I referred to this as the Democratization of Media, and made the point that, due to all these new media tools, your constituents have become more valuable than ever to your organization.

These same tools have also democratized fundraising. Small, fledgling organizations can tap into FaceBook and Twitter’s nearly 1 billion users, just like large ones. And those who support nonprofits are more and more becoming “free agents” who have many tools readily available to help them promote any cause they choose. It’s up to each nonprofit to make it easy to choose their cause.

How can you make it easy to do that? If you do nothing else, create a FaceBook page for your organization, then add a posting to it twice a week. Promote your FaceBook page, and ask (or beg) people to Like you. Ask your supporters to post on your page, or visit your page often and comment. This all helps get your organization’s name out in front of potentially 700 million people, or at least the 150 or so that the average FaceBook user connects with.

Now there’s an ongoing debate about whether using social networks alone provides any financial return. So, when you have your supporters using their own personal influence and reaching out to their social networks, give them the tools to close the deal and make the ask themselves, using a friend-to-friend online fundraising tool like DonorPages. When the person making the ask is known and trusted by the donor, and when that known and trusted person communicates their passion for your cause on their own personal fundraising page, the likelihood of a donation goes way up. Plus, the average amounts per donation are likely to double.

The Democratization of Fundraising can be a bit of a brave new world, but that’s what was said about the Internet itself 15 years ago. Can you imagine not having a website today? I encourage you to harness these tools to help your “free agent” fundraisers work their magic for your cause!

When her daughter, Cindy Sherwin, passed away from a sudden brain aneurysm, Elaine Schaller reached out to the The Brain Aneurysm Foundation (BAF). She wanted to learn how she could honor Cindy’s memory by promoting early detection and prevention.

“Cindy died at 33 of a ruptured brain aneurysm while preparing for her first Ironman in 2007.” explains Elaine. “One minute she was riding her bike down Riverside Drive in New York and the next minute she was gone. It might  have been prevented had we known that Cindy had this aneurysm.”

Shortly after, Christine Buckley, BAF’s Executive Director, told Cindy’s story to a supporter while at a conference in Washington, DC. This supporter, who competes in Ironman competitions, suggested he “run for Cindy” and raise funds for BAF. They gave him his own personal online fundraising site, and he raised over $14,351.00 participating in a triathlon.

Team Cindy's DonorPages site

Word spread, and the following year, five athletes formed Team Cindy, and raised over $25,000 while participating in various marathons and triathlons. To date in 2010, eighteen Team Cindy athletes have raised $46,700, combining their passion for triathlon and marathon competition with raising funds in honor of Cindy, for BAF. Elaine now manages Team Cindy and serves on BAF’s board of directors, and she has plans to expand the team to 30 athletes in 2011.

BAF and Elaine, along with the Team Cindy athletes, are rapidly growing a community of people whose shared passion for running, biking and swimming is made all the more meaningful by the very real contribution they make to this important cause. And not just through the funds they raise. Their DonorPages site, FaceBook page and emails they send all help promote awareness, education, support and research funding to reduce the incidence of brain aneurysms.

I had the opportunity to offer some design and layout advice for their 2010 Team Cindy site. Elaine was kind enough to express her thanks, telling me I “have become another important member of our (Cindy’s) team.” I can hardly put into words how moved I was, and how impressed I’ve been as I’ve followed the growth of Team Cindy.

Elaine further added, “This has been a very important part of my healing process. Team Cindy marries what she lived for and what she died of. It’s a perfect way to memorialize her.”

Wesley gets ready to camp out for Attawapiskat!

True North Aid has a supporter – a young man names Wesley Prankard – who set out to help people in the remote community of Attawapiskat, Ontario. Wes had heard how some people in Attawapiskat were left homeless and living in make-shift tent houses – and that gave him an idea. He decided to spend part of his March school break camping out in a tent to raise money for much needed supplies and shelter for the people living on the reserve. 11-year old Wes, with the help of his family, friends and hundreds of others he inspired to contribute, raised over $5,800.00.

With the help of his father, Wesley reached out using Twitter, Facebook, his dad’s blog and his personal fundraising page on True North Aids’s DonorPages site. As more people heard of his efforts, his camp out in support of Attawapiskat was published in newspapers, and he even found himself interviewed on the local radio station, promoting the cause. Hockey teams donated autographed sticks for raffle prizes, and Air Creebec, upon hearing of his efforts and how well he did, flew him and his parents to Attawapiskat to meet the people he helped, along with all the cargo for the homeless shelter for free – two full truck loads! When he learned he was taking his first real plane ride, Wes commented “Holy smokes!” in his DonorPages blog.

Wesley's personal fundraising page.

