Social Media & Online Giving
Articles with online giving statistics, social media updates, and social media helps.
idealware.org/You have heard lots of fundraising advice from us, but what about our personal favorite resources? Here is a list of 5 resources that we love:
1) iDonate-- This giving tool is revolutionizing fundraising for ministries. By converting non-cash donations into funds for ministries, it is an essential tool. Check out this short video which explains why it is so powerful.
2) The Treasure House-- Similar to Facebook profiles, the Treasure House provides ministry profiles that you can easily search through in order to share resources, find ways to serve, and learn who is in your area.
3) The Give Away-- The Chronicle...
posted @ Tuesday, February 07, 2012 9:48 PM |
I don’t know about you but there’s a lot of noise in my life. Not long ago, I sought to eliminate much of the advertisement related email in my inbox. I set out faithfully to unsubscribe to everything I could.
I’m not sure what happened. My email multiplied. So much for simplicity. Particularly in this day and age, the idea of simplicity is a foreign one. This week I attended a breakout session at a conference called Soul Care for leaders. One statement particularly stood out:
Our iPhones, iPads and constant exposure to technology is killing our souls.
Think about it. ...
posted @ Thursday, October 20, 2011 9:54 AM |
The online world is here to stay for ministries. For that reason, it’s a good time to evaluate your website from a donor’s perspective. Here are 10 tips:
1. Be concise. Most donors are scanners. Big blocks of text scare people off. Use bullet points and small paragraphs.
2. Use pictures. Show the story. Don’t just tell it with text. Pictures produce emotions, and let your readers “feel” your mission.
3. Highlight your vision, mission and key objectives. Make sure that people know where you are going, how you are going to get there and your 3-5 mission critical activities.
4. State the problem clearly. Make sure that your donors know what problem you...
posted @ Tuesday, November 30, 2010 6:24 PM |
The September 9, 2010 edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that non cash donations are expected to rise as a form of year end giving.
Some of the recovery in the stock market means that some donors have appreciated stock—unlike two years ago when many only had losses. Appreciated stock is a better gift than cash because a donor can give the stock at a fair market value deduction price—assuming they’ve held the stock more than one year. Equally significant, when gifting appreciated stock, the donor pays no capital gains.
On the other hand, many donors face liquidity issues. They want to...
posted @ Sunday, October 24, 2010 3:42 PM |
In this final post of our fundraising guide, I want to challenge you to investigate more online opportunities. One of the most important things you can do to sustain your ministry is have a wide fundraising base. These past posts have discussed mostly ways to connect with donors, so let's think outside of the box now.
With the rise of the Internet, you now have virtually millions of resources right after your finger-tips. However, you have to be willing to invest some time in doing a little research and think creatively. Ask other volunteers to help you out in the research process;...
posted @ Monday, August 02, 2010 9:39 AM |
When we talk about websites for fundraising, you probably are thinking of your ministry's website. However, let's flip things around and talk about setting up websites for your donors and volunteers. A recent online giving trend has people using sites such as CrowdRise, Convio, or First Giving to let their donors build their own fundraising pages to support their ministry.
Picture this: You are doing a 5K run as a fundraiser for your ministry. You have 500 people signed up, and some of them have people also sponsoring them to run. This is a decent amount of people, clearly, but let's think...
posted @ Friday, July 30, 2010 3:19 PM |
The best online fundraising practices and plans of action will be included in this next series of posts. With experts’ advice in a simplified format, this guide will help you easily start or grow your online giving.
Part 1: Email Campaigns
Some people suggest that email will soon be yet another dying form of communication. However, trends do not show this at all. Rather, it is a fundamental tool to communicate with an ever on the move society. This does not mean it is the only tool, but it still is a valuable one, so let’s get started.
Step 1) Choose...
posted @ Friday, July 23, 2010 9:34 AM |
The latest statistics on online giving has been released by Convio Strategies. These statistics will help you evaluate your own organization and provide insight for changes or additions to make in your online fundraising.
