Using Pinterest to Raise Money: One Charity's Experiment Allison Fine - Chronicle of Philanthropy
go to original May 7, 2012

Opportunity International created a fundraising campaign that lets users honor their mothers or loved one with personalized quilt squares. (Opportunity International)

Pinterest, the fast-growing social network that allows people to share information on virtual bulletin boards, has become a hot topic of conversation among nonprofits in recent months.

Many groups have hesitated to spend considerable time in the popular network until they can get a better understanding of how it can help them connect with potential supporters. But a new effort by Opportunity International, a nonprofit that provides small loans to poor women overseas, might offer a blueprint for how other nonprofits can use Pinterest.

For Mother's Day, the group has started a fundraising campaign though Pinterest that invites donors to pin personalized squares to an online quilt honoring a mother or another loved one.

Ian Haisley, Opportunity International's director of online strategy, says the organization is experimenting with Pinterest because it reaches an important demographic: women. Women make up more than 90 percent of the charity's clients and more than 70 percent of people who use Pinterest.

Allison Fine, a nonprofit leader and expert on technology and communications, discusses how charities and foundations can more effectively use social-media tools to spread their messages and raise money. Ms. Fine incorporates suggestions and questions from readers into her podcasts and invites you to email her at afine@demos.org.

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