Fundraising Tip: How to Raise Money on Facebook

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) first joined Facebook back in May 2008.  We have discussed Facebook in one way or another quite often via this blog.   However, we have never been able to raise any serious money on Facebook.  Has your nonprofit organization or local BDPA chapter had success raising money on Facebook?

I think that the following fundraising tip may be a helpful reminder to all of us nonprofit advocates who still think that Facebook is for kids.

Create and Tap Your Social Network

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If you've been avoiding getting your organization involved in Facebook, here are three good reasons to rethink that decision:

1. Facebook has an audience of 800 million and growing, making it equivalent to the population of the world's third-largest country.
2. Meet them where they're at: it is extremely likely that a considerable amount of your wired network is already engaged on the platform.
3. More and more donations are happening online.

Here are a few guidelines for getting started with Facebook:

First, create a "Page" for your organization -- this is similar to a personal profile. It allows members to become a "friend" of your nonprofit, allowing them to subscribe to your updates and engage in dialogue with you and other supporters. To set up your Facebook Page, visit www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. The BDPA Foundation Facebook Page is up & running.

Second, create a Facebook Group: If you are interested in sending direct messages to the in-boxes of your supporters (and you have fewer than 5,000 followers), setting up a group is the way to go. Without a group, you are limited to posting status updates and having your supporters read them via their Facebook News Feed. To set up your group, visit www.facebook.com/groups/create.php. The National BDPA Facebook Group is up & running.

Once you are established on Facebook and your supporters are accustomed to communicating with you through this platform, it is time to start raising money. "Causes" is a tool (application) built for Facebook that allows you to fundraise within the Facebook network. Although it's difficult to build a community within Causes, it's worth exploring as a fundraising supplement to your Page or Group. Get a better feel for this tool at www.causes.com.

Once you are set up on Facebook, a great tip for integrating fundraising activities is to use the platform generously and frequently to express thanks for member contributions -- public recognition helps spread loyalty and reinforces generous support.

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The BDPA Foundation is already a beneficiary on 'Causes'.  We would love to work with any interested local chapter to set-up a 'Cause' to raise funds specifically for its programs and services at the local level. BDPA Charlotte and BDPA Los Angeles have both dipped their toes into the Facebook 'Causes' effort.

This tip is inspired by Darian Heyman's new book, 'Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals'.

Does this tip seem like one that you might use for your local chapter or nonprofit? If not, do you have a fundraising tip that you would like to share with us?

Another BDPA Birthday Wish on Facebook - Teresa Williams (Atlanta)

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) encourages you to use your birthday to change the world! We all get things we don’t need for our birthdays, why not use this special occasion to raise money for a cause you really care about? This feature allows any Facebook user to create a Birthday Wish and ask their friends to donate to the cause of their choice as a birthday present.

We've seen the following folks making BETF birthday wishes on Facebook:

Teresa Williams

1. Wayne Hicks (Jan 30) 
2. Teresa Williams (Feb 9) * NEW *
3. Henry Wiggins (Feb 14)
4. Chris Parchman (Feb 21) 
5. Julius Clark (Mar 11) 
6. Jeri Tolliver (Apr 2) 
7. Liz Hicks (Jun 25)
8. Raven Stevenson (Jun 26)
9. Janice Watson (Jul 5)
10. George Brooks (Jul 8) 
11. Philena Rush (Nov 3)

I would love to see us have a birthday wish for all 365 days of the year! Are you a Facebook user? If so, Will you be next to be added to the above list? Just click here to 'make it so'!

Are Blacks More Likely Than Whites to Support Causes Online?

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) has established a number of online fundraisers via social networks in the past few years. As such we were intrigued by a new survey that claims ethnicity is a factor in how people perceive charitable and political causes they encounter on social networks and whether they go on to get involved with those causes.  [SOURCE]

Out of 2,000 participants in the survey, 30 percent of Black adults and 39 percent of Hispanics said they were more likely to support online causes rather than causes they encountered offline; 24 percent of whites said the same.

