From a Click to a Cause

Source: Stone, Brad. "Clicking for a Cause". New York Times. 6 December, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/giving/12FACE.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Social%20Media&st=cse

Summary: Many charity groups are using social networks to raise a significant amount of donations. One example was, Brad Sugars. By making just few clicks on Facebook, he was able to raise $8,000 dollars for the Cancer Schmancer Movement. He installed a program, "Causes", on his profile page and encouraged all his friends to donate $38 to the cause and was successful. The social media is easy access to get the word out about these nonprofit organizations, thus making it easier to receive donations. "The age of social media has empowered amateur journalists, fledgling presidential candidates and creative corporate marketers. Now, some say, it is time for nonprofit groups to harness the power of 140-character Tweets and Facebook status updates to recruit volunteers, spread awareness and solicit donations" (Stone). Mr. Scott Harrison of the nonprofit group, Charity: Water, agrees, "The only way we can truly expand our efforts is through tapping individuals through social media.” And several other organizations have been as successful as Harrison's. A survey from the University of Massachusetts claimed that about 8 in 10 of the top 200 American charities said they used social networking and 9 in 10 thought that their use of social networking was successful. Unfortunately, this kind of work for a charity is very time consuming and may not be rewarding. But, they look on the positive side saying that if they get them interested, people may donate or take action later. Director of market development at Facebook, Randi Zuckerberg, said, "In the old-fashioned view, getting involved meant one of two things, giving time or money. Now there are a dozen things you can do in between, including giving your reputation. I think when we look back and can quantify it, we’ll see it’s pretty valuable to tell your network you are validating a viewpoint on something.”


Response: I think this shows a very positive outlook on social media. In our time period, we tend to see very negative points of view on any type of media. This kind of aspect is refreshing. For how widely spread and quick Facebook and Twitter are, this idea would seem logical. I notice many invitations by several friends to help with one cause or another on Facebook, and it draws my attention. Word of these kinds of charities expands broadly, which gets more and more people involved, which gets more and more donations; we get a domino effect. True, not all organizations get profit from using social networks, but at least they are catching people's attention to the cause their fighting for. Social media has already proven itself as an enormous role in the future. I'm happy that we are putting it to good use. If you're going to spend time on Facebook and Twitter, why not take one click and be of some help to a charity?