Nonprofit Bridge

If you haven’t yet completed the 2010 Nonprofit Social Networking Survey, please do so now.  This initiative is co-sponsored by Common Knowledge, Nten and The Port, and results will be announced at next month’s Nonprofit Technology Conference in Atlanta, GA.  All survey participants will be entered in a drawing for an Amazon Kindle (don’t forget to include your email address at end) and will receive a copy of the report.

Can’t wait?  Below are recent reports on social media usage in nonprofit organizations:

• M&R Strategic Services - Nonprofit Social Media Benchmarks Study
• Idealware – Using Social Media to Meet Nonprofit Goals
• Blackbaud / Charity Dynamics – Successful Event Fundraising with Social Media
• Website Magazine (not nonprofit specific) – Social Media Survey

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.

These are some organizations I support either financially, as a volunteer, or both:

G-ds Love We Deliver provides food deliveries to anyone suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer, or other serious illnesses, as well as nutrition education and counseling.  I’ve helped in the kitchen to prepare food, and also to help deliver meals as a van assistant.  Mazon fights hunger as does City Harvest which salvages leftovers from food businesses in NYC.

The Wartburg is an adult care community in Mount Vernon, NY.  Many types of living arrangements are provided, from assisted living to 24 hour care.  Just spending a little time with a resident can make a huge difference.  Dorot also does great work with seniors, including programs which bring together the young and the old.

Southern Poverty Law Center helps fight intolerance through a variety of programs, such as the educational program Teaching Tolerance.  The Museum of Tolerance, affiliated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is based in Los Angeles but also has a wonderful exhibit in midtown Manhattan.

The Save Darfur Coalition and Charity: Water have used a variety of online fundraising / outreach tools to promote their causes, both which are well worth supporting.

Despite the tragic loss of its founders, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation continues to seek a cure for spinal cord injury and support those who are afflicted by paralysis.  YAI recently won an award as the best nonprofit to work for in NYC.  So not only do they do great work to support the disabled, but they provide a nice work environment.

And of course don’t forget those organizations which serve the nonprofit community, Idealware and Nten.

While it’s nice to get a tax deduction, it’s especially rewarding to help a nonprofit that helps others year-round, whether financially or by the gift of your time.

What are your favorite causes to support?

Most nonprofits get the bulk of their donations during December.  So what can we do to get the word out this month?

Heavyweight Salvation Army has stepped up its digital marketing efforts, switching its radio budget to online communications.  There is now an online version of the red kettle, which have already appeared at many locations I pass daily.  They’ve also embraced newer tools, such as an Iphone application and have established a strong presence on Facebook and Twitter.   After long relying on direct mail for new donor acquisition, Salvation Army is now focusing on online community building and on attracting younger donors through online strategies.

Convio estimates that more than 111 million constituents will donate over $4 billion online this holiday season.   At last month’s Convio Summit and Blackbaud Conference (oddly held during the same week in different parts of the country), the theme was the same – web giving continues to increase, even while overall donations have dropped a bit during the recession.  In his overview of online fundraising, Steve MacLaughlin suggested that we segment our audiences by generation – and communicate with them differently.  He also suggested we build relationships with constituents by asking for small actions first before asking for financial help.

How do you keep up with the many communication channels now available, e.g. email, RSS, Facebook, Twitter etc.   In her recent presentation at the Blackbaud event, Nten’s Holly Ross suggested we use filters to find what’s most relevant and not try to “keep up with everything.”  The volume of information available through social media can be overwhelming, but we have to find a way to keep abreast of conversations that are already taking place about our organizations and our causes.   Looking for a tool to integrate email with social media?  Take a look at Threadsy.

What’s the fundraising outlook for 2010?  According to Mal Warwick Associates, we should try to get donors to give more frequently, even if they can’t make the large contributions they’ve given us in the past.   In addition, we should continue to use a multichannel approach because “the number of donors who choose to respond by writing a check will only continue to dwindle.”

Wishing everyone a prosperous end of year fundraising season.

The NYC 501 Tech Club returned this week with a new format – presentation + networking.  Big Duck’s Farra Trompeter moderated a discussion on multi-channel fundraising – a topic I often discuss, joined by Simon Moloney of Npower NY and Rebecca Willett of Planned Parenthood.   Also this week, Convio held its annual Summit in Austin, TX.

