How to raise monthly donors on Facebook – yes, Facebook

By Pamela Grow

When I read Australian fundraiser Jonathon Grapsas’ March post about how one nonprofit had managed to raise over $100,000 in monthly gifts via Facebook I was intrigued and mildly incredulous.

I believe that social media is invaluable to nonprofit organisations, particularly the small nonprofits, but I confess that I always thought of it as an initial first step in an organisation’s marketing strategy. When it comes to actual donations, I’ve reflected back upon the numerous Facebook birthday-wish gifts I’ve made to various causes without receiving a thank you, let alone a follow up, from a single organisation.

So I arranged to phone Jonathon to talk to him about fundraising in general and, in particular, about the exceptional social media fundraising success of the Soi Dog Foundation and their $100,000 monthly gifts from Facebook users. (Jonathon is the brilliant head of fundraising innovation for Pareto Fundraising in Australia and publishes one of my favourite fundraising blogs.) Jonathon was kind enough to connect me with Leonard Coyne, the genius behind Soi Dog Foundation’s fundraising and Leonard quite generously agreed to be interviewed over the phone.

The Soi Dog Foundation works to help the homeless, neglected and abused dogs and cats of Thailand by reducing pain and suffering through humane population control. From February to November 2010 (a mere nine months) the Soi Dog Foundation saw a 350 per cent increase in monthly donors, attributed primarily to Facebook traffic. Pretty impressive, no?

What’s more, Leonard’s Facebook experiment for the Soi Dog Foundation resulted in increased audience engagement, a significant increase in one-off donations, supporter driven appeals and even five legacy gifts directly attributable to Facebook. Yes, five legacy gifts.

How did he do it?

As Leonard told me, ‘There’s a lot of noise about social media, but it’s a very ephemeral noise. Too many organisations start up a page or group but there is no discipline in taking it forward.

‘Although many organisations believe that they should establish a group instead of a page (or both) this is not the case. Although groups allow you to ‘mass message’ the group’s members, it is typically fairly ineffectual and regarded as yet another Facebook annoyance if done too frequently. Groups were designed for use by people who have a similar interest. Pages on the other hand were specifically designed to represent an organisation. Pages also offer much more functionality and customisation than groups. Be careful not to confuse your audience with too many pages and groups representing your organisation. One page is the best approach.

‘Nonprofits also need to recognise that an investment of time is required to grow your fan base. One thing that works really well for us is to actively post every other day asking fans to ‘invite’ their Facebook friends to “like” us.’

Leonard’s right, it will definitely take some time to reach that initial mass of active followers who will begin to spread the word organically. The key is consistency. Actively pursue new Facebook followers by way of your regular communications, your organisation’s website, your newsletter, email signatures (don’t forget to create email signatures for your board members as well), and via your blog and Twitter.

Another factor in the Soi Dog Foundation’s Facebook success lies in advertising. Like many internet marketers, Leonard finds Facebook advertising far more effective than Google and he’s spent a fair amount of time in testing. He says, ‘I think anyone advertising on Facebook should be going after a recurring gift. It’s not terribly effective to use Facebook advertising for one-time gifts, recurring giving is key.’

Here are a few other tips for Facebook advertising. Leonard only advertises to women and suggests that in order to find out who you should be targeting, test by age, gender, relationship status, location, education, workplace and any other relevant categories you can think of. This is where your ideal donor profile comes in handy. The best way to get started effectively is to tighten down the criteria to a minimum audience reach of 20,000 people. Figure out what a $20 a month recurring donation is worth to your nonprofit and package it in a way that best appeals to your target audience.

What else can you learn from Soi Dog’s success? I liked the interactive sidebar applications that any organisation can emulate immediately on its own Facebook page. Leonard likens each one to a mini web page.

And, if you’re looking for greater engagement, be willing to relinquish some control. As Leonard notes, ‘It makes perfect sense to utilise Facebook for fundraising. Facebook is a social environment. People use it to interact socially. People are sick of you talking at them. Have dialogues with them, establish relationships and train others to do it. And add heaps of photo galleries.’

