Social Works Sample Case Study: FSU’s Great Give

As the launch of our book, Social Works, approaches, we wanted to share a sample chapter.

I’d have a hard time picking my personal favorite from the 25 case studies in the book, but this one would be in my top five. Written by Justin J. Ware, who is director of interactive communication at Bentz Whaley Flessner, the fundraising and development consulting firm, it focuses on a social media-powered fundraising initiative.

Justin’s case study, “The Great Give Online Giving Campaign Goes Viral: Florida State University,” is the story of how the university raised more than $186,000 and introduced hundreds of new donors to philanthropy at FSU. Ware and BWF worked with FSU’s annual giving team during the planning of the Great Give.

The Great Give was not only smart and engaging, but proved that you can use social media to raise substantial amounts of money.

Download the Great Give case study. Also, do yourself a favor and follow Justin’s blog, The Social Side of Giving, for a lot of great info and thoughts about social media and fundraising.

A reminder: Social Works will be available in print, on the Kindle, and in the iBookstore on 25 February. The print edition will be priced at $39.99, ebooks at $19.99. We won’t be able to take pre-orders but we’ve set up an email list for those interested in being notified the moment Social Works is available. You can sign up here or send me email (to: michael.stoner (at) mstoner.com) and we’ll add your name. [Note: we won’t use this list for any other purpose!] If you subscribe to our Intelligence email, you’ll also receive notification but we’ll contact people on the pre-order list first.

And we’re very excited to announce that we’re organizing a book launch event at Boston University on 26 February. If you’re in the region, please mark that night on your calendar: we’ll share more details shortly.