Nonprofit Bridge

Not only is it had to hold others’ attention for very long on a web site or in an email newsletter, it’s increasingly difficult to connect to your attendees during presentations (and often to colleagues during meetings).  Many of us are constantly checking our mobile devices to participate in social networking sites, a phenomenon clearly described in Cliff Atkinson’s recent book, The Backchannel.  So how can we use this as an opportunity to connect with more people instead of viewing this as a problem?

Social networking sites like Twitter allow event attendees to report on a presentation while it is taking place.  This means that you can reach many others who are not able to attend in person.   Below are some tips which I’ve taken from the book and from my own experience as a presenter:

1. Create a hash tag (#) that can be used to reference comments on Twitter
2. Use a presentation home page to link to slides and to provide a communication channel with the audience after the live presentation has ended.  Don’t forget to reference  your web site, SlideShare, Twitter, relevant blog postings and videos on YouTube
3. Have a colleague monitor the backchannel while you present – it’s a bit challenging to do both yourself and still concentrate on what you’re saying
4. Take ‘Twitter breaks’ to acknowledge what is being said and to respond to comments / suggestions
5. Include more graphics and less words in your slides.  If you’re reading information from your slides, you’re not going to hold people’s interest
6. If necessary, modify presentation based on feedback you receive while you speak.  Don’t be afraid to change tactics if your audience is not engaged.
7. Encourage live participation throughout your talk, not only at the end.  I’ve often attended talks where there is so much information presented, there’s little or no time left for questions.  Don’t let this happen to you.
8. Less is more.  Have a handful of major points you want attendees to remember (and to tweet).  Don’t try to communicate too much.
9. Find out who is attending your presentation before you speak so you can customize your materials.  It’s helpful to ask some questions of the audience on site, but it’s much easier if you take the time to research in advance.
10. Learn from great speakers, such as Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Beth Kanter.   Watch how they engage with the audience and use feedback from attendees to communicate their message.

Few of us are naturally great speakers, but it gets easier with practice.  Join a group like Toastmasters if you want to improve your skills and seek out every opportunity to speak to groups.

In addition to spending many hours online, I still do read books.  Recently I finished Wendy Smith’s Give a Little – How Small Donations Are Changing the World.  If you ever think that only large contributions make a difference, this book will change your mind, showing how small gifts make up the bulk of many nonprofits’ revenues.  In addition, I was introduced to many wonderful nonprofits that I wasn’t already familiar with – a complete list is available here.  My favorite quote – “giving changes you as well as the world.”

Your small gift can also help these very worthwhile causes:

• Idealist is asking for help so it can continue to be a resource for the nonprofit community
• Nten’s Holly Ross asks that you celebrate her upcoming birthday by helping a nonprofit colleague to attend the upcoming Nonprofit Technology Conference
• Support Idealware’s mission of providing objective software reviews for nonprofits by purchasing its new Field Guide to Software for Nonprofits

If you missed the recent PBS Frontline presentation of Digital Nation, you can watch it (and comment) online.   It is very thought provoking, and may provide a reminder that multitasking is not always the best way to get things done.  Also see this report from Pew Internet on Social Media and Young Adults.

Wondering about whether mobile fundraising will become a major fundraising channel as it has been for Haiti?  See MobileActive’s Definitive Guide to Mobile Fundraising as well as Beth Kanter’s summary of some recent viewpoints.

When you present, do you get frustrated with attendees who seem to be paying more attention to their phones / computers than to your presentation?  In her presentation this week on the Trainer’s Social Media Tool Box, Beth Kanter explained how to use social media to enhance your sessions by encouraging sharing of information.   A new book, the Back Channel, details this phenomenon in more detail.  (If you’re still waiting until the end of your talk to take questions, you definitely need to see Beth’s notes.)

Jeff Brooks also spoke on a Network for Good call on what not to do in online fundraising – slides are available here.  (Hint – if your figures are not growing, you’re missing something.)

Do you maintain a database for advocacy that’s separate from your main donor database?  Care2’s webinar on Connecting Advocacy to Fundraising showed how activists can also be top fundraisers, if you take the time to cultivate them.   Activists also consistently open emails more frequently than other supporters.

If you need help in selecting tools for your organization (who doesn’t?), take a look at Idealware’s just released Field Guide to Software for Nonprofits.  Laura Quinn’s organization has always provided great information through her web site, blog and enewsletter.  I helped with some edits for this book – it is definitely worth getting.

