At 9:08 a.m. on a recent Friday, Brooke McMillan, an employee at the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the voice behind the organization's Twitter account, punched out a message to a charity supporter: "Congrats on 20 days smoke free! Keep it up! Only gets easier from here." The post followed a reminder to check out the foundation's new blog entry on its campaign to end smoking in Texas.
In response to a question from another supporter about whether Lance Armstrong would be racing in the Tour of California, she replied: "Yup! Check out www.livestrong.org for info on meetups and articles."
Ms. McMillan is one of a growing number of charity employees using the social-networking site Twitter in behalf of their organizations. The Web site enables users to publish messages of up to 140 characters. Those messages then appear on the Twitter home pages of anyone who has signed up to receive them. More than 5,700 people receive the Lance Armstrong Foundation's Twitter posts, known as "tweets."
Charities that use the tool say it helps them connect with supporters and spread awareness about their work. A handful have even tried using Twitter to raise money.
The American Red Cross uses the site to provide people with minute-by-minute information about the group's services, particularly during emergencies. A post after the recent plane crash in New York State read: "Buffalo Plane Crash: Red Cross is on the scene supporting families and first responders. Family members can call 1-800-621-3263."
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals struck it big on Twitter with an advocacy campaign to convince the online retail company Zappos to stop selling products with fur. The organization asked its supporters to send tweets to employees of the company, more than 400 of whom use the site. The charity also publicized its campaign on Twitter.
After about a month of working with PETA to survey its customers, the company agreed.
Fans of Twitter say the site has greatly increased readership of their blogs and Web sites. Rosetta Thurman, a consultant to nonprofit organizations and an adjunct professor at Trinity University, in Washington, "tweeted" recently that the site had become the second-most-popular way readers were directed to her blog, after Google. Some journalists use Twitter to stay on top of what nonprofit groups are doing and find sources. The Humane Society of the United States got some attention for its work on the Huffington Post after a journalist read an announcement the charity posted on Twitter.
Getting Attention
A few nonprofit groups have experimented with using the site to gather supporters for actual fund-raising events.
Others are asking their supporters via Twitter to give.
Beth Kanter, a social-media expert who has used Twitter and other social-networking sites to raise money for the Sharing Foundation, in Concord, Mass., and other groups, says the site can be an effective means to publicize a fund-raising campaign.
But she says charities should not ask too often, nor ignore the importance of building real-world relationships with supporters.
"They have to worry about the gimme, gimme, gimme," she says. "It's not that the tools are evil or bad, it's that they can be used in a bad way. Don't forget about everything you already know — the best practices in fund raising and communications."
A handful of grant makers, such as the Case Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, are active Twitter users.
Kari Saratovsky, vice president of social innovation at Case, says she views the site as a way to spread awareness about her grantees' work and even learn about new ideas and organizations.
"It's an interesting opportunity for people to get on our radar," she says.
But for groups that have not embraced Twitter, time (or a lack of it) may be the biggest deterrent.
Nonprofit officials who use the site say it can eat up anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour per day. That can be overwhelming, particularly for small and mid-size charities.
Jim Prosser, spokesman for Direct Relief International, uses Twitter on his own time. But he says his charity's small communications department (himself, the Web developer, and a third person in charge of publications) simply can't invest in Twitter now. Instead, the group is focusing on building a readership on Facebook, which has 150 million users compared with Twitter's six million, according to New York magazine. (The company did not respond to requests seeking confirmation).
Another concern for charities may be the fleeting popularity of social-networking sites. The number of people who "tweet" has exploded in the past year (900 percent, according to the company's blog), but many nonprofit officials and others say those users could easily migrate to a new social-media site at any time.
But Ms. Saratovsky, of the Case Foundation, says she isn't sure that matters.
"The next next thing is always around the corner," she says. "But that's why it's so important that nonprofit organizations get a certain comfort level with using the tool that currently exists because then it's easier to move from one platform to the next."
For charities interested in trying Twitter, nonprofit social-media experts offer the following advice:
Find out where your supporters are. Do some casual research (using Twitter's search function) to learn if people who care about your cause are talking about it on the site.
Listen to others. If you sign up for Twitter, don't just start blasting information about yourself and your organization. Find out what people are saying about your charity, and what information they're looking for.
Don't be a bore. Readers don't sign up to follow a group's Twitter account because they want a litany of links to press releases. That's what RSS feeds are for. So inject some personality into your messages. Lianne Turner, who tweets for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, may combine a link to a vegan-cupcake recipe with an announcement about the group's latest advocacy campaign.
Be professional. While for an animal-rights group blogging about vegan recipes may make sense, posting about how disappointed you were in last night's episode of Lost probably doesn't.
Engage with users. Twitter is a two-way dialogue: You send out messages, and readers and supporters will probably respond with questions and suggestions. Nonprofit officials who use Twitter say they try to respond to some, if not all, of the comments they get. Even Lance Armstrong, who has more than 130,000 followers on the site, sends out general responses to all of his followers if he has been asked the same question again and again, says Jeff Manning, online marketing manager at the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Monitor your account. In a recent tweet, Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator, compared Twitter to owning a dog: "Among other things, you must walk it a few times a day or you are in trouble." Claire Sale, social-media specialist with the American Red Cross, agrees. She says that charities can risk losing readers and respect, at least among Twitterati, if they let their accounts idle for too long.
Tiptoe into fund raising. Hildy Gottlieb, president of the Community-Driven Institute, in Tucson, says Twitter followers cannot replace loyal donors, and charity officials should not neglect the latter while experimenting with one-time campaigns on the networking site. "There's an opportunity cost to everything," she says.
Develop guidelines. Not every staff member at your charity should be using Twitter in the organization's behalf. Choose one or two people to be in charge of the group's Twitter account, social-network experts recommend.
Avoid taking offense. Because anyone can jot off a quick comment via Twitter, a charity is almost certain to receive a few negative, and even nasty, messages.
Officials of the American Red Cross, and other groups, view such feedback as an opportunity to educate and correct misinformation. "At the very least, it shows our transparency and willingness to be part of the conversation," says Ms. Sale.
Involve your chief executive or celebrity donor. The Case Foundation has more than 650 followers on Twitter, while Steve Case has more than 2,200. Says Ms. Saratovsky: "When Steve posts something, it gets noticed right away."