Spread the Love and #BAD11

Once a year, Blog Action Day unites bloggers around the world to focus on an important global issue and to create a dialogue that transcends international borders. This year, Blog Action Day’s focus is FOOD as it coincides with World Food Day that aims to increase awareness, understanding and fuel year-around action to alleviate hunger.

The stats on world hunger are staggering:

• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, close to one billion people are chronically hungry.
• Hunger is the world’s No. 1 health risk and kills more people every year that AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
• There are more hungry people in the world than the combined populations of the US, Canada, and the European Union.

The stats on how many Americans are hungry and undernourished are equally troubling given our abundant resources:

• According to the Department of Agriculture 15 percent of Americans go hungry or specifically are “food insecure” meaning they can’t afford to eat right or eat enough.

Taking a closer look at a particular region of the US, hunger affects close to 1 million individuals throughout the Delaware Valley (area surrounding Philadelphia). That’s the service area for Philabundance, an amazing Convio client that provides food to approximately 65,000 people per week through direct services and network of 500 member agencies. The organization serves low income residents at risk of hunger and malnutrition, of which 23 percent are children and 16 percent are senior citizens. As a small contribution to Blog Action Day and World Food Day, I would like to recognize the achievements of Philabundance in helping to reduce hunger in their service area and highlight an innovative campaign that has increased awareness, raised funds and helped to grow their body of supporters.

About the Campaign

For the past two years, Philabundance has promoted the Spread the Love campaign as a two week virtual food drive that matches every new fan on Facebook with a jar of peanut butter or jelly donation from the org’s food industry partner, Wakefern/ShopRite. The concept of ‘spreading the love’ was inspired by the PB&J (a staple item that is in high demand by the community due to its richness in protein and affordability), the viral nature of the campaign, and the Valentine’s Day time frame, February 1-14.

Results
The launch of the campaign was an immediate success resulting in ShopRite donating a total of 3,800 pounds of PB&J to the community and Philabundance increased online donations by 100 percent. They also added and mobilized 2,265 Facebook fans during a 14 day period — 155 percent increase from start of campaign. In 2011, the results keep getting better! ShopRite donated 4,750 pounds of PB&J, increased online donations 111 percent over 2010 and in the first few days alone, and they were able to beat last year’s Facebook fan growth by nearly 114 percent.

Philabundance along with so many other food banks are helping reduce the level of hunger and food insecurity in the US. The ‘Spread the Love’ campaign is just one of the great programs that Philabundance offers throughout the year, and is a true reflection of the power of paying it forward and establishing supporter momentum that has helped build their online community and overall supporter network.

Take Action Against Hunger

• Live in the Delaware Valley or just want to stay tuned into the amazing work of Philabundance? Become a part of their community.
• Here are five ways to act against global hunger from the ONE campaign
• Learn about Oxfam America's GROW campaign a celebration of food with daily blogs, photo roundups, competitions and loads of ways to get involved and take action. 
• Whether you blog, host an event, Tweet about #BAD11 and World Food Day continue to participate in the discussion on October 16, 2011 and beyond

5 Tips for Mobile

The following blog post is by Michael Sabat. Michael is the VP of Account Management and Business Development at Mobile Commons. He has worked there for 3 and a half years and has helped clients launch hundreds of campaigns. Mobile Commons is a Convio partner and they have just launched Mobile Advocate - A new product integrated with Convio Luminate and designed to drive targeted advocacy phone calls from the web or SMS. Michael can be reached at michael@mobilecommons.com and general inquiries can be sent to info@mobilecommons.com.

Mobile campaigns can be extremely valuable for organizations, and the best news is that you don't need to be chasing the newest technology. The most effective mobile campaigns utilize the more mature technologies that we all use daily - text messaging, phone calls and even the mobile web. Campaigns can be quite different, but we've found a number of small steps that are very valuable to organizations starting out with mobile. Today I'm going to share the first 5 steps recommended for organizations getting started with mobile.

1. Build a mobile list now. Mobile lists cannot be bought or sold. This is a really great aspect to mobile communications because it keeps response rates high and as consumers it keeps spam out of our text message inbox. The biggest downside is that when non profits start mobile initiatives, many times they are starting without a list.    
   
