Finding Leads (aka Donors) with Social Media

Blogs and other news sites regularly provide guidance and insight on how businesses can improve their social media efforts. As a corresponding resource for the non-profit world, More Donors finds the best and most timely topics to share through a pair of non-profit spectacles. This takes a look at how businesses are using social media to find leads, but reconsidering the practices for finding donors. Previous postings of: Through Non-Profit Eyes.

How to Use Social Media for Lead/Donor Generation:

...51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers said they were more likely to buy the brands they like on Facebook or follow on Twitter, strengthening the argument that social media is one of the most important emerging channels for lead generation. - Mashable.com

1) Continuously Point Users to Your Content

Obviously, part of your role in engaging constituents is to provide useful content. Once the content is out there, you need to make sure your collective social media presence directs people to the information. Posting links to full articles illustrating your expertise take the engagement beyond your basic Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn post. Some good examples from Oxford below:

2) Promote Your Social Presence with Social Links

While this may be from the syllabus to Social Media Marketing 101, it is worth highlighting as part of this topic. You cannot find donors via social media if they can't find your social media landing pages. Good examples from Texas A&M (see lower right of image) and Music Rising:

3) Monitor Conversations about Your Brand and Competitors

You must listen to know how you are being viewed on the medium.

Social media is changing the ways brands approach marketing. Instead of broadcasting messages, brands are starting conversations and engaging individuals.

Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, and other aggregation tools are good for keeping track of various topics.

4) Respond to Customer Constituent Questions and Feedback

You can listen all day, but if you don’t act on your learnings, you will lose an opportunity to generate a meaningful conversation with a consumer that may be considering trying out your brand. Take action when you come across a useful comment, and make sure you clear up any customer questions when they arise. - Mashable.com

5) Use Your Offline Skills

How would you treat a donor who walked in your door with a gift, called or wrote to complain, or asked you to make a case for support? Take those skills and answers and use them as you see questions arise on social media. If you engage and quickly address issues or answer questions, more people will be inclined to take part in your conversation.

What are some of your tips and techniques for using social media for lead generation?

Happy Social Media Day!

I have obviously documented the fact that there is a plethora (a word I learned from the movie Three Amigos... see video clip below) of holidays - popular, odd, humorous and obscure - that can be repurposed for philanthropic reasons. Today is another holiday... one that Hallmark actually did not invent, but is new nonetheless - Social Media Day!

Fundraising Campaign Brings 1940 Battle to Life via Twitter

Reading Room, a digital agency in the UK and Australia, has created a social media campaign for the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund (RAFBF) in hopes of engaging new constituents and increasing fundraising totals.

The campaign marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and revolves around the ‘1940 Chronicle’, an online newspaper which breaks daily news of Britain at war from the same day 70 years ago, as though the Battle of Britain is happening in real time.

Interwoven with this historically accurate account of the Battle are the stories of five fictional characters: a Hurricane Pilot (George Sheridan, pictured in the top right), a Radar Operator, a Plane Mechanic, a Nurse and a Journalist. Their personal accounts of the Battle began to unfold against the backdrop of the war through a series of blogs in the form of diary entries on June 21 and will continue through September 19.

It is a creative way to engage constituents and take advantage of telling a historical story on Twitter. In fact, it takes the interesting idea of playing out real events (like Ferris Bueller's infamous day off) and uses it to raise money.

Reading Room commissioned acclaimed writer Kevin Telfer (author of Peter Pan's First XI), who worked closely with the RAFBF, to write the campaign content.

Dean Benton, RAFBF director of marketing and communications, told Brand Republic: "We hope the campaign will bring home the impact of conflict on serving personnel and their families and the need for an organisation like the RAF Benevolent Fund – both in 1940 and still today in 2010."

Margaret Manning, chief executive of Reading Room, said: "The emergence of social media channels offers huge opportunities for charities to have conversations with their audiences, and the 1940’s Chronicle campaign is a perfect example of how this can be achieved. We’re extremely proud to be part of such a unique and exciting campaign."

