Why My Mom Is My Fundraising Guru

Flickr Photo: Mez LoveYou may have heard by now that we're raising money for scholarships to the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference.Last year was the first time we ran the campaign, and while we met our goal, it was a stretch, and we almost burnt ourselves out.

The challenge in online fundraising today is that it's more than just email: it's Facebook, and Twitter, and e-mail, and widgets, and your website, and your blog, and your supporters blogs, and... well, you get the idea.

During the course of the 2009 fundraising campaign, the task ahead of me often felt like Medusa: if I stared directly into any of those serpentine eyes, I was frozen. Thinking too hard about any one tactic meant I was lost for hours. But we managed to meet the challenge (by the skin of our teeth).

I meant to write this blog post last summer to share our lessons learned, but I wasn't sure if they were actually applicable. Now that we're halfway through our second campaign, it seems like those lessons are panning out. And, it seems like they're all advice I got from my mom. (That's maddening. Why is she always right? :)

Lesson One: Don't Spend All Day "Cleaning Your Room"

Now that I'm a mom, I really relate to this. I sent my kid (SLB) to her room on Saturday and it took four hours for her to finish picking it up. Along the way, she couldn't resist playing with the very things she was supposed to be cleaning up. Since it took her so long, we didn't get to go to the park as planned. Suddenly, those 15 extra minutes of ten different toys didn't seem so important.

It's the same in online fundraising for specific campaigns. In 2009, we didn't put an end date on our campaign. Donors felt no urgency to get their part done. We felt like we had all the time in the world to try every tactic, instead of focusing. It took us nearly two weeks to raise $1,000. This year, our time bound campaign has netted nearly $4,000 after the first week.

Lesson Two: Relationships are a Two-Way Street

When I was in grade school, I fought a lot with my best friend, Lia Reynolds. Whenever we would fight, I would get all righteously indignant, insisting that Lia was being unreasonable. Whenever I complained to my mother, she would turn it back on me: what had I done to contribute to the situation? Was I the best friend I could be to Lia? Or did I take her for granted?

That advice sits at the top of my mind as I use social media for the scholarship campaign. Online fundraising in social media requires that we constantly ask ourselves if we're giving as much as we are getting. Are we delivering quality content to the people who follow us? Are we highlighting the contributions of our community, or only talking about ourselves? I'm most proud of the fact that the $10,000 we raised last year came in from 199 contributors. Our community is there for us when we're there for them. In fact, we wouldn't have made it without several people who went above and beyond, including Beth Kanter and John Merritt, among others.

Lesson Three: What's the Magic Word?

Again, as a mom, I have a new appreciation for this one. I have to remind SLB to say thank you so often, I sometimes wonder if I say anything else to her. (Also, when do I have to stop reminding her that her sleeve is not a napkin?) This is a message that my mother drilled into me. I only know one other human who writes real paper-that-you-have-to-mail thank you notes. (What's up Samantha?)

Thank you messages were key to our success in 2009, and our fantastic start in 2010. We thank everyone, usually in the medium in which they gave -- Twitter, Facebook, our blog -- as many times as we can. We also had scholarship recipients send paper thank you cards to donors last year, as well. Several 2010 donors have related how awesome they thought that was.

Lesson Four: If at First You Don't Succeed

I was one of those kids who got unbearably upset if I wasn't good at something right away. If "Plan A" failed, I was not likely to take up "Plan B"; I was much more likely to walk away and do something I was good at instead. My mom worked really hard to help me accept defeat gracefully and be a wee bit more flexible.

Flexibility was key to hitting our goal in 2009. We took several wrong turns and had to regroup and try again. This isn't the old days of fundraising where you committed to a course of action, spent months preparing the mailing, sent the mailing, and then spent months getting the results back. In social media fundraising, you often know in just hours whether you're barking up the right tree. Iteration is the only way to succeed.

