A recent study by the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) found grantees are not looking to social media content to learn about fundraising opportunities from foundations despite the fact that both parties are participating in the channel. To learn about the way organization's approach these new platforms, the CEP surveyed 6,000 nonprofits in its "Grantees' Limited Engagement with Foundation's Social Media" report.

"We thought that perhaps the grantees weren’t interested in using their funders' social media," said Andrea Brock, research manager at CEP and co-author of the report. "But that didn’t appear to be the case."

In fact, Brock points out that half of respondents said they would like to use foundations' posted videos to learn more about funding opportunities. There seems to be a disparity, however, as Brock explains that foundations are putting out videos on social networks such as YouTube.

“It’s not enough to simply be online. You need to be intentional about what you are trying to achieve with social media," said Phil Buchanan, president of CEP.

Both foundations and nonprofit organizations need to come up with strategies when engaging on social networks to effectively raise funds online.