Are there any events you could use to tell a story via social media?

Free Non-Profit Webinars - Week of 06/27

A list of upcoming free webinars identified by browsing the interwebs :) If you know of others please email me so I can add them or use the comments section to share the info.

e-Strategy for your Nonprofit

Monday, June 28, 2010

12:00PM Eastern

From: CharityFinders.com

Proposal Writing Budget Basics

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

2:00PM Eastern

From: The Foundation Center

Introduction to Fundraising Planning

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

3:00PM Eastern

From: The Foundation Center

Peeling Back the Covers on Your Finance Organization
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
1:00PM Eastern
From: NonprofitWebinars.com

Focus On Your Vision: Bring Your Future Into Laser Focus!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010

1:00PM Eastern
From: Colette Ellis, Ventureneer

Major Gift Strategies that Work
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
2:30PM Eastern
From: NonprofitWebinars.com

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UPDATED TO INCLUDE:

Why Obtaining 501c3 Tax Exempt Status is Necessary to Help your Organization Grow

Thursday, July 1, 2010
3:00PM Eastern

From: CharityNetUSA

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Creative Viral Video

The folks at 1goal.org have done a great job partnering with the comedic people at funny or DIE! to promote their cause:

1GOAL is a campaign seizing the power of football to ensure that education for all is a lasting impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. By bringing together footballers and fans, charities and organisations around the world, together we can call on world leaders to make education a reality for 72 million children by 2015.

HIGH-FIVE WORLD CUP!! from Shakira Isabel

1Goal PSA Gone Wrong w/ Jessica Alba, Matt Damon, Shakira, John Legend & Queen Rania from 1Goal

Free Non-Profit Webinars - Week of 06/20

Highlighting some of the upcoming free webinars identified by Wild Apricot's blog. If you know of others please email me so I can add them or use the comments section to share the info.

Social Media and Volunteer Engagement
Tuesday, June 22nd 2010
2:00PM Eastern

From: VolunteerMatch

Affordable Video Production for Non Profits
Wednesday, June 23rd 2010
1:00PM Eastern
From: NonprofitWebinars.com

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UPDATED to include:

Using Twitter to Grow Your Business
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

2:00PM Eastern

From: MyVenturePad and SAP

Featuring: Brian Solis of FutureWorks, Marc Meyer of Digital Response Marketing Group, and moderator Steve King of the Society for New Communications Research.

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What is a Brand and Why Does it Matter?

Wednesday, June 23rd 2010
2:30PM Eastern
From: NonprofitWebinars.com

Boomer Volunteer Engagement: Structuring for Innovation
Wednesday, June 23rd 2010
5:00PM Eastern

From: Jill Friedman Fixler & Sandie Eichberg, authors of Boomer Volunteer Engagement: Collaborate Today, Thrive Tomorrow, and VolunteerMatch

Cause Marketing Basics
Thursday, June 24th 2010
12:00PM Eastern
From: Geri Stengel, Ventureneer

The New Volunteer Manager's Toolkit
Thursday, June 24th 2010
2:00PM Eastern

From: VolunteerMatch

Political Campaign's Success on Social Media

Blogs and other news sites regularly provide guidance and insight on how businesses can improve their social media efforts. As a corresponding resource for the non-profit world, More Donors finds the best and most timely topics to share through a pair of non-profit spectacles. This is a look at how political campaigns are using social media for real results. Previous postings of: Through Non-Profit Eyes.

Some characteristics of successful political campaigns and how you can use them to improve your NPO's reach and impact:

Transparency and Credibility

Per Mashable.com: "Spin and misinterpretation can cloud a political message as it passes from candidate, to spokesperson, to media, to public. But this chain can be broken by something as simple as a Facebook update." There is a distinct parallel between this and an NPO's constituents. All too often, the case for support and impact of a donor's support can get lost in mass communications - particularly the impact of an annual gift of relatively smaller size.

