how to make social fundraising work for your educational ... · your organisation’s reach and...

© June 2016 | 02T 0207 601 7100 E [email protected] W www.blackbaud.co.uk

Empowering the Crowd: How to Make Social Fundraising

Work for Your Educational Institution

Dan Keyworth, Paul Doubleday and Tamsin Haigh

If you think peer-to-peer fundraising is just for charities and

crowdfunding is just for students, it’s time to think again.

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2© June 2016 T 0207 601 7100 E [email protected] W www.blackbaud.co.uk

Empowering the Crowd

CONTENTS

2 Introduction: Rethinking Online Fundraising

3 Part 1: The Business Case for Online Fundraising

6 Part 2: From Crowdfunding to Peer-To-Peer Fundraising

8 Part 3: Key Enablers Around Social Fundraising

10 Part 4: Creating a Platform for Success

12 Part 5: Positioning Social Fundraising in Your Advancement Programme

14 Conclusion: The Time is Now

15 About the Authors

15 About Blackbaud

CONTRIBUTORS

Authors Dan Keyworth, Director for Customer Engagement – Education,

Blackbaud International Business Unit

Paul Doubleday, Digital Fundraising Consultant,

Blackbaud Europe

Tamsin Haigh, Strategic Development Manager,

The Pratthanadee Foundation

Edited by Meredith Jones

Cover art and book design by Jamie Rusenko

© June 2016, Blackbaud, Inc.

INTRODUCTION: RETHINKING ONLINE FUNDRAISING

If you think peer-to-peer fundraising is just for charities and crowdfunding is just for students, think again. Social fundraising, when done in the right way, can do wonders for

your organisation’s reach and fundraising. Today’s donors respond best to multi-channel

approaches, so using social fundraising as a supplement to your other fundraising initiatives

and having a solid strategy to guide your higher education institution or school is important.

But don’t wait any longer—your supporters are out there! Embrace the innovative new fundraising opportunities that online and peer-to-peer offer, and get your HE institution or

school the attention and support it deserves.

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PART 1: THE BUSINESS CASE FOR ONLINE FUNDRAISINGGreat fundraising depends not only on our direct interactions

with donors and prospects but also on cultivating deep, lifelong

connections across our alumni and broader communities. When

these flourish, they can extend our reach far beyond the individuals

we know directly to a much wider network of supporters.

There is growing evidence of the long-term value of nurturing

meaningful relationships between our alumni and other supporters.

Our constituents increasingly expect such engagement and want it to

be timely, frequent, online, offline, social, and transactional.

Over recent years, these donor expectations have inspired a growing

number of alumni relations offices in universities and schools to

launch exclusive alumni community platforms powered by LinkedIn®

or Facebook® designed specifically to facilitate more interactive

networking opportunities.

These social media integrated hubs are helping institutions

successfully enrich their online engagement with former and

current students and offer career mentoring and support. Recent

increases in the cost of education feed the importance of these

employability programmes. Indeed, there is a recurring theme

across the sector around increasing expectations to deliver value,

which affects more than alumni engagement.1

We are now seeing the natural progression into online fundraising,

with social media influencing online giving and empowering alumni,

donors, students, staff, and friends to create new opportunities

for philanthropy.

ONLINE GIVING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WE THINK

With each new year, we see an increase in the importance of online

giving. In the US, where the body of data is greatest, overall giving

grew by 1.6% in 2015 whereas online giving grew by 9.2%. And,

for the second consecutive year, online giving to higher education

institutions and schools grew the most across all sectors. Within

universities, year-over-year online giving increased by 16.6% in

2014 and again by 15.2% in 2015. It’s a clear sign of the emergent

opportunities available.

2015 OVERALL GIVING TRENDS BY SECTOR

-4%

-2%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

initial bar chart where the data is still editable further customization, requires ungrouping

2015 ONLINE GIVING TRENDS BY SECTOR

-6%

-3%

0%

3%

6%

9%

12%

15%

ARTS ANDCULTURE

ENVIRON.ANIMAL

FAITH-BASED

HEALTHCARE

HIGHEREDUCATION

HUMANSERVICES

K–12 EDUCATION

MEDICALRESEARCH

PUBLIC ANDSOCIETY

9.3%8.8%8.3%

11.2%

15.2%

2015 OVERALL GIVING TRENDS BY SECTOR

-4%

-2%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

ARTS ANDCULTURE

ENVIRON.ANIMAL

FAITH-BASED

HEALTHCARE

HIGHEREDUCATION

HUMANSERVICES

K–12 EDUCATION

MEDICALRESEARCH

INT’LAFFAIRS

PUBLIC ANDSOCIETY

0.0%

1.9%

3.9%

0.5% 0.5%-0.4%

-2.8%

5.1%

-1.0% -0.9%

7.9%

INT’LAFFAIRS

10.8%

12.3%

-0.7%

9.4%

1 One way that growing expectations have manifested themselves is in a recent shift in lexicon by many departments from delivering alumni relations to delivering alumni engagement (and ditto for donor relations): It is perhaps indicative of a stronger commitment by institutions to engaging in interactive dialogue and proving greater value-add service. It will be interesting to see if, and how, the lexicon further adapts to include wider (non-alumni) constituencies as well.

