Nonprofit Trends

Getting Started with Social Fundraising

Used to be, when it came to giving there were two parties: the donor and the organization.

Now though, with the advent of social fundraising, there are often three parties: the donor, the organization and the unrelated-to-the-organization social fundraising platform. And while we might be tempted to say “two’s company but three’s a crowd,” it doesn’t have to be that way. If your organization embraces social fundraising, it could be the more the merrier.

What is social fundraising?

I like to describe social fundraising as the marriage between peer-to-peer giving and social media.

Many moons ago, we solicited donations from our friends by carrier pigeon, mail, phone or email…the same ways we communicated with them about other things. Today we still use (most) of those methods to communicate but we also increasingly use social media. So it’s really no surprise that our methods of donation solicitation have evolved to include social media too.

Getting Started

The very first thing an organization wanting to use social fundraising should do, is have its own social media presence. You don’t need to be on every platform, but considering your goals and resources, select those you can be successful with. (Read our Social Media Tips & Tricks if you need tips.)

Next, to best harness the enthusiasm of your constituents and power of social fundraising, your organization should be an active participant in choosing the social fundraising tool constituents are encouraged to use. When considering which of the many tools to use, ask yourself these questions:

• What are my goals?
• Does this make sense for my organization?
• Can I leverage existing content?
• Can I access the individual fundraisers and donors for further cultivation?

While these are the first questions your organization should ask, social fundraising, like any campaign, can’t be decided on by reading one 371-word blog post. You need to gather more information about goals, capacity, audience etc.

If you are at the Nonprofit Technology Conference, come to my session tomorrow (10:30a, Market Street room) to learn more and see a case study from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.

If you are not at the conference, you can continue learning about social fundraising through our Common Ground Social video.

2012 Convio Benchmark Study

The sixth annual Convio Online Marketing Benchmark Index Study is now officially released. At a macro-level, we continue to see online engagement growing at a healthy rate. In fact, over the past five or six years, online fundraising has grown at a similar rate to retail e-commerce, good news for nonprofits.

I’m particularly encouraged by a new metric we added this year: growth in monthly giving. As monthly giving typically increases a donor’s lifetime value, this positive trend is very good news for the nonprofit sector and the causes being served.

For a summary of trends seen in the benchmark, watch my video here. For all the trends, including information by vertical, download the full Online Marketing Benchmark.

Watch the video on YouTube.

And the Survey Says...

All roads are heading north! Here at AFP International in the spectacular northwest city of Vancouver, BC, it’s evident from the conference sessions I’ve attended so far that with the economy seemingly back on an upward trajectory, fundraising is also heading in that direction.

Today, the NRC, Nonprofit Research Collaborative, of which Convio is a member, announced the results of our spring survey. In 2011, over half of all the nonprofit organizations surveyed in both the U.S. and Canada saw increases in contributions. In fact, the results indicate that this is the first increase seen in the U.S. in four years. That is indeed great news!

Even better news, more than 70 percent of the organizations surveyed anticipate increases in charitable contributions received in 2012. Still, a third said the economy is the greatest challenge and a looming determinant in what lies ahead.

The sentiment at AFP? I’d say it’s largely optimistic. Yes, nonprofits realize that many of the factors Convio highlights in our 2012 predictions cannot be ignored, but rather embraced: online; mobile; peer-to-peer; and integrated marketing. Scott Harrison from charity: water reinforced that himself in his opening day keynote when he emphasized the need to tell stories and give donors a reason to care about the “why.” Essentially, if you have a compelling story, the money will follow.

A Chat With Vinay Bhagat

I am super excited to bring you a special podcast interview on the Connection Café this month. While my favorite thing about doing these audio interviews is getting to know Convio coworkers and let you meet some of our staff that you may not otherwise run into, I think most people familiar with Convio will know how important Vinay Bhagat is to our company and the nonprofit sector. Vinay founded Convio in 1999 and since then has established himself as an innovative researcher, thinker, and leader across our market. I personally credit him as being an inspiration for me to continue to focus my career on nonprofit technology and constituent engagement; I’m sure many others do as well.

