Will Facebook, Twitter, and Fundly be the Fundraisers of the Future?

At Fundly, we know that the future of fundraising is through online social media channels. Twitter has over 300 million users and 1.6 billion search queries each day. Facebook boasts of having more than 845 million users and more than half of those people log on each day. Furthermore, this past year showed a 13% increase in online giving which equals a 35-55% growth rate over the past year! With numbers like these, which are only increasing over time, it just goes to show that online social networking and fundraising are here to stay.

While we continue to encourage nonprofits and political candidates to take full advantage of their online fundraising potential, it’s nice to know that we’re not alone in our optimism using this strategy for garnering donations. Mike Cassidy wrote in the Mercury News this past weekend an interesting article entitled, “Will Facebook, Twitter, Fundly and the like be the fundraisers of the future?” (Can we answer an astounding “YES!” to that question?)

Cassidy proposes that, “as we move into the meat of the 2012 election season, think of the accelerating convergence of social networking and campaign fundraising as the anti-Super PAC movement.

“Super PAC money rolls into campaign coffers in the form of six-zero checks signed by supporters who possess unfathomable means and political interests that they’ll spend tens of millions to protect. The social network money, on the other hand, comes from no-name nobodies, kicking in $20 or $50 or maybe $200 at a time, in part because one of their Facebook friends did the same.”

Cassidy also highlights the point that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are allowing those who normally wouldn’t contribute to political campaigns to now actively participate. This is reaching a younger demographic and getting more people involved in the political process.

Fundly has definitely seen the popularity of online giving grow over the past couple of years. At the end of the 2010 election cycle, 120 political customers were using Fundly to raise money. Now the number is 10 times that. The campaigns range from local races to the presidential efforts of Republicans Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and a Newt Gingrich PAC. Candidates also successfully raised $71 million for the 2010 midterm elections, including $23 million for Fundly money leader Meg Whitman, who ran for the office of Governor of California.

Online fundraising is the wave of the future, and we are excited that the word is getting out. We have helped thousands of nonprofits, schools, individual causes and candidates and we would love to help your organization, too!