   If you’re reading this article, the number one takeaway should be that you can start opting in mobile subscribers now – even before you’ve picked a vendor or decided on a keyword.  To opt supporters in to your future mobile program you need to collect their mobile number and be clear that by giving their mobile number, they are subscribing to text messages. Mobile number field should be added to new webforms and even paper forms. It’s also important to include the text Message & Data Rates May Apply, which is required to tell people when they are opting in.
   
   
2. Integrate your mobile database with Convio other CRM. Once the organization is contracted with a mobile vendor, it is important to set up an integration. Ideally this integration should be a two-way sync. People that text in should be added to the database and supporters that enter their mobile number in forms should receive a welcome text message as soon as possible.
   
   Without a doubt organizations that have a mobile integration do much better with their mobile campaigns and their communication campaigns are more successful overall. Mobile campaigns work best when integrated into the overall communication strategy and it’s important to integrate the technology as well.
   
   
3. Choose a go-to keyword and response. The goal of this step is to be able to give anybody in the organization a way to promote the campaign and list build with a moments notice. Think of this keyword as the "homepage" for the organization's SMS campaign. Sure you can add keywords for specific types of campaigns like walks, fundraising or chapter initiatives. But it's important to be able to brand a keyword so that marketing, PR or even the executive director can learn how promote the texting campaign. Having a clear and consistant call to action is the best way to make this happen.
   
   
4. Show your boss.  Mobile campaigns are instant and exciting. As soon as the campaign is set up, it should be possible to demo the campaign by texting in and receiving a reply back.
   
   The most important reason to show your boss and coworkers is to get them excited and work towards buy in from the organization. The ability for coworkers to text in and see the interaction happen in real time is a conversation starter. It's exciting to imagine how the organization can use this new mobile channel to engage with supporters. If you're new to mobile demonstrating and discussing with coworkers is a great way to get feedback on the interaction as well.
   
   
5. Build mobile into a campaign. Mobile works best when it is integrated into the planning of the campaign. Adding a QR code at the end is not a mobile strategy. Almost every campaign can integrate mobile effectively. Here are the two most common approaches.
1. Use a mobile call to action in media to increase sign ups/list build. From any media such as print, TV, radio or live events, including a mobile call to action (right next to the website) will increase the number of people engaging with the campaign. If you've done step 2 correctly above, these extra engagements lead directly to more supporters in Convio.
2. Use text messages to activate and remind people. One of the greatest advantages to SMS is that virtually every message is read, and they are read extremely quickly. The most widely quoted stat is that 83% of text messages are viewed within 15 minutes. SMS reminders have proved to be very effective at generating advocacy calls, getting out the vote and even getting supporters to open the organization's emails. It's important to be thinking about activating supporters with mobile during the planning stages of the campaign.

As with any communication channel there are a millions of questions that can come up. So the most important first step may be to find someone knowledgeable that you can ask questions. We'd love that to be Mobile Commons.

TeamRaiser Benchmarks are Here!

Howdy folks!  It feels good to be back in Texas after an action-packed Convio Summit in Baltimore last week!  Thanks to everyone who was able to make it to the session I presented with my colleague Robyn Mendez, Let’s Get Nerdy – Taking a Data-Driven Approach to Event Strategy.  We had a great time hearing about the new and innovative ideas buzzing around the event fundraising community.

In case you missed it, we also unveiled our brand new 2011 Peer-to-Peer Event Benchmarking paper, and talked through how to use data to inform your event strategy.  If you host a fundraising event, this guide will help you understand who your peers are, how to measure the success of your event(s), and how to improve performance for each metric. 

Pick up the guide here >>

You can also review the presentation below (using Prezi):

Here’s wishing you all a great Fall event season – now let’s gear up for Spring! 

To App, or Not to App? That's the (Mobile) Question.

Last week at the Convio Summit, discussions of how to get started with mobile abounded. Mobile-savvy nonprofits inspired many of us with their interesting apps, from PETA’s mobile advocacy center to the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s collaborative BOOM app (in concert with Nike) to the Central Park Conservancy’s Insider’s Guide to the Park.

