Blue Sky Collaborative's Viral Fundraising Blog

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/

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.

Why one org chose SWEET fundraising software for their Walkathon

"We chose you over two other providers because, in our opinion, you offer the most for our money. You're the only one of the three that will custom design our site (vs. working from a template), your price doesn't increase as our number of participants increases, you don't charge a transaction fee, and we liked the look and feel of the sample sites you emailed."

I'm not just tooting Blue Sky Collaborative's horn here.  The reasons why this client chose SWEET Online Viral Fundraising and Athon Software may help others as they evaluate their athon fundraising software options.  The factors that were taken into consideration were:

 

1. Site design and branding:  If your brand is important to you, go with a provider that will protect it and not force you to use lame template designs.
2. Fixed cost:  this one is a little tricky but the bottom line is if you know how much you will raise and expect your event revenue to grow, don't get caught with a provider that charges percentages and will take your revenue from you.  Pay a fixed cost so you know going into the event what your ROI will be.  It is a sound long term approach to your event.
3. Look at comparables:  Definitely always look at other sites created by the vendor and ask how much those cost so you know what to expect and can stay within budget.

Hopefully, we can provide more insight in the days and weeks to come as we are beginning to routinely ask customers why they chose us and why they did not.

 

 

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.

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.