Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Twestival: Are Fundraising Groundswells A Massive Opportunity or Distraction for Nonprofit Organizations?

I've been experimenting with online fundraising in an age of social media since 2006.  It is evolving from individuals leveraging their personal networks to groundswells.  

Last week, I wrote about Twestival, the most recent example of fundraising on Twitter and a networked fundraiser of a scale we haven't seen before.  I titled the post "Look Out Here Comes Everybody To Raise Money for charity:water on Twitter" with a wink to Clay Shirky's work.  In the comments, there was quite a lively discussion from nonprofit professionals raising some cautions and concerns. 

This made me curious:

• How did Twestival get started?  What is its relationship with charity:water?
• What was the role of the nonprofit, charity:water, in working with Twestival?
• How did the relationship originate?
• How is the event being organized?
• What does this say for nonprofits in an age of connectedness?

First, let me recap what Twestival is.

On February 12, 2009,  Twitter users will meet up in over 100 plus cities to socialize offline, meet other Twitter users, enjoy some fun, have a few drinks, and raise money for charity: water.  This event combines the lessons learned from previous fundraising activities on Twitter:

• A local, face-to-face component based on the popular "Tweet Ups" or "Net2Tuesday" meetups
• Decentralized event organizing, it's grassroots and anyone can organize a local event
• The charity isn't the central organizer of the event - it appears that they are letting their stakeholders run with it and not imposing "branding and messaging" standards.  Each localized event is putting its own unique flair to the event.
• Micro donations using TipJoy
• Focus 24 hour event with broadcasts and all local partners participating to raise awareness (a sort of Blog Action Day on steroids)
• They have announced a goal of raising $500,000, based on each city establishing its own goal.

I'm attending the TwestivalSf in San Francisco - anyone else?

In the comments, there was quite a lively discussion from nonprofit professionals raising some cautions and concerns.  I've summarized some of themes below:

Is this a swarm of independent mavericks or a carefully crafted and managed groundswell?

David Kinard, nonprofit marketing consultant, mentioned a big concern about peer-to-peer fundraising: the big picture is lost, and the impact to the greater good is diminished.  He also had concerns about the apparent disjointed effort underway.

I guess I look at it like this: if you give a hundred people tools to lay bricks, you'll likely get a hundred small structures. If you give a hundred people the tools to lay bricks and get them working off a shared plan, then you can build anything you want. I am all for equipping believers of a cause to go out to the world and do good...but I am less enthusiastic of sending out a swarm of independent mavericks.

Allison Fine observed that the big picture goal of efforts like Twestival is to begin to develop larger ecosystems of activists that are connected and coordinated with one another.  She notes, "The focus of leaders in the sector needs to be how to better work within these ecosystems to meet their own missions as well as meet the larger needs of communities."

Marcia Stepanek, who writes the CauseGlobal Blog mentions an interview with Clay Shirky where he describes the importance of new leadership:

What I think is coming is a new type of leadership style that will expand into other kinds of collective action—in particular, real-world collective action. And so, for a traditional institution, this is really a moment where, if the organizational structure doesn't change, then the institution is essentially going to find itself working at cross-purposes with many of its members. This is a challenge that people in the Obama administration are facing; that people in nonprofits are facing; that people in many institutions are facing: how to change the organizational structure enough to accommodate Web-enabled, ground-up, collective action—self-organized groups of members or supporters or constituents that, because they're using new technology tools, are demanding interaction at far higher levels than before. This is something that really is unprecedented. Those organizations which fail to exert new leadership will risk losing support.

This lead me to ask what exactly were those new nonprofit leadership skills?

Marcia suggested that the skills are similar to those of a symphony orchestra conductor.  Shirky adds to this point:

There is an Israeli conductor, Itay Talgam, who gives a talk on leadership styles using orchestra conductors as the example. And the critical thing that a conductor does is synchronize the orchestra because the complexity of self-synchronization is hard at that scale.

As someone who trained as a classical flutist and has played in a symphony orchestra or two, the conductor's role is pivotal for that synchronicity but if the musicians know their parts, the score, and someone gives the downbeat, they could play without the conductor.   Especially if the players in the orchestra have been playing together for years! 

David felt this was less of an issue of learning new leadership skills, but simply a distraction.

What I fear is not that swarms of cause-wired activists will force new forms of leadership, but that the leadership will be distracted from doing the right work in the right order because they have to deal with the unintentioned disruption these good-hearted people likely create. If large communities of independent change-agents force sector leaders to take their eyes off the ball of their primary mission, then I think we've done more damage than good.

Twestival: The origins of the  'Tweet, meet, and give"

I was curious about how the Twestival founders connected with charity:water.  I interviewed Ben Matthews  who was part of the organizational group that dreamed up the Twestival concept in London in September 2008.  The group consisted of  @amanda, @tommalcolm, @renate and @timhoang.  They all work in PR, but Ben is the founder of Brightone, a company that works with charities.  So this is a group of social media power users and pr professionals who have some experience with nonprofits.  And they were not total strangers to one another.  Says Ben, "We knew each other on Twitter."

Says Ben,  "The idea was to run a festival that got people who followed each other on Twitter to meet up in real life, but also come together to raise money for a good cause at the same time."  This small group organized the first Twestival to raise money for The Connection,  an organization that helps homeless people by providing specialist services.  "What's amazing is that the whole thing came together in about 3 weeks and generated lots of interest and around 300 attendees (with a waiting list) in such a short space of time."

Buoyed by the success of their first event,  the Twestival organizers wanted to do a second event, selecting a charity that had a global outreach and an active presence on Twitter.   They were looking for a charity that was transparent and could easily demonstrate the impact of their fundraising efforts.  Kiva, charity:water and a few others were mentioned.  

Scott Harrison, Founder of charity: water - Thanks the Twestival from Phil Thomas Di Giulio on Vimeo.

