“If 2009 was the year of the "tweet", 2010 is the year of the "check-in", said Joe Waters, Director of Cause and Event Marketing at Boston Medical Center on this weeks Live Discussion over at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. After all, location apps like Foursquare and Gowalla were the breakout technology at SXSWi just a few months ago. Following SXSWi though, Frogloop questioned if apps like Foursquare are a novelty or buzz worthy, particularly for nonprofits.

Estrella Rosenberg, who founded Big Love Little Hearts, which works to provide life-saving surgery to children with congenital heart defects in developing countries, has been using Foursquare for advocacy as well as to raise money and connect with constituents and volunteers.

“I recently did an advocacy, awareness and fundraising campaign called #100X100 using Foursquare that raised $25,000 in 24 hours and prompted more than 800 supporters to call their Congressmen,” said Rosenberg.

While Rosenberg may not have raised buckets of money, generating $25K in 24 hours and getting 800 people to call their Congressperson is not insignificant.

What was some of Rosenberg’s key tactics? “We levied the power of check-ins connected to Twitter and Facebook and got a donor to contribute $1 for every time someone checked-in (or tweeted) with the hashtag #100X100 on a specific day,” said Rosenberg.

 Also “the ability to leave tips with embedded links and the shout-out feature [made] foursquare a great medium for promoting [our] advocacy efforts,” said Rosenberg.