Kingdom Journalism

CauseWired: Raising Money vs. Raising Awareness

• Posted by Steve K. on June 19th, 2009 filed in CauseWired, Internet
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Another key insight from Tom Watson in his book CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World is that cause networking is primarily important for raising awareness rather than actually raising money, which is the typical assumption or approach by many when they enter this online space to promote their organization/project/cause:

“A year after it launched, [Eric] Ding’s cause [‘The Campaign for Cancer Research’] had signed up 3.1 million Facebook members. … However, there was a caveat to his success: The Campaign for Cancer Research raised only $62,000 in its first year, or roughly two cents per Facebook supporter. This was clearly not enough to make direct-marketing fundraisers sit up and take notice. Indeed, the pattern was the same across the top causes just below Eric’s—1.8 million members and $22,000 for Stop Global Warming (1.2 cents), 1.3 million members and $22,000 for Animal Rights (1.6 cents), a million members and $10,000 donated for the Society Against Child Abuse (about a penny), and 850,000 members and $17,000 donated for Save Darfur (2 cents).”

Watson looks at the data and concludes, positively:

“Where else could [Ding] have amassed a database of online users interested in cancer research so quickly, and at almost no cost? … While the program might not raise buckets of money for individual causes, it creates attention. It builds a channel for branding a new cause, for creating a movement.”