The term “Social Good” has been bantered about, but pinning down exactly what it means in concrete terms can sometimes be tricky. Is social good the same as “the common good”? Is it the same as normal fundraising? Is it just online giving, or is it particular to social networks and web trends?
Social good is equal parts online fundraising and advocacy via social networks. While the Internet has been used before by non-profits and charities to raise money, social good implies more than just money changing hands. Social good campaigns often combine the ability of the Internet to find, introduce and bond communities around a common interest. That interest, in this case, is usually a problem worth fixing.
Where social good starts to get fuzzy is just how that problem gets fixed. Social good campaigns can be about building safe, entirely free, online support communities, spreading awareness through updates, raising cash, or a combination of all three.
There are concerns that social good is less effective at raising money than traditional fundraising — that smaller online donations and campaigns only cannibalize the already shrinking philanthropy market. Still, others see it as a new, rapidly growing field, ripe with opportunity.
Ultimately, social good is defined as much by its process as the end result. It is, however, more than just fundraising by using social media. So what is it? While it’s impossible to suss out every nuance of the phrase, we spoke with four non-profits in the social good space to better grasp what social good does well. They collectively and separately saw it in terms of community building, public advocacy, wide-reaching awareness, and low-cost social impact.
Community Time
Social networks are all about building communities, and social good is no different. Livestrong has long been on the social good radar with their active Facebook communities and online forums. “It has really helped us with our fundraising and recruiting efforts for our events,” said Brooke McMillan, Livestrong’s online community manager. “But it’s not our first task. Our first task is to have people become part of our community”
That community can lead to direct donations, but it’s through genuine interaction. Social networking enables non-profits to better know their donors and build long-term giving relationships.
Sometimes the community is the end goal, as with Livestrong’s anti-stigma campaign. McMillan said their highest readership days are when people share personal stories. “We’ve actually seen that our international Facebook fans are sharing their stories and speaking about their personal stories online,” McMillan said. “It’s a great way to spread the message of talking about cancer in a forum that’s safer than in a country [where they] might not be able to do that.”
While these discussions were initially a way to convert Facebook fans into donations, McMillan now sees those forums and social good as “the actions of the people in the community you’ve built… if the organization builds a place that the community comes to, the good will come out of it.”
Charity and Advocacy
Social good is especially useful for mobilizing a large group of like-minded people. While this has normally manifested itself in flash mobs or group-buying, there’s a lot of potential for increasing public advocacy to solve pressing problems.
“Having 10 million people is more important than 10 million dollars,” said Ben Rattray, founder and CEO of Change.org. “For advocacy you need to mobilize people, and the web helps you mobilize people like never before.” Rather than see the community as the end goal, Rattray sees it as an important resource in the social good tool belt. “… People’s voices are more important than their pocketbooks.”
That mobilization, however, is earned. The goal is to find and cultivate life-long donors that feel invested in your organization. Donations for things like charity runs and other short-term projects are often given because a friend has asked for money, Rattray said. With long-term social good campaigns, companies can aggregate all those small donors and treat them like a larger donor. This is especially important for smaller non-profits with limited resources for donor outreach. That earned trust can pave the way for advocacy and systematic changes.
“The goal is not to make people happy about donating but to make change in the world and hopefully there’s a synergy between the two,” Rattray said.
Social Awareness
Philanthropy has always been a balance between raising money and raising awareness for a cause. For Mike McCamon, chief community officer for Water.org, social media is making both possible at the same time. Much of that comes from raising awareness through social media: “It’s always been my theory that someone’s got to have an itch for me to scratch before I can scratch it,” McCamon said. “The goal is to use social media in a very passive way to spread the viral news — here’s the problem and here’s a company that is solving it — and people will self-select.”
Social good can bring attention to a cause and the companies trying to solve it without blindly canvassing for donations (or “the ask”). “I want to build a relationship with someone over the next couple of years,” McCamon said.
That support can take the form of sharing social space online. Last year, Water.org launched a campaign called OneWeekForWater where users could volunteer their Twitter accounts much like in-stream advertising. Instead of product ads, Water.org would broadcast information or promotions for its charities. 100,000 people came to the site with 15,000 signing up to volunteer.
Much social networking is based on raising personal social capital, and campaigns like OneWeekForWater helped users by associating with a good cause. Water.org also benefited by reaching thousands of new fans through social friend networks. Receiving an update in a highly personal way, from a friend’s recommendation, can have more reach than traditional blind mailings. Given its success, Water.org plans to repeat the campaign later this year.
While awareness is important, McCamon remained practical about the intent of social good: “The end purpose of all of this is to solve a problem and to do that we need to raise money. Everything we’re doing in these social media channels, at the end of the day, is to help them donate.”
Saving Some Dough
Perhaps one of the best things about social good is its comparative cost. Social good, unlike traditional fundraising often requires far less money and resources to launch a viable, successful campaign. It’s because of this that many smaller operations have taken to social media to promote and support their causes.
That grassroots mentality drove Meaghan Edelstein to launch Spiritjump.org. Diagnosed with cancer, she initially started the site as a way to reach out to other patients. The site took off, despite starting on a budget of about $20. “You can reach a large group of people in a very short time, virtually for free,” Edelstein said. “And you can’t do that in traditional fundraising.”
Basing a non-profit on small transactions helps in a number of ways. Where larger companies might throw large fundraising events, low budget outfits can provide some financial transparency: “Mailings are expensive. Galas are expensive. Contributors are on to that and they don’t appreciate that,” Edelstein said. “They want to know their money is actually making a difference and not going to throwing parties.”
It also makes it easier to give. People don’t like writing a check for $5, but online, it’s much easier to just click a button and donate a dollar, Edelstein said. “You can reach out to people once a month, and yeah, it might be a dollar, but if you have a million fans and only half donate a dollar a month, that adds up.”
Moreover, large corporations are starting to get into cause marketing online. Non-profits with an online strategy could be missing out on a huge source of revenue.
As much as philanthropy often relies on money changing hands, Edelstein sees social good as “being conscious of what’s around you. It’s not necessarily writing a check.” Those other intangibles include community building and creating a real discourse around a problem. Social good also comes down to a feeling of participation. Donations are one-off payments — they are essential but finite. Social good, via social media, can help make those donors feel like they are part of the organization and part of the solution. It’s a win-win, where non-profits receive sustained donations and donors feel involved and engaged. If you don’t take those steps, said Edelstein, your audience won’t be there when you call for action.
Traditional fundraising certainly isn’t going to go away (nor should it), but social good does present a new set of philanthropic tools that can benefit donations, advocacy, and online communities. When asked about whether social good will stay separate from fundraising, Edelstein responded: “At some point it’s all going to be the same thing. It has to be.”
Found on : Mashable & 92Y Social Good Summit