Participate in fundraising campaigns

Fundraising is flourishing on Twitter, most often in micro-form. That is, people organize campaigns in which you're asked to give a very small donation (on another site)—a quarter or a couple of dollars—and perhaps a retweet. When enough Twitterers participate, the numbers and awareness add up.

Charity: water (http://www.charitywater.com), for example, has raised several hundred thousand dollars through Twitter-based campaigns and Twestival, a worldwide series of gatherings to benefit the organization.

If you see a campaign roll across your screen, consider participating and passing along the word. Of course, due diligence is always in order: at a minimum, check out the website of the organization sponsoring the event.

If you're looking to organize a campaign on Twitter, sites like TipJoy (http://tipjoy.com) can help you with payment processing. Beth Kanter's blog (How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, http://beth.typepad.com/) can help you figure out what's worked, and what hasn't, in Twitter-based fundraising so far.

Participate in fundraising campaigns

Get The Twitter Book now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.