Open APIs- what's happened, who's used it, and what's on the horizon on the future

What's happened, Who's used it, and What's on the horizon on the future Open APIs: Kathy Kempff, Charity Dynamics Shannon Bridges, American Cancer Society Sara Orrell, Arthritis Foundation Susan Neumann , National Trust for Historic Preservation Session Code: 167

Who you Are?
Nonprofit Staff
Development/Fundraising
IT Staff
Web Master
Vendors
Consultants

What’s your API Experience?
New to APIs
Basic working knowledge of APIs
Knowledgeable & experienced using APIs

AGENDA
Understanding the benefits of using an integrated API
Measuring the return on investment for using APIs
How to sell an API project internally at your organization?
APIs at play: How using APIs resulted in increased revenue, engagement and brand awareness
American Cancer Society case study
Arthritis Foundation case study
National Trust for Historic Preservation case study
The future of APIs
Q&A

Application Programming Interface
Wikipedia definition of an API:
An API is an interface implemented by a software program to enable interaction with other software, similar to the way a user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers.
What are APIs? Application A Application B Request data Retrieve data API

AN API is typically a defined set of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request messages expressed in Extensible Markup Language (XML) or JavaScript Object Notation (JASON) format
Communication style trends
Moving away from Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
Increasing popularity in Representational State Transfer (REST)
API Tech Talk

APIs were initially targeted to solve the data integration problem
Before APIs, data integrity was tackled by one of the following ways:
Manual data exchange importing/exporting flat files
Custom software middleware solutions
Selecting a single software provider to meet all needs – although may not be the best at all functions
Traditional Focus of APIs

Extensibility
Extends the outreach of nonprofits to web communities where constituents find themselves
Flexibility
Enables nonprofits to use best of breed versus one size fits all approach
Integration
Ensure data integrity between different platforms and avoids data silos
Benefits of APIs

Web communities have created an open architecture for sharing content and data between applications
APIs are no longer a “nice to have” but a “requirement” in order for products to go mainstream
Increased # of API solutions
Commercial products being more accessible to nonprofits
How APIs have Evolved

FACEBOOK
FLICKR
Other Social Networks
Find Constituents Where They Are YOUTUBE PAYMENT SYSTEMS MOBILE DEVICES

Increase Engagement
Integrate constituent interactions with a creative engagement opportunity while capturing the data in your primary online database
Update constituent records
Update transactions
Allows for seamless integration into ongoing eMarketing programs
Welcome series
Segmented communications

EXAMPLE: Boundless Fundraising
Seamlessly connects peer to peer fundraising to Facebook
Auto-update status throughout the event
Sourced over $15million for non-profits in last 12 months
www.boundlessfundraising.com

EXAMPLE: Personalized Video
Personalized video for event participants to send to their friends and family to ask for support
Significant increase in participant asks through social media and email
Fundraising success
http://makingstrides.acsevents.org

EXAMPLE: Smart Phone Apps

EXAMPLE: Google Maps
Allows new visitors to place a flag on the map and sign up for more information
High level of user engagement
Integrates into ongoing member acquisition programs
http://www.preservationnation.org/take-action/this-place-matters/

EXAMPLE: Flickr
Allows new visitors to share a photo and sign up for more information
Used in slideshow, photo contest, and mosaic
Integrates into ongoing member acquisition programs
http://www.preservationnation.org/take-action/this-place-matters/

EXAMPLE : Amazon Payments
Donation payment through Amazon
Records donation in primary online database
http://support.nature.org/amazon

Measuring ROI
Define the purpose of the API initiative
How can the benefits of the project be measured?
New constituent acquisition: Measurement - # constituents
Donors
Volunteers
Event participants
Advocates
Fundraising: Measurement - dollars raised
Brand awareness: Measurement – site hits

Measuring ROI continuted
What is the cost of not pursuing the API project?
Data silos: duplicate data issue, lack of data integrity
Not extending your outreach and attracting new constituents, resulting in not achieving goals long term

Selling an API project
Define the true cost of the API project
Initial project cost to launch
Actual cost & opportunity cost
Any maintenance required post launch
What if the API changes?
Scalability implications
Hosting costs
Define short and long term benefits
How can these benefits be measured and reported

American Cancer Society Case Study Shannon Bridges Director, Relay For Life Online Events

About Relay for Life
Event program launched in 1985
Over 5,000 events
Largest event program in the US
Participants are asked to fundraise as part of their registration
Low barrier to participate – only a $10 registration fee

Challenge & Solution
CHALLENGE:
How to reach new constituents and donors during an economy downturn
Avoiding rogue Facebook applications and fundraising tools
SOLUTION:
Leverage APIs to integrate participant fundraising to social networks
Boundless fundraising for Facebook enabled both the recruitment of new participants and new donors

How it Works
Participants add Facebook application via event website/email
Participants get a profile badge with their fundraising progress and a link to both join them in the event or support them with a donation
APIs are used to update the badge and get updated fundraising statistics

How it Works
Stream stories are posted on behalf of participants spreading the word about their fundraising progress and a donation ask.
Facebook enables participants to fundraising year around rather than just during the event season

Raised over $750k in first 8 months of 2009
Over 71,000 boundless fundraising users
Over 3,200 new event registrations
Implemented for pilot group of 1,000 events
Based on 2009 results – ROI was proven and rolled out to all events for 2010
*Data includes donations to all RFL events taking place on or before August 31, 2009 and donations sourced directly through Boundless Fundraising
Relay For Life Results Highlights

Cumulative Raised Over Time

Of all online donations:
74% of Donations sourced through Boundless Fundraising are made by new donors.
60% of Donations not sourced through Boundless Fundraising are made by new donors
Bringing New Donors
Opportunity : Grow donor house file by introducing new donors to the organization and increase awareness of the mission.
An average Facebook user has 130 friends; 50% of whom are active*. If overall adoption rate of Boundless Fundraising grew to 20% of participants, a potential of up to 3 million additional Facebook impressions could result. (An adoption rate of 20% would add ~45k BF users who, on average, have 150 friends on Facebook; 50% of whom are active.)
*Facebook Press Room Statistics, October 2009

Stronger Participants Participants using Boundless Fundraising are more productive fundraisers, they also are more likely to reach their goals, attract more donors and send more emails – therefore growing the overall donor house file and communicating the RFL mission to peers.

