HOW TO: Use Twitter Lists to Promote Nonprofits and Causes You Care About
Twitter’s new Lists are a great way to organize your followers, and with a little intention and a dose of good will, Twitter Lists can also be used to promote your favorite nonprofits and the causes you care about. Here’s how:
1) Create a “Favorite Nonprofits” List
Lists can say a lot about your character and what’s important to you. Personally, I am quite saddened by the rapid loss of wildlife around the world, so my “Favorite Nonprofits” list has quite a few wildlife conservation organizations [@diosacomm/favoritenonprofits]. What issues are important to you? Create a Twitter List of your favorite nonprofits to tell Twitterverse what issues you think are most important and deserve attention.
2) Promote Lists created by nonprofits or Lists that feature nonprofits
Another easy way to help nonprofits, particularly those in your “Favorite Nonprofits” list, is to Tweet out their lists to your Followers. Example Tweets:
Good use of Twitter Lists by @NationalNOW to organize NOW chapters @NationalNOW/nowchapters!
Great list of animal rights and animal welfare organizations @nonprofitorgs/animals. Please RT!
Following a list created by a nonprofit also helps the nonprofit by increasing the “Follow” count on their list and having their list show up on your View All Lists page. That’s good… but Tweeting out their lists to your Followers is even better.
3) Create Birthday or Holiday Wish Lists
If you are the type of person that would rather have your friends donate to a nonprofit in your name for your birthday, the holidays, or in lieu of a wedding or graduation gift, then create a “Nonprofit Gift List” [@diosacomm/nonprofitgiftlist]. Select 3-10 nonprofits to feature on your list and then occasionally Tweet out the list to your followers. Hopefully they will make a donation and then let you know in a Reply or RT!
4) Create Causes Lists
Global Warming. Wildlife Conservation. Breast Cancer Research. Human Rights. Women’s Rights. Global Poverty. Corporate Accountability. @diosacomm/sustainability. Create Twitter Lists for causes that are important to you and then add nonprofits and activists that are working on that cause.
Lists have only been live a few days and I am sure we will see some creative use of Lists over the next few months. If you work at a nonprofit, make sure you create some Lists [Campaigns, Events, Donors, Volunteers, Chapters, Allies, etc.] and ask your followers to help support your Lists. If you don’t work at a nonprofit, but use Lists to promote nonprofits and causes on Twitter… thank you. 
Very informative.I have my own blogsite that is NGO or non profit oriented too.It is about the development in the world. Thanks for the information.
I have lists People, Planet, Profit and some lists that are more specific. In the Netherlands the list feature is still ‘beta’ for a limited group and Twitter asked not to tweet about it.
Thanks for this! I was very confused when I first say the Lists feature on Twitter because I had no idea what it was even for, but this helps a lot! Thanks again!
I used Twitter lists for precisely this end. It is extremely difficult to identify debt advice that is genuinely anti-poverty – there’s a whole host of debt management companies out there ready to make a quick buck – and whilst my list includes individuals who support anti-poverty / debt initiatives and ethos, it gives followers access to genuinely sympathetic folk, who may have good local advice.
Thanks very much for this post; I, too, was confused by them. I’d ignored the feature … until I found my own organization’s Twitter feed on *other* people’s lists!
Thank for the information