David Matthew of Software Advice has authored a good blog post about how to get the most out of social media. He offers some sage advice about not diving in too fast to staff up in this area without first understanding the return on investment (ROI) of this activity.  David correctly asserts that it's hard to connect the dots between an increased social media presence and improved donations. Most nonprofits have come to accept that Facebook and Twitter are not donation platforms, although they are functioning effectively as useful buzz-building tools during fundraising campaigns of all kinds, reinforcing and repeating campaign goals, tying in with email and direct mail, or promoting events. Tools on Facebook such as Causes have unfortunately done little to support fundraising goals.

David asserts correctly with good examples such as Lance Armstrong Foundation that social media platforms have become fundamental for cultivating brand awareness and audience engagement. This has undoubtedly been the biggest learning for the past few years of the growth of social media. Facebook and Twitter have been steadily rising as traffic sources to nonprofit websites, and nonprofits have gotten the message that every staff hour spent on social media content and recruitment returns some value to the organization, even if that value can be hard to quantify.

This question of what is the value of a Facebook fan keeps rolling on. Having a new fan on Facebook is not necessarily the same as having a new donor or volunteer. Nonprofits are betting that a new Facebook fan may (one day) be worth as much as a new email subscriber. Time will tell.

With email open rates, click through rates and engagement completion rates at the lowest historical level they've ever been, nonprofits are understandably scrambling for new online platforms and territories to explore.  Especially now that it's pretty conclusive that young people under 20 are favoring Facebook, Twitter and text messaging over email.

Email as a fundraising channel is limited by the fact that open rates and response rates are now so low, and the homogenization of email fundraising is running the risk of numbing prospective donors into a stupor.  Like email spam and mail fundraising appeals, recipients are scanning their in-boxes for clutter to delete.  As a result, email fundraising has become a pure numbers game, like its direct mail predecessor.  Getting good value from an email fundraising strategy relies on an increasingly growing email acquisition strategy. In other words, you have to relentlessly grow your email list to raise money through email. Many nonprofits are clinging to the hope that social media can help strengthen donor engagement online -- let's hope it does.

Read David Matthew's article What is the Real Value of Social Media for Nonprofits?

Michael Stein is a Senior Account Executive at Donordigital, the online fundraising, marketing, and advertising company. Contact: michael@donordigital.com or phone (510) 473-0364.