Social media for fundraisers

I've just given a presentation on social media strategy for communication managers at non profits and it got me thinking about the integration of communications and fundraising. The biggest organisation attending had employees dedicated to social media communications and to fundraising. The smallest organisation had two employees. So let's presume that most organisations don't have people dedicated to social media.communications.

For the fundraiser social media could be a valuable tool in acquisition and in retention but it could also be a  huge time waster and a diversion from the real job objectives. The challenge for the fundraiser, and perhaps any communications manager is to spread the load.

Collaboration is the key. While the fundraiser might be concerned about donor relations, retention and acquisition, other members of the senior team will have their own objectives - education, lobbying, advocacy, information, brand management etc.

On this particular communications tool, the smart organisation will be working collaboratively to ensure that resources are used to the best effect. There will be new roles and responsibilities delegated to different staff members. For example the new hire who already has her own facebook site and easily sends numerous twitters to her friends every day will become the social media adviser and trainer. The IT guy who hardly ever leaves his office will be the moderator. The nurse or social worker will be content specialist and a disabled client living in rural Northland will provide the monthly reports on web users, traffic, number of followers and topics of conversation. The fundraiser may tap into all of these areas of expertise and all of this content to digest into a weekly, monthly blog for donors.

The fundraiser may decide the key area is relationship building. So instead of focusing on the internal needs, he or she focuses on donor recognition at the places where donors hang out.

Here's some ideas for donor relationship building

• Identify the face book sites of your donors and post thank you's where all their friends can see! 
• Celebrate their philanthropy with virtual certificates and endorsements - become friends through social websites
• Track the special interests of your donors through sites like Linkedin and actively communicate in the groups they are following
• Actively seek information about social media sites your supporters are following
• Set up closed groups for specific stakeholders to meet and converse with each other
• Ask influential or respected people to thank your best donors through social media such as Facebook or Linkedin
• Introduce your supporters to each other through social media sites
• Seek feedback from your supporters through social media tools

Fundraising blog topics

Had a comment from Mike Kotlyar with a few good ideas for postings. Thanks Mike. Face to face is one that he mentions in particular, along with volunteer strategies, and of course direct mail. That reminded me that telemarketing is another hot topic. If you start to bristle at the thought of those particular fundraising tools, you have to remember that they may not be aimed at your demographic.

This brings to mind a little story that someone shared with me. She had been doing her direct mail letters and of course there were a few addressed to people that she knew. As we do, she scribbled a little message on a post it note to her friends, demonstrating the personal nature of the mailing. When the CEO, who was signing the letter saw the note, she was horrified and said that the letters should be formal and proper, not with little notes stuck on! She obviously hadn't seen a Readers Digest mailing! So we need to ensure that if we have the expertise, we remind the people we work for that our strategy is sound and based on research or evidence.

I also get lots of people who fear that their letters will end up in the rubbish bin. It's okay! You don't need to be too precious about your mailings. They will end up in someone's bin. Don't stress over it. It doesn't mean they don't love you. Just that on this occasion they aren't going to reply.

The same for telemarketing. Some people will reject the call. It's a fact of life. The  important thing is not to get communication nerves. Keep going and don't sweat the small stuff.

Easy peasy fundraising

If you have plenty of supporters with time and enthusiasm on their hands - then ask them to do what they love, in aid of your charity. For some people having fun and fundraising at the same time is more attractive than cooking sausages and baking brownies.

Anyone who is competing in some sort of personal challenge or a team event could fundraise on your behalf. It doesn't have to be a sports event. It could be some kind of marathon - singing for 24 hours, standing up for a month, travelling on a shoe string budget - anything that's relatively newsworthy and attracts an audience will do.

We used to do this sort of "athon" by knocking on doors and seeking support from neighbours. Now we do this through special fundraising websites where participants can write their own blogs, email their updates to friends around the world, and collect pledges and donations electronically via credit card.

Evidence tells us that if you ask someone to collect by door knocking during an appeal week you may get them to collect a few hundred dollars each. If you ask them to collect by what we call personal challenges then they could collect at least several thousand dollars each. And they will have more doing it, than knocking on the neighbours door.

To make this successful the charity itself needs to provide guidance and all the tools necessary to make it work. It's usually easy to subscribe to a fundraising site such as Everyday Hero. But you need to provide some communication training for your participants. They will need words to describe what you do, they will need to understand how to use the website and establish their own blog. They will need to know what works and how other people have done their challenges. They will need media support from you, at least for their local community newspaper. They will need encouragement and congratulations. They will need to be part of the team. They may need tangible stuff like t-shirts, banners, flags etc. They will need you on the finish line!

Make the most of the new supporters that your participants bring along. They are part of your acquisition strategy.  Make sure you have a communication strategy to enlist them into your supporter group (first and foremost they are supporting their friend, but you can convert them to your cause). Thank them directly and make sure they know how their support is making a difference.

Thanking you!

The power of the thank you.
There's no doubt we need to build relationships with donors but how much effort do we put into the thanking process? In our direct mail campaigns we thank supporters for their donation along with the receipting process.But what about on line donations and regular givers? How do you thank the donor and how often?

At a conference last year I heard a very captivating presentation from Chuck Longford, Blackbaud's Chief Scientist. Chuck is the company's database wizard and so can prove anything he says.

Chuck reported on a couple of experiments undertaken by charities. The concept is simple. Get volunteers on the phone thanking first time donors for their first gift and guess what happens? In year two the donations from those who had been called increased by about 25 percent.

That's an exciting result isn't it? Wow, you'd think we would have already tried it wouldn't you? Well we probably have tried it but perhaps we haven't done so systematically. Perhaps our database isn't good enough to measure the results. Perhaps we haven't shared this knowledge with our colleagues. Perhaps we haven't been around long enough to measure a campaign from one year to the next.  Perhaps we aren't putting enough resources into relationship management! Perhaps we are more concerned with the numbers than with the people.

If you are looking to improve your fundraising results with very little financial input, try doing this experiment for yourself. And for the sake of someone coming in after you, test and measure everything!