More than $300,000 raised in Twestival4

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 26 Mar 2010

Twitter sceptics will this morning be rubbing their heads, as yesterday's Twestival continues to rake in donations from around the world. So far the event has raised more than $306,000

This morning’s count is already significantly higher than for the debut event last year, which raised $250,000 for charity: water.

Twestival involves the coordination of real-life events in 175 cities around the world in which Twitter users come together to socialise and raise money for charity. This year the global beneficiary is Concern Worldwide.

"Organising online and gathering offline allows Twestival to harness the incredible communication power of Twitter to propel participation in real events around the world," said Amanda Rose, founder of Twestival.

"There is no shortage of people who are passionate and want to help. The challenge is coordination, not participation. By using social media platforms such as Twitter, Twestival is able to connect hundreds of independent local events into a powerful global initiative.”

Check CivilSociety.co.uk for more updates on the running total of Twitter’s most successful fundraising event.

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Ed Tait
Head of IG
Crisis
30 Mar 2010

If Concern Worldwide are getting much less than £150k for a warm DM Appeal they are doing something wrong - I suspect they have a database of at least 60k to 100k donors; as for cold, a £150k return would be perfectly achievable and not amount to a particularly large recruitment campaign.

As for raising your profile and money from younger donors my question would be why? Young donors are far harder to attract, give less money and are far less loyal.

You should really only be targeting them if you have already picked all the low-hanging fruit of baby boomers and Dorothy donors have a huge database of apx 300k-500k supporters.

The race for younger donors is normally more about the vanity of the fundraiser/agency/brand dept (wanting to do something ‘cool’) than it is about effective fundraising.

[Reply]

Alexandra Bono
Digital Development Manager
Rapidata Services
26 Mar 2010

How many Twestival attendees are likely to respond to traditional DM? What would the cost be of a multi-country DM appeal? Twestival and Twitter are not replacements for DM - they are simply a new channel for attracting new supporters. Twestival events are organised in much the same way as any other Third Party event. The event organiser and not the charity is responsible for the costs of the event - the charity just reaps the benefits of their fundraising.

Organisations like charity: water and Concern Worldwide have been able to attract a new audience and broaden the appeal of their organisations by harnessing the power of social media. Twitter fans are clapping their hands this afternoon because Twestival works! Raising $300,000 through small, local events through volunteer fundraisers is no mean feat.

[Reply]

Ed Tait
Head of IG
Crisis
26 Mar 2010

So a huge amount of time, effort and resources has gone into organising fundraising events in over 175 countries and raised £150k - about the same amount a small/medium sized charity will raise with one single DM Appeal.

Exactly why should 'Twitter sceptics be rubbing their heads'?

[Reply]

Adrian Salmon
Annual Fund Manager
University of Leeds
29 Mar 2010
Response to [Ed Tait]

One DM appeal? It'd have to be a pretty good one. If it was from cold you'd probably need to mail 600,000 people to get that total, at 1% response with an average gift of £25.

If it's a really good warm one, with response of 15% and an average gift of £30, you'd still need to have 33,000 donors to mail.

So I guess it comes down to the maths - how much would the appeals have cost Concern Worldwide, compared to Twestival? And would they have got anything like the same publicity among a key target group for new donors?

[Reply]

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