The key statistics from the report were:
--“ Online giving grew 14 percent despite a difficult economy. Overall, 69 percent of organizations raised more in 2009 than 2008, while 31 percent saw declines in their online fundraising.”
--“ An increase in gifts drove fundraising gains.”—92% of organizations that increased the number of gifts they received expanded their fundraising, rather than those that increased the amount of the gift.
--“ Small...
posted @ Monday, June 28, 2010 10:39 AM |
Online fundraising has become close to a fundraising "norm" now. While this is an exciting change, it means as well that now non-profits must be innovative in how they promote and use their online fundraising tools. To utilize this way of fundraising to its fullest capacity, one must seek a variety of perspectives.
Consider a few of these perspectives:
1) Offline-- Of course this sounds strange at first, offline online fundraising?? Think about it again though. Too many people rely just on the idea that people will find their website through an online search and be compelled to donate. While this can be true,...
posted @ Monday, June 07, 2010 11:27 AM |
SEO, tracking metrics, or linking would not normally come up on a ministry’s list of priorities, but let’s pause a moment. Seeing how one’s website is doing and making improvements are a lot easier than one might imagine. Here is a one word solution:
Analytics.
Subscribing to a service that provides website analytics is a simple way to see who is coming to your site, why they are coming, what they are looking at, how many choose to donate, when the site is most visited, and other such valuable information. To take a tour of what Google Analytics looks like and what...
posted @ Wednesday, June 02, 2010 1:53 PM |
By Tim Dykes
www.omniproconsulting.com
What kind of fundraising strategies are you implementing in your organization?
In the 2008 election, President Barack Obama raised $122 Million through the power of online social networks. It was a quick and easy way to capture millions of dollars from donors who individually gave less than $100. No doubt your organization and organizations you’re associated with solicit funds in multiple ways.
Various approaches to fundraising that might include grassroots efforts like street-side bucket/boot brigades, highly organized telethons and personal meetings might be one approach. With the emergence of social media (Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, blogging), many organizations are incorporating...
posted @ Tuesday, April 13, 2010 10:39 AM |
With the growth of technology, donors have set expectations about ministries’ websites. Web experiences that meet or exceed donors’ expectations are important for ministries to stay competitive in this marketplace. Good websites have the power to gain a donor’s loyalty.
Some ideas to consider as you develop your website:
n Include a sign-up box for your newsletter. Direct email marketing is becoming an increasingly powerful tool; therefore, having a strong database of email contacts is important. Your website is one of the easiest ways to capture new names- potential donors.
n Promote your online fundraising. Even a simple “Click here to donate” box...
posted @ Wednesday, November 04, 2009 8:13 AM |
Alexandria Samuel, a writer for the Harvard Business Publishing, published an article entitled "Why Nonprofits Are So Good at Social Media". She comments on how nonprofits have always seen the key of relationship building which has allowed them to use social media simply to grow and expand their relationships. Alexandria gives example of various organizations that she says demonstrate good use of social media tools.
Her article set off debate online though because people felt the organizations she had picked were stand-outs from the thousands of other organizations that simply are following fads without any guidance or strategy.
Michael...
posted @ Monday, September 07, 2009 9:12 AM |
A recent study conducted by Beth Kanter, Society for New Communications Research Fellow Geoff Livingston, and Qui Diaz of CRT/tanaka, reveals that “high dollar donors --especially 30-49 year-olds -- use the social web, but have yet to be engaged by strong, trustworthy philanthropic organizations.”
The main objectives of the research were:
“To determine if high dollar donors use social media
To see if those currently using social media could become potential high dollar donors
To examine if cultivation of high dollar donations is possible online
To determine what kinds...
posted @ Tuesday, August 04, 2009 1:27 PM |
American Express released a survey on online giving in November of 2007 to look at the reasons why people give online.
63.4% chose to give online because of the convenience.
