Giving Challenges: Fellowship of Reconciliation
[Ed. Note: As you probably know, the Case Foundation, together with Facebook Causes and Parade magazine, is going to award $750,000 to charity. To help illuminate the process and generate discussion and ideas, the NTEN Connect Blog will be posting occasional updates from actual participants in the Challenges.]
Ruby Sinreich, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Ten days ago, a colleague forwarded an e-mail saying that the Case Foundation would be giving $250,000 to the nonprofits that generated the most supporters through the Causes application on Facebook. A week earlier, another colleague had discovered that some folks had started a "No War Iran" Cause and designated our organization, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, as the recipient. They had already recruited over 5,500 supporters and generated $210 in unsolicited donations, so we were feeling pretty open to the potential of Facebook.
Although our initial research into the Case Giving Challenge provided no useful information, I learned through a New York Times article last Thursday that the challenge would begin that very day. Through an accident of timing, I managed to set up and launch our cause, "Peace and Justice Through Nonviolence", just moments after the contest began. This was fortuitous because only newly-created Causes are eligible.
I quickly sent invitations to the maximum 20 friends that Facebook allows, Twittered, blogged it, and included a link in our monthly e-newsletter. This generated about 13 people and 6 donations in the first 24 hours. Thanks to our good timing, we made the leaderboard for a while, but dropped into obscurity when groups with larger and younger memberships started getting involved.
I came to the conclusion that my organization is not going to win any overall prizes for membership. I'll be surprised if we even win one of the daily $1,000 prize unless we can time a huge message at the perfect moment -- when no-one else is looking at Facebook.
The competition itself has generated a good bit of publicity, however, which has reinforced our own messaging, especially within Facebook. We are still seeing a boost in Facebook supporters compared to what we might otherwise see: to date we have 43 supporters and 9 donors who have given a total of $190 dollars.
Next week I will update you on my progress and talk about some of the ways I have used Facebook's tools to promote and take advantage of this challenge.
Stay tuned for more from Ruby Sinreich.
