Guest post by Emily Goodstein, Account Manager at Convio

Last week I adopted a wonk. His name is Matt and he loves skinny ties, cooking non-hippy meals, and enjoying televised sporting events. 

No, I didn’t welcome a new member to my family, but I made a donation to OMB Watch (a Convio client doing amazing work to promote open government, accountability, and citizen participation) as part of their “Adopt a Wonk” campaign.  The campaign, which puts a personal face on a set of very “inside the beltway” issues, uses short YouTube videos and Convio donation pages to allow constituents to get to know the people behind this government oversight group.  Because of me, Matt is now able to spend time posting a blog entry on OMBWatch.org about the lack of government oversight that lead to the BP Oil Spill (you’re welcome, Matt).

The campaign may be a good fit for your organization if you’re looking for ways for constituents to learn more about you, your staff, and the issues you work on (and then feel compelled to make a donation and support you)!

Here’s how OMB Watch did it:

Short Video Interviews
The organization created short videos of their program staff and posted them to their website. 
• The videos are accompanied by little pieces of personal and organization specific information.
• You may consider using an inexpensive Flip video camera (which uploads directly to your computer and comes with very easy-to-use editing software, too) to create these types of little video clips.

Cheeky and Informative Text
The little blurbs about each staff person include humorous anecdotes and important content related specifics.  Here are some examples:
• “When he’s not complaining about the heat, you’re likely to find him cooking up non-hippie meals or aggressively enjoying televised sporting events.”
• “Lee's job is to expand the rights of nonprofits nationwide so that American citizens have the power to advocate on their own behalf.”

Concrete Use of Donations
My favorite part of the campaign is the different activities that one can support when choosing donations of different sizes. 
• For $25, a donor is able to support an OMBW staffer writing a blog post about workplace safety or the BP oil spill.
• A gift of $250 allows a member of the OMBW team to testify before Congress about fiscal responsibility. 

I really like the way OMBW included links to several of their advocacy campaigns in the donation options for each wonk up for adoption.  This way, a fundraising ask is also leveraging constituents to action, as well.

Other organizations have used similar tactics to put a personal face on sometimes wonky, technical, or super scientific issues.  Check out these great examples:
• Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation’s “Geek…It’s The New Chic”
• Environmental Defense Fund’s “Adopt a Nerd”

In its second year,Lights.Camera.Help. is once again bringing the worlds of philanthropy and video together to inspire and move people through multimedia.

If you aren’t already familiar with LCH, it’s a nonprofit organization that works to help other nonprofits use film to spread awareness and action for their causes through volunteer matching, education and its annual nonprofit film festival.

The second annual, three-day film fest is taking place this weekend in Austin, Texas and it’s not too late to get involved and be a part of the fun. You can do three main things to help the growth of this great cause and experience the event for yourself:

1. Watch the amazing videos from this year. Submissions came in from around the world and LCH received more than 100 more submissions in 2010 than in 2009. 33 videos were chosen and are available for viewing online.

2. Attend any or all of the three days of film screenings this weekend. Day screenings are taking place: Thursday, July 29, 7 to 10 p.m. at the Mexican American Cultural Center; Friday, July 30, 7 to 10 p.m., at the Millennium Youth Complex; and Saturday July 31, 2 to 5 p.m. at Space 12 with the closing party from 7 to 10 p.m. following the screening. Tickets are available at http://lch2010.eventbrite.com. (Note that all proceeds go to the winners)

3. Donate to the winners of this year’s festival. Can’t make the live event or want to do more to support the winners of the festival? Make a donation to for your nonprofit peers’ amazing work.

Added bonus: as if LCH wasn’t fun enough, this year Gowalla is helping support the cause. That’s right, you can get a brand new, shiny badge to show your support and involvement at the event when you attend any of the film festival days this weekend. Props to our hometown geolocation leader, Gowalla!

Hope to see the Austin community out in full force this weekend at the event!

Recession, market turmoil, troubled economy — these words got a lot of air time in 2009. And rightfully so! We have all felt the impact of the economy over the past year, especially nonprofit organizations that worried about their ability to fundraise in such challenging times. After all, could people afford to give when there was so much uncertainty in their lives and the world around them?

Well, according to the data that appeared in the recently published report, Giving USA 2010: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2009, nonprofits overall did a very good job at weathering the storm. So what can we learn from this report that’s chock full of dollar figures and percentages? Some valuable nuggets of information:

- Total charitable giving was down 3.6 percent in 2009. Although this is noted as the “steepest decline in current dollar terms since Giving USA began its annual reports in 1956,” most people will likely see this outcome as favorable because they were expecting much worse.