The Relationship with charity:water

This group of Twitter do gooders in London did not a formal relationship with the charity:water management staff, but charity:water's founder, Scott Harrison, was active on Twitter (@scottharrison).   As Ben observes, "Well that ticked the boxes on the accountability and global presence fronts. Whatever amount that Twestival raises, every pound, dollar, pesos, krone and whatever else will go straight to charity:water and that money will be used to directly fund charity:water projects."

When the Twestival founders approached charity:water, they listened to the organization's concerns.  The nonprofit wanted to make sure that the money raised got to charity:water.   The Twestival partnered with amiando and tipjoy to ensure that the money goes into a central source and can be easily tracked.  (See Rachel Weidinger's thoughts about the importance of a donation system respecting donor privacy, though.)

Ben also mentions that the charity:water's other concern is that the event must be a success for charity:water's own reputation.  "Their 2008 Christmas ball raised a very large amount of money, so we have a lot to live up to, but are confident that the Twestival events happening in over 160 cities worldwide on February 12th 2009, it will be a great success!"

Also bear in mind that charity:water had been aware of the event plans long before any formal announcements were made.  They have had control in whether to let, Twestival, raise money for their work. As Ben notes, "If they did feel that we were going to disrupt them from focusing on their core mission, then they could simply say have said no.  We would have identified a different charity."

It is also important to point out as Scott Harrison mentions in the video above, that Twitter power users and indeed the founders of Twitter have been supportive of the charity:water over the past year.  This large scale event is the not the first.  There were other smaller events to support charity:water on Twitter prior to the September event organized by Twestival.

The Swarm Is Organized, Not Random

The Twestival has been a grassroots effort lead by Amanda, a professional events organizer.  According to Ben, she had the vision to take Twestival worldwide and has taken on responsibility of organizing the global aspect. With over 160 cities participating, Ben observes, "It's a momentous task with an amazing amount of time an energy required to bring it all together, but she's really achieved so much already, which will hopefully lead to lots of money being raised on the night."

While Twestival is an all-volunteer effort organized outside of the nonprofit direct management and control, the volunteers are highly organized. There are guidelines of how the city organizers can run their own event.  It is not a template.   Ben says, "We didn't want to dictate what they did, as it didn't matter how big or small it was or how much money they raised. By allowing people to design their own events but under the original ethos of Twestival of raising money for a selected charity, the event becomes more self-organising. Having said that, I'm sure Amanda's email inbox is the busiest in the world right now!"

Tony Scott (@tonys), a technology volunteer, has also been instrumental in the effort. He's put together the main Twestival site that helped the cities to manage their own events.Says Ben, "It's through here that all the details, ticketing, sponsors and other info for all of the individual events are gathered. The dev blog is a testament to his work." 

Conclusion

The Twestival just announced a goal of $500,000.  So, on February 13th, we'll be able to see where this all goes and how networked fundraising evolves and what the implications are for nonprofit social media strategies and leadership. 

Questions to ponder ....

• charity:water has a presence on Twitter and has the caught the attention of social media gurus like Twitter's founders and Mashable.   Can nonprofits who have relationships with social media rockstars create a groundswell of support?
• Many nonprofits perceive "personal networking" on social networking sites like Twitter to be a waste of time.  If this campaign reaches its financial goal and is a success for the organization, there certainly should demonstrate a ROI for personal networking and building relationships?
• What are the best ways to cultivate relationships with free agent fundraisers and collaborate on fundraisers with them?   Seems like facilitative leadership is key.
• Could there be other groundswells of disjointed activists who don't connect with the charity - but take on the fundraising or even the program delivery that does not further the greater good?

Resources

Mashable, Twestival Social Media for Social Change
Other links aggregated on my original post, "Look Out, Here Comes Everybody To Raise Money for charity:water on Twitter"

Posts about earlier charity:water and Twitter efforts
Paul Young's Reflection on his September Birthday Campaign
Pistachio's experiment in micro fundraising
September Birthdays on charity:water

MicroPhilanthropy on Twitter: Trust Is Important

I couldn't sleep and was up early and Maria Thurrell and Tori Tucan told me about this micro-philanthropy (#5 on Lucy Bernholz's buzzword list) on Twitter to support Breast Cancer.  The idea is the Twitter version of "Click for Breast Cancer"  You  follow this Twitter user @mrsrosey and she will donate $1 dollar to Susan G. Komen Foundation for each follower.

There is no other information about the identity of mrsrosey, and she isn't asking for my credit card or for anything too time consuming.  So, I took a leap of faith based on the recommendation from Maria Thurrell and Tori Tucan who I trust.   

I tweeted the information and two followers expressed skepticism:

• codearachnid why has @mrsrosey protected their updates? I like to see what someone is s aying before following
• teach42 do you know who that is? Do you have faith that they'll follow through? No website makes me suspicious

As of Friday, December 12th in the morning, she had 170 followers.   It will be interesting to watch how fast this spreads.   Trust appears to be an important factor in the velocity of spreading something on Twitter.

What would you do?  Take a blind leap of faith based on the recommendation of a friend or stay away because you don't know the fundraiser?

Help Social Actions Reach 9 Goals For 2009 by giving $20.09 to Social Actions

For the last 2.5 years, Peter has been working extremely hard to build Social Actions from scratch.  The organization's goal is to makes it easy for people to find and share opportunities to give or volunteer for social causes using social networking strategies.  

I've been following Peter's work since October 2006, when I first discovered Peter's research on group giving when he introduced himself on Netsquared.  I've blogged about his webinars about selecting person-to-person fundraising or working with group fundraising tools.  I also remember when Peter Deitz launched the community discussion about his idea for Social Actions API back in January, 2008- he titled it "Help Me Clone Beth Kanter" as part of helping me with a Cambodian campaign was I working on at the time.

Over the past year he has moved his idea forward in a powerful reality.  He put together a talented team (including awesome folks like Christine Egger and Joe Solomon), attracted some financial resources, and has been evangelist for the micro-philanthropy sector.   His hard work has paid off.  Social Actions has six team members, 34 organizational partners, 100s of supporters, and a substantial list of accomplishments to its name.

He has identified nine goals for 2009.  Hand in hand with those goals, is a peer-to-peer social fundraising campaign to raise $20,009 by February 2, 2009.  All the campaign information is included in the Sprout widget and you can click to make a donation of $20.09.

