八岁的瑞秋·贝克威思(Rachel Beckwith)想帮助非洲儿童获得洁净水。她请给她生日祝福的人不要给她买礼物，而是捐钱给一家水慈善机构。在她过完生日的一个月后，她不幸遭遇车祸身亡，那时她已经募集到了200美元。
作为对瑞秋的纪念，她的家人和教友肩负起了她的事业。他们在Facebook和Twitter上讲述瑞秋的故事—— 并募集到120多万美元。
瑞秋的故事仅仅是人们如何使用社交媒体来促进社会事业，并在此过程中改变慈善筹款活动现状的一个例子。据Avectra公司表示，几乎一半的美国人通过社交媒体和网上渠道了解到值得参与的慈善事业。Avectra是向非营利组织销售软件的一家公司，现在是Abila公司的一部分。
改变生活
慈善组织和其他非营利团体传统上依靠邮件、联系主要捐助者、赠款和社会活动来为他们的事业筹集资金。这些方法仍然是大部分慈善捐款的来源渠道，因为根据2013年皮尤因特网研究项目(PEW Internet Research Project)的统计，在65岁以上的人（为捐助者的大多数）当中，只有46％的人使用因特网。
但是，从事公益事业的非营利组织和个人正在越来越多地利用社交媒体和因特网来建立一个有认知度的特征，或品牌；吸引潜在的捐助者并留住现有的捐助者；并使支持者更多地参与他们的事业。
2012年在美国宾夕法尼亚州立大学(Pennsylvania State University)的线下舞蹈马拉松比赛为一家儿童医院筹集了超过1000万美元。 (Courtesy of Penn State/flickr)
佐伊·阿马尔（Zoe Amar）说:“如今重要的不仅是你的事业。你如何传达你的信息也很重要。”阿马尔是在伦敦工作的一名市场营销和数字通讯顾问。她以“冰桶挑战”(Ice Bucket Challenge)为例说明这一点。 2014年这项活动筹得了超过1亿美元，用以支持对肌萎缩性侧索硬化症的研究。这是一种比较少见，但极具破坏性的神经系统疾病。
阿马尔说：“每一个非营利组织都有一个令人信服的故事。你需要有创造性。”社交网络用户常常对以令人信服的方式讲述的个人故事作出最积极的反响——这些故事主要通过吸引人的照片、精彩的视频和最新信息来讲述。
一个令人信服的故事给一个非营利组织脱颖而出的机会，使公众关注组织的使命，并吸引新的潜在捐助者参与募捐活动。受援助者或全心投入的捐赠者的个人故事在社交媒体上会有很好的效果，惊人之举、巧妙的安排或幽默的挑战也同样有效。冰桶挑战的数字化内容包括将一桶冰水倾倒在别人头上的视频; “Movember”鼓励男士每年在十一月份蓄起胡须，以支持男性健康。
想触摸一下？请先捐款。 (Courtesy of Darrell Miller/flickr)
据公关公司万卓环球(Waggener Edstrom)报告，在通过互联网支持非营利组织的美国人当中，有一半以上的人说，令人信服的故事给了他们动力。
但如果非营利组织对它们的管理成本以及他们如何使用筹集到的资金不透明，光有令人信服的故事是不能够支持非营利组织的。筹款顾问公司“获取全额资助”（Get Fully Funded）的桑迪·里斯(Sandy Rees)表示，网上捐助者想知道自己的钱到哪里去了，以及它起到了什么具体的作用。她告诉brandwatch.com，因此，非营利组织要“更加注重改变人们的生活，而不要太注重自己实现预算目标的需求。”
现在，在卢旺达的一个村庄，孩子们甚至可以在干净的水里嬉戏了。(Courtesy of charity: water)
网络媒体如何促进提升透明度的一个很好的例子就是“慈善事业：水”(charity: water)。这是瑞秋最喜欢的非营利组织，它在发展中国家提供清洁的水。它跟踪个人捐款，并用照片和谷歌地图(Google Map)中的GPS坐标标明已完成的水项目。
公平的竞争环境
社交媒体已经在非营利领域创造了一个更公平的竞争环境，在这里无论大的、小的、现有的和新的慈善机构都能蓬勃发展。
非营利组织“世代团结”(Generations United)的亚当·拉瓦(Adam Hlava)告诉brandwatch.com:“只有一个人的非营利机构可以提供内容，并通过社交媒体免费与数万人分享。”例如，六岁的杰克·亨德森(Jack Henderson)在2011年表示愿意画“任何东西”，以换取给予治疗弟弟的一家苏格兰医院的捐赠，因此成为网络名人。杰克画了500多张画，筹集到近6.5万英镑（约合10万美元）。
根据研究人员格雷戈里·萨克斯顿(Gregory Saxton)和王丽丽(Lili Wang)在2014年的一项调查[请见英文资料]，一个非营利组织的在线社交网络的规模，对于数字化筹款的重要性，超过了其财政效率或其财务资产规模的重要性，而这后两者是线下捐款的两大因素。
在Facebook上获得大量的“喜欢”(likes)和朋友，仅仅是迈向建立和维持一个围绕非营利组织使命的社区的第一步。
阿马尔说：“影响范围是一回事，影响力是另一回事。”她说，由高度参与的非营利组织的拥护者组成的一个小社区可能比一个其支持者只点击“喜欢”的庞大社区作出更大的贡献。
