Blue Sky Collaborative's Viral Fundraising Blog

Top 10 Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Should Have A Viral Fundraising Campaign

"In a time when major donors and sponsors have decided to run and hide, viral fundraising programs have increasingly become the fundraising apparatus of choice for orgs that need to cost effectively raise a lot of money in a short period of time."

Me

(I've been on this soapbox since 2002, so I'm allowed to quote myself.)

Here's  a list of reasons why you need to add a viral fundraising campaign to your fundraising portfolio.

1. Viral fundraising programs are cost effective.  You don't even need to have an actual event.  No huge gala to pay for.  No tickets to sell or banquet halls to rent.  Just volunteers and friends reaching out to their networks on your behalf.
2. Viral fundraising programs have high response rates.  A typical mailing by a nonprofit will get  3% response rate.  Viral fundraising programs experience a 40-80% response rate.  If we assume a modest 50% response rate, then a mere 60 people reaching out to 10 of their friends will raise as much as a mailing to 10,000 people.  Get rid of the stamps and envelopes.  Ask more people to raise money.
3. Viral fundraising programs can generate revenue quickly.  With some planning, effective campaigns can be up and running within a few weeks.  Finding a major donor can take years.  Planning a gala event takes months and costs a lot!
4. Viral fundraising programs can be paperless.  Everything can be done online.  To learn more, check out SWEET.  http://www.blueskycollaborative.com/bscv2/main/SWEET/
5. Viral fundraising programs are limited only by your creativity.  They can be walkathons, bike rides, virtual events, whatever you want.  Just give people an excuse and forum in which they can ask for money and raise it on your behalf. 
6. Viral fundraising programs turn volunteers into revenue generators.  Lets face it, volunteers are cost centers.  Volunteers that raise money for you are revenue generators. 
7. Viral fundraising programs exponentially increase awareness of your organization.  Just look at some of the Facebook causes.  It's not difficult to get 10,000 or even 100,000 people to recognize your cause.  You have to do more than Facebook to generate revenue though.
8. Viral fundraising programs expand the reach of your development staff.  Hmm let's see.  Do I want my development director and the development associate to be responsible for all the asking?  Or do I want to get hundreds of volunteer fundraisers to do the asking as well.  I think the latter.  It scales a lot better.  Expand your reach by decentralizing your ask.  Ask more often and receive more often.
9. Viral fundraising programs can generate large sums.  The Pan Mass Challenge raised over $30 million in 2008.  Even modest campaigns can generate $100K to $200K.
10. Viral fundraising programs will bring your development portfolio into the new millennium.  Seriously, enough with the bulk mail houses.  97% of your postcards end up in the trash.  That's a waste.  Use the tools available to you and the prevailing social consciousness in 2009.  People want to help you - for free!  Let them.

SWEET Viral fundraising platform hits Canada

Viral fundraising campaigns are becoming vital components of nonprofit fundraising portfolios.  And it's not just in the form of walkathons and events.

The Darling Home for Kids, http://www.darlinghomeforkids.ca/, in Milton, Ontario started a viral fundraising campaign using SWEET software to meet the revenue needs of a specific program.

Their Build a Wall Challenge is a viral fundraising campaign.  The proceeds form this program will be used to complete Phase II of a construction project that will increase the capacity of the Darling Home.  More info can be found here.  http://www.darlinghomeforkids.ca/index.cfm?id=13651

In a time when major donors and sponsors have decided to run and hide, viral fundraising programs have increasingly become the fundraising apparatus of choice for orgs that need to cost effectively raise a lot of money in a short period of time.

For us, it was a great opportunity to add the business logic required for Canadian nonprofit organizations to the the SWEET Viral and Pledge Fundraising Platform.

More info on the Build a Wall Challenge can be found here http://wall.darlinghomeforkids.ca/.

More info on on SWEET cna be found on the Blue Sky Collaborative web site.  http://blueskycollaborative.com/bscv2/main/SWEET/

List of 100 Charities That You Should Not Donate To.

Perhaps.

I came across a thought provoking list the other day called the The Cone Nonprofit Power Brand 100.  You can view the top 10 here http://www.coneinc.com/nonprofitpowerbrand100release and get the full report if you give Cone your email address.

Mini-reports and lists like this are more for PR and don't really have a lot of scientific validity.  People are drawn to lists - which is why I'm blogging about it.

The report does have some value though.  First, it lists the top 100 revenue generating orgs in the nonprofit sector and organizes them by the type of cause they support.  This is nice and comes in handy for people interested in the sector.  Second, the report lists the top spenders on PR, marketing and advertising.