I'm supporting Social Actions and I'd encourage you to do so too - whether you can give $2.09, $20.09 or $200.09. Your contribution to Social Actions will make it easy for people all over the world to leverage their social graphs for good causes and hopefully make the world a better place.

NpTech Roundup: Grasshoppers and Ants - Social Fundraising Off Season

Photo by Mr. Clean1982

The NpTech Tag Summary is a weekly compilation of resources tagged with "nptech" by those who follow all things nonprofits and social media.  Since conversations are getting more distributed and in addition to using the NpTech tag to discover, aggregate, and summarize resources, I'm incorporating nuggets from micro media sources, nptech bloggers, nptech friendfeed room, and networks.The summaries are more focused on a social media theme or a social media question related to practice. 

Do you remember the Grasshopper and the Ant Fable?

It is a story about a grasshopper who has spent the warm months singing away while the ant worked hard to store up food for winter.  After the winter has come, the grasshopper finds itself starving and after asking the ant for food is punished for its idleness. The story is used to teach the virtues of hard work and preparation.

Although it is a slow time of year and the busy fundraising season is still several months away, there's been lots of activity in the social fundraising judging by these roundups of links from Peter Deitz and Tom Watson (not to mention all the items tagged in the nptech tag stream).  It probably isn't too early to start thinking about that busy year-end online fundraising season.  I suspect that the good folks at SeaChange are busy updated the 2008 the Procrastinators Guide To Year-End Fundraising.

Campaigns

• Global Giving's "Giving Made Green" launched last week and was written up in the New York Times.  More coverage in the blogosphere and beyond here.
• The Wall Street Journal published a very positive piece about the potential for online giving and social networks. The article profiles Networked For Good's Six Degrees of Separation.
• Small Change blog points to First Giving Digg Contest which was one of four social media promotional ideas using social media tools.  Which one worked best? Why?
• Michael Stein has an interview with Jonathan Coleman about his success building a donor base on Facebook.
• Beaconfire Blog, "The Twilight of Direct Mail" provides an analysis of the role of direct mail in Obama Campaign.
• Amy Sample Ward writes about the new plugin launched by Social Actions that will place ‘possibly related classroom projects’ from DonorsChoose.org at the bottom of posts, so that readers can find opportunities to take action to help classrooms around the world.   EngageJoe has been helping with campaign and hopes that if you're blogging wordpress that you'll install the wordpress plugin. 

Competitions, Awards, and Recognition

• Ending Global Slavery is part of an Ashoka initiative Changemakers.net.   There  are 15 projects in the competition, all with a mission of ending traffiking and slavery, including an entrant from Cambodia.  Hurry voting ends August 5th.
• Amy Sample Ward, filling in for Britt Bravo, writes about several awards and competitions including the UK Catalyst Awards and Simon Fairway's pointer to the digital makeover contest.
• There is still time to cast your vote over at Members Project where American Express is offering $1.5 million to support a project based on feedback from the online community.  Christine Herron suggests the Electric Company.
• Jonathan Coleman is the featured Changemaker at Change.org (hat tip NTEN roundup)

Alternative Approaches

• Lucy Bernholz reports that embedded giving - in which a charitable transaction becomes part of any other financial transaction, such as checking out of the grocery store and making a donation to diabetes care - has gone web 2.0 and describes SocialVibe. This platform lets consumers promote the brands they like and SocialVibes donates money to charitable causes or as Read/Write Web defined as "is an online popularity contest that turns corporate advertising into money for charity."  SocialVibe's proof of concept has donated more than $100K to charities so far.
• TechSoup blog profiles Taproot Foundation.  It's key goal is to pair pro bono professional services with nonprofit organizations who need them.
• WeWorkForFree is a design community that allows it's members to upload and share their portfolios in order to raise money for international programs that benefit developing nations around the globe.  It's a platform that facilitates in-kind contributions of services.

Shiny Object Syndrome

• Geoff Livingston mentions it here and points to examples and blog posts about the problem in the corporate PR sector. Jeremiah Owyang describes this issue, but calls it "Fondling the Hammer" It's a symptom of a larger problem - the lack of ROI thinking and it happens in the nonprofit sector too.
  
• Adam Hurst asks "Is Causes.com really costs.com?" He describes some of the work flow issues related to nonprofit using Facebook causes.  I'd two more issues with how the interaction design meshes with fundraising here and here. The DoGoodWell Blog points out that platforms for giving are different than motivations for giving. Qui Diaz talks about the importance of multi-channel campaigns and experimentation.

More Platforms, Platforms, Platforms, and More Platforms

• TogetherChange not quite sure what this is about, but stay tuned.
• ammado connects nonprofits, socially responsible corporates and engaged individuals who want to change the world. It was founded as a mission-based, for-profit enterprise in Dublin in 2005 by serial     entrepreneur Peter Conlon and Dr. Anna Kupka. Sounds like an European version of change.org?  Max Gladwell has more over his blog, Social Media and Social Living.
• From TMCNet.com: Blackbaud launched a new release of Blackbaud NetCommunity which includes  enhancements in both function and features.  Max Gladwell also has more.
• Kiva launches a new feature that maps the flow of loans from lenders to borrowers.

How Tos

• Steve Bridger's slideshow "Charities and the Social Web: Does It Mean We Have to Change Our Jobs?"
• Peter Deitz does a nonprofit riff on a report called "Strategy of Giving" originally written for business people to invest their businesses
• Rapid Donor Cultivation white paper from Common Knowledge
• Digidave of Spot.Us posted Ten Tips for Journalists to Fundraise
• Heather Mansfield, Making It On MySpace
• Jordan Viator, YouTube on a ShoeString and ask the expert at NTEN with Ramya Raghaven from YouTube
• Michael Stein (West Coast) points to how to use a video as a thank you for donations

The NpTech Tag started as an experimental community tagging project in 2005. A loosely coupled group of nonprofit techies and social change activists decided to use the tag "NpTech" to identify web resources that would create an ongoing stream of information to promote and educate those working in nonprofit technology.  Through TechSoup's Netsquared project, blogger Beth Kanter, was commissioned to write a weekly summary.

