Posts in category Nonprofit Fundraising

P2P fundraising empowers others to ask on your behalf!

April 3, 2015 Leave a Comment Written by Deborah Spector
The peer-to-peer family tree breaks down the different kinds of P2P fundraising and shows how big the P2P family is becoming.

The P2P family tree breaks down the different kinds of P2P fundraising and shows how big the P2P family is becoming.

P2P fundraising empowers others to ask on your behalf! Also known as Peer-to-peer fundraising, P2P uses the power of your constituents to engage their friends and family.

It’s one of the major driving forces in successful nonprofit fundraising. The peer-to-peer family tree breaks down the different kinds of P2P fundraising and shows how big the P2P family is becoming.

So imagine my delight when Tate Handy at Digital Third Coast  asked if I would be interested in sharing the P2P family tree developed with Plenty Consulting.

Then Tate offered an introduction by Plenty Consulting CEO Jeff Shuck. I was thrilled!

I’ve been a big fan of Jeff Shuck since 2007 when I first learned of his new paradigm incorporating special events to the classic development pyramid. For me it was a gateway to P2P fundraising and empowering others to ask on your behalf!

Jeff Shuck introduction to the P2P family tree:

  • Did you buy Girl Scout cookies this year?
  • Did you participate in a Tough Mudder as a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project?
  • Did you attend Penn State’s annual Dance Marathon, or purchase lemonade from one of Alex’s Lemonade Stand?

If you did any one of these things, I’ve got news for you- you were participating in an act of peer-to-peer fundraising, whether or not you knew it at the time.

Peer-to-peer fundraising, also known as P2P, is one of the most thrilling nonprofit fundraising channels being used today, and it’s growing at a fast pace. Yet despite its growing fan base, many people aren’t quite sure how to explain P2P to others. Here’s what you need to know.

First of all, in traditional fundraising, organizations reach out to their network to donate. In P2P, meanwhile, organizations ask their constituents to reach out to people connected to them on behalf of your cause. Instead of only having access to their donors, organizations can connect with their constituents plus their constituents’ networks, creating an unending collection of potential new donors. Your audience expands exponentially, and with it, so does your ability to do more to fulfill your mission.

Abundance is out there and peer-to-peer fundraising helps you unlock that abundance to be distributed to those who need it. What can your network do for your cause?

Deborah’s Comments –

P2P fundraising empowers others to ask on your behalf! P2P engages your network in a number of ways:

  1. Ensures successful events
  2. Integral part of cause marketing initiatives
  3. Fuels the engine for digital campaigns

We’d love to hear examples of how your nonprofit engages and empowers your network by involving constituents in P2P initiatives.

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Want donors to stay engaged? Thank them!

January 2, 2015 Leave a Comment Written by admin


Want donors to stay engaged? Thank them with a timely, sincere thank you letter.

Always say thank you!

Want donors to stay engaged? Thank them!

Sounds like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?

Well, it’s unfortunate how many nonprofits don’t thank their donors.

Of course we thank them. After all, many of our donations are done online and we have our system send a receipt/thank you note.

Is this really thanking your donor? Does this create engagement?

I suggest not. Want donors to stay engaged? Thank them!

I don’t believe that the lapse is intentional. But, those thank you notes are extremely important. Here are some meaningful ways to rectify the situation and ensure that your donors stay engaged:

Donor acquisition is extremely important. Yet 3 of 4 donors leave and never come back. Frank Barry, director of digital marketing at Blackbaud and blogger at npENGAGE, wrote a very interesting blog post One thing most nonprofits stink at (donor retention) and how you can change it interviewed fundraising experts from across the industry to share 12 super simple (but effective) ways to engage and retain donors. I was thrilled when I saw how many spoke to the importance of heartfelt thank you notes.

These 12 Ways to Thank Donors will keep them from saying goodbye offer a good guide for using thank you notes to keep your donors engaged:

  1. Offer donors a next step in your thank you note.
  2. Thank your donors for being them.
  3. Send a handwritten note.
  4. Treat each donation as the beginning of a meaningful friendship.
  5. Don’t ask for more money — yet.
  6. Keep it simple and emotional, not filled with jargon.
  7. Make your donor feel something positive in your thank you letter.
  8. Avoid careless errors – double check your grammar and spelling.
  9. Send your thank you letter as fast as possible.
  10. Make the letter relevant.
  11. Give the donor credit, not you.
  12. Follow up later.

Writing thoughtful timely thank you letters is hard work. But, it’s worth it!

Thank you for all you do for your community. And, thank you for following my blog.

I’d love to hear from you with suggestions for keeping donors engaged!

 

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Is your nonprofit taking advantage of #GeorgiaGivesDay Nov. 13th?

