Best Links: Holiday Giving, Fundraising In 2010, and the Need for Trust
- Giving is busting out all over. Here are three easy ways to help good causes this Thanksgiving. Two don't even require money.
- Tweetsgiving is a model giving program, now in its second year, that has shown how social media can make the world a better place. It has already helped build a school in Tanzania.
This year, another special Thanksgiving campaign will help expand that school. You can simply donate or get involved by publicizing the cause, attending an event, or writing on your blog. Get all the details and see the heartwarming story and photos at EpicChange.
- If you're a Tweeter and also like Drew Carey, actor and host of The Price is Right, you can help fight cancer. Carey is providing $1 for every new Twitter follower he gets until the end of the year. The money will go to LIVESTRONG. There is a story behind this that is fun, but really all it takes is a follow at MillionDollarDrew.
- Facebook activists can help Chase Community Giving decide how to spend $5-million in charitable giving. Just fan the page and then vote for your charity of choice. The goal is to drive your charity into the top 100, which will each receive $25,000, and then to get your charity into the top five, receiving $100,000 each.
- Tweetsgiving is a model giving program, now in its second year, that has shown how social media can make the world a better place. It has already helped build a school in Tanzania.
- It is a tough year for everyone, but you still want to give to charity, especially during the holidays. Should you spread your money around or concentrate it? The Los Angeles Times provides some tips in its article, "Lean Years Require a Shift in How You Give to Charity."
There is more help for donors in this Washington Post article, "Your Charity Telemarketing Cheat Sheet." What you need to ask when a fundraiser telephones you.
- How are you feeling about your fundraising for 2010? Optimistic? Tepid? Exhausted from the recession? See how your peer fundraisers answered a survey about their 2010 plans at The Agitator. This is a three-part series of blog posts. #1 is here, #2 is here, and #3 is here.
- Trust in Philanthropy. Who doesn't get frustrated with jumping through all the hoops and paperwork demanded for most grants? I loved this blog post at Tactical Philanthropy, in which Sean Stannard-Stockton discusses the trust (or distrust) foundations seem to have in the nonprofits they fund. It turns out, however, that trust is the glue that may hold civilization together.
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Collaborative Competition: GiveMN Provides Outside-the-Box Lessons for Online Giving
We are seeing the next generation of online giving campaigns worked out one by one as this new tool evolves and expands.
GiveMN, sponsored by several Minnesota foundations, held a one-day "give to the max" campaign on November 17 that raised $14-million, exceeding its most ambitious expectations.
Based on a similar campaign in Dallas, TX, in May, that raised more than $4-million, the campaign featured a website that listed 3,434 nonprofits across Minnesota. Nearly 40,000 Donors picked one or more charities for their donations.
Like the recent America's Giving Challenge, sponsored by The CASE Foundation, Facebook Causes, and Parade Magazine, the charities that got the highest number of donations received bonus grants. In the GiveMN campaign, participating organizations received partial matching funds as well.
Characteristics of this successful campaign:
- It was localized. The MN campaign raised $14 million. The Dallas, Texas campaign, even more localized, raised $3.8 million. The national America's Giving Challenge raised $2.1 million. A state-wide appeal might work best. Donors may feel more connected at a local level, while the state-wide size provided important scale.
- It was extremely time limited. America's Giving Challenge ran for 30 days, whereas the MN and TX appeals were only 24 hours long. The shorter the better? Maybe it focuses the mind, and it's easier for volunteers to concentrate their energy. It's also possible that donors gave larger amounts to make up for the short time span.
- It was leveraged. The sponsoring foundations provided more than $1-million toward covering transaction costs, prizes to the nonprofits who raised the greatest number of unique donors, and to match a portion of each donation.
- It was designed to be magnified by social media, tapping the viral power of online, instant communications. Costs were controlled by the tight time frame and by the heavy use of low-cost or free online tools.
- It was collaborative, involving many organizations and several sponsors, as were America's Giving Challenge and the Dallas effort. On the other hand, it was also competitive, rewarding those organizations who were well organized and enthusiastic. Collaborative competition might become the new fundraising standard.
