By Amani Channel

If you haven't considered using social media to raise money for a charity or non-profit, organization, you may be missing out on an effective method to quickly raise thousands of dollars.

Before sharing this experience let me explain that I’m by no means a fund-raising expert, and only have a limited amount of experience doing it, but in just over two weeks my wife and I exceeded our goal of raising $2,500.00 for the March of Dimes’ annual March for Babies.

This years’ march was held at the Georgia World Congress Center on Saturday, April 24th. I couldn’t march because we didn’t feel like exposing our 17-month-old son to the rainy weather, but my wife Daphne and her team represented as always.

There is a back-story to why we started supporting the March of Dimes, which I won’t get into just yet, but we’ve been raising money for the non-profit since 2007. Our strategy seemed to come together this year, and without social media, I doubt we would have been as successful.

First off, The March for Babies Web site makes it easy to organize and raise money. Each person who registered to walk for our team has to donate a minimum amount or set a fund-raising goal. I decided that $500.00 was a reasonable amount for me considering our two-week deadline. About five other friends and family members joined our team and set similar goals.

Here’s what we did:

1. We created an e-news blast for select friends, family, and colleagues, and sent three messages. One informed readers of the campaign, the second was a status update, and the third shared the results.

2. I’m an avid Twitter user and initially sent out occasional tweets to my network. As people started donating, I would tweet out a word of thanks publicly. I also showed my excitement and appreciation as donations were made. Twitter was a real-time outlet for donation updates, and I frequently asked for specific donation amounts. My wife doesn't use Twitter, but she used a similar strategy on Facebook.

Sample Tweet: We're only $900 away from our goal. You're amazing. #marchforbabies. Looking for a $25.00 donation this evening. http://bit.ly/dwR7FK

3. I've created several Web videos over the years. I produced a ten-minute documentary styled podcast about the premature birth of our twin boys in 2006. I shared the video on my blog, my Facebook wall, posted it to my wife’s Facebook wall, and Tweeted a link to the video several times. I also produced a video from one my wife’s past walks. Finally, I created a few videos with my iPhone, and vlog updates that I posted online throughout our campaign.

When we first started, I had serious doubts that we would raise the $2,500.00. The donations trickled in at first, but we became more determined not to be denied as we approached the march. With two days left, we were about $900.00 away from our goal. We ended up raising $3,255.00, and people are still asking if they can give.

The most important lesson we learned is that with faith, persistence, and a giving network, fund-raising can be both fun and rewarding. It's important to reach out to people who you have personal or professional relationships with. Also, don’t underestimate how giving your network may be when you truly believe and support a cause.

If you feel moved, please donate to the March of Dimes in memory of our twin boys Rico and Jordan who were born on April 19, 2006 at 20 weeks.

Amani Channel works at Public Broadcasting Atlanta's Lens on Atlanta online community and a Contributing Editor at Atlanta Daybook. He also provides professional video production services and new media consulting through Visual Eye Media and blogs at MyUrbanReport.com.

Follow Amani on Twitter @urbanreporter or @visualeyemedia.