Three Reasons Why Nonprofits Should Give a Tweet

To date, successfully fundraising on Twitter has been elusive for most nonprofits. TipJoy had promise and buzz, but quickly shut down. TwitPay.me filled the void, but has received very little attention. Micr0-donations via PayPal just don’t seem to appeal to donors. Twonate has a different spin on Twitter fundraising by essentially managing pledges to donate via Tweets, but of all Twitter fundraising tools I have seen come and go over the last year, Give a Tweet by far has the most potential. Here’s three reasons why nonprofits should Give a Tweet:

1) If you are a 501(c)3, then your nonprofit likely already has a profile on Give a Tweet.

Give a Tweet has downloaded the 501(c)3 data from the IRS directly into their site. Therefore, most nonprofits already have a profile on Give a Tweet. To be sure, simply go to GiveaTweet.com and Search. If your nonprofit pops up, select the “Claim Now” button on the right and then sign in with your nonprofit’s Twitter ID. Then enter the EIN of your nonprofit and hit “Claim”. The claim process does go through a human check to make sure the Twitter account is official. The process should not take longer than 24-48 hours. Once approved your Tweets and Twitter icon will show up on your Give a Tweet profile.

2) Give a Tweet has partnered with Network for Good to process donations.

Seemingly, when it comes to Twitter fundraising, donors are just not that keen on using PayPal. It was a smart move by Give a Tweet to partner with Network for Good to process donations. NFG is a nonprofit that has been processing online donations for almost a decade and also processes donations for Facebook Causes, Change.org, and Razzo.

Some nonprofits feel that NFG’s fees are too high at 4.75%, but 3% of that goes to credit card and bank fees and the other 1.75% is necessary to cover the costs of mailing nonprofits monthly checks and donor reports and having a full time staff available to assist nonprofits. NFG is leading the way in partnering with numerous Web 2.0 fundraising services. That 1.75% is made up in just a couple of donations on Give a Tweet, Facebook Causes, Change.org and/or Razoo.

That said, a couple of very important things to be aware of: 1) If your nonprofit’s address is wrong in Give a Tweet, then it is wrong in the IRS database, and thus likely wrong in GuideStar. Network for Good uses your nonprofit’s contact information in GuideStar to mail your donations. So, if your address is wrong, you need to update your nonprofit report with GuideStar. 2) NFG does not process donations for 501(c)4 organizations, therefore Give a Tweet does not either.

3) Companies and individuals can match donations.

We’ve seen a few businesses experiment with philanthropy on Facebook, and a couple of businesses and celebrities on Twitter have pledged to donate based on follower counts and ReTweets of #Hashtags, but Give a Tweet is really on to something with “Matchers”. Businesses are looking for new ways to get recognized for their philanthropy on social networks, but it usually requires them to launch an App on Facebook or create, manage and launch a comprehensive campaign in the case of Twitter, MySpace or YouTube.

On Give a Tweet, businesses simply sign up to become a Matcher and then select nonprofits that they want to match donations for and enter an amount they are willing to donate via Matches. Matches are then Tweeted by the donor and the business’s Twitter profile is featured on Give a Tweet. For many businesses this exactly the kind of tool that they are looking for to generate buzz for their philanthropic efforts.

If your nonprofit has corporate or small business donors that also have Twitter profiles, I would ask them immediately if they would be willing to become a Matcher (even just up to $100). Early adoption is key to getting buzz by bloggers and the media. If you have any questions about how Matching on Give a Tweet works, please contact them at nonprofits@giveatweet.com.

Give a Tweet 2.0

Give a Tweet is currently in Beta and there is room for improvement: 1) As a donor, I never want to give my telephone number when donating. That field may detour some donors. Truthfully, I always enter a fake number (867-5309). 2) To use Give a Tweet repeatedly, I would want to be able to print a tax report at the end of the year of all my donations on Give a Tweet. That functionality is not currently available. 3) While in Beta, the nonprofit does not get the contact info of the donor and there is no way for donors to opt-in to provide that data if they choose. As a donor, I never opt-in to give my snail mail address, but always want to provide the nonprofit my email address. The good news is that NFG has the capability to provide donor data in their monthly reports, and Give a Tweet has it on their To Do List.

Related Link:
Webinar: How Nonprofit Organizations Can Successfully Use Twitter and Twitter Apps