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Reader Appreciation Day: Beth's Big Give - Congrats to Epic Change

Epic Change is the lucky winner of my Reader Appreciation Day Charity Giveaway (Beth's Big Give!).  Epic Change uses their donations to provide interest-free loans to local partners to finance their community improvement efforts.  Here is more about their approach.

I just donated $20 via Network for Good.  (In the spirit of Earth Day and transparency,  this is a recycled Good Card that I received as a gift during the holidays.)

Thanks so much to Robin Reagler coming up with the idea for Michele Martin for passing along the information to me.

There were 11 wonderful organizations suggested by my readers.  It would have been really hard for me to pick so I used random number generator to pick the winner and the process of selecting the winner is documented here - in case you want to borrow the idea for creating a "Big Give" of your own.   

Here's the nominated organizations:

1. Not For Sale Campaign: 27 million people in slavery worldwide today, over 50% of them children. Not For Sale works to educate about, expose and eradicate modern day slavery, because no one should be for sale. suggested by Dave Web

2.  Blandford Nature Center:  Maria is raising funds for the organization in a very innovate (and tough) way. She has challenged herself to eat on a dollar a day for 30 days. Her journal/blog is here.  Suggested by Ann, Ashima, and Maria.

3.  Angel Covers: Through our programs that help create self-sufficient programs, $20 would provide food for a child for about half the year indefinitely. You can see some of the recent successes of these programs in their blog. Suggested by Lynn Fillmore.

4. Education And More:  Has a mission to help educate the children and reduce poverty in Guatemala. They
are an all volunteer organization and making a big difference in the lives of the students and their families and the schools of the indigenous of western Guatemala.  Suggested by Kare.

5. Transitions Cambodia:  Helps many girls being trafficked throughout the southeast Asia area. TCI was
founded by James and Athena Pond of Hillsboro, Oregon. They do more than just get the girls off of the street. They teach them life skills and educate them to be self-sufficient. They use a transitional home
model, as described on their website.  Suggested by Bob Uva.

6.  Arthritis Foundation:  Arthritis affects 1 in 5 people, is the #1 cause of disability in the US, and is not limited to adults. Suggested by Roger Carr.

7.  Epic Change. Because Mama Lucy, the local woman who founded the school we're now partnered with in Tanzania, turned income from chickens into a school that now serves 200+. With your $20, she can work magic. Like giving hope to children like Glory Suggested by Stacey Monk.

8. Center for Victims of Torture  Works with individuals, families and communities to heal the impact of torture. They also work worldwide with human rights practitioners to develop new strategies for ending torture.  Suggested by Barry Madore.

9. Bridge Communities 88.6%* of every $1 goes directly to work on 6 levels to help transition families from homelessness to complete self-sufficiency in about two years. $25 covers 24 hours for one family, 20 year track record.  Suggested by Barbara Rozgnoyi

10. SIGN, the Surgical Implant Generation Network. We go where patients with broken bones have no treatment options, other than to be confined to bed for months. We train local surgeons and equip them with surgical instruments and implants so that they can heal needy patients in a matter of days, not months. Your $20 would provide surgeons at a hospital overseas with a SIGN technique manual - a way to make sure that these surgeons use the correct methods to give their patients the best treatment. Suggested by Matt.

11. Partners for Violence Prevention (PVP).  A community organization in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Our mission is to promote peace, reduce the incidence and impact of violence, and build capacity for violence prevention in the community. PVP has shown that it is possible to identify, prevent and break the cycle of violence. Our strategies, applied to a coordinated continuum of schools, health care and social service providers and other local networks have helped over 11,000 people. PVP works in four areas: (1) Youth Development and School Support, (2) Educational Trainings, (3) Community Education and Awareness, and (4) Facilitation/Coordination.  Suggested by Anita Berg.

Spamming for Good is the Wrong Description of What Dr. Mani, Roger Carr, Jen Lemens, and Other Good Personal Fundraisers Really Do!

Photo from Roger Carr's Juvenile Arthritis Weekend Set
You can donate here

The image is from Roger Carr who is raising money to support the Arthritis Foundation’s annual nationwide event, Arthritis Walk, that raises awareness and funds to fight arthritis.   I've just donated to his campaign and here's why. Hint - the three R words.

• Reciprocity: Roger Carr helped me with winning the America's Giving Challenge he blogged (more than once I might add), left supportive comments, retweeted to his network (connected me to Dr. Mani), and personally donated to my campaign.   He invested some of his social capital in my cause and I want to invest in his. 

• Relationship:   It's spring fundraising season and I'm getting spammed.  People (I don't know even know or have a relationship with ..) are sending me broadcast emails and generic private messages on Facebook asking me to donate.   What no coffee?  Roger Carr didn't do that.   We have an ongoing relationship and he only has to ask me through one channel.   

• Rewards:  Dr. Mani offering donors to Roger's campaign a copy of his Social Media Marketing Plan Guide.

And now I'm asking you to consider making a gift to Roger's Campaign - his goal is $1,000 and the minimum gift is $10.   You can also learn a lot about personal fundraising from reading Roger's blog or checking out his presentations.   

Dr. Mani, who was a master of personal fundraising with his CHD Awareness Day and who also helped with the America's Giving Challenge,  was featured in a 2006  FAST COMPANY magazine report about his work online helping children with congenital heart defects.  The article was titled: “Dr.Mani - Spamming for Good”

That's definitely not the right metaphor or approach.   Dr. Mani points to some good examples (including Roger) - but also  Anne Mitchell who helped raise money for the desperately poor in Tajikistan.   I'm thinking about the personal approach the Jen Lemen used to raised for her mission to Rwanda - and she did it in record time -- that is the result of relationship building.   And relationship building can scale into a networked approach - take a look at the most recent BlogHer's Act fundraising campaign to improve maternal health.