For more information on Soi Dog’s strategies, be sure to check out Leonard’s presentation on Slideshare.

How to be a fundraising hedgehog

By Damian O’Broin

In his book Good to Great – Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don’t (Random House Business Books, 2001), Jim Collins tells a story about a hedgehog and a fox. Actually, it’s Isaiah Berlin’s story, but here’s how Collins tells it:

‘The fox is a cunning creature, able to devise a myriad of complex strategies for sneak attacks upon the hedgehog. Day in and day out, the fox circles around the hedgehog’s den, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Fast, sleek, beautiful, fleet of foot and crafty – the fox looks like the sure winner. The hedgehog, on the other hand, is a dowdier creature, looking like a genetic mix-up between a porcupine and a small armadillo. He waddles along, going about his simple day, searching for lunch and taking care of his home.

The fox waits in cunning silence at the juncture in the trail. The hedgehog, minding his own business, wanders right into the path of the fox. ‘Aha, I’ve got you now!’ thinks the fox. He leaps out, bounding across the ground, lightning fast. The little hedgehog, sensing danger, looks up and thinks, ‘Here we go again. Will he ever learn?’ Rolling up into a perfect little ball, the hedgehog becomes a sphere of sharp spikes, pointing outward in all directions. The fox, bounding toward his prey, sees the hedgehog defence and calls off the attack. Retreating back to the forest, the fox begins to calculate a new line of attack. Each day, some version of this battle between the hedgehog and the fox takes place, and despite the greater cunning of the fox, the hedgehog always wins.’

People are similarly divided into foxes and hedgehogs. But it is the hedgehogs that make the biggest impression because they simplify the complex into a single, simple unifying idea. Think of Karl Marx and class struggle, Charles Darwin and natural selection, Ken Burnett and relationship fundraising. These are people who have looked at a complex world and found a way of simplifying it. They are hedgehogs.

Collins goes on to argue that all the great companies have a ‘hedgehog concept’, a simple, clear idea that drives everything that they do. For the US pharmacy chain Walgreens it was this: ‘To run the best, most convenient drugstores (pharmacies), with high profit per customer visit’. Once they identified this as their hedgehog concept, they implemented it with fanatical consistency, replacing inconvenient stores with more convenient ones, even closing good stores if the opportunity arose to replace them with potentially great ones. As a result, Walgreens’ stock performance outperformed the rest of the market by a factor of 15 between 1975 and 2000, leaving the likes of Intel and Coca-Cola trailing far behind.

But a hedgehog concept isn’t a goal or a strategy. It’s an understanding of what it is that you can be best in the world at. More specifically, your hedgehog concept can be found where the answers to these three questions overlap.

What can you be best in the world at?

What are you deeply passionate about?

What drives your economic engine?

So what does this have to do with fundraising? Well, I think there’s one, simple thing that most charities could realistically aim to be best in the world at. And it’s something that would definitely drive your economic engine: donor care. The question is, are you deeply passionate about it?

Whether you’re a big charity or a small one, in whatever sector or country, you could be the best charity in the world at donor care. All it needs is the passion to do it and the determination to make it happen.

The small Canadian political party Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada (AAEVPC) is hardly a household name, even in Canada, or a widely recognised cause, but they seem determined to become the best nonprofit in the world at donor care. You can read about how they retain 70 per cent of new donors in this recent post on The Agitator.

Just to put that retention figure in context, in The Agitator’s donor retention survey nearly two-thirds of charities reported that less than 40 per cent of donors ever make a second gift.

And the rate of second gifts is as good an indicator of long-term donor retention as you’re going to get. If you can maximise the number of second gifts you get, you’ll see a major increase in donor retention and a consequent growth in the lifetime value of your donors.

So here’s a free hedgehog concept for you to adopt for your charity:

We will be the best charity in the world at caring for and retaining our donors resulting in a high lifetime value per donor.

Take that to heart, make it the basis of everything you do, and riches will follow. Guaranteed.

