Your Campaigns
Have you run an online fundraising campaign? Was it successful? What did you do that really worked and what did you do that did not work?
I want this blog to be a place where we can learn from each other. What are we doing well in the online world, what mistakes are we making, and how can we raise the bar with online fundraising?
If you’ve every run an online campaign whether it was for $500 or for $25,000 I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment below about what you did. We can use these stories/case studies to help all of us build best practices and tips on how to do this well. Thank you!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Jason,
As you know, we ran an online campaign in March of this year. When you emailed Richard and I about running the campaign to raise finds for Ruhanga Primary in Rwanda, we jumped at the opportunity to try online fundraising out.
Your original idea was to try and harness the power of social networks to spread the word about Wellspring, promote it in the Seattle area, add more people to our mailing list and raise some money to help Ruhanga out. We were going to focus on Facebook Causes and Razoo, an online-giving platform to capture donations.
We loved the your idea and initiative, (every organization needs supporters like you who are passionate about the work they are doing and takes initiative to raise finds for them) and after a few tweaks on our end said, “Run with it.”
Prior to launching the campaign, we found out that Razoo was running a contest called “March Goodness” in which the organizations that raised the most money and had the most donors sign-up through Razoo would win up to $10,000.
We then changed our strategy a bit and focused all efforts on Razoo. You started promoting the campaign by reaching out to some key supporters in the Seattle area and asking them to contribute to it, and more importantly, spread the word to their friends through email as well as their social networks at places like Facebook and Twitter.
We were surprised by the lack of participation of people. We found the campaign effective in that we raised just shy of the original amount we were shooting for, however, once our promotional efforts were adjusted due to the potential to win additional funds from Razoo, we thought we would raise a considerable amount more than originally planned. I wonder if we would have come close to original amount we set out if we didn’t scale up efforts due to the Razoo contest???
Looking back I think we were prepared fairly well for the initial campaign idea. I think we erred when trying to scale up the campaign because of the Razoo contest. I don’t think we prepped enough for it (we couldn’t really due to the timing) and we didn’t have the buy-in from the people we were hoping would be the driving forces behind spreading the word through their social networks.
All in all it was a great learning experience, and something that we will definitely do again with the right planning and preparation, as well as commitment from people we are expecting to be driving forces for the campaign.
Hi! I’m the Executive Director of Dare to Dream Fund. We’re an educational non-profit based in Monterey, California. Our main purpose is to provide young people with an opportunity to reach their potential through goal achievement & life preparedness programs. So far in ‘09, we’ve made an impact with more than 230 young people who have gone through our programs. We founded Dare to Dream Fund in June ‘08, so we are a relatively new organization, and we like that!
Word of caution to whoever is reading this: I’m no expert! My background is in investment banking and real estate development. I co-founded Dare to Dream based on a conscious decision that it was about time I start giving back and do something that would make a fundamental difference in young people’s lives. This is the best way I thought I could do that. Fundraising/fund development is sort of part and parcel of the deal right? We embarked on this journey with missionary zeal…and the same is true with the fundraising process.
The primary on-line fundraising platform we use is givezooks! It’s allowed us to connect our supporters to our cause in a way where they can take action–spreading the word through twitter or Facebook, starting a grassroots fundraiser themselves to show support or voting for us as their favorite charity during the givezooks! Donors’ Choice Contest.
All of these outlets allows us to diversify our approach to fundraising, so it’s not always us asking for money. We can convert our supporters to fundraisers too and have people hear about our impact from their perspective.
One such example is when we had our Board do a “May Madness Board Challenge” where each of our Board Members committed to raise $500 for the month of May via a grassroots campaign. 90% of our Board met or exceeded that goal and we raised more than $4,700 through the May Madness campaign. It also made “social fundraising” more real to our Board members. John Haydon is having a webinar tomorrow and he’ll use our May Madness as an example for how to engage the Board in fundraising through the social media.
In total, we’ve raised more than $40,000 on-line so far in 2009 using givezooks!–a mixture of friends, family and other people we’ve met through social media. One thing I always remind people when we talk about our success is that online fundraising is a broader application of what has always been a rule in fundraising: relationships, relationships, relationships. And above everything else, this has been what’s been most effective for us at Dare to Dream Fund.
Hope this posting has been useful to you and please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or thoughts (or other tips)!
All the best,
Nina
Nina,
Thanks for posting your story. You seem to be a very big fan of Givezooks how has their platform been so successful to you? Is it through online fundraising pages? Widgets that integrate with the various social media platforms?