The study was released by Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication and Ogilvy PR, a public-relations company.

While most of the survey participants said they believed they could make a difference by supporting a charitable or political cause, African Americans and Hispanics were more optimistic about the effectiveness of using online networks to do so. When asked if tools like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs could help spread the word about a cause, 58 percent of Blacks and 51 percent of Hispanics agreed, compared with 34 percent of whites.

In addition, more Blacks and Hispanics said Facebook and other social-networking sites made it easier to support a cause: 62 percent and 64 percent, respectively, compared with 54 percent of whites.

Whites are also less likely to use Twitter in general. According to a telephone survey of 2,277 adults conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, 25 percent of black and 19 percent of Hispanic Internet users say they use Twitter, compared with just 9 percent of white Internet users. What’s more, one in ten Black Internet users now visit Twitter on a typical day, compared with 3 percent of whites and 5 percent of Hispanics.

Yet despite the emphasis placed on social media, blogs and social networking sites are still second to more traditional information sources like television, newspapers, and personal relationships. Likewise, people were more likely to donate money or talk about a social issue than post it to a blog or Facebook, the Georgetown study found.

“What the study shows us over all is not to put all your eggs into the social-media basket,” says Julie Dixon, deputy director at the Georgetown Center. Instead, organizations should tailor their communications strategy based on the how their audience is likely to engage.

Our hope is that those of you who support the STEM-based programs that BDPA implements on local, regional and national level will find a way to visit and support our online fundraising efforts. Here is where you can find BDPA in various social networks:

1. Click and Pledge: Donor designates how funds are used
2. Crowdrise: BDPA IT Corps
3. Crowdrise: Various local chapter college scholarships
4. Facebook: BDPA Charlotte HSCC program
5. Facebook: BDPA IT Corps
6. Facebook: BDPA Los Angeles HSCC program
7. Facebook: BETF Endowment Fund
8. Facebook: Jesse Bemley Scholarship
9. YourCause.com: Donor designates how funds are used

What is your take on the survey findings?

Three BDPA Students Showcase Entrepreneurial Talents with 3D Virtual Integration of Facebook Called StartLounge

We often talk about BDPA being an organization that provides programs and services that advance the careers of our members from the 'classroom to the boardroom'. I think that we will find the reality behind those words in Rochester, MN. That is where three past national BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) champions have joined together to create the StartLounge.

StartLounge is a visual, social interface that engages users with 3D-Facebook integration. StartLounge also gives you the power to preview your Facebook news feeds and pictures that you are tagged in. The co-founders indicate that the product is still in the development stages and will be continually updated with cool new features.

The co-founders are student members of our BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter: James Arama, Ahmed Mahamad and Adwait Walimbe.

James Arama, Ahmed Mahamad and Adwait Walimbe

Arama is a freshman majoring in Computer Science at Marist College. He specializes in information processing with emphasis on business based applications utilizing Open-Source Interfaces.

Mahamad is a sophomore majoring in Health Sciences at the University of Minnesota. He plans to continue his studies at Medical School while researching in the area of Bio-informatics. This is a topic that he researched for the 2010 BDPA IT Showcase held earlier this year in Philadelphia.


Walimbe is a senior at John Marshall High School. He is a developing programmer, aspiring entrepreneur, and business consultant with plans to major in Computer Science when he enters college next year. This isn't his first start-up business. In 2008, he created Socialdecks, a company geared towards online learning while focusing on the social aspect of education.

These three young men embody the spirit of  'classroom to the boardroom' more than most. I look forward to seeing where their current venture -- StartLounge -- takes them over the coming months and years. In the meantime, I hope that all of BDPA-Nation will share some love with these three young men.

Sometimes we wonder why we put in the hours that we do for BDPA. I suggest that it is young 'uns like James, Ahmed and Adwait that make it all worthwhile.  

