Fundraising through Social and Personal Networks (aka Getting Started with Online Personal/ Team Fundraising)

Transcription

1 Fundraising through Social and Personal Networks (aka Getting Started with Online Personal/ Team Fundraising) March 2011 Logistics Ask questions! Otherwise I m speaking to a black hole! Peer-to-Peer Fundraising March 2011 Enter questions into the Chat with Presenter box Use the Raise Hand button 1

2 Logistics After the session, I ll send out: The slides Any links we ve discussed Fundraising through Social and Personal Networks (aka Getting Started with Online Personal/ Team Fundraising) March

3 Introductions Andrea Berry Director of Partnerships and Learning Idealware Introductions: 3

4 What We ll Cover What is Personal/ Team Fundraising? Case Study: The Reach School What Tools are Available? Creating a Successful Campaign What is Social Fundraising? 4

5 A Single Tactic With Many Names! It s also called peer-to-peer fundraising group fundraising Friend to Friend fundraising distributed fundraising Empowering Your Supporters to Fundraise $5000 for 5000 Books You define the campaign provide tools enlist supporters 5

6 Empowering Your Supporters to Fundraise And then they setup their own page and reach out to their friends and family to raise money on your behalf. It s a Pledgathon, Online 6

7 It Taps Into the Power of Networks Each supporter knows a few people who are likely to give a little to help them out Which adds up It s a Process, Not a Technology Panacea You ll need: A plan Passionate supporters Someone with time to lead and oversee the process 7

8 Case Study: The Reach School About the Reach School A special purpose pre-school serving children on the autism scale. They had just started with a fundraising program to supplement state funding 8

9 Engaging Their Staff It was difficult to engage staff in fundraising Anxiety about asking for money was high, and enthusiasm was low But they were generally young and tech savvy, and highly in tune with tools like Facebook and Twitter Defining Their Goals They decided to try a small distributed fundraising, as part of their year-end campaign, and defined their goals up-front: Raise $2000 Make 500 contacts with potential donors Bring on 50 new donors 9

10 Choosing a Tool They picked FirstGiving based on: Ease for fundraisers No setup cost Nice array of features Making the Process Fun They carefully designed their kickoff process Advance teasers by Kickoff party with luau theme with music, decorations, and food In-party training to create a fundraising page and computers to do it right then If they didn t complete their page at the party, most never did. 10

11 Setting Up Fundraising Pages They encouraged staff to be personal in their pages, and to set their own fundraising goal Modeling Good Outreach They talked people through identifying possible people to contact provided written sample s. and suggestions on how to use tools like Facebook 11

12 Reaching Out to Networks Many donate just to support a friend or family member Ongoing Communications Sent weekly updates Created competition with board donated prizes to those who raised the most money or contacted the most people Encouraged staff to the whole school with their progress 12

13 With Great Results 50% staff participation More than $5000 raised ($2000 online, $3000 mailed) More than 100 new donors Three new major donors Overall investment: $100 for the party and ten fundraising staff hours Be Creative! 13

14 Peppermint Ridge Love Walk Annual Love Walk since 2006 Uses Blackbaud Sphere Events: Friends Asking Friends Relies on friends, family, and church community for donations Humane Society of Boulder Valley Online donations through Virtual Baby Showers Host an online shower for a foster pet, invite your friends. Guests buy virtual gifts (donations) online Uses Blackbaud Friends Asking Friends Be creative with your fundraising! 14

15 Birthday Wishes Causes.com Individuals request that friends and family donate to a charity as a birthday present Share on Facebook through Causes app Encourage constituents to use their personal events for your cause Kickstarter Harlow Gallery Young at Art exhibit showcases student artwork The 5 th annual exhibit lost grant funding Turned to community and Kickstarter to raise funds. Kickstarter is all-ornothing: ask low, but don t be surprised if you get more! 15

16 What Tools Are Available? WhatGives?! Straightforward and easy Gives you a widget that embeds in Facebook/Twitter Processes payments via PayPal about 2.4% of each donation 16

17 Change.org Organizations can create a page Supporters can create their own (simple) page, or post widgets Overall progress reports 4.75% of each donation, through Network for Good Facebook Causes Specifically for fundraising within Facebook Any Facebook member can donate or create a fundraising campaign 4.75% of donation, through Network for Good 17

18 KickStarter Creative projects only Anyone can create a page (individuals or orgs) People pledge towards a goal. If the goal is met within 90 days then the get money, if you miss, you get nothing 8-10% fee between Kickstarter and Amazon Payments FirstGiving More feature rich for page creation and overall administration The $300 Premium package supports teams of fundraisers 7.5% of each donation 18

19 Blackbaud Sphere Events Customized sites with flexible org pages, and the ability for supporters to create their own Lots of central tools to manage campaigns, including teams of fundraisers On the higher end of costs And more! SixDegrees.org. Provides straightforward widgets, similar to WhatGives, at 4.75% of each donation ChangingThePresent.org. In addition to donation gifts, support straightforward organization and individual pages, similar to Change.org, at 3% +$0.03 per donation And check your constituent database! A number of integrated tools that support online payments, such as Convio, DonorPerfect, Z2 Neon, or others, provide support 19

20 Succeeding with Distributed Fundraising Start Small Start with a realistic and achievable goal, to energize your supporters Better to exceed your goal than to fail to reach it 20

21 It s All About Your Fundraisers Success is dependant on how much and how well your supporters promote the cause. How well do they tell their story? How large is their network? How many people do they contact? And how many are actually fundraising? There s no technology magic. This is a fundraising process. Be Personal Encourage your supporters to tell their own story, including photos, even videos They should say why they support the cause 21

22 Reach Your Network Where They Are Don t rely on Facebook Causes if your supporters aren t on Facebook. Don t ask them to install widgets if they don t have a website. This is not a good start to a donation process. Use social media to support your campaign, but make sure the people are the focal point. Plan To Shepherd and Coach Fundraising takes time, motivation, and frequent contact points. Train your supporters to communicate effectively! Consider weekly tips and check-ins with your fundraisers Create incentives for the top fundraisers Make it fun! 22

23 Make it Easy! Fun! Attainable! Rewarding! Questions? 23

24 Upcoming Idealware Seminars 3/24: Measuring Your Social Media Strategy 3/31: Getting Started with Mobile Outreach 4/7: Social Media Research for the Real World 4/14: FREE! Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines More at 24