Cause Marketing Feature: TwitCause

My good friend, Mike and I recently trekked up to the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx to support a stellar non-profit organization called CampInteractive(CI). CI uses the power of technology and the outdoors to empower inner-city kids and close the digital divide. We are both on the steering committee for an event called NYC Twestival which brings social media heads offline to raise money for a local cause. For NYC, the selected cause is CI.

Mike generously volunteered up his time to teach the organization’s staffers and participants about using Twitter as a tool to market and gain funders. I was going to do a mini interview of one of the legacy members of the program. And so to the Bronx we went.We were both intrigued by the space, a renovated Laundromat, which housed an eclectic mix of MacBooks, snowboarding gear and ergonomic seating. We were even more inspired by the stories that we heard about the kids: camping excursions that went from the five boroughs to the mountains of Aspen.How could it be that we had never heard of such a fantastic cause that is on the cusp of celebrating its ten-year anniversary?It reminded me that there are hundreds of organizations out there that get no love due to limited budgets, staff and other challenges. Social media provides a plethoria of tools that could easily be employed by these very same organizations to increase their brand awarness and, ultimately, their bottom line.TwitCause is one of these tools.The service is focused on producing a viral effect, having been used to promote nonprofit causes. Another priority is connecting corporate brands with nonprofits, say by getting companies to donate a few cents to a charity every time someone re-tweets a post about it. While attaching causes to brands could help translate tweets and Facebook friends into donations or other tangible ROI, most nonprofits and advocacy groups are far from figuring out how to quantify their social media presence or connect it to real-life activism.How can a real connection be made between non-profit and social media?Mike and I are working on the answer.In the meantime. Check out my source for this piece here.And support CampInteractive through the NYC Twestival Event going down tomorrow!