You can help us create scholarship opportunities for other young men and women by making a donation to the Jesse Bemley Scholarship Fund. Every dollar makes a difference. Won't you share your blessings with these young people?

Facebook and Nonprofits: The Evolution Continues

Facebook isn’t the kind of company to stand still – and sometimes its changes (especially to privacy settings and navigation) can drive its power users crazy. That includes nonprofits, which have raced to embrace the “go where the crowd is” ethos of 500,000 million Facebook users. The latest changes are a case in point: the company is moving forcefully to impose its vision for a “social graph” to the rest of the web, encouraging sites to adopt its own tools to link users in an ever-widening network of personal choice. Hence, the suddenly ubiquitous “Like” button – including this site – and a quick move away from the “fans” and “pages” paradigm Facebook did such a great job of establishing. So, if you’ve put hundreds of hours into winning fans for your cause’s Facebook page, you might just sigh with digital frustration.

Read the rest of this onPhilanthropy story here.

Vote for BETF in Chase Community Giving Initiative on Facebook

Chase is donating $5 million to local charities, and you help decide where it goes. It's as simple as search, vote, share.

I'm hopeful that all Facebook users that are reading this post will vote for BDPA Education and Technology Foundation.

And tell a friend!

How to Use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to Extend Your Reach (St. Louis)

BDPA St. Louis chapter brought in David Strom, an acknowledged social network expert, as their guest speaker for the Oct 2009 program meeting. The topic was entitled, How to Use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to Extend Your Reach.

Here is the slideshow presentation:

How to use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to extend your reach

View more presentations from David Strom.

This blog is sharing slideshow presentations from program meetings all around the nation. We do so in the hopes that it brings together more BDPA members from various chapters into a virtual discussion about a wide range of topics. Please let us know if you approve of this idea.

There are 50 slides in this slideshow. Did you learn anything new from Mr. Strom's presentation?

Twittering for a cause: Web 2.0 and its philanthropic impact

Facebook may have just reached the 250 million user mark, but Twitter is the real media darling.

From news coverage to business marketing and back to the personal stories that launched it, the many uses of Twitter have revolutionized the way society thinks about communicating, 140 words at a time.

Twitter’s newest incarnation, according to TechCrunch, is philanthropy.

While the Washington Post reports that Facebook’s version of social media philanthropy - the Causes application - has received less than stellar financial results, Twitter philanthropy (or "tweetraising") has already provided promising returns.

The power of Twitter, especially in terms of philanthropy, may lie in its ability to spread information like wildfire.

Read the rest of The Daily Tell article here.

Charities Reap Benefits of Contests on Internet

The opportunities for nonprofit groups to win money through contests are proliferating, adding yet another weapon to charities’ fund-raising arsenal.

The latest example started yesterday when visitors to the Target Corporation’s Facebook page began voting for one of 10 charities eligible to win a portion of $3 million the retailer will be giving away.

“It’s a national trend, not only in the philanthropic sector but also among businesses, to look at how best to leverage social media,” said Laysha Ward, Target’s president of community relations. “Contests like this can help our nonprofit partners learn to use this new media to build not just financial resources but also awareness.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Milestone: 600 People in BDPA Facebook Group

Raymond Person (Cincinnati) became the 600th person to join the BDPA group on Facebook.

BETF and 16 BDPA chapters (Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Hartford, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Richmond, Southern Minnesota and Twin Cities) have a presence on Facebook.

Are you on Facebook? Do you see upside for BDPA to market to past, current and future members via social networks like Facebook?

Can We Raise $500 to Support Our Young People?

I have pledged to raise $500 to Stimulate the Interest of Young People in the Fields of Science and Technology.

If you think that our cause is worthy ... make a donation ... even a small one. We need to demonstrate support of our own programs if we expect others to support us.

Won't you help us meet this $500 target?

Facebook Milestone: 800 Friends

I noticed today that I now have 800 'friends' on Facebook. Friend #800 is Shae Shae, a powerful blogger in the afrosphere.

