Thank you, American Idol!

This nine-season-old TV favorite may not be biblical in nature, but it is the closest to Moses coming down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments. It showed the way… in this case, to social media activism. “Dial 1-888- IDOL-008 to vote for Adam Lambert.” And millions did, time and time again, for Adam or their favorite.

As a people, we never did that before. Never had the means or the opportunity to be so easily heard. We had the right generation at the right time for the right reason, being counted by this new (at that time) form of expression.

A few years later, there was another kind of call… this time, the 2004 Christmastime tsunami in Indonesia, and we learned we could help in the same manner. But it was this year’s Haitian earthquake that really made the point.

Get this: When the Red Cross asked people to text “Haiti” to the number 90999, millions did within days and still do, for Haiti and then Chile a few months later. The call triggered an automatic $10 donation added to the phone bill, resulting in more than $32 million actually collected to date. And as an added bonus, the money got into use almost immediately with no check to write or pledges to cover. (Does any young person write checks anymore? Do you?)

We have learned the technique, and in a very short period of time, learned something even more important: Benevolence! More people–and notably more of our young–were moved by the tragedies, and their friends, busy texting back and forth, Facebooking and twittering about the suffering are doing what now comes naturally: letting their fingers do the talking.

Social networking taught a whole new generation something their parents, television, direct mail, newspaper headlines and emotional pleas could never do. It got them immediately and personally involved, just like that.

Social networking tools and the habits engrained in using them, have changed charitable fund raising dramatically. And that’s a positive thing. Said USA Today, “good causes are finding younger, first-time donors who are more likely to give via messaging or Facebook than by writing a check after opening a traditional solicitation delivered to a mailbox outside their door.” Well, duh. What’s a mailbox?

While donations from social media is still a lesser percentage of the overall, a survey of nonprofit organizations show online donations growing 28% in the last few years. In 2008, 10 groups have raised $25 million or more, thanks to Twitter, Facebook, texting and the like.

The future of charitable giving, say those whose success depends on it, is in social media. There is no world this growing and ever evolving trend will not touch… in one way or another.

Jerry Constantino, April 16, 2010

Jerry Constantino was President and Publisher of PJS Publications, a group of 20 special interest magazines owned by VS&A Venture Capital and later, Primedia. He now writes fiction and blogs irrelevantly at itsnutsoutthere.blogspot.com.

Note: Post not sponsored.