Introducing the New NTEN.org

After what seems like months of work, we've finally implemented our web site redesign. (If you've been following this space, you'll know it seems like months because it was: 8 of them since the start of our information architecture review. So, to those of you who've been waiting with bated breath, our apologies. Hopefully the faster-loading site makes it up to you.)

While the new look has thrown off a few of us here at NTEN HQ -- years of habituation to click the same spot to go the the NTC pages, undone! -- we hope it will make the process of finding things on our site more intuitive for everybody else. The new "Resources by Topic" section, in particular, should make it easier for you to find some of our once-hidden information.

The new look will be introduced to our Groups site and the My NTEN pages over the next few weeks. If you're bored, you can also compare the new site to the old: http://yekk.pair.com/nten.

We're certain there are issues and stylesheet-related funkiness here and there, and we hope you'll tell us about them, along with your general impressions, using our new commenting system. Thanks to Marshall K for sending the fine folks at JSKit.com our way, and thanks to Chris Saad for letting us use Echo. We think it's a terrific system.

Thanks as well to Rebecca Sherrill and Lynn Labieniec at Beaconfire for all the work they did revising our IA. We hope we did their fine work justice.

Finally, thanks to Christian Heilmann at OnlineTools.org for letting us integrate some of his code into our site (in the dynamic navigation menus and the tabbed "Resources by Topic" section -- with more to come).

All of which goes to show we're nothing without our community.

NTEN Member Buzz Round-Up: February 5th

(Note: This is a weekly round-up of NTEN members doing and sharing their nptech awesome. Members are in bold. Tag your own news with "nten member" or "nptech" to help us find your awesome online, or contact Annaliese with your updates.)

Amy Sample Ward blogs about a new report on nonprofit's use of social media, summarizing the findings and adding a few insights and tips of her own. Thank you for sharing, Amy!

ReadWriteWeb wants to point out the "social media for good" organizations that deliver on the "good" part, not just the social media. Congratulations to The Extrordinaries, Kiva, and Inveneo for bringing the good with the socmed! Many folks chime in with comments to add their votes, and we're happy to see all the NTEN members listed: Care2, TechSoup, and Idealware -- and thanks to those of you who mentioned NTEN!

OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone) launched a new website this week. Congratulations!

Nancy Schwartz summarizes some findings from her latest survey about nonprofit communications, and you might be surprised!

Judy Hallman, organizer for the 501 Tech Club in the Triangle, N.C. region, better known as NCTech4Good, shared news about the volunteer work their group did last month on MLK Day with the United Way. Inspiring work -- and pictures!

And I can't resist thanking all the NTEN folks who are helping us and Convio send over 50 nonprofit staff to the 10NTC who wouldn't be able to be there otherwise! See how you can get involved (and what NTEN staff will put on the line to help!) here.

The Overhead Question: What's Our Role?

Flickr Photo: tylerdurden1Ask any nonprofit to describe how they feel about their overhead percentage, and you're most likely to be met with groans, sighs and rolls of eyes. None of us like the fact that the percentage of income we spend on "overhead" is the primary measure of our effectiveness.

The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle aptly summarized the problem with the overhead measure this summer. Then, in December, some of the sector's top rating agencies, including Guidestar and Charity Navigator, agreed that a new measure is needed.

Here at NTEN, we're keenly interested in this question. So many organizations view technology as an administrative, or overhead, expense -- we can argue that point later -- which means that they routinely under-invest to keep that ratio as low as possible. We're all for a change in the way that effectiveness is accounted for. But we also know that we don't want a new definition established without our input.

So today we hosted a community community call -- recording and chat transcript here -- to tackle the need for change and what it might mean for our sector. Perhaps the most tweeted line of the entire call came from Bob Ottenhoff of Guidestar:

• Overhead ratios are like asking which airlines spend the least on maintenance to decide where to invest.

That was the easy part of the conversation. By now, we all agree it's silly to evaluate an entire organization based on one ratio. The hard part is going to be coming up with what we're going to do about it.

