Step By Step Fundraising » Online Fundraising

Holiday Shops Can Be A Win-Win For Students And Fundraising Groups

Howard Gottlieb — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:27:05 +0000

December is that time of year when it seems like everyone is running as fast as they can, but the list of “things to do” never ends. A holiday shop at your school or church may be the answer to shorten that endless list.

Here is what I have seen as a result of running a holiday shop from various perspectives: Students love it!

For many students it may be the first time they experience the thrill of picking out their own gifts for family and friends. The excitement leading up to the day of the shop is contagious. I truly believe there is nothing that can replace the joy in a child’s eye as he or she selects gifts for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and even pets!

Parents love it! As parents try to complete their own holiday chores what a relief it is for them to know that their child is shopping in a safe, non-commercial setting. A holiday shop is truly a great help during such a hectic time.

I believe most parents would agree that this fundraising event is irreplaceable!

Teachers love it! Many faculty members have used the holiday shop to teach their students about budgeting and spending wisely, but at the same time emphasizing the joy of giving. Our economy has experienced so much turbulence and teaching students the value of money is certainly a necessity.

Fundraising companies may offer the holiday shop to parent groups as either a service to the students or as a fundraiser. In either case, many shop providers offer the gifts on a consignment basis.

However, there are several important questions to have answered before you sign that contract.

1. Who is responsible for the shipping costs?

2. What is the price range of the gifts?

3. Are the items price coded to provide a fast checkout?

4. What is the profitability as a service vs. fundraiser?

5. What additional supplies are provided for free? (gift bags, parent letter, budget envelopes)

Something to consider when exploring school fundraising ideas!

The Main Difference Between Facebook and Twitter, by John Haydon

John Haydon — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:17:10 +0000

Greetings! Once again, I am proud to bring you an article by a guest author who has lots of experience working for the benefit of non-profit organizations. John Haydon (pictured at left) is the man behind JohnHaydon.com and InboundZombie, which is the site for his social media consulting business.

John specializes in helping non-profits “increase awareness, amplify engagement, and get more donations online.” I think those are goals that most non-profits would aim for!

John has also written an e-book, called “The Complete Facebook Guide For Small Nonprofits”, which is free to download, if you “Like” his Facebook page.

I hope you enjoy this article and I encourage you to check out John’s site when you get the chance. I’m sure you will learn something and have a good time doing it! Thanks, John!

The Main Difference Between Facebook and Twitter: A Video

Blogs vs. Facebook for Nonprofits, by Gayle Thorsen

Gayle Thorsen — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:00:48 +0000

Gayle Thorsen (pictured at left) is back with another great article to share with us here at Step By Step Fundraising! Over the past year, Gayle has been kind enough to share with us her recent articles from her blog ImpactMax.

Gayle has been in the nonprofit communications world for more than 25 years, the last 12 as the communications head for two large foundations:The Minneapolis Foundation and The McKnight Foundation.

Take a few minutes to visit ImpactMax and read all the terrific articles Gayle has posted there. It will be time very well spent! Thanks, Gayle!

Blogs vs. Facebook for Nonprofits

Over the past few months, I’ve helped a couple nonprofit clients who are ready to move into social media decide whether to go with a blog or Facebook. (I’ll talk about Twitter strategies in a future post. It’s kind of a different animal.)

Most approach it as an either/or decision because of their limited staff resources. That’s a real concern. If you truly don’t have the staff time to blog at least once a week or make a Facebook update twice a week, you shouldn’t be considering either medium.

If you do have adequate staff resources, go back to your strategic communications plan to make this decision. You have to start there—with what you want to happen as a result of your communications efforts. (If you need help with strategic communications planning, here’s the first part of my four-part DIY series.)

Each organization has unique goals and needs, they have to drive your choice. Don’t be seduced into thinking that because everyone’s on Facebook or such-and-such an organization has a blog, that you have to do the same thing. Do it only if it supports your strategic communications goals.

Here are a few hypothetical examples of how different organizations might make this decision. (There are many factors to consider in these decisions, but because these are hypotheticals I’m going to keep it simple.)