Source: 2015 Charitable Giving Report, Blackbaud. www.blackbaud.com/charitablegiving




| 6#NextGenUK2013

Peer-to-peerMainstream MediaSchoolCame across website / enquired directly

Peer-to-peerMainstream MediaPurchased ItemMail


Peer-to-peerMainstream MediaMailPurchased Item

Gen Y

Boomers

Gen X

Matures

27%

21%

26%

17%

15%

14%

18%

12%

8%

8%

8%

11%

6%

6%

7%

7%

How donors first learned about the cause:

Part of this recent trend may be the education sector finally realising

that many donors are moving away from cheques and paper donation

forms. Nonetheless, in comparison to other sectors, online giving to

universities and schools still remains a small percentage of overall

giving (3.8% for higher education versus an average of 7.1% across

other sectors), so further growth can be expected in 2016 and beyond.

We see similar trends in the evolution of event registrations and

memberships. For institutions looking to increase sign-up numbers

for events and ‘Friends of’ programmes, one of the first places worth

assessing is the online experience you’ve created for your audience.

However enticing your programme is, if individuals need to print off, fill

out, and then post a paper registration form, you’ll likely experience a

significant drop-off rate in participation.

So, considering we spend much of our time online, why isn’t online

giving higher? One reason may be the natural and understandably

large focus we place on major donors. This focus on major giving

shouldn’t be diminished, but we need to develop creative models

for how we engage the wider crowd.

It’s also important to note the fact that the majority of our existing

donor base lies in baby boomers and matures, who spend less time

online than their younger peers. The demographics of our donor base

are obviously shifting over time to later generations, so the degree to

which this is generational rather than age related will decrease in time.

In addition, we make online giving more difficult and frustrating that it

has to be. We know our web pages and emails need more attention

but struggle to find the time to focus on the end user’s experience.

The cost to our institutions in lost support from not making our

online experience friendly, fresh, and fully mobile-optimised,

grows each year.2

A fourth reason online giving isn’t as high as expected may be that as

a sector, we aren’t bold enough when articulating and promoting our

institutions’ amazing missions. We need to reformat our messaging to

fit the way the online community scans information. We can’t simply

upload our mission and vision and expect responses. Our online

toolset is critical to addressing this.

This point is worth exploring a little further. We are generally

experienced in persuading major donors, alumni, and increasingly

non-alumni to support the full spectrum of our cause. With a few

exceptions, we haven’t yet been as successful in persuading larger

groups to support our institutions.

Whilst our marketing strategy as educational establishments will never

be the same as the wider charitable sector, there is still room for

improvement in harnessing wider support. The benefits open up the

opportunity to engage more alumni. We arguably fall into the trap

of thinking our alumni don’t need or want to hear our message, but

that’s something worth testing.

2 There is increasing demand for institutions to have web-experienced and social media-savvy resources within teams, or readily accessible.

Source: Next Generation of Giving in the UK, Blackbaud. www.blackbaud.co.uk/notforprofit-resources/uk-research

| 6#NextGenUK2013

Peer-to-peerMainstream MediaSchoolCame across website / enquired directly



Peer-to-peerMainstream MediaMailPurchased Item

Gen Y

Boomers

Gen X

Matures

27%

21%

26%

17%

15%

14%

18%

12%

8%

8%

8%

11%

6%

6%

7%

7%




Consider the following examples: do we currently maximise the

potential philanthropy surrounding the ground-breaking research

our universities do to transform the world and solve some of the

most impenetrable societal problems3 (with charities of course being

among our biggest funders)?4 Likewise, do we widely promote how

we actively make better education accessible to a more diverse group

of children with programmes of vouchers, bursaries, scholarships,

and occasional sponsoring of neighbouring academies? Are we

championing the key role that education plays in unlocking the full

potential of future generations across all aspects of global society?

Undoubtedly, we could be doing more of all of these things.

Every education institution has a great story and an accompanying set

of projects it can promote with its alumni and other audiences—many

of which they can easily share with their own personal networks.

Time and resource are often the two most limiting factors which

impede us as development functions. Regardless of how strong

we are as fundraisers and the size of our team, we can only

reach so many individuals directly. Here is where an increasingly

interconnected world and the benefits of online technology can play

a greater role. Our donor base shouldn’t stop just because our

fundraisers’ reach does.

In advancing the quality of and access to teaching, academic research,

and extracurricular activity—as well as larger themes like enhancing

employability, widening public and community engagement, and

delivering entrepreneurship and valorisation—there are untapped

projects which can resonate with new and existing supporters.

