Blue Sky Collaborative's Viral Fundraising Blog

Great Nonprofits Rates Cancer Nonprofit Organizations

In August 2009, Greatnonprofits.org realeased a list of their top rated cancer organizations.  The Winners of the ratings can be found here:  http://greatnonprofits.org/cancer

The Winners are categorized by organization size (small, medium, or large) and by geographic region.  Some of the winners include:

I'm too young for this! http://i2y.org/ - the Northeast Winner

and

The Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation http://www.pcrf-kids.org/ - the Large Nonprofit Category Winner

The entire list can be found here http://greatnonprofits.org/cancer and is worth checking out.

I'd like to add a few more cancer nonprofits that I believe are worth a look if you are looking for effective cancer nonprofits.

Gilda's Club Worldwide - www.gildasclub.org

Art beCAUSE - www.artbecause.org

Jordan Hospital Club - www.jhclub.org

Tommy Fund for Childhood Cancer - www.tommyfund.org

Cancer is a huge problem so naturally, there are many orgs devoted to tackling specific problems related to the disease and its impact.  Some focus on research while others tackle patient care and family issues.

Regardless, it is a cause that is easy to rally around and very conducive to a peer to peer or viral fundraising model.  Families and friends of cancer Patients are very willing to raise money for the cause and the people that they solicit are very willing to give. 

The point it is, cancer is very easy to rally around and lets hope, everyone's efforts will one day lead to the end of cancer.

Jordan's Polar Plunge is Back

There is a really only one good reason to take a dip in the ocean off Plymouth Beach in the middle of winter.  It is to raise money to help cancer patients. 

Jordan's Polar Plunge is a creative a-thon event where participants raise money online.  The event culminates in March when everyone takes the plunge into the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the unforgiving northeastern winter.

Over the past several years, thousands of people have  'Taken the Plunge' for the JHC Cancer Center, and have raised hundreds-of-thousands of dollars for this worthy cause.

For the second year in row, Jordan's Hospital Club has chosen SWEET for its pledge fundraising website.

Jordans' Polar Plunge is a very unique event with a rabbid group of supporters.  Even more, the money that is raised goes to a very worthy cause.  The success of this pledge event has grown over the years and the folks at Jordan Hospital Club should be proud of what they have built.  We are certainly happy that they continue to choose SWEET for their event..

Chess-athon The Sequel

California Youth Chess League is once again raising money for their organization using a SWEET Fundraising Website for Pledge Events.

I love this event because

• the organization gives kids something productive to do
• gives the kids the responsibility for keeping the organization funded
• it's super cute.

Check out the web site to see the CYCL kids in action.  http://www.chessathon.org/

The Wrong Pledge Event Website Can Actually Add to Your Event Costs

A colleague of mine in St Louis purchased a "do it yourself" website for his walkathon a few years ago.

He figured that the walkathon needed to accept donations in the online channel as well as by mail and phone.  That's sound reasoning.

He also assumed that the walkathon software would greatly reduce the time and cost of administering the event.  A drop in mail-in registrations, data entry, and mailing costs would drastically and positively effect the cost of the event for the organization.

He purchased a low budget "do it yourself" walkathon website to keep his costs down.

Great plan, right?

He was disappointed to find that the org was in fact spending more time designing their website than they had been spending on manual registrations.

The costs were actually greater for their organization.  And the result was a "lame website" (his words) that made their organization look bad.

The fact is, orgs that take on technical projects when acquiring software from low budget or open source providers are simply replacing their old manual labor costs with new ones. 

Instead of working on mailings and data entry, they are trying to figure out how to make text bold, or how to right justify an image and put a border on it.

What's the point?

If you're going to invest in a website for your walkathon, bike ride, or other pledge event invest in a product and service where the work is done for you.  This way, you can spend the time on marketing, communication, and revenue generation.  The point of the event is to raise money.  All your activities should be tailored to meet that objective.

Razoo: Tastes like chicken

Razoo, a fairly new entrant into the online donation game recently ran a very successful campaign called Give to the Max Day in Minnesota.  You can find more info here www.givemn.org.  You can see the results of their GiveMN promotion here:  http://givemn.razoo.com/images/share/GTMD_2009_results.pdf

You'll note some great participation in what appears like Razoo's first big PR push.

My first impressions of Razoo is that they are an AJAX-y, Web 2.0 version of FirstGiving (among others) which has been at this for years.  Oh and Razoo is such a snappy name.

According to their site "Razoo is a new way to donate and raise money online."

Not sure about that.  Much of Razoo's offering looks familiar.  One thing that is VERY different is that Razoo has a Foundation/benefactor/investor that provides rebates to organizations for the Network for Good fees.  It worked well for this campaign but I had to ask, how could they sustain that? 

Even further, how does Razoo make money because the are not a nonprofit?  My guess is that the plan is to get a critical mass of participating orgs, and then charge transaction fees down the road.  Sounds like a mid-90's dot com business model.  Give away a bunch of stuff for free and then start charging people once you have a large enough database.  We all know how that went.

Setting aside my business model apprehensions, I think it's worth a shot for NPO's looking to test out a person to person fundraising campaign.  There are no fees (for now) so why not right?  Get while the getting is good.

The numbers that they are touting are really impressive.  In this first give to MN campaign, the average amount given per donor was in the $380 range.  That is very high.  Almost too high to believe.  Hmmm.

But hey, if your org can replicate those numbers, then great!  But it does require a ton of work to be succesful.  Just slapping a couple of pages up there won't really result in a lot of revenue.  Raising money is just not that easy.

