Blogging for the Hearts of Donors

Largest US Charities Use Social Media

By Nora Barnes, Ph.D. and Eric Mattson

Americas largest charities are turning to the Internet in an effort to increase awareness of their missions and to help connect with their constituencies. While these organizations are known for their nonprofit status and their fundraising campaigns, they demonstrate an acute awareness of the importance of Web 2.0 strategies in meeting their objectives.

This research proves conclusively that charitable organizations are outpacing the business world in their use of social media. Seventy-five percent of the charitable organizations studied are using some form of social media including blogs, podcasts, message boards, social networking, video blogging and wikis. More than a third of the organizations are blogging. Forty-six percent of those studied report social media is very important to their fundraising strategy.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouths Center for Marketing Research conducted a nationwide telephone survey of those nonprofits named by Forbes Magazine to their list of the 200 largest US charities for 2006 under the direction of researchers Eric Mattson and Nora Ganim Barnes. All interviews took place in the spring of 2007. Over one-third (76) of the Forbes 200 list participated, making this research statistically valid.

Forbes Magazines list of the 200 largest US charities is based on the amount of private, nongovernmental support a charity received in the latest available fiscal year. The list excludes academic institutions, nonprofits that are either funded by a tiny number of donors (such as most private foundations) or dont solicit, and religious organizations that dont report numbers.

The executive summary that follows gives a high-level overview of this studys findings. Additional detail will be published in several academic papers later in 2008. To be added to our email notification list about those papers and our future research, please email Eric Mattson or Dr. Nora Barnes

Downloads

You can download a preview of the study in word or pdf format, using the following links. The special web-only sneak peek includes the executive summary and several charts.

• Blogging For the Hearts of Donors: Web preview (PDF)
• Blogging For the Hearts of Donors: Web preview (Word)