Storytelling inspired by film

By Lucy Gower

So we have already agreed how crucial storytelling is to your fundraising. If you are still unsure, read my last blog For sale: baby shoes, never worn. Tapping into the motivations of your audience, fulfilling their needs, capturing their imagination and evoking emotion that inspires them to take action is fundamental to successful fundraising.

You also know the importance of finding your story. Once you have found it there are many ways to tell it. Earlier this week I was researching the use of film for creating emotional stories. I found so many different examples and I want to share some with you so that they may inspire your own storytelling.

Grab yourself a coffee and take some time to watch these very different short films and consider how they make you feel.

Jot down your thoughts as you go along.

1. The Force: a super bowl advert for Honda using nostalgia and humour.

2. This amateur video captures the destructive power of the tsunami as it hit Kamaishi in Iwate prefecture, Japan.

3. Child’s i foundation raises £10,000 in 38 hours to save baby Joey’s life through the JustGiving community.

4. Topsy Foundation: AIDS sufferer, Selinah, agreed to film herself for 90 days to help others.

5. The tyranny book: Amnesty Portugal’s alternative Facebook.

6. The girl effect showing the extraordinary potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world.

7. Cadbury’s chocolate advertisement. No one said it has to be all doom and gloom.

Desperate, joyous, funny, thoughtful, inspired and tearful are some of the words that I wrote down.

People need to feel something if they are going to take action, whether that action is to reach for their debit card, agree to a meeting, or write to their MP. How can you use some of the techniques in these films to make your supporters feel emotion and inspire them to take action?

Not all of the above examples are from fundraising. Look to related worlds; industries whose core business is to inspire or stir up an emotional response, for example advertising, journalism, or Hollywood.

How can you learn from other industries to develop your stories to emotionally connect with supporters and spur them into action?

Answers on a postcard please.

Getting along – conflicts among staff

By Kirsten Bullock

There seems to be an invisible line drawn between fundraising staff and programme staff, executive staff and frontline staff, support services, such as accounting and technology, and everyone else. It exists in some way in most of the organisations I’ve worked with in the USA and I would be interested to hear from readers elsewhere to see if this staff divide is universal.

As a lifelong student (and someone who tends to think too much), I have spent time trying to determine the root of these conflicts. It seems to me that they stem from three different areas:

1) A belief that everyone else is just like us.

2) A tendency to think that the area we work in is the most important.

3) Focusing on what we heard – rather than what was meant.

We are not all alike

I confess that I am not a detail-oriented person; however, I have the utmost respect for those who are. I must also confess though that I used to get really irritated with people who dwelt on details when I wanted to talk about the big picture (and still do occasionally). Over time, and through communications tests and profiles such as DISC and Myers Briggs, I’ve come to have a much greater respect for the importance of diversity on work teams. It ensures that we will be less likely to overlook items essential to the success of our project, among other benefits.

Marriage was a similar learning curve for me in this area. My husband and I folded our towels differently, put our toilet paper on the holder differently, squeezed the toothpaste differently and had very different cooking styles (it was a few years before we were able to cook together). It didn’t mean either of us, or our families, were wrong, we were just different.

We are equally important

While there could probably be some very energetic discussions about the most important part of an organisation (programmes, fundraising, operations), the truth is that none of them could be successful without the others. We need money to operate programmes, but we need strong programmes to warrant funding and we need good systems in place to assure that everything is operating smoothly.

Communication, especially listening, is the key

Communication is an on-going challenge for people, as evidenced by the deluge of self-help books covering this topic and the increasing number of coaches focusing on it. Two people might be using the same words but mean very different things. Add another culture, even a second or third language into the mix and it’s a wonder we’re able to communicate effectively at all.

Several months ago my mother had some friends from Denmark visiting her. They had gone on a trip to a store and while they were waiting to pay her two friends were having an animated conversation about something fairly mundane. The person behind the register expressed concern to my mother about the argument he assumed they were having because, based on what he knew from his cultural norms, he thought their animation was hostility.

Creating a collaborative environment

So, with these challenges (and many more that we don’t have space to cover here), how do we begin to create a more collaborative environment?

