Frogloop

Hot or Not: What's Sizzling in Online Fundraising: Presentation

2010-09-02T13:28:39Z

It's hard to believe but summer is coming to an end which means year-end fundraising is just around the corner. Are you prepared to ramp up your fundraising strategy this month? Wondering what the latest best practices are and what kind of fundraising results you can expect? Check out Care2's latest web presentation Hot or Not: What's Sizzling in Online Fundraising, featuring fundraising experts - Steve MacLaughlin, Director, Internet Solutions, Blackbaud, Donna Wilkins, President, Charity Dynamics, Jason Wood, Director of Internet Services, The Salvation Army National Headquarters and Eric Glader, Director of Nonprofit Services for Care2.

Hot or Not: What's Sizzling in Online Fundraising?

Nonprofits Take a Dive into Mobile Apps

2010-08-31T20:29:09Z

Has the world gone mobile crazy? Apple’s app store just cracked a quarter million available mobile applications, Google’s Android is giving them a run for their money, and Microsoft is waiting in the wings with Windows 7 Mobile. Apps are central to mobile and, according to Allyson Kapin, Blogger-In-Chief for Care2's Frogloop and Partner at Rad Campaign, mobile web use is exploding. Does your organization have a mobile and app strategy?

Ensuring that your nonprofit website is mobile friendly and loads well from different mobile browsers should be your first priority when it comes to mobile. Beyond that, we’ve seen the potential for text-based mobile giving campaigns, which Frogloop has reported in the past year. While few nonprofits have developed mobile apps, the potential is huge if done strategically and of course executed well. We’ll likely see some great mission driven apps released in the coming years as more nonprofits decide to experiment and invest in mobile app development to further their missions.

Thinking about Developing Your Own Custom App? Check out these 7 Mission Centered Nonprofit Apps

Montery Bay Aquarium - Seafood Watch - Helps diners make sustainable restaurant choices. Guides actions and informs about overfishing and health issues. (iPhone)
American Museum of Natural History - Dinosaurs - Information on fossils in the museum, different species of dinosaur, excavation stories, and more. (iPhone)
American Hiking Society - “HIKE” - Helps hikers find park maps, trail-heads, and campgrounds. The app lets you record “adventures” to track progress along a map with GPS. You can also take photos as you hike, share your experience with friends on social networks, review your journey in order along your mapped route after you’re done hiking, and see stats about the hikes you complete. (iPhone)
Humane Society of the United States - Humane TV - View HSUS produced videos, stories, and other content and share with friends on social networks from within the app (iPhone)
Sunlight Labs - Congress - Information on legislation coming up for a vote, contact information for legislators, and links to lawmakers’ social media profiles (Android)
People Against Violent Environment - Child Abuse and Sexual Assualt Awareness - April is an awareness month for these issues. The apps show different facts about child abuse or sexual assault each day of the month that users enter the app. (iPhone)
350Mobile - The first release of the app was focused on coordinating 350’s Day of Action. Users can find actions near them, learn about climate science, and the policy solutions that 350 is advocating. (iPhone)

Blog Picks of the Week

2010-08-28T14:24:18Z

After scouring the web, two articles caught our attention this week. Check them out and feel free to share your own picks of the week.

The Death of Facebook
Geoff Livingston wrote a thought-provoking piece this week about the death of facebook.

"Who in their right mind would predict the death of Facebook given its ever increasing dominance? But this is a question everyone asks, 'What’s next?' said Livingston.

Frogloop readers also ask this question frequently. As nonprofit campaigners know, it's critical that we understand what's coming down the pipeline and be nimble enough to redirect some of our outreach resources. Also, don't place all of your eggs in one basket. Check out Frogloop's article "Is Your Nonprofit Too Social Media Dependent."

One of the reasons Facebook has continued to grow and dominate for so long is because it uses the McDonalds model. "That’s right, McDonalds," said Livingston.

"A good part of McDonalds relevancy lies in its ability to offer a cheap menu of foods and beverages that are popular in contemporary society. Facebook does the same with its social network functionality.

But trends come and go and eventually Facebook will fade out too. What's next? Livingston recommends keeping an eye in Ipad apps such as Flipboard which allows users to create their own magazine based on preferences and socially recommended content and ABC’s iPad app, a visual globe of news stories.

Click here to read the full article.

5 Reasons Why No One is Reading your Enewsletter

Is your organization struggling to get decent open and click-through rates on your enewsletter? You are not alone. While there are several things you can do improve your enewsletter and make it resonate with your supporters (check out Frogloop's article 10 Fast Tips to Boost Your Enewsletter Performance) Sean D'Souza over at the Copyblogger says that there are 5 common mistakes that you need to address ASAP.

Mistake # 1: Your newsletter isn’t helpful

If your content is NOT useful to your target audiences, guess what? They won't read it. Tailor the content to your audiences. Remember it's not about you. It's about your audiences and what resonates with them.

