Today’s guest post is from Doug Naegele, founder of mobile media firm Infield Communications. An avid SmartBrief on Social Media reader and inveterate entrepreneur, Doug helps organizations use mobile media to reach important audiences.
Last Friday, Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life, which boasts 1.7 million listeners a week, posted a unique fundraising idea on Facebook for its 125,000 fans to read. Listeners could “Turn in a Friend” who doesn’t donate, and show host Ira Glass would call the offender personally and ask for a donation.
The resulting Facebook comment stream was a fascinating mix of support (“Have a sense of humor, people!”) disappointment, (“Ira, I’ve lost my job and medical insurance. Putting people on the spot is *not * cool”) and public radio financial debate (“I want to see your financials before I give”).
The debate seemed to pit This American Life super fans, many of which wanted to turn themselves in just to get a call from Ira Glass, against the more casual listeners who said they found the whole exercise “distasteful, cringe-indicing, and horrible” By the end of the campaign, many longtime listeners were urging the show to stop giving away its podcasts for free and just charge everyone — which, of course, falls in opposition to the mission of public radio.
So, what do you think? What constitutes going too far when soliciting donations using social media? How can organizations use social media effectively to raise funds in challenging economic times?
Image credit, jcaunedo 
via iStock
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by sbosm: Did This American Life go too far with its crowdsourced fund raising? http://ow.ly/WbzK...
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I think This American Life/Ira Glass did go too far. They were trying to be gimmicky in their social media efforts to drive donations, and in this case it struck the wrong nerve in these tough economic times. I want to know how someone’s Facebook “friends” would come to the decision that they don’t want to donate and then “turn them in”? Non-response? A reply that says “I don’t have the money to donate because I lost my job”? It has the potential to get out of hand.
As we’re watching the tragic events in Haiti unfold, perhaps This American Life should take a page from the Red Cross and their texting campaign to raise money for relief efforts. I’ve seen other organizations hold discussions with panelists and hashtags on Twitter, and use that as a platform to ask for donations online.
Kari:
Great points. It did seem to get out-of-hand. And, it’s hard to rebut someone who comments on loosing their job and health insurance.
In TAL’s defense, they do have a great mobile campaign going — exactly like the Haitian mobile donation campaigns (Text LIFE to a number, give $5.) Ironically, positive feedback to that campaign seemed to be the best thing to come out of the comment stream. Everyone loved it.
As a follow up to this article —- As of late April, TAL has raised $140,000 with the mobile giving campaign! http://to.pbs.org/b4ikMp
As a follow up to this article —- As of late April, TAL has raised $140,000 with the mobile giving campaign! http://to.pbs.org/b4ikMp