Now that there’s so many ways to communicate with constituents, are you taking the time to make sure your messaging is consistent and on brand across channels?  See notes from Kivi Leroux Miller’s talk this week on Integrating Your Website, Email Newsletter and Social Media Sites.  Also see Blackbaud’s tips on Multi-Channel Engagement.

Like most nonprofits, Idealist has having some challenging times and has asked for our help.  Ami Dar’s work has long benefited the nonprofit community.  Please help.

Finally, are you helping your constituents to run their own fundraising events, or do you only help with events run by your organization?  If so, you’re missing a huge opportunity. Read Independent Fundraising Events Bring Big Returns, which links to a recent white paper by Blackbaud and Event 360; you can also register for a webinar on Feb. 3 to learn more.

Many articles lately on how supporters can be your strongest fundraisers: In Understanding the New Breed of Digital Donor,  Fundraising Success demonstrates how social media is enpowering supporters to fundraise on their own, with minimal involvement from the nonprofit they support.  In Enlisting Your Supporters to Fundraise For You, Idealware describes how friend-to-friend fundraising can be used.   In Donors Give Most When Friends Ask, AFP reviews a recent study on large gifts and reaches the same conclusion.  (Thanks to Kivi Leroux Miller for highlighting nonprofit communication recently.)

Congratulations to winners of America’s Giving Challenge, proving that even the smallest nonprofits can compete with the larger organizations by taking advantage of social media tools such as Facebook’s Causes application.  Social media guru Beth Kanter agrees.  Nten also offers ideas on how to Raise Money on Facebook.  See also Clicking for a Cause for more thoughts on how social media can help engage constituents and encourage  involvement with your cause.

David Roodman’s recent blog post and this week’s follow up NY Times article, questions are raised about the model of newer nonprofits such as Kiva and Global Giving which have supposedly allowed donors to decide specifically how their money will be used.   This has resulted in a recent change in Kiva now describing its mission as “connecting people through lending to alleviate proverty.’  My take – this shouldn’t stop the trend towards nonprofits giving donors more of a say in how their contributions will be used.  However, it does provide a wake up call on the importance of transparency in explaining how the process works.

This week has featured a flurry of comments about whether nonprofits are taking advantage of new social media tools such as Twitter.  Seth Godin says no but the Chronicle of Philanthropy gives several examples to  show how some nonprofits are doing things right.   See also social media guru Beth Kanter’s attempt to reconcile the two sides.

My take: smaller organizations such as Charity:Water will continue to take the lead on showing larger nonprofits how to raise funds and engage constituents in a variety of new ways.  Larger organizations are still trying to deal with what Clay Shirky’s observation during his year’s  Nonprofit Technology Conference: nonprofits have already lost control of their branding and messaging .

Here’s a newly released report on How Nonprofits are Using Web-based Technologies to Reach Their Goals.   Not surprisingly, many organizations are still experimenting to discover what works.  On the for profit side, some companies are using outside firms to manage their Twitter and Facebook presence;  my take – social media works best if it’s coming directly from organization staff.

Yesterday’s Social Good Conference was the final event of the Summer of Social Good,  benefiting four nonprofit organizations which were featured at yesterday’s event: Livestrong, Humane Society, Oxfam America and WWF.  The program offered many examples of how we can use online tools to further our missions, particularly social media.

Facebook’s Randi Zuckenberg suggested that to fully take advantage of Facebook’s latest capabilities such as their Insights Tool, nonprofits setup a page, not just a group.  She also suggested creating videos to feature on the page.  It’s not so important how many fans your page has rather how many of them are engaged with your cause.  Read more at Wall Street Journal.

Global Giving and Causecast offered brief presentations to show many ways constituents can be encouraged to support causes beyond making direct donations.

What have been the most successful online fundraising campaigns: Twestival ($250,000), America’s Giving Challenge ($340,000) and Causes Birthday Wishes ($ 2 million in 6 months!).

Andy Ridley offered a stirring review of the success of the worldwide Earth Hour initiave, reminding us to ‘let people make their own messages’ to promote your cause.

Oxfam America extensively uses social media because “it’s the best way to reach supporters quickly” and “allows for instant response / feedback.”  Bob Ferguson offered these suggestions on how to help Oxfam:

• follow us on Twitter and retweet our posts
• join our Facebook fan page and repost
• sign up for our e-advocacy list
• volunteer
• tell others about Oxfam

Humane Society has made a strong commitment to ephilanthropy and was an early adopter of social media.  They have 25 (!) staff in online communications, 6 which focus on social media.   Everyone in the organization “gets it” – their CEO is tech savvy and blogs regularly.  They’ve raised over $400,000 in Facebook Causes (still doubt that this platform can be a significant contributor to fundraising revenue?).  While brand monitoring “can be very time consuming,” Twitter offers the best way to keep in touch with what others are saying about your organization.   Take advantage of tools such as Tweetdeck and Google Alerts.