20.3% gave because they were asked to give online, and the other 15.4% gave because of incentives such as credit card rewards, etc.
Let’s go back to that first statistic though: 63.4% chose to give online because of the convenience. Scott Neilson, CEO of FundBunch, says that “this is what you should expect. Giving is an emotional transaction. Once you’ve reached your audience with a compelling message about your cause, you need...
posted @ Monday, August 03, 2009 11:00 AM |
We have been focusing a lot on social media this week so hopefully you have gained insight into these varying opportunities. To wrap things up, let’s pull this back to the bigger perspective and look at some of the over-arching thoughts.
1) Jump in. Now.—It is a pretty simple idea, but not enough people are catching on to this. The organizations that have had the most success with social media have been those that joined early and kept moving forward. Heather Mansfield, a blogger for Change.org, notes that “early adopters […] now more than three years later […] are recognized leaders...
posted @ Friday, July 31, 2009 1:20 PM |
How people give is continuing to change rapidly. This next set of givers is being referred to as “Web 2.0 donors”. Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of web design and development. The Web 2.0 users value communication and networking. It is not a change in the Internet, but how it is being used. It is a huge change, and nonprofits need to know now how to reach this set of users.
Most nonprofits understand that social media is one of the important tools to reach this new audience. However, it is necessary to understand the people you are trying...
posted @ Wednesday, July 29, 2009 9:50 AM |
Twitter is growing which means there are many new users. It can be a very effective tool to reach groups, provide fundraising connections, and promote your organization with basic training. In order to help nonprofit organizations use Twitter, Nonprofit 2.0 has published a list of tips for first-time nonprofit users.
1) “Authenticity before marketing. Have personality. Build community.”
This first tip is absolutely critical. Twitter is not just a way of presenting a wealth of information. How you present your thoughts, links, information (etc.) provides people with a look at your personality. The traditional “marketing and development” ideas do not apply...
posted @ Monday, July 27, 2009 11:19 AM |
There are dozens of tools for social media – it seems like I hear of a new one every day. With all the options, it can be overwhelming when trying to decide what options to choose. Below are ten tools and strategies that Allyson Kapin, the editor of Care2’s blog for nonprofit professionals, suggests:
RSS Feeds – When you add an RSS feed to the blog and news sections of your website, people can subscribe to stay updated on your latest news. Google Feedburner gives visitors the option to subscribe via RSS or email.
...
posted @ Friday, July 24, 2009 3:46 PM |
Many nonprofits are looking for major gifts, so it is important to understand how wealthy donors approach online giving. The Chronicle of Philanthropy released a study at the end of March where nearly 3,500 donors were surveyed about their giving habits. The major finding of this survey showed that “charities are turning off some of their biggest donors—people who give $1,000 or more[.]”
“Most charities are not paying attention,” says Mark Rovner, president of a fundraising consulting company, “The people responsible for larger gifts need to start taking the Internet much more seriously than they have.”
The survey polled donors who made...
posted @ Thursday, July 23, 2009 9:56 AM |
A lot has been said about the growth of social media. However, many organizations are finding it difficult to pin down the best fundraising strategies using these tools. Facebook’s Causes application has 26 million active users, but charities are finding it hard to find much fundraising support from these users. With Twitter quickly becoming the social media of choice for organizations, people are wanting to see results.
Because Twitter is still new and being developed, charities need to employ various strategies. Twitter offers various options such as “Tweetsgiving”, which is a Twitter option for charitable causes. Twollars and Tweet4Good are also...
posted @ Monday, July 06, 2009 9:23 AM |
It is predicted that by the year 2020, online giving will make up the majority donations. This is dependent on the development of nonprofits’ websites though.
