Social Media Fundraising: Past, Present, and Future

Social Media Fundraising:
Past, Present, and Future
Ehren Foss
April 18, 2012

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Today‟s Speaker

Ehren Foss
CEO
HelpAttack!
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Welcome!
Social Media Fundraising: Past, Present, and Future

Ehren Foss
@ehrenfoss
ehren@helpattack.com

http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com

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


Past, present, future
• From email to blogs to social networks
• Convert offline & email fundraising expertise
• Social CRM, social media is a channel


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?


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

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


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


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.



Why is sharing
important? Response
and conversion rates.

Slide from Sarah Durham / Big Duck http://slidesha.re/GKtWDH


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


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


• 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..


• 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?


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.


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!


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!


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


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.


Leverage a Special Event
• Earth Day, Valentines Day, event
• …or create one! #oceangiving

http://oceana.org/en/blog/2011/11/this-november-celebrate-oceansgiving


Partners, Advocates,
Celebrities
• Celebrity ambassadors
• Corporate sponsors (JetBlue/FreeArts)


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)


Grow Your Presence

• Borrow an audience
• Reach out to 10 people with 500 followers
• Volunteers, other nonprofits, media, activists


Grow Your Presence

• Ads on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin
• Advertise on Google, Bing
• Special programs (Google Grants,
YouTube nonprofit program, Hope140) for
nonprofits


Case Study with Facebook
Ads
Beth Kanter and AXIS Dance Company

http://www.bethkanter.org/facebook-ads/, check it out!


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/


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


Real World Example- NPCA

http://www.facebook.com/NationalParks


What's a free and easy way
to keep supporters happy?

Thank supporters/donors right away on social
media. It's free and powerful.


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/


Real World "Thank Yous"


Real World "Thank
Yous"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBrc4c_1jio&feature=
player_embedded


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/


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/


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


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?


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


Thanks for joining us!

Blog & resources: http://info.helpattack.com

Sign up: http://helpattack.com/addcause/search

@helpattack
http://facebook.com/helpattack
(512) 673-7254

Find listings for our current season
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A Service
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Social Media Fundraising: Past, Present, and Future

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