Mistake #2: Your voice isn’t particularly compelling

Do you enjoy talking to boring people? No. So why would you expect people to read a boring enewsletter. Find your writing voice. Tell stories. Paint a picture around the issues you are sharing with your supporters.

Mistake # 3: You’re not telling stories

See number 2 about telling a story and painting a picture for your readers

Mistake # 4: You have a half-hearted call to action

Do you want supporters to take an action? I sure hope so. Make sure you use directive language when you ask them to take an action. Be upfront and don't beat around the bush. Also, don't bury your action at the bottom of the enewsletter or rely on callout boxes off to the side all of the time. Mix it up and of course test it.

Mistake# 5: You don’t have a specific frequency

Stick to a regular publishing schedule so people know when to expect their enewsletters in their in-boxes.

Click here to read the full article.

Bye, Bye FourSquare. Hello Facebook Places?

2010-08-26T01:23:18Z

Facebook who now has over 500 million users, launched Facebook Places, a geo-location service to compete with location apps like FourSquare. In a nutshell, Facebook Places uses check-ins and allows you to see where your friends are and share your location.

Although Facebook did not copy FourSquare’s popular competition features such as the ability to earn mayorships and badges, this is clearly another move by Facebook to try and be the ultimate social network that wants to do everything.

The nonprofit world has been keeping a close eye on location apps like Foursquare and Gowalla for the past year. Some nonprofits like Big Love, Little Hearts who have invested time into using FourSquare have had some success raising money and using it to promote advocacy campaigns. However, now that Facebook Places is here, will Foursquare survive? It has taken FourSquare a couple of years to generate three million users. But Facebook, which also hosts thousands of nonprofit fanpages and has a built-in audience of over 500 million people, could easily dominate the geo-location market. Nonetheless, people are still quite supportive of FourSquare. The day that Facebook Places launched was the single biggest day for new Foursquare sign ups, said company representatives. It will be interesting to watch if that loyalty stays or fades.

Interested in taking Facebook Places for a test run? Try these tips.

1. First, search for your organization in Facebook Places. If your organization has been created, you will need to go through the process of claiming ownership. If you don’t see your organization listed in Facebook Places, create it. This would be useful for organizations like museums, animal shelters, food banks, hospitals, schools and universities, etc.

2. According to Facebook’s blog you'll need the most recent version of the Facebook application for iPhone. You also can access Facebook Places from touch.facebook.com if your mobile browser supports HTML 5 and geo-location.

How to Engage Donors with Mobile

2010-08-23T15:33:10Z

Savvy fundraisers know that every time a donor interacts with their nonprofit, the bond strengthens. The donor becomes a touch more loyal and connected to the charity. Mobile is a rapidly emerging platform for engaging donors in new and powerful ways.

This single extremely versatile channel of mobile allows you to . . .

talk to people (one-on-one or broadcast recorded messages)
send and receive text messages (SMS), including mobile alerts
send media files (MMS) such as pictures, video and audio that the donor can enjoy on their mobile device at that instant
receive donations
invite people to view info on your website anywhere, anytime. Mobile users also access social sites while on-the-go such as Facebook and Twitter.
use generic applications (apps) to enhance donors/prospects interaction with you; plus you can create custom apps that do anything you want
send and receive email; this is done by business people of all ages
make any media interactive including direct mail, print ads, billboards, TV, etc.

Sharing relevant content that your donors, prospects, members and advocates value is paramount. And offering them engaging activities follows close behind. Mobile gives you unlimited ways to do both. It’s only limited by your imagination.

Would you Turn to Social Media in a Crisis?

2010-08-19T21:39:05Z

The American Red Cross hosted the Emergency Crisis Social Data Summit last week, which brought together over 100 influentials (including Robert Scoble) and practitioners from the tech, social media, and emergency response communities to brainstorm how we can use social media to respond better to emergencies and disasters.

During the event, the American Red Cross released a white paper based on a recent survey to over 1000 people that revealed interesting data about their use of social media in emergency situations. The survey found that if people needed help and couldn’t reach 911, one in five would try to contact responders through a digital means such as e-mail, website or social media. If web users knew of someone else who needed help, 44% would ask other people in their social network to contact authorities, 35% would post a request for help directly on a response agency’s Facebook page and 28% would send a direct Twitter message to responders.

The survey also noted that:

Nearly three out of four people participate in an online community or social network with Facebook being the most popular;
89% of of people ages 18 to 34 use social networks verses 65% age 35 and older;
One in 6 people (16%) have used social media to get information about an emergency;
About 50% of respondents said that they would sign up to receive emergency related information such as evacuation routes, road closures and shelter locations via email, text alerts, or applications;

Jocelyn Harmon, Director of Nonprofit Services for Care2, presented questions and feedback from the roundtable discussions to Scoble. Check out their discussion on C-SPAN.