Nonprofit A relies mostly on foundation funding. It’s identified program officers, board members, and executive staff from current and potential funders as its key communications audiences, and the priority goal is to keep those people impressed with and supportive of its work.

Nonprofit B has a very different communications goal. That organization is dependent on individual contributions and volunteers, so it’s crucial to engage, feed, and continuously grow its fan base to keep support levels consistently high.

Nonprofit C has developed a brand that emphasizes knowledge sharing and leadership. One of its priority communications goals is to be recognized by local partners, peers, and other influencers as THE knowledge source on a particular issue.

With limited funds and staff time—where do each of these nonprofits begin branching out to more social media: a blog or Facebook? (For now, let’s assume they have no other social media presence.)

MY ADVICE

Here’s what I’d probably advise.

Nonprofit A–blog

Although Facebook can be a very engaging medium, given the demographics and motivation of senior foundation staff, I’m not sure Facebook is where they will go first to find out about a nonprofit’s work. I’d say, first make your website and email newsletters very compelling for this audience, and work up a series of personal interactions that gets your CEO in front of key members. If you want something more—then consider a blog.

Facebook is fun, but blogs can be more professional and credible sources of information for this particular audience. Once embedded (I recommend embedding blogs in websites in most cases), they also add badly needed dynamism to a website. I also believe that a blog can go farther in advancing your brand than Facebook can—after all you own and control it, not some third party.

Nonprofit B–Facebook

Not only can Facebook help increase the size of your fan base, it can encourage and enable peer-to-peer fundraising and individual contributions to your campaigns and volunteer participation. It’s an exciting interactive medium for cultivating relationships, but do think through the demographics of Facebook before making a commitment. The key here is full integration with your website, email, direct mail, and all other social hubs you eventually develop. Remember, Facebook is one step on a much longer path to lasting engagement. Clearly understand the tactics and media you’re going to use to guide that new Facebook friend down the path. Here are some interesting “onboarding” ideas from a past post.

If you’d like to continue reading this great article, please click on over to Gayle’s blog at ImpactMax!

12 ways Facebook users can like your nonprofit Facebook Page, by John Haydon

John Haydon — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:00:05 +0000

John specializes in helping non-profits “increase awareness, amplify engagement, and get more donations online.” I think those are goals that most non-profits would aim for!

John has also written an e-book, called “The Complete Facebook Guide For Small Nonprofits”, which is free to download, if you “Like” his Facebook page.

I hope you enjoy this article and I encourage you to check out John’s site when you get the chance. I’m sure you will learn something and have a good time doing it! Thanks, John!

12 ways Facebook users can like your nonprofit Facebook Page

Although Facebook has changed what “liking” a Page means to users, acquiring Facebook fans will always be an important part of any nonprofit Facebook strategy.

Fortunately, Facebook’s platform includes many opportunities for Facebook users to like a Page. Below are twelve ways Facebook users can like your Page:

From a New Facebook User Registration – People who registering for Facebook can your Page in the registration wizard.
From creating a Page - When you create a Page, liking it is now part of the process.
Admin Registration – People can like your Page when you add them as admins.
Invite Friends Feature – Admins can the “Invite Friends” feature to ask their friends to like your Page (as shown below).
One the Page – People who liked your Page from the Page itself.
Sponsored Stories – People can like your Page in a Sponsored Story ad.
Recommendation – Someone can recommend your Page when they like it.
From a Mobile Device – People can like your Page directly from a iPhone or other mobile device.
Pages Can Like Pages – In addition to Profiles, other Pages can like your Page.
From a Profile Edit -Facebook users can add your page to their “likes” if they edit their profile.
From a Facebook Search – People who liked your Page from Facebook’s search results.
From a Like Box or Like Button – People can like your Page from an external site using these Facebook social plugins.

Facebook Insights now allow to to track all of these various like sources

In Facebook’s new Page Insight Fans report, you can view how many likes you’ve received for a specific date-range and where those likes came from:

Were you aware of all these like sources?

4 Poor Excuses for Avoiding Social Media, by Maureen Carruthers

Maureen Carruthers — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:00:22 +0000

Once again, I’d like to welcome back Maureen Carruthers (pictured at left). Maureen is a non-profit consultant, and the force behind the excellent blog “Low Hanging Fruit Communication” which covers many topics including social media for non-profits.