- It was in Minnesota. Is it the weather? Garrison Keillor? Or just the historically high interest of its residents in their community that makes Minnesota one of the most volunteering and generous states?
Questions Worth Considering:
- Are competitions the future of online fundraising? Is it worthwhile for charities to "chase" competitions? Or does it fragment their efforts and divert them from more effective fundraising?
- How worthwhile to an individual charity are these campaigns? In the case of America's Giving Challenge, the organization with the most individual donations won a prize of $50,000, with smaller, but still substantial, prizes going to other campaign leaders. The Minnesota campaign provided small bonuses for leaders, but matched a portion of the donations to each nonprofit. Is it worthwhile for those charities who are "non-winners"?
What do you think? Have you been involved in an online fundraising event such as GiveMN as a donor, fundraiser, or organization? What are the advantages and/or drawbacks of such collaborative competitions?
More:
- Beth's Blog provides an excellent summary of the MN campaign as well as pertinent background.
- Chronicle of Philanthropy article about GiveMN.
- Read a summary of America's Giving Challenge and the story of one of the top nonprofits in a recent Causes Newsletter.
- Article in the Dallas News about the Dallas Campaign.
- "With creative online giving campaigns, everyone's a philanthropist." Blog post at The Case Foundation detailing the GiveMN campaign and the current Chase Bank crowd-directed corporate giving campaign on Facebook.
- "Clicking for a Cause," recent NYTimes article about social media and giving.
Photo by Getty Images
Email Is Not Yet Dead: 9 Tips to Make It More Effective
There have been dire warnings about the death of email recently because of the increasing use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
But it is way too early to declare the demise of our most effective online communication. After all, everyone with a computer, or even a mobile phone, uses email, while adoption of social media, while impressive, is not yet universal. Don't get rid of your email to donors and supporters. Just make it as effective as possible...more...
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Align Mission, Competencies, and Resources for Better Fundraising
Are your fundraising, mission, and resources in separate silos? Do you have donors or investors? Is your strategic plan feasible in light of your resources? Is your board realistic about its responsibilities? Are your messages convincing?
These are key concerns for any nonprofit, but few deal with them in an integrated fashion. To help her clients do that, Nell Edgington has written a terrific whitepaper for her consulting company, Social Velocity: Resetting Fundraising: 5 Ways to Raise More Money
The paper raises some excellent questions for nonprofits, such as:
- Are your mission, core competencies and resources integrated?
Mission must be supported by core competencies and financial support. Fundraising needs to be a part of every other function in a nonprofit. Edgington says, "It is particularly challenging when the revenue engine is misaligned. This is when an organization has a great mission and can produce great results, but they can't find a way to make the organization financially sustainable."
- Is your strategic plan integrated with your fundraising?
A plan is only pie in the sky if you can't pay your way. As the whitepaper explains, "You cannot have a realistic strategic plan without a corresponding financial plan. The financial plan lays out the revenue and expenses over the period of the strategic plan. What is it going to cost to get to your goals (expenses) and how will you pay for them (revenue)?"
- Are you developing donors or investors? And what is the difference?
Edgington suggests that, "A successful fundraiser looks for investors who share the organization's values and theory of change, and then demonstrates to them how their nonprofit creates that change in the community. The organization is merely a conduit for investing in change in the community."
Social Velocity's whitepaper is a quick read and just might refocus your thoughts about fundraising. You can download the free whitepaper when you subscribe to the Social Velocity free newsletter.
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Nonprofits Should Use P.O.S.T. to Get Handle on Social Media
I read about the P.O.S.T. strategy in Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's book, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. That book is directed primarily at businesses, but the P.O.S.T. idea really stood out for its simplicity and applicability to all kinds of organizations, including nonprofits.
P.O.S.T. stands for People, Objectives, Strategies, and Technology, and should be executed in that order. Steve McLaughlin recently wrote a blog post about P.O.S.T. that does a good job of explaining this strategy.
Steve says that, "Social media and social networks are fundamentally a communications and relationship building channel. It's just on such a mass scale and full of plenty of sound, fury, and hype that we momentarily think the normal rules don't apply. They still do."