November 6, 2013 Leave a Comment Written by admin

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“Whether you know it or not, you live your life in nonprofits.” Georgia Gives Day

Georgia Gives Day is an initiative created by GA’s nonprofit sector. The nonprofit sector pulls together and asks you to consider your life and your community without nonprofits. So, instead of supporting one cause or locale, Georgia Gives Day supports the state’s nonprofits. This year’s event happens on November 13th. You’ll have an opportunity to support the organizations and causes in your own community and across the state. Whether you have $10 or $10,000 to give, it all adds up to greater impact on the issues that support and enrich our lives and make our local communities thrive.

Georgia Gives Day is a collaboration of the the Georgia Center for Nonprofits (GCN) in partnership with participating nonprofits, state agencies, corporations and businesses, associations, foundations and public relations and advertising firms.

And, succeed they did! The inaugural Georgia Gives Day in December 2012 raised more than $900,000 from more than 7,700 individual donors. This year, organizers at the Georgia Center for Nonprofits hope to draw more than 10,000 individual donations in a “flash mob day of giving” during the Nov. 13 Georgia Gives Day. Thanks to GCN, finding a cause or charity and making a donation is easy at www.gagivesday.org.

Today I received an email from Girls Inc. of greater Atlanta. I love that they encourage supporters to become fundraisers for the organization and provide a link!

The organization reminds supporters to share on social media by using the hashtags #GIGA1113 and #GAGivesDay.

Do you have any suggestions on how to take advantage of this great opportunity? We’d love to hear!

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A focus on my donation patterns

March 25, 2013 Leave a Comment Written by admin

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Every year in preparation for filing my taxes I list my donations from the previous year. This year I had an ‘ah ha’ moment when I realized that there was a wealth of information about my own donation patterns.

  • With a few exceptions I leave the majority of my charitable giving to the end of the year. The nonprofits to which I donate focus on my personal areas of concern. I no longer write checks, with one exception – my yearly donation to the local Food Bank is solicited by a friend who sends a self-addressed envelope.
  • I have become very sensitive to how easy it is to make my donations. I get frustrated when I have to jump through hoops to make the donation. But, I will admit that I don’t yank the donation because I had to fill-in a few extra fields.
  • I no longer look for opportunities to give. I admit that I expect the nonprofits that I support to stay in touch with me throughout the year.
  • I still open direct mail from organizations that support issues of concern and to whom I do not currently donate. On occasion I do add a new organization and usually continue to support them.
  • Social media plays a role in my giving. And, yes, I do expect a thank you for my gift.

My end of the year donations are different from the nonprofits in which I’m fully involved as a board member or trustee. My expectations and responsibilities affect my giving patterns – the more I’m engaged, the more I give.

I recently had an ‘interesting’ experience with an organization with which I have a long standing relationship. I served on the board of trustees, chaired the marketing committee and served as the volunteer coordinator for a yearly lecture series for years.

I always gave beyond my membership dues and board obligations whenever I served on a committee. Then along came a new president who wanted to put her stamp on the organization. In her eyes that meant making changes as to who was asked to participate in projects.

No need to fill in the blanks here. Would anyone like to guess what happened to my donations?

My suggestion – treasure your donors. Find ways to keep them engaged. Empower those who want to be more involved.

Do you have any experiences to share? Would love to hear from you.

 

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Online Giving is Key to Successful Fundraising

February 26, 2013 Leave a Comment Written by admin

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I’m not going to inundate you with too many statistics – only a few!

 Here are some key findings from The 2012 Charitable Giving Report. This is just an overview of the report with an emphasis on online giving trends. To review the complete report, click here.

  • Overall giving continued its slow recovery and grew approximately 2% in 2012.
  • Online giving grew by about 11% in 2012 compared to 2011.
  • Online fundraising was 7% of all giving in 2012, an increase from 2011.
  • Small nonprofits had the greatest increase in overall fundraising in 2012 while medium-sized organizations led online.
  • Nonprofits have embraced the reality that social media is required to optimize fundraising and engagement opportunities. The average donation made through social media networks has continued to grow — $38 in 2010 to $59 in 2012, a 55% increase.

This means that it is important for your organization to maximize your online giving. Although most of these suggestions are simple and you might say, “Well, duh,” I suggest you create a checklist and see if you’re making online giving appealing and easy.

  • Our website is visually interesting
  • We have easy to find contact information on the homepage
  • We keep relevant content updated
  • Our Donate Now button is prominent and easy to find
  • We provide a link to our donation page in all our materials
  • We have an easy to understand donation URL that we add to our phone message
  • We track our donors so we can monitor which pages are getting the most hits and which sources are sending the greatest number of visitors to our donation page.
  • We keep the number of clicks necessary to make a donation to a minimum.
  • We test the donation  form to ensure that it is easy to follow and doesn’t take too long to complete
  • We provide a contact name and number/email on the donation form
  • We have an auto-reply set up that thanks our donors for their gift
  • We provide personalized fundraising pages for our events & Friends & Family campaigns
  • Our donation page works well on mobile devices
  • We make sure we stay in touch with all our donors and share what a difference their donation makes

Why not invite a few board members, volunteers and clients to be Donors for a Day. Then invite everyone to a brainstorming session to discuss their experiences.

