Primary Objective

Having passion for a cause is a good start but passion alone is not enough. If you want to make positive changes you’ll need resources, namely volunteers and donations. Traditional fundraising channels such as a banquet or raffle remain the most effective ways to create hype around your cause and generate donations. However, as the web continues to grow, it is becoming paramount to strike a balance between online and offline fundraising activities. Many businesses have already discovered, if used aptly, the web can be an incredibly powerful mechanism to reach new audiences.

But with all the online tools available, it can be a bit overwhelming for nonprofits who often have limited time and resources to even know where to begin. This series will help you sift through the online opportunities that exist for nonprofits and provide a simplified, manageable view. Six distinct online channels have been identified and are discussed further in this guide. Each portion of the series will focus on a single topic and discuss how your nonprofit can leverage the web to better your nonprofit organization. Topics to be discussed include:

1. Social Networking
2. Online Auctions
3. Email Campaigns
4. Wiki Pages and Event Calendars
5. Blogs

1. Social Networking

Social networks facilitate those with similar interests or who are interested in understanding others interests to interact with one another. Why are they so important to your nonprofit organization? Each social “connection” forms a vast network of users who can share information instantly with each other…Its word of mouth at high speeds. The days of blindly blasting messages into the web hoping someone, somewhere would listen are over. Nonprofits which truly become involved and interact in social networks can share information about their cause to those who have expressed interest in your cause. Not only will you be marketing your cause to those who care, but they can also effortlessly market for you to their own network. Before we look at which social network(s) is right for your nonprofit, let’s discuss the basics of interacting with others on a network.

Create a Profile
To get started on a social network, you will need to create a profile for yourself and/or your company. For most nonprofit organizations a profile for the organization will be the best choice, although starting an individual profile can be a good way to get to know the social network. As a rule remember that members of social networks value being open and honest and do not take well to companies or organizations misrepresenting themselves. So be sure that if you choose to have an individual profile it is really you represented and not your organization masquerading as you! Something else to remember is that setting up a profile is not a one-time chore but rather an ongoing process. To create a truly viral campaign that spreads throughout the network, create a profile that is compelling, fresh, catchy, and ultimately makes others want to share. You want to make a good first impression, so think about what will be on your profile before you begin adding friends.

Connect with People
To make your profile relevant, you will need to establish a network of supporters who are willing to discuss and share about your organization. The easiest way to begin finding online “friends” is to first look to your close real-world supporters such as organization members. Encourage them to connect with your profile and to invite others they feel would add to the network. Remember people will value your online relationship more if you are active and respond often and in a timely manner.

Connect with Groups
At some point however, you will likely need to reach more people by becoming involved in online groups. Groups allow users to express and share their interests and passions with others within the online network. With millions of users, social networks have groups for almost any imaginable purpose. For instance, if you are looking for those who support fighting breast cancer you could choose from one of more than 177,000 groups found on MySpace alone (MySpace 8/21/08). Groups are also a good way to stay up to date on the happenings relevant to your cause. Become personally involved, interact, and establish your network.

Set up a Charity Badge
Charity badges allow you to create a tangible online link that connects your awareness campaign with your fundraising. After you have created a profile and established a network, you are ready to utilize a charity badge. If you are not familiar with charity badges, they are basically online widgets that can be easily copied and shared with others. So these small pieces of code can be transferred effortlessly throughout your online network. Badges will often include a brief description, fundraising goal and progress, and a button to assist in a quick, easy donation. The image shown to the left is an example of a charity badge powered by the Network for Good.

When using a charity badge remember the following tips:

1. Make your fundraising goal reasonable.
2. Begin with a small success in mind and work your way up.
3. Place your badge on your website, blog and anywhere else you possibly can!
4. Send thank you emails!

Selecting a Social Network
Wikipedia’s full list of social networks may prove to be a bit overwhelming. When selecting a social network be sure to consider who your audience is. It may seem like the best idea to join the social network with the most users; however you want to target individuals who share passion for your cause. This task may prove easier on smaller, niche audience networks. This will translate into a better return on the time invested.

Popular Non-Profit Social Networks

• Change.org – Change.org is a social network dedicated solely to nonprofits and individuals with a specific cause. Unlike many social networks, where the primary purpose is basic interaction, Change.org is designed as a facilitator for users to: Connect, Take action, Donate.
• Care2 – Approaching nearly 10 million strong, this is an incredible platform to create lasting relationships with people who share similar goals. This website allows users to start petitions, groups, post news stories, and create blogs all relating to a specific area of interest.
• Squidoo- Squidoo is a unique social network site; it allows each user to create his/her own “lens” which is basically a single web page (much like a profile). Creators use this one page to describe their passion or interest. Unlike other social networking sites, the purpose of Squidoo is to spark readers’ interest in a certain topic and then direct them via links, videos etc. to further information elsewhere on the web. Another unique element of Squidoo is that it does not require those viewing your page to be a member and boasts an average 11 million viewers a month.

