Telemarketing, emails and newsletters are a thing of the past says CEO of nonprofit technology company and organiser of the national nonprofit marketing conference Connecting Up, Doug Jacquier.

The Connecting Up conference features an address by US-based social web marketer Beth Kanter on how charities can increase their chances of connecting with the Facebook generation. Jacquier says based on the numbers of charities signed up for the conference, Australian charities are keen to use social networking to their advantage.

Kanter says she will provide nonprofits with practical ways to use Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and many others to build communities of givers and supporters.

"I'm in no doubt that the tools of the social web are going to be a crucial part of online life for nonprofits in Australia as they are in the USA," Ms Kanter said.

"Whether it's for fundraising, lobbying, membership support or straight our campaigning, the social web opens doors that were previously closed to smaller nonprofits. It levels the playing field."

"We live in a world where YouTube uploads 65,000 new videos every day and three new blogs are created every two seconds," adds Jacquier.

"So charities and nonprofits need to be ready to get into these personalised, opt-in, many-to-many tools that will be necessary for their successful communication now and in the future."

See: www.connectingup.org