• Transparency is craved by donors, as many recent reports have found. By using social media to highlight how decisions are made and prioritized by your leadership, donors and prospects will feel more engaged in the process.
• Credibility has a similar impact on gaining your prospects' trust. This can best be obtained by having actual leadership in your organization posting updates and tweets for followers to see. For example, note Tulane's athletic director, Rick Dickson:

Highly Targeted and Inexpensive Ads

• As we have known for some time, the social web can be a cost-effective medium for targeted advertising.
• Most importantly, you can target your audience specifically by various demographics, closely monitor spending and keep an eye on analytics better than media like television and radio.

Let the People Be Your Voice

• This is obviously the greatest power of social media (hence the social). Gaining the trust and attention of your social media constituents can turn them into advocates with the appropriate call-to-action.
• Do not forget that email needs to part of the engagement. Your messages should have direct and proactive ways to get your email recipients engaged via social media.

Improving Public Service

• Again, per Mashable: “Ivory Tower Syndrome is a problem in every sphere — including politics — where influence and money can divide those in office from the people they serve. Social media can democratize information and reconnect politicians to the vox populi."
• The term ivory tower has biblical roots, but is most commonly used today in the higher education context. Most non-profits, regardless of size, can do a better job of connecting donors, leaders and beneficiaries.

Image courtesy of Mashable.com

Building a Loyal YouTube Audience

Blogs and other news sites regularly provide guidance and insight on how businesses can improve their social media efforts. As a corresponding resource for the non-profit world, More Donors finds the best and most timely topics to share through a pair of non-profit spectacles. This is a look at guidelines for building a YouTube following. Previous postings of: Through Non-Profit Eyes.

Five guidelines to improve your YouTube use, reach and impact:

1. Create Meaningful Content.

Consider these questions before posting videos:

• Why would people want to watch your video?
• What relevance does it have to your target audience?
• What does it convey about your cause, case for support, and management of resources?
• What conversations may it start?
• What conversations can you start with it?
• Is it a video that your constituents will be motivated to share?
• If someone who knows nothing about your organization sees it... what will they think you do?

2. Package and Brand Consistently

• As I have mentioned before, it is critical that you maintain your brand and social media in a consistent manner. A good example from the University of Florida's YouTube page, as compared to their website.

3. Utilize the Platform — This Is Not TV

• As said above (but worth repeating), encourage conversations and comments with your videos.
• Have a call to action via video - ask viewers to post their video response to your cause - how have they been impacted by your work (a student on a need-based scholarship at a college, a cancer survivor, a child benefiting from a community service organization, etc.)
• Encourage subscriptions via your YouTube page and your other main web landing pages.

4. Optimize Your Video for Search

• Properly title your video... so that it can be found via a search about your cause, efforts and accomplishments.
• Tag with accurate and search-worthy words. Do not, however, over-tag. This is the YouTube equivalent of spamming.
• Plan ahead and create videos with content relative to current or upcoming trends. A good example from UNICEF which highlights its efforts in South Africa via a FIFA World Cup theme:

5. Partner with the Experts

• Whenever possible, use experts within your organization or with whom your org partners to provide expertise. Such as the Humane Society of the United States does in this timely example from the BP oil spill:

Survey on Social Media Strategy, Profit & Perceptions

A recent survey by R2integrated provides some insight into what a sample of for-profit leaders think about social media. There are obviously many of these surveys in the field, but this one provides some quick snapshots you may find interesting and helpful. I have included some of the graphs below for your information and feedback. Some points of note:

• Most companies do not feel they have realized a profit via their social media efforts.
• 21% cite an inability to develop a compelling business case as an impediment for social media efforts... Um, I think that is more than just a social media problem!!!
• Fewer than half the participants consider their company/organization to be expert or proficient in social media.

