This week I’ve participated in the International Fundraising eConference which has demonstrated a completely new way to learn more about ephilanthropy strategies. There is no physical location; all sessions are online and are recorded so that if you can’t attend in person, you can watch/listen whenever it is convenient. There are attendees from all over the world. Online discussion boards have been created to continue a dialog beyond the sessions, which have been offered at multiple days/times this week. While I miss the opportunity to personally meet many of my peers, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to participate at my convenience.
This morning I attended an excellent workshop on Community Fundraising led by Bryan Miller of Cancer Research UK. He offered many examples of how we can help our supporters to help our nonprofits by engaging in their own fundraising initiatives. In response to my question on how traditional nonprofits can maintain some level of ‘control,’ he suggested that we provide quality content to describe what our organizations are doing, which constituents can then use to ask for support. Bryan also suggested that we seek out who’s already committed to our causes (e.g. look for your organization’s name on Facebook to find out how many pages have already been setup) and help them to use social media tools to spread the word and raise money.
Bryan also introduced the concept of crowdfunding, offering many examples of innovative event and cause specific fundraising at sites such as Kiva, Global Giving and a soon to be launched See the Difference. Anyone can do fundraising now; you don’t need your own web site, you don’t need strong technical skills. In today’s difficult economic times, you can help someone save their home using Small Can Be Big. He also suggested a new focus in fundraising:
- from contact lists to communities
- from campaigns to developing strong content
- from campaign managers to community managers
Even a large retailer like Target, which has always been a large supporter of nonprofit causes, uses Facebook to help it choose which organizations to support.
The eConference continues through today but registrants will have access to the sessions and discussion boards for the next six months.
