Archive for July, 2005
July 26th, 2005 at 12:11am
Under fundraising
Here is our second fundraising innovation podcast. It’s just me (Mike) this time with some thinking around a couple of topics that have come up in the past couple of weeks:
1. A fundraising challenge - How to leverage a limited budget to build an online monthly giving program for a global charity.
2. Online opportunities and challenges for building legacy gift programs
To listen to this podcast:
http://www.fundraisinginnovation.com/podcasts/vol_2_0705.mp3
And to give you some additional material for online legacies, I’ll be putting up a recent powerpoint. Stay tuned. In the next day or so, it’ll be right here. Download it, listen to the podcast, then review my powerpoint. You should see the kind of material you need to advocate for more internal resources in the area of online legacies.
By Michael Johnston
July 19th, 2005 at 08:11am
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Last week I had the privledge of sitting in the offices of Macmillan Cancer Relief - a leading edge cancer care charity in the United Kingdom, www.macmillan.org.uk. They have been a more traditional charity in the past — relying on offline activities more than new technologies. The organization has now starting to turn more of its attention and resources to the online environment. Please go to www.whybother.org.uk and you’ll see a Macmillan web presence that is trying to engage youth around the issues of cancer. Then take a look their “A Better Deal†campaign at http://www.macmillan.org.uk/abetterdeal/homepage.htm. That program is directed at an adult audience - trying to motivate individuals to advocate for a better financial deal for individuals and families affected by cancer. Finally, go to www.worldsbiggestcoffeemorning.org.uk and you’ll see a fundraising site that is engaging people — mainly in the workplace today — to raise money and have fun too. Many different web presences — many different facades for different constituencies. That’s why the web can do so well and for so little money compared to print. Are you thinking through your web presence to serve and engage different constituencies as well as this?
By Michael Johnston
July 18th, 2005 at 10:59pm
Under fundraising
I think organizations are starting to get this social network fundraising thing. My colleague Marcelo Iniara from Argentina has created a fantastic site at http://whales.greenpeace.org, which received more than 17,000 supporters within 24 days of the launch. It’s exciting and proven to be successful because of the visual impact and the advent of digital photography.
I think this idea can be used by a wide variety of organizations. And it can be improved upon. Look below at an idea we had for the UN’s World Food Programme. It was taking Marcelo’s idea, mixing in the new craze of wristbands, and coming up with a very involving social network fundraising online/offline campaign. Now… what can you come up with?
By Michael Johnston
July 8th, 2005 at 10:45pm
Under fundraising
I’ve been a foolish addict when it comes to the online instant messaging services. It’s been great to use a service like MSN or AOL and have your list of friends, family, and colleagues available on your screen. I have to admit that work productivity can go down if you’re getting interrupted with an instant message in the middle of work — or you get distracted for a minute — and do some live chatting with a friend…
But what about using instant messaging online for fundraising purposes? In a recent marketing magazine, there was a story about MSN.ca and a campaign they ran called Q6. It was a campaign targeting users aged 13 and 24 and aimed at increasing downloads of Messenger 7.0.
MSN created a weekly team trivia challenge based on pop culture topics and played via MSN Messenger. Players had to download the new version of Messenger and then worked with teammates to get the right answers with Messenger. Teams were given points for speed and being correct. The winning team got $3,500 worth of Dell computer goods.
More than 103,000 individuals registered and over 25% opted to receive newsletters from MSN and advertisers. The game engaged users.
Now, how can we use that for the nonprofit world? How about having a contest based on hunger issues leading to a prize for teams or individuals. The team approach would be wonderful within companies that already support a particular charity.
Someone use this approach, make a lot of money, engage citizens, and get back to me with the results.
By Michael Johnston
July 8th, 2005 at 07:53pm
Under fundraising
I’m off to London next week to speak at the UK’s Institute of Fundraising. The people of the UK — and especially London — are a brave and realistic lot.
Kirsty Thompson, the conference organizer sent out an email today about why they are going ahead with their conference:
Between us, as fundraisers, we raise the funds for the air ambulances that helped yesterday. We raise money to deliver first aid training to the general public and the many thousands of support services that helped so effectively to manage with yesterday’s tragic events. These support services rely on professional, effective and successful fundraisers.
Next week’s National Convention is about sharing skills and learning from each other in order to make us all better at the jobs we do. This is why the event will go on as planned.
I’m honoured to be at a fundraising conference that will be clearly focused on why we’re fundraisers.
I’ll be challenging participants about the huge opportunities the online environment can offer to engage older donors around the idea of leaving a legacy. I’ll be co-presenting with an age old colleague, Jason Potts. Come back late next week when I’ll have a podcast and accompanying powerpoint to take you through. It’ll be stimulating and will challenge your assumptions about the use of technology with older donors — especially in the area of inspiring and asking for bequests.
By Michael Johnston
July 8th, 2005 at 11:46am
Under fundraising
Here is the first edition of what we hope will become a regular series of podcasts on the Global Fundraising Innovation blog. For this podcast, I sat down with Michael Johnston for a twenty minute round up of ideas, views, and opinions the latest happenings in the world of fundraising .
Here are some of the topics we covered:
1. The Live8 concerts, and why wasn’t anyone asking for money?
2. Wristbands or bracelets? How to use them to get more monthly donors
3. Nonprofit technology providers - moving from innovation to refinement
4. Mobile phones are now on the fundraising scene
To listen to this podcast:
http://www.fundraisinginnovation.com/podcasts/vol_1_0705.mp3
I hope that once you’ve listened to the podcast, you’ll give us a bit of feedback - just click on the Comment link below:
By irishg
July 6th, 2005 at 11:41pm
Under fundraising
The phenomenal growth of canvass fundraising has led to the face2face approach being called ‘chugging’ in the United Kingdom — or charitable mugging. In Canada, we’ve seen people standing on the street, going door to door, and even working kiosks in some malls — especially on the west coast.
But what about at events? Rethink Breast Cancer tried a wonderful approach at its Burlesque-themed fundraiser two weeks ago. Pairs of motivated (and handsome) volunteers wore T-shirts that shouted out “Fundraising is Sexxy”. They were also armed with monthly giving pledges. By the end of the night they’d found 20 monthly donors at an average of $20/month. That’s $4,800 a year with a lifetime value of approximately $50,000. Not bad for one nights work and considering the fact that it was the first time they’d introduced monthly giving. And it probably helped that they had those one-of-a-kind pink bracelets (read about that below).
What could you do at your next event?
By Michael Johnston
July 6th, 2005 at 11:33pm
Under fundraising
A great charity, Rethink Breast Cancer (www.rethinkbreastcancer.org) has taken a good fundraising approach to the current trend of wristband fundraising. They decided that they’d produce 1,000 pink wristbands with their web site address. But you can only get one of these limited edition wristbands if you become a monthly donor at $10/month or more. Mary Jo De Couteau, the dynamic Executive Director, told me that “a well connected volunteer saw one of the wristbands and wanted one right away but I told her she could only get one if she signed up as a monthly donor. She did.”
I notice so many organizations giving these wristbands (bracelets) away for a few dollars. I think Rethink Breast Cancer is on to a better way to use them — getting monthly donations!
By Michael Johnston