Maureen’s goal is to help nonprofit leaders reach their right people more quickly so their organizations have a greater impact, She has over ten years experience working in and around nonprofit organizations, most recently as the Workforce Development Program Manager for the Dayton Tooling and Manufacturing Association, where she managed a robot competition based on theBattleBots television series. Previously, she managed the Orchestra Forum program for theInstitute for Cultural Policy and Practice and served as House Manager for the Delaware Theatre Company.

I have spent some time on Maureen’s blog, and I highly recommend you check her site out. I learned a lot! You can even sign up for Maureen’s free e-class and newsletter.

4 Poor Excuses for Avoiding Social Media

by Maureen Carruthers| 14 Comments

When I was in graduate school, we had a mantra about the work that didn’t get done: “There is always an excuse, but there may not be a reason.” We used it to remind our colleagues (and ourselves) that just because we could justify our lack of progress didn’t mean we were off the hook.

I’m pulling out this old gem because when I hear nonprofit leaders talk about why they aren’t using social media to build relationships with the people who can help them achieve their goals, I hear a whole lot of excuses and not so many reasons.

I don’t care what you ate for lunch

This is a favorite excuse of social media avoiders. The actual complaint differs person to person, but it starts with “I don’t care” and ends with some specific light topic people tend to mention in social media (weather, traffic, flight delays, etc.) Luckily, it’s also the easiest problem to overcome.

Get over yourself.

Personal chit-chat is a part of living in a human society. Social media is a communication tool, and humans engage in small talk when they communicate. If you ask after people’s children, or inquire into holiday plans when you communicate with people in person, you can bite the bullet and learn to do the same when you use online communication channels.

I tried it and it didn’t work

If by “tried it” you mean you built a Facebook page, posted links to your website and yet, you were not flooded with new traffic, or you have a twitter account where you promote press releases about your events, you have not “tried” social media.

Social media is not an advertising tool, and it’s not a magic bullet. It won’t work over night, and you’ll only get benefit from it if you use it in a sustained way. Social media is a two-way communication tool that gives you and your organization the opportunity to find, and build relationships with, the people who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer. It also gives you the chance to “overhear” what people are saying amongst themselves about you and subjects you care about. Used correctly, these new relationships can be a key leverage point in your ability to get the word out about what you do–but only if you focus on the relationships and not your short term advertising or fundraising goals.

I don’t have the technical expertise

The internet may have been invented for geeks, by geeks, but, much to their chagrin, its most popular tools have been co-opted by lay people and re-built to accommodate our lack of technical know how (and interest). That’s not to say there is no learning curve. Like any new undertaking, getting started with social media will involve learning some new vocab words, getting comfortable with new customs, etiquette and standard ways of working, but it is most certainly not rocket science. You will be able to learn. If you are nervous, or just don’t feel like navigating the journey alone, I can help.

My people don’t use social media

If this one were legitimately true, it would be a good reason to exclude social media from your marketing plan. But, before you check it off your to-do list, be sure you aren’t underestimating your user base.

My grandmother is on Facebook. My co-worker’s daughter blogs about her mission work from a part of Africa where electricity is a “sometimes” luxury. I am more likely to learn about breaking news from Twitter than I am from CNN. In other words, social media is no longer a fad for teenagers and college students. Almost every one with an internet connection in the United States, and increasingly, around the World, uses social media in one way or another–and those numbers are not likely to drop any time soon. If your organization has a need to connect with individuals for any reason (ticket buyers, donors, volunteers, clients, etc.), you can benefit from social media. Even if you work for one of the very rare nonprofits that interact only with other organizations, those organizations are also made up of people. People who use social media.

Are there good reasons to avoid social media?

In the spirit of fairness, there are reasons to avoid social media. I just hope none of them apply to you.

Your Turn

What are your favorite excuses for social media avoidance? Have I over looked any good reasons for not taking the plunge?

