Online Ambassador Programs for Fundraising

Online Ambassadors:
Manufacturing
Viral Fundraising
Through
Influencers
A BWF_social webinar in
partnership with Network for Good
October 7, 2014
7251 Ohms Lane  Minneapolis, MN 55439
2461 South Clark Street, Suite 900  Arlington, VA 22202
952-921-0111  www.bwf.comCopyright © 2014 Bentz Whaley Flessner

Copyright © 2014 Bentz Whaley Flessner
In this webinar, we’ll…
 Demonstrate the value in
building an online ambassador
program for fundraising.
 Cover the four-step process for
building an online ambassador
program.
 Establish the components
necessary for successful online
fundraising campaigns.

Online Ambassadors
You can post until you’re blue in the face from your organization's official
Facebook page...and it still won’t have nearly the impact as a person’s
best friend posting the same thing from his/her
Facebook page.

Peer-to-peer communication.Why do we care so much about social media
users talking about us online?

Source: Nielsen, April 2012.

People learn of a new cause to supportwhen they see their friends
supportinga cause on social media.

In fact, online ambassador-driven campaigns are one of the most powerful
new donor acquisition tools available…

When you acquire new
donors online, you’re
acquiring higher
capacity donors.
Source: 2012 Convio Study.

Online-acquired donors give larger gifts…

…and they give
more over their
lifetimes.
$84
$124
$169
$197
$32
$48
$62
$72
2007 2008 2009 2010
Lifetime Revenue per Original Donor
for Donors Acquire in 2007
2007–2010 Medians
Donors Acquired Online
Donors Acquired by Mail

So in short, we care so much about
peer-to-peer or online
ambassador communication,
because online ambassadors help you
connectwith more donors who
have greater capacity to make big
giftsto your organization.

Building Online Ambassadors
into Fundraising Campaigns

At UMass Amherst, there was a need to drive up
participation, especially among students. After conducting
an assessment and workshop with them, BWF_social
helped UMass create an online ambassador program for
their inaugural UMassGives online fundraising campaign.

Just before, during, and
immediately after the
campaign, UMass Amherst’s
online ambassadors were
sent emails from the annual
giving team with updated
giving day information and
pre-packaged
posts for social networks
they were encouraged to
share with their networks.

Buzzerupted on social media during the campaign, thanks to well-
coordinated ambassador activity, mostly through email.

Donors at all age levels gave during the
campaign, not just the younger alumni.
And most age groups were involved in
the social media chatter, too.

Received gifts from
1,588 donors (by
far the most ever in
a single day for
UMassAmherst).
Received gifts from
626 students.The
entire year prior,
only 529 students
made a gift to the
institution.
Saw hundreds of social media posts from
ambassadors and their followers talking about
the giving day (and a half).This led to a highly
increased sense of philanthropy among UMass
Amherst supporters during the launch of their
comprehensive UMass Rising capital campaign.
Thanks to the 144 ambassadors we developed with the UMass
team, the first, 36-hour UMassGives:

The BWF_social online
ambassador process is built
on four basic steps:
 Identification of ambassadors.
 Engagement of ambassadors.
 Stewardship and recognition of
ambassadors.
 Strategic deployment of
ambassadors to achieve
fundraising goals.

Identification
Online ambassadors are
not necessarily your biggest donors.
They’re not always a celebrity or
prominent community member.
Online ambassadors have big
online communitiesthat
they interact with often. And they
love your organization.
That’s it.Without either, you don’t
have an online ambassador.

Start with your low-
hanging fruit…also known
as those social media followers who
love to like, comment
on, share, and retweet
the content you’re posting on your
org’s official accounts.
If you manage a social network
for your institution, you probably
already know a few of these
individuals.

Search your connections—online and offline—for people you know who:
 …are strong advocates for organization or mission.
 …have given at least once (or have participated in the activity you want them
to promote).
 …are frequently active on social media networks.

Celebrities are great…
…but celebrity does not
automatically make someone
an online ambassador.

Celebrities are your best
ambassadors when they
truly own your cause
and support your organization
or institution.

Keyword/phrase
searches—take time,
but yield results.
 Search hashtags
relevant to your
organization, mission,
and supporter base.
 Look for repeat likers,
sharers, commenters,
retweeters, etc.
 Click on the users to
learn more about their
potential for
ambassadorship.

Follow links from one account
to the next to learn more about
ambassadorship potential…

Donor database search and cross reference.
 How many donors
recently gave online?
 How many donors only
give online?
 Align social network
search results with names
in your database.
 Merge wealth data with
online giving records and
potential ambassadors.

Go big…
…with major gift donor
online ambassadors.

Miami Children’s Hospital “Together for the Children” campaign
teamed up with a single major gift donor
who was walking through Europe to raise money for the hospital.

