If you’re like most nonprofits, you will raise most of your money during the last three months of the year, particularly between Thanksgiving and December 31st when the big ball drops.

Now is the time to put all your resources into attracting and retaining as many donors as possible!

Avoid these top five mistakes that could hurt your year-end fundraising on Facebook.

1. Ignoring Facebook altogether

If you’re like most nonprofits, you have at least a minimal presence on Facebook. So does your competition. Not only that but most of your donors are using Facebook.

Facebook isn’t going anywhere, and again, even if you ignored Facebook until November, don’t regret ignoring it during the biggest spike of fundraising you’ll see this year.

2. Bragging about your nonprofit

There’s no doubt that your nonprofit has earned the bragging rights it has. But on Facebook, people want to brag about themselves to their friends. One way they do this is by sharing stories about causes they care about.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to create impact stories that make your supporters look fantastic to their friends.

3. Not thanking your donors

Probably the biggest fundraising mistake you can make is not thanking your donors. In fact, Bloomerang found that 19% of donors won’t come back if you don’t thank them.

Thanking your donors on Facebook makes them feel great and more likely to get again. And it also makes you look great to potential donors.

4. Not using Facebook ads

At this point, if you’re not using Facebook Ads, you’re just not serious about using Facebook to reach your audience.

Facebook ads are so incredibly cheap and effective; there’s just no excuse for not making at least a minimal investment.

You can reach people who recently watched one of your Facebook live videos. You can even reach people who have visited your donation page but didn’t give.

And again, if you haven’t used Facebook ads yet, now is the time to try them given that year-end is upon us.

5. Only using Facebook

Last but not least, if Facebook is your only channel to reach donors, you will have profound regrets at year-end.

Direct mail, phone solicitation, email, and face-to-face fundraising are much more effective when used together.

The post Top blunders on Facebook that hurt fundraising appeared first on Socialbrite.

It’s the Friday Edit, aka, things I’ve been reading or watching around the web that I found interesting, useful, or downright funny. I hope you enjoy them, too.

I have to start with the funny because, well, it’s needed this week! I saw this movie trailer for NGO – Nothing Going On from Poverty to Power and it seems both hilarious, cringe-worthy, and painfully true in parts. Give it a watch below to see what I mean.

The current global cyber attack, built on ransomware, could wreck your communications impact and a lot more. Here’s a great, short post from the Getting Attention blog by Nancy Schwartz on how to protect yourself.

A great recap on the State of Digital Diplomacy by Nancy Groves – Head of #socialUN @UN Dept of Public Info

Here’s a quick two-minute recap on the takeaways from the World Economic Forum on Africa by Devex:

Here’s four creative summertime fundraising projects to focus on over the ‘lazy’ days of summer. ;)

This made me laugh: A guided meditation for nonprofit professionals. Also, Nonprofit AF is both an informative, often thought-provoking, AND hilarious blog. Recommended reading for us nonprofit unicorns.

Have a great weekend!

The post The Friday Edit – Links I’m Loving appeared first on Socialbrite.

In June, everyone shifts into summertime mode. The kids are done with school. Summer camps and vacations are anticipated.And for many nonprofit marketers, work slows down or takes on a different pace.

The post 4 Creative Summertime Fundraising Projects appeared first on Socialbrite.

By Darian Rodriguez Heyman

More and more nonprofit donations take place in today’s digital landscape, but how can causes ensure their online storefront is not only open for business, but optimized?

As I explored this critical issue in my new book, Nonprofit Fundraising 101, I interviewed Roderick Campbell, the CEO of nonprofit fundraising platform CommitChange. He shared a few takeaways from their efforts to maximize digital donations for Mercy House, a $3.8M nonprofit that has provided housing and support to California’s homeless since 1989.

This simple formula helped Mercy House double online giving in just six months, and I believe it can do the same for your nonprofit, too:

1. Break it Down: CommitChange helped Mercy House break the donation process down into four steps: recurring versus one-time; amount; info; and payment. Instead of asking for the information all at once, they simplified the process, which is especially helpful for digital donors contributing on their mobile device. Another great example of what this looks like is charity: water, also profiled in the book.

Whatever your process, be sure to look closely at recurring giving, as this creates valuable ongoing funding for your cause, increases gifts since people are more likely to donate $10 a month versus $120 now, and simple tweaking here can yield tremendous results: by leading with the recurring gift option, Mercy House increased the number of donors signing up as sustaining members by 400%!

2. Stay Consistent: The data proves what we all know in our guts: nobody likes to feel like they’re leaving your website once they hit that donate button. So be sure to keep the look and feel of your donate page consistent with your website and other communication materials and ensure your logo remains visible throughout the giving experience. This simple change helped Mercy House convert more of the people who clicked “donate” to actual supporters, while simultaneously increasing average gift size.

3. Streamline Donations: Less is more, and once someone clicks “donate,” your job is to make the giving process as simple as possible. In fact, CommitChange discovered that every field eliminated from the donation experience increases conversion by 2%. They further optimized conversion rates by adding some simple programming, so when Mercy House website visitors click the donate button, a new tab opens up exclusively dedicated to the donation process, ensuring a closed environment free of distractions.

By making these three simple changes, Mercy House was able to improve online giving by 110% in just six months, and it didn’t stop there. They continued to enjoy the fruits of their labor and saw an additional 73% increase in the six months after that. The point is, if you take the time to build a solid foundation for the house that is your online giving experience, the sky is the limit to what becomes possible.