Certainly, defining effectiveness more broadly means at the very minimum that nonprofits will have to collect AND SHARE more programmatic data. Additionally, we have to get funders and our donors to understand the bigger picture. Here are just some of the hurdles we identified on the call:

• Nonprofits aren't great at sharing data, with anyone. We need a culture change.
• As a sector, we're woefully behind when it comes to evaluation skills. Though it's catching on, we have a long way to go, and we can't be expected to report on our effectiveness when we don't have the skills to do so.
• We need systems for sharing our effectiveness data, and it has to be public. If we want donors and funders to value the data, it has to be public.
• We don't have a compelling marketplace for data sharing. Lucy pointed out that the incentives just aren't there for more robust data sharing.
• Reporting of overhead already varies wildly from nonprofit to nonprofit. How will more complex reporting be any easier?

So what are our next steps? It seems we have a battle to undertake on many fronts:

• Helping nonprofits with their evaluation skills
• Educating funders and the public about effectiveness vs. overhead
• Defining effectiveness and system for reporting that promotes adoption in the sector. Or, as Lucy puts it, creating an effective marketplace for this kind of data

And that's just to name a few.

Here's where I turn to you, NTEN: what are the big needs we haven't adressed here? And what do you want to see NTEN tackle?

Thanks to our Day One Scholarship Donors!

As usual, the generosity of the NTEN community shines through! We opened our scholarship campaign yesterday to a fantastic show of support. We've only got until February 17 to meet our goal: raising $10,000 to send another 50 folks to the #10NTC! Dozens of you contributed to get us out of the starting gate with over $2,000 raised. A GIANT thank you to:

Catherine Algeri Avalon Consulting (extra props for the super sized donation!) H Baker Rosemarie Boardman Rusty Burwell Jana Byington-Smith Lauren Cochrane Andrew Cohen Rick Cohen Lisa Colton Sarah Davies Ted Fickes Janet Fouts Jaime-Alexis Fowler Seth Giammanco Michaela Hackner Judy Hallman (super big props for your amazing generosity!) Rebecca Higman Tirza Hollenhorst Hannah Kane Kerri Karvetski Glen Kendell Michael Kifer Catherine Lada Sean Larkin Sheldon Mains Lisa Malone Gordon Mayer Adam Rasmussen Tompkins Spann Thomas Taylor Jordan Viator Robert Weiner Linda Ziskind

If you haven't yet, please do share the love and donate today! Or just help spread the love on your blog, Twitter, and Facebook. We promise, it feels nice!

The 2010 NTC Scholarship Campaign: Your Chance to Embarrass the Entire NTEN Staff

Ladies and gentlemen, I can proudly report that we are on a roll.

The 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference is off to an terrific start. You, our amazing community, have put together a world-class agenda of sessions, affinity group meetings, ignite presentations, and more!

Of course, we want everyone to get a piece of the #10NTC action, so we're back with an all new NTC Scholarship Campaign! We're going to raise another $10,000 (matched dollar for dollar by Convio) for the NTC scholarship campaign this year -- and send another 57 people down to Hot-lanta.

How will we top Putting a Ring on It? I convinced the entire NTEN staff to join me in a remake of the Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody! And, for every donation you make, you will get to nominate one community member to appear in the video with us. We'll do our best to pursuade them!

We can't do it without your help so join us:

1. Give to the Scholarship Fund. Thanks to Convio, we're going to be able to waive the registration fees for up to 57 attendees. Every dollar of your gift will be matched by Convio, up to $10,000. Just click on the "Fund a Scholarship" button in the widget above, or go to http://nten.org/scholarships!
2. Spread the Word. See the nifty little widget at the top of this post? Just click the "Share" button to add it to your site, blog, Facebook or Twitter feed (among other sharing options).