@BPGlobalPR Turns Popularity Into Gifts for the Gulf

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Twitter: @HealthyGulf and @BPGlobalPR
Name: Gulf Restoration Network & (Fake) BP Public Relations
Web: www.healthygulf.org & www.streetgiant.bigcartel.com
Bio: The Gulf Restoration Network is committed to uniting and empowering people to protect and restore the natural resources of the Gulf Region for future generations. @BPGlobalPR is a fake Twitter account providing satirical commentary on BP's oil spill and how the company has responded to the spill.
Followers: @HealthyGulf: 1,885 + you! @BPGlobalPR: 168,498 + you!
Why Follow? @BPGlobalPR has been a global phenomenon providing some humor during an environmental tragedy. Why does it now qualify for the @moredonors #FollowOfTheWeek? @BPGlobalPR has now turned its efforts to raising funds for @HealthGulf via its popularity and t-shirt sales. At press time, this total is over $20,000 and I anticipate that number growing significantly. Some highlights of all pages follow. This is an example of using social media to 1) provide support - financially and psychologically - during a tragedy; 2) leverage a large number of followers for good; and, 3) forge an effective social media partnership.

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Twitter Pages:

Websites:

Who is behind @BPGlobalPR? Apparently this guy... according to the Village Voice:

Report on Major Donors' Motivations for Giving

There are two questions you should always be exploring with your constituents to determine whether or not you are delivering the proper message to your audience:

1. Why do your donors financially support your cause?
2. Why don't your non-donor constituents financially support your cause?

There are certainly more detailed questions that branch off of those, such as "Why do or don't previous donors renew their support?" Those are also important to explore, but for this posting we will focus on why major donors in Australia make the gifts they make. Relate Partners provides these insights in a recent report/promotional piece. It explores why 14 major donors 'down under' give, what annoys them about interactions with non-profits and other insights.

An executive summary from Pro Bono Australia is below. The full report can be found here.

Australia’s major donors give because they believe they have vital contribution to make, but feel underutilized by charities who only want their money, according to a new report. The report found that the most inspiring environment for giving by major donors is with charities who engage them in a well contextualised relationship, shaped by candid conversation.

From the face to face discussions, the group of major donors say they give most to causes that impact people in need, to charities that can leverage their giving, and when personally asked by a well informed representative in an appropriate way.

Director of Relate Partners, Steve Gleeson, says major donors typically ask the very basic question, “How can I best contribute to help address this need?”

Major donors say they are sceptical and tired of direct mail and do not respond with their biggest gifts to this solicitation method. Whilst they all prefer to be asked clearly, directly and personally for their major gifts, they don’t expect it to be the CEO. These high capacity donors say they generally need contact with someone who knows the work, can inform them well, be clear about what they want and is prepared to ask for it.

Allowing major donors to inform the method of engagement and communication, by hearing directly from them, is a real positive towards expectations being met, and their giving being maximised.

Nic Capp, founder and director of Relate Partners, says as they spoke one-on-one with these major donors, it was clear that they were buoyed by talking about how to improve their giving experience. Capp says they want to be better engaged because they want to help as best they can.

Major donors acknowledge they have disproportionate capacity to resource charities and they often want to give more than money. Typically highly skilled, vastly experienced and well networked, major donors say they feel underutilized by charities who only want their money.

The report says when these high calibre people ‘buy in’ to a purposeful endeavour, they want to contribute well and often are willing to contribute beyond financial donations. Their life and business skills and experience can not only be invaluable to a NFP in an advisory or board function, but when utilised they can be extremely motivating to the major donors in their resourcing capacity.

Relate Partners also provides the following YouTube interview:

What do you hear from your donors and (maybe more importantly) your non-donors about supporting your organization?

Volunteer numbers are growing...

The Cooperation for National and Community Service, a government agency which runs programs like AmeriCorps, has produced its report on volunteering statistics for the 2009 calendar year. This was clearly a priority of the Obama administration and the statistics indicate some success on this front. Some notable stats:

• Total time volunteering: ~8.1 billion hours
• Estimated value of time: $169B
• Americans spent 100 million more collective hours volunteering in 2009 than 2008
• 1.6 million more people volunteered in 2009 than 2008
• The increase in volunteers is the largest single-year increase since 2003.
• There is a negative correlation between unemployment & foreclosure rates and volunteer rates. Meaning, higher unemployment and foreclosure rates will result in lower volunteer totals.