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7 ways Facebook’s Subscribe Button can be a nonprofit game-changer by John Haydon

John Haydon — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:12:10 +0000

John specializes in helping non-profits “increase awareness, amplify engagement, and get more donations online.” I think those are goals that most non-profits would aim for!

John has also written an e-book, called “The Complete Facebook Guide For Small Nonprofits”, which is free to download, if you “Like” his Facebook page.

I hope you enjoy this article and I encourage you to check out John’s site when you get the chance. I’m sure you will learn something and have a good time doing it! Thanks, John!

7 ways Facebook’s Subscribe Button can be a nonprofit game-changer

Up until now there has been no way for the leaders within your nonprofit to join discussions about your cause on Facebook, unless they were willing to compromise their privacy. But now with the Subscribe Button, Facebook users can opt-in to their public updates without being her friend.

1. Multiply the number of organizational touch points on Facebook

The Facebook experience is essentially a personal one. If given the choice, your fans would rather connect with the people they already know and respect in your organization.

One way to give them what they want, is to select a handful of these respected employees to be spokespeople for your cause on Facebook. Once you’ve selected these folks, you can add them as featured admins on your Facebook Page displayed in the left-hand sidebar (see below).

You could also create a custom tab called “Our People” with a two-sentence bio for each spokesperson and a link to their Profile.

2. Enhance relationships with your Facebook fans

One way to think about the strategy mentioned in #2 is to remember thatyour brand is ultimately your people. They’re your brand at events, and on the telephone. So why wouldn’t they be your brand on Facebook?

By putting multiple spokespeople on the Facebook front lines, you’re giving your supporters more human ways to connect with your organization. Quantity and quality.

3. Segment communication channels

It gets really interesting if you have leaders within a specific focus areas. For example, UNICEF might promote spokespeople based on the countries they serve. This way, a donor who consistently supports the organization in Ghana can subscribe to updates from that UNICEF spokesperson.

4. Identify top supporters

When a Facebook users subscribes to public updates from an executive director at a nonprofit, they have more than just a passing interest. They have more interest in your organization then your average Facebook fan. You can identify these folks by clicking on the “Subscribers” button on your spokesperson’s profile.

5. Enhance brand transparency

It goes without saying that having a handful of Facebook spokespeople designated to connect with constituents says a lot about how open the organization is. Obviously you’ll want to create guidelines for these spokespeople so that it’s easier for them to know what share and what not to share.

6. Enhance your organization’s search profile

Public updates on a Facebook profile enhance to your organization’s ability to appear in search results. Imagine the National Wildlife Federation petition to fight global warming showing up in Google more often because their key evangelists are posting public updates about why they care.

7. Increase your Facebook Page fanbase

When you feature Page owners on your Facebook Page sidebar, the Page is also displayed on each admins Profile. This creates more opportunities for Facebook users to be introduced to your Facebook Page.

That’s all I got for now… Just a few ideas from a guy with a laptop.

What do you think?

Nonprofit video roars into 2011: Here are the trends, by Gayle Thorsen

Gayle Thorsen — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:17:59 +0000

Gayle Thorsen (pictured at left) is back with another great article to share with us here at Step By Step Fundraising! Over the past year, Gayle has been kind enough to share with us her recent articles from her blog ImpactMax. Today she has one for us about time saving advice for those of us working in the non-profit field.

Take a few minutes to visit ImpactMax and read all the terrific articles Gayle has posted there. It will be time very well spent! Thanks, Gayle!

Nonprofit video roars into 2011: Here are the trends

I just took a terrific, free, Common Knowledge webinar on the five big nonprofit communication trends for 2011. It was beyond great; it was inspirational! So thorough and well-grounded in strategy-first. I’m going to be sharing some of the major take-aways in my next couple of posts.

BTW—Common Knowledge hosts a weekly webinar series, usually free. I highly recommend them.

One of the trends that excited me most was the increasingly central role that video will play in nonprofit (and everyone else’s) communications starting this year. Two things are contributing to that fact: Technology’s making it easier to stream video and video production tools are easily accessible, simple to use, and affordable.

