Charities Use Social Media More than Any Other Sector, New Study Shows

A new study by researchers at UMass Dartmouth concludes that non-academic charities are way ahead of business and educational institutions in their use of social media (blogging, podcasts, message boards, etc).  Tax law, especially, is way behind technology.  As a matter of fact, I don’t even think there are laws or regulations yet on the UBIT consequences of charities’ inclusion of a commercial link on their webpages.  Charitable use of social media is bound to generate audience and audience translates into revenue and charitable revenue makes everyone nervous, it seems.  I wonder what other legal issues will arise as charities start using Twitter and the next new gadget to keep their stakeholders loyal and informed.  Here is an excerpt from the executive summary:

This new research shows that charitable organizations are still outpacing the business world and academia in their use of social media. In the latest study (2008) a remarkable eighty-nine percent of charitable organizations are using some form of social media including blogs, podcasts, message boards, social networking, video blogging and wikis. A majority (57%) of the organizations are blogging. Forty-five percent of those studied report social media is very important to their fundraising strategy. While these organizations are best known for their non-profit status and their fundraising campaigns, they demonstrate an acute, and still growing, awareness of the importance of Web 2.0 strategies in meeting their objectives.

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