Sure, I’m as much of an app-aholic as the next smartphoner – even willing to pay for apps that deliver great charity content or interesting ways to get involved, particularly for causes I’m passionate about. Having just written a guide for nonprofits on getting started with mobile (co-authored with fellow Convian Lacey Kruger), I am also a realist with an argument to make, which is this:

Until your org has a strong, successful mobile-friendly version of your site available, offering a downloadable app shouldn’t even be on your radar screen.

To be even a bit more (kindly) cantankerous, I’d also say that any time you have a great new idea for an app, it’s worth contemplating first whether this service, or feature, or program could instead be delivered as a (non-app) mobile site.

Here’s the thing: Mobile strategy is, of course, tightly tied to your overarching engagement strategy, and it’s certainly a critical online channel (and as smartphone usage skyrockets around the globe, some are even predicting that mobile will become the online channel, surpassing desktop Web browsing). Despite this, an NTEN survey last year revealed that only 16% of orgs will have invested in a mobile version of their website in 2011, whereas 90% will have an email and social media strategy, and 19% will develop apps.

This means that nonprofits across the board are actively planning to drive traffic to their websites, their campaigns, their social media presences – without, in most cases, accounting for the fact that anywhere between 2% and 40% of constituents could be accessing their content and taking action on a handheld device. (For nonprofits with international constituencies, expect those numbers to be far higher in many countries.)

While mobile websites may not be as sexy as apps or sophisticated mobile engagement tactics like text-to-give, we consider having a mobile-optimized version of your Web presence and major campaigns or programs to be the foundation for effective campaigning – even effective email marketing.

My friend Lara Koch, whose full-time job at Humane Society of the United States is to own the organization’s mobile presence, has a policy on this: “If we direct people anywhere in a way they may use their mobile device, where we send them must be mobile-optimized. No exceptions.”

Bottom line: If your organization hasn’t invested in creating a mobile presence, but you’re thinking about campaign strategy for 2012, consider putting a mobile website foray at the top of your list. In many cases, you can develop a basic mobile site and optimize much of your content for mobile displays for $10,000 - $15,000, and then evolve your mobile presence iteratively over time, as you see how it performs and hear from your constituents. (For some contrast, developing a mobile app can run you $20,000 - $30,000 or more, considering the need to develop for multiple smartphone operating systems and browsers – and that doesn’t count paying for updates and iterations, provided that like most nonprofits, you don’t have an app developer on staff. And for mobile donations via iPhones and iPads, expect that Apple will take a 30% cut of your transactions.)

Wondering how to get started with mobilizing your main site, or a campaign or program? Or how to convince an app-happy exec to first pursue a mobile presence? Or how to even know if the investment will be worth it for your org?

Check out our Guide to the Mobile Web. If you’ve got an hour to spare next Thursday, October 20, I’d love to have you at a webinar on this very topic: Mobile Touches Everything. Or if you’re a mobile-ophile who just wants to talk shop, drop me a line!

NEW: LinkedIn Company Updates

Today LinkedIn announced the availability of company page status updates. As you might suspect, this works much in the same way you would personally post a LinkedIn status update or the way you would post a Facebook company status update. It’s fairly straight-forward.

The only thing that’s even a little tricky is in the set-up. Though you may not know it, LinkedIn defaults to letting every employee be a page admin. However to activate the status update feature, you have to have designated admins.

Here’s how to do that:

1. Go to your company page
2. In the top right, click Admin Tools, Edit
3. In the Overview tab (the one it opens to), select “Designated Users Only”
4. Add yourself
5. Add coworkers who should also have access to admin abilities
6. Click Publish. Ta-da! Done!

There’s two important things to note for number five. First, you can only make people you are connected with admins. This might require you to expand your LinkedIn network a little. And second, now you have to decide who in your organization should have admin abilities.

A few ideas for admins include:

• Primary online marketing person
• Back up online marketing person
• HR Director
• Executive Director

Learn more about the new company page status updates with this video. Happy updating!