I promise you’ll learn a lot about your online giving. And, who knows, you might get some donations along the way!

There are a number of blog posts and resources on online giving. You might want to check out:

  1. Network for Good’s 10 Fundraising Mantras for 2013 
  2. The Benefits of Online Giving
  3. 3 Advantages to Online Fund Raising

If you have any suggestions to add to the checklist I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

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It’s not too late to improve year-end giving!

December 5, 2012 Leave a Comment Written by admin

 

Okay, I know it’s late. But, there’s still time to ensure that your organization is primed to reap the benefit of end-of-year donations.

So, as you get ready for your end-of-the year push, I want to share my personal pet peeves that make me think twice before supporting a nonprofit. These were originally posted last year – Putting together the puzzle pieces for your end of the year fundraising:

  • No way to send an email and/or make a phone call to a specific staff member
  • Sending me a letter and/or an email addressed to ‘Dear Friend” – There’s just no excuse. You need to send personalized email and letters.
  • No one to answer the phone and/or respond to email the end of December – It boggles my mind when nonprofits completely close down during this most important fundraising period. I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard from ‘almost’ donors who moved on to support organizations where they could reach a human being.
  • Making me hunt for a way to make a donation – A donate now link is not enough. Visitors to your website need to see a donate button regardless of where they land when they enter your site. Complement each page with a donate pitch with an easy to find donate button
  • Donate now buttons that don’t link directly to the donation page – For each extra click you are losing potential donors.
  • Donation pages without contact information and an address for regular mail – Personally I like to charge my donations. But, there are still people who like to send a check. Be sure to invite visitors to do so.
  • No way to make a tribute donation – I’ve developed deep relationships with nonprofits who provide a phone number and/or email address for tribute donation details. On the flip side I’ve crossed off nonprofits that don’t have some mechanism for making these gifts.
  • No personal thank you notes for online donations – Most online systems have an automated response system. Be sure and follow up with a personalized thank you.
  • A registration that promises an online newsletter that never comes

Recently I read an interesting article by Curtis Chang, founder and CEO of Consulting Within Reach, posted in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. I found myself nodding my head as I read the article.

Here’s a summary of End-of-Year Appeals: Five Bad Habits to Kick. (I strongly suggest you read the article. It contains a number of great links).

1. Sending everyone the same message

Do you really want to send the same message to people who have already donated this year and to people who have never given? Not acknowledging a previous supporter’s donation is like greeting a good friend at a party by extending your hand and saying, “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” With all of the database technology at hand, every organization should be customizing their appeals.

2. Over-reliance on emotional stories

Stories are important to appeal to prospective donors. But end of the year letters also need to contain data that demonstrates the overall impact of donations. Don’t forget to compile your stats, and display them in a compelling way to help persuade people to support your organization.

3. Killing with words, words, words

In our communication era, people have a decreasing capacity to consume long stretches of text. During the holiday season, as more and more physical and electronic letters arrive than usual, that capacity plummets even further. Nonprofits would be well advised to look for other media to embed in their annual appeals.

4. Neglecting the little things

Almost ¼ of all email opens occur within the first hour of being sent. This means that a little thing like when you’ve scheduled delivery of your electronic appeal can make a real difference. Your placement—and testing—of your hyperlinks to a giving opportunity can also have out-sized impact. For physical mailings, the biggest little thing you can do is to include a handwritten message: Some studies show that this increases the chances of a donation by 300 percent.

5. Botching the thank you

One very obvious bad habit is to forget to send a timely thank you to donors. Thank you cards matter—but beware: According to other studies, thank you gifts can backfire by ruining the donor’s sense of altruism.

Don’t let these stumbling blocks keep you from reaping the end of the year fundraising benefits.

Do you have any further suggestions? Would love to hear from you.

 

 

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Putting together the puzzle pieces for your end of the year fundraising

November 21, 2011 1 Comment Written by admin

A very dear friend lost her husband unexpectedly. I wanted to make sure the nonprofit in which she had been very involved knew about the funeral. I also wanted to make a donation in his memory.

I hit the website knowing that I would easily find the needed contact information, since I had worked with the organization as a marketing communications consultant in 2008.

Imagine my surprise when I could not find any email addresses or phone numbers except to a central box.

What a wake-up call!

