That's what (Facebook) friends are for

Since 1986 AIDS Walk Boston has endured as the city's most visible AIDS fundraiser, but one key feature of the walk looks ready to go the way of the dodo: the pledge sheet.

Encouraged by the increasing ubiquity of online social networks like Facebook and Twitter, as well as the skyrocketing popularity of the blogosphere and YouTube, AIDS Action Committee (AAC) is experimenting this year with bringing more of its fundraising and marketing efforts for the walk into the digital world.

Among the most successful features of its new online outreach efforts is a Facebook application that allows walkers to solicit and collect donations for the AIDS Walk directly from their Facebook page. AIDS Action has already raised $10,000 for the walk, which takes place June 7, through the new Facebook application, and AIDS Walk Team Coordinator Cathy Kujala, who is heading up the AIDS Walk's digital outreach and is also participating in the event, said she herself has had great success using Facebook.

"For me that's been my most successful fundraising so far. I just moved to Boston from Ohio," said Kujala. "All of my gifts so far have been from people from Ohio."

The Facebook application has proven particularly effective given the current economic downturn because it allows walkers to make a softer fundraising pitch to their friends. Kelly Gaule, AAC's director of development, said many walkers will periodically update their Facebook status with a message encouraging people to donate, rather than sending people letters or e-mails asking for pledges. It also enables walkers to more easily collect small donations from a potentially much wider range of people than they would by sending out a standard pledge letter.

"It's more difficult for people to ask their friends for money this year. This is a softer way for people to raise money," said Gaule. "It's simply putting a status update, so if I see it and I'm inclined to give I can do so."

AAC has also created a Twitter account, which regularly updates walkers with links to posts from the walk blog and other information. The AIDS Walk Twitter account has nearly 300 followers, and Kujala said several AIDS Walkers use their own Twitter accounts to tweet back and forth with the AIDS Walk Twitter.

This year AAC also launched a walk YouTube page featuring video messages urging people to participate from notables like WCVB weatherman David Brown, What Not to Wear host Clinton Kelly and the touring cast of the stage show Dirty Dancing. Gaule said AAC recorded the videos using cheap portable video cameras, allowing them to put out videos of celebrities endorsing the event without having to pay to create and broadcast slick television ad campaigns.

"It costs us no money to put messages up there to people," said Gaule. "[The videos show] there's still a lot of people out there that are committed and passionate about what we're doing."

AAC's blog, which debuted with last year's AIDS Walk, has been more successful this year, generating more traffic than it did in the run-up to last year's event. Kujala said one of the keys to its success has been making it more interactive, soliciting stories from walkers for a series of posts titled "Why We Walk," which she said have garnered the most traffic for the blog.

AAC is part of a growing trend of non-profits trying to find innovative uses of social networking services and web-based media that will aid their work. Johanna Bates, technology and strategy director for the Amherst-based Community Partners, which advocates for expanded access to healthcare across the state, said there has been a growing effort within the non-profit sector to experiment with web-based technology. Bates, who has previously done web-building work for the Unitarian Universalist Association and WGBH, said for the past six years she has been an active member of the Non-Profit Technology Network (NTEN), an association of non-profit tech professionals who share strategies for using the web to promote social change. NTEN's conference last month in San Francisco drew more than 1400 attendees.

Bates said while many non-profits are drawn to the web as a vehicle for cost-effective fundraising and outreach, she believes its greatest benefit is increasing the communication between an organization and its constituents. In her work at Community Partners Bates has helped develop message boards and e-mail lists to help increase communication among the healthcare outreach workers who work with Community Partners.

"Those cost savings benefits and potential to raise money, they're big ones people talk about, but I think the most amazing thing that social networking and online community does for people [is] it gives the organization a chance to listen in on conversations their constituents are having. ... They're listening to them, they're engaged with them, so when they need to organize a fundraiser or an event their whole network is at their fingertips," said Bates.

She said micro-fundraising - efforts like AIDS Action's use of the Facebook application to encourage small donations from a very large audience of potential donors - is an area that many non-profits have been experimenting with as a way to boost fundraising efforts.

Rebecca Haag, president and CEO of AAC, said efforts to promote and fundraise for the AIDS Walk on the web have been crucial given the tanking economy. Last year the walk raised $1.2 million, and with expected cuts to state AIDS funding, cuts to Boston's AIDS funding and a drop in foundation giving, Haag said private donations have become that much more important to helping fund AAC's work.

"It's incredibly important, particularly this year. ... We're hopeful that because the walk has always been about small donations we'll get a good turnout," said Haag.

AAC will be encouraging walkers to donate what they can, said Haag, even if only a small amount. The walk often brings out about 12,000-15,000 walkers, but Haag said only about a third of them raise money for the event.

"If we could get 10,000 walkers who don't normally bring money to just bring $10, that's $100,000 we wouldn't have had," said Haag. "It's just so important, anyone who can just bring $10, $25, $100, that's going to make an important difference in being able to provide services for people living with HIV and AIDS," said Haag.

To register for the AIDS Walk Boston or for more information visit www.aac.org.