I thought now would be perfect time to sit down with Vinay and reflect on this history of the company, the future of nonprofit communications, and learn a little more about Vinay’s personal interests and passions. You’ll hear us talk a little about his work style, approach for tackling challenges and data, and stories about how Convio got to be where it is today.

Connection Cafe Podcast 7 - Vinay Bhagat

Download audio file

Editor's Note: While this podcast has been on the editorial calendar for weeks, we're very pleased that it just happens to align with Vinay's nomination for Care2's Impact Prize. You can read more and vote for him on the NTEN website.

Mobilize Those Mobile Eyes Again

In part 1 of Mobilize Those Mobile Eyes, I wrote about the different facets of the mobile channel that your organization can use to engage your constituents.

In part 2, I will wrap-up my takeaways from the Nonprofit Mobile Day event I recently attended, presented by the Direct Marketing Association’s Nonprofit Federation(DMANF). Here, I’ll cover who the players are you can to bring to the table, and share a couple of thoughts about creating a plan for mobile.

Know the players

If you decide to go the mobile route, there are a number of capabilities that you will need to have in-house or (more likely) bring partners to the table for.

• Mobile strategy: From defining goals, to designing for mobile, to developing and executing campaigns, to measuring results, a growing number of digital strategy consultants can be your partner in effectively using the mobile channel.
• Mobile messaging platform: You will need a technology platform for sending mass text messages to your constituents, in the same way you likely already have a platform for sending mass email messages.
• Text-to-give: In order to facilitate donations via text-to-give, you will need a relationship with one of two partners: mGive Foundation, or Mobile Giving Foundation. They are the folks who interface with the mobile carriers and ensure that your organization ultimately receives the donations.
• Mobile Web platform: In some cases, your current Content Management System (CMS) may be able to detect what type of device your site visitors are using and render your content accordingly (as is the case with Convio CMS). In other cases, you may need to work with a proxy provider to deliver a mobilized version of your site.
• App developers: If you go the app route, you will need to work with a software developer who can build and maintain your app over time. And since apps are not interchangeable between mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Blackberry, etc.) you may need to develop multiple versions of your app to reach as many people as possible.
• Mobile ad network: These are the folks who can get your organization’s ads in front of the right eyeballs on a mobile device.
• CRM integration: To avoid having your mobile program create a new data silo within your organization, check with your organization’s database-of-record/CRM vendor to understand your options for integration. (Learn about CRMs in general.)

Know your plan

The question of “where to begin?” was answered in a recent Connection Café post by Katya Andresen, as well as this mobile post from Michael Sabat, but let me add some things I gleaned from the Mobile Day event that might also help inform your thinking on mobile engagement:

• How will you collect mobile numbers? Because you cannot buy a list of the mobile numbers for your constituents, you will have to obtain opt-in through existing channels. For example, Lara Koch of Humane Society of the United States said they ask for a mobile number on all online advocacy action forms. But there are also services that will tell you which of the current phone numbers you have on file for your constituents are mobile numbers. This will enable you to do targeted outreach (via email, etc.) to obtain mobile opt-in.
• How will you know if it is time to build a mobile version of your site? A quick check of Google Analytics will reveal how many of your current site visitors are coming from a mobile device. For example, Humane Society saw that number grow from 7 percent to 16 percent during 2011. If you are approaching 10 percent of site visitors coming from a mobile device, you are probably past-due in optimizing your Web presence for mobile visitors. (For advice on designing your mobile site, check out Designing for the Mobile Web by Lacey Kruger.)
• What kinds of results should you expect from your mobile efforts? Unfortunately, extensive benchmarks simply don’t exist yet. For what it is worth, David Balcom of American Cancer Society shared that the number of donations given through a mobile browser doubled after ACS launched a mobile-optimized version of their site. Over at Humane Society, 3 percent of end-of-year gifts came in through their mobile-optimized site, and 38 percent of those giving were first-time donors to the organization. And Chrissy Faessen of Rock the Vote shared that they found attendance at the polls on election day increases 3 to 4 percent when their constituents receive a text message the day before, reminding them to vote. So at the very least, be ready to do some testing to figure out what works for you. A good strategy consultant can help you create a test that yields meaningful results.

Watt Hamlett is Lead Solutions Engineer with Convio. He loves working with nonprofit organizations to help them access the strategies, software, and services they need to achieve their goals.