It is a fact that social media is a powerful marketing tool. Likened to word-of-mouth social media is extremely powerful when it comes to spreading information and creating awareness about social issues and causes. Social media tools are the fastest and simplest way to connect with almost anyone, yet few South Africa not-for-profit organisations (NPO) utilise these tools.

A good example of a South African NPO utilising social media tools to their benefit is Breadline Africa. By using channels like YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook the NPO raised over R100 000 through their Blogger Bake Off competition and later this year a Twitter competition involving a sophisticated API will go live. Breadline Africa has in the past utilised social media platforms such as Twitter primarily for PR purposes and to communicate with the community but now hopes to raise funds through the launch of a new competition in December.

According to Marianna Boguslavsky, Online Marketing Manager for Breadline Africa, social media is a great tool for charities to raise awareness about their cause, encourage people to learn more about the projects and get people involved. Early next year Breadline Africa will launch a national SMS campaign involving a number of South African celebrities to increase awareness for their cause. Their digital efforts paid off and Breadline Africa was one of the finalists for the SangoNet NGO web awards this year.

Donate an Hour is ‘a private initiative of supportive collaboration for social change’ and calls on participants to donate one billable hour’s equivalent to the cause at hand. Donate an Hour chooses a different cause every year and aims to make a difference by utilising various online channels to create awareness for the cause and ultimately raise funds. This year (2009/2010) Donate an Hour will support Huis Luckhoff, a home for the aged in desperate need of funds for general maintenance, food and caring staff.

As individuals there are a few things we can do to create awareness for causes close to our hearts that doesn’t involve money. If you have a blog, spend some time and write a blog post for your cause. You never know who might be touched by your post and decide to make a donation. If your cause has a blog, add them to your blog roll. If you can find your cause’s Facebook fan page, join and keep an eye on the page to stay up to date with their needs. Small actions and a few minutes of your time can bring about big (and much needed) change.

Although today’s Blog Action Day is aimed at Climate Change, I thought it quite an appropriate day to highlight another initiative that is also close to our heart: Support of the Elderly.

Together with FormFunction, we have decided to create and manage a non-profit campaign that we hope to build into something larger and focus on an area close to our heart each year. This year, we have chosen to support a specific home for the aged located in Cape Town.

Huis Luckhoff is a home for the aged, located in Rosebank, a suburb of Cape Town and provides frail care and full time nursing facilities for its citizens.

It is funded by the Department of Social Development (Provincial Government of the Western Cape), and as one of many government funded establishments, it is struggeling to cover the costs for its citizens and nursing staff.

As part of a joint funding drive, the Donate an Hour 2009 campaign will strive to raise funds for the Home to uplift the citizens and give thanks to the nursing staff.

The campaign will run from 01 November till 15 December 2009. All funds raised through this campaign will go directly to Huis Luckhoff.

We aim to launch the ‘official’ sites towards the end of October. If you would like to be contacted when the sites will officially launch, or if you would like to be involved in this campaign – please contact us: csi [at] altersage [dot] com or csi [at] formfunction [dot] co [dot] za

Although not up and running yet, bookmark the campaign’s Twitter address to receive updates : donateanhour

Everyone that participates in this campaign, will be credited by name, or institution on both the Donate An Hour and Huis Luckhoff website.