Instant Messaging for Fundraising?

Posted by Michael Johnston on July 8th, 2005 at 10:45pm

I’ve been a foolish addict when it comes to the online instant messaging services. It’s been great to use a service like MSN or AOL and have your list of friends, family, and colleagues available on your screen. I have to admit that work productivity can go down if you’re getting interrupted with an instant message in the middle of work — or you get distracted for a minute — and do some live chatting with a friend…

But what about using instant messaging online for fundraising purposes? In a recent marketing magazine, there was a story about MSN.ca and a campaign they ran called Q6. It was a campaign targeting users aged 13 and 24 and aimed at increasing downloads of Messenger 7.0.

MSN created a weekly team trivia challenge based on pop culture topics and played via MSN Messenger. Players had to download the new version of Messenger and then worked with teammates to get the right answers with Messenger. Teams were given points for speed and being correct. The winning team got $3,500 worth of Dell computer goods.

More than 103,000 individuals registered and over 25% opted to receive newsletters from MSN and advertisers. The game engaged users.

Now, how can we use that for the nonprofit world? How about having a contest based on hunger issues leading to a prize for teams or individuals. The team approach would be wonderful within companies that already support a particular charity.

Someone use this approach, make a lot of money, engage citizens, and get back to me with the results.

Under fundraising