Article showing how twitter can help fundraising in the real world. You just need to think about it and integrate with other communications. Slideshare suggested blogs might be of interest; please let me know if they're not!

1. Twitter use drives record-breaking social media fundraising
For all those amongst you who can’t quite see how social media can help
short-term fundraising efforts, I present the following tale.
A recent issue of PR week from across the Atlantic (thanks to Andrew
Ballenthin for the tip) covered the story of a record-breaking fundraising
campaign which used twitter and other social media as it’s starting focus.
In summary, an Atlanta-based social media marketing agency called
Everywhere conceived and executed a 24 hour campaign in support of
several cancer charities. The campaign was created in less than a week
and raised more than $70,000, setting a Guinness World Record for the
most widespread network message in a 24 hour period along the way.
That’s 209,771 mentions on Twitter, Facebook and various blogs.
The campaign was started at a new media event in Las Vegas as an
exercise in showing people just how powerful social media can be in
influencing behaviours and increasing awareness of various issues. Event
attendees were asked to tweet (#BeatCancer), post a blog or comment
on Facebook about the campaign as well as donate if they felt inclined to
do so. The supported charities posted messages on their own websites
and social media pages in support of the campaign.
The Everywhere team also approached an interested client of theirs and
an event sponsor to participate and, because of the level of interest in
social media, both agreed to donate a penny for every viral mention the
campaign generated.
Some people will suggest that it worked because it was in the USA where
social media is more proactively used. That getting sponsors involved
was what really underpinned the success. That the very nature of a social
media event meant that attendees wou
ld be more likely to support a campaign this way. And there would be
some truth in all of these facts.
BUT, let’s look a little more closely as why the campaign was a success:
• it was well targeted to a receptive audience (relevant and timely)
• the company sponsors were targeted because of specific existing
relationships and areas of interest (knowing your corporate
relationships)
• it leveraged a ‘trigger’ which encouraged the target audience to act
(underlying interest in social media and backed up by positive
messages provided by the cancer charities)
• it minimised wastage by letting the viral benefits of social media
spread the message to a much wider audience (they asked the
event attendees and let them spread the word via their networks)

2. • it was integrated into the activities of the supported cancer charities
during the event and afterwards, allowing the audience to learn
more about the causes and the organisations (no successful
campaign ever exists in a vacuum and each charity played its part
in supporting the key messages)
This isn’t rocket science; it simply builds on the evolving discipline of
integrated marketing where the boundaries between channels and tools
are set aside to deliver a much more impactful message. The audience
needs and media preferences drive choices over which communications
tools to use and what message to deliver to meet fundraising objectives.
Why, therefore, can’t we integrate our activities to a greater degree more
consistently?
Can’t we move towards a world where marketing, fundraising and
communications teams work seamlessly in pursuit of the charity’s goals
rather than departmental objectives? Only when we as practitioners get
our heads around this idea, will more of us be able to enjoy the kind of
success Everywhere has shown is possible with social media.
Kevin Baughen
Founder, Bottom Line Ideas
Blog