Popular Social Networks

• Facebook - Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites and has a strong following with college aged students. While not the appropriate platform for all nonprofit organizations, it can be an effective way to attract an audience of generally active young adults. However, Facebook claims that currently their fastest growing demographic is those 30 years old and older.
• MySpace – MySpace users interact via pictures, video, blogs, forums and more and often create groups based on common interests. As of August 22, 2008 there were 24,144 nonprofit and philanthropic groups. MySpace pages are also easily “crawled” by search engines, so it will help you gain ranking in search engine results.
• LinkedIn- While LinkedIn is not one of the top largest social network sites it is a great resource for your business. LinkedIn is designed to facilitate professional relationships between business men and women and also a great place to give and receive advice in regards to your organizations operations.

As a final thought, be sure to build your social network before you need it. Asking for donations right as you become someone’s friend is a good way to lose an online friend. Gain rapport with your online community by consistently updating your pages with new content. Also have a designated person who will take the time to accept friend requests, post comments groups and other people’s pages and invite others to become friends. The more people feel you care about them; the more they will care about your cause.

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Once you have the essentials of your raffle planned out, it is important to manage efficiently. Managing a raffle continues throughout the whole process and will likely determine the overall profitability of the program. Let’s take a look at how to manage your raffle.

On Your Mark…

It is important to plan all aspects of your raffle beforehand to make sure you will reach your goals. Prepare for everything! Above nothing else, have the following sorted out to perfection:

• Prizes: Know what prizes you are raffling. Whether they are donated or you had to invest in some yourself, it is beneficial to have them before you start selling tickets. Prizes are one of the top factors in a successful raffle. There are a number of ways to obtain great tickets for your event, but the ticket pricing should reflect the perceived value of your prizes; not your costs.

• Volunteers/organizers: Make sure everyone knows their job by assigning tasks and positions. Set up group leaders to manage your various tasks, like ticket selling.

• Ticket sales process: Know how you will track your ticket sales! Whether it is by hand, on the web, or by an Excel spreadsheet, record everything. Analyzing this data can determine what needs to be improved, what areas you are doing well at, and perspective buyers for your next raffle.

Get Set…

An essential yet very difficult task in directing a raffle is managing the people involved. Most raffles are organized and managed solely by volunteers, or a mix of volunteers and the organization members. This means you have to get people motivated. As you probably already know, this is easier said than done. The top motivator for volunteers is to make it clear they are helping a great cause. Let everyone know your organizations purpose and tell them how their work will specifically help the organization reach its’ goals. Give updates on how the event is going and keep everyone informed.

From TicketPrinting.com’s survey, we found there are two very different approaches to getting volunteers involved in the ticket sales process. The first, and most popular approach, is to have prizes or awards for sellers with the greatest number of tickets sold (prizes for best attitude, hardest worker, etc. were also given in many situations). Conversely, the other option is to have sellers take only as many tickets as they think they can sell. Then, if all their tickets are not sold the specified deadline, they will have to purchase their remaining tickets. Whichever method you choose, remember to keep all volunteers busy and make them feel like they are making a difference!

GO!

As mentioned, tracking and recording sales is an essential part of hosting a raffle. Doing a poor job of tracking opens the doors for legal repercussions. According to our recent survey of over 200 nonprofit

organizations, a surprising 19% had no tracking system at all. To effectively track ticket sales, you must at minimum record the seller/buyer’s name, amount sold, price, location, ticket numbers, and dates. You can track sales by hand, use an Excel spreadsheet, or invest in an online program. For those looking for a more inexpensive and simple tracking system, consider setting up a Microsoft Office template. The key to templates is to make them reusable, saving you the time of reproducing documents.

Now that you know the essentials in managing a raffle, put this knowledge to use! Raffles are great fundraisers and can have a real impact on your organization. The more time you put in before the raffle, the more likely you will be able to handle any unexpected setbacks. Following these steps will help ensure a smooth raffle and give you confidence for future events.

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Think your nonprofit organization has no need for a blog? You may want to think again.  According to Technorati, nearly 10,500 blogs were tagged “charity”, 4,000 blogs “nonprofit” and 2,300 blogs “philanthropy” in January of 2007. Nonprofits are hopping onboard the social media bandwagon and are seeing returns. If you’re still not convinced here are ten reasons your nonprofit organizations should have a blog.