In the last several months, mobile devices like smart phones and pads have made huge leaps in their capacity to stream video, and internet providers continued to provide faster wireless services and increased bandwidth. Meanwhile, the flipcam and other small, simple video cams—and easy movie editing software included on most computers—have brought production capabilities to almost anyone. If you don’t have any one on staff who knows how to shoot and edit video, you can easily find someone to do it for you at a reasonable rate.

The big predictions

What’s going to be happening in the nonprofit world with video this year?

Mobile video breaks out

Greater speed and capacity will have everyone viewing video on their phones or pads.

Video advertising becomes more popular

Following commercial advertising trends that recognize dynamic is more effective than static, video ads will join SEO and banner ads as ways that nonprofits can cultivate supporters.

User-generated video content goes mainstream

Your nonprofit isn’t the only one capable of producing video that can advance your organization. Your supporters can—and do—too. They’ll be looking for ways to help you tell your story through this medium. Invite them.

Marketing video blossoms

Our lingering reliance on text and photos will fade further as nonprofit storytelling makes more and more use of video—a medium (thanks to TV) that everyone’s familiar with and one that humans find very engaging.

Your first steps

If you’ve never done a video before, start now! And probably, start small.

Produce a video in 2011. Take a look at all your communications strategies and objectives this year (and your budgets) and seriously consider which could be better met through a video. There must be at least one opportunity in there somewhere! (Read more about video strategy in my past post on it. Figuring out who you’re trying to reach and why is a critical first step.)

Find a videographer who knows how to shoot, edit, help create a story arc, and do effective interviewing. Work with them on your first production to learn the ropes.(BTW: The rule of thumb for budgeting is about $1,000 for each finished minute of video, but you can pay more if you want a really professional result.) Once you’ve been through the production process a few times, and have gained skills, you may be able to buy a small video camera and do production yourself.

Think in advance how you will use/promote the video, and what ROI you’re after. Will you put it on your website, in an email, on YouTube, on your social networking sites? Also think how the video will integrate with and support your other communications tactics. What response to the video will spell success?

Measure results against the ROI you outlined. By tracking these results, you can get better with each video production you do. You don’t have to be great right off the bat, but you do owe it to your supporters to get better and better.

I leave you with one statistic: Within the next three years, it’s estimated that nearly half of all the information on the internet will be streaming video.

Need any more motivation?

Mobile giving: 4 trends nonprofits should consider, by Gayle Thorsen

Gayle Thorsen — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:00:57 +0000

I’d like to welcome back Gayle Thorsen (pictured at left) to the Step By Step Fundraising Blog. Gayle has been kind enough to share with us one of her recent articles from her blog ImpactMax.

Gayle has been in the nonprofit communications world for more than 25 years, the last 12 as the communications head for two large foundations: The Minneapolis Foundation and The McKnight Foundation.

Take a few minutes to visit ImpactMax and read all the terrific articles Gayle has posted there. It will be time very well spent! Thanks, Gayle!

Mobile giving: 4 trends nonprofits should consider

This is my second post based on information gleaned from a recent Common Knowledge webinar on nonprofit communications trends for 2011. This time the topic is mobile giving.

Many believe that mobile giving reached a tipping point with response to the Haiti crisis last year. This year, it may be poised to grow even more. Nonprofits should think about how they can leverage quickly evolving mobile giving options in their fund raising to make it easier for supporters to donate. But remember, there are strengths and weaknesses with each option.

Make a habit of reading nonprofit tech blogs to keep up to speed with mobile technology. There’s also a Linkedin group: Mobile Technology for Nonprofit Organizations—a good place to ask questions.

The 4 big trends predicted are—

Text to give goes mainstream

Text to give—texting on a smart phone to pledge money to a nonprofit and paying for that donation as part of your mobile carrier’s phone bill—has definitely gained traction. It’s convenient because it alleviates having to enter credit card information on your phone. Last year, by the weekend after the earthquake, the American Red Cross had raised more than $10 million for Haiti relief through its text-to-give campaign. The limitation right now is that text to give pledges can’t exceed $10-$20 each. That has the potential to cannibalize larger gifts. There are other challenges nonprofits need to consider before adopting text to give, as captured in this Mashable post.