We all want to reach more people with our missions. If done well, the

potential for future levels of engagement within and beyond our alumni

base is truly staggering. Digital fundraising will be a core part of our

armoury in the future, and we need to start thinking about it now.

3 Medical and other research-based charities have been very successful with peer-to-peer for several years (including some that have raised over £20 million online). Some of the most important research into curing diseases and solving other 21st century problems takes place at universities and peer-to-peer can be a great way to share this story. It could also be ideal for alumni who want to participate in fundraising events, e.g. running a marathon in support of research for medical areas they were personally affected by, and of course for university grateful patient fundraising.

4 Many universities do now do this very well at a principal gift level – with some phenomenal £10 million+ gifts in recent years towards ground-breaking medical and societal research – but we are arguably much less effective at telling this story at a regular giving level.




PART 2: FROM CROWDFUNDING TO PEER-TO-PEER FUNDRAISINGOf course, it isn’t simply a matter of sharing stories and hoping

for a handout, otherwise our primary investment concern would

be marketing.5 We also need to integrate online social fundraising

technology into our overall development strategy. More specifically, to

support the rise of online giving, we need to harness new technology and

terminology, such as crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising.

Whilst both forms of social fundraising have been around for several

years, they are only recently becoming hot topics in the education

sector. The UK Crowdfunding Association defines crowdfunding

as ‘raising money directly from a large number of people all putting in

relatively small amounts of money’. Jeff Shuck, CEO of Plenty

Consulting® and a thought leader in the digital space, defines peer-to-

peer fundraising as ‘empowering others to ask on your behalf’. Peer-

to-peer fundraising is really a multi-tier version of crowdfunding

which extends your reach to a larger crowd.

Both single- and multi-tier crowdfunding are on the rise. We have always

lived in a peer-to-peer world, and over the past few years, this has been

increasingly reflected in our activities online: Facebook®, TripAdvisor®

and Airbnb® are all examples of this. Over the last decade, peer-to-peer

has started to permeate every aspect of our lives and fundraising is

no exception.

So how do we engage a larger group of supporters around your

institution’s core mission using the online word-of-mouth revolution? This

is the opportunity to not simply be a part of the revolution, but to lead it.

It is worth noting that reaching large numbers by itself doesn’t deliver

success. And regardless of your own fundraising efforts, your constituents

are being invited by other individuals and organisations to give their

support to an ever-expanding list of things, philanthropic and non-

philanthropic. You can’t stand still, or you’ll be left behind.

We know that stories are usually best told by our peers, because

we take the views of those we know more seriously. Blackbaud’s

Psychology of Online Giving survey demonstrated that for 20% of

UK consumers, supporting friends in their online fundraising is more

important than what charity benefits. For consumers ages 25–34, the

figure rises to 25%. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the main reason people

donate online is to support a friend or family member.6

5 Almost all universities and many schools already share stories to large audiences online, including through Twitter and other social media, but often without accompanying fundraising around them.

6 In The Psychology of Online Giving survey, 2,088 UK consumers were asked by YouGov on behalf of Blackbaud about their motivations for giving online and their expectations after they donated. Of these, 1,218 had donated money to charity online at least once. www.blackbaud.co.uk/psychologyofonlinegiving

CROWDFUNDING

‘Raising money directly from a large number of people all putting in relatively small amounts of money.’

—The UK Crowdfunding Association

£ £

£ ££

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£

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The UK Crowdfunding Association defines

crowdfunding as “raising money directly from a

large number of people all putting in relatively

small amounts of money”. Jeff Shuck, CEO of

Plenty Consulting® and a thought leader in the

digital space, defines peer-to-peer fundraising

as “empowering others to ask on your behalf”.




The Chronicle of Philanthropy revealed that a majority of millennial

alumni said they were willing to raise money on behalf of an

institution they care about and that they were comfortable

sharing content about those institutions on social media.7

The same survey demonstrated that smaller, cause-focused groups that

millennials form during their years in education evolve into meaningful

post-education friendships. These bonds can be influential to bridging

the university/alumni divide, especially as millennials reach their prime

earning years. These individuals remain invested and loyal in these

friendships throughout their lives. And often their greatest attraction to

their institution lives within this group of people whose values they share.

The second-most-cited reason for giving to a campaign for a

particular cause was seeing the value behind the donation. We have

an inspiring collection of interweaving stories around past, current

and future impact that many different individuals can share.

One advantage advancement-led crowdfunding has over personal

crowdfunding8 is that our case for support is altruistically-driven and

generally focused on helping many people—applicants, students,

tutors, researchers, staff, or the wider community—over time. This

means that support can be seen to have a wider or more lasting

impact. In addition, institutions offer a reliable brand, and

donors are more confident they are making a meaningful,

positive difference.

Opportunities for social fundraising in schools and universities are

plentiful, and may already be a more common part of your offline

fundraising than you realise. From sports club fundraising to cutting-

edge medical research, from alumni year-group reunions to museum

or library special acquisitions9, and from tribute giving10 to special

giving days11, your alumni have likely experienced peer-to-peer

fundraising from you already.

