MWO Philanthropic Advisors » Social Media

Social Gaming: Are You Playing Yet?

Mike O'Mahoney — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:12:40 +0000

We wrote a piece on social gaming for Canadian Fundraising and Philanthropy. Click on the image below to read the article on their website.

Refreshing Collaborations

Mike O'Mahoney — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 03:39:34 +0000

Need some extra funds to launch your organization’s next big campaign? If your non-profit is registered in the US, let Pepsi know about your idea and win funding. [Come on, Canadian corporations! Get on board!]

Pepsi is giving over $20 million through the end of this year to individuals, businesses and non-profits working to better their communities. It’s a popular trend in which corporations use social media to get people involved in giving back to social issues while marketing their product to wider audiences. Recent campaigns include the Starbucks Love Project and Disney’s Give a Day, Get a Disney Day promotion.

It’s great when businesses give back to their communities and we encourage non-profits to take advantage of opportunities to create partnerships with corporations.

Here’s one way: visit the Pepsi Refresh Project website, submit your idea, promote it through your networks to gather votes, and let us know when you win.

Good luck!

As simple as A-B-C

Mike O'Mahoney — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:16:19 +0000

To raise $100,000, the ABC Life Literacy Canada Foundation is selling letters of the alphabet for $3,847 each. Donors will have their name and letter printed in full-page ads in the Toronto Star and Vancouver’s The Province (a combined circulation of 1.5 million Canadians). Both papers have donated ad-space.

As companies buy letters, ABC shows their appreciation on twitter and then tweets a call-out to their supporter’s competition.

“Thanks BC Honda Dealers purchasing the letter ‘B’. Where are you Toyota and Hyundai?” Feb 10th

“Thanks to HarperCollins for purchasing the letter H. Luckily P is still available Penguin.” Feb 10th

Organizations have been picking up letters, including the CBC [C], Scotiabank [S], and Tim Hortons [T] but there are still a few up for grab.

What we like about this?

This is a creative twist on a really simple idea. The building blocks for words formed the foundation for this campaign. The next time you’re brainstorming campaigns for your organization, start by thinking small…really basic. Then build on your simple idea.

There’s an element of competition and playfulness woven through this campaign. We especially like the gentle “taunts” that were tweeted. Don’t forget to have fun with your campaigns!

Shorten An URL, Help A Charity

Mike O'Mahoney — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:48:09 +0000

Social media users are increasingly utilizing services that shrink long website addresses. The trend is being spurred on by microblogging platforms that limit the length of postings, like Twitter and Jaiku.

Joining the popular URL-shortening playing field is Good.ly, a website that compresses your link and sends proceeds to charity.

Here’s how it works:
If you think people may be interested in purchasing a product from a participating website, use Good.ly to shorten the link and forward it to them.
If people click and buy what you recommend 55% of referral fees go to a charity you select from the website.
The remaining 45% goes towards running and promoting the service.
And you’ve raised funds for a charity.

Funds are raised for three new charities every month. Contact Good.ly to get your organization featured.