Blue Sky Collaborative's Viral Fundraising Blog

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/

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.

Habitat For Humanity Build-a-thon Raises $100,000

 Habitat for Humanity Chapters in East King County and Seattle/South King County collaborated on a Build-a-thon that raised nearly $100,000 to build homes in 8 different location in King County, WA Habitat’s goal was to raise $100,000 – enough to build one house.  They are currently at $98,842 and should be able to surpass their goal very soon.  Fundraising in this a-thon was done exclusively online by volunteers who ALSO helped with the home building. 

Habitat’s build-a-thon was an extraordinary event for many reasons:

1.    Volunteers built the home and they ALSO raised the money that financed the building.  This is a powerful model that is tailor-made for the internet and for volunteer driven orgs like Habitat for Humanity.  I anticipate more of this type of activity at Habitat chapters around the country

2.    Multiple Habitat chapters collaborated and shared the website to reduce their costs.  Yet, money that was donated online went directly to the chapter that was the designated beneficiary automatically.  No middle men, no processing fees.  They were able to do this using SWEET Fundraising Software.

3.    Hundreds of volunteers were able to sign-up for dozens of volunteer shifts.  It was a significant amount of coordination.  All of it  was done online, leaving staff with more time to coordinate the event day activities and promote fundraising.

Habitat’s plans are to build on this year’s success to increase their fundraising and home-building goals in future years.  They also intend to expand the back office capabilities of their SWEET site to give administrators even more control over resource and volunteer allocation on the days of the event.  For more information visit, www.habitatbuildathon.org.

 

SBAWP Launches Viral Fundraising Campaign

The Spina Bifida Association of Western Pennsylvania (SBAWP) recently launched "Light up a Life,"  a viral fundraising campaign.  Participants in the campaign raise money online in order to meet their own fundraising goal.

"Light Up A Life" can be found here: http://lightupalife.sbawp.org

One participant, Libby Powers, has set her fundraising goal at $4000.    A lofty goal considering that the Theaverage amount raised by participants in viral fundraising campaigns is $250.  Libby’s online fundraising profile can be viewed here.  http://lightupalife.sbawp.org/sbawp/participantpage.asp?fundid=9&uid=12&fkroledescid=5

Many of the participants in SBAWP’s viral fundraising campaign are actually individuals with Spina Bifida who are beneficiaries of SBAWP’s services.  Libby, herself, has benefited directly from SBAWP’s work.  She states in her profile, "As a someone who personally attended these retreats and camps for over a decade, I can vouch for how incredibly important they are!"

We anticipate very high response rates on "asks" made in this campaign.  The early results are promising.  SBAWP has netted over $3000 , 48 donations, and 50 participants in 3 business days.  The early success has the organization thinking about loftier goals for the program in the future.

For more information about SBAWP visit http://www.sbawp.org.  To learn more about the Light Up A Life campaign, please visit http://lightupalife.sbawp.org or contact SBAWP’s Development Director, Sue Powers @ spowers@sbawp.org.

The Sad Story of Fundable.com

Once touted as the next big thing, Fundable has crashed and burned on so many levels.  Fundable is a service that gives individuals and orgs the ability to collect online pledges.  Setup is free.  Sounds good right?  Oh, did i forget to mention the 10% fee taken from whatever is raised.  10%!!

Now, I've railed against transaction fee vendors before but these guys take the cake.  10% is wrong.  Simply put, it is a commission fee and in the nonprofit fundraising world, commission fees are simply unacceptable.

If we look beyond the fees, however, we learn about so many horror stories about the service, especially as it pertains to people getting the money that they raised.

Here is an abbreviated list of documented shadiness:

http://blog.taniith.com/2008/09/fundable/

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/fundablecom-c241244.html

http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/my-very-bad-experience-with-fundable-com/

http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1936462.aspx

http://boingboing.net/2009/08/22/fundable-rips-off-hu.html

Here's a brief timeline of fundable:

May 2005 - Seth Godin Claims fundable.com "the next big thing

December 2006 - fundable.com is launched

September 2009 - Web site is replaced by a single page stating that their founder was fired and the site was "permanently closed.

October 2009 - Web site is back up and looks ready for more unsuspecting customers.

October 2009 - 800 number returns a "this number has been disconnected" message

The takeaways: 

1. Nonprofit orgs should steer clear of fundable.  There are so many better options out there.  The best ones don't involve commission fees and percentages. 
2. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.  I'm sure that there will be a next big thing for online fundraising.  Just be careful and stick with your tried and true vendors till your are sure that you can put your donors' money at risk with "the next big thing."

Tips on Choosing Walkathon or Pledge Event Software

1. Beware of the do-it-yourself software vendors.  Essentially you pay them yet you end up doing all the work.  I can't tell you how many times people have called us to tell us about their awful experiences and countless hours spent to create a crappy fundraising site using an antiquated system.  They wished that those hours were spent on fundraising.  Remember, just because you pay less for something does not mean that you are getting the most for your money.
2. Avoid transaction fees.  Don't pay percentages on your online transactions to software companies.  They don't deserve a commission on the money that YOU and your supporters raised. 
3. Don't compromise your brand.  If you've spent hard earned money and time on your own web site, why would you send someone off to another site that does not look ar act anything like your own site?  Find a vendor who is interested in promoting your brand, not theirs.
4. Find software that fits your event not the other way around.  Since most walkathon software vendors offer inflexible systems, orgs are forced to change their events to fit the software.  Find a vendor that can accommodate the quirks and intricacies of your event without charging you an arm and a leg for it.  If you want to charge different registration fees based on age, gender, participation level or even lunar cycle, then you should be able to do it!
5. Take a long term approach.  Find a tool that you can use and re-use year after year.  Re-inventing the wheel every year is costly.
6. Get it over with.  Spend your time raising money!  Don't spend your time building or tinkering with a web site.  It's costly on many levels.