Jakob Nielsen, who has researched nonprofit online trends, gives suggestions based on his findings. He analyzed 23 different websites in a recent study through simple tests. From this study, several clear areas showed up:
1) Your missions, goals, and objectives must be made clear—People want to see these things on the homepage. Of the 23 websites analyzed, only 43% had done this. This information is important to prospective donors because “they want to contribute to causes...
posted @ Friday, June 19, 2009 10:05 AM
Fearing Facebook? Terrified of Twitter? Bashful about blogging? Just because some nonprofits are jumping right in does not mean that everyone knows how to use all these forms of social media. Need some help getting started? Want to learn about the different opportunities before signing up for a plethora of sites? Allison Good, an expert on technology in the nonprofit world, is offering podcasts once a month to explore the different forms and provide helpful tips. She takes emailed questions from listeners and attempts to answer some of those as well. The Chronicle of Philanthropy is...
posted @ Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:02 PM |
Everyone wants their website to be memorable because visitors are more likely to return and to tell others about the site. There are several things you can do to create an outstanding website:
Quizzes and Polls
“What is the largest living mammal? Guess in our free quiz!” Getting people to click buttons and check boxes is an easy way to move them past your homepage.
E-newsletters
Make sure a subscription box for your e-newsletter is featured on every page on your website. Keep the request short, but make it sound like the newsletter offers exclusive and important information. The newsletter sign-ups will add email...
posted @ Wednesday, June 03, 2009 1:42 PM
Search engine optimization is becoming very important for your website to become competitive with other organizations. Generally, if your website is not on the first page or page and a half of listings then people will not view your website; therefore having good search engine rankings (where your website is listed, eg. Page 1, page 16 etc.) are essential to drawing website traffic. Chris Nastav, a Kansas City web developer, offers some insight into a simple idea that could help improve your website ranking. Nastav says, “There's things we as Web developers can do to your site to help...
posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 9:32 AM |
Yesterday I wrote an article about 10 prerequisites for social media networking, one of which was to ensure that your website is presentable before engaging the social media world. Below are four tips to help make your website (and the most important part, the donate button) shine.
1. Make your donate button easy to locate
Have a friend sit down in front of your website home page and count how many seconds it takes them to find and click on your donate button. If it takes them more than two seconds, your button needs to be far more visible. Make sure the...
posted @ Friday, May 29, 2009 10:34 AM
Facebook is one of the largest online social networks. Many people spend hours visiting friends’ profiles, adding applications, and browsing photos. Now many organizations from bands to ministries are using Facebook to profile themselves. Facebook offers many features to promote your specific group.
One of the applications many organizations are adding is called “Causes.” Causes allows your organization to set up a Facebook page to feature information about your ministry and allow people to donate to the cause. Beth Kanter, a well known proponent for nonprofits using social media, writes about this in her blog. You can read her full article...
posted @ Wednesday, December 31, 2008 9:42 AM |
As of September 2008 over 1,250,000 people raised almost $70,000,000 for close to 14,000 nonprofit organizations--- all through one online giving website, Firstgiving.com Online giving isn’t still coming on to the scene. It is here.
Who cares what the economy is doing! There still are hundreds of thousands of dollars available for funding. Organizations simply must utilize the available tools. With the giving trends, we’re seeing ministries getting active in promoting their cause. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Digg, MySpace, YouTube-- the list goes on and on.
Don’t fall behind now! A younger generation is coming up, one that loves entertainment and imagery. Revamp...
posted @ Tuesday, December 30, 2008 9:44 AM |
A recent study by the Barna Group tells us that giving to non profits is down by 30% in the last three months. My own informal survey tells me the same infomation. What is normally the busiest time of the year for many non profits has now turned into a time of uneasy calm.
In looking at the months ahead, the bloom doesn't promise to return anytime soon. Some economists are predicting that it will take three years for investors to work off stock losses. This means that gifts of publicly traded stock will be down for that same period of...
posted @ Sunday, December 14, 2008 6:13 PM |
What kind of website do you have? Does it produce giving? Do you know the elements that produce giving?