WWF explained their social media strategy as a way to build community, not just do fundraising.  They’ve also worked with MobileCommons to build a mobile subscriber list and were recently featured in the Facebook Gift Center.  They’ve also built relationships using eBay Giving Works and SocialVibe.

LiveStrong described their recent Global Cancer Summit, which was promoted primarily in Facebook and Twitter, and attracted 4500 online attendees.  Their goal: “make those online feel like they are at the Summit and are participating and learning.”

Beth Kanter has long offered a wonderful blog on social media;  her in person presentation was equally stimulating.  Beth suggested we use three R’s to connect with our constituents: relationship building (don’t just connect when asking for money), rewards and reciprocity.  She also used her personal connection with Cambodian children to demonstrate the power of establishing an emotional connection with story telling.  Read Beth’s comments on conference.

Drew Olanoff, recently diagnosed with cancer, offered a stirring description of how he’s created Blame Drew’s Cancer to promote Livestrong.

All for Good’s Jonathan Greenblatt described how his organization is using open source to transform volunteerism and to engage all Americans in service.

My take aways from the day:

1. Organizations like HumaneSociety are succeeding online because everyone in the nonprofit is involved, not just a ‘department’ which has been charged with the role of promoting and monitoring their online brand
2. It’s important to support organizations that have charitable goals.  My wife has a large shoes collection, but we’ve never known about Tom’s Shoes.
3. While online connections are important, so are face to face conversations.  Some attendees I tried to speak with at the conference seemed so involved with their computers / phones that I felt that any attempt to speak to them would not be welcome.
4. We need to all find a way to make volunteering part of our lives.  I’ve slipped a bit and will do my best to rectify this by year-end
5. Use social media tools to engage with constituents, not just build a large list.  The organizations profiled above have set a wonderful example of us to follow.

The end of the event featured a surprise ‘announcement’:  Mashable’ COO Adam Schwartz, who hosted the event, proposed marriage to Sharon Feder on stage.  We all cheered and she said yes.

During this week’s Nonprofit Technology Conference, two new reports have been released:

1. Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report by Nten, Common Knowledge and The Port shows that social networking has become an integral part of nonprofits’ online strategy.  A recent Washington Post article suggested that Facebook’s popular Causes application has not been successful in fundraising in comparison with email appeals and other more traditional ways to generate donations.   But Beth Kanter points out that the value of tools like Facebook can’t be measured only in terms of money raised.  I agree – when my marketing director recently asked me for fundraising results from our Facebook page, I pointed out that generating buzz and engaging constituents in our organization is also valuable.  Beth suggests we seek a metric to measure this.
2. Idealware and Nten’s Consumer’s Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems suggests looking at what features you need in managing your donor relationships before reviewing specific products.  Sadly, how often do our organizations go through this type of detailed evaluation before selecting a product?  Sometimes the problem isn’t the product, it’s the processes within the nonprofit and the training (or lack of training) that is provided to staff.  Make sure your database has a way to integrate with your existing systems – see my recent post on Reporting Across Multiple Systems.

Nten has also provided a way for those of who couldn’t attend NTC this year to participate online.  Make sure you take a look at Holly’s version of Beyonce’s Single Ladies.

Many of us in the nonprofit sector aren’t as effective as we could be in interacting with our constituents because departments of our organizations aren’t working together.  Often each department will have its own agenda, and offline and online strategies are handled by different areas.

In No Constituent is an Island, Steve MacLaughlin suggests that we stop thinking about offline and online and simply treat them as different channels.  Steve offers some interesting analogies, such as how we would react if we deposited a check at our bank but its online system had no record of it, or if you bought tickets online but when you arrived at the event, the box office could not access your purchase information.

Social media guru Beth Kanter offers a similar perspective in Silos Culture Inside the Walls of Nonprofits Prevent Effective Social Media Use.  She describes the experience of a nonprofit staff member who tried to promote a social media policy within their organization, but encountered departmental turf battles.  The volunteers who had asked to start using Facebook to promote the nonprofit eventually started on their own;  the organization only became involved later.   Social media brings up even more challenges since some of us still think it deserves a place with other tools we use to interact with our supporters.

