Whoever is supposed to be invoicing me – in fact, whoever hasn’t paid me – hurry up and do so, willya? I should be doing my accounts/taxes, not phaffing around on the ‘net, posting stuff to my blog. 
But while I’m here, this is a great quote, from Andrew Rasiej, a political analyst who runs the Web site techPresident.com, a site that tracks how candidates use the Web and how Internet users are affecting the elections. (from public broadcasting site pbs written by Brian Mason, Online NewsHour):
“Online fundraising is a complete misnomer. Money is a byproduct of online communities, not the product, and social networks are representative of the online communities,” he said. “If you want to raise money online by tapping into the fervor of these online communities, then you should do everything you can to bolster or nurture the community. It’s so ludicrous that campaigns are not paying more attention to the social networks.
It immediately came to mind how offline fundraising works. Dinner dances are Events in a community. People who know already each other socially and are in the same milieu get dressed up, hand in embossed tickets at the door, are shown to seats to scoff down yummy food while listening to public speakers and comedians and buying tickets in silent auctions. I love going to fundraisers, and it’s about the only time I wear a dress. Not sure why, respect or something. Not that you needed to know that. Heh.
But it’s important to note that one evening does not a whole social network make. If you try and build an online community focussed solely on fundraising, or what is often simply an evening out for attendees, you will find it empty a lot of the time. So either build the community for those who are passionate about your cause and have lots of things to talk about – and events are just part of that – or build a community for the society ladies and gents and let the fundraising events be a small part of that. Like that Manhattan one that Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton belong to, I forget its name right now. The money is raised, the brand awareness rises, all as a byproduct.
Think of social network built by CMarket , for Fortune Society who have a Prisoner Re-entry program , who now say :
The 7th Annual Prison Art Show was our most successful ever! Congratulations and thank you to everyone who:
- placed a winning bid
- attended our live auction on December 13th
- invited family, friends and community to make their bid to help us help formerly incarcerated individuals
A selection of the work is still being exhibited at the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery in the Walter Reade Theater in New York City’s famed Lincoln Center until Friday, December 22nd. Please visit the Film Society at Lincoln Center’s website for more information.
The Auction May Be Gone, But Our Mission Goes On!
Even though our auction has ended, our organization and our mission have not. We would greatly appreciate your continued support in terms of time, effort and funding, and will do our best to keep you up to date on future activities.
If you don’t plan ahead of time, you will be scrambling around to keep your community attending when the Purpose has ended. Not a good look!
The exception is if you give the members an opportunity to make money themselves – always a winner in building your membership. Think eBay junkies. 
And, his last line is a self-evident truth no?
I'm running small, one-day computer based