In addition to using P.O.S.T. to clarify your thinking about how you use social media, Steve suggests that you set up a "listening post," and provides links to some good resources that will get you started.
Even if you are already flailing around in social media, it would be wise to stop and start strategizing by thinking through your P.O.S.T. Read Steve's Creating a Social Networking Strategy (Part 1).
Related Resources:
- Can Small Nonprofits Reap Success With Social Media? Beth Kanter with several good examples.
- How Small Nonprofits Can Leverage Social Media - Armchair Founder offers a four-prong approach to social media for time-crunched nonprofits.
Three Free Ways to Boost Your Nonprofit Cred
"Free." We all love that word. Fortunately, "free" is no longer just a gimmick. It's a movement, encouraged by thought leaders such as Chris Anderson, who wrote "Free: The Future of a Radical Price."
Thanks to all of the generous organizations and gurus in the nonprofit space, we have lots of ways to gain expertise right at our computers. Here are three ways you can sharpen your wits and skills ... all for free.
Free Access to the Blackbaud Nonprofit Conference
Next week Blackbaud, provider of software and services to nonprofits, holds its conference for nonprofits in Charleston, SC. But, if you weren't able to arrange to go to the conference, Blackbaud plans to broadcast several live sessions.
You can catch the live stream Monday, Nov 16, through Wednesday, Nov 18. The nicest part of this is that these broadcasts will be free. So you can tune in right from your office and listen to several nonprofit experts.
A special treat is that Derreck Kayongo is one of the keynoters. Kayongo is the founder of The Global Soap Project, a new social enterprise that is getting considerable attention.
Of note among the presenters are Holly Ross of NTEN, Richard McPherson of McPherson Associates, Jay Love of eTapestry, and Dean Feener of the Salvation Army. Sessions include these juicy topics:
- Is Your Fundraising Strategy in Need of a Makeover?
- Practical Advice to Ensure a Smooth Public Launch of Your Website
- Google Analytics and Search Engine Optimization
No registration is necessary for the live streaming sessions. Here is the schedule and link you'll need: Livefrom Blackbaud's Conference for Nonprofits
Nancy Schwartz's Free Tagline Report
You may have read about the recent tagline competition that Nancy Schwartz, of Getting Attention, organized. The contest turned up some tagline jewels such as "Nothing Stops a Bullet like a Job," from Homeboy Industries; and "Because the earth needs a good lawyer," from Earthjustice.
Now a full guide to writing your own tagline is available from Nancy. The 2009 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Report provides everything your organization needs to jump start its own tagline development process, such as:
- Why a Nonprofit's Name Isn't Enough
- How a Strong Tagline Benefits Your Organization
- The 10 Have-Tos for Successful Taglines
- Using Words that Work
- The 7 Deadly Sins, 9 Snores and 5 Best Ways to Antagonize Your Audience
- Research, Create, Revise, Test, Repeat - The right steps to take to craft a potent tagline
- Over 2,500 Nonprofit Tagline Examples to put to work for marketing brainstorming.
You can download the (free) report here, and start creating or improving your taglines right now.
Foundation Center's Free Webinar
Free webinars are just gifts, plain and simple. I attend as many as possible. There are many coming up, but I chose one from the Foundation Center to highlight.
How to Approach a Foundation will take the fear out of your communications with prospective funders. The 60-minute webinar, one of the basic courses at the Foundation Center, will reveal the secrets to that initial contact with a foundation, as well as what to do after you get funded. From initial contact to a lasting partnership, your communications can be planned to be effective and useful.
This webinar has three dates: Nov 17, Dec 18, and Jan 21. You can find all the details and register here.
If you'd like to find other free webinars, Rebecca Leaman, of Wild Apricot, has compiled a list of 19 free webinars in November.
Best Links: Nonprofit Transparency to Reducing Donor Attrition
- Open Organizations. There is a lot of discussion right now about transparency in the nonprofit sector. Some organizations are jumping out in front of the issue by making more information available to supporters via various means. One method is through an online "dashboard," which contains a variety of information -- financial and otherwise. Lucy Bernholz, on her blog, Philanthropy 2173, provides a good summary of the issues, links to other blogs, and to samples of what some organizations are doing in this arena.