Some rankings...

Large cities with highest volunteer rate:

• Minneapolis, MN 37.4% (pictured)
• Portland, OR 37.1
• Salt Lake City, UT 35.8
• Seattle, WA 34.9
• Oklahoma City, OK 33.9
  

Mid-size cities (note the representation of college towns):

• Provo, UT 63.6% ( Brigham Young Univ.) (pictured)
• Iowa City, IA 50.0 (Univ. of Iowa)
• Ogden, UT 47.7 (Weber State Univ.)
• Fort Collins, CO 40.7 (Colorado State Univ.)
• Madison, WI 40.0 (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison)
  

Free Non Profit Webinars - Week of 6/14

Highlighting some of the upcoming free webinars identified by Wild Apricot's blog. This week there are a few to check out. If you know of others please email me so I can add them or use the comments section to share the info.

Making Volunteer Engagement Everyone's Job
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
2:00PM Eastern

From: VolunteerMatch

Stand Out – How to Differentiate Your Group
Tuesday, June 15th 2010
3:30PM Eastern
From: Tera McHugh, Association of Women Entrepreneurs

Topic: Building a community of like-minded individuals for networking and support

A Newbie's Recipe for Producing and Presenting Webinars
Wednesday, June 16th 2010
1:00PM Eastern
From: Fran Simon, Chief Engagement Officer of Engagement Strategies

Opportunities & Pitfalls in Facility Planning
Wednesday, June 16th 2010
1:00PM Eastern
From: NonprofitWebinars.com

Giving USA Report Summary

In case you did not see the plethora of coverage given to the Giving Institute and the Giving USA Foundation's announcement on charitable giving in 2009, you can find the basic numbers by clicking on either of the images below. Some highlights:

• Total giving dropped 3.6%
• Third consecutive year of total USA giving over $300B
• Charitable bequests fell by almost 24%
• Individual giving and foundation grants also fell (4% & 9% respectively)
• Corporate giving increased by 5.5%
• Sectors seeing a growth in giving: International Aid (+6.2%), Health (+3.8%) and Human Services (2.3%)
• Sectors seeing a decline in giving: Grants to Foundations (-8%), Public-Society Benefit Organizations (ex: United Way) (-4.6%), Education (-3.6%), Arts (-2%) and Faith-Based/

And some takeaways:

• It's a great sign that giving only dropped slightly, given all the economic troubles the United States and its citizens experienced during 2009.
• The realization of bequests will continue to decline as the death rate follows a similar trend. That being said, planned giving operations should not be shutdown. Rather, they should be more focused and the metrics used to evaluate success should consider the trend in bequest realizations. Also, your planned giving officers should be developing methods for approaching donors/prospects earlier than the field has historically. People traditionally write a will for the first time when they have kids. Consider making an initial approach to prospects when they are in the late-20's or early 30's. A potential strategy is to offer a flyer via mail or web that helps guide your constituents through the basics of writing a will/trust. Include a brief bit on why they should include your organization.

Images for the basic stats:

Thoughts on the 20 "Worst" Charities

It's hard for me to dub charities the "worst" at their craft, considering that I believe all charities are at least started with wonderful intentions. That being said, the folks at MainStreet.com used Charity Navigator's statistics and some additional research to list the following as the worst in the country based on the percentage of funds/gifts that go to administrative costs.

Administrative costs should not be too high (see figures below), but remember they also should not be too low... If your admin costs are in the single digits or even the low teens, you may not be investing enough in fundraising, particularly the long-term fundraising often dubbed "annual giving."

When I reviewed the websites of the twenty labeled organizations, only 4 promoted a social media presence on their home page, including none of the bottom six (Those ranked #1-6... Couldn't really bring myself to call them the "top six"). A correlation? Only that it is another example of bad management.