Seth Godin says it another way:

You can contact just about anyone you want. The only rule is you need to contact them personally, with respect, and do it months before you need their help! Contact them about them, not about you. Engage. Contribute. Question. Pay attention. Read. Interact.

Then, when you've earned the right to attention and respect, months and months later, sure, ask. It takes a lot of time and effort, which is why volume isn't the answer for you, quality is.

Before you send out canned broadcast messaging via Twitter, Facebook, Email, LinkedIn or whatever other social media you are using, take a walk in your potential donors' email box.  Do they really need to get the same canned message form you in multiple channels?   Have you built a relationship?

Are you spamming for good or are you using the three R's effectively?   What is the secret to success of social networking for good?

Good Karma Calculator: How Much Has Been Raised for Charities on Facebook?

How much has been raised on Facebook? asked Connor of Connor's Fundraising Blog.  Great question, great blog too.  That's where I found the link to the Karma Calculator which asks you to fill out a set of questions and lets you know the real charitable you.   I'm Richard Branson.

Oh, an now to answer the question.  Connor, I don't know.  Maybe some of my readers do.  Here's what I do know. 

• There isn't a comprehensive study that looks at total dollar amounts raised from all fundraising apps on Facebook.  I've seen lots of posts about apps, but few on results.
• Allan Benamer had a bet with Causes founders last September but it required disclosure of total amounts raised on Causes.   Allan thought it might be something like .25 cents per user (over 3 million users), but Causes never disclosed their numbers.
• Wired Fundraiser report from Network for Good reports on the Long Tail of Facebook Causes from FrogLoop from July 2007 which shows less than impressive dollar amounts
• The recent America's Giving Challenge from the Case Foundation reported on the Causes numbers - there were a total of 32,885 donors giving a total of $571,686 with an average of $17.48 per donor.
• The winner of the FB Causes challenge raised $93,000 on causes with an extraordinary effort and investment of time.

Did I miss something?

Internet Marketers Can Change the World by Roger Carr of Everyday Giving

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My colleague, Roger Carr of Everyday Giving has created a great presentation that shows the results of socially networked personal fundraising.

Wired Wealthy, Budha and Freud ....

The connection between these two items are two people, Mark Rovner and Katya Andresen. 

The Wired Wealthy

The first $50,000 fundraising contest I won for the Sharing Foundation was the Yahoo/Network for Good Charity Badge contest in 2007.   (We raised $53,000, plus we got a $50,000 prize).   Do you think the $53,000 came from $10 gifts?  We actually received 2 $5K and one $15K gifts - not to mention a number of $1K.   What was surprised me was they came from people we didn't already have on our radar (yep, we've cultivated them since).   So, the reminder and more data about ways to connect and cultivate your middle and major donors online is a good one.

Convio, Sea Change Strategies and Edge Research asked 3,000 donors from 32 nonprofit organizations about their online behaviors and preferences.   I had coffee with Gene Austin at NTC and he told me that the study is available for free but you have to register first to get your copy.

Kami Huyse has a write up of the study, summarizing some of the key findings.

The Seven Things Everyone Wants: What Freud and Buddha Understood (and We're Forgetting) about Online Outreach

That was the title of a session by Mark Rovner and Katya Andresen at the NTC in New Orleans that I really, really wanted to attend, but was presenting at the same time.  I'm hoping that will put their slides in slideshare.    Thank god Britt Bravo and Michaela Hackner took such terrific notes.

And, while I wishing for slides to magically appear on slideshare, I hope Bill Strathmann will post his slides from his ROI session -- another session that I wanted to attend, but was also presenting.

People To People Fundraising Book Give-away

Steve MacLaughlin and Claudia from Convio were kind enough to each send me a review copy of this new book on fundraising and social networks called People To People Fundraising.   That let's me keep one for my bookshelf and give away the second copy.

So, here's how this book giveaway is going to work.   Since I have the copy in my hand, I'm willing to pack it in my suitcase and take it to the NTC in New Orleans next month and hand it to you. 

So, what do you need to do to win a free copy of this book?  Just leave a comment with you best advice for person-to-person fundraising strategies.

Of course, I haven't much time to sit down and read the book from cover to cover and there is a lot in there for larger organizations plotting integrated strategies and some good case studies.  There's a good chapter by Steven R. MacLaughlin on the changing nature of community.   I also read the chapter by Katya Andresen and Bill Strathmann from Network for Good about People-to-People Fundraising.  You can read a 2-page summary here. 

They outline five sure-fire principles for success:

1.    Make it easy
2.    Make it fun.
3.    Make it popular.
4.    Reward your supporters.
5.    Cultivate your growing circle.

Okay, so drop your best advice in the comments about person-to-person fundraising.   If you want me to hand you the book, you'll have to be at the NTC in New Orleans.    The winner will be announced before I board on the plane for New Orleans.  I read the book on the plane and write a review later.

I'm Speaking at SXSW About Nonprofits and Social Fundraising

 

I'm speaking at SXSW. The panel is titled "Pimp My Non Profit - Real Non-Profits Kicking Ass with Online Technology."  Ed Schipul, the session designer, came up with the title.   The panel will also include Erin Denny, Rachel Weidinger, and Michaela Hackner. (And, we're going to wear pimp hats)

Monday, March 10th
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Non profit groups struggle with funding and public support issues on a daily basis. Yet many have overcome the odds and made a splash online and offline by using the latest Web technologies - for pennies on the dollar. This discussion will center around the stories, strategies, triumphs and challenges of innovative non profits with a passion for change and the cajones to rock it out online.

I'm excited to finally meet Michaela face-to-face after following her personal blog and flickr stream over three years.  We connected through the "cambodia" tag on flickr because I was tracking it for Global Voices back in 2005.  The first photo of hers from Cambodia was this one of the four monks crossing the street titled Abbey Road. 

Michaela is now director of online strategy for World Learning.   We've paired up to give a 15 minute talk about using social media for fundraising -- she'll be talking from the perspective of someone inside a nonprofit and I'll be talking from the perspective as an "extra organizational activist" who is not a staff person, but someone who is working as an individual on behalf a case.    

