Regular readers know I urge "restraint" with respect to social media fundraising … in the sense that I believe there are higher priorities if your goal is to raise money today.

But I received a message recently from Mandy O’Neill at Charity Dynamics, an interactive marketing  agency, describing some of their success with fundraising — some $10 million in less than a year — via their Facebook application. That’s a number that gets my attention.

Here’s what Mandy says:

"Late last year, we developed a Facebook application for our clients who raise money through “thon” events. Walks, Runs, Rides, and Independent Events. Ten months and $10M later, our hunch proved correct. Donors who prefer to be engaged participants through races, walks, and rides also have active social networks. We’re not saying that these kind of fundraising results are achievable by any nonprofit. We *are* saying that there’s a natural fit between participant-fundraisers and social networks—and the numbers are proving us out so far.

A year in social media is forever, but not that long in fundraising. Some trends we’re seeing with our Boundless Fundraising™ for Facebook application:

• On average, 75% of donations sourced the Boundless Fundraising™ are new donors to the organization (we can tell because there is source code tracking);
• Where are the new donors coming from? There are indications that a participants’ Facebook friend network is a different crowd than their usual email address book that they’ve been soliciting;
• Nonprofits get an added benefit of  awareness through newsfeeds, notifications and streams; and,
• As mentioned earlier, since it’s all tracked via source code, you can measure your ROI and new donor acquisition.

Clients using “thon” software offered by both Convio (TeamRaiser) and Blackbaud (Friends Asking Friends) can use this application. The application offers a nonprofit-branded badge *and* streaming newsfeeds. Donors who click the badge or streaming feed are sent to the participants “home” fundraising page and the donation is processed directly into the nonprofit’s merchant account. The participants “thermometer” on their Facebook page is automatically updated with their progress. You can see a short flash demo here.

In a year where flat is the new “up,” we think this is promising news and look forward to a bigger, better 2010."

I’ll admit that a little bit here and there can add up to serious fundraising. And, as Mandy notes, there’s clearly a "natural fit" between "participant fundraisers" and social media. If you’re already in the "thon" business, no question that social media tools like this can provide a big boost.

But still I’d advise … get your mail and email working at full potential first.

Tom