Apps and mobile support credit card giving

Kind of cumbersome on a tiny screen, but the option to type your credit card number into your phone and give securely is getting more prevalent on nonprofit websites and apps. One advantage is that your donation reaches the nonprofit significantly sooner than it would through text-to-give, where the mobile carrier is an intermediary.

Another development related to this is the popularization of QR codes (quick response) on mobile devices. You can create these codes free at several sites online (just search for create free qr codes). These are little square bar codes that can immediately link to a url (for example your Facebook page or a donation form), send a text message, or dial a phone number when you scan them with your phone. Just be aware all links should be to mobile friendly pages. Here’s a great post from Nonprofit Tech 2.0 on 22 creative ways nonprofits can use QR codes.

Facebook credits

Facebook introduced the concept of its own virtual currency—Facebook credits—last April. They allowed people to buy from $1-$100 worth of these credits to give to their friends for great status updates. This was the first small step toward a more widespread use of this kind of virtual currency by Facebook. Later in the year, two charities accept donations using Facebook credits for their fund raising campaigns. Recently, Facebook made credits mandatory for any gaming transactions. It’s pretty clear that at some point in the near future, Facebook will expand credits throughout the Facebook system (maybe even beyond!). In that case, people may be using credits instead of dollars to donate to a nonprofit through Facebook. (Are you ready?)

The advantage to Facebook is that it will take 30% off the top of many transaction fees. And to keep as much money as possible inside the Facebook system, they’ll also give better terms for trading credits for Facebook advertising than for cash outs. But, at some point, Facebook may also give nonprofits a break on transaction fees. Stay tuned.

Paypal Mobile Express Checkout continues to grow

Just launched last summer, Paypal’s Mobile Express Checkout is in the news because of Starbuck’s new app that lets customers pay by having a QR code on their phone swiped, which uses PayPal’s Mobile Express Checkout. It’s a convenient, safe way to make mobile financial transactions, but it’s not yet clear that the people who support and contribute to nonprofits are the segment of the population with Paypal accounts. Maybe that will change.

Smart mobile devices are an increasingly important platform for interaction with your supporters. Think about ways you can leverage this medium more effectively for fund raising. But don’t just jump on the bandwagon—do your cost/benefit research and make sure whatever option you choose supports your brand and your fund raising strategies. Here’s a good post (from MediaPost) to get you thinking about mobile strategy!

Your nonprofit doesn’t need a blog, by Joanna Miles

Joanna Miles — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 11:00:44 +0000

Greetings! I would like to welcome back guest author Joanna Miles. Joanna is a marketing consultant at Beaconfire, where she works with clients to create successful fundraising campaigns and online communications, and uses analytics to help engage users online.

Beaconfire helps nonprofit organizations that serve good causes accomplish great things on the Internet by designing and building Web sites and crafting online campaigns that make people care – and act.

I’d like to thank Jo for sharing her time and knowledge with our readers! Please check her site out!

Your nonprofit doesn’t need a blog

Blogs may no longer be as trendy as Twitter or FourSquare, but they’re still on that list of social media “must haves”. If your nonprofit doesn’t have a blog, someone probably thinks you should.

It’s possible that they’re right; a good blog can be a real benefit to an organization, giving you a strong voice and a controlled channel to converse with your supporters.

But not all blogs are good. A bad blog — one that’s rarely updated, where the content is full of marketing gimmicks or spam runs wild in the comments — can do you more harm than good. If you can’t put real effort into maintaining it, it will make you look lazy, and could even hurt your reputation.

Don’t get me wrong. I love blogs. But I love good content even more, and a blog without good content isn’t much of a blog.

Before you take the plunge in starting your own blog, consider what you’re getting into. If you can’t answer “yes” to almost all of these questions, a blog may not be the right channel for you, at least not right now.

Will one person be in charge of updating it? If you don’t have a staff member who’s excited about it, and has the expertise to maintain it (or at least the will to learn), your blog may languish without attention. They don’t need to do all the writing (in fact, a blog may work best with many writers from across your organization), but someone needs to run the show.

Can you update often? You don’t need to post every day, or even every week, but any blog needs regular posts to draw readers. If posts are few and far between, readers will lose interest. If you don’t have staff with time to devote to blogging (and a manager to oversee the schedule), along with a steady stream of potential topics, you may not be able to maintain the volume you’d like.