A recent study by the Poynter Institute tells us what attracts attention:
1. 75-80% of the time people will look at photos and artwork
2. 56% of the time people will look at headlines
3. 31% of the time people will look at briefs and sidebars
4. 29% of the time people will look at captions
5. 20-25% of the time people will read articles
So what does this tell us we should do? Have good pictures. Write good headlines--ones that catch attention, call to action, demand readership. ...
posted @ Saturday, November 22, 2008 10:57 AM |
Blogs are a great way to let people know about your ministry without having to sell them on it. The key to a blog is letting people see that you are an expert in the area that you serve. If you are with a rescue mission, write about the plight of the homeless. If you are in youth ministry, write about the challenges and opportunity of working with you. You get the idea.
Once you've decided to do a blog and let all the world know that you are an expert, how do you increase blog traffic. The ideas behind increasing...
posted @ Sunday, November 16, 2008 11:44 AM |
According to an analysis from Convio Inc., a manufacture of online donation software, online giving to nonprofits is anticipated to exceed $3 billion this holiday season. This analyst is based on a new online giving survey by JupiterResearch and from historical data from the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
The survey reports that more than 89 million people plan to give online during the holidays. Almost 7 out of 10 people plan to give the same amount they do every year, while 33% say they will give less this year. A few of the organizations that donors plan to support include social services,...
posted @ Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:44 PM |
Today, the Internet connects people from around the world and because of this, websites should serve the needs of both English and foreign language speakers. Adding automatic language translation to your website will serve your international guests and provide an easy way to increase your website traffic. There are at least two ways to add language translation to your website.
The first way is to use Google’s Translate service. While it is not always particularly accurate, it does offer translation for 23 languages. Google also has a free Google Translate widget which can be added to your website. Digital Inspiration also...
posted @ Monday, October 13, 2008 3:30 PM |
The Internet has made donating to charity more convenient for donors and also has reduced nonprofit operating costs. However, one must be careful as there are risks associated with using a credit card online and there are scams appearing to be charities. The American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) gives the following five tips for donating online.
Know the Nonprofit. Research the charity before giving to it. Look at their mission statement and their annual report. AIP says a nonprofit should not spend more than 40% of their income on administrative expenses. Also, at least 60% of your donation should directly support...
posted @ Thursday, September 04, 2008 1:29 PM |
Mobile giving – donating via a cell phone text message - is one of the latest trends in philanthropy. The way the system works is this: the donor texts a keyword to a special number belonging to the charity (known as a “short code”). Then, the donor receives a message asking them to confirm their donation. Once the donation is confirmed, their cell phone service provider (a carrier) places these small donations (usually $5 or $10) on the person’s cell phone bill. Five percent of each donation goes to the Mobile Giving Foundation, but the rest of the money goes...
posted @ Monday, August 04, 2008 10:45 AM |
The NonProfit Times recently conducted a survey which shows that twice as many donors research a charity online after receiving a direct mail solicitation than they did three years ago. The NonProfit Times had Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) repeat a study that it did three years ago for The NPT. ORC asked 1,000 adults, “When you receive a mail solicitation from a charity, which of the following places on the Internet do you look at before deciding whether to give money?” The options were these – look up the organization on the Internet; visit the organization’s website;...
posted @ Thursday, July 31, 2008 10:20 AM |
Convio, Sea Change Strategies, and Edge Research just released the results of their national research study on the trends of online giving. The study surveyed more than 3,000 donors from 23 major nonprofit organizations to determine the online behaviors and preferences of one of the nonprofit sector’s most important constituents. These individuals were ones that give an average of $10,896 to various charities each year, with a minimum gift of $1,000. Some important statistics from the study that nonprofits should be aware of are: 80 percent of those surveyed made donations both online and offline. ...
