by Kari Dunn Saratovsky on 2 Sep 2009
We’ve been busting at the seams a bit waiting to share with you news that the Case Foundation will once again be supporting a new America’s Giving Challenge this fall. What’s more, throughout the month of September we will be helping individuals and nonprofits “Gear Up for Giving” through a series of online live streamed events, tools, and resources that will be available to all over on the Case Foundation site.
In case you missed it, during the foundation’s last giving challenge here’s how things broke down: 81,000 individual donations totaled $1.7 million for hundreds of nonprofits across the country – all told, with the Case Foundation’s challenge money, more than $2.5 million was committed to organizations making America’s Giving Challenge the largest online giving challenge of its kind (and it still is).
As we gear up for this year’s Challenge, we recognize we are in a completely different place than we were even a year and a half ago. Not only is nonprofit adoption of social media tools at an all time high, but the challenges associated with raising money in the current economy is also at a high -- making the need for nonprofits to get more strategic about raising money and awareness for their causes through smaller individual donors, all the more important.
Next week we’ll begin a series of live streamed Q&A events with nonprofit social media experts we have deemed as the, “Giving Gurus.” The gurus include folks like Beth Kanter of Beth’s Blog, Geoff Livingston at CRT/tanaka, Holly Ross CEO of NTEN, Allison Fine author of Momentum, and other esteemed colleagues and friends of the foundation. For a complete list of the gurus and to mark your calendars to participate in the sessions visit the Gear Up for Giving landing page over at Case.
In the meantime, we want to give you an opportunity to engage with the gurus – what are some of the most pressing problems you have incorporating social media into your nonprofit? Below are a few of the questions we expect will come up during the giving guru sessions, but we want to give you an opportunity to help shape the conversation. Please add to the list below or submit your own questions to - you'll also have the opportunity to engage with the gurus via a live chat function during the sessions.
- Do you think that online engagement leads to deeper offline engagement? Are there any specific examples of this?
- What’s the best way for an organization to adopt a social media strategy?
- What are three tips you’d give to organizations who are just getting started?
- What are some examples of integrating microblogging, social networking, blogging and video sharing into your social media strategy?
Stay tuned for much more information about America’s Giving Challenge and Gear Up for Giving in the days and weeks ahead.