For those in the NYC audience who don’t yet integrate multiple channels in fundraising efforts, Farra asked that we strive to break down silos within our organizations because “donors see us as one nonprofit.’  So there shouldn’t be a competition between money raised by direct mail versus email marketing or other online fundraising tools.  Multichannel appeals are most effective, especially this time of year (make sure you plan to email your donors on Dec. 30 / 31).  Farra also asked the attendees who we blend personal and organizational priorities in social networking content;  this may be addressed further in a future meeting.  (My take – a personal touch breathes life into a blog posting or tweet, as long as the focus isn’t removed from the nonprofit’s mission.)

Rebecca reviewed Planned Parenthood’s multi-channel strategy which she described as a ‘collaborative effort of the national office and affiliates.’  In response to my question on what content to put on each channel, Rebecca suggested first finding out which audience(s) are on each channel, then asking ‘what are they looking for’?  Planned Parenthood has some interesting enhancements planned, such as a 24×7 chat / text hotline, as well as a mobile phone application.

Slides from the NYC 501 Tech Club gathering on Multi-Channel Fundraising are available on SlideShare.  (Thanks Farra)

While I missed seeing other Convio users at the Summit, I was pleased to see Convio’s Nonprofit Live TV – an attempt to bring the event to me.  Congratulations to those nonprofits that were honored for innovation in in Online Marketing, Fundraising, Advocacy and Email Marketing.

Online tools make it easy for us to keep in touch with colleagues and friends, but it’s still nice to connect in person.  At the 501 Tech Club gathering, I met someone from Catholic Medical Mission Board, an organization I worked at while I was in college – long before I joined the nonprofit community full time.  Although many people I worked with have moved on, it was still nice to make a new connection.  Thanks to Nten and to organizers Charles Charles Lenchner and Thomas Negron for getting our group back in gear.

Addendum 11/24/09 – Here is Farra’s write-up of the 501 Tech Club event.

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.

Today’s Nten webinar led by Blackbaud Internet evangelist Steve MacLaughlin offered a comprehensive review of online fundraising.  See Steve’s Connections blog for links to reports referenced in today’s session.  Some of my takeaways:

• While online revenue represented only 5% of total fundraising in 2008, online receipts jumped 44% over 2007
• Event fundraising emails (e.g. friends asking friends)  have an incredibly high click through rate – 57% in period covered by study
• Only 16% of event fundraisers send emails – imagine how much more successful these events could be if more participants were encouraged to fundraise!
• Donor retention is much worse for online donors than for offline acquisition.  More analysis is under way, but this may be partially due to donors having the ability to make ’spur of the moment’ contributions without having a real commitment to the organization
• How to increase donor retention? It is critical to quickly respond to donors / event participants / those who take an action to solidify the relationship.  (How often have you not received an email confirmation, or have received a boilerplate document with no customization?)
• Senior management must drive integration of fundraising across channels – “We don’t live in a single channel world.”
• Facebook and other social networking platforms are still more useful as engagement tools than as primary fundraising techniques.
• Small organizations may be able to do as well or better than larger nonprofits since they don’t have the traditional infrastructure and can act more quickly

While most of these points weren’t a surprise, Steve’s summary provides a great overview for nonprofits that still need help in creating online fundraising strategies.

Addendum 11/5/09 – Hear me interviewed on Zonta Women’s Community Radio about how nonprofits should approach ephilanthropy and social media.  Thanks Roxanne Neilson, President, Zonta Club of New Rochelle for arranging.

Took advantage of some rainy weather today to catch up on some video tutorials on optimizing donation pages and social media.

Convio’s recent presentation on Optimizing Online Donations featured Nick Allen from DonorDigital and Alisa Aydin from US Fund for Unicef.  Nick focused on how small changes in a donation page can increase the constituents who actually complete the donation process;  normally, only 10-20% of those who arrive at a donation page actually finish the transaction.  He offered examples that don’t have to cost a lot: using larger, brighter donation buttons and minimizing the number of fields included on the donation form.  Tools such as Google Web Site Optimizer can be used to test different mixes of headlines, header images, logo placement and formatting options.  Or just use A/B testing to try different types of email messages.  Alisa described her organization’s use of tangible, inspired gifts which allow constituents to designate their contributions for specific purposes, often used as a honor/tribute gift.  She gave examples of several nonprofits that are doing this successfully such as Defenders of Wildlife, Jewish National Fund, Oxfam Unwrapped and Nature Conservancy.

