I know some people are still skeptical about the value of Twitter. I was in that camp and still don’t do much tweeting. Yet, I am keenly aware that Twitter is a powerful tool that is quickly becoming an important communications and engagement channel and one that users are always surprising me with new and creative ways to use.

You might have read in the June 17th issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy about how a small social service charity, Thompson Child & Family Focus, based in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, created a special “Twitter table” at its annual luncheon, filled it with social networking savvy supporters who tweet a lot, and let them reach out to their extensive networks of friends and followers, ultimately raising an additional $4000 for the charity during the event.

Well one creative idea begets another. So here are a few Twitter suggestions to consider as you plan for the fall fundraising and donor cultivation season.

1. Summer Camp Scholarship Tweet Out: During parents visiting day, organize a camp-wide tweet to raise funds to make camp available to more families in need.
2. Rosh Hashana Recipe Tweet Up: Start a promotional campaign to get the best 140-character holiday recipe file; link to full recipe area on your website. Give a prize iPhone to the winner.
3. Organize a Twitter Rosh Hashana Tashlich prayer service to cast away our sins in the depths of the sea. Encourage people to tweet; cast their sins away virtually and at the same time make a gift online to help victims of the Gulf oil spill whose waters are despoiled by the sins of others.
4. Give priority seating to your cadre of Twitter-supporters at your next event and encourage them to tweet the proceedings; announce a new campaign; identify 10 new followers for your organization.

Well that is a start … am sure you have even better ideas … send them along – no, tweet them to me.

Gail Hyman is a marketing and communications professional who currently focuses her practice, Gail Hyman Consulting, on assisting Jewish nonprofit organizations increase their ranks of supporters and better leverage their communications in the Web 2.0 environment. Gail is a regular contributor to eJewish Philanthropy.