First, understand yourself (with a goal of helping to understand others). The things you find most irritating about others may be things you yourself struggle with, or could be the exact opposite to you. Spend some time thinking about your reaction to other people. If it’s a negative reaction, try to identify what’s causing that reaction and why.

Next, try to see the good in others. When you’re able to identify differences between you and others, try to see the benefits that those differences offer. If you’re like me and love to push forward on projects, it’s good to have one or two people on your team providing cautionary words about possible obstacles. If you’re the type of person who gets stuck because of all the obstacles, it’s beneficial to have someone on the team pushing to move things along.

Bring internal partners into the conversation early. Ask questions about how things operate in their department and understand the implications for their department of what you’re trying to accomplish. Bringing all the parties together at the beginning of a discussion can help avoid delays later on. The primary objective for this meeting would be to discuss what you’re trying to accomplish and then ask for ideas of the best way to get there. It does take longer, but there will be more support for the implementation phase – and you might be pleasantly surprised when a better idea emerges to accomplish whatever it is you’re trying to do.

Understand your organisation’s programmes. Take time to learn about the programmes you’re raising funds for and what the hoped for outcomes are. This is a great opportunity to build bridges with programme staff. And remember, people don’t always remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel. Listening goes a long way in helping to build a strong relationship.

Recognise programme and operations staff, talk about them whenever the opportunity arises. As fundraising professionals, we often have the chance to do so publically. Let your programme and operations staff members know how much you appreciate them.

Start a giving programme for staff so, just like donors, they can become investors in the organisation beyond the day-to-day work they do; in some cases, introduce them to the joy of giving. Perhaps in a small way it helps other members of the organisation to get a small glimpse of the way we, as fundraising professionals, have the privilege of helping our donors use their money to accomplish something that they care deeply about and would not be able to accomplish on their own.

So, to summarise, it boils down to being a strong partner by listening and appreciating the strengths each person brings to the table. Hopefully through this process mutual respect will develop and a fruitful partnership can begin. Please let me know how these tips impact your work.

The unstoppable rise of social entrepreneurship

By Noam Kostucki

You may know a charity that makes money from selling products and services. Maybe you wonder how you can do the same, but have no background or experience in doing so? Perhaps you’re put off by the idea that it might be risky? Don’t be.

I often meet people from charities that struggle through the process of selling goods or services as a way of raising income. So, to help all those looking to take their first steps in the social entrepreneurial world, I’ve put together a short guide to help you on your way.

You might be impressed to learn that, according to the Charity Commission, charities in the UK have raised over £52 billion, of which broadly five per cent is claimed to come from trading. On the other hand, I am amazed by the Hidden Social Enterprise report from Delta, which shows that ethical and social trading represents a staggering potential contribution to the UK economy of £110 billion.

It would seem that trading in itself is no longer the savviest option. Only the organisations that can adapt to this new ethical opportunity will see a growth they could never have expected under the old paradigm. So if profit organisations are starting to realise that it pays to be nice, then why can’t charities capitalise on ‘being nice’ as a way to boost their income too?

Here are three key things to think about if you’re looking to make the most of your assets. And I’ve provided some examples too, so you can get an idea about what other people are already doing.

1. What are you best at?

What is it that your charity does best? Is it a skill, an attitude or even a specialised knowledge you have? How do you help others and what helps them most?

For example, look at the cancer charity Odyssey. This charity gives a one-week course of activities to help cancer patients boost their self-confidence and rebuild shattered spirits, but they were facing an uncertain future because of a drop in their income. Thinking outside the ‘charity’ box and with the help of some social enterprise expertise they are now developing the same course for healthy people who are looking for an injection of positivity in to their lives and who are happy to pay for the service. Odyssey have also now tapped in to the corporate market and are tailoring their course for company team building days which has a huge potential for growth and a secure source of income.

This is a great example where using your existing knowledge and charitable services along with a little commercial thinking can mean finding new sources of fundraising for your charity.

2. What is your business model?

You need to find a model in which your beneficiaries don’t lose out. You should be making money from people who want the same benefits as the groups you help by tailoring your services and products to a wider audience that is ready to pay. Your customers can be individuals and/or companies.

