Social Media.... the new Philanthropist

As a non- profit event manager, getting donations from the younger demographic is quite a challenge.  As a graduate student in the Northwestern medill IMC program, I have followed how non-for profits and have learned successful stargeies for engaging donors through social media.  



Photo credit to miles4kids.org

  Social media is already part of the daily lives of millions of people throughout the world. If done well, it can be a great platform to get your charity on their radar and get them dedicated to the cause. When first diving into social media it is important to keep in mind that you will get out of it what you put into it.  As this article from VerticalStudios.com reminds us that fundraising should be fun and creative, and this can all be achieved through social media.   You need to be fully engaged in your social media not only posting but listening and responding. In order to get the social media to turn into funds raised you need to give each person that personal connection to the cause to really personalize the message and make them feel like they can make a difference.  Gail Perry points out that engagement is important and fundraisers can't be boring to their donors.

Gameification is a great way to engage your audience and keep them coming back since they will be actively involved.  This group in Washington was able to raise over $2 million in one day using gameification fundraising.  Your social media strategy might include people getting a discount to your fundraising event if they like your Facebook page or maybe they could check in on FourSquare to advertise your event.  You can update your Twitter account with the latest statistics and personal stories to really drive your point home.   Be specific to really build that connection.  Social media is all about connecting people with other people so be sure to use it to tell how your cause impacts individual people.  This will create that bonds make people be advocates for your organization to spread your message and reach new donors.

Experts in the non-profit social marketing cite three things you should start doing immediatly.

1.)    Set up Accounts: To begin you need to set up accounts for your organization.  Make sure this has relevant and up to date information about your organization, as well as links to make a donation.  You need to make this as easy as possible for the donor to get involved.

2.)    Recruit followers.  The organizations that have the most success fundraising online have over 100,000 followers.   Don’t be discouraged, they all had to start out small and worked their way through their social network.   Connect with board members, employees, people who benefit from your cause, donors, donor prospects, people in your target market.   Start small and keep thinking of new target markets that you can reach with your message.

3.)    Post! You need to stay active and keep posting to keep people engaged.   Tell them about the progress of your fundraising or the latest story of someone who was helped by a donation.   You might want to highlight an underfunded area and show them how their small donation can make a big impact. 

Getting involved in social media is the important first step to help your organization expand its reach and raise funds through these new donors.   This can be an impactful tool but takes both time and effort to get the groundwork laid so you can be successful with this new social media campaign.  Remember to stay involved and keep engaging your audience to keep your cause front and center in their minds.

Beth Rottman has been a fundraiser for over five years at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.  She specializes in fundraising events, leading her team to raise over $3.5 million in events alone each year. She is a part time student at Northwestern Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communications Program.  Follow her on Twitter (@RottmanIMC)

Effective Social Strategy = Foundation Success

As a graduate student at Northwestern focusing on foundation marketing, most managers know their corporate and consumer donors are using social media to discuss their passions, interests and needs.  They also know their foundation does not have an effective strategy to turn these discussions into donations and new volunteers.  This blog will begin to address this social media challenge

To create a successful social media strategy, a foundation must understand what outcomes will serve as indicators that they are using social media effectively?

·      Are you tracking new donors?

·      Repeat donors?

·      Fundraising?

·      Communicating your message effectively using the right platforms 

Groundswell  lays out  a  model  that can be used to segment and understand the consumers of the social media. As a foundation, you need to understand the existing and evolving social technographic profiles of your donors, supporters and volunteers to choose appropriate social media and engagement strategies (listening, talking, energizing, helping, embracing). The model also proposes a four-step process for developing a social media marketing strategy - People, Objectives, Strategy, and Technology (called POST) 

Below is an explanation of  the process and framework:

P: People
Assess your customers’ social activity. That is current and potential donors, volunteers and beneficiaries.

O: Objectives
Decide what you want to accomplish. Is it increasing your brand awareness or donations? Recruiting volunteers? Reaching out to your beneficiaries?

S: Strategy
Strategy is a plan for how relationships with donors, volunteers and beneficiaries will change depending on what you are trying to accomplish (objectives). The strategy must be a long-term relationship that will keep growing over time.

