Today, 25 March 2010, thousands of people in hundreds of locations around the world will get together to raise money for local causes.

The umbrella organization is Twestival (or Twitter Festival), which “uses social media for social good.  All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go directly to projects.”

Twestival™  is an excellent example of the use of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, e-mail and other Internet-based media to promote, and raise funds for projects around the world which, until just recently, would have had to depend on local, door-to-door fundraising.

As in any promotion – for-profit, or charitable – requires a marketing plan.  The marketing plan should include at the top, the reason people would be interested in buying your product or service; or participating in your charity. 

Another point should lay out the pathways you intend to use to reach people.  There was a time, not so long ago, that a group of people had to meet around someone’s dining room table to address and stamp envelopes, then fold and stuff an insert (which was probably produced on someone’s office copier), and finally take them to the post office to be mailed and, hopefully, delivered in time for the person to receive the letter, open it, get out their checkbook, find an envelope (and a stamp), and return the donation.

Whew!

Now, all that can be done with the click of a mouse.

Obviously, the most important part of using the Internet as a fundraising tool is (aside from having a compelling case) to make it as easy as possible for someone to donate.  But another crucial – and often overlooked – element is to help the initial recipient of your Tweet, your Facebook Wall message, or your e-mail to forward it along to their followers, friends, and contacts.

This is what is known as “going viral.”  If you have a list of 100 people you must ask them to forward your message along to five others.  If only 20 of the 100 do it, that doubles the number of people who have seen your appeal.  If 20 percent of those 20 (four) also add five people, that’s 20 more, and so on.

Having an attractive landing page for people to read about what you are trying to accomplish is important, but – just like the days of printed materials – make certain the design doesn’t overwhelm the message.

We’ve all received mail which contains what seems like 25 different type-faces which are only there because the designer figured out how to change fonts – not because they added to the message.

On the return side, make certain that you are using a professional firm to accept credit cards and PayPal donations.   Potential donors won’t know one firm from another, unless or until they start getting hundreds of spam e-mails because the fulfillment house sold their e-mail address.

Raising money for good causes using Broadband is cheaper and faster than in the old days, but at the end of the day, the cause still has to be good and the appeal still has to be strong.

Please visit Twestival, 100% of proceeds go to Concern Worldwide to support Education for some of the world's poorest children.

Amanda Rose (http://twitter.com/amanda) is the founder of @Twestival  http://twestival.com