Peer-to-peer fundraising may make its first appearance in giving

initiatives for student leavers of your school or university. Whilst

still relatively new, ‘Leavers Giving’ programmes are on the rise.

Converting an existing offline programme to online provides an

opportunity to make this experience more fun and social. Those

students you work with to lead such initiatives can drive the content

and have all donations come into a single place. Simultaneously you

will be able to collect a lot of valuable data from your leavers.

Likewise any year-group, house or class giving initiatives around an

anniversary or reunion provide opportunities to fundraise. The right

committee with the right platform can achieve significant returns.

Individuals may thrive on competing internally. A big reunion event

at the end of the online fundraising campaign can provide another

catalyst for reaching a specific target.

7 Source: Millennial Alumni Study, Chronicle of Philanthropy. www.themillennialimpact.com/files/2015/05/RESEARCH-Millenial-Alumni-Study-041615.pdf

8 For which there are some examples of these already within education institutions, typically led by students or departmental staff.

9 One UK school raised c£50,000 online for its museum through peer-to-peer fundraising. If your school or university’s library or museum needs funds to build up its collections, or protect or preserve them, e.g. a rare book, author’s works, artefact or painting, then peer-to-peer helps to engage not only alumni, students and staff, but also the local community and wider public. Those less interested in other areas may love literature or art, and be ready to support protecting, conserving or acquiring a new manuscript, exhibition etc.

10 A natural time when volunteers wish to fundraise from their peers is for special appeals around a key staff member (a teacher or professor) retiring, having a major milestone anniversary, or passing away – with people wishing to contribute in their honour. Quite often the challenge can be getting a sensitive fundraising communication out in a timely fashion and enabling people around the world to conveniently donate, with the opportunity to post well-wishes, exchange memories and photos, and share regular updates. A peer-to-peer platform provides all of these things, and can be a great tie-in to your Facebook presence. Some of the most popular responses to university alumni Facebook pages are when there are discussions about favourite tutors. This emotive topic can even unlock hitherto unengaged major prospects.

11 The opportunity here is even greater if structured around #GivingTuesday, a now internationally-recognised day of online philanthropy.

PEER-TO-PEER FUNDRAISING

‘Empowering others to ask on your behalf.’

—Jeff Shuck, CEO Plenty Consulting

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On 2015, the

development team at University of Michigan set

an example for how planning and preparation in

combination with social fundraising technology

can potentially deliver remarkable results12:

• 1,000 donors gave a gift online within the

first 49 minutes

• $1 million was raised by 10:03 am

• Donations totalled $4,361,327, an increase

of 34% over #GivingTuesday 2014

• Donors totalled 6,927, an increase of 27%

over #GivingTuesday 2014

More generally and on a scale relevant to your institution, making it

easy for existing offline social fundraising to move online should

generate a much higher ask-to-donation conversion rate. It does

so by lowering the barriers to success and raising the quality of

the message. For example:

• A monologue can become a dialogue or even group conversation13

• One written communication about a project can become a

continuous stream of dynamic updates

• Words on a page can become inspiring images and videos

• A written target can become interactive ‘theatre’ with

demonstrable progress (and gentle competition…)

• The geographical spread of your audience can be reached

in an instant

• Multiple required steps to respond with a gift can become one

simple step

• Fundraising can become really fun

• Above all, the shift online results in less ‘faff’ for your volunteers

and more rewarding stewardship for your donors. On top of

this, it can deliver more and better data for your development

team, which is explored further below.

12 See http://npengage.com/nonprofit-fundraising/university-of-michigan-setting-a-higher-standard-for-giving-days.

13 This is a significant trend in social media marketing: https://philanthropy.com/article/Nonprofits-Come-Up-Short-With/234017

14 One common concern institutions raise with students and staff undertaking their own fundraising is that data protection and financial responsibilities are missed. The right platform enables you to devolve responsibility for fundraising content but retain these safeguards.

PART 3: KEY ENABLERS AROUND SOCIAL FUNDRAISINGYour own priorities for crowdfunding may differ from those of other

institutions. For some, it’s simply engaging alumni or parents. For

others, it’s reaching further into donors’ networks and widening the

supporter base. It can also be about empowering staff, students and

alumni to drive forward projects that are beyond the development

team’s capacity to prioritise within an appropriately-branded platform.14

Whatever stage you’re at, advances in digital technology make

crowdfunding easier today than ever before. It takes just a few

minutes to add social fundraising to your online giving page. It’s

possible to start very small, provide an easy option for those who

choose to fundraise on your behalf, promote that outwardly, and then

create a hub for fundraising around multiple time-bound projects.

Provided you have the right platform and a set of advocates among your

constituents, the investment you need to make can be modest. Projects

being fundraised can of course be championed centrally by your

development team, but much of the heavy lifting can be decentralised

to interested individuals or groups and be done in such a way that it

doesn’t lead to financial, brand or data challenges for your cause.