T: Technology
Once you decide on the people, objective and strategy, then you can figure out if building a blog or starting your own community on Facebook or Twitter is the right thing for your organization. In essence, fit the technology choices to your particular people, objectives and strategy.

Consider the action points below to create the winning social media strategy for your foundation.

1) Listen to the groundswell - gain insights from what is being written and said

2) Talk to the groundswell - create  blogs and communities to engage conversation

3) Energize the groundswell - charge up your best online stakeholders

4) Embrace the groundswell - include stakeholders as collaborators 

You can also monitor the social chatter  using a free online tool Social Mention.

For more information on how social media can define success for your foundation click here

By: Farah Chaudhry

Northwestern University MSJ - Media Strategy and Leadership 

About Me: 

I am currently perusing my Masters at Northwestern University in Media Strategy and Leadership. My goal is to work with leading organizations to enhance media strategies and tactics. I am a Socialite, Change Maker, Artist, and Optimist  

Having worked on the marketing team at Camerapix, one of Africa’s oldest independent media production companies for 4 years, I joined the management in 2008 to help found Africa 24 Media, Africa’s first online video agency, in Nairobi, here i managed editorial  teams and global sales for the fast-growing agency, executive-produced award-winning documentaries and project-managed the show Africa Journal for Thomson Reuters.

You can also follow me on LinkedIn | Twitter

3 Ways to Get Young Donors to Open Up Their Wallets

Gone are the days when marketing and fundraising managers of nonprofit organizations could rely on big corporate funders. In this type of economic climate, nonprofits need to get creative and innovative. This means looking at other funding sources and learning how to make the most effective "ask" method in such a way that this new source of funding would be as eager to open their wallets as you are to fulfill your nonprofit's mission. As an Integrated Marketing Communications graduate with a passion in philanthropy, my research shows a rapidly changing world of nonprofit fundraising brought about by the economic recession, technological advances, and social media.

A report by the Chronicle of Philanthropy found that the decline in large charitable gifts between 2007-10 mirrors a similarly precipitous drop seen during the Great Depression. But there’s hope: some nonprofits have succeeded in raising much-needed funds by engaging young donors. This is amazing because this target group gets exposed to as many as 5,000 brand messages a day. How can nonprofits get them to pay attention and open up their hearts (and wallets) for their cause?

There are three things to understand about this group and three ways to get what you want:

#1 Out of sight, out of mind - People nowadays have very short attention span. Whether you're launching a campaign online or offline, if your message or image doesn’t get their attention within the first 3 seconds, game over. A survey conducted by The Millennial Impact found that 65% of young donors learn about nonprofits through their websites. With 70% of young donors giving online last year, it pays (literally) to create a website that gives potential donors/volunteers a great information-gathering experience.

Solution: Make sure your websites are easy to read on mobile devices and not overly cluttered. Avoid being wordy and use powerful images like this nonprofit campaign launched by Ente Nazionale Protezione Animali, an Italian animal welfare organization against animal testing for cosmetics.

#2 The Bystander Effect - This human trait allows us to assume that someone else will do what needs to be done. Researchers in one experiment found that 70% of participants who are alone and heard sounds of distress from another person in an adjoining room responded and helped. When two participants were together, the response rate to the sounds of distress fell significantly, in one case to a mere 7%.

Solution: Use compelling stories to show the interconnection between ourselves and people thousands of miles away, and how we are all similar.

#3 Not used to giving - Plain and simple as that. Nonprofits need to help donors understand that their gift is not just a "drop in the bucket." Each person’s contribution, whether in the form of time or money, makes a difference. 

Solution: Cultivate the culture of giving by engaging school children and showing them the virtue of charitable giving early in life. As adults, they will more likely donate their time and money than those who never volunteered or donated as a child.

Inggrid Yonata is an assertive yet bubbly and people-oriented individual whose passion lies in the application of Integrated Marketing Communications strategies in nonprofit fundraising. She believes that wealth is not a prerequisite to be a philanthropist--ingenuity, passion, and determination are. Find out what's on her mind via Twitter @iyonata, leave a comment on her blog http://yonatafu.blogspot.com, or you can connect with her through LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/iyonata She is always looking for opportunities to exchange ideas and make great things happen.