Getting Your Board on Board – Feeling anxious about telling your Board you need a Twitter strategy? Is your Board skeptical of the value and return on investment social media can provide? Or, do they have unrealistic expectations that you’re going to sign up on Facebook today and raise $1 million tomorrow? Either way, get the information you need to manage your Board’s expectations around social media. Find out the best ways to present the value and tangible benefits of social media to get your Board on-side.

1. GETTING YOUR BOARD ON BOARD:
THE VALUE OF BEING ONLINE
November 18, 2010

2. Today’s Presenter
Zenia Wadhwani
Director, Program Development

3. CanadaHelps.org
What is CanadaHelps?
A public charitable foundation that provides accessible and
affordable online technology to both donors and charities.
For Charities
A cost-effective means of raising funds online.
For Donors
A one-stop-shop for giving.
CanadaHelps is a charity helping charities.

4. EXPLAINING SOCIAL MEDIA

5. What is Social Media?

6. TECHNOLOGY
SOCIAL
• Online
• Interactive
• Conversational
• Real Time
• User driven
• Transparent
• Engaging
• Inclusive
• Genuine

7. So-cial Me-d-ia
[soh-shuhl mee-dee-uh]
Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social
interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable
publishing techniques.
Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to
transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social
media dialogues (many to many).
It supports the democratization of knowledge and information,
transforming people from content consumers into content
producers.
Stolen from Wikipedia

8. So, why is that
complicated?

11. WHAT YOUR BOARD MIGHT SAY

12. #1
“Our organization is based on
people-to-people interactions.”

13. Connecting and communicating online is still
people to people and is very much about
building community.

14. Changes the “how you do”, not “what you do”.

15. Broader reach
Visible connections
Community building
opportunities

16. More opportunities
for peer-to-peer
communications
More supporters
More volunteers
More donors=

17. GivingPages Examples

18. #2
“Online fundraising isn’t
raising enough money.”

19. 4%
Proportion of overall online
funds to charities in 2004
9% Proportion of overall online
funds to charities in 2008
Online Giving is Growing

20. Online Giving Outpacing
Offline Giving
Charitable giving in 2008- 5%
Online giving in 2008 + 30%

21. Online Giving Median (U.S.)
$57
$81
$104
2006
2007
2008

22. An online presence isn’t only about $$$.
It is a source of information for your donors.

23. Provides a different way to get information to your
supporters in a timely way

24. Are you doing it right?
Successful results are cumulative and
they take time and effort.

25. 49%
more likely to give than
one who was
dissatisfied with the
overall experience
A visitor who is satisfied
with their experience
with a nonprofit
website is

26. Do you have a Donate
Now button?

27. #3
“It’s a fad.”

28. Internet Usage by Canadians
Canadian Population About 34.1 Million
Internet Users About 29 Million
85%

29. Government
Mayor Miller
(Toronto)
on Twitter
Prime Minister Harper
on YouTube

30. Businesses

31. Media
CBC Globe and Mail

32. Prominent Canadians

33. Nonprofits and Charities

34. It’s Here to Stay

35. #4
“Our donors aren’t interested in
donating online or using
social media.”

36. Who’s Giving Online?
The most
significant
characteristic
associated with
online giving is
higher education.
Silent
Generation
15%
Baby Boomers
52%
Gen X
30%
Millennials
3%

37. 16+ million users in Canada
29.4%
29.2%
18.4%
16.3%
5.2%
Percentage of Users by Age Group
Aged 18-24
Aged 25-34
Aged 35-44
Aged 45-59
Aged 60+
43%
57%
5,500,000 6,000,000 6,500,000 7,000,000 7,500,000
Male
Female
By Gender

38. 11th most visited site in Canada
Most active users age range 25-34
With 35-44 year-olds trailing right behind
45+ and <24 are under-represented

39. Do these people
look like your donors?

40. #5
“Why change what works?”

41. Because the way we communicate is changing.

42. Look to the future …
Future donors will be expecting
these tools and interactions.

43. Importance of
Adaptability
• Use for different initiatives
• For experiments
• Flexible

44. Mobilization
• Calls to action reach
supporters faster
• React to current events
(e.g. Haiti earthquake)

45. #6
“Online donors are
not really engaged.”

46. People are sharing and chatting more online
than offline.
• More than 5 billion pieces
of content (web links, news
stories, blog posts, notes,
photo albums, etc.) shared
each week on Facebook.
• There are over 40 million
items shared on Twitter.

47. Engagement isn’t just what happens online,
those conversations continue offline.

48. 41% of online donors describe themselves as
‘loyal’ to the causes they support, compared to
26% of offline donors.

49. 59% of online donors would
urge others to support the
same cause ... compared to
34% of offline donors.

50. Happy Bystanders
Listen
Spreaders
Share
Donors
Money
Evangelists
Solicit
Instigators
Create
Ladder of Engagement*
Involvement
Supporter
*Adapted from Beth Kanter

51. #7
“It’s too risky. What if people
say something negative?”

52. They’ll talk about you anyway, so start a
dialogue with your critics.

53. Keep your message strong.

54. #8
“How will we know if we’re
successful?”

55. Define success in the beginning.

56. Hard Stats
• # of followers or fans
• Amount of comments
• Click-throughs
• Amount donated

57. Balance quantity with quality.

58. Soft Facts
• Types of conversations
• Feedback from supporters
• Quality of comments

59. #9
“It takes too much time
and costs too much!”

60. Online Communication is Fast
• Online tools let you reach supporters more
quickly
• More convenient and simple than other ways
of communicating

61. Many Tools Are Free
Time and personnel investment still required.

62. Not a cure-all;
planning and integration is still important.

63. Can you afford to not be online?

64. DID YOU KNOW?

65. Credits
Ladder of engagement: adapted from Beth Kanter
Internet Statistics: Internet World Stats
Facebook Statistics: Facebook Ads
Blackbaud Index of National Fundraising Performance, April 2009
ForeSee Results - Nonprofit Website Survey, Spring 2009
Chronicle of Philanthropy, May 2009
DonorTrends, 2005
2006 donorCentrics Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis
Jakob Lodwick by Zach Klein (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zachklein/4263395/)
Pedrosimoes7 - Exchanging life experience (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosimoes7/3717536433/)
Solitaire Miles - Torch and Jazz (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cunisdiabolis/476325171/)
dave_mcmt - CCDHS Classroom, Miles City (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_mcmt/187432802/)
AnyaLogic - coffee talk (http://www.flickr.com/photos/anyalogic/2315310261/)
The first few steps by Wildxplorer (http://www.flickr.com/photos/krayker/3089031277/)

66. Your Turn