Marc Ruben

Twitter provides a way for content to spread organically between people, making an organization with a presence on the site more accessible to constituents, building trust and strengthening relationships with activists and donors.

So say Arielle Holland, consultant, and Marc Ruben, vice president, both with M+R Strategic Services, in the recently released whitepaper, Nonprofit Organizing in 140 Characters or Less. Holland and Ruben share some tips for nonprofits looking to harness the power of Twitter for their causes.

Washington, D.C., May 14, 2009 — The 2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study released May 14th found that among 32 leading nonprofit organizations, online fundraising grew by 26% in 2008 over 2007, but that the average gift size has decreased by 21%.

Online social-networking sites offer nonprofit organizations a free, easy way to spread their message and acquire supporters. MySpace is one such site, where users can set up personalized profile pages with their own blog, photos, music and videos and connect with a network of friends. It has more than 100 million registered users and, according to a comScore Media Metrix report released in early October 2006, more than half of them are age 35 or older. Nonprofit organizations have begun to see the value in joining MySpace and creating a profile for their organization as a means of branding and advocacy building. But