Social media fundraising is still a curiosity - big opportunities for some, frustration and challenges for others. We'll discuss the history of social media fundraising since 2005, and draw lessons from successful campaigns. We will identify specific reasons to start fundraising on social media, and good reasons not to. Finally, you'll be prepared with a set of easy best practices you can do to prepare for the road ahead.
4. Today‟s Speaker
Ehren Foss
CEO
HelpAttack!
Assisting with chat questions: Hosting:
Riley Croft, Nonprofit Webinars Sam Frank, Synthesis
Partnership
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5. Welcome!
Social Media Fundraising: Past, Present, and Future
Ehren Foss
@ehrenfoss
ehren@helpattack.com
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
6. Who the heck is HelpAttack?
HelpAttack! is social media fundraising:
• Turns Facebook updates, Tweets, #hashtags, blog
posts...into microdonations.
• Facebook & Twitter Apps for nonprofits
• Consulting too
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
7. Past, present, future
• From email to blogs to social networks
• Convert offline & email fundraising expertise
• Social CRM, social media is a channel
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
8. Best practices:
• How is social media fundraising different from online
fundraising or email? How is it the same?
• Case studies and best practices: What goals are
realistic, and what effort is needed?
• How can smaller organizations find success?
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
9. Past
• Ashton Kutcher? Brands?
o "Action triggered" cause marketing
o Companies taking risks & innovating
• Email = biggest social network
o Focus on email acquisition
• Coordinate multiple channels
• One-offs
o Twestival
o 12kfor12k
o Tweetsgiving
• Some Infrastructure
o Facebook Causes
o Rt2Give
http://bit.ly/IFdLI5 - history
http://bit.ly/HZTh0V - 10 lessons
10. Present
• Interest but not demand
• Shiny new thing syndrome?
o Becoming process & results driven
o "Donor database" ==> "Supporter database"
• Small slice of $20B given online
o Most people not yet habituated to $ on SM
• More infrastructure
o HelpAttack!, SmallAct, Causes.com, donation
tabs...
o Mobile & native app developers
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
11. Future
• Social media fundraising becomes a channel
• NFC (near field communication)
• Portable payment information
• We will assume...
o Donation an option through major SM networks
o Coordinated supporter experience
o Coordinated fundraising, awareness, advocacy
campaigns
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12. Social Media vs. Email
• How people share - you can forward a fundraising
email, but do you?
• Friends asking friends - peer to peer fundraising
• Platforms driven by both:
o Causes, Crowdrise, CauseVox, FirstGiving, Greater
Giving, HelpAttack!, etc
NOTE: it's up to you, not the tool, to grow a
relationship with those donors outside of the particular
tool they are using.
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
13. Social Media vs. Email
Why is sharing
important? Response
and conversion rates.
Slide from Sarah Durham / Big Duck http://slidesha.re/GKtWDH
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14. Social Media vs. Email
Why is sharing
important? Response
and conversion rates.
Slide from Sarah Durham / Big Duck http://slidesha.re/GKtWDH
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
15. Social Media vs. Email
Sharing may boost response rates. FreeArtsNYC
campaign for example:
Unique Visitors 291/1,700 (17%) 28x better than email
Pledges 26/1,700 (1.5%) 19x better than email
(vs 0.08%)
1,200 Facebook fans, 500 Twitter followers. Retweets
and shares from other organizations expanded audience
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
16. How are they similar?
• Audience is crucial
o How big?
o Who are they, and what do they care about?
• Experiment, test, and improve
• Move donors up engagement ladder
• "house file" is crucial People give to
• People give because: faces and
o People they know give heartbeats, not
o There's an immediate need statistics!
o They are asked
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17. How are they similar?
• Not everybody sees each message.
• Not everybody responds.
o Conversion rate
• Each step in a process reduces response.
o Conversion funnel
o 10% x 10% x 10% = 0.1%! (need 1,000 people to
start)
• Part of every community is dead weight.
o Abandoned accounts, bots, spam folders..
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18. How are they similar?
• Grown the same
o Starts with zero people
o Takes time and effort
• Cost resources at first
o More than donations produced
• Worth it!
Where would you be without your email list today?
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
19. How are they similar?
Return on Investment (ROI)
Like email, the ROI of social media should be measured
as a long term investment with compounding growth,
rather than a short term balance sheet.
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
20. What are best practices for
social media campaigns?
• Set realistic goals
• Grow your presence
• Reward participation
• Leverage a special event, celebrity ambassadors,
corporate sponsors
• Thank donors!