Do you have good content to post? A blog is a great place to tell stories and share news that don’t fit into your other communication streams. But if all your best content goes to your email newsletter, or (worse yet) you face a monthly struggle to identify good content for your emails, then a blog is just going to compete, and will likely take second place. Without compelling and unique content, geared towards your blog’s audience, you might as well be recruiting those readers straight to your email list.

Do you have an audience in mind? At the outset, you should have an idea of who will read your blog, and what it will add that they don’t get from your other communications. It could be a demographic group. It could be core supporters who want to know more about what you’re up to. It could be other bloggers. But it should be someone.

Will you allow comments? Blogs, like any social media, are about conversations. But plenty of nonprofits don’t allow comments on their blogs. Sometimes there are good reasons, but more often, comments are blocked out of fear of negativity. Without commenters, a blog is a one-way news stream. In that case, why bother with a blog? Why not just update a news section on your website? Comments, both positive and negative, generate energy around your cause and give legitimacy to your voice. You’ll certainly need to develop guidelines, and take the risk that negative voices will seek you out on your blog… but if you can’t take that risk, then your blog isn’t really a blog.

Will you monitor comments? On any blog, you’ll find good comments, boring comments, unflattering comments… and junk. It’s usually a good policy to allow and engage with commenters who disagree with you, but it’s always necessary to set some standards. There’s nothing more unprofessional than a slew of spam comments on each of your posts. Even comments from “real” people should be removed if they are irrelevant or vulgar. A spam filter will take care of most of the problems, but you still need to pay attention – encouraging the good commenters, engaging the controversial ones, and shutting out the truly unwanted.

Will you promote your blog? The main reason for writing a blog is (presumably) to have readers. How will you bring readers to you? A message to your email list might be an obvious first step, but promoting your content in an ongoing way – by highlighting popular posts on your homepage, integrating blog content into your email stream, tweeting your favorite posts – will help your readership grow. How can you encourage your colleagues to promote and take advantage of the blog in their own work?

Online Fundraising for Tiny Nonprofits: A Case Study, by Maureen Carruthers

Maureen Carruthers — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:13:04 +0000

Today, I’d like to welcome back Maureen Carruthers (pictured at left). Maureen is a non-profit consultant, and the force behind the excellent blog “Low Hanging Fruit Communication” which covers many topics including social media for non-profits.

Maureen’s goal is to help nonprofit leaders reach their right people more quickly so their organizations have a greater impact, She has over ten years experience working in and around nonprofit organizations, most recently as the Workforce Development Program Manager for the Dayton Tooling and Manufacturing Association, where she managed a robot competition based on the BattleBots television series. Previously, she managed the Orchestra Forum program for the Institute for Cultural Policy and Practice and served as House Manager for the Delaware Theatre Company.

I have spent some time on Maureen’s blog, and I highly recommend you check her site out. I learned a lot! You can even sign up for Maureen’s free e-class and newsletter.

I want to extend a warm thank you to Maureen for sharing her time and wisdom with us. We hope to see her back here at Step By Step many more times!

Online Fundraising for Tiny Nonprofits: A Case Study

Nonprofit fundraising is never easy, but it’s a special kind of difficult for tiny, all volunteer organizations. The people responsible for fundraising in these organizations generally have little or no experience or training to support their efforts. It’s also difficult to teach themselves the skills they need since fundraising training resources tend to focus on organizations with professional staff and a donor base far beyond their own.

Therefore, I’m always excited to see examples of tiny organizations coming up with creative ways to start raising the money they need to move up into the “small nonprofit” category.

This is one of those stories.

Background

Kids Are Heroes Founders: Gabe and MaryMargaret

Kids Are Heroes is a A non-profit based in Frederick, Maryland that empowers, encourages and inspires children to become leaders through volunteerism and community involvement by showcasing and supporting children who are changing the world through their selfless acts of giving

As part of his research into ways this young nonprofit could raise money, Gabe O’Neill, co-founder of Kids Are Heroes, discovered on-line “Donor Walls,” where people can buy “squares” or “bricks” on a website “wall” for a relatively low amount of money. In return, the donor gets to have their picture on the square, along with some text and a link to their website.