My favourite example is TOMS shoes: for every pair of shoes you buy, they send a new pair to a child in need. So the more they do for a good cause, the more money they make. The more money they make, the more they do for a good cause.

It is best when your charitable purpose is linked to making profit, directly or indirectly.

3. Use technology to make your life easier

Don’t do it all yourself, you can’t be an expert at everything. Social media can be a great tool for charities to make the most of the chance for free publicity and be sure to use all the free services available.

In the UK, we have initiatives like Eclector.com. This for-profit social enterprise helps you build your own bookshop online at no cost. They host the shops and manage all customer service issues. All you have to do is tell your supporters about the books. Every thousand visitors generate an average of £50, with so many charities having large donor bases it’s a great opportunity to generate new income for your charity.*

There are also a number of free services that can offer you a variety of help. Websites such as getsatisfaction.com and uservoice.com can provide you with feedback from customers; ping.fm and hootsuite.com will help you manage your social media and you can even create your own social network for free at sites like webs.com. Ultimately you need to explore what’s out there and make the most of the free technologies.

Seeducation is my own social enterprise company and we look to help individuals and organisations make money whilst having a positive social impact. Right now we are working on preparing a free eLearning tool called, ‘Making money from doing good’, thanks to a generous donation of a £40,000 eLearning platform by GrowthEngineering. We’ll keep you posted as soon as this is up and running.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for social entrepreneurship: a new era has definitely started.

NB: SOFII is not able to endorse or recommend the websites in this blog.

For sale: baby shoes, never worn

By Lucy Gower

Fundraisers, think about your most successful fundraising campaign, mailing, event, individual gift, trust application or corporate pitch. I bet that they all have something in common. In some way they have fulfilled a need for your audience, captured their imagination and evoked some form of emotion that has inspired them to take action.

In the charity sector there is a lot of talk about the ‘donor journey’ but for me the start of any donor journey is you finding your story and telling it in a way that touches people’s hearts as well as their minds. Telling a story written by your marketing team isn’t good enough. You have to find your own stories that evoke passion and power in you.

People give to help people. The relationships you build with your donors are your relationships – you build rapport, you build trust, you inspire donors to get involved, you make a difference.

I think perfecting the art, and it is an art, of seeking out real stories and telling them in a way that inspires both you and your donors is the essence of being a fundraiser.

A book that has inspired me is Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath (Random House, 2007). They outline six principles that will help your stories to inspire your audiences’ hearts and minds.

1. Simple

Keep your story simple. Focus on your core message. Using analogies helps simplify

complicated information.

Help the Aged’s ‘make a blind man see’ press advertisement is a great example of a simple story.

2. Unexpected

Say something unexpected to get attention. Ask questions to hold people’s attention and curiosity.

For sale: baby shoes, never worn. A six-word story by Ernest Hemingway. Think about it for a moment. Those six words are somewhat unexpec

ted yet hugely powerful. You can read more six word stories here or submit your own.

Amnesty produced an award winning unexpected message to ‘throw away this flyer’ in their insert campaign.

3. Concrete

Be specific. Paint a mental picture with words by using sensory language. The famous president of the USA John Kennedy painted a picture with words in a powerful speech when he said, ‘I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.’

An RSBP campaign to save the albatross brilliantly uses this technique. You are asked to picture the scene: imagine you are in a restaurant tucking into your first bite of succulent Pacific salmon. Something is not right. Read more about what happens next here.

4. Credible

Provide compelling details, whether it’s research and statistics, the name of an industry expert, or something down to earth about the difference you are making. Research shows that many people respond better when they can link their contribution to providing help to a specific situation or person.

‘If I look at the mass I will never act. If I look at the one I will’, Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

The Child’s i Foundation raised £10,000 in 38 hours to save baby Joey’s life. The story is all about baby Joey and his parents. Take a few minutes to watch the video in the link. I challenge you not to be moved. Which leads to sticky principle number five.