The term "extra organizational activist" comes from Alison Fine's book Momentum and I first heard it back in September 2006 when I read the book and reviewed it over at Blogher.   Here's what she had to say about this role:

Fine says that it is important to encourage individual activism and that social media has become the "extra organizational lifeblood" replacing memberships, the lifeblood of the pre-Internet activist world.   Fine tells us, "When activist organizations take on the role of working within networks and choose to push power to the edges, they shift from doing activist work to facilitating activist work."  She concludes the chapter with some ways that activist organizations can support the efforts of individuals and stay relevant.

The other term that has been used to describe these individuals is "Wired Fundraisers"  by Network For Good in a recent report.    Peter Deitz of Social Actions has a slideshow that walks organizations through the definition and pros/cons of working with a Wired Fundraiser.

Peter identified the pros/cons as:

Pros

• Year round
• New Donors
• Builds Community
• Human Voice

Cons

• Low success rate (not everyone!)
• Steep learning curve
• Difficult accounting issues

Michaela and I thought we might tackle this as a point, counterpoint.  I wondered about whether there is organizational resistance to the idea of working with "extra organizational activists" or  "Wired Fundraisers."  I asked colleagues Katya Andresen and Stacie Mann from Network for Good. 

We’re seeing less resistance as nonprofits witness the effectiveness of wired fundraisers.  We’re seeing increasingly that volunteers/wired fundraisers run the campaign in coordination with the nonprofit or vice versa.  I’d say there’s a high degree of cooperation among the most active fundraisers. 

More often it is not resistance on the messaging, but a lack of understanding/fear of how it works and ultimately benefits the org (tools to get/cultivate the new donors etc.). Once that is clear almost always they are on board.  We are definitely starting to see an interesting spectrum of coordination.

So, it may be less of an organizational attitude of "Help, my fundraising has been abducted by aliens ..." to "how can leverage these extra organizational activists for our organization?"

The audience at SWSX will consist solely of nonprofit folks and the ones that are there are probably already putting these new web tools to work.   I suspect (could be wrong) that there may be a few potential wired fundraisers -- so, have a few questions:

• If you were talking to some potential "wired fundraisiers" what advice would you give them in terms of connecting and coordinating with the nonprofit organization?  What advice would you give them to increase the changes of success in their campaign?
• If you're from a nonprofit organization, have you had discussions about working with wired fundraisers or extra organizational activists?  What were some of the difficult issues you needed to address?  What were the adoption issues?   What did you need to think about?  What's your advice for making this a successful partnership?
• Have any recommendations for a hat?

Update:  Drew Bernard's pointer to correcting Evangelists

Click to Give: Mammagrams for those who can't afford them

Click here

Last fall, I wrote about a couple of "click to give" sites, including the Free Rice game and Fight Hunger.  This "click to give" site will help women who can't afford to pay for a mammogram a free screening.   This type of online giving would probably be a great match for a Facebook application ...

 

Online Fundraising Predictions from Around the World

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My friend, Paolo Ferrara, queried online fundraising and social media experts from around the globe, and presents them in the above SlideShare.

Justin Perkins has a few predictions, including "Only 1% of nonprofits or less will make a positive ROI based on man-hours and dollar amounts."   I think what Justin is pointing out is ROI thinking means going beyond looking at direct costs.  Is that what you meant?

 

Sprout - A Flash Editor - Let's You Customize Your Own Widget

That's a widget I just created using Sproutbuilder, a new product form the creators of ChipIn.   According to Jason Ricci, Chief Product Officer,

Sprout is a concept that grew out of our work at Chipin - and we definitely haven't lost our nonprofit roots..look for more fun functionality geared towards nonprofits in the future. For now, you and all your readers can use the link below to get a Sprout Beta account....and if you hve any ideas for nonprofit specific features please feel free to send us feedback - we read and respond to each and every one.
http://www.sproutbuilder.com/friendsofsprout?invite=socialactions

Peter Dietz offers his observations here. Peter wondered about the ability to incorporate a chipin payment widget linked to other providers and how it may integrate with Facebook Causes. 

Marshall over Read/Write Web had this rave in his review:

It is going to explode the world of widgets on the web. This is far and away my favorite product I've seen at DEMO, not just this year but ever in the three years I've attended. Limited beta accounts are available to RWW readers via http://www.sproutbuilder.com/readwriteweb The product is a drag-and-drop Flash authoring tool built on Adobe's Flex. SproutBuilder lets you build very sophisticated, multi-page widgets with media, analytics and more. In minutes. With ease.

Here's Mashable and TechCrunch had to say.  Here's the demo on YouTube.

You can use this flash editor to create your own custom widget for fund raising - adding multimedia content.  Think about the possibilities --  a spreadable multimedia story about why your cause is important and link to donate or to get more information.  Then have your supporters spread it.  Or have them sign up for a sprout account and remix it.

My widget is sort of lame because I'm tired right now ... but really it was so easy to do.  With a little planning out of your content, it could be really powerful. 

Deborah Finn from Lolnptech notes, "They're organically grown!"

Christine Egger of Goodallaround gives it a great review and suggests that one might use these instead of a web site. 

10 Reasons For Bloggers To Get Involved With a Non-Profit

Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian  is a heart surgeon using his Internet marketing business to fund heart surgery for under-privileged children in India. I met Dr. Mani via Roger Carr who was one of the core group of bloggers who I enlisted for a "blogger's campaign" component.   At 3:00 am this morning, when were in 5th place by a 30 donor margin,  I asked him for help and he told me, "Beth we're going to win."   He helped!

On February 14th, in a worldwide event called “A DAY FOR HEARTS : Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Day”, he hopes to reach at least 500,000 people with the message of CHD awareness.  I will  help spread the word and hope you will too.

In the meantime, he has published a guest post on ProBlogger called "10 Reasons for Bloggers To Get Involved with a Nonprofit."   I agree with all his points. 

I reached out to a core group of nonprofit bloggers in the beginning of the campaign, asking them to commit to writing 1 post or 1 post per week - whatever they could manage.   I set up a wiki that included lots of text and photos so they could remix as they wanted or not.  I included a sign up sheet too.  I also used to document links to their posts as we went along.