Bio

Darian Rodriguez Heyman is an accomplished fundraiser, social entrepreneur, and best-selling author. His work “helping people help” started during his five-year tenure as Executive Director of Craigslist Foundation, after which he edited the best-selling book, Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals (Wiley & Sons) and co-founded the global conference series, Social Media for Nonprofits and Sparrow: Mobile for All. His new book, Nonprofit Fundraising 101, is the first truly comprehensive yet practical guide to all aspects of fundraising for your cause, and chapters 15 – 18 are dedicated to online giving. Heyman is also an in-demand fundraising consultant and a frequent keynote speaker at social impact events around the globe.

The post How to Double Online Giving in Six Months appeared first on Socialbrite.

By Leili Khalessi

As a nonprofit fundraiser (and communications officer and technologist and…), I’ve developed sharp project management skills – it’s the key to wearing all of the hats!

My favorite project management tool for nonprofits is Asana, a web-based “teamwork without email” platform.

I use Asana to manage our direct mail fundraising and communications processes – a series of critical deadlines involving multiple team members and vendors – with ease.

Here’s how you can manage your nonprofit’s direct mail process with Asana, too:

1. Create a new project for your mailing

Start by setting up a new project in Asana. Write a descriptive title and include the drop date in the title. Using a standard naming convention will make it easier for you to keep track of multiple mailings. For example: Direct mail: Summer newsletter – 6/20/16

2. Outline every single task

Each nonprofit’s process is different, whether you’re a fundraising team of one or you’re overseeing a team to produce your direct mail. Either way, you want to be detailed and specific with your tasks, because a delay in a single step can hold up your drop date.

Try starting with these tasks, whether you’re operating solo or managing a team:

• Schedule time to set content plan* / Set up content planning meeting*
• Share content plan with Executive Director for approval / Send assignments out to team members
• Send first draft to ED for review / Copy due to me for editing
• Lay out copy and photos / Send copy and photos to designer
• Finalize design / Review designer’s draft
• Prepare mailing list / Send mailing list to printer
• Print/run mailing / Mailed

*Why schedule content planning? You need to give yourself enough time to collect stories for your mailing. Note, this task is about blocking out time on your calendar. Don’t miss this beginning step! More on due dates next.

3. Set your due dates

Work backward, starting with your mail date. If you need your direct mail piece to hit mailboxes by a certain date, plan for that, too.

If you don’t already have guidelines for your direct mail production timeline written out, do it now. For example:

• From content planning to approval/assignments: +1 week
• First draft: +2 weeks
• Copy editing: +1 week
• Design layout: +1 week
• Mailing completed: +1 week

Your timeline will depend on your organization’s processes (and the timelines of your vendors, if you work with them). In general, the more people you work with, the more padding you’ll need to put into your timeline. And the more content you have (a single letter versus a newsletter with multiple stories), the more time you’ll need.

4. Assign your tasks

If you’re just starting out with Asana, you’ll be assigning all of these tasks to yourself – even if you work with a team to get everything done. You’re the project manager, so ultimately you “own” all of these tasks even if others are responsible for executing the work.

You can set Asana to send you email reminders for task due dates if you’re still getting used to using it. Asana also supports integrations with Google Calendar, iCal, Outlook and other calendars. Again, just make sure that you’ve assigned every task to yourself.

Of course, Asana – “teamwork without email” – works even better when teammates use it, too. Asana is free for up to 15 team members. You can assign tasks to others, or use it as a central communications hub for questions and comments about your direct mail project.

5. Duplicate your project to create a template

Now that you’ve set up one mailing in Asana, you can use it as a template to manage your entire direct mail schedule. Copy your project, edit the title and adjust your task due dates to meet your mail date.

That’s it! Put all of your tasks into Asana and never fall behind on your critical direct mail deadlines again.

(In case this wasn’t fun enough, be sure to enable unicorns on Asana…I’m serious.)

Leili Khalessi is a nonprofit marketing strategist based in Sacramento, California. She writes about digital communications and mindful leadership at www.leilikhalessi.com and @Leili4Good

The post Asana for Nonprofits: How to Manage your Direct Mail Schedule appeared first on Socialbrite.

By Edgar Rodriguez

Is Giving Tuesday a waste of time? Good question, right?

First of all, the data says it’s been hugely successful in the past. Over 15,000 nonprofits participated last year, raising over $45 million.

Yes, some nonprofits probably raised very little money. But Giving Tuesday is NOT just a 24-hour fundraising campaign. It’s a movement that your supporters are embracing, more and more each year.

How did your nonprofit do last year?

If you participated in Giving Tuesday before, you can look at several metrics to judge your past success.

Depending on your goals, you can look at:

• Total donations ($)
• Number of new donors acquired
• Number of current donors who gave
• Number of new emails acquired
• Number of people who engaged with campaign (clicks, conversions, shares)
• Engagement with follow up messages (email, social, etc)
• You get the idea

So should you participate? I asked a few peers this exact question:

The comments I received are valuable recommendations and pearls of wisdom about Giving Tuesday, broken out into: CONS, PROS, PEARLS OF WISDOM.

Giving Tuesday CONS (WARNINGS)

Mary Cahalane

The one-off, or even one day a year, habit is bad for developing relationships between donors and organizations. If you can’t keep donors’ attention with good communications, a giving day isn’t likely to successfully fill that void, anyway.

I suspect strong organizations, with good fundraising programs already in place, could do well with Giving Tuesday as an addition. They’re ready with a strong message. They’ve got the staff to devote to that one day. And they’ve got systems in place to build on the relationships started with the one day.

Smaller organizations? Unless there’s a strong community-wide awareness of and participation in Giving Tuesday, I wouldn’t recommend putting a year