You should follow Frogloop on Twitter.

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Webinar: Hot or Not: What's Sizzling in Online Fundraising?

2010-08-19T19:55:47Z

Your nonprofit could be raising a lot more money online if you were using the right mix of strategies to deepen your donor engagement. Join us on August 31 at 2PM EDT for "Hot or Not: What's Sizzling in Online Fundraising?" a not to be missed Care2 webinar on the latest trends in online fundraising with an all-star panel of fundraising experts - Steve MacLaughlin, Director, Internet Solutions, Blackbaud, Donna Wilkins, President, Charity Dynamics, Jason Wood, Director of Internet Services, The Salvation Army National Headquarters and Eric Glader, Director of Nonprofit Services for Care2.

What You’ll learn:

The latest online fundraising growth statistics from 1,700 nonprofits
Best tactics for end of year and 2011 fundraising planningHow mobile, social media, and other channels help online giving
How performance varies by size of organization and sector
Statistics around multichannel fundraising vs. single channel

Hot or Not: What's Sizzling in Online Fundraising?

Single Channel Communication is Dead

2010-08-17T19:49:24Z

Direct mail is dead. Email is dead. TV and radio are dead. Face to face is dead. Telegraph is dead. Social media is dead. There are so many obituaries being written these days that it's hard to tell what's still alive. Is everyone just trying to be clever or are they auditioning for a role on CSI?

None of these channels are dead. Ok, telegraph is still dead despite rumors of a comeback. And there is a continual evolution within each of these communication options. Nonprofits are still improving their use of direct marketing, phone, email, and other channels.

What is dead is the use of one channel at a time to engage people. What is dead is operating in silos of data and systems that don't play well together. What is dead is mindset that multichannel communication doesn't apply to your organization. The old ways of planning and managing constituent communication are dead.

Single Channel is Dead
There, I said it. In fact, it's been dead for a while now. Most savvy companies and organizations recognized this years ago and have diversified their engagement streams. The reality is that you can only get so far riding one horse. The channels aren't dead — using them by themselves is dead.

Using a single communication channel to engage with constituents is a dead on arrival strategy. This isn't just theoretical pontificating. An analysis of trends and data support this fact. And basic biology does too.

Ten Ways to Engage Your Supporters

2010-08-14T01:15:34Z

How does your nonprofit typically engage with your supporters? Is your ongoing online communications mainly comprised of action alerts to sign petitions or donation appeals pleading for money? If you answered yes, then your nonprofit is missing out on major opportunities on engaging and developing deeper relationships with your supporters. Here are ten engagement strategies to add to the mix of your online communications starting Monday morning.

Connect with Us: Make your presence on social networks easy to find on your website. Don’t bury it. Also make your social networking presence is branded with your organizational identity so your members immediately recognize you.
Be Generous: Share a relevant article around your mission with your members. Remember everything you share doesn’t always have to be about YOU. Chances are your organization is part of a larger movement.
Recognize Volunteers and Active Members: Share a story. The story can be about a volunteer who did something extra special for your organization or a member who benefited from a program by your organization.
Make Supporters Opinions Count: People join your organization or take action because they care about your mission and want to help you make a difference. They also want to voice their opinions. (Who doesn’t, right? ) Offer polls on your website or social network like Twtpoll. Launching a voting contest on new slogans and program priorities are great engagement tactics too. Bottom line - get supporters involved in some decision-making processes. Make them feel valued and that their opinions matter.
Share Successes and Failures: As much as your supporters want to celebrate your wins and successes, they also want to be in the loop when the organization suffers from a loss such as not passing a legislative bill that they helped fight for. Sharing losses can also help to mobilize your list and can fire people up for future campaigns and volunteer opportunities.

To Survey or Not to Survey your List

2010-08-12T00:48:24Z

I have always been a firm believer in surveying your online adovacy and donor list every six months or at the very least once a year. But a couple of weeks ago, Kelly O'Neal, an online marketing consultant, asked me "Why should nonprofits survey their list? What value will they truly get out of the results?" I rattled off some answers and reflected on my answers as she raised some great points. Here's some questions that nonprofits should ask themselves that Kelly and I have been discussing ever since.

1. What are your goals in surveying your nonprofit's list?

2. What do you hope to learn about your list, that you don't already know - after looking at your list's response rates to action alerts and donation appeals?

3. If you gain new insight, what are you going to do differently? How will it shape the future of your online program? Be very honest in answering these two questions and think about your organization's:

staff capacity;
structure and work silos;
competing program priorities.

4. Will you have time to assess, learn, and implement change? I personally know very few groups who survey their lists and take the time to do all three steps outlined above due to staff resources.

5. Who typically responds to your online surveys? Is it a tiny sample of your list and therefore stastically insignificant? Are the segments that respond your super activists or deeply committed donors who are already big fans of your organization? If so, that's not a great sample unless the survey was specifically aimed at this segment.