This is the essence of social fundraising—expanding your reach

and achieving more through the networks of constituents that

support your institution, whether as donors or as fundraisers.

For your social fundraising programme to truly succeed, you’ll want

your team to feel confident with the resources and processes in place

to manage, steward and cultivate a growing pool of new donors and

fundraisers. Get your finance team on board with processing a

significant increase in small donations by ensuring that the workflow

is streamlined alongside their existing CRM gift processing, and

demonstrate the value of the rich new data.

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But this is the most important thing to remember: Crowdfunding

managed in the correct way does not break the cardinal rule of

fundraising—the classic 90:10 rule15— meaning the majority of

revenue will always come from the small number of constituents

who make large donations, and that’s where your advancement

team’s focus should be. Crowdfunding will contribute to this primary

objective, not side track you from it.

This is not to say that the money raised through crowdfunding is not

valuable. It makes a set of projects possible that help advance your

institution’s mission. It is not the key figure upon which you should

measure your social fundraising ROI, but it can supplement your

fundraising revenue stream in the following ways:

• By creating a pool of new first-time donors from which you can

build relationships

• By engaging a group of new volunteers and bringing them

closer to your cause16

• By devolving fundraising for smaller projects to resources

outside of your development team, freeing the professionals up

to focus on the highest priorities

• By providing your major gifts researcher and fundraiser(s) with

valuable data to help drive your principal fundraising pipeline

Consider the following hypothetical example. A crowdfunding appeal

raises £16,000 in support of a geography field trip for 5 students

exploring climate change in Brazil. It also brings in 67 new first-time

donors, 24 of whom had no prior connection to your institution. It

activates 4 new volunteers, including 1 previously inactive prospect

and 1 influential tutor. It takes less than 2 hours of your departmental

fundraiser’s time, and then they can focus on raising £600,000 for a

new laboratory. And it identifies 3 particular individuals who, despite

not giving large gifts themselves, successfully solicited 27 alumni, 7

of whom made £1,000+ donations in response to a call to action to

safeguard geology research.

What is the real ROI here? To a major gifts fundraiser who is

confident harnessing data intelligence, it is much more than just the

£16,000 fundraised.

Consider that those seven donors of £1,000 are then followed up with

and given a tour of the department. As a result, four of them are now

warm prospects in the pipeline for a £25,000 gift each towards the

new laboratory. This is not a far-fetched outcome and matches how

we already use data captured today.

So, for social fundraising to drive long-term benefits to your cause,

it’s critical that the platform you use facilitates inspiring storytelling

and integrates into your primary advancement system and wider

development and alumni relations programme. If you crowdfund as

a siloed operation, detached from your broader strategic objectives

around data insight and major gift fundraising, you’ll lose a lot of its value.

Why Peer-to-Peer?

• You attract more fundraisers

• You engage more constituents

• You acquire new donors

• You raise more revenue

15 Or whichever similar ratio best applies for your institution (this might vary from 70:30 to as much as 98:2).

16 A Network for Good study notes that volunteers give to charity twice as often as their non-volunteering peers. http://npengage.com/nonprofit-fundraising/with-respect-to-abraham-lincoln-not-all-are-equal-in-fundraising/

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PART 4: CREATING A PLATFORM FOR SUCCESSThere are a lot of considerations to think of when expanding your

online fundraising. The following list can help you create the right

social fundraising platform for your institution.

1. APPEARANCE AND BRAND: Make sure your donation and

fundraising pages look like your website, so everyone knows who

you are.17 Keep in mind that 51% of web browsing on nonprofit

websites is done on smartphones and tablets18, so make sure the

pages work well on every device. Test what works and what

doesn’t, so you can adjust the flow and appearance of forms

if necessary.

2. PROJECT HUB: As you scale up to multiple social fundraising

campaigns, make sure your provider has the capacity to provide a

single microsite or hub to bring together the different fundraising

projects (each retaining their own tailored messaging) for your

institution. You can then use this hub to showcase

the performance of these different projects, including current

totals, targets, deadlines, rewards, scoreboards and other

additional widgets.

3. DATA INTEGRATION: You’ll want your platform to integrate

effectively and seamlessly with your advancement CRM data and

processes. Doing so minimises the burden of supporting other

parts of the institution in fundraising and advocating on your

behalf. Make sure your platform gives you access to the full

details of your donors and fundraisers, so you can cultivate

relationships with all supporters. This is likely to be the single

biggest long-term benefit you see from this channel.

4. FINANCIAL/LEGAL REQUIREMENTS: You need to be able to

ensure that all funds are raised in accordance with your

institution’s legal, data protection, PCI-DSS, HMRC and other

financial processing rules. Make sure your platform handles all

payment processing securely and enables you to easily collect

Gift Aid declarations. An advantage to controlling the platform

centrally is that whilst the content of the pages can be handed off

to your constituents, the setup of new projects and the

terminology around data protection and trust fund management

remains firmly in your control.

