Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Fundraising 2.0
A New Model for Fundraising on
Facebook Using an Old Skool™ Tool:
Cause-Related Marketing
Jonathon D. Colman
Associate Director, Digital Marketing
The Nature Conservancy
jcolman@tnc.org
206/343.4345 x368
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #1 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
About Facebook.com
• 4th most-visited site on the Web [COMSCORE]
• Over 100 million registered users, over 250k+ daily growth [FACEBOOK]
• Fastest-growing demographic: users 25+ years of age [FACEBOOK]
• Over 24,000 third-party applications built on open API platform [FACEBOOK]
• 35MM+ unique visitors/month, only 37% from U.S. [COMPETE, ALEXA]
• 65% of visitors are “addicts” returning daily [QUANTCAST]
• Visitors are more female, more affluent than Internet avg. [QUANTCAST]
• Referred 14,384 visitors to nature.org for FY2008
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #2 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
About (Lil) Green Patch
• Created in January 2008 after Facebook opened its platform to
external application developers
• One of a very few initial applications focusing on either the
environment or social change
• Value proposal is that users can “fight global warming… together
we can make a difference!”
• Communications to users and initial landing page are structured
for strong, viral growth
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #3 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Note strong value proposition and mention of
the Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre program
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #4 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Users of (Lil) Green Patch can make a difference for nature by
taking a simple action… and without spending any money
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #5 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Users given cues to keep participating in the game, which both
create community and drive advertising impressions
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #6 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Soon after its introduction, (Lil) Green Patch became one of the
most popular apps on Facebook and still is today
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #7 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Not just a game, but a business: around one million people
use (Lil) Green Patch every single day
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #8 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Key demographic points: users tend to be female, well-
connected, use media-centric apps, and are out of college
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #9 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Estimates state that (Lil) Green Patch’s users could be
driving up to $165,000 in advertising revenue each month
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #10 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #11 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Causes on Facebook
• Third-party application developed on Facebook’s open platform by
Project Agape, launched in May 2007
• Allows American and Canadian 501(c)(3)s and political campaigns
to recruit supporters and fundraise directly on Facebook
• Raised $2.5MM for 20,000 charities in first year of operation
(average of $125/charity)
• Online donations conducted securely through Network For Good
• 26.2MM total installs, 262K daily active users (1%)
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #12 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
(Lil) Green Patch has donated over $67,000 to the Conservancy,
making us the 3rd highest performing nonprofit on Facebook
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #13 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
(Lil) Green Patch has also attracted thousands of new users to
join the Conservancy’s cause, increasing our reach and impact
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #14 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
The Results
• (Lil) Green Patch’s support for the Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre
program will help us to preserve over 59MM square feet of
rainforest in Costa Rica
• Since February 2008, (Lil) Green Patch has donated over $67,000
to the Conservancy on Facebook (593x above average donations)
• (Lil) Green Patch’s promotion of the Conservancy’s Cause has
helped us in recruiting nearly 26,000 new Cause members
• The Wall Street Journal profiled The Nature Conservancy and (Lil)
Green Patch as a way for new donors to get involved with charities
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #15 of 16

Seattle Net Tueday—Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on Facebook September 30, 2008
Follow me on Twitter!
twitter.com/jcolman/
Jonathon D. Colman
Associate Director, Digital Marketing
The Nature Conservancy
jcolman@tnc.org
206/343.4345 x368
All plant characters and illustrations © (Lil) Green Patch
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy Slide #16 of 16