专家认为，建立一个网络社区需要与朋友和支持者进行及时更新的、有视觉吸引力的沟通。例如，美国红十字会(American Red Cross)使用社交媒体感谢捐赠者和志愿者个人，发布灾区照片和新闻，发表受援助者的感谢信，并从灾区发回报道。
南非学生骑着由世界自行车援助组织捐赠的自行车上路了。 (© AP Images)
有些慈善机构甚至鼓励他们的社交网络成员代表其开展各人筹款活动。例如，为非洲的学生、医务工作者和企业家提供自行车的“世界自行车援助组织”(World Bicycle Relief)，要求其支持者举办晚宴，卖柠檬水，组织骑自行车活动或想出其他很酷的想法来有所作为。它为支持者实现筹款目标提供帮助。
通过社交媒体参与非营利组织往往会带来更多的整体参与。根据万卓环球的调查，在通过社交网络参与非营利组织的美国人当中，一半以上受到激励而采取进一步的行动，例如捐赠衣物或食物，参加当地的慈善活动或担任志愿者。
据专家说，随着千禧一代进入成年期，社交媒体对社会事业及非营利组织的重要性只会进一步增加。
社交媒体需要非营利组织掌握数字和沟通技巧。需要加强其工作人员的数字技能的非营利组织可以寻求网上平台（online facilitators）的帮助，或从nonprofithub.org，《连线》(Wired)杂志或《赫芬顿邮报》(Huffington Post)获取建议。
阿马尔说：“具有数字技能的非营利组织募捐者的作为想有多大就会有多大。”
2012年，一个美国红十字会安置所在纽约接纳因飓风桑迪(Hurricane Sandy)而撤离家园的人们。(© AP Images)
“It’s about how you communicate your message.”
Rachel Beckwith, 8, wanted to help children in Africa get clean water. She asked her birthday well-wishers not to buy her presents but instead to donate money to a water charity. She had raised more than $200 before she died in a traffic accident a month after her birthday.
As a memorial to Rachel, her family and fellow parishioners took up her cause. They told Rachel’s story on Facebook and Twitter — and raised more than $1.2 million.
Rachel’s story is just one example of how people are using social media to promote social causes and changing the status quo of charitable fundraising in the process. Almost half of all Americans learn about worthy causes via social media and online channels, according to Avectra, now part of Abila Inc., which sells software to nonprofits.
Changing lives
Charitable organizations and other nonprofit groups have traditionally relied on mailings, major donor development, grants and social events to raise funds for their causes. These methods still generate most charitable contributions, as only 46 percent of people age 65 or older — the majority of donors — use the Internet, according to the 2013 PEW Internet Research Project.
However, nonprofits and individuals with a cause are increasingly leveraging social media and the Internet to establish a recognizable identity, or brand; attract potential donors and retain existing ones; and get supporters more involved in their cause.
