Social Media Fundraising 101

Social Media Fundraising 101

Vanessa Swesnik
@vswesnik
@helpattack
vanessa@helpattack.com

Who are we?

http://info.helpattack.com | @helpattack | support@helpattack.com

You can fundraise on social
media
• Without a million followers
• Without a post from Justin Bieber
• Without adding another job to your day


Getting there
• Social media vs. email fundraising
• Goals and groundwork
• Tactics & strategy: How can smaller organizations find
success?


Social Media vs. Email
Similarities
• Why people give
• Conversion rates
• Who > How Many Differences
• Storytelling • How people share?
• How friends ask
friends?
• Conversation



Slide from Sarah Durham / Big Duck http://slidesha.re/GKtWDH


• Shareable and Instant:
o Kony 2012, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Brown...
• Dialogue:
o Komen and Planned Parenthood
• Social AND searchable:
o easily find, hear, and interact with actual people

"Social media is a space
where the individual
reigns, relationships are
required, and
conversations are public."

More similar than different
• Audience is crucial: Who > How Many
• Experiment, test, and improve
• Move donors up engagement ladder: Stewardship
• "House File" is crucial: Supporter Database
• People give because:
o People they know give People give to
o There's an immediate need faces and
o They are asked heartbeats, not
statistics!

Social Media vs. Large Gifts
• Know your potential donors
o Made easier by apps, passive data collection
• Make them feel special
o Easy, and free, to do on social media
• It's $10, not $10K, but the same model can work
• Your new “slacktivist” will be your major donor in 25
years

The big donors at your
gala probably have a
Facebook account to
stalk their grandkids.

What are best practices for
social media campaigns?
• Set realistic goals
• Grow your presence
• Reward participation
• Use em' if you got em'
o Leverage a special event, celebrity
ambassadors, corporate sponsors
• Thank donors!


What are realistic goals?

1. Get 10 new donors
2. Learn who they are
3. Thank them individually
o Not with direct mail
4. Follow up

Ten donors giving $25 per month all year is an extra
$3,000. Not bad!


What time and effort are
needed?
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 & discuss
• 1 hour to ask partners or super-supporters 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 monitoring social media
• 1 hour to download reports and upload into your supporter database


Messaging
Good. Better
• "Did you know you can • Matching deadline today -
donate by..." Donate now!
• Please give to support the • Save this homeless dog
Animal Rescue today. All it takes is your
Organization $5 donation
• Please share! • Donate, THEN share!
• We're trying to raise $25k • We're trying to raise $250
this year. from our Facebook fans
*today* We're only 3
donations away!

http://www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com/
http://johnhaydon.com

Use it: Leverage a Special Event
• Earth Day, Valentines Day, event
• …or create one! #oceangiving

http://oceana.org/en/blog/2011/11/this-november-celebrate-oceansgiving


Use em': Partners, Advocates

• Celebrity ambassadors
o Local & personal are best!
• Corporate sponsors
• Local media, previous supporters

http://scr.bi/JUUCFo

Reward Participation

• Reward participation
o “Like” for a chance to win…
o Submit a picture for a chance to win…
• Nonmonetary gifts
o Facebooker of the week
o #FF (follow friday)
o Pizza box autographed by all staff


What's a free and easy way
to keep supporters happy?

Thank supporters/donors right away on social
media. It's free and powerful.


Real World "Thank
Yous"


Real World "Thank Yous"


Best Practices for
Thanking Donors
• Provide inspiring stories about what donors are
accomplishing with their giving
o "Susan just donated enough for 20 thanksgiving
meals! Thank you!"
• Be personal
• Be specific: "Thanks for volunteering today Brian!"

more:
http://www.futurefundraisingnow.com/future-fundraising/2012/02/how-skimping-on-your-
donors-can-make-you-lose-your-shirt.html
http://www.bethkanter.org/say-thanks/


Special nonprofit benefits

• Google Grants: Ads
• YouTube: Special features
• Hope140: Ads, features
• LinkedIn: Volunteerism
http://www.google.com/grants/
http://www.youtube.com/nonprofits
https://www.facebook.com/nonprofits
http://hope140.org/contact
http://learn.linkedin.com/nonprofits/


Facebook Ads
Who: AXIS Dance Company
Goal: Get local likes
Method: 2 ads
one general (website)
one specific to Likes
Cost: ~$15/day

Results:
~30 unique visitors / day
~10 new Likes / day
http://www.bethkanter.org/facebook-ads/
https://www.facebook.com/axisdancecomp

Facebook Ads
Use them when you...
• need to jump start a new community
• need to quickly reach a specific audience
• have the budget

Be sure to...
• Target by location, demographics, and interest
• Test your ads (try different versions)
• Invest in your landing pages

Or try sponsored stories...


Facebook Pages

• Make it pretty
o Timeline cover: 850x315px
o Add photos
o Faces and heartbeats: Your story, not your logo

• Pick the right name
o Hard to change after 100 Likes
o Admin Panel -> Help -> Request a name change


Facebook Pages

• Post the right stuff
o Like other pages and tag them
 "....@[page name], FB will auto-complete
 Build informal partnerships
o Paste URLs for automatic photo, synopsis
• Encourage discussion
o Ask questions
o Polls
o Private messages


Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest

http://www.socialbrite.org/2012/02/16/what-to-pin-and-what-not-to-pin-on-pinterest/

Small to Medium Nonprofits
Use Free / Low Cost Tools
• Listen: Hootsuite, TweetDeck, SproutSocial,
Google Reader
• Measure: Google Analytics, Facebook,
SocialBro, Insights, Feedburner, TweetReach
• Manage: Reminders, Bookmarks, Shortcuts,
Buffer, Tweriod

Spend an hour creating social media / online
response guidelines for your organization. Share
the logins. It's OK!


Smallness as an Advantage

• 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?


Small Org Fundraising
• Set appropriate goals
• Individual attention
o Tie individual donors to specific results
o Personal thank yous
• Get a leg up
o Borrow an audience
o Partnerships
o Spend when appropriate
• Long term investment


Metrics
• $ per unique visitor
o Divide total raised by "Unique Visitors" in google
analytics.
• $ per staff hour
o Divide total raised by number of hours
• Click to share ratio
o How many people shared? (+1, Like, RT, share)
o How many people actually clicked on it?
• Donation page conversion rate
o Divide number of donations by unique visitors,
multiply by 100.


ROI
Return on Investment (ROI)
The ROI of social media should be measured as a long
term investment with compounding growth, rather than a
short term balance sheet.
Where would you be without your email list today?


The Takeaway Slide (Wake
up! almost over!)
• Social media fundraising is far more similar than
different from other fundraising
• Sharing is critical
o Make it visual
o Make it specific
• Focus on your foundation
o General online donations
o Supporter database
o Create culture of listening & openness
• Then pick appropriate tools & campaigns
• Try it, measure it, fix it, repeat


Social Media Fundraising
Tools
• FirstGiving
• Chirpify
• Causes
• HelpAttack!


Thanks for coming!

Blog & resources: http://info.helpattack.com

Sign up: http://helpattack.com/addcause/search

@helpattack
http://facebook.com/helpattack
(512) 934-2410

Questions?

Social Media Fundraising 101

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