So, as you get ready for your end-of-the year push, I want to share my personal pet peeves that make me think twice before supporting a nonprofit:

  • No way to send an email and/or make a phone call to a specific staff member
  • Sending me a letter and/or an email addressed to ‘Dear Friend” – There’s just no excuse. You need to send personalized email and letters.
  • No one to answer the phone and/or respond to email the end of December – It boggles my mind when nonprofits completely close down during this most important fundraising period. I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard from ‘almost’ donors who moved on to support organizations where they could reach a human being.
  • Making me hunt for a way to make a donation – A donate now link is not enough. Visitors to your website need to see a donate button regardless of where they land when they enter your site. Complement each page with a donate pitch with an easy to find donate button
  • Donate now buttons that don’t link directly to the donation page – For each extra click you are losing potential donors.
  • Donation pages without contact information and an address for regular mail – Personally I like to charge my donations. But, there are still people who like to send a check. Be sure to invite visitors to do so.
  • No way to make a tribute donation – I’ve developed deep relationships with nonprofits who provide a phone number and/or email address for tribute donation details. On the flip side I’ve crossed off nonprofits that don’t have some mechanism for making these gifts.
  • No personal thank you notes for online donations – Most online systems have an automated response system. Be sure and follow up with a personalized thank you.
  • A registration that promises an online newsletter that never comes

Don’t let these stumbling blocks keep you from reaping the end of the year fundraising benefits.

Do you have any suggestions ? We’d love to hear from you.

Have questions? Need more information?

Please contact me at deborah@creative-si.com.

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Hats Off To Aunt Cele – Fundraising Basics

March 8, 2010 2 Comments Written by admin

Hats Off To Aunt Cele

My family lost our Aunt Cele this week. She was high-spirited with a strong sense of fairness and generosity. She always had important life lessons for her family and everyone she met. She taught me to be committed to what I believe in and to do things right the first time.

So, in honor of my Aunt Cele, I offer these fundraising basics so that you and your organization can launch a successful fundraising campaign right from the start.

1.     Remember, fundraising is all about getting people to be supportive of your organization.

2.     Have a passion and commit to your cause.

3.     Never ask a stranger for money. Cultivate your relationships and introduce each person you involve with your passion for your cause.

4.     Think of the needs of your donors. Find out their interests and how they will personally benefit from giving to your cause.

5.     Only ask for what you need. Do not create new ‘wants’ because you think they sound better.

6.     Personalize your solicitation. The more personalized “the ask” the more likely people will give.

7.     Raise money from the inside out. Start with your board and all volunteers involved in your fundraising.

8.     Raise money from the top down. Solicit your largest gifts first. Success is contagious and will impact your campaign.

9.     Make your case larger than your organization. Show donors how they, their children, and the community will benefit.

10. Don’t overreach. Make sure your strategy supports a successful campaign.

11. Run your fundraising campaign like a successful special event – Research, plan, implement and evaluate.

12. Be sure and say Thank You every chance you get.

Thank You Aunt Cele.

And, Thank You all for reading my posts.

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Building a Successful Fundraising Board

February 22, 2010 Leave a Comment Written by admin

 

I’ve been asked to do a presentation on the Role of The Board in Fundraising, and I’m thrilled. Board involvement is the heart and soul of good fundraising. Committed leadership is a nonprofit’s greatest strength.

But, moving to a fundraising board is not always easy. The shift is wrought with tension between the members of the board and staff.

Throughout my years of working with boards in transition, I have heard a lot of reasons why board members do not like to engage in fundraising. Each concern is legitimate and needs attention.

“If I ask, I’ll have to give.”  – Board members are usually asked to engage their family, friends and colleagues. Quite often they are asked to reciprocate and give to their contact’s favorite nonprofit. This could be a problem for board members with limited means.

“No one told me I would have to raise money.”  People join boards for different reasons and work on various projects and programs. It is, however, a board responsibility to raise resources to support the organization. A smart practice is to include fundraising expectations in the board orientation.

 “It’s embarrassing to ask people for money.”  Make sure your organization provides fundraising training. Understanding the development process is important and will assuage a lot of discomfort.

Should all board members be involved with fundraising? Absolutely! That isn’t to say that everyone will be engaged in the same way. There are many elements that go into successful fundraising.

To get started, walk before you run. Ask each board member to give to the extent of his or her ability. Match talent and comfort levels to the type of fundraising activities in which the organization is involved.

Some board members will be much more comfortable working on a special event than face-to-face solicitation. Some will have the technical savvy to grow interest in their organization through social media.

Remember, people give to people. The main reason a person makes his or her first gift to a nonprofit is that the right person asks. So, successful fundraising goes hand-in-hand with building relationships. And who better to build those relationships than leadership?

You know you have a fundraising board when members are asked what they do for their nonprofit and they say “We raise resources and influence for our organization.”

Now you know you’re on the road to success!

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