Pinning a "donation" catalog

Of the many "new" social media tools (are there really any "old" social media tools?) available today, pinterest has ample opportunities to monetize that are not yet undertaken.  As a social media tool, pinterest has some real strengths to apply to a fundraising background; a homogeneous audience (80%+ females between 20 and 40 years old), a direct link to facebook, the ability to post and provide extended captions for images, growing name recognition.

With that in mind, we are experimenting with creating a catalog of  giving opportunities to demonstrate in graphical form what their gift represents to the University.  We are setting this up with folders by school or college, and for each of the major giving areas.  Within each folder will be a set of images with a description and an estimated cost/value.  As donors give to focused areas, we will send them a link to the image of what their gift could provide and the associated description and ask that they link to it via facebook along with some suggested language indicating that they gave and asking friends to consider doing the same.

We will also use these images and the catalog of them as a link from the reply card - providing folks with the example connected to their own ask amount and urging them to take a look.  The text for each on the landing  page will include a prominent connection to the giving pages and urge them to give a to today's students by making a gift of .  

This is just one way to encourage and include social media in your appeals and efforts - takes some front end work but it is fun to play with and is the tip of the iceburg in breaking through giving to sustaining (as opposed to emergency) funds.  Building on the facebook connections and leveraging these through sharing and email are still existing opportunities to explore over the next year as we look to expand on our pinterest catalog of giving opportunities.