Things We Like (to Do at the Nonprofit Technology Conference)

1. Get our collective groove on.
2. Show off awards bling.
3. Catalog the swag. (Feel free to use a spreadsheet. You know you want to.)
4. Play with toys.
5. Get personal with some penguins.
6. Rock out.
7. Chill out.
8. And, of course, help out.

(Yes, we learn a lot, too, but pictures of people sitting in conference rooms just aren't that exciting. The excitement comes later, when you start to apply what you've learned to make the world a better place.)

Things We Like (January 2010)

A monthly roundup of our favorite nonprofit tech resources. Read more posts on our blog.

1. They're ba-aaack. Kika has given birth to 5 brand new Shiba Inu puppies, and you can watch them grow, live, online.
   Seriously, anytime you think the world is against you, check in with
   these pups for 5 minutes, and you'll be ready to go again.
2. With the Ustream app for iPhone,
   you can not only use the puppies as a way to ignore strangers on the
   bus, you can stream your trip to the world. Privacy concerns have never
   been so cool.
3. Besides, privacy is so 2009.
4. Network for Good has just released the "Online Fundraisers Checklist".
   It works like one of those quizzes in the personality magazines -- you
   know, "Do You Ace a First Date?" or "Is Your BFF Really on Your Side?"
   -- only it's helpful. (And, while we swear we didn't make those quizes
   up, we will deny reading those magazines to our dying breath.)
5. Controlled serendipity.
6. Primary Pad
   is like Google Docs for elementary school students. "Alright, who
   inserted 'Bobby is a doody head' into my essay on climate change?"
7. While we're still disappointed the flying cars all those science fiction movies promised we'd have by now haven't been built, at least NASA is working on it.
8. Automatic voice-to-text translation. We have heard the future and it is incoherent. Hilarious, though. Apparently, technology isn't always the answer.
9. List segmentation.
10. The Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest. (And not just because the winner will be announced at the 2010 NTC.) But hurry! The nomination process closes February 1st.
11. Hey, we're also mentioned in Allyson Kapin's "Best Campaigns of 2009"! How will we top Holly's "Single Ladies" remake? Hmmmmm...
12. Crisis Commons. Those folks are doing good things.
13. A great American philosopher once toasted, "To alcohol: the cause of and solution to all of life's problems." Now, there's a very detailed schematic (PDF) to help you construct most any cocktail for your own toasts. Where do these people find the time?

Online Giving Trends from 2009 and the Haiti Earthquake

Steve MacLoughlin, Blackbaud

The September 2009 issue of NTEN Connect had a review of trends in online giving. I want to provide some updated findings for the entire year, as well as discuss the importance of online donations to support the Haiti earthquake relief efforts.

2009 proved to be another important year for online giving by nonprofit organizations. Blackbaud has been actively engaged in researching and analyzing trends in the nonprofit sector for quite a while. The information in our 2009 research comes from approximately 2,300 nonprofit organizations using a combination of our online fundraising, email marketing, and integrated CRM tools. The analysis represents the largest study of online giving trends in the nonprofit sector.

Online Giving Continues to Grow

An analysis of the past 36 months of online giving continues to show positive growth despite challenging economic conditions. Blackbaud’s research found that online revenue grew by 46% in 2009 compared to 2008. The two largest months for online giving were December and May. Even though February was the smallest month for online giving the first three months of 2009 had a 60% year-over-year growth rate in online revenue.

Year End Online Giving Trends

The final three months of the year represent the largest amount of online giving to nonprofit organizations. In 2009, 46% of online revenue was processed during October, November, and December. The month of December accounted for 30% of revenue and 18% of the transaction volume. The average online gift in December 2009 was $244.17. This was a decrease of only 2% compared to December 2008.

Another very positive sign was that online giving in December 2009 grew 32% compared to December 2008.