The jury's still out on Razoo but nice work so far.  I'm not sure how long the "Foundation" will reimburse orgs for transaction fees or how much the "Foundation" has invested in Razoo but, the reimbursement money won't last forever.  You can be certain of that.  Till then, the big winners will be orgs getting 0% transaction fee online donations and of course Network for Good, which banked $63K on Give to the Max Day.

A Useful list of Dont's for your Year End Fundraising Appeal

Step by Step Fundraising has a lot of useful and actionable content for the nonprofit fundraising pro.

Here's a link to a top ten list of things NOT to do in your year end appeal.

http://stepbystepfundraising.com/top-10-ways-to-screw-up-your-year-end-fundraising-campaign/

New a-thon ideas for nonprofit organizations

Every year around this time we hear from more organizations that are looking for pledge fundraising software for their events.

This year organizations are getting very creative.

We're still getting our share of walk-a-thons, and bike rides.  But this year we are also making the fundraising web sites for:

Bowl-a-thons

Bowling events with a  pledge fundraising component.  Bowlers raise money for their nonprofit.

Golf-a-thons

Golf marathons where golfers accept pledges per hole.

Chess-a-thons

Chess tournaments with a pledge fundraising component.  Participants raise money and compete against other participants. 

Build-a-thons

Homew raising events by Habitat for Humanity.  Like extreme home makeover with a pledge fundraising component!

The bottom line

The bottom line is that organizations can find an a-thon format that meets their budget, aligns with their brand, and is something that their members can get excited about.  And regardless of the format, any a-thon should have a pledge fundraising component and use software like SWEET Pledge Event Software to streamline the registration and fundraising process.

Top 5 Things to Consider When Choosing Walkathon and Pledge Event Software

We've had so much activity in the past few weeks from people looking for software for their pledge events. 

The bump in activity probably coincides with budgets being refreshed in the new fiscal year and the beginning of planning cycles for 2010 events.

We've heard from people around the country with many different kinds of events.  Bowl-a-thons are popular this year.  We've heard form people planning Golf-a-thons too.  Of course, we've had our usual complement of walkathons and bike rides.

Regardless of the type of event, you can't have an effective a-thon without an online site that makes registration simple, communication easy, and fundraising effective.

Here are the top 5 requirements to consider when you choose software for your walkathon, bowlathon, or pledge event.

1. The software must support YOUR registration requirements.  Do you need to know someones shoe size?  Your site should easily support that?  The bottom line is that if you find yourself changing your event so it works with the software, then you've purchased the wrong product.
2. Donations must go directly to your nonprofit.  Vendors who act as middle-men for your donation do so for one reason alone; they can skim off the top of your donations if they pass through their coffers.  There is no justifiable reason why a software company needs to handle your donors' money.
3. Avoid software vendors who work on commision.  Software vendors must not deduct a percentage of your transactions.  Since your software vendor has nothing to do with how much money is raised, they shouln't be paid based on a percentage of money raised. 
4. The software should look, act, and feel like your own web site.  Sending users to a different site with long scary URLs will prevent some folks from using the site. Remember, that the more people that use your site, the lower your costs will be for the event.  Don't give people an excuse to bail. 
5. The software should not take away your time and resources away from planning the event and fundraising.  Feel like saving money and buying a do-it-yourself solution?  Every hour that you spend on building a web site is an hour that you could be spending on recruiting and fundraising.  Sometimes, do-it-yourself is not the best way to go (I'm thinking of my Dad fixing the washing machine many years ago - it did not end well).   Get a professional to give you a professional site.

For more information, visit http://www.blueskycollaborative.com/bscv2/main/SWEET/

Video: Bike for The Heart Raises $300,000 for For Women's Heart Health

Sister to Sister, www.sistertosister.org, recently held a fantastic event called Bike for the Heart. 

I wrote about what made it awesome here - http://blueskycollaborative.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/charity-bike-ride-raises-over-300k-for-sister-to-sister.html

Here's a nice vid from the event.  Hopefully, those of you who are trying to organize a bike ride or a-thon of your own can take something away from the video from this FIRST YEAR (!) event.  (That's Caron Butler speaking at the beginning of the video.  Go HUSKIES!).

   

The Most Important Factor in Having a Successful Pledge Event

Give your fundraisers at least 3 months to raise money.

This applies to walk-a-thons, bike-a-thons, marathons and any other type of athon or pledge event.

Let's face it.  The economy is a little scary and many nonprofits are scrambling to find new revenue sources.

Saddled with cash flow problems and reduced credit lines, orgs are looking for money quickly. 

But be careful.  Your need for speed might torpedo your chances for success.

I recently spoke with two organizations that organized pledge event walkathons.  Both were planned within a span of 1.5 months and one had online registration open for 10 days. 10 whole days.  Needless to say both events were failures.

If you are organizing a pledge event you need to give your participants at least 3 months to do their fundraising.

In a typical $100,000 pledge event, we've found the following trend.

Month 1:  15% of funds raised

Month 2:  32% of funds raised

Month 3:  49% of funds raised

Post event: 4% of funds raised

Almost half of the revenue, in this case $50,000, was raised in the third month.  And it's not just because it was the final month.  We've seen that if the second month was the last month, the fundraising totals were lower.

People who are voluntarily fundraising for you need time to craft their message and make the ask.  The people that are being asked need time to sit down and respond.

When you are asking volunteers to raise money for you, remember that it is not their job to do so.  They have real jobs and responsibilities that take precedence over your non-profit.  So give them time.

If you're going to spend the time and resources to organize a walkathon or other pledge event, you might as well give yourself a chance to succeed by giving your fundraisers at least 3 months to raise money for you.