Facebook an effective fundraising tool

I’m sure you’ve heard of Facebook, and either fully embrace it as a time-waster, adamantly tell people you don’t need to be on Facebook, or have a Facebook page and don’t pay much attention to it.

I’m drinking the Kool-Aid, if you’ll forgive me. I’ve gotten in touch with people from college, high school, middle school (including my 7th grade geography teacher!), and other folks I thought I’d never hear from again.

Turns out Facebook is also pretty effective for fundraising.

Last week, on Jan. 15, I sent out a message to all 200 of my Facebook friends, asking them to donate $14 to my Summit For Someone climb. Over seven days, 20 different people donated to my climb (some for the second time), for a total of $643 in donations. Sure, 180 people ignored the message, but some of those people had already donated. Some I hadn’t seen since 1993.

If you’d like to appropriate the text of my Facebook message for your own fundraising, here it is:

Dear Facebook friends:

This June, I’ll be climbing 14,162-foot Mount Shasta in California to raise money for Big City Mountaineers, the nonprofit I work for in Denver. I’m asking for $14 of your help (a dollar for every 1,000 feet) in reaching my fundraising goal for the climb.

The money I raise will fund backpacking and canoeing trips for at-risk inner-city teens in Colorado, California, the Pacific Northwest and the Boundary Waters. All our participants come from youth agencies like College Track and The Boys & Girls Club.

I’ve pledged to raise $3,600, and every donation will help me get there, and help a bunch of teens spend a week in the mountains next summer, and maybe alter the course of their lives. A $14 donation will pay for part of the costs of a teen to spend a week in the backcountry with some positive role models.

To donate by credit or debit card, just click the “Donate” button on my fundraising page, here: http://www.summitforsomeone.org/main.php?page=4&climber=6074

When you complete the donation process, you’ll receive a confirmation e-mail that functions as a tax document, which allows you to deduct your contribution. (And you’ll get an ecstatic “thank you” e-mail from me.)

Thank you for your help.

Brendan