Sunday afternoon at SXSW Interactive was the Crowdsourcing Innovative Social Change talk, and it focused on using social media and crowdsourcing to push philanthropy initiatives to a new level. This looks to be something that efforts with limited budgets will be able to benefit from more than anybody.

Speaking on the panel were Nonprofit Technology Network’s Holly Ross, Netsquared’s Amy Sample Ward, Lights.Camera.Help’s David J. Neff the Case Foundation’s Kari Saratovsky, and Beth Kanter from Beth’s Blog.

Some interesting points:

• Slow and steady. A lot of value can be gained from tapping into a wider pool of experts than just the ones you have on your staff, but it’s not going to happen overnight. Crowdsourcing will be slower, accomplishing your goal in more iterative steps.

• Have a goal. Just like social media monitoring, it helps to have a clear goal before you start asking for help. Know what you want the crowd to help you achieve and be able to measure your success.

• Keep it simple. Make sure that you don’t make it too hard on your crowd. The simpler it is for them to contribute, the better results you’ll get. And don’t forget to make it fun!

Some cool nonprofit social media resources and examples:

• NOAH (Networked Organisms and Habitats) is a free iPhone app that helps nature lovers explore and document local wildlife and gives them a common technology platform that research groups can use to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.

• Open Green Map is an interactive mapmaking tool that helps people worldwide quickly share their own selection of sustainability sites, pathways, and resources online. It merges local knowledge and freshly updated iconography with Google Map and open source Drupal technology.

• Seattle Free School is a for-the-community free school organized by local experts who found themselves via social media and want to share their experience with others for free. Now, it uses social media to organize and teach classes.

• The Free Range Studios Youtopia grant is a program for both socially-responsible businesses and nonprofit organizations that provides up to $30,000 worth of Free Range’s design and/or strategic services.

• Invisible People‘s goal is to de-stigmatize homelessness with raw videos of the homeless that takes an honest look at their plight. The site is a vlog of stories that strives to make the invisible visible.

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