As the campaign got closer to the finish, and more bloggers got involved, I also reached out to other bloggers. I found bloggers from other communities and created posts that might be relevant.  For example, for Coolcat teacher blog, Vicky Davis, she wrote a post about the Sharing Foundation's computer school. 

I didn't plan out all the topics and posts in advance. I let a lot of it evolve from the community.

Ed Schipul's Social Fundraising Presentation Inspires Interest in Our Cause

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Ed Schipul just finished speaking at the Got Social Media Conference.  His slides are above.   He mentioned the America's Giving Campaign for the Sharing Foundation in his talk.   How did I know?

I got this tweet from a follower.

 

Ed's slide is excellent, particularly the analysis of motivations to donate.  Great information.   He has full notes here.

Themes from the above links and from other reading:

1. Non profits have adopted social media very quickly. Some argue faster than for profit businesses.
2. Reading is as important as writing. Be a part of the community. Link out. Pay attention.
3. Metrics only partially measure ROI. Dual non profit bottom lines compound the "reporting" problem but does not take away from actual changes resulting from the use of social media.
4. Microfundraising has huge potential (Kanter, FrozenPeaFund examples)
5. Video - the adoption rate of video isn't quite there yet, but it will be.
6. Mashups Rule - programmableweb mashups for example.
7. Crisis forms communities. Communities exist after crises subside, yet aren't leveraged typically.

And with 8 more days left to this challenge, Global Giving is offering additional incentives to heat up the competition - over the next five days, the organizations that get the most donations in a single 24 hour period will receive an additional $250, plus the largest donation will be matched.   So, if you haven't contributed yet, this would be an excellent time to donate $10!

• Donate $10 or more to the Sharing Foundation through Global Giving Fundraiser set up by Blogger Michele Martin of the Bamboo project!
• If we are four of the top causes to get the most unique donors, we'll win $50,000 for the Sharing Foundation as part of America's Giving Challenge. With $10  you can help improve the lives of over 1,500 children in one of the world's poorest countries.

Ken Goldstein on why web2.o is important for small nonprofits

There was an excellent over of web2.0 for nonprofits from a global perspective over at Rising Voices. The article connected or reconnected me with a post by Ken Goldstein.  I've been following Nonprofit consultant Ken Goldstein's YouTube Channel for some time now. He has an impressive following - over 2500 subscribers.   I love his sense of humor, but he's also an extraordinary online community builder. I  hope he'll share some nitty gritty tips on how to build a community in YouTube in future blog posts or on his YouTube channel.

A recent blog post,  Why Web2.0 is Important for Small Nonprofits shares some important learnings about how and why a social media presence can be valuable to a small nonprofit.    There is good thought provoking question in the comments from Jonathan Trenn.

I completely agree with you but I have one word of caution. How do you prevent certain stakeholders from seeing all this newfangled stuff...the videos, the blogging, etc. and not think that they're spending too much money on all this stuff. In other words, how does an organization get buy-in from key people it needs? Prior to establishing these strategies?

Ken gives offers a good response in the comments.  What do you think?

Read what Audrey and Beth Dunn wrote.

 

The Future of Learning in a Networked World: Reflections From My Session

Leo Reynolds

The Future of Learning in Networked World is billed as a traveling open space conference.  It is taking place online with people from all over the world and there is a group on the grown in Southeast Asia (I so wish I could have gone.)   Some of the group members include Janet Hawtin, Leigh Blackall, Alexander Hayes and Nancy White (whose session I think I missed because of time zone dyslexia)

I stayed up last night for a discussion about fundraising on social networking sites.   You'll find the slides, a recording, and notes on the FLNW blog.   Nancy White asked some great questions that lead to some good reflections.

• Comfort:   Personal fundraising takes a degree of comfort to put yourself out there and ask people for money.  Some people don't like to do it.  Nancy equated it to door knocking campaigns.

• Donor Fatigue:   How often can you ask before people get burned out by it?

The second point is something I really fretted about before launching the most recent campaign.  Would writing about what I am learning about social fundraising (as well as hitting up people for money) would that alienate at some point?  Where's that line? 

Alan Levine shared his thoughts in the comments of another post on this issue:

This year I was acutely aware of the spot you can put people in, like the reason you know Dave is contacting you in October is because he wants some $$ for the ______ charity bike ride. It's not a bad thing, but I wanted to give my contacts a break.

I was going to pony up the minimum amount myself ($1000) but got lucky and got a one day software review gig that more than got that amount.

But in December I thought, "hey all you did was raise the minimum". So I decided to go for mostly strangers, doing one blog post and sending out a few twitter messages:

Wow, what a response- I raised my total funds raised to nearly $1600, and a number of them were from people I've never had contact with.

For more resources on this topic, see my personal fundraising wiki.

Social Media Marathon Runner: Cogdog Blog

Alan Levine (AKA Cogdog Blog) - Flickr Photo

Alan has been raising money for American Diabetes Association by participating in an annual marathon.  Last year, I supported his charity because he won my birthday challenge.  This year, I was one of his sponsors.

I started this site training for the 2006 Rock n' Roll Half-Marathon. Having never run more than 3 miles in my life, I did it as a personal challenge and to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. The experience was great, and maybe found out, I did not really "hate" running.

That's a photo of Alan (on flickr) and posted to his running training blog right before he started the race.  I love that he twittered during his breaks while running the race.   He crossed the finished line!  Congrats.

Cross this one of my life list. I completed a full marathon. It was not heroic, fast, not really “fun”. The final time was 5:26:01 just withing my secret, unblogged goal of 5:30. I came in 5264th place! That New Zealander in first place could have lapped me (he finished in something like 2:15, how do people do that?).

Congratulations!

Another Model of Giving: Socially Responsible Small Businesses

Kids Against Hunger packages and ships highly nutritious, life-saving meals to starving and malnourished children in developing countries and the United States.   They do this by mobilizing children, teens, and adults volunteers who,  package the meals.   They have packaging network with a national headquarters and satellites in 14 states and Canada. 