Thanks,
Jason
Hi Jason! I like givezooks! for a couple of reasons. First, they have proven to be very supportive of their clients and very client-centric so they are easy to work with (and great people too!). Second, I like the donor experience on givezooks!. I allows us to tell a succinct story that compels donors’ into action. Finally, I like that they make it very easy to create a viral fundraising environment. The grassroots campaign function is pretty cool and very easy for ANY supporter to start a campaign for their fave charity. Those are just a few of my favorite things…hope this helps!
All the best,
Nina
Hi Jason – I am the president of Innovative School Funding. Two years ago a fellow teacher and I got together and created Innovative School Funding as a way to partner business with education so that education and businesses benefit. These businesses have signed up with us to donate a percent of their online sales back to our partnership schools and churches. The program is an easy way to generate revenue for education without selling and is a great value-add to any fundraiser. So far we have given back over $1500, which for two teacher trying to change the world, feels pretty good in itself.
Thanks for the blog,
Mickey Chavannes
President
Innovative School Funding
Have you run an online fundraising campaign? –> Social Actions’ hosted a “$20,009 for 2009″ that ran for two months, ending in early February 2009.
http://www.socialactions.com/2009-fundraiser
Was it successful? –> Yes. We received the most inspiring and motivating words of support from nearly all of the 100+ people who contributed, and collected over $14,000.
What did you do that really worked? –> Set a specific donation suggestion ($20.09, which gave people who wanted that kind of structure something to focus on). Twitter (which was a tremendously effective outreach tool during the final days of the campaign).
What did you do that did not work? –> Set a specific donation suggestion ($20.09, which went well with the ‘$20,009 for 2009′ name but perhaps lowered the amount that otherwise would have been gifted). Neglected to parse out Tweeting across multiple timezones (it become a round-the-clock effort for one, rather than a reasonably shared and distributed task for several). Set a long time frame (2 months; most of the donation activity took place at the very beginning and very end of the campaign; in retrospect the campaign could-have-should-have been much quicker.
Thanks for this post, Jason, and the opportunity to reflect & share & learn from each other!
Christine Egger
Social Actions
Heya,
I’m doing a 999km Walk for Focus Ireland on October 1st to raise money for the homeless. I’d appreciate any support, donations, but more importantly, this looks like a great website to bounce ideas together and find out what really works with people. So any advice is good.
My website is
http://www.bebo.com/999km
it could do with a few more touches but I think it will work.
I also have a video on youtube that is starting to pull in a couple of views, thats at…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujFpnyifSAw
I have lots of options on media, online reaching out, and of course along the 999km there’s going to be a lot of opportunities to meet people in person, in small villages and chat face to face about the charity. But I’ll let you guys know what works for me, and try a few of your own suggestions too.
Many many thanks
Danny
Blessings for Today!
Thanks for the invitation to share; this is a new venture for me, so there is not much to say at this point.
As the children’s minister at my church, ministry has expanded beyond the classroom into the Nations of the world. This December I shall return to Dehra Dun, India to minister to the Rag Pickers, or Dalits, of the city. I have been posting notices on Facebook and Twitter, as until I read this blod, they were the only avenues I knew. Word of mouth is always a wonder; my church family is kept abreast of my progress and will certainly donate something when it is time for me to leave during Thanksgiving weekend.
FB seems to have become a hub for “give to this cause” pleas; I am sure ppl are having success, but the atmosphere has put me off. It strikes me as very carnal and demanding. On Twitter, however, I have been very blessed. I have left my cause, FaithKidsZone.com, on the FB, but do not see much effect.
At the moment, I cannot say that any funds have come in, but the Lord has caused ppl to notice. Traffic to the site I put together a couple of months ago has increased as a direct result of the tweets; lovely ppl have contacted me and encouraged me, including GiveForward and your organization. The contacts I have made on Twitter are much more genuine and a couple of working relationships are developing.
There is a site, http://www.FlowerPowerFundraising.com, that I have employed. One must engage friends to sell flower bulbs to generate funds, but the company gives 50% to the seller. At the moment, with my limited network of friends, it has raised nearly $150 for the kids in India. At the end of this week, I should know the balance, as that is when the deadline hits and all the sales must be collected.
So, for something that I began in June, I am blessed with the progress thus far. I can keep you posted later on.
The Lord promises that everything we put our hand shall prosper; I have great expectations.
Thanks!