- Online giving: A Lively Spot in the Lackluster Economy. Katya Andresen reports that Network for Good has now processed over $300 million in online donations to more than 50,000 charities since its start. Online giving turns out to be a bright spot in this economy, Katya says, and suggests how nonprofits can make the most of it.
- Grant Planning for 2010: A Silver-Lining for a Gloomy Outlook? April Northstrom, of Grant Savvy, provides a sober overview of fundraising for 2010, but then suggests several ways to approach your grant planning that will make your proposals more successful, despite the economy.
- Best Practices for Designing Nonprofit Websites. Smashing Magazine provides tips about how to make your nonprofit website both functional and attractive. If you feel confused about website design, this article cuts to the basics that are the most important, and then provides 20 examples of great nonprofit sites.
- Beyond the Thank You Letter. If you're not familar with the website, SOFII, this is your chance. SOFII is a depository of advice for fundraisers and, more importantly, many actual campaigns. This one, for Greenpeace, details a welcome process for new donors that is geared to deepening their relationship with the organization and reducing donor attrition.
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5 Suggestions for High Leverage Charitable Giving
Charles Bronfman and Jeffrey Solomon, of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, present two sides of the philanthropic equation in their new book, The Art of Giving: Where the Soul Meets a Business Plan.
Bronfman is the philanthropist and founder of his family foundation, and Solomon serves in the senior staff position as president of that organization. Together they bring years of experience to the advice and counsel they offer to budding philanthropists.
One of the conundrums the authors discuss is how a donor can figure out how to give in a way that achieves maximum results. They remind the readers...More...
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How Do You Define "Donor?" Develop Big Tent Thinking for Maximum Effect
If you're only defining a donor as someone who has given you money, you are making a big mistake. Just like political parties want to provide a big tent to draw in supporters, you may want make your donor pool a lot more inclusive.
That is one of the many admonitions from Kim Klein in her new book, Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times: What Good Causes Need to Know to Survive and Thrive. Klein is a noted consultant and founder of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal.
Klein suggests that you expand your view of "donor" to include:
- Someone who gives time.
- A person who shares ideas about how your organization can succeed.
- Those who say nice things about the work you do.
- People who open doors for you.
- Someone who expresses gratitude for the services you provide.
Klein's simple thesis is that the paths of donations are many and murky. You never know just how a donation made its way to you.
These days, many donors are going through tough times. They might, for financial reasons, drop out as a donor or delay donations, but then recover and start again. Small donors that you don't pay much attention to might spread the word of your good deeds to groups they interact with, resulting in new donors. A volunteer may fall in love with your cause and introduce it to her colleagues at work, who then become involved.
Develop a broad definition of "donor" as someone who connects as well as gives. Look for people who have a lot of relationships, who offer to help in all sorts of ways, and who are grateful for your services. Then get in contact with them and stay in contact. Say thank you frequently for whatever "gifts" they provide, and nurture those relationships.
Photo by Amy Butler/Getty Images
Ban Boring Volunteer Recognition Events With On-the-Spot Polls
Susan Ellis at Energize Inc always has great suggestions for making your volunteer recognition events something that people look forward to...not dread.
Our favorite tip is about recognizing everybody. Ellis suggests that in addition to/or in place of the formal recognition process, you act as if everyone present deserves some thanks. Ask the audience questions that a lot of people will qualify to answer, and that they can answer just by standing up and then receiving applause. Here are some sample questions that would work:
- Who fills more than one assignment here as a volunteer?
- Who has applied something they learned at orientation in their volunteer work?
- Who has hunted more than 15 minutes for a parking spot?
- Who has met the Executive Director before tonight?
- Who has volunteered for more than a year? Five years? Ten?
- Who recruited a friend or relative to become a volunteer here?
- Who gave up their favorite TV show to be here tonight?
- Who speaks more than one language?
Ellis says questions such as these are like an instant poll, and by the time people rise several times, they will feel very included.
Can you think of some other fun questions for volunteers? Tell us in the comments.
Related:
- 10 Ways to Make Volunteers Happy
- Placing the Right Volunteer in the Right Job
- My Favorite Volunteer Experience Was...