The organization was founded by Richard Proudfit who was on a medical mission to Honduras after a hurricane ravaged the country.   He then enlisted executives at Cargill, Pillsbury, General Mills and Archer Daniels Midland to formulate a food that would meet all the nutritional requirements of severly malnourished children for physical growth and development.  The result was the creation of the nutrition food pictured above.

I learned about this charity from Jennifer J. Ebilane, a small business owner, who founded a company called Asianinspired.  Her company makes Asian flavored sauces, but what is different about this company is that it donates 40% of their net proceeds directly to charities that support children in Asian countries and that fight hunger.    In addition to Kids Against Hunger, the company is supports SOS Children's Villages, World Vision, and Children's Relief Fund.

Newman's Own is, of course, a great example of this model of giving. 

• Do you know of other examples of charitable giving or cause-related giving by small businesses? 
• Are there bloggers writing about this form of charitable giving or cause-related marketing by small businesses.
• Also,   I know I am more likely to purchase a product if I see that it is supporting a charity that I feel is important. 
• What about you?
  

My Organization's Fundraising Has Been Abducted by Aliens! (Notes from my Berkman Center Bloggers Session)

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Last Thursday, I attended at the Berkman Center Bloggers Thursday night meeting and shared some learnings about personal fundraising and facilitated a discussion.  I'm in the process of reflecting in action on my various campaigns on behalf of the Sharing Foundation, including the current one.

Seth Godin wrote a post called "I Gave at the Office" responding to an insightful post by Mark Rovner.

The big win is in turning donors into patrons and activists and participants. The internet allows some organizations to embrace long-distance involvement. It lets charities flip the funnel, not through some simple hand waving, but by reorganizing around the idea of engagement online. It means opening yourself up to volunteers, encouraging them to network, to connect with each other, and yes, even to mutiny. It means giving every one of your professionals a blog and the freedom to use it. It means mixing it up with volunteers, so they have something truly at stake. This is understandably scary for many non-profits, but I'm not so sure you have a choice.

Mark Rovner admits asks: So what is the answer? Beats me. It certainly means focus. And authenticity. And passion. And flipping the funnel.

This is exactly what the Sharing Foundation has done - they've allowed me the freedom to fundraise with passion, authenticity, and social media.  (See Birthday Challenge  (pt.1, pt.2, pt.3).  Of course, this organization isn't one of America's largest 50 charities and is only ten years old.  So, perhaps the resistance to change ingrained processes isn't there.

Donate $5 (the cost of Frozen Peas) To Support Breast Cancer Research and Susan Reynolds

Photo by Pistachio

Last night I couldn't sleep and followed the trail of links that Pistachio or rather PEAstachio left in a comment on the post about nonprofits and twitter.   She also something very powerful, "Do Not Twitter Without Love."  So, if you want to really understand and see the power of social media - authentic social media, go to PeaFund Friday.

• Watch and listen to Connie Reece explain what this campaign is all about and why it is important to her.
• Read Susan Reynold's statement
• View the list of people who contributed their smarts, hearts, and souls to this campaign.
• See the flickr pool of pea avatar photos

I am watching my Twitter stream and seeing a sea of green and that is pretty amazing. This is authentic social media - people engaged in a conversation, friendships, creativity, and giving to a cause.   

I've never met Susan Reynolds, but I am connected to some of her twitter friends and this authentic community support is very moving. 

Frozen Pea Fund Friday

Peas from Dooloop

In a comment on the Twitter post, Pistachio suggested that if nonprofits want to understand the power of Twitter, they should check out the Frozen Pea Fund, launching on December 21st.

If you aren't involved in the twitter community, you may be wondering, what's this all about.  Susan Reynolds, an artist and social media maven, was diagnosed with Breast cancer.   As she announced on her blog, "I use Twitter to fight Cancer."  Without any formal blogger relations campaign, well-known and influential bloggers blogged about her situation and changed their avatars to include peas.

As Pistachio mentions, "This arose spontaneously. From love, connection, support and caring. It's spreading like wildfire. We just added www.twitter.com/PEAple yesterday to offer the PEAvatar folks their own Twitter "channel" to come together and share information, ideas & support."  You can feel the love and community in the comments to this post. There is also the fund drive.

Pistachio adds "The power here, and what will happen tomorrow in the fund drive, comes from connection and love. There's no trick, tip or shortcut to get there. But the potential momentum nonprofits could achieve through social media if they start genuinely engaging, listening, experimenting and trying? Staggering."

Now off to figure out how to make a Peavator

Ed Schipul Grew A Mustache (and beard) For His Cause: Texas Children's Hospital Cancer Center!

Flickr Photo from DenneyTerrio

 

Ed Schipul is a colleague from the NetSquared Community that I have had the pleasure of knowing for two years now.  I have the honor of joining his SWSX Panel in March about nonprofits, social media, and social good.  He was one of 81 people who donated to my campaign to send two young Cambodians to college last October.

Three weeks ago he asked me to sponsor him in  "Mustaches for Kids -Houston."  I did.   The fundraiser is   where group of volunteers grew mustaches and asked their friends to support the charity, the Texas Children's Hospital Center.

He just emailed me to let me know that the groups raised was able to raise $7805.25 in its inaugural year!  Congratulations Ed!

A Random Act of Kindess: Help Lauren and Her Children

Lauren's Family

Lauren Stone is a member of the care2.com community. The Care2 community is about taking action for different causes whether it be green living, human rights, or protecting the environment.   Recently, someone who attended one of my workshops and who is a member of care2.com pointed me to Lauren's difficult situation and asked if I could help.   So, this is a random act of kindness on my behalf.

She is a divorced mother of 6 children.  She's been through some difficult times and was on the brink of homelessness.   The care2.com community has banded together and they are no longer homeless.  But they still need some help for food and necessities and perhaps a little something extra for the holidays. 

You can send a small donation to here paypal account here.  If you want to join the community on care2.com that is working on helping her out, you can do that here.