Reflections on Using Facebook Causes Birthday Wish

Just as I was about to hit publish, I got an alert that Steve Sherlock donated to my birthday campaign and the total is now $1,206.  I want to thank the other 31 Facebook friends for their donations to the Sharing Foundation in honor of my Birthday Cause.  We've raised $1, 206 to help children in Cambodia.   I shared some thoughts about the Causes Birthday application design, and have continued my reflections below.

Five Insights:

1.   The Causes Birthday Application Makes You Feel Good
2.   The Causes Birthday Application Meshes Better With Fundraising Workflow
3.   Collaboration with the Organization's Cause would be a good thing
4.   Causes Birthday Application Flunks Math
5.  Will you be a free agent fundraising and make 2009 be the Year of Living Givingly?

Detailed Reflections

1.   The Causes Birthday Application Makes You Feel Good

What's more fun than a birthday celebration?  And giving makes me feel good.   Even though I'm not raising huge dollar amounts, what makes feel great is that small donations go a long way in Cambodia.  Friends who've donated $10 have helped a Cambodian youngster go to school for a year! Now, that real bang for your buck!

I love the application wall because it is is like an electronic group birthday card. It lets my friends write a personalized birthday wish.  The leader board lists who donated and how much and leaves a blank space for the next donation.   This all works well for psychology of collective influence which is an important part of Facebook application design.

2. The Causes Birthday Application Meshes Better With Fundraising Workflow

One of the keys to successful socially networked fundraising on Facebook (and elsewhere) rests with how well an application meshes charitable giving behavior and the psychology of collective influence in its application design.  I contributed a chapter on this topic to the Psychology of Facebook, so I'm going to stop myself from going on about that now.   I'm giving Causes an A plus for the tips and reminders in email.  I also like the "good job" praise I got for raising the money.   Best of all, the tips match a personal fundraising campaign workflow.

Amy Sample Ward, in her birthday cause wrap up shares the details of the pointers that Causes will email to you everyday to help guide your birthday fundraiser.  The tips include:

• Set your status
• The ask on your birthday cause page
• Inviting Friends to contribute
• Use the email tools available on the Birthday Causes applications (you can email 2s during your campaign)
• One-on-one requests
• Send Notifications to your friends

About the ask on the birthday causes page,  I would have liked the ability to include a video (like the one I made below with my son for last year's personal fundraising campaign.)  It is important to always say why the cause is important you - even if you feel like you already said it a million times.   There are always people who are new to your network and may not know this yet.  Thanks to  Lamarguerite for this important reminder.

Harry's First Fundraising Video

3. Collaboration with the Organization's Cause would be a good thing

I'd like to see how Causes might facilitate more collaboration with the organization's Cause administrator to leverage some of the other new fundraising features on the Causes application.  Let me explain.   I'm the (volunteer) administrator for the Sharing Foundation's Cause on Facebook (my birthday cause donations feeds into that Cause's total)  I knew I had set up the birthday Cause, but wonder if I wasn't the administrator whether I would have known.   

If I was working for an organization that had an active Cause on Facebook, I'd be promoting this opportunity to Cause members or group members, or on my organization's Fan Page.

Also, I discovered that Causes has added two more features to the Causes application - the ability to set up a shorter-term goal and the ability to issue a matching challenge.   For the latter, I issued a challenge grant of $520 if the Sharing Foundation Cause reaches $5,200 by my birthday next Sunday.

 

Notes about application. Click to see larger image

4. Causes Birthday Application Flunks Math

I've decided that I really hate the fact that Causes doesn't give me, the birthday girl, any say in setting a monetary goal, suggested minimum donation amount, or minimum number of donors for my campaign.  As I explained in detail in an earlier post, it is based on your age.   Given that micro donations are where it is at, if you're older than 15, than you're at an disadvantage. 

This application is still in beta so that is why some of the math isn't working.  For example is says 18 x $52 = $969 as the monetary goal that Causes forced me to select on the Birthday Causes Canvas page. Last time I checked, it was $936.  And, I'm relieved that since I've surpassed my goal, that the application doesn't automatically prevent me from fundraising more.

For suggested donation amount, I added some text in all my messaging that any amount would be most appreciated.   A few folks donated $25 telling me that I looked much younger!  If the messaging in the application included the phrase "or the amount of your choosing" there'd be no problem.  Even better,  just let the birthday girl choose.

5.  Will you be a free agent fundraising and make 2009 be the Year of Living Givingly?

In a round up of 2009 social media predictions,  expert Charlene Li predicted that Obama-maniacs will spawn a new age of activism and fundraising.  "The millions of online-activated volunteers in the Obama campaign will champion causes ranging from gay marriage to local school improvements.  Non-profits will recognize the potential of bringing on these virtual community organizations, especially their ability to raise in tiny increments in a down economy.  So, despite a recession, charitable giving will have new numerous new -- albeit smaller sources of contributions."

I think that social media savvy nonprofits will be thinking of strategies and ways to find and work with free agent fundraisers.  I'll have a lot more to say about this in some forthcoming posts.   There are also some systemic ways to address this, certainly the work that social actions is doing.

Paul Lamb points out that giving has beneficial psychological and health benefits.  He also set a goal for the year to give money and time this to become a better giver.   He's reserved Givingly.org as a place where a personal giving tracking tool/widget/mobile app can potentially be built - unless a good one already exists? He is interested developing some sort of  social credit card which allows individuals to track their borrowing and expending of social capital and giving.  I love that idea.

Other Resources

Amy Sample Ward, Birthday Cause Wrap Up
Amy Sample Ward, Birthday Cause: Free Geek
Beth Kanter, My Facebook Birthday Cause
Beth Kanter, My 51st Birthday Challenge
Beth Kanter, You're Not Going To Ask Us To Give You An Outhouse for Your Birthday?
Beth Kanter, Round Up of Social Birthday Greetings. Social Fundraising. Thank You
Beth Kanter, Celebrate My 50th Birthday
Beth Kanter, How Can We Make Charitable Giving A Yearround Habit?
Beth Kanter, Be A Geek Who Gives
Paul Lamb,  The Year of Living Givingly

If you'd like to wish me happy birthday and help leverage matching dollars for the Sharing Foundation, make a contribution to my birthday cause.  If you don't want to donate through Facebook, here are some other ways to wish me happy birthday.

Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Gee, I guess there is nothing like a timely contribution! More importantly, thanks for sharing your learnings about such an important activity (both birthday fund raising and for a good cause).

[Amy Sample Ward]

RE: #3

to continue our conversation about this... I know that in my case, my Birthday Cause featured a causes that I was not the admin for, so, that determined some of my promotional opportunities. But, it also made me think about the relationship between online supporters (whether they take the shape of fundraisers, advocates or just whatever else) and the cause (used to include all 'causes' not just the application) they support. None of the admins from the Cause I was supporting contacted me during my fundraiser and I don't think this was out of any negative feelings, just that they didn't know I was doing the Birthday Cause to support them!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this!

[Beth Kanter]

Great news .. the folks at Causes left some feedback and donated $52!
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/12/my-birthday-facebook-cause-thank-you-and-some-unsolicited-feedback-to-causes.html

[Frerieke]

Beth, you're such an inspiration!

I have been following you on twitter the past weeks
well done on the great amount you have raised!

so.. only now I actually figure out that we've got the same birthday!

ok, inspiring social media guru,
who knows next year we'll do a communal 11th of Jan fund raiser!

enjoy the rest of your day!
mine here in South Africa is coming to an end..

cheers, Frerieke