Unfortunately, a donor can look at this list and draw the following conclusion:  If I give to one of the organizations in this list, a large portion of my donation will go towards marketing & advertising and not towards addressing the problems that I want solved.

This list could also be viewed as the top 100 fundraising machines in the nonprofit sector.  There is nothing in the methodology that addresses effectiveness of the org.  The report states that the organizations' efficiency (percent of every revenue dollar put toward program services) was factored in but we really don't know how heavily this was weighted when determining the final brand image value.  Finally, social ROI is difficult to measure from such a high level and is out of the scope of this report. 

The bottom line is:

1. The orgs in this report have massive PR and marketing departments that allow them to develop a strong brand. 
2. There is nothing in the report that allows one to conclude that these organizations are the best places to donate. 
3. Finally, you can be certain that if you give to one of these orgs, a very large portion of your donation will go to the marketing and advertising department and not to those in need. 

Thanks to Cone for putting in the effort to create this list. 

Nonprofits and Social Networking Tools

From the Chronicle of Philanthropy blog http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake/index.php?id=1079

"Nonprofit Groups Outpace Businesses in Adopting Social-Networking Tools. "

Although it pains me to respond to a post on the Chronicle's soporific blog, i do think this time they've posted about an interesting topic.  Plus the data they are referenceing was collected right here in massachusetts so props to University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research.

It looks like nonprofits are adopting Facebook and Twitter more than for-profit companies.

That's good news and bad news.  The good news is that these social medium are a more effective way to communicate than bulk mail.  They are opt-in, viral, and free.  Hopefully the days of licking stamps and envelopes, wasting paper and annoying postcards will be over soon.

The bad news:  Corporations are obligated to their shareholders to maximize their ROI.  Legally obligated.  If they are not using social media, one has to wonder about the value.  I'm talking mostly from a revenue perspective.  Look at a couple of Causes on Facebook.  Think Autism has over a million members and has generated $30K or so.  Autism Speaks has 100,000 memebrs that have generated about $5k.

That''s pretty awful actually.  Comapre this with people who use the SWEET online fundraisng platform.  A typical registrant will raise $250 on average.  If Facebook Causes worked this effectively for fundraising, Think Autism would have generated $250 million.

Social media tools have proved ineffective for fundraising so far.  So they are not really that effective for revenue generation just yet.  Which is why for profits don't use them a much.  Nonprofits need to ask themselves is their effort in building a massive facebook group worth it?  Will it lead to anything.  I think the jury is still out on that.

Successful dog walkathon fundraiser raises more money despite bad economy

More than just cute.

Friends for the Dearbon Animal Shelter raised over $50,000 this year with its dog walkathon, Dearborn Mutt Strut.  To date, that's a 67% increase over last year.  Bad economy and all.  

"Friends" is a smart organization that manages its cost effectively.  Their software costs for their SWEET online pledge fundraising site was less than 4% of what they raised so far.  That percentage will continue to decrease.  By managing their expenses, Friends can actually use the money for what it was intended. 

In 2008, Dearborn Animal Shelter took in 2100 animals, and adopted 1100.  They reunited 227 lost animals with their families.  Expect even more results in 2009.  This is an organization whose bark IS as big as their bite and is worth donating to.

Friends for Dearborn Animal Shelter is an example of a smart, well run, and effective local nonprofit organization that gets results.  Check them out at http://www.dearborn-animals.com/.

Data on the Impact of Facebook Sharing on Pledge Fundraising

There has  been a great deal of discussion on how nonprofits can utilize Facebook and other social networks to bolster their fundraising efforts.  Much of what I've read has been speculation.  Anything more substantive has concluded that Facebook has relatively little impact on fundraising.

I have some more positive news to share.  Sharing personal fundraising pages seems to positively affect pledge fundraising. SWEET Online Pledge Fundraising sites have an AddThis tool on every fundraiser's profile page.  So participants in walkathons, bike rides, marathons, etc... can share their fundraising pages on Facebook, Stumbleupon, MySpace, or through old fashioned emails.

We've tracked the data for 3 months now and have found:

1. Most of the sharing happens on Facebook, StumbleUpon, and via email.
2. People that share their fundraising pages generally raise more money. 
3. There seems to be directly proportional relationship between sharing a profile page and how much is raised.

Conclusions

I recall from my college calculus class, that slope equals rise over run.  The line in the chart above shows another $16 raised for every additional share.  Does this mean that nonprofits can expect $16 every time someone shares their fundraising page?  It's probably too early to tell but our data so far points in that direction.

It's important to note that not all of the sharing was done on Facebook.  Most of it was but not all.  Also, remember that AddThis is a very easy sharing method.  It doesn't involve widgets or badges or anything that would involve a slightly deeper level of technical ability.  It's also safe to conclude that the level of sharing is a good barometer on the overall fundraising activity undertaken by the event participant.  If they're sharing online, they are probably also sharing offline.