Gabe, who supports his 12-year-old daughter MaryMargaret as the founder of Kids Are Heroes, doubles as the webmaster and instantly loved this idea when he heard about it. Since he is also a programmer he saw the opportunity to get a jump on things and build one of these walls himself. He calls it the Kids Are Heroes “Foundation Wall.”

The Rest of the Story

The public story of how the donor walls came to be is inspiring on its own, but does not give other nonprofit leaders the information they need to determine if a similar fundraising strategy might work for their organizations. To that end, I asked Gabe to share the “behind-the-scenes” experience of launching the walls. I started with the basic questions–please continue the conversation with questions of your own in the comments!

What was your inspiration for the online donor wall?

I had seen that companies are coming up with this concept to deliver to both for and non-profits, charging 15% plus fees. The idea hit me right away as something that really could work. I hate asking for money but this not only makes it fun, I am giving something of real value in return. We invite our 31k+ Twitter followers to see who is on the wall on a regular basis. So for a very little amount of money a person or company can get some great exposure.

What worked better than you expected?

I guess the walls itself. When I think I have a great idea they always don’t work out that way. We had tried many different ways of asking for donations on Twitter. Charity gift cards, magazine subscriptions, MaryMargaret and I even did Twitterthons on Friday nights where we would send out songs by request and have trivia contests. Some people really enjoyed them, others complained we clogged up their twitter stream. Nevertheless, few people donated any money at all. The walls seemed to take off right away. So far we have made over $1000 in our first three weeks. To some that might not sound like a lot, but it is pure profit and all it takes is tweeting the walls out on occasion.

Which seemingly easy parts of the project turned out to be difficult?

I didn’t use a company to do the walls. They were still in beta when I discovered them and I wanted to get started. So being a software developer by trade, I built them myself. I love the freedom it gives me to react to any trends I might see, and to brand them any way I see fit. The walls were really not that difficult for me to build. What I found surprising was that people in the beginning tried to hack them so they would become disabled. The walls were never really in danger, but since it happened on several occasions I had to add extra preventative code to combat their efforts. That seems to have quieted down quite a bit as of late. It was very frustrating to me to think that someone would stoop to that level to harm a charity.

How have the donor walls impacted the organization–in terms of revenue, exposure, mission etc.?

We are a small non-profit. Up until we built the Donor Walls we were running on fumes, basically ones supplied by us. As I stated before I’m just not that good at asking for money. The walls have given us a lot of hope. They may have slowed down from the beginning (as I expected), but I am now learning from one of our ambassadors how to establish relationships with donors. I will always try to keep the walls fresh and exciting, as evidenced by our addition of a second link to one’s Twitter account that each premium brick can now enjoy. We will develop walls for certain events, like our big Tweetup in May and Kids Are Heroes Day in October. I haven’t seen much evidence of new exposure obtained directly from the walls, albeit I expect that some people may have found out about us through them. It is a delicate balance though. It is so tempting to tweet about them all the time, but then I would be spamming. I really have to control myself and be patient with them.

What advice would you give other organizations considering a similar campaign?

Be as innovative as you can. Try and make it as fun as you can. Keep the values low enough so that your donors get real value. Think out of the box. We are working with one of our heroes on a partnership basis. They are a young rock band that has raised more than $100K for Haiti. We plan to roll out a live wall that can be projected at the event where people can buy bricks with their smart phones and we will update the bricks in real time. I am really looking forward to seeing that in action. But be careful not to tweet your wall(s) out too much or people will get tired of it. Try doing it at different times of the day to attract a new audience.

A final word from Gabe. . .

I honestly don’t know how long these walls will last as far as staying productive. We are trying to do something different with them as much as we can. But until the fun runs out, we will keep working with them.

Your Turn

What did we miss? Ask your questions about Kids are Heroes or the Donor Walls in the comment section and I’ll ask Gabe and/or MaryMargaret to stop by and answer them.

P.S.

Looking for more fundraising ideas for tiny nonprofits? My free fundraising guide might help.