with social media rockstars create a groundswell of support?
• Many nonprofits perceive "personal networking" on social networking sites like Twitter to be a waste of time.  If this campaign reaches its financial goal and is a success for the organization, there certainly should demonstrate a ROI for personal networking and building relationships?
• What are the best ways to cultivate relationships with free agent fundraisers and collaborate on fundraisers with them?   Seems like facilitative leadership is key.
• Could there be other groundswells of disjointed activists who don't connect with the charity - but take on the fundraising or even the program delivery that does not further the greater good?

Resources

Mashable, Twestival Social Media for Social Change
Other links aggregated on my original post, "Look Out, Here Comes Everybody To Raise Money for charity:water on Twitter"

Posts about earlier charity:water and Twitter efforts
Paul Young's Reflection on his September Birthday Campaign
Pistachio's experiment in micro fundraising
September Birthdays on charity:water

Comments

[Tresha Thorsen]

Wow. Completely thorough background, excellent questions raised, give us all much to ponder as we engage and contemplate this potential unprecedented model. It's the kind of thing you want all rockstars and start ups to know about, participate in and learn from....for profits, non profits, all social media users alike. Thanks Beth for promoting this information, for asking the questions and for positing so many more for all of us to consider.

[Susan Strayer]

As a volunteer for the DC Twestival, i appreciate the thoughtful approach to this article. What's interesting about this approach though is that social media has no ranking, so @peterlamotte who is organizing DC's Twestival is focused on getting help from all people involved. There are titles for sponsorship's sake, but no interest in individual credit, no hidden agenda. I think that's the beauty of this type of fundraising activity. People aren't looking for a resume addition, or aren't so married to the cause they will do anything to support it, they're just genuinely interested in coming together to meet other Twitterers...

[susan mernit]

This ia a wonderful post, Beth. The self-organizing nature of this project--freedom within a template of sophisticated partnerships--fascinates me.

[Beth Kanter]

@Susan Strayer - you make an interesting point - how Twitter facilitates the groundswell versus passion for the cause or an individuals passion for the Cause. That's a shift for a lot of nonprofits.

@susanmernit - it fascinates me too, but I'm sensing that @amanda is a superb collaborative organizer.

[Christine Egger]

Incredibly valuable post, Beth. *Thank you* for tracking the story, laying out the context, and helping us learn as much as we can from these evolutions. You may enjoy knowing that @juneholley, @nurturegirl (Jean Russell), @deborah909 (Deborah Elizabeth Finn), and I have talked recently about starting an initiative -- don't know what it will be yet -- to draw attention and resources to what June calls "network weaving" (she's at www.networkweaving.com). The term refers to both relationship-building (the kind of thing Twitter facilitates, aka introductions and expanding your network) AND collaboration-facilitation (facilitating networked people to work together in new ways to Get Something Done).

@igniter (Mike Lewkowitz) is playing with both elements in new ways with ^twitvents, something that's just going through early alpha testing now.

I agree, nonprofits will have to change in order to accommodate an independent changemaker sector. What will make that bearable? An alignment of mission among the organization, the independents, *and* those whose interests are being served, often referred to as beneficiaries and hopefully within my lifetime simply referred to as partners, friends. Such an alignment requires a whole lot of communication.

All that to say: your documentation is critical, timely, and greatly appreciated.

Christine Egger
http://www.socialactions.com

[Christine Egger]

Woops! @lend4health (Tori Tuncan) just corrected me: @igniter (Mike Lewkowitz)'s initiative is ^ventwits. More information at http://www.igniter.com.

Christine Egger
http://www.socialactions.com

[Amanda Rose]

Beth, thank you for documenting a bit about Twestival. In hindsight, I wish I had kept a daily video or blog of how this has expanded globally. I promise that after Feb 12th I will do my best to tell the full story of how this has evolved. Ben was able to give you a bit of insight into how the original London Twestival formed - but the global reach is much more extensive. I have endless stories of online collaboration, creativity, dedication that I not only want to share, but *need* to share. As you can imagine, managing something under these short timescales, crossing international boundaries, with people who are volunteering out of passion not experience is certainly a challenge. But, it blows my mind to think that there are over 200 cities with dedicated volunteer teams working towards the same goal. This is the heart of Twestival.

This cause is something everyone in the world can identify with. It is simply not acceptable that everyone in the world does not have access to clean drinking water. Since this project was announced, I can count on one hand how many people have contested charity: water as a worthy recipient - and 3 of 5 tweets were from people in developing areas who are participating and wanted to know if the money would reach projects in their country. The global team is not working for charity: water, the same way we are not working for Twitter. Twestival has great relationships and full support of both, but have consciously established partnerships, not sponsorships (Tipjoy, Amiando, Mashable, Live Earth) which aim to elevate what is happening at a local level. I wish I could write more, but it is 4:44am in the UK and although registrations closed on Jan 31st, I am finding it hard to say no to new cities who prove they have a team and passionately want to be apart of Twestival; like Ankara, Tokyo, Reykjavik, Iowa City...

[Steve Jennings]

Beth, this is a super post.

Scott Harrison and 'Charity : Water' are simply pushing out the envelope, leveraging the social web, empowering individuals and groups to participate in the brand mission. They are building a Tribe.