Conclusion
Extending participant fundraising to Facebook using APIs enabled us to
Attract new donors to the organization
Add an additional channel of fundraising and recruitment – ie: not cannibalizing existing channels
Enable participants to fundraise year round
Using unique source codes to track all the activities, we were able to definitively demonstrate the ROI for investing in this solution

The Arthritis Foundation Case Study Sara Orrell Associate Vice President, Cause Development

Arthritis Foundation

Arthritis Foundation Signature Events
127 Events across the country
Over 100,000 participants
5K Run / Walk
Peer to peer fundraising Event
Registration fee
Additional fundraising encouraged
Held late Nov - Dec
250 Events across the country
Over 100,000 participants
5K Walk, 1 Mile Walk & Dog Walk
Peer to peer fundraising Event
Free to participate
$100 fundraising goal to receive T-shirt
Most events held in May (Arthritis Month)

Objectives and Goals
Increase participation and fundraising
Enable participants to be as successful as possible in fundraising on behalf of the Arthritis Foundation
Encourage more participants to become fundraisers
Use social media strategically and in response to participant interest
Minimize any increase in work for event managers

Key to Peer to Peer Fundraising Success
Make fundraising easy and fun
Increase the number of people participants request to give and join the event
Increase number of asks from a participant to each prospective donor

Requirements
No additional database of participants or donors
No additional donation processing
Ability to analyze impact with other marketing programs

Boundless Fundraising Facebook
Extend participants reach to their Facebook network
Easy add to connect Friends Asking Friends event to Facebook
Automatically updated network with fundraising progress

Why Bother with Facebook? Sources: 1. Facebook.com Statistics 2. Nielsen/NetRatings Report March 2009 3. Washington Post, April 22, 2009

Boundless Fundraising for Facebook - RESULTS
Jingle Bell Run
Nearly 4,000 or 4% of participants downloading & using the application
442 new participant registrations
More than $76,000 was raised through Boundless Fundraising (including $11,000 in registrations), & the average donation through the tool was $31.26
On average, Boundless Fundraising users raised 96% more per person than general participants, and users were 14% more likely to achieve their fundraising goal

VMix Video Project
Integrated video into custom giving page
Giving page contains direct links to participants giving page

VMix Video Results
Increased overall fundraising by 22%
Increased overall participation by 15%
Gave participants an easy way to reach out to family and friends
Increased number of participants send email

Boundless Fundraising Email Badge
Allow participants to ask for donations with every email they send
Badge appears in email signature sent from Outlook, Gmail, etc.

National Trust for Historic Preservation Case Study Susan Neumann Director of Engagement, Membership Department

PreservationNation

Who are the people in our neighborhood?
Professional affiliations
Architects
Builders
City planners
Realtors
General public

Lay people

Mystery Preservationists
Those who don’t even KNOW they are preservationists

Added Complexity

Challenge
How to be flexible for these audiences, yet keep everyone in central database?
How to make preservation accessible for different segments of the audience?
How to open a channel to PN for different interests and roles?

Power of API’s
Made engagement in PreservationNation accessible and flexible for people regardless of their role in preservation.
Flexible opportunities to “preserve”
Demystifies “preservation”—as easy as click of the mouse!

This Place Matters—Phase 1
Effort to display and feature places around the country
Gather photos to demonstrate mission & offer engagement tool for constituents
Initial target leader community—grew to include generalists
Cumbersome loading and display functionality

This Place Matters—Phase 2
Broader scope of photos & audiences
Make it easier to participate
Load photos & collect names/constituents

Customized Data Collection
Custom forms using Convio API tool.
Custom data capture connected to eCRM database
Lay groundwork for ongoing engagement using custom data

Photo slideshow
500% increase in photo submissions across country
Broad diversity of photos
More than 6,000 participants in campaign

Geographic & Topic Data Collection

Photo Mosaic
Additional marketing use of customized survey and data collection.
Photos used in collective display

Photo Contest
Low threshold opportunity to capture individuals
More than 6,000 voters

TPM 3.0
Tool provided to regional and community groups to make their own segmented slideshows.

Extending the reach Using API functionality and program messaging into new programs.

Values of API investment
Flexible applications connected through centralized database.
House file build opportunities without data silos.
Broad funnel in; segmentation afterward for meaningful targeting.
Provided meaningful constituent generated content.
Offered low threshold engagement for range of constituents.
Provides foundation for additional programs and marketing messages.

The Future of APIs
Platforms being more open with increased # of APIs
Explosion of new applications that use API integrations
Open source API integration plug-ins
Consortium for the development and convergence of API standards – leading to standardization

Evaluation Code: 167 How Was this Session? Call In Text Online Call 404.939.4909 Enter Code 167 Text 167 to 69866 Visit nten.org/ntc-eval Enter Code 167 Session feedback powered by: Tell Us and You Could Win a Free 2011 NTC Registration!

Open APIs- what's happened, who's used it, and what's on the horizon on the future

by kathykempff on Apr 10, 2010

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Open APIs- what’s happened, who’s used it, and what’s on the horizon on the future — Presentation Transcript