What I find encouraging about Nick and Alisa’s tips is that even the largest nonprofits can take small steps to follow the lead of smaller organizations such as Kiva and DonorsChoose that are allowing donors to choose how their funds will be used.

Last month, the Case Foundation recently offered a wonderful series of video tutorials on social media, Gear Up for Giving, which are still available for replay.  Below are some takeaways from sessions I listened to today by gurus Katya Andresen, Holly Ross and Beth Kanter.

• it is so much more effective that have your strongest supporters encourage others to support your mission than just to have it come directly from the nonprofit
• work on developing the relationship first, then ask for financial help later (build your network before you need it, my take – this is much like we should manage our careers)
• social media is primarily a listening tool, not only a new way to distribute your message
• let people engage wherever they are – they may never visit your main web site
• when deciding which social media tools to use, first find out what sites your constituents are already using
• while social media strategies often originate from marketing or communication, ultimately this should be used by everyone in the organization
• social media isn’t a fad;  we can’t be certain which tools will be popular in the next decade, but constituents will continue to expect targeted , value-added conversations and prompt responsiveness
• better to engage fully in a few places than to try to put your nonprofit on every social media site
• definitely use volunteers as a way to complement nonprofits’ always constrained resources, but don’t expect them to define the overall strategy
• segmenting your communications almost always leads to higher response rates

For more great advice on social media, consult Nten’s We Are Media project.

Lastly, as another voice for segmenting and not making every communication an ask, Beaconfire suggest that Sometimes Less is More.

This week I had the pleasure of participating in Nten’s first Online Nonprofit Technology Conference.  While on a much smaller scale than the annual spring event, the two days of online webinars featured some of our sector’s brightest stars and allowed an opportunity for much more interaction with the presenters than is normally possible at the live event.  Some highlights:

• Network for Good’s Katya Andresen reminded us that raising awareness of our organizations isn’t enough, it’s to ‘get someone to take an action.’    She also recommended we let the constituent be the messenger for our cause (much more effective than if message comes directly from organization).   She implored us to focus on the donor when designing our web sites, not on the organization structure, mentioning Kiva and DonorsChoose as examples of how to do this right.
• ConmmonGood Career’s James Weinberg described how social networking sites are replacing online job boards.  As a way to encourage staff longevity, he suggested finding ways to change job responsibilities even if the position doesn’t change.   If nonprofits can’t create opportunities for staff to advance, it is their responsibility to help them move elsewhere (not sure how many nonprofits would agree)
• Idealware’s Laura Quinn offered a sneak peak at her Field Guide to Software, to be released later this year.  She added that the choice of donor database is probably the most critical decision (and to make sure everyone in organization is comfortable using it)
• Beaconfire’s Michael Cervino discussed using benchmarks from sites such as PewInternet and  e-Benchmarks-Study to measure how well our organizations are performing, also showing how Google Analytics funnels can be used effectively.  He also described how online surveys are best used frequently with few questions.  (I added this is a great way to add data to help segment your database)
• Philantech’s Dahna Goldstein discussed how to help staff deal with change, e.g. making sure that staff are fully involved and kept informed
• Consultant John Kenyon and American Lung’s Rusty Burwell discussed online communications and the importance of inter-department collaboration.  See my previous post on this topic.  In response to my question, John stated emphatically that social media will never replace email as the main communications medium.

Thanks to Holly and the NTen staff for putting on another great program, and congrats also to Holly for being recognized by Nonprofit Times in the Top 50 Power and Influence!

In preparing for its upcoming  Online Nonprofit Technology Conference, Nten has asked What’s Holding Your Technology Back? I’ve posted a lengthy response, but make sure to read through everyone’s comments to this interesting question.

If you missed last week’s Blackbaud NetWits Summer Camp, all sessions and slides are now available for review.  I’ve known Steve MacLaughlin for years and his insights are very helpful.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!