“We are very proud of him.” comments Wesley’s father, Bob. “Needless to say, this has been an amazing journey for Wes. Upon meeting the people he was helping, and spending time with the kids, he’s decided to launch his own organization. An organization of kids in the south who would cooperate with kids in the north to make their communities a better place to live. He wants to help supply playgrounds, recreational centers and sports fields, as well as making youth counseling services more readily accessible.”

Janie Kataquapit, of Attawapiskat, wrote on Wesley’s DonorPages message board: “What an inspiration to see such a young man as yourself taking the lead to help others. Kitchimeegwetch (with much gratitude) on behalf of our community. It has been a long struggle for Attawapiskat, and it only takes one person to make a difference.”

One person, like Wesley Prankard. Wes had an idea about how to help people who need it. He had the commitment and energy to make it happen. Happily, social networking tools like DonorPages, Twitter and FaceBook provided the tools that helped him rally and inspire others to support the cause.

One of the many rewards of my job is to see how ideas like his can help change the world. Sometimes, all a nonprofit organization needs to do is tap into the passion of their supporters, and empower them to do great things.

Kitchimeegwetch, Wesley!

But, according to USA Today and CBS News, those viewing your messages are also bombarded with 3-5,000 advertising, media and news messages per day. A portion of those are from the 1.5 million other nonprofits in the USA, each asking for support. Your message can easily become lost in this deluge of information. How can you ensure your message gets through?

Social Media Fundraising
Studies show that consumers and donors are relying more and more on word of mouth from friends, family and colleagues. When it comes to movies, restaurants, vacation spots and charities to support, people want to make sure that their hard-earned dollars will be spent well. So when someone they personally know and trust makes the “ask” on behalf of your mission, it carries a lot more weight than appeals made directly by your organization.

Also, when the fundraising goal is associated with your supporter, his or her friends, family and colleagues want to help them succeed. So instead of “Help support our cause”, the message becomes “I’m walking to support this cause. Help me reach my goal?” In other words, your supporter, not your mission, is now the primary message and motivation for action. The likelihood and degree of response is based on the personal relationship the reader has with your supporter. When it comes to the constituents of your constituents, your mission is secondary.

But that is exactly how you can cut through the clutter of messages and media. People are becoming immune to communications from businesses and institutions. They’ve learned to tune them out. But they care about what your constituents have to say. It’s not spam, or a commercial, or junk mail. It’s their sister, son, neighbor or friend.

Using Twitter, FaceBook, blogs and email, your supporters can also extend your reach far beyond your own website. Better still, when the tweets, posts and blogs are from your constituents, they are much more likely to be responded to and passed along.

One way you can help support your constituents is to have a vigorous Internet presence, not only on Twitter and FaceBook, but also YouTube, flickr and other social media. Not only can you provide content that your constituents can promote, but they can write on your FaceBook wall. They can help you build “social capital” and spread awareness for your cause.

Although social media sites like these are free, they still require a substantial investment of time and effort. How can you get a return on that investment, beyond spreading awareness?

Online Donor Pages
There’s a well-established marketing axiom regarding promoting and continuing your brand throughout the entire cultivation process. This simply means the message and visuals in all your communications for a particular campaign are consistent. So if your constituents are willing to make the “ask” for you, using their own email account, FaceBook page, Twitter or other personal media, you should consider providing a way for them to collect donations on their own personal fundraising page. A donation page that has your supporters photo, name and personal story telling why they care about your cause will have a higher rate of conversion, as well as higher donation amounts, then your own general purpose donation page.

Plus, by providing such friend-to-friend donor pages, you give your supporters more ownership of the fundraising process, making them feel even more appreciated and a part of your organization. And helping your constituents become fundraisers is a great way to reduce your new donor acquisition costs.

Now I’m certainly not suggesting that your organization’s own branded fundraising efforts become secondary to supporter driven social network and friend-to-friend fundraising sites. But helping your supporters develop into a supplemental army of fundraisers and promoters can only increase your development efforts, and perhaps decrease your costs. So empower and encourage your constituents to be fundraisers today!

This seven year old boy became a sensation when he asked his mother to help him set up an online fundraising page to help the people of Haiti. He wanted to raise money by doing his own mini bike-a-thon around a local park. As word got out – via Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube, as well as traditional media – donations began pouring in. It’s an inspiring story about how a boy and his bike can help those in a time of crisis.

It’s also a shining example of how individual-driven fundraising, when combined with the right web 2.0 technology, can spread awareness and be a powerful fundraising force for your cause.

Our DonorPages clients have told me of many examples of individual, supporter driven fundraising. A triathalete who raised over $14,000 for brain aneurysm research and is seeking to raise $20,000 this year. A kayaker raising $20,000 for medical supplies to be sent to countries that need them. A family hosting their own personal walk-a-thon to raise funds and awareness about SIDS.