All of that being said... here is the dreaded list.

20. Tucson Audubon Society - Tucson, AZ (Administrative expenses: 42.8%)
19. New Hampshire Audubon (Administrative expenses: 42.8%)
18. Gospel to the Unreached Millions (GUM) - Houston, TX (Administrative expenses: 43.1%)
17. American Psychiatric Foundation - Arlington, VA (Administrative expenses: 43.7%)
16. Marshall Heights Community Development Organization (MHCDO) - Washington, DC (Administrative expenses: 44.1%)
15. Please Touch Museum - Philadelphia, PA (Administrative expenses: 44.9%)
14. American Friends of the Open University of Israel (AFOUI) - New York, NY (Administrative expenses: 45.2%)
13. Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics - Washington, DC (Administrative expenses: 45.4%)
12. Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens - Akron, OH (Administrative expenses: 45.8%)
11. Victorious Christian Living International - Phoenix, AZ (Administrative expenses: 46.0%)
10. Center for Individual Rights - Washington, DC (Administrative expenses: 46.1%)
9. Changed Lives - Chattanooga, TN (Administrative expenses: 47.4%)
8. Vision New England - Danvers, MA (Administrative expenses: 48.7%)
7. Charleston Area Medical Center Foundation (CAMCF) - Charleston, WV (Administrative expenses: 48.8%)
6. National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Saratoga Springs, NY (Administrative expenses: 55.1%)
5. Cherokee National Historical Society - Tahlequah, OK (Administrative expenses: 58.2%)
4. Union Rescue Mission, Little Rock (Administrative expenses: 62.1%)
3. National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) - Washington, DC (Administrative expenses: 64%)
2. Boys Choir of Harlem - Harlem, NY (Administrative expenses: 66.3%)
1. American Tract Society - Garland, TX (Administrative expenses: 68.0%)

World Cup Fever... with Non-Profits

First... Go USA! (I happen to be a huge soccer/"proper football" fan)

Now that I have that out of the way, there are some interesting ways to capitalize on the momentum and coverage associated with the FIFA World Cup. For example, check out the (RED) campaign's current effort highlighted in the screenshots below. (RED) is encouraging soccer fans to play against each other in an online penalty shootout. For each goal scored, one US Dollar goes to the (RED) efforts to fight AIDS in Africa. What are your ideas for using the World Cup to help your campaigns?

The game's landing page:

Promoted on Twitter feed (second status down):

Promoted on their Facebook page:

And on (RED)'s main website:

And a look at the actual gameplay (note the personalized jersey as a nice touch):

6/7 Follow-Of-The-Week: Human Rights Campaign

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Twitter: @HRC
Name: Human Rights Campaign
Web: www.hrc.org
Bio: The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality.
Followers: 11,572 + you!
Why Follow? If you visit the Philanthropic Holidays page you’ll see that June is National GLBT (Gay,Lesbian,Bisexual & Transgender) Awareness Month. This, along with the good work HRC does and the way in which they use social media are all good reasons to follow HRC. The Twitter account provides timely updates on GLBT issues and events.
You will find the following images from HRC below - the Twitter account (note the nice use of custom URLs in the background), the HRC website with social media links well-displayed, a great Facebook landing page that immediately requests action from a visitor, and the HRC You Tube page.

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Twitter Page:

Twitter Image with custom URLs:

Home page for www.hrc.org:

Facebook landing page (note consistency and immediate call-to-action):

You Tube page:

Celebrating National Cancer Survivors Day w/Social Media

You have likely seen the buzz all over Twitter and Facebook today - it is National Cancer Survivors Day. The odds are unfortunately also likely that you or someone close to you has been faced with cancer. To that end, American Cancer Society has been (along with the USA Today Kindness section) asking survivors via their More Birthdays campaign website, Facebook page and Twitter feed to share stories of how they overcame cancer. Great use of social media. If you aren't interested in viewing it as a great example of social media use, you should at least check it out for the inspirational stories.