- Individual giving was down a mere 0.4 percent. Individuals surprised us with their generosity, opening up their wallets to help others. Sure, the dollar amount of individuals’ donations might have been lower than in the past, but the philanthropic mindset of donors remained intact, even in the face of economic instability.

- Nonprofits in several verticals experienced increases in giving. Health, human services, international affairs and environment/animal-related organizations all noted slight boosts in giving. Some of these higher number could be attributed to donors who wanted to help support those who were most impacted by the recession.

- Giving to education, foundations, public-society benefit organizations, and arts, culture and humanities organizations dropped. The most notable decline was the 8.0 percent drop in giving to foundations.

Of course, it would have been great to have had more favorable results overall, but there is a silver lining to the grey cloud known as 2009. With a brighter outlook ahead, nonprofits - especially those with organized fundraising programs - can hope to bring in even more dollars in 2010.

The data from Giving USA’s report can be used as a benchmark against which nonprofits compare their past performance and as a guide to set goals for the future. When examined in combination with the information provided by the annual Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study, we can gain valuable insight into online giving, which rose 14 percent in 2009.

So, how did your nonprofit stack up to your peers in 2009? And how’s it looking for 2010?

What’s better than a local, happy hour Tweetup? Why, a Tweetup bringing together the tech and nonprofit communities to discuss and live-tweet ways to leverage the power of the social web to do good, of course!

If you’re in the DC area, be sure not to miss this week’s Nonprofit & Technology Tweetup hosted by Convio(@convio) and Nasdaq(@nasdaqomx) partnering with local organizations and professionals committed to advancing civic engagement and bringing change through social media technologies. 
 
Register to attend the event live, this Thursday July 22 at the Convio office at 1255 23rd Street, NW, Ste. 650, Washington, DC. The fun starts at 6pm.

Along with lots of live social networking and refreshments, an informal panel will offer insights into the topic of social media for social good from the perspective of the following speakers:

- Geoff Handy, Vice President, Media and Online Communications at The Humane Society of the United States

- Jordan Viator @jordanv (that’s me), Interactive Communications Manager at Convio Inc.

- Danielle Brigida @starfocus, Digital Marketing Manager at the National Wildlife Federation

- Wendy Harman @wharman, Social Media Manager at American Red Cross

- Frank Gruber @frankgruber, Founder of TECH cocktail

Be sure to follow us for live coverage from the event using the hashtag #nptweet.

And if you can be there, send us your questions and feedback via Twitter and we’ll work to include your comments into the live discussion.

Happy tweeting!

Everybody loves a great best practices guide, especially when it’s one that can help you do your job better and more effectively. And with such impressive growth in the world on online fundraising, nonprofit organizations are realizing the power of the Internet more and more with each passing day and looking for best practices to help leverage the Internet to raise funds.

A new nonprofit online fundraising guide from Convio does just that.  With 40 pages chock full of best practices, tips for success and examples from other nonprofits exemplifying online success, the guide covers basic concepts for taking advantage of the Internet for your fundraising programs.

The guide is a “must read” for any organization eager to learn how to better harness the Internet, or for organizations looking for a good refresher and update on newer tactics. Here are a few central tips and takeaways I had after reading the guide:

1. Building an Email Address File: The first step you need to take is building your list of constituent email addresses.  By building your list, you are developing online relationships with the people who care about your cause.

2. Developing Online Relationships with Supporters: The Internet is a fast and cost-effective communication channel to engage with your constituents.  You can build relationships through proper engagement and, in turn, build on your online campaigns.

3. Raising Funds Through Run/Walk/Ride Events and Personal Fundraising Sites: Peer-to peer fundraising does more than just raise money for your cause.  Many organizations have discovered the effectiveness and efficiency of tapping their biggest “fans” for fundraising events such as walks, runs and rides.  Personal fundraising websites are also a way to tap into supporters throughout the year outside of run/walk/ride events, as well.

4. Key Metrics: There’s no use in running a campaign if you can’t figure out its level of success.  Your organization must define its goals and track metrics to determine how successful your campaign has been.

5. Online Constituent Relationship Management: It’s time to involve your donors, your volunteers and your supporters in more than just one activity.  Get them involved in multiple ways to help benefit your organization.

6. Social media: Social technologies are becoming an increasingly important part of an integrated strategy for nonprofit organizations to list build and raise awareness and funds in online campaigns.

7. Examples, examples, examples:  The guide includes tons of examples from nonprofit organizations of all shapes and sizes. Different case studies of all of the different tips provided in the guide help provide a more robust framework and understanding of how anyone looking to raise more funds online can optimize their programs.

The above 7 only hit the tip of the iceberg of what the nonprofit online fundraising guide offers.

Think something else in the guide should be higher on the list of takeaways? Have a great example you don't see in the guide? Share here after reading!