Connect With People/Social Media

Another told a story about generational differences in sourcing information. He found it easy to send an email blast to 50 people and follow up with those who replied with something interesting, whereas an older colleague’s method of choice in the same situation was to call 10 people. He said, “I think I’ll get a better quick scan with my 50 emails than she will get from 10 calls. So my giving is different in that way from hers because of the first place we go for information.

Several respondents spoke of using Twitter as a simple way to learn quickly about new areas of funding by following a variety of individual and organizational Tweeters working on that topic. One spoke of social media as a complement to his overall outreach strategy by observing, “I’m trying to talk to as many people and go to as many conferences and follow as many different foundations on Twitter as possible.”