In light of all the effort being spent on this subject and the lack of real data it's good to know that sharing your fundraising pages on social networks can have a positive impact on fundraising totals.

CNN Heroes Recognizes Shin Fujiyama of Students Helping Honduras

Blue Sky Collaborative is proud to announce that Shin Fujiyama, the director of Students Helping Honduras was recognized as a CNN Hero.. 



Students helping Honduras is approaching $100,000 raised in its pledge fundraising campaign run on Blue Sky's SWEET Online Pledge Fundraising software platform. Student's Helping Honduras uses SWEET to run an unlimited number of pledge fundraising events at colleges throughout the country. Overall, Students Helping Honduras has raised $750,000 for education and community projects. The online pledge and team fundraising program is a significant part of their capital campaign.

You can get involved as a fundraiser or donor for Students Helping Honduras by visiting http://giving.studentshelpinghonduras.org/. Congrats, Shin!

The Recession Business

I jsut received another invitation to a webinar about "recession-proofing' my business.  It turns out that the turbulence in the world markets have spawned the "What To Do About the Recession" industry. 

For nonprofits, there are certainly many issues to consider.  But the bottom line is that orgs need to keep a very close eye on their expense ratios.  This is true in good and bad times.  One way to do this is to get as much "quality stuff" as you can for free.  The problem is that free stuff can be terrible and cost you more in the long run.

But, if you're looking for ways to deal with the recession, don't bother paying a management consulting or attending a webinar.  Go here and search on recession, Nonprofit Marketing & Fundraising Zone.  What you'll find is expert opinons on the subject and many other nonprofit fundraising and marketing issues. 

NonProfit Marketing Zone aggregates the content from the top nonprofit related blogs and presents them in a searchable, and filtered format.  For nonprofit managers, this means expert info that is free and quick to find and digest.  Free,fast, and useful keeps the expense ratios way down.  

You should add it to your favorites or subscribe to the feed.

Feeding 18000 Kids and Counting for a Month

The most rewarding aspect of our work at Blue Sky Collaborative is knowing that we played a small role in enabling work that leads to substantial social benefits.

Take City Harvest (www.cityharvest.org) for example.  Based in New York City, City Harvest will collect 23 million pounds of food this year and helps over 260,000 hungry New yorkers find their next meal.

Skip Lunch Fight Hunger (www.skiplunch.org) is City Harvest's unique fundraising campaign in which City Harvest asks teams of employees at New York's finest companies to donate the money they would use for lunch on one day (May 6 this year) every year.  They also ask these teams to solicit donations for City Harvest online.

You can learn more about Skip Lunch Fight Hunger at www.skiplunch.org or by viewing this video

Their are many factors that contribute to the success of this fundraising event.

1. Skip Lunch Fight Hunger is a pledge fundraiser or "a-thon."  It's a unique "a-thon" and highlights that fact that pledge fundraisers can come in many different form.  They don't have to just be walkathons or road races.  This type of a-thon has fewer costs and risks assoicated with it as well. 
2. Tangible results.  City Harvest tells the donors and participants what the impact of their involvement is.  Every $20 raised will feed 3 kids in New York City for month.  That's a powerful message that allows the people who are raising money to set a goal that is not merely a dollar amount.  Someone could literally say, "I want to raise enough money to feed 3 kids for a year so I'm going to raise $240!"

So far City Harvest has raised enough to feed 18,000 children in new York City for a month.  If they reach their goal, the will have fed 90000!  Not bad for skipping one lunch, right?  Want to participate or contribute?  Please visit www.skiplunch.org.  You can hit Panera on Thursday.  It will still be there.

Sucessful online fundraising powered by young people

Kids these days...are awesome.  Take Students Helping Honduras (SHH), for example.  A few months ago, they began a campaign of pledge fundraisers - the type of fundraiser where you ask volunteers to raise money for you by reaching out to their friends and families.

In about 2 months, SHH raised over $80,000!  By relying on the power of peoples' networks and the internet, SHH was able to raise this money at a low cost.  Participants were asked to register online and set up their own fundraising pages on Blue Sky Collaborative's SWEET pledge fundraising platform. 

The fundraisers were volunteers.  Most of the donations were made online.   Most of the participants were college students who were comfortable with online solicitations and giving.  And they knocked it out of the park!

 

One participant raised nearly $7000 on her own by emailing letters to her network with a link to her fundraising page!  The fact is, if motivated, young people make excellent fundraisers.  They are used to doing everything online and have a sense of social responsibility engrained in them.

Congrats SHH!