Blue Sky Collaborative's Viral Fundraising Blog

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.