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
21. What are realistic goals?
• Get 10 new donors
• Learn who they are
• Thank them personally
• Stay in touch with them
Ten donors giving $25 per month all year is an extra
$3,000. Not bad!
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22. What time and effort are
needed?
About* 6 hours of work over 6 weeks.
• 1 hour to brainstorm the right kind of campaign for your cause, and the
supporters you want to reach
• 1 hour to invite other stakeholders
• 1 hour to tell partners or super-supporters and ask them to help spread the
word
• 30 minutes to write a blog post
• 30 minutes to include in an email to your list
• 2 hours of social media monitoring
• 1 hour to download reports and upload into your supporter database
*can vary depending on you and your organization
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23. What should I expect?
2,500 followers ≈ 5-10 donors
How do you figure?
If you have around 2,500 followers,
you’ll probably get 25 hits to the
linked URL, and a few will complete
the action. Repeat the ask in
different ways to get to 5-10 donors.
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
26. Reward Participation
• Reward participation
• “Like” for a chance to
win…
• Submit a picture for a
chance to win…
• Nonmonetary gifts
(feature your picture,
story, idea, etc)
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27. Grow Your Presence
• Borrow an audience
• Reach out to 10 people with 500 followers
• Volunteers, other nonprofits, media, activists
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
28. Grow Your Presence
• Ads on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin
• Advertise on Google, Bing
• Special programs (Google Grants,
YouTube nonprofit program, Hope140) for
nonprofits
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
29. Case Study with Facebook
Ads
Beth Kanter and AXIS Dance Company
http://www.bethkanter.org/facebook-ads/, check it out!
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
30. Case Study with Facebook
Ads
Who: AXIS Dance Company and Beth Kanter
Goal: get local likes
Method: 2 kinds, one general and one specific
Cost: $5/day for the general, $8/day for the specific
and decided to go for pay/click because we wanted to
them to click through to our AXIS Facebook page and
„Like‟ us on Facebook
http://www.bethkanter.org/facebook-ads/
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
31. Case Study with Facebook
Ads
Axis Dance Company Results:
• First 24 hours / $13 total budget
• 67 Page Views
• 28 Unique Page Views
• 17 new likes (10 directly from the ad)
• $13 for 10 likes
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32. Real World Example- NPCA
http://www.facebook.com/NationalParks
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
33. What's a free and easy way
to keep supporters happy?
Thank supporters/donors right away on social
media. It's free and powerful.
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
34. Best Practices for
Thanking Donors
• Provide inspiring stories about what donors are
accomplishing with their giving
o "Susan just donated enough for 20 thanksgiving
meals! Thank you!"
• Be personal
• Be specific: "Thanks for volunteering today Brian!"
more:
http://www.futurefundraisingnow.com/future-fundraising/2012/02/how-skimping-on-your-
donors-can-make-you-lose-your-shirt.html
http://www.bethkanter.org/say-thanks/
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
35. Real World "Thank Yous"
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
36. Real World "Thank
Yous"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBrc4c_1jio&feature=
player_embedded
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
37. Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest
Make it visual! Find your "inner Picasso"
from Noland Hoshino guest post on John Haydon's blog, check it out!
http://www.johnhaydon.com/2012/02/not-pin-on-pinterest/
http://pinterest.com/nolandhoshino/
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
38. Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest
What NOT to post
• Company logos
• Long paragraphs
• Non-visual stuff
• Small images
• Enormously long infographics. Instead, cut out sections
that‟s interesting
• Anything that violates Pinterest‟s terms of agreement"
from Noland Hoshino guest post on John Haydon's blog, check it out!
http://www.johnhaydon.com/2012/02/not-pin-on-pinterest/
http://pinterest.com/nolandhoshino/
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
39. Small to Medium Sized
Nonprofits
• Find your ideal supporters
• Friend them or Follow them
• They will likely follow back if you engage them
with questions or content
• Personalize the account with a picture, a voice
and even a brief bio of the person posting
• Use tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
40. Smallness as an Advantage
• You can really know your
supporters
• Grow the right audience
• Easier to ask them for things
Try this:
Choose a random hundred and look at their
profiles. How did they find you? Who are
they? Why are they following you? What value
can you provide?
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
41. Takeaways
• Far more similar than different from other
fundraising
• Sharing is critical
o Make it visual
o Make it specific
• Focus on your foundation
o General online donations
o Supporter database
o Create culture of listening & openness
• Then pick appropriate tools & campaigns
http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com
42. Thanks for joining us!
Blog & resources: http://info.helpattack.com
Sign up: http://helpattack.com/addcause/search
@helpattack
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(512) 673-7254
43. Find listings for our current season
of webinars and register at:
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