Charity Bike Ride Raises over $300K for Sister to Sister

Sister to Sister recently held their bike-a-thon, Bike for THE Heart and so far have raised over $300,000.

www.bikefortheheart.org

I can't stress enough what a great job their folks did to put on a world-class charity cycling event.  We can all learn from their efforts.  Here are some factors that led to the success of their pledge fundraiser.

1. So many options for everyone to participate including families with young kids and skilled cyclers.  http://www.bikefortheheart.org/bfth/schedule.asp
2. It was fun.  The agenda is off the charts with Ringling Bros., A cappella groups, food, music, etc... It looked like a lot of fun.   http://www.bikefortheheart.org/bfth/schedule.asp
3. Lots of incentives for top fundraising teams and individuals.  http://www.bikefortheheart.org/bfth/prizes.asp
4. They went viral.  Sister to Sister also had incentives for people that recruited participants. 
5. Well designed fundraising web site that made it easy for folks to register and donate.
6. Professional and attractive site design that made corporate sponsors more likely to give.  Trust me, no one will want their logo on your site if it is crap.  People will tell you that your design does not matter but you shouldn't listen to them because they are wrong.

Sister to Sister is becoming one of my new favorite orgs.  Their attention to detail, creativity, and effectiveness shone through in the Bike for THE Heart event.

You should check it out if you want to see how to put on a first class bike-a-thon.

Online Fundraising Software Tip: Don't let software companies handle your money

If you're considering an online fundraising website for your viral fundraising campaign, walkathon, or any athon, you should avoid software vendors that take your donations before disbursing the funds to your organization.

If you already have a merchant account and credit card processing company, any software that you use should support your own merchant account vendor.  This ensures that the money goes from the donor to the credit card processor and then directly to you.

Avoid software vendors that take your money and then deliver it to you in batches for the following reasons.

1. Security.  The more people that have your hands on your money and data, the greater the risk for something going wrong.
2. Keep software vendors from skimming off the top of your donations.  Software vendors that get your donations first before sending them to you can easily deduct percentages from your donations for themselves.
3. Cash flow.  The more vendors that you put between your org and its donations, the longer that you will have to wait to get your money.

In this age of extensible platforms and APIs, online fundraising software should be able to support a number of payment processors.

SWEET online fundraising software, for example, works with:

• Paypal
• Google Checkout
• Linkpoint (now part of First Data)
• Authorize
• Cybersource
• Acceptiva
• Entango.

This means that you could fit an online fundraising software around any of these payment processors and you get your money faster and more securely, without losing a percentage of it to Blue Sky.

If you're looking for efficiencies, ways to cut costs, and improvements to cash flow, your online fundraising software is a great place to start.

Marshall University Foundation Starts a Viral Fundraising Campaign

Marshall University has added a viral fundraising campaign to its development portfolio.

The newly launched campaign is called Give to Marshall and can be viewed online here: http://www.givetomarshall.com/

The goals of the campaign are to:

1. raise funds in support of the University
2. raise alumni participation rates among our graduates
3. raise awareness of the continued growth and advancement of Marshall.

We've always wondered how SWEET Viral Fundraising Software would work in an alumni/university setting.  This will be a good test case.

The people who are asking for the money will be alumni...and that's all we really know at this point. 

Things that we don't know yet; who will the givers be?  Will the givers exclusively be alumni?  Or, will people who did not attend the university give as well?  This will be the most intriguing question that needs to be answered.  If the answer is yes, then the prospect of generating revenue from non-alumni would would be an exciting result of a viral fundraising campaign.

The University will also have concrete and usable marketing data about alumni who are participants in the campaign.  The alumni are willing to make "asks" for Marshall.  A campaign like this will at the very least, provide Marshall with some information about the profiles of these actively participating alumni.

Hopefully we can all learn a great deal about the value of viral fundraising campaigns in the university setting.  We will keep you posted.

Habitat for Humanity Chapters Collaborate to Save on Build-athon Software

Habitat for Humanity in East King County, Washington and Seattle/South King County collaborated on an a-thon http://habitatbuildathon.org.

Pooling their resources resulted in:

1. increased participation for both chapters
2. more revenue for both chapters
3. lower costs for both chapters

No sacrifices with their a-thon web site

Neither chapter had to make special arrangements with their online fundraising site.  Participants and registrants were able to designate which chapter they were supporting.  Each chapter had its own payment processors connected to the SWEET Pledge Fundraising site.  Money raised by participants was routed DIRECTLY to the corresponding chapter - no middle men, no transfers, no skimming off the top.

Both chapters received all the benefits of having their own site at a significantly lower price. 

The nonprofit sector is highly fragmented.  Collaboration like this is good for everyone including the orgs who are trying to save money and the donors who are inundated by invitations and solicitations.

Collaborating is something more nonprofits should do, especially orgs with regional donor bases that won't be competing against each other.  It makes sense and is a proven technique. 

Stay Away From Gimmicks

All too often, orgs look for the gimmicks and use tools that are "FREE" but charge 10% transaction fees (see fundable.com).  If it sounds to good to be true, then it is.

Why not just work together?  The Habitat folks in Seattle proved that it works.  Soon I will share a story about 300 (!!!) different orgs sharing a SWEET site.  Extreme collaboration.