17 In The Psychology of Online Giving survey, 1 in 5 donors couldn’t recall which charity they donated to (Blackbaud – 2013). www.blackbaud.co.uk/psychologyofonlinegiving

18 See https://www.mobilecause.com/download-online-giving-tips-infographic/

Support me, I’m Running for a cause

Support me, I’m Baking for a cause

Support me, I’m Walking for a cause

Support me, I’m Walking for a cause

Support me, I’m Riding for a cause

Support me, I’m Climbing for a cause

Support me, I’m Riding for a cause

Support me, I’m Running for a cause

Support me, I’m Baking for a cause

££

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£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ DONORS

FUNDRAISERS

CROWDFUNDING PROJECTS

PROJECT HUB

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19 Sportsmen and women can compete internally to raise the most money, and teams can compete with one another in a cross-sports ranking. And with new sports committee members each year, they can have regularly refreshed fundraising appeals.

20 For one large fundraising event in Australia, the 9% of fundraisers who linked a fitness app onto their fundraising page raised over 50% more than the average ($1,525 compared to $966).

21 For example, you can invite your constituents to join in a virtual row, cycle, or run across the country, with lots of individuals separately participating towards a collective distance.

5. FLEXIBILITY: Your platform should be able to handle direct

donations and peer-to-peer fundraising, so people can create their

own pages to raise funds on behalf of your institution. That way you

can choose to offer either option (or both), and make changes on a

project-by-project basis. Whilst not every appeal may need peer-to-

peer fundraising to succeed, having this capability in your platform

means other supporters can tackle worthwhile priorities that your

own fundraisers can’t get to. Consider the scenario of your

students’ numerous sports clubs, each one wanting new

equipment each year. There are too many for you to manage

fundraising centrally, and even if you could you’d forego the valuable

networks you have in these dedicated current and former students.

Fundraising pages led by the sports clubs themselves can be a

great fit to this increasingly common requirement.19

6. ENGAGEMENT: An important factor in the success of your social

fundraising will be what your platform offers to make giving more

social, fun, engaging and inclusive. You should

be able to easily post updates, video, social media links/feeds and

other dynamic content and integrate content with social media to

elevate the engagement levels of your projects.20 Keep in mind

that your platform should also help you recognise your volunteers’

efforts outside of monetary contributions.

7. EVENTS: Unlike peer-to-peer fundraising across most charities

where marathons, coffee mornings, and mud runs are the norm,

your projects may not be related to events. After all, you already

have engaged and committed alumni. However, there is a sizeable

opportunity to raise funds tied to events—it provides the urgency

that can inspire people to give. Several institutions have

demonstrated that alumni, staff, and students will undertake

physical challenges on behalf of their university or school when

simply asked. Thus you want to be able to directly integrate event

registration into these projects when applicable, including virtual

events where people share a common virtual environment on the

web, rather than meeting in a physical location.21

8. TEAMS: Universities and schools thrive at creating a team

environment, so your platform should support team fundraising.

Think houses/colleges, clubs, societies, regions, and classes —

with combined and solo totals. By setting team targets and time

limits and regularly sharing progress with those fundraising,

you create a competitive element that incentivises fundraisers to

go the extra mile for your project. Harness the power

of gamification by showcasing your top fundraisers and

fundraising teams through scoreboards.

0

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0

$500

$1,000

$1,500

$2,000

Linked itdirectly to my Facebook page

Linked it to mySupporter page


Survey TotalKept it privateUsed it to

track my own performance

27%9%

$1,525

$96645%

84%90%70%

50%

30%

10%

APP USERS WHO LINKED

For one large fundraising event in Australia, the 9% of

fundraisers who linked a fitness app onto their fundraising page raised

over 50% more than the average ($1525

compared to $966).0

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0

$500

$1,000

$1,500

$2,000

Linked itdirectly to my Facebook page



Survey TotalKept it privateUsed it to

track my own performance

27%9%

$1,525

$96645%

84%90%70%

50%

30%

10%




9. MAXIMISING DONATIONS: Once prospective donors visit your

website, you want to incentivise higher levels of giving, and a

great way of doing this is by promoting rewards and recognition

at different amounts. This can be a version of the classic buy-a-

brick appeal but can go a step further with innovative benefits

tied to specific amounts, such as a personalised CD of the choir

the donation helped support. Another great way to raise more is

if you can offset the transaction costs in creative ways that your

donors will opt into, so that the full value of the original donation

benefits your institution.

10. REACHING YOUR TARGET: Finally, it’s important that you can

receive the funds to benefit your institution even if you fall short of

the initial target. So make sure that’s an option for the platform.

Philanthropic crowdfunding has some differentiators from wider

personal crowdfunding: It is less desirable to reimburse the funds

if you’re raising money for core university or school priorities,

as opposed to independent student-led personal initiatives.

