best practices in social media fundraising
TRANSCRIPT
Best Practices in Social Media Fundraising
Presented by: Ehren Foss of HelpAttack!
@helpattack
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How this webinar works
Who is FirstGiving
Online Fundraising Solutions
Personal Support for your nonprofit, donors, and fundraisers Easy, tested, and secure transaction processes for the donor
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Pages and Event Registrations Online Direct Donations
Ehren Foss @ehrenfoss
Vanessa Swesnik @vswesnik
@helpattack
About the presenters
@helpattack
Who is HelpAttack!? HelpAttack! turns Facebook updates, Tweets, #hashtags, blog posts...into microdonations.
In this webinar we will discuss social media fundraising
and best practices for approaching, building, and maintaining support online.
@helpattack
Social Media Fundraising
• 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?
@helpattack
Topics we will cover
• People share - you can forward a fundraising email, but do you?
• Friends asking friends- peer to peer fundraising • Causes, Crowdrise, CauseVox, FirstGiving, Greater
Giving, HelpAttack!, etc
NOTE: it's up to you to grow a relationship with those donors outside of the particular tool they are using.
@helpattack
Social Media vs. Email
Why is sharing important? Response and conversion rates. Here are some average response rates. from Sarah Durham of Big Duck's presentation http://www.slideshare.net/SM4nonprofits/sarah-durham-bigduck-social-media-for-nonprofit-ceos Check it out!
@helpattack
Social Media vs. Email
Sharing may boost response rates. Take a FreeArtsNYC HelpAttack! ampaign for example:
@helpattack
Social Media vs. Email
Unique Visitors 291/1,700 or 17%
28x better than email
Pledges 26/1,700 or 1.5%
19x better than email
FreeArtsNYC had around 1,200 Facebook fans and around 500 Twitter followers for a total of around 1,700 in their social media audience.
Other differences:
Instant: respond to the news with social media Kony 2012 Dialogue: Komen and Planned Parenthood It's...social: see and interact with actual people
"Social media is a space where the individual reigns, relationships are required, and conversations are public."
@helpattack
Social Media vs. Email
• Grown the same • starts with zero people
• takes time and effort • Cost resources at first
• more than donations produced • Worth it!
Where would you be without your email list today?
@helpattack
Social Media and Email: The Similarities
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.
@helpattack
Social Media and Email: The Similarities
• 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 because:
o People they know give o There's an immediate need o They are asked
People give to faces and heartbeats, not statistics!
@helpattack
Social Media and Email: The Similarities
• 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.. @helpattack
Social Media and Email: The Similarities
• set realistic goals • grow your presence • reward participation • leverage a special event, celebrity
ambassadors, corporate sponsors • thank donors
@helpattack
Best Practices in Social Media Fundraising
• 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!
@helpattack
What are realistic goals?
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 immensely depending on you and your organization
@helpattack
What time and effort is needed?
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 page to which you're linking, and five or ten people finish the action (donate, like, etc.)
@helpattack
What should I expect?
• Earth Day, Valentines Day, event • …or create one! #oceangiving
@helpattack
Leverage a special event
• Celebrity ambassadors • Corporate sponsors (JetBlue/FreeArts)
@helpattack
Partners, Advocates, and Celebrities
• Reward participation • “Like” for a chance to
win… • Submit a picture for a
chance to win… • Nonmonetary gifts
(feature your picture, story, idea, etc)
@helpattack
Reward Participation
• Borrow an audience • Reach out to 10 people
with 500 followers • Volunteers, other
nonprofits, media, activists
@helpattack
Grow Your Presence
• Ads on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin • Advertise on Google, Bing • Special programs (Google Grants,
YouTube nonprofit program, Hope140) for nonprofits
@helpattack
Grow Your Presence
Beth Kanter and AXIS Dance Company
http://www.bethkanter.org/facebook-ads/, check it out! @helpattack
Case Study: Facebook 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/, check it out!
@helpattack
Case Study: Facebook Ads
Results: • 24 hours • 67 Page Views • 28 Unique Page Views • 17 new likes • 10 of those due to the ad
http://www.bethkanter.org/facebook-ads/, check it out!
@helpattack
Case Study: Facebook Ads
http://www.facebook.com/NationalParks
@helpattack
Real World Example: NPCA
Thank supporters/donors right away on social media. It's free and powerful.
@helpattack
What’s a free and easy way to keep your donors happy?
• provide inspiring stories about what donors are accomplishing with their giving
• be personal • be specific
For more ideas visit: http://www.futurefundraisingnow.com/
@helpattack
Thanking Donors: Best Practices
@helpattack
Real World “Thank yous”
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Real World “Thank yous”
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/ @helpattack
Best Practices for Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest
What NOT to post • "Company logos • Long paragraphs • Tweets from Twitter • Small images • Enormously long Infographics. Instead, cut out sections
that’s interesting • Anything that violates Pinterest’s terms of agreement
@helpattack
Best Practices for Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest
���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
@helpattack
Small to Medium Size Nonprofits
• 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?
@helpattack
Smallness as an Advantage
Questions?
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FirstGiving Insights blog: http://insights.firstgiving.com
Online Fundraising blog: http://blog.firstgiving.com
FirstGiving for Runners blog:
http://runners.firstgiving.com
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Interested in learning more about FirstGiving?
Contact: Amber Williams Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 617-963-5123
Interested in learning more about HelpAttack? Contact: Vanessa Swesnik
Email: [email protected] Twitter: @vswesnik @helpattack
Thank you!