Twitter Competition to Raise $1-Million for Charity

May 07, 2009

Twitter Competition to Raise $1-Million for Charity

Following on the heels of efforts like Twestival and Aston Kutcher’s Twitter challenge, a new venture called TwittaCause seeks to tap the social-networking site, Twitter, for large-scale fund-raising.

TwittaCause seeks to raise $1-million for charity through a combination of small corporate sponsorships and individual pledges made and broadcast through Twitter. The project was started in January by Sam Swanson, a 23-year old student in New Zealand, who says he wanted “to try to see if I could raise money for charity without spending any money.”

TwittaCause’s first order of business: choosing a beneficiary. After soliciting nominations through Twitter, Mr. Swanson has selected the 15 most-nominated groups and is asking followers to vote on which should receive the $1-million. Among those on the list are: One Laptop Per Child, The Kempe Foundation, Epic Change , and National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Voting, done through the TwittaCause Web site, closes May 10.

So far the venture has raised only a few thousand dollars, says Mr. Swanson, though he expects donations to pick up pace one a beneficiary is chosen, and hopes to meet the $1-million goal by the end of the year.

The competition came as a surprise to some of the charities that stand to benefit from it. “It was news to us,” says Kristine Pearson, chief executive of the Freeplay Foundation, which received an e-mail message in late April that the group was among the finalists.

Since then, says Ms. Pearson, the organization – which distributes wind-up and solar powered radios to students, women, children, farmers and refugees in Africa – has been hard at work campaigning for votes by sending out press releases, reaching out to supporters through Twitter and Facebook, and even announcing the competition on a South African radio program.

“Most people don’t realize that a competition like this, while fun and exciting and stimulating, takes an enormous amount of staff time,” says Ms. Pearson. Still, she says, for a “lean” organization like Freeplay the prospect of securing $1 million in unrestricted funds is too great an opportunity to let slip.

The nomination was also a surprise to Children’s Cancer Research Fund, in Minneapolis, although Kris Huson, the group’s marketing and communications manager suspects it was the fruit of several months’ work in cultivating online supporters through Twitter and other social networks. While TwittaCause may as yet be far from its $1-million goal, Ms. Huson believes the competition can only bring benefit to Children’s Cancer Research Fund and the other groups chosen as potential beneficiaries. “Even if there’s not money at the end of the rainbow, there’s awareness,” she says.

— Paula Wasley

Comments

This seems suspect in my opinion. The sponsorship is for $700, of which $200 is going to pay for Google ads…I thought this was a Twitter campaign, so what do the Google ads have to do with it?

Also, this young man gets to float all the cash donations for an entire year without any financial responsibility.

I think this story deserves more investigation.

— Bill Paulk May 8, 06:11 PM #
Where is the scrutiny on reporting and promoting this. It looks like he is creating a money loop for himself by funneling $200 of the corporate sponsorship money into google adsense and then making his own site the recipient of those words.

This feels so scammy.

He hasn’t obtained permission to use the nonprofits brand in his work. He is leveraging the twitter brand in his venture as well – but there is nothing inherently twitter about it! What he claims in his subtitle is bogus – What does “million dollar twitter account” even mean? Pledgie is going to handle the donations, the website is the communication platform.

This guy might have the best of intentions and pure of heart, but his methods are screaming scam.

Even the way he went about securing the 2000+ followers he has is more akin to get followers quick techniques.

Why wasn’t Sam Swanson interviewed or scrutinized for this piece?

— Mikey Ames May 8, 06:27 PM #
Thanks for the write up and the questions. I can understand some of the skepticism when it comes to online charity projects but I would like to point out a few things.

1. The donations are been paid directly to the winning charity, we do not handle the $500 at all or take any fee from it.

2. The $200 for Google ads is to ensure that sponsors receive exposure as sponsors as well as the winning charity.

3. I was interviewed for the piece.

4. We used Twitter to get nominations, communicate with followers ect.

5. All charities were notified they were in the top 15.

Regards,
Sam Swanson
TwittaCause

— Sam Swanson May 9, 02:43 AM #
Thanks for the clarification, Sam. I appreciate your initiative for this project. There is some inherent credibility and transparency when working with some established organizations. Not seeing any of those gave rise to a lot of questions.

I’m still not completely sure how the $200 is funneled or why you need adwords being used on the twittacause site. But glad to see you willing to answer some of these questions.

— Mikey Ames May 11, 12:32 AM #
Hi Mikey,
The idea behind the ads is to advertise the business as a sponsor which will mean exposure for them and for the charity which will hopefully result in more donors and sponsors. The ads are the banner type as apposed to text ads. Thanks for your feedback. -Sam

— Sam Swanson May 11, 01:51 AM #
It is easy to criticize TwittaCause for breaking rules and setting unrealistic goals, but isn’t that the seed of all progress?
TwittaCause provided the Foundation For Caregivers, and all other finalists, an unprecedented opportunity not only to meet new supporters, but to engage “friends” who had previously only followed. The prospect of a potential $1 million prize actually motivated followers to vote, follow our progress and celebrate our victory.
Our decision to participate in Twittacause was based on four factors. First, the possibility of a $1 million donation was high on our list. Second, TwittaCause provided an opportunity to promote the Foundation on a global scale. Third, winning gives us greater credibility with potential supporters. Finally, our fundraising approach is also nontraditional and we felt immediate kinship with Sam’s “outside the box” approach.
Will TwittaCause succeed? Who knows; success depends on the market response to Sam’s unique vision. It is unlikely that we will know the answer for months. Is he conning the world? Could be, but I don’t think so. He was honest about his goals and methods from the beginning and we knew there was a possibility that the $1 million would not materialize. More importantly, while he may physically reside in New Zealand, he lives in cyber space where failures are never forgotten. He has risked his personal and professional reputation in a very public way. Failure will result in death by a billion tweets. Conversely success will forever change the nature of online fundraising. I could certainly be wrong, but my gut tells me Sam is out to change the world, not con the world, and for me, the opportunity to be part of meaningful progress outweighs the risk of not getting the $1 million.
Tim Griswold
Founder and Executive Director
Foundation For Caregivers

— Tim Griswold May 11, 08:03 PM #
Sam,

I don’t mean to belabor a point, and I appreciate that you continue to keep track of the comments and answer my questions. I am still wondering about the google adsense program you signed up for and incorporated into the voting page? Does that have something to do with making the whole program promote itself, or is it (what initial appearances are) a way for you to earn a few bucks from the traffic that was showing up to vote?

Do you see my question and concern?

If you are in charge of the $200 being filtered to Google adwords, and you are also in charge of the google adsense account on the voting page…you create a money loop for yourself.

Maybe you’re not managing the adwords side?

Maybe there is another reason you placed ppc ads on the voting page?

Again, thanks for your time.

— Mikey May 11, 10:16 PM #
I get your question now. What I did was spend a few dollars on some ads to attract sponsors, then I put the ads on the site to offset that cost, which funnily enough actually worked out to cost me more than the ads earned as the majority of the votes came from people voting on the charities websites as they embedded the poll on to their own sites. I think I will remove all ads from my site as they don’t earn any money and they create suspicion. Please feel free to email me any more questions (sam@twittacause.com).
Thanks for your feedback – Sam.

— Sam Swanson May 11, 11:21 PM #

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