1. You ARE an Expert in the Field – Nonprofit organizations have a wealth of information when it comes to their cause. Share it! This information is highly desired in online blogging communities and passersby alike.  You know your stuff and by posting regularly in blogs, your organization will gain a reputation for being an expert. People trust experts. Donors want to know their money is being put to good use, and volunteers want to know the time they spend is making an impact. Readers will want to see more information authored by you and will follow links back to your organizations website.  According to the March, 2007 Blog Readership Report, 67.3% of bloggers found information by following links from other blogs.  To find blogs that are topically related to your organization use Technorati and Blogcatolog.  Icerocket has also done an excellent job dissecting blogs and making them more search friendly.

2.  Credibility – It is more important today than ever before for nonprofit organizations to be trustworthy in the eyes of their contributors. The public wants transparency.  A blog facilitates this relationship by showing consistency in your ideas and presentation. You put a lot of work into maintaining your blog on a consistent basis with meaningful material—that is a huge investment for you to lose and the public will notice this too. Another way to establish this relationship of trust is to make events, projects and progress as visible as possible.  By having weekly updates on projects and the projects successes, users will know exactly what difference their donations have made (or will make if they donate).  Project developments can be posted onto the blog keeping the organizations efforts and needs current (Have Fun Do Good Blog).

3.  Search engine optimization – Search engines take into consideration many factors when calculating a search result list.  A focused, well written blog hosted on your website is a key component in helping overall search performance.  A blog allows plenty of room to add keywords and phrases you wish to rank well for.  Additionally, if your blog has useful and meaningful material, other sites will want to link to it, improving your websites level of importance.  Also, search engines place higher value on pages that are constantly updated, so remember to ping them regularly to inform them you’ve added new content. You can use one of the many free tools such as Search Engine Land or (Technorati), more than 17 million of them are information thirsty bloggers who desire the kind of content your nonprofit blog could provide.  Blogs are continually being incorporated into social networking sites and in turn peoples’ daily routine.

5.  Negative Comments – Even if you haven’t been writing about your organization, other people have; they are talking and probably writing about you! Hopefully, their words are positive, but almost inevitably there will be some negative commentary. Many organizations see this negative commentary as a major deterrent to engaging in social media.  However, a blog provides a median to field complaints or concerns and defend the decisions the organization has made. Remember to listen. Some comments may be unfounded, but others may provide information that could improve your organization.  When replying keep a professional tone and respond quickly.

6.  Marketing Events – A regularly maintained blog will attract loyal readers who can easily be informed about upcoming events.  To incentivize new subscribers, or to increase the loyalty of existing subscribers, consider having special promotions on the blog before events.  However, a blog should work in combination with the traditional channels of marketing your event, not to replace them. (An event is also a great way to market your blog!)

7.  Annual Report – Many nonprofits (At least all of the ones I have worked with!) are required to compile an annual or semiannual report.  By working smarter and creating a blog, you will have most of the content for the report already completed before you even begin compiling it (Have Fun Do Good Blog).  In many ways blogs are more honest and accurate than formal annual reports, as they build a habit of (and comfort with) sharing information as it happens.  Your memories are fresh and the facts are at your finger tips…contrast this with the rush and toil characteristic of the last minute annual report – the effort required to create the content will be more cost effective.

8.  Gathering Information - One of the most difficult aspects of any nonprofit is gaining an understanding of its supporters. Two people may be supporting your organization for two entirely different reasons.  A blog can help tap into a resource of information and more that new technology provides.  Two major information related benefits include:

• Allowing users to create- A blog encourages involvement in the organization as it encourages discussion of your topics.  The AARP Issues Blog allows readers to create entries about what issues they feel are important and receive feedback from these entries.

• Provide information to supporters-and they will return the favor. If a picture can convey a thousand words, than a blog on your website will have a lot to say.  So much of the success of a fundraising campaign (whether you like it or not) comes from its emotional appeal.  By having a blog that contains pictures and stories, viewers will become more emotionally involved with the cause or service. If they feel a connection they are more likely to share with you and about you.

9.  Fundraising – That’s right you can use your blog to raise money, and not just with ChipIn and Network for Good both have charity badges available for a small fee.  Blogs bring in visitors looking for valuable information and in turn they will see your badge. There are countless examples of blogging communities that have worked together to raise money using charity badges.

10.  The “Heart” of the Organization – A blog gives you the unique opportunity to show the organization in a totally different way. A blog brings your humanity to the forefront.  After all, it is very difficult to write every day about something you’re passionate about and not have who you are come through.  The key to being successful with any marketing venture is telling a compelling story and building meaningful relationships, blogs are just another tool to do so.

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