Social network fundraising, using personal donor pages along with social media websites, is great for expanding and increasing your official, sponsored events and campaigns for your organization. But the real magic of these tools is how their viral nature can empower anyone to not only be a fundraiser, but a highly-successful fundraiser. Your supporters will reach out for you – just give them the tools!

—–

I’m looking forward to attending and presenting at some upcoming shows! I’ll be in Dallas for the Run Walk Ride Conference on March 3-4, and on March 20, I’ll be presenting a workshop at the 14th Annual New Jersey Land Conservation Rally. And of course I’ll be at the AFP Conference in Baltimore this April. I hope to see you there!

No matter their size, nonprofits need to be able to crunch the numbers and justify funds invested in their online social network efforts. If the numbers don’t add up, or if the nonprofit is not experienced in online event-based fundraising, they may take no action, rather than risk investing the funds, time and effort.

Happily, DonorPages now has an answer that removes any risk. For smaller nonprofits, or for those new to online peer-to-peer fundraising, we now offer DonorPages for the low price of $295 annually, with no set-up fees and a reasonable per transaction rate. For medium and larger sized nonprofits interested in keeping per donation costs low, we offer a very low rate of 2.99% per transaction, along with reasonable set-up and annual fees.

The new low upfront price option allows nonprofits the opportunity to try DonorPages with little financial risk. If they find they are successful, they may well decide to switch to the low per transaction cost model – DonorPages offers clients the opportunity to switch each year to whichever plan makes economic sense.

The true power of DonorPages is that it gives your donors, board members and other constituents the tools they need to easily reach out to friends and family on your behalf. DonorPages has been described as “painless fundraising” because it relieves supporters of making multiple phone calls ,and handling checks and money, and when integrated with DonorPerfect Fundrasing Software, saves time with easy transaction and data import. No matter which pricing option you choose, now is a great time to empower your supporters to become fundraisers.

One BAF donor, a woman related to a victim of brain aneurysm, would occasionally send in small checks, giving what she could. Each donation was perhaps $10-20 each, totaling around $150 for the year. Like many of BAF’s supporters, she wanted to do more. So when she heard about DonorPages, and how she could set up her own personal fundraising page, she tried it out. Within a year, this $150 donor became a $5000 a year fundraiser. And since BAF was already using DonorPages for their own events, there really was no extra expense, and very little staff effort required.

The other story was a man who lost a friend to a brain aneurysm. He was running a marathon in honor of his friend, and asked how he could raise money for BAF. Ginny gave him his own DonorPages site, and he reached out to his friends, family and colleagues, who donated over $14,000, supporting his efforts. Most of these donations came online, via his social network fundraising page. And since DonorPages is integrated with DonorPerfect, there was no manual entry of the transactions required. A very important time-saver for Ginny and her small staff at BAF.

Ginny describes DonorPages as a “wonderful tool” that BAF can provide supporters, making it much easier for them to do more and raise more. She intends to more heavily promote the use of DonorPages by individual supporters. The examples given are exceptional ones – not every $150 a year donor will raise $5000 (for a tidy 3,333% revenue increase!). But empowering your supporters with a tool like DonorPages, helping them use the Internet and Web 2.0 technology to do more for your cause, and saving your organization staff time on manual entry and the cost of reaching out to their social network, is a win-win for you and your supporters.

There was substantial controversy generated by a recent Seth Godin blog. The author chided the nonprofit community for being slow to embrace online social network media, such as Twitter and Facebook. He asserts, rightfully so, that volunteers and supporters would be happy to help spread the word, but far too may nonprofits are hesitant to tap this resource. According to Mr. Grodin, it’s due to a fear of change:

“The only reason not to turn this over to hordes of crowds eager to help you is that it means giving up total control and bureaucracy. Which is scary because it leads to change.”

Although I agree with many of the author’s points, is it really possible that nonprofits – generally speaking – are afraid of change? The author correctly asserts that change is often the very reason that nonprofits exist. People need help. Animals need shelter. Wrongs need to be righted. Nope, nonprofits are all about change.

So perhaps it’s the people running the nonprofits? Are they scared to change? Again, I imagine “change” is a primal motivation for most everyone who works or volunteers at a nonprofit. Many in the nonprofit community are highly motivated, dynamic people who are quite fearless when it comes to doing what’s needed for their cause. They’re downright impatient for change!

So maybe it’s the use of Web 2.0 technology – not everyone is comfortable with social media outlets. Or they’re not sure how to use it to advance their cause. Most nonprofits have limited staff and resources, and they need to justify time spent using social media sites with real, measurable fundraising results. Although most social media sites are free, staff time spent developing a presence is not.