Likewise, make sure that you can add offline gifts and other

fundraising efforts to your overall total; more often than not,

this will not be your only giving platform, so you want a way to

incorporate donations received elsewhere into the totals shared.

Above all, make it easy to grow your crowdfunding efforts over

time. Your platform should be able to scale up from an initial pilot

to eventually supporting multiple fundraising projects for different

colleges/houses, departments, clubs, societies and year-groups side-

by-side. Prepare at the outset for how your solution will integrate this

large flow of valuable information seamlessly into your

advancement ecosystem. Do this, and you’ll be able to prove and

reap the benefits of social fundraising more effectively.

PART 5: POSITIONING SOCIAL FUNDRAISING IN YOUR ADVANCEMENT PROGRAMMETo add the most value, your social fundraising projects should fit

into your overall advancement programme. Understanding what it

is and the role it will play will ensure you have the right buy-in from

management and can meet expectations.

But it’s not a solution for everything! For many universities and

schools, it’s unlikely that crowdfunding will replace direct mail,

telethons, emails, SMS and face-to-face communication in your

regular giving programmes. Those can continue to excel for certain

audiences and not work for others, just as they have always done.

Rather, social fundraising is likely to complement and add value to

your overall fundraising initiatives as an extra channel, instead of being

a substitute. There is no one-size-fits-all fundraising effort, and many

constituents today respond best to multi-channel appeals—a lesson

learned from the for-profit industry where customers frequently pass

through several channels before making their purchase.

Above all, social fundraising is likely to be most effective as a

donor acquisition and engagement tool. Peer-to-peer fundraising

can help you build awareness around a wider variety of projects and

enable you to make additional asks without applying undesirable

pressure or becoming too repetitive.

It could be the extra push you give your annual fund to raise

participation to the next level by reaching non-alumni effectively for

the first time, strengthening ties to specific year-groups around their

anniversaries, or moving the needle forward with your younger alumni

and students.

Younger generations are drawn more easily to social fundraising for

the following reasons:

• It is a relevant, fun, and convenient way for them to give

• It helps them find the project that aligns with their interests and

passions

• It inspires them through their peers to give or motivates them to

reach out to their own networks

After onboarding new donors, your more traditional giving

approaches may be the most effective for driving retention, sustainer

gifts and upgrades. Whilst your crowdfunding platform should facilitate

recurring gifts, this is less likely to be the focus; instead expect most

of your donors to give small single gifts, though some may begin to

give these repeatedly over time.

And of course, whilst it will always be difficult to mechanically repeat

the success of viral campaigns like the Ice Bucket Challenge, your

chances of going viral are close to zero without an online giving

presence. Even if you’re not lucky enough to raise donor numbers by a

huge amount, you’ll see this investment drive up participation.




When combined with personal solicitation, crowdfunding can unlock

major gifts from prospects with a high net worth who like the idea of

playing a leadership role in the crowd. For example, by encouraging

them to pledge a sizeable percentage of the total leveraged as a

matched fund incentive for others to support you.22

Whilst the channel by itself may or may not draw in vast sums, it will

help your overall development and alumni relations programme be

more successful. Here are a few other ways it can boost your major

gifts programme:

• Projects will be able to happen that simply couldn’t

otherwise. That creates satisfied students, staff and alumni,

and gives you some chips to cash in for the future. You will also

get some great stories, which you can share with your biggest

donors.

• The data intelligence you gain on philanthropic interests

can make future campaigns more successful. Knowing

what someone wants to support is one of the most valuable

data commodities but among the scarcest in many institutions’

databases today.

• You’ll learn donors’ networks by capturing insight from their

peer-to-peer relationships. Whilst you may know from other

data that two alumni studied together or sit on the same board,

that’s not nearly as powerful as knowing that someone directly

inspired another person to donate.

Social fundraising means social engagement. The dynamic

sharing of content through crowdfunding can be among the most

stirring in terms of stewardship and wider engagement. You raise

brand and mission awareness throughout the campaign. And if your

project is positioned around an event, you have the opportunity to

bring alumni together in a fun way that has a tangible impact on

your fundraising.

Today, organisations are already incorporating social fundraising into

their advancement programme. In the summer of 2015, following

the shooting of Cecil the Lion, around 12,000 individuals made a

contribution online over the space of a few weeks in support of wildlife

research at the University of Oxford. Over 99% of these donors were

brand new donors. A major donor pledged a large matching gift to

inspire more support, helping to take the final total to over £550,000.

The development team stewarded every donor following their gift and

has maintained ongoing communication with many since, with the

department’s email list having significantly grown in size!

Whilst outrage around the shooting and a collective desire to protect

endangered lions was the motivation for most donors, the

development team knew that some of the new donors would support

broader conservation initiatives if asked in the right way. Thus, a set of

individuals with no prior connection to the university are now engaged

with something they’re passionate about, which is also a key priority

for the institution.

