While many charities are trying to find ways to use social-media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to raise money, Oxfam America is taking a different approach.

Bob Ferguson, Oxfam’s music and community outreach coordinator, said the organization is much more interested in using these tools to inspire activism and plan events.

“We’re not an organization that is all about collecting money,” Mr. Ferguson said Friday at Mashable’s Social Good Conference in New York. “We’re about encouraging them to take action.”

Mr. Ferguson said the group used Twitter and Facebook to persuade its supporters to call members of Congress and urge them to pass legislation on climate change and to mobilize nearly 700 volunteers to help promote the organization at concerts on Coldplay’s recent tour.

“In the old days, three years ago, just sending out e-mails to volunteers, it would have been very hard for us to get out to 700 volunteers,” he said. “And these aren’t just volunteers with clipboards. These are people who are willing to be trained to be spokespeople for Oxfam America.”