posted @ Thursday, July 17, 2008 9:05 AM |
This is the fourth and final step of creating your online fundraising strategy -- mapping out your numbers. Your goal in this step should be to evaluate the numbers you have now and make plans for the numbers you’re anticipating after all your fundraising efforts. Budgeting 1. Make certain that in planning your budget you take into account what you will need to spend for donation processing. Services such as Custom DonateNow can be very effective without being too pricey. 2. If you want to “improve” your website, keep in mind that your site is...
posted @ Wednesday, July 16, 2008 10:46 AM |
This blog will address the third of four steps to improving your online fundraising strategy: weaving together your online and offline marketing techniques. While online fundraising is vital, it cannot be the whole of your marketing strategy. Because your donors are unique and diverse, your marketing channels should be too. Your aim in this step should be to integrate online and offline marketing to give your donors a variety of communication and donation options. Mailing offline 1. Talk to your donors to discover which channels they favor for communication and donation. Even if you think you...
posted @ Wednesday, July 09, 2008 10:14 AM |
Yesterday’s blog outlined ways to maximize your website -- the first of four steps to make your online fundraising efforts as effective as possible. This blog will discuss the next step: developing an email strategy. Your goals with your email communication should be to get organized and to continue to uphold content as your focus. Planning 1. Stay in touch with donors and potential donors through an email messaging program, which may include e-newsletters, event updates, and action alerts. Provide subscribers with useful and interesting information so they’ll want to read more. 2. Create...
posted @ Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:51 AM |
There are four basic steps to creating an effective online fundraising strategy. Step 1: maximize your website. You should have three main goals with your website: to make sure your site is usable, to keep content the main focus, and to formulate strategies to increase traffic. Design 1. Make sure your “donate” button clearly visible and near the top of the screen. 2. Connect with site visitors via surveys, contests, and other creative interaction. 3. Keep in mind that all different sorts of visitors will find your site. Make your...
posted @ Tuesday, July 01, 2008 11:05 AM |
Recently, there was an article published about wealthy online donors. These donors were grouped into three categories: “All Business,” “Casual Connectors,” and “Relationship Seekers.” While these donors do give online, they are rarely impressed with charity websites and their email communication. These donors have many expectations and suggestions about how charities can improve their online presentation.
Wealthy online donors want these items from the charities they support:
A year-end tax summary
A report on the projects their donation supported
A renewal option
The ability to control...
posted @ Tuesday, June 17, 2008 12:00 AM |
Wealthy donors are actually quite active online, writes Joanne Fritz in analysis of a study by Convio, Sea Change Strategies and Edge Research. These three companies studied individuals who make four-figure or higher annual donations to charities. Of these donors, 25% percent of them have salaries over $200,000, while 50% of them have salaries over $100,000. There are three groups that these donors fall into: “relationship seekers,” “casual connectors,” and “all business.”
The “relationship seekers” want to connect emotionally with your organization online. They are the youngest group of wealthy online donors with 42% of them being in between the ages...
posted @ Friday, June 13, 2008 12:00 AM |
When raising online funds, you should keep in mind that maintaining a blog is a vital part of your efforts. Here are nine ideas on writing a successful blog.
1) Read other blogs. In order to write meaningful blogs, you must understand the current issues in the non-profit sector. A feed aggregator is a useful tool which reads the blogs you specify and displays all the updated content in one browser screen. Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) and Google Reader are common aggregators.
2) Blog daily. A steady reader base is formed by consistent blogging. Mix articles about issues that affect your organization with...
posted @ Tuesday, June 10, 2008 12:00 AM |
Information taken from PINC Giving blog
In a world that continues to increase in its love and dependence on online technology, it is important for nonprofits to use these resources. With many social networking sites, blogs, vlogs, and personal webpages, your opportunities are close to limitless.
The most important part of tapping into this online world is the viral quality of the web. By “word-of-mouth” through forwarding an email, sending a video, or posting a blog there is potential for exponential growth in those who become interested in your ministry.
Many successful events and campaigns have been organized online. However, Nicco Mele, who...
posted @ Friday, June 06, 2008 12:00 AM |