Smiles
Viral Fundraising meets Tribal India
For the last few years, I’ve been making viral videos professionally for companies to sell products with seedwell . In general, these projects have had the same goal: to generate impressions for businesses to improve their reach online. When I returned from India with some HD footage in hand, it was for a slightly different goal: to generate goats for villagers to improve their lives in the village.
My girlfriend, Debbie Glasband, recently returned from a 7 month job in Koraput, Orissa – one of the poorest districts in India. I spent 6 weeks with her there, in no small part to make sure she returned. She suggested I bring a video camera and that we make a viral music video starring the villagers. For those unfamiliar with the Lonely Island’s wildly successful “I’m on a boat”, please watch it first. A reasonable strategy for creating a viral video is to parody another wildly popular pop-culture video. Hence the birth of “I want a goat” -> explicit version | clean version
We had an optimistic suspicion that there are millions of people out there who, if inspired by the right cause at the right moment, would donate $20. For me, donating a single goat to these tribal villagers in India provided that inspiration. I’ve seen gaming companies making millions on Facebook and PlayStation Network selling $5 virtual add-ons for avatars. I wanted to see the same thing happen with donations to good causes online. This was the inspiration for http://www.iwantagoat.com .
The campaign for goats started on Nov 14th with a local multi-media scavenger hunt in San Francisco, extended through a global viral video campaign, and channeled all viewers to a creative donation website. These three components all pushed the envelope with technology, entertainment, and humor. All time spent developing the campaign was donated by generous individuals. All proceeds go to an established goatery program, through existing NGO’s, and benefit some of the poorest people in India.
The response has been tremendous. We surpassed our fund-raising goal of $2,000 dollars on the first day. We were featured on YouTube and ranked in the top 5 most viewed and discussed videos in the non-profit / activism category. In the three weeks since then, we have raised many multiples of our goal, and the donations continue to come in. The best part is that the majority of the donations have come from 18-34 year olds, many of whom have no history of philanthropy. In other words, we are not re-allocating charity dollars. We are creating new ones.
I believe the following factors have contributed most to our success:
(1) our campaign combined combined a local grass-roots launch with viral web components.
(2) the viral components (video and website) effectively cut through the noise, sparked discussion, controversy and attention.
(3) the donation process on iwantagoat.com was fun, personalized, and sticky.
(4) the timing our campaign hit right around the holidays, when people are looking for gift ideas. It turns out goats make great gifts.
The biggest surprise in this campaign has been the lack of controversy. I expected many voices to say we are exploiting tribal Indian villagers and making light of a serious situation, which is not the case. We are using the best vehicle we know, to bring the most possible attention (and potential help) to a serious situation. In this particular case, that happens to involve parodying Andy Samberg and one of the most popular and explicit videos on YouTube. In any case, most of the discussion online around this campaign has been highly positive and reasonably sophisticated – not the norm for YouTube comments. I have been impressed by how many people “get it” and appreciate the approach.
The following YouTube comment exchange gets at that understanding.
christophersaul
Not sure the swearing in the song really adds to the cause…
jacobwakeup
I am, they wouldn’t have gotten my $21 (I couldn’t resist adding a grill to my goat – had a whole top diamonds and da bottom row’s gold!) without the swearing because it made me listen.
- Beau Lewis
I’m Sonja. I’m 11 years old, in grade 6 and totally horse crazy. my favorite sport is Dressage! I compete in Recognized National Level Dressage shows, as well as local schooling shows. Well, that is if I keep raising enough money to keep competing!! Since my parents can’t keep up to the expenses as my skill level goes up I started raising my own money to keep doing the sport I love. I started last year and all my fundraising was around our city but then I decided to make a website and start raising money online. If you want to see if I’m for real you can visit my website its http://www.DressageDreams.me
Now I’m looking for some good ideas to raise more money online so thank you for putting these good ideas up!! I have a totally qualified coach and I’m really good at Dressage (like I’m only 11 and I’m schooling level 3!! Seriously). I know if I just have the chance to keep training I’ll get to the top levels one day. I know for a fact I will be competing at Grand Prix level and my biggest goal of all is Olympics of course! But I’m not as confident about my fundraising skills. I don’t come from a rich family but I can’t let that hold me back. I have to find a way. One day it will all be worth it. I will try your ideas. Thanks!!!!
HI Sonja–I just want to say how happy I was to read your comment. I’ll be sending you good thoughts and wishing you the best on your campaign. I just visited your website and I think you are already head and shoulders above lots of other people/organizations raising money out there. Well done! And you are right, you get to make your dreams come true! Again, all the best to you and your campaign.
Take care,
Nina