The new paradigm is disruptive, and for some people uncomfortable.

Hats off to Scott and his team for breaking the Staus Qua and taking the initiative to launch, test and learn from new models.

[Lindsay (Byers) Hirth]

It doesn't surprise me that some nonprofits would find this kind of event alarming. It's completely different than anything anyone's done, which is also why it's so exciting. I think charity:water has done an incredible job of communicating with their donors, SHOWING progress and accountability - the end result is thousands of very passionate people that are willing to be fundraisers for you.
As the article mentions though, this event was organized in a more thoughtful way than those who questioned it realized. What I wish the article mentioned was how inexpensive this massive effort has been - talk about a low cost/dollar raised!
Overall, I think Twestival (and all the articles from blogs to AdAge) is a great wake-up call for nonprofits that are stuck in stodgy ways.

[Allison Fine]

Beth, what an amazing post!!! Thanks so much for connecting all the dots on this. One issue that jumped out at me is the fact that leadership and control are now very separate things -- and very difficult things for old-school orgs and leaders to decouple. Decentralization does not, by definition, mean chaos, although it is often assumed to be the same thing. Amanda and her colleagues are very carefully and energetically managing this effort in a facilitative way which empowers local organizers, encourages them, provides tools and guidance while still leaving them with enough enthusiasm and local control to be very effective.

This is a great case study, thanks again, Beth, for helping the rest of us to understand the whole picture.

[Laura Quinn]

Thanks for this great post, Beth! I would jump in to say that I think that like any technique, it doesn't make sense to try to decide whether the technique itself is a distraction or a massive opportunity. Rather, depending on the circumstance and goals and effort put into it, any given groundswell is going to fall somewhere on a spectrum between those two points. So the challenge is not to figure out whether to ignore or jump in, but how much effort it's worth for your organization to try to take advantage of groundswell- like things, based on a solid assessment of what you're likely to get out of it and what else you could do with your time.

[Lynn]

Great points to ponder! I am looking forward to see how much money is raised. This is a great model to replicate for other organizations. Thanks for this break down, Beth!

[Michelle Greer]

Does it distract non-profits when churches raise money for them? These are communities just like the communities we see on Twitter. Communities are not new at all--they are just online now. As long as a smaller community doesn't distract from the goals of the larger one, I'm not sure how it would be a detriment.

[Scott Rooks]

Beth this is a very thought provoking post and this is in itself a great thought provoking set of ideas. My only reservation is that of how do we know that all funds get to it's intended recepient?

I guess we won't really know until sometime in the future. As well it is up to everyone involved even just the donors to make sure everything happened as it was intended on a local basis.

I also thought David's comments about leadership and random acts was also good food for thought.

Thanks for a wonderfull post and I look forward to 2/12/09. Must find the leaders in Atlanta!

[Scott Henderson]

Thanks for asking me to weigh in on your post. I am glad to learn more about the backstory on how this has come together. As I have experienced firsthand, when you have a goal to do something big, it's amazing how people and resources come together for you.

Here's what I think what Twestival and charity | water can teach us:

1. The age of the large scale annual fund campaign and face-to-face fundraising staffs are over - given the increasing interconnectedness of our world, non-profits need to shift their focus more to providing a compelling message and giving their supporters the tools to spread that message. I think you can digitize about 70% of information exchange that used to take place in-person and via letters during the gift request process, which frees your staff to focus their talents on rapport building, gift proposals, and donor stewardship.

2. Non-profits needs to open themselves up for more collaboration with donor evangelists - people who have never given but hear your message will want to help. Let them. Take the barriers and control, so these people (who you don't pay) can be your living, breath brand advocates. The fundraising staff non-profits employ are needed to focus on major donor relationships and interacting with their donor/potential donor community via digital & social media in between face-to-face visits. Your best ideas will come from someone who doesn't work for you and hasn't given to you, yet.

3. While individuals from around the world can raise the money, the non-profit needs to take full ownership of the courageous hard work of putting those funds to good use - when the parties are over on Feb 12, who's going to lead the long, hard march in fixing the problems? The non-profit staff. Who's going to keep the staff accountable? The board. Who's going to the board accountable? Those who gave.

In all, I think Twestival is a good model for other non-profits to follow. Let your donors spread the word and do all the hard work of gathering people. Heck, we've been doing that for years. How many dinner parties, cocktail events, and coffees have people hosted in their homes to ask money for the Sister or Rabbi or food pantry or other great charity?

I think the organizers of each city event for the most part understand the importance of offering a way for an attendee to derive personal benefit at the same time their creating social good. It comes in the form of networking with other attendees and the social value that comes from promoting a socially redeeming event. A great example of selfish altruism (we all give because it creates a personal benefit).

In terms of the keys for Twestival and charity | water, I think they need to make sure:
- everyone who gives is kept informed of the progress made with the funds and an accounting of it
- encourage those who gave and want to stay involved are connected to charity | water
- decide if this is a long-term partnership or one-time deal

All in all, I congratulate everyone involved and think it's time for non-profits to realize this is just the beginning.

Scott Henderson
Cause | Affinity Group
MediaSauce

@scottyhendo