The generous donor was the source of great content,
while also working his network to support the hospital.

After his roughly one-month walk was complete, more than
$1.4 million was raised. Much of it came from major gift donors…

…but several hundred thousand also came from small gift donors.
And roughly 75 percent of the donors were new.
So big fundraising and significant awareness were
by-products of involving a major gift donor in an online campaign.

 Securing challenge
grants to drive donor
activity.
 Using challenge grants
as seed gifts that
accomplish a goal before
the campaign begins.
Online giving days are
popular among major gift
donors, because they feel
like they are a part of the
greater donor community.
Online giving days are
a way of publicly
recognizing the support of
major gift donors.
Major gift donors LOVE the buzz and
excitement online campaigns create
around fundraising for the institutions
they love. Get major donors involved by…

Every potential ambassador
should receive a “welcome
to the program” email.
Some should receive a phone
call or other, more personal
contact first.
Engagement

For some potential ambassadors,
you might need to first warm up
the relationship with good social
media interaction.
Engagement

Provide an orientation
program for new ambassadors.
Make it easy to attend and
helpful so that they understand
their roles and the impact they
can have.
Deliver it via remote and
in person.
Engagement

Continue the program
throughout the years.
Ambassadors should not
just be leveraged for a
one-off campaign…they
should grow with your
program and be a part of
every communication
initiative.
Make a commitment
to your ambassadors
and ask the same
from them.

Stewarding
Ambassadors
Reward your ambassadors.
They are key volunteers that
can help your org do big things
online (and off). Create a
system for reward and
recognition of their
activity.

First things first, make sure you’re able
to track your ambassador activity.
For example, using smart technology platforms, you’ll
want to know:
Which
ambassadors
had the most
engagement on
the posts they
shared on
Facebook and
Twitter?
Which
ambassadors
raised the
most through
emailing their
friends?
Which
Facebook
posts led to
the most
gifts?

In addition to measuring
your ambassadors’ impact,
trackable links allow you to
easily add gamification as an
incentive for ambassadors
…because people
LOVE to compete.

Trackable links allow for
the creation of online
leaderboards. If
you have competitive
spirit among your
ambassadors, this can
really drive online
giving activity.

Build online spaces to recognize
your top ambassadors.
This doesn’t have to be exclusive to
online spaces—recognize ambassadors
in other well-read channels like annual
reports and print pieces.

Give them perks they’ll
enjoy AND want to talk
about (and post) online.
Like a photo shoot with
a famous supporter, an
invitation to have lunch
with your executive
director, or front-row
seats to a prominent
speaker on campus.

Don’t forget about the fun freebies!

Stewarding ambassadors is about more than freebies and recognition…it’s
also asking them to share content they want to share.
For ambassadors and for all communication, if you know what
your audience is Googlingon any given day, then you know
what content you should produce and share for them.

Stewarding ambassadors by giving
them content they want requires
knowing their content preferences or
content profiles.
Jonathan Epstein
Accounts:Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
Email: Jon@vetexperts.org
Key areas of Interest: Epidemiology, disease
transmission, veterinary medicine, SARS,
MERS, Ebola
Additional Interests:Travel, Africa
Ambassador Score: 72reverb

Deploying Ambassadors
You’ve found your ambassadors,
engaged them, trained them, and
figured out how to incentivize them.
Now, it’s time to work with
them to raise more
money for your nonprofit.

To deploy ambassadors during events, giving days, and
campaigns, make sure you have a smart email strategywith
suggested content the ambassadors will be asked to post.

Again, software is available
to help with this process
…but is not absolutely
necessary. Especially as
you’re getting started.

Crowdfunding…
…isn’t crowdfunding if you don’t have online ambassadors driving
the funds.

This happens all too often…

One of the best nonprofit examples of crowdfundingwas also one of the first…
Middlebury College’s MiddSTART

Good crowdfunding includes…
…engaging, donor-friendly online infrastructure.

Good crowdfunding…
…is closely integrated with your nonprofit’s mission and message.

Good crowdfunding…
…is driven by well-prepared and trained online ambassadors.

Ambassadors are a big part of the picture, but they’re by no means the
whole online fundraising picture.The best online giving
events have these f0ur things in common.
1. Attractive, engaging, user-friendly online infrastructure.
2. Strategy.
3. Ambassadors.
4. Major donors.

Summary
 Identify, engage, and
steward your first
group of ambassadors.
 Deploy them—find
communication and
fundraising goals they
can help you achieve.
 Reward and recognize
them—after all,
they’re high-value
volunteers!

Contact JustinWare by:
Email: jware@bwf.com
Twitter: @BWF_social or @JustinJWare
Blog: JustinJWare.com
Web: BWFsocial.com
Let’s keep
talking…
131913:JJW:cdc

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