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Research into how US charities are using Facebook, which was announced last week, found that only 0.4% of them have raised more than $100,000 from Facebook, 32% had raised less than $1,000 and 52% weren’t actually on Facebook.

These stats have given rise to debate in the UK over how the third sector uses Facebook and social media as a whole. One point has been that Facebook doesn’t have an inbuilt mechanism for donations and that a large fan base is pointless if the charity has to drive them to an external site. The response from some parties (particularly John Brunsdon writing for The Guardian last Friday) has been that there are Facebook apps available for donating via the social networking site and the charities need to be more tech savvy and find them, as well as collaborate on what they are doing in this space.

Every charity has its own diverse range of donor profiles that it needs to reach, which is what makes fundraising so challenging. It is also what requires fundraisers to keep one leg firmly in ‘traditional’ communications and the other bravely stepping into the world of social media. From my own experiences at Macmillan I am continually surprised at the number of fundraisers that aren’t email savvy, let alone engaging with charity via Facebook or twitter. Of course, a high proportion of donors/fundraisers are fairly switched on, but when you live in the online world it’s easy to forget that not everyone else is (even if you think they should be). The fact that not all donors have handily moved online is perhaps what has held some charities back from fully engaging in social media.

Regardless of sector, it can be daunting for any organisation to make an entrance online. Rather than an ad hoc foray onto Facebook, twitter or blogging any organisation needs to have a strategy; without a plan for growing a fan base and driving traffic to relevant websites there will be little reward.

It’s undeniable that social media is a fantastic means for charities to reach multiple audiences, bring supporters and fundraisers together, and be far more interactive with its donors. As a consequence, this can drive participation in fundraising events and fans and followers to donate. Yet to achieve this, some questions need to be asked beforehand to ensure the move online delivers:

-       Which of the donor audiences profiles do the different social media platforms reach

-       What information will be communicated to them

-       What is the communication style

-       How will online donations via social media be tracked? (If using an App, does it allow the charity to track what event and location the donation came from?)

For charities, a consumer’s positive experience of their ‘online brand’ may well prove to be the difference between clinching them as a life-long supporter for the charity, or not. In his article, John Brunsdon makes the valid point that there needs to be collaboration if charities are going to reap the rewards of social media. This is why I’m looking forward to the nicely timed mediaPro Expo next week (on twitter here) – where the likes of Breast Cancer Care, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and WWF will be sharing their online work. Most pertinently, Breast Cancer Care will be talking about how they used social media to raise money. I look forward to seeing you there!