The 2012 offline dance marathon at Pennsylvania State University raised more than $10 million for a children’s hospital. (Courtesy of Penn State/flickr)
“It’s not just about your cause any more,” says Zoe Amar. “It’s about how you communicate your message.” Amar, a London-based marketing and digital communications consultant, cites the Ice Bucket Challengeas an example. The 2014 campaign raised more than $100 million to support research on a relatively rare but devastating neurological disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
“Every nonprofit has a compelling story to tell,” Amar says. “You just need to be creative.” Social network users tend to respond best to personal stories told in a compelling way — mostly through attractive photos, cool videos and up-to-date messages.
A compelling story gives a nonprofit an opportunity to differentiate itself, draw attention to its mission and attract new potential donors to a fundraising campaign. Personal stories of aid recipients or dedicated donors do well on social media, as do stunts, gimmicks or humorous challenges. The digital component of the Ice Bucket Challenge involved videos of people dumping a bucket of ice water on someone’s head; Movemberencourages men to grow moustaches during November each year to support men’s health.
Want to touch? Make a donation. (Courtesy of Darrell Miller/flickr)
More than half of Americans who support nonprofits via the Internet said they were motivated by compelling storytelling, according to Waggener Edstrom, a public relations firm.
Compelling stories alone, though, do not sustain nonprofits if they are not transparent about their administrative costs and how they use the money they raise. Online donors want to know where their money goes and what specific good it does, according to Sandy Rees of Get Fully Funded, a fundraising consultancy. Thus nonprofits should “focus more on the lives being changed, and less on their need to meet their budgetary goals,” she told brandwatch.com.
Now, they can even play in clean water in a Rwandan village. (Courtesy of charity: water)
A good example of how online media enable a greater transparency is charity: water, Rachel’s favorite nonprofit that provides access to clean water in the developing world. It tracks individual donations and proves completed water projects with photos and GPS coordinates on Google Maps.
A level playing field
Social media have created a more level playing field in the nonprofit world in which small and big, existing and new charities can thrive.
“A nonprofit comprised of one person can create content and share it to tens of thousands of people through social media for free,” Adam Hlava of Generations United, a nonprofit, told brandwatch.com. For example, Jack Henderson, 6, became an Internet sensation in 2011 when he offered to draw “anything” in exchange for donations to a Scottish hospital that treated his younger brother. Jack drew more than 500 pictures and raised close to £65,000 ($100,000).
The size of a nonprofit’s online social network is more important to digital fundraising than its financial efficiency or the magnitude of its financial assets, two major factors in offline donations, according to a 2014 study by researchers Gregory Saxton and Lili Wang.
Getting a great number of “likes” and friends on Facebook is only the first step to building and sustaining a community around a nonprofit’s mission.
“Reach is one thing, influence is another,” Amar says. A small community of highly engaged advocates for a nonprofit can make a bigger difference than a large community of supporters who just click “like,” she says.
Building an online community requires up-to-date, visually attractive communications with friends and supporters, according to experts. For example, the American Red Cross uses social media to thank donors and volunteers individually, post photos and news from disaster areas, publish thank-yous from aid recipients and report back from disaster-stricken areas.
Students in South Africa hit the road on bicycles donated by World Bicycle Relief. (© AP Images)
Some charities even encourage their social network members to run individual fundraising campaigns on their behalf. For example, World Bicycle Relief, which provides bikes to students, health-care workers and entrepreneurs in Africa, asks its supporters to host a dinner, sell lemonade, organize a bike ride or come up with other cool ideas to make a difference. It offers them help in reaching their fundraising goals.
Social media engagement with nonprofits tends to lead to greater engagement overall. More than half of Americans that engaged with nonprofits through social networks have been inspired to take further action such as donating clothing or food, volunteering or participating in a local charity event, according to Waggener Edstrom.
With the millennials reaching their adulthood, social media’s importance to social causes and nonprofits will only grow, according to experts.
Social media require nonprofits to master digital and communications skills. Nonprofits that need to bolster their staff members’ digital skills can turn to online facilitatorsor get advice fromnonprofithub.org,WiredmagazineorHuffington Post.
“Nonprofit fundraisers with digital skills are limited only by their imagination,” Amar says.
In 2012, an American Red Cross shelter received people evacuated from their homes in New York due to Hurricane Sandy. (© AP Images)
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