Relationship Fundraising 2.0 – Or: Scenes from a kitchen table…

Morning in Oslo, Norway.

My favorite part of the day is in the morning at my kitchen table, when I read the papers and tune in. Of course, I can’t resist checking social media. Here’s what’s on:

– Carla discusses with her friends. They are in Syria. She hears from them a lot less frequently now.

– Sam, volunteer manager, sends me new photos from a school I helped build some years ago. That’s in Uganda. We talk briefly about the new law against homosexuals.

Does your charity act like this?

– Mike and his friends give me the laugh of the day when their community group erupt in panicked discussion on Facebook because Snapchat is down! That’s in Zimbabwe. I’m not on Snapchat, maybe I should be?

As I read my daily papers, I can add to the reported reality with information coming from friends and acquaintances around the world. I stay involved in a myriad of new ways.

What’s interesting, or scary, is that your charity is hardly ever part of this. Will you be?

At my kitchen table in a 2.0 world, my most important relationship is not to any charity, but to other donors, volunteers and staff through my personal network and those of my friends.

***

Evening, Still in Oslo.

During my day, I got this new, wondrous gadget. Given my level of tech-savvy, I quickly am stuck with setting it up. What’s a girl to do?

Obviously, somebody will have had the same problem. In my case, Jeremy from Ohio has already found a fix for my bug, and I manage to solve my problem by interacting with him through the company support community. I don’t even have to leave my kitchen table.

Or like this?

Nothing revolutionary about companies working hard to get their customers to help each other, review items, discuss new ideas, to form a community. They know it will pay off.

Thanks for the help, Jeremy.

***

What’s Relationship Fundraising When We’re All 2.0?

Your organization uses social media to tell people about your work and to get them to talk about you. But do you get your supporters (in the broadest possible sense of the word) to talk to and interact with each other?  Are you hard at work to connect them with each other for their mutual benefit?

What can your charity do to introduce me to a Jeremy, or a Sam who can answer my questions about, say, homelessness in my city? What is your charity’s version of the support community or a review page?

Relationship Fundraising 2.0 means relationships between supporters.

My most important relationships and valued interactions are with other people, also the ones I’ve never actually met. What do you do to bring us together?