The Goodness Engine

A few months ago, many of the brightest minds in the social media space came together for a common good. A Meet up dubbed the “Social Hackathon” was created, sponsorship by Bing and Windows Live Hotmail, with the purpose of helping Donorschoose.org address their marketing problems. Attendees of this event included names such as Chris Brogan, Beth Kanter and representatives from Twitter, Facebook, Bing, Google and more.

The event was a brainstorming session to help not only DonorsChoose, but non-profits learn a variety of techniques that will help them drive online traffic to their site, increase donations, and manage online engagement. It is important to note that the strategies developed in this session will not only apply to non-profits but for any business with the desire to improve their online presence.

A free e-book was created, featuring many of the ideas shared during this brainstorming session, as well videos including interviews with the experts who attended:

The Goodness Engine E-book
The Videos
Downloadable Whiteboard notes
Bing’s post

The book discusses what the Social Hackothon is,  and some of the challenges faced by DonorsChoose.org. There are several excellent tips within the book including the use of e-mail marketing, telling a story, usability and more.