This may be closer to the truth of the fear – if it is fear – that causes nonprofits to hesitate. Whether time or money is invested in a fundraising endeavour, nonprofits need to know there will be a real return on investment. Capital campaigns need to deliver more than just online social capital – donations need to be delivered to pay the bills. Development directors are used to delivering those donations, using their hard-won experience and skill. It’s a leap of faith to give over some of that responsibility of “making the ask” to supporters, no matter how committed they are.

But the thing is, sites like DonorPages work. They deliver the donations. Or more correctly, they allow your supporters to deliver them. True peer-to-peer online fundraising applications are designed to be fundraising sites, not social media sites. They make it easy for supporters, staff, board members and others to collect online donations on your behalf. DonorPages is a great way to “expand your staff”, and give your constituents the tools they need to become an army of effective fundraisers.

Online peer-to-peer fundraising can be the key to unlocking the fundraising potential of your supporters. Make that change, and you’ll find that changing the world will be just a little bit easier.

“If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.”

The authors aptly applied the quote to a clever study done by Carnegie Mellon University. After being paid $5.00 for filling out a random survey, test participants were given an envelope and and one of two versions of an appeal letter for Save the Children. Version one featured statistics: 3 million children facing hunger in Malawai, 4 million Angolans forced to flee their homes, and 11 million Ethiopians needing immediate food assistance.

The second letter focused solely on the plight of Rokia, a girl from Mali, Africa. This letter described how the money donated would help feed and educate her, and provide medical care.

The results, though not surprising, were compelling: donations by people who read about Rokia averaged $2.38, vs. $1.14 for the statistics-based version. Similar to Mother Teresa, the participants were moved to a much higher level of action when they saw how they could make a real difference in one person’s life, as opposed to a tiny difference in the lives of millions.

Now this is not news to most nonprofits. Regardless of what media is used, telling a story of one person, one animal, one place that benefits from a donation has long been proven to be more effective than broad statistics. But what far too many nonprofits have not embraced is how online social network fundraising is tailor-made to deliver such a personal message, in a way not possible before this decade.

These personal appeals can be made on FaceBook and Twitter – both very effective at raising awareness. But the story that your supporters tell can be diluted or lost completely among all the wall postings, Tweets, and other day-to-day messages on these mass communication sites.

But a story told on DonorPages, or some other dedicated peer-to-peer fundraising web 2.0 based portal, not only retains its emotional power, it also adds the ‘voice’ of your supporter/fundraiser to the appeal. In that way, your supporter, by virtue of his or her relationship with the page visitor, becomes part of the story. The visitor to the page is there solely because your supporter is their friend, their colleague, their brother, sister, relative, and they read why your supporter is passionate about your cause. They see your supporter’s photo. They care because your supporter cares. And they are far more likely to give – and give more – solely because of their affinity for your supporter.

Not surprisingly, some of DonorPages’ most successful individual pages are those where the fundraiser has a personal connection to the cause. An illness that’s affected their family. A related event that changed their lives. And not every supporter will be eloquent – you may need to guide and encourage your supporter/fundraisers with text they can edit or build on. But in the end, their personal commitment will tell the story of your mission, and how one passionate person can make the difference.

But nonprofits are certainly raising funds using the online peer-to-peer ask model. Applications like DonorPages have returned excellent results, especially for clients who guide their supporters with well-planned campaigns and events.

The Ophelia Project & Boys Initiative – Tampa Bay (OPBI) a community initiative focused on girls’ and boys’ issues related to bullying and peer aggression, have just recently completed their very successful Match Challenge, part of their annual fund drive. Using DonorPages, along with DonorPerfect Online, OPBI was able to double their previous year’s total, and even surpass this year’s goal.

How’d they do it? “Painless” fundraising. Cynthia Salas, OPBI’s former Director of Developement, explains:

“We had 48 participants, many having 100′s of personal contacts in their email accounts, fundraising for OPBI with their own DonorPage. Using DonorPages to invite those contacts to donate online was a time-saver – our board members & staff describe DonorPages as ‘painless fundraising.’ They appreciate how it helps them raise both money and awareness towards OPBI’s wonderful mission.”

Note the bold to ‘both money and awareness’, because it’s a key point that DonorPages is designed first and foremost to raise money. But OPBI also made it easy for their constituents by providing reasons for them to follow up with their contacts:

“We planned our campaign using a timeline, so we updated our DonorPages at certain times. For example, we first emphasized the girl’s story, using appropriate colors and photos. Then did the same for the boys. When fundraisers followed-up with contacts, we discovered that DonorPages automatically updated the email groups, removing those who’ve made a donation. That saved us a lot of time deleting those donors, and kept us from bothering people who had already donated.”

You can read the full story here, but what separates general social networking sites from a true Web 2.0 peer-to-peer fundraising application like DonorPages is that it’s not enough to remove the “pain” for your constituents who ask for donations on your behalf. You also have to give them the right tools that help them actually close the deal.