5. Emotional

People care about people. People care about situations that they can identify with. There is a range of ways in which you can do this and I particularly like Action Aid’s latest campaign, which is a brilliant example of tapping into our emotional need to belong to a community of people like us. Action Aid asks the question ‘How does it make you feel to be part of the Action Aid community?’

6. Stories

The very process of telling a story helps people see how an existing problem might change and how they could help that change happen.

St Mungo’s, a charity for the homeless in London, uses real life stories and includes inspirational accounts of how, with help, people can change their lives.

How to seek stories

Does your storytelling spell SUCCESS? The more of the six principles that you can weave into your communications, the more likely it is that your messages will stick. Your challenge is to continually and deliberately seek stories that inspire you and that you can tell to inspire others. Here are some tactics to help you do just that.

· Carry a notebook with you. Use it, make collecting stories and observations on life a habit. We know that the more connections we make the more likely it is we are going to put those connections together to come up with something new. That something new could be your wonderfully compelling story… or the next big fundraising idea.

· Read more stories. Millions of authors have spent time writing stories. Read them. Think about what the author does to keep you eagerly turning the pages. Try using that author’s tactics on your own stories.

· Watch films and consider their storytelling styles. What keeps your interest? What turns you off?

· As with everything, if you are going to become good you need to practice. Practice telling stories; practice on your friends and family, use your voice and body language to bring the stories to life.

· Volunteer at a local school or a reading stories project – or perhaps you have a Ministry of Stories near you? What a cool place!

· Practice writing. Start a blog.

· Get some storytelling training. It will be one of the best investments you and your organisation will ever make.

· Enjoy your story-seeking adventure.

Have a go. Tell us how you get on.

Oldies but goodies

By Christiana Stergiou

Most of us spend a lot of time focusing on what’s new and on chasing the latest trends. We fail to see that some of the best fundraising methods out there aren’t new, they are traditional and old – but they are executed to perfection. With that in mind, I am going to recommend three ‘old’ fundraising books.

The oldest book on my fundraising bookshelf is Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples. It was first published in 1932 and since then has been reprinted numerous times. Caples himself revised it four times and the last edition, which alone has been reprinted 14 times, is still available in paperback.

Caples wrote thousands of direct mail pieces over many years and collected thorough results from each campaign. Advertising genius David Ogilvy said Caples ‘has no theories only facts’ and he shares hundreds of them in this book. Not only will Caples teach you how to test, he will teach you everything he learnt as a result of his body of work and research, including his mistakes. He also provides excellent guides for all aspects of direct marketing – from writing headlines, the first paragraph of an advert or letter, through to hundreds of ways to improve your overall copy to increase response.

I often hear fundraisers say ‘we tested that’, but in reality they didn’t. They just gave something a go to see if it would work. That’s just trying, not testing. Testing involves comparing, learning and continually improving what you do and how you do it. This book will teach you the genuine ins and outs of testing. I’m confident it will improve many fundraising campaigns.

David Ogilvy said he learned all he knew about copywriting from John Caples. In 1983 Ogilvy’s own book Ogilvy on Advertising was published and it too has been revised and reprinted many times. Whether it’s advertising, direct mail copy or advice on how to work with an agency, Ogilvy on Advertising is a must read for the savvy fundraiser. You can read a more detailed review of it on SOFII here.

Published in 2000, Mal Warwick’s Five Strategies for Fundraising Success: A Mission-Based Guide to Achieving Your Goals is a book I often refer to when putting together a fundraising strategy for a charity. Mal identifies the five main strategies as growth, involvement, visibility, efficiency and stability (GIVES). So often boards and management want all those things at once. Oh, to live in that perfect world.

Thankfully, Mal methodically explains the best strategy for any organisation’s current situation and future needs. He also assists in answering some of the frequent questions about developing a fundraising strategy. These include: should we run special events? Are we ready for a capital campaign? And should we launch a direct mail campaign? He also outlines ten key benchmarks that will assist in evaluating your success.

You can find out more about the latest fundraising book news and reviews at www.fundraisingbooks.net. You can also contact Christiana at christiana@fundraisingbooks.net.