Today I attended the Digital Fundraising Groups semi-regular gathering at the British Red Cross to discover what charities are doing to leverage social media.
There was a very entertaining talk by the Digital Innovations Manager of the Woodland Trust, who are doing some really rather excellent things in the areas or customer engagement and crowd-sourcing. I was very impressed by their quirky approach to the real-time internet and was glad to see them experimenting with a variety of ideas, both serious and quirky.
However one of the main points I gleaned from the various people in attendance is that the one thing social media is not really very good at is actually raising FUNDS.
Some of the figures surrounding the donations received during the Haiti appeal were, quite frankly, depressing. Some of this can be attributed to the difficulty in qualifying sources, but from above the picture looks bleak.
I for one feel that this is not something to be concerned about, but my worry is that the money men will harp on about ROI and budgets and stifle what is most certainly the perfect place for charities to interact with their supporters. I have only one message for these bean counters. It’s still early days, and when those figures start to climb (which they most certainly will) you’re going to wish that you’d been there at the start.