As most of you know, I am an avid fan of social media tools like Twitter and Facebook. They don’t replace normal fundraising techniques, but they sure to extend our ability to reach our donors and donor prospects.

So this week, I want to tell you about a cool experiment that’s entering its second year: Tweetsgiving.

Started during Thanksgiving week here in the USA last year, Tweetgiving was primarily a way to express gratitude. While checking Twitter during Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, I noticed people were tweeting about things they were grateful for and using the hashtag #tweetsgiving.

It turns out a nonprofit Epic Change started this onslaught of grateful tweets. In just 48 hours, Tweetsgiving

• became the #1 trending topic on Twitter,
• was mentioned on many blogs, including wildly popular ones like Mashable, and
• raised over $10,000 which built a classroom in Tanzania!

There are so many things I like about Tweetsgiving.

• I like seeing a nonprofit in the USA take a nontraditional approach to connecting with people. And doing it so well that people all over the world joined in. It wasn’t until writing this post that I found out Epic Change was a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
• I like that it seeks to engage people in something other than fundraising. I had so much fun expressing my gratitude last year! As I began to think of things I was grateful for, I kept thinking of more things I was grateful for. Who wouldn’t have fun with that?!
• I like the community of people that are pitching in to make Tweetsgiving happen. You can see some of the team on the Tweetsgiving website.

Joining in events like these help you as a nonprofit fan or employee get a feel for how you could run your own online event. And it can be fun. And it is already making history!

Tweetsgiving starts today and only goes through November 26. Would you join us?

Even if you’re not yet on Twitter, there are lots of other ways to get involved. These include, but aren’t limited to:

• Bloggers – http://epicchange.org/groups/bloggers
• Facebook – http://epicchange.org/groups/facebook
• Twitter – http://epicchange.org/groups/twitter
• Flickr – http://epicchange.org/groups/flickr
• Blip.fm – http://epicchange.org/groups/blip-fm
• Youtube – http://epicchange.org/groups/youtube

You could even make a donation now. (See the widget below.) 🙂

If you join in, would you let me know? I’d love to be “friends” in the Tweetsgiving community! (It will come as no surprise that my username there is marcapitman like it is on most social media sites!

This post was created as part of a global groundswell of gratitude called TweetsGiving. The celebration, created by US nonprofit Epic Change, is an experiment in social innovation that seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude. I hope you’ll visit the TweetsGiving site to learn more, and to bring your grateful heart to the party by sharing your gratitude, and giving in honor of that for which you’re most thankful.