Year-Over-Year Growth Trends

The analysis also looked at a subset of the same 1,703 nonprofits in 2008 and 2009. 65% of these nonprofits had a positive increase in online revenue compared to 2008. These nonprofits had a 21% year-over-year median growth rate in online revenue. Nonprofits that raised more than $1 million online in 2009 had a 35% year-over-year increase in revenue. Online giving continues to be a tremendous growth opportunity for nonprofits, even those that have been doing it for several years.

Average Online Gift Trends

The average online gift in 2009 was $144.72. This represents a 5% decline from 2008, but remains significantly higher than other fundraising channels. The healthcare sector had the smallest average gift amount of $94.37, while other sectors like foundations ($209.53), higher education ($204.05), and religious organizations ($196.44) had much larger gift sizes. It should be noted that non-hospital healthcare sector nonprofits have a higher percentage of online peer-to-peer fundraising than hospitals ($120.16) which may account for the lower average gift.

Online Major Giving Trends

Blackbaud continues to analyze trends with donors making significant online gifts in excess of $1,000. The research identified 1,798 nonprofit organizations in the analysis with at least one online gift of $1,000 or more in 2009. This represented 77% of the organizations in the sample analysis. 36% of online gifts of at least $1,000 were within a gift range of $1,001 to $4,999. The median online gift amount for online donations of at least $1,000 was $3,500 in 2009. This was up from $2,500 in 2008.

To learn more about 2009 online giving trends, I have posted some additional information, graphs, and insights on SlideShare at: http://www.slideshare.net/smaclaughlin/2009-online-giving-trends/

Haiti Earthquake and Online Giving

The response to the Haiti earthquake by online and mobile donors has been awe-inspiring. Several nonprofits were immediately prepared to accept donations and in some cases new giving opportunities were created very quickly. For example, the newly established Clinton Bush Haiti Fund accepted more than 126,000 online donations in just a few days.

There is still a tremendous amount of giving taking place, but there are a few things worth noting already. The first few days following the Haiti earthquake saw online giving volumes three times higher than what was given during the last week of December 2009. That is typically the heaviest period of the entire year.

As noted in an USA Today article, online "donations for the first five days after the January 12 disaster totaled 19% more than during the same time frame after the 2004 Asian tsunami and 109% higher than the equivalent following Hurricane Katrina in 2005." It is also worth noting that online giving during the first five days of 9/11 was less than 1% of what has been given to Haiti in the first 5 days.

Mobile giving has certainly been a major source of a lot of giving to support the Haiti relief effort. While mobile fundraising has been widely used in the UK and Europe, it has struggled to take off in North America. The American Red Cross, UNICEF, Salvation Army, Doctors Without Borders, and many other nonprofits have used mobile giving in a big way. Mobile giving will be the first response giving option of choice in the future.

Ongoing Research and Analysis

The Haiti earthquake, the economy, increasing technology adoption rates, and other factors will heavily influence online giving in 2010 and beyond. You can get updates on my blog, at NTEN's 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference, and hopefully in future issues of NTEN Connect. It is certainly a rapidly changing area where nonprofits can leverage technology in new ways to meet their mission.

Creating Social Change with Social Media

Net2 NTEN

Over the last week, technology has played an unprecedented role in bringing aid to and saving lives in Haiti. Over $22 million has been raised by the American Red Cross via text message (about a fifth of total Haiti-related giving to the organization so far). And then there's the role that Facebook and Twitter are playing.

Those social media tools, along with dozens of others, have been used to help family and friends locate one another, to direct food, clothing and medical support to specific locations, and to help direct rescue workers to individuals alive and trapped under rubble.

That's social media for social good, and that's exactly what NetSquared and NTEN want to highlight with Beth Kanter this spring at SXSWi.

Of course, we don't just want to talk about Haiti -- we want to highlight some amazing work from around the sector, while also building a nice little library of case studies we can all learn from. So, we invite you to share your social media for social good story. We'll choose three to highlight in our session, and we'll share all the stories we can on our sites and at We Are Media.

> Submit your Social Media for Social Good story today!