I joined Facebook a few months ago with the intention of identifying alumni from High School Computer Competition (HSCC) held annually by BDPA. I figured that these young people would be on Facebook. I was surprised by the number of adults on this social network. I have found family, college classmates, business colleagues and a handful of celebrities via Facebook. Even my 70-year old mom opened up an account last month!

Facebook is a fun place. I don't use it to conduct business, although I am using it to promote the Electronic Village!

What is your experience with Facebook?

BDPA Enters the Social Network Community

There are a number of social networks where BDPA members can identify themselves. There are over 1,500 subscribers to the BDPA CollectiveX Groupsite. There are over 600 subscribers to the BDPA Group on the LinkedIn Network.

Chris Bomar (Cincinnati) worked with us last year to create a place the BDPA Foundation on Facebook. Former national BDPA president Milt Haynes (Chicago) was the first to create a presences for BDPA on Facebook.

How many of you are active on Twitter? I find myself updating it 3-4 times per day. I get updates from New York Times and Barack Obama via Twitter.

Ura Puranda (Chicago) and her team created a YouTube Channel for the BDPA Foundation. I hope that we can find more videos from BDPA chapters, students and members to include on our newly created channel.

I guess that BDPA is searching for it's place in the Web 2.0 world. What do you think of it all?

The Social Network as a Career Safety Net

I am a strong believer in the power of social networking. You can find me on CollectiveX, Facebook, LinkedIn Network and Twitter. In fact, my 15-year old daughter thinks I'm too old to be on Facebook.
Perhaps you are like my daughter. Maybe you have avoided social-networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook with the excuse that they are the domain of desperate job hunters or attention-seeking teenagers. If so, it’s time to reconsider.

In a world of economic instability and corporate upheaval, savvy professionals epitomize the benefits of brushing up your online image and keeping it polished.

Click here for the rest of the story.

BDPA on Facebook

I resisted the constant pressure to join Facebook for many years. However, last month I joined Facebook as part of effort to promote the BDPA Foundation. I have been pleasantly surprised by the usefulness of this social network.

I have made connections with high school friends, college friends, BDPA colleagues, Black bloggers, BDPA keynote speakers and BDPA High School Computer Competition alumni. However, I haven't found many relatives online yet.

Here are some BDPA-related Facebook groups:

1. Black Data Processing Associates (Global) - 65 members
2. BDPA Chicago - 39 members
3. BDPA - 28 members
4. BDPA Southern Minnesota - 25 members
5. BDPA High School Computer Competition Alumni - 24 members
6. BDPA Richmond - 24 members
7. BDPA Atlanta - 5 members
8. BDPA Philadelphia - 2 members

Here are some other Facebook groups that you might be interested in checking out:

1. Blackonomics Million Dollar Club - BMDC overview
2. Afrosphere Bloggers Association - ABA website
3. Blacks Gone Geek - BGG blog
   Call on Fox News to Fire Liz Trotta - see weak apology from Liz Trotta

I invite you to connect with me on Facebook. Mostly, I would be very interested to learn about your experience with Facebook? Positive? Negative? Or are you simply refusing to check out Facebook at all?

BDPA Foundation is now on Facebook

BDPA Foundation now has a Facebook page! Christopher Bomar is the administrator for the BDPA Foundation Facebook page.

The majority of BDPA members are old heads. The majority of Facebook users are youngsters. As such, we are not sure how this social networking effort will turn out. I just joined Facebook a couple of weeks ago. I invite any BDPA Foundation blog readers to visit my Facebook profile.

Do you have any Facebook tips or advice for us?

Putting BDPA Foundation on Facebook

Chris Bomar agreed to serve as our project manager for an effort to get the BDPA Education & Technology Foundation onto Facebook. He is currently looking for any volunteers interested in helping us put our non-profit on Facebook. Are you willing to step up as a volunteer on this project?