With the increasing popularity of social media, some are asking if email is on the way out, e.g. Will eMail Fundraising Die.  But just as direct mail is still effective, so is email.   These tools work best when part of an integrated strategy.  To accomplish this, our nonprofits have to change how we’ve traditionally worked.  One way to do this is to have frequent cross-deparatment projects and meetings – not long, drawn out lectures but quick updates so each area is aware of what other parts of the organization are working on.   This is why project management is so important at nonprofits to help staff across departments and locations to learn to work collaboratively.

Constituents don’t view us as different departments but as one organization.  It’s time we started to treat ourselves the same way.

This week I attended my first Convio Summit in Austin, Texas.  Probably the most valuable part was the first day, where I joined many other national accounts for an unusual opportunity to work directly with Convio’s senior management in critiquing the product and discussing future plans.  I was most gratified to hear about the firm’s commitment to improving product usability, both on the back and front end.  Since I train and support staff nationwide for my nonprofit organization, I often get questions about what modules to use for what and why the screens are sometimes difficult to understand.  A good definition for usability was provided by Jim Killion of is7: “make it easier for people to do what you want them to do.”

More highlights:

Convio’s new Common Ground is designed to ease the pain of integration by providing a platform that will support both online and offline transactions.  Although a new offering, Common Ground uses the well established SalesForce platform and is built to interface well with Convio’s online product.  However, the availability of this product does not mean that Convio will stop building integrations for other fundraising software solutions.  I also spoke with Convio’s data integration director – connecting with other systems is clearly something that Convio has devoted substantial resources to.

I also spoke at length with Convio’s new Director of Client Support, who plans major changes in how calls are tracked and handled as well as eliminating the current need for multiple login into multiple systems.

Multichannel fundraising / marketing was a major theme. CARE and Defenders of Wildlife (which won an award for their use of integrated strategies) both spoke about how they’ve seen optimal results from campaigns that span offline and online channels.  While changing your organization to operate across channels may not be easy to implement, the payout clearly seems worth the effort.

Several speakers agreed that social media may not currently result in a large fundraising impact, but that it’s still important to participate because it’s where constituents are spending time and finding a sense of community and like-mindedness.  Beth Kanter is the expert on this topic, leading Nten’s WeAreMedia.

A fascinating session on how to structure your organization for online success reviewed results from a recent survey responded to by over 60 nonprofit organizations to date.  Not surprisingly, ‘insufficient staff’ and ‘budget constraints’ were viewed as the largest barriers, followed by ’senior management doesn’t understand value of integrated / online marketing.’  Organization structure for online strategy was mixed: 20% centralized, 39% decentralized and 41% hybrid (combination of both).  However, Marketing & Communications was named as the department which most often handles this function, followed by Development and Information Technology (agreeing with what I’ve said previously in this blog).

Many nonprofits were recognized for their innovative use of online strategies.  Particularly noteworthy was the Trisomy 18 Foundation which received an award for best overall use of Convio.

Convio’s Misty McLaughlin discussed building a ‘top notch user experience,’ offering Three Things You Can Do Today:

More from Craigslist Foundation’s recent NYC Nonprofit Boot Camp;  Big Duck’s Farra Trompeter offered an engaging session on social networking – is this a tool that nonprofits should be taking full advantage of now?

If your organization does take the plunge, expect that it will require a 2-3 hour investment daily.  A recent feature at Philanthropy Journal confirms this, also describing who is best suited to fit this role:

• Knows and enjoys social media
• Is tech savvy (but doesn’t have to be a geek)
• Knows your organization and is committed to its mission
• Has a personable, outgoing writing style

Is your main goal is to raise funds or to attract and interest current / prospective constituents?  So far, few nonprofits have successfully been able to prove that the potential return is definitely worth the dedication of resources to social networking activities.

Farra recommended these first steps in Facebook:

1. find out whether other organizations with compatible missions are already there, and what they are doing
2. create fan page
3. create cause

Some nonprofits have been also to receive donations through text messaging, although this also is a relatively new initiative.  Twitter is already used by nonprofits such as Red Cross and ASPCA to distribute information.

Starting and maintaining a presence on social networking sites confirms the trend that your constituents may never find your organization’s web site, so why not go to where they already are?

Other good resources on this topic:

• Beth’s Blog – How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media
• Media Rules - book & blog
• Nten’s We Are Media Project - social media starter kit for nonprofits