What lessons can be drawn from the Twestival global fundraisers?

Last night, I (and hundreds of other folks) attended Vancouver Twestival 2010, the third in a series of Twestivals that my good friend Rebecca Bollwitt has organized. The photo that accompanies this paragraph is of Rebecca and myself at Twestival (as I was leaving, because I was exhausted). I sponsored two silent auction items – a workshop on strategy alignment (from my consulting practice) and an evening out with me for dinner at Regional Tasting Lounge (r.tl) and a theatre show at the Arts Club. It was great for me to have a chance to be part of such worthy event, and more importantly, to contribute to the fundraising process.

From the Twestival website:

“On Thursday 25 March 2010, people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness. Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good. All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects. If you would like to get involved, please Register your City, Register your School, or Volunteer and we will get in touch. Organizers will be given a handbook and invitation to our collaboration workspace. Follow @twestival for updates.”

As someone who has advised a number of non-profit organizations in their social media strategies, I’ve been puzzled by the success of Twestival at the global level, when other campaigns are able to accomplish very little even if lots of retweeting happens. What makes the Twestival fundraising campaign so successful, what lessons can we draw from this fundraiser and implement them when we do another fundraiser, and is this model of fundraising sustainable?

I ask these questions because, as always, I’m always puzzled by the success of some fundraisers and the lack of success of others. We organize fundraising tweetups, meetups and the like, with certain regularity, but consistently, Twestival seems to be the most successful. Lots of people in the social media for non-profits world have written about the social media philanthropist fatigue phenomenon: when people are out-fundraised on the web. Yet, people seem to have embraced Twestival worldwide. So, what made Twestival such a great success and how can we apply that to our own fundraisers?

I only have the question, I don’t have the answer. As for Vancouver Twestival 2010, I want to commend Rebecca and her organizing team for a fantastic event. Thank you, sincerely!