With many donors having given as a result of peer-to-peer fundraising

pages set up by individuals, the department knows who can engage

these donors more personally and who might have an inclination to

volunteer. Layering in wealth-screening to identify high-net-worth

individuals from this pool of donors and fundraisers fits perfectly

into the prospect research process.

Whilst the scenario that led to the surge of donations here was

unique, it does demonstrate the power of online giving and social

media as a window to new audiences, as well as the opportunity to

move donors up the giving ladder.

This business intelligence may become the single most

important outcome of your investment in social fundraising. It

has a real capacity, over and above any money raised, to open doors

to new prospects and networks for your institution and in time lead to

new major donors for your cause.

22 Matching can be great for crowdfunding. It gives two impacts to think about: that of the challenge gift and of their own. For example, your £50 contribution will be matched with an additional £50, making £100 available for a student in hardship. You could even do this with a gift list, to give a range of options. Or you could structure a challenge to your fundraising board – challenge them all to donate or raise a certain amount, and use the platform to manage visibility of this.




CONCLUSION: THE TIME IS NOWWe are only at the beginning for these new forms of fundraising.

Crowdfunding has grown by over 50% year-on-year across all

sectors23, so it is hard to bet against this area growing in importance

over time. Other innovations such as #GivingTuesday add even

more potential.

The wider nonprofit and for-profit industries tell us that the best

marketing is often word of mouth. Few fundraisers can hope to

match the persuasiveness of the crowd connecting directly with their

contemporaries, friends, fellow club members, families and

colleagues encouraging them to give to a cause.

There are still some unknowns, but this should not stop us from

getting started with building enhanced online giving strategies. There

are considerable opportunities to be reaped today. And the best

way to know what will work for your particular institution is to test,

test, and test again, building on what works.

Of course, integrated social fundraising isn’t a golden ticket by itself.

Hard work and perseverance by advancement teams will still be

essential to whether word of mouth actually happens. But, harnessed

in the right way, it could certainly be a key enabler to your success.

Schools and universities may have come late to the peer-to-peer

party, but given the hotbed of potential fundraisers that exist within

our alumni communities, many wanting to be more than just donors,

this sector could now transform this space.

The time is now to empower your alumni, parents, students,

staff, and friends to help you raise more.

23 See http://www.miratelinc.com/blog/crowdfunding-nonprofit-fundraising-growth-and-future/

MAILTO:"[email protected]"www.blackbaud.co.ukhttps://www.facebook.com/blackbaudhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbaudhttps://twitter.com/blackbaudhttp://www.givingtuesday.org.uk/http://www.miratelinc.com/blog/crowdfunding-nonprofit-fundraising-growth-and-future/

15


© June 2016 Blackbaud, Inc.

This white paper is for informational purposes only.

Blackbaud makes no warranties, expressed or implied,

in this summary. The information contained in this

document represents the current view of Blackbaud,

Inc., on the items discussed as of the date of this

publication.

All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are

trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud,

Inc. The names of actual companies and products

mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their

respective owners.

ABOUT THE AUTHORSDan Keyworth, Director for Customer Engagement - Education, Blackbaud International Business Unit

Dan helps oversee Blackbaud’s engagement with education customers around the world and has over a decade of experience working in

development and alumni relations.

Paul Doubleday, Digital Fundraising Consultant, Blackbaud Europe

Paul is a digital fundraising consultant for everydayhero® at Blackbaud and works directly with a large number of universities, schools, student

unions and other charities.

Tamsin Haigh, Strategic Development Manager, The Pratthanadee Foundation

Tamsin works with the Pratthanadee Foundation, a registered charity in Thailand, on strategy and development. She previously fundraised for

the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.

About Blackbaud

Serving the worldwide philanthropic community for 35 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB)combines innovative software, services, and

expertise to help organisations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works in over 60 countries to power the passion of approximately 35,000

customers, including non-profits, private school and higher education institutions, healthcare organisations, corporations, foundations and

other charitable giving entities. The company offers a full spectrum of cloud and on-premise solutions, as well as a resource network that

empowers and connects organisations of all sizes. Blackbaud’s portfolio of software and services supports non-profit fundraising and

relationship management, digital marketing, advocacy, accounting, payments and analytics, as well as grant management, corporate social

responsibility and education. Organisations that use Blackbaud technology raise, invest, manage, and award more than $100 billion each

year. Recognised as a top company, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and has operations in the United States,

United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.co.uk.

© June 2016 T 0207 601 7100 E [email protected] W www.blackbaud.co.uk

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Introduction: Rethinking Online FundraisingPart 1: The Business Case for Online FundraisingPart 2: From Crowdfunding to Peer-To-Peer FundraisingPart 3: Key Enablers Around Social FundraisingPart 4: Creating a Platform for SuccessPart 5: Positioning Social Fundraising in Your Advancement ProgrammeConclusion: The Time is NowAbout the AuthorsAbout Blackbaud

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