There are few organizations and people that take fundraising to the social media sphere and generate a lot of success, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t easily be done, and with great rewards. Looking at three case studies, we can see how to apply best practices to our own social media fundraising campaigns and see significant results.

#1: Make it all about the medium. In non-profit and political sectors the bulk of contributions often come from events. Looking at Twestival, we can see how surrounding the event with social media incorporation can help increase awareness. Twestival, which originally was put into place to help raise funds for the infamous Charity: water, used Twitter as it’s primary medium for outreach for the event. People in turn shared the event with their followers, encouraging them to help out the worthy cause.

With such widespread outreach, the event garnered a lot of attention, and if you were big on Twitter, you better believe you were attending the largest Tweetup ever. They made almost made participation and knowledge of Twestival a right of passage on the micro-blogging service. Essentially, their event went viral because everything about the event was encompassed on Twitter, from the inception to promotion to the event happenings in real time to the end results. How successful have they been for making it all about the medium? Well, on their first try they raised $250,000 for Charity: water and Twestival local raised thousands of dollars for local charities in each of the 133 global host cities.

#2: Get your foot in the door. Taking an example from our playbook, our client, COAR has demonstrated that asking for a little gets you a lot. We’ve ran several campaigns asking for small donations, such as during World Refugee Week, we asked that people within COAR’s network donate seven dollars, or a dollar per day for the week. Not only did more people than expected participate, but people gave more than what we had suggested. Everyone who donated gave between $10 and $30. Using small asks, or getting your foot in the door, as opposed for asking for what you might really want to suggest, will encourage more participation on social media. Just ask COAR, asking for small favors over the past few months has helped increase their Cause Page donations by almost 300 percent.

#3: Tell a story and build connections. Although it’s our last tip, it’s actually the most important. Just like the chances of you buying a new product that you’ve never heard of are slim to none, the chances that people will donate to your organization without hearing your passions and stances are about as probable. Social media is a great tool that allows you to share your story and give supporters the chance to see the people behind your organization.

Who’s sharing their story on social media, and doing an amazing job of it? Charity: water.

Keeping the people behind the name at the forefront, their founder and CEO, Scott Harrison, plays an incredibly active role in sharing the Charity: water story. Whether it’s twittering about a well being drilled in Kenya or creating a video sharing how Charity: water began and all the successes they’ve seen in only three short years, he tells the story fluidly and with such emotion you can’t help but feel a deeper connection with the organization. Don’t have access to a full on production team? You’d be surprised what sort of emotions you can conjure up with a few photos and some well thought out words.

As a whole, they use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to keep their supporters up to date. They share the normal every day things to the above average actions they’re taking, such as a picture of an internal meeting, a photo from a past event or their plan to bring water to a community in Uganda. Sharing these things make the supporters feel connected, and better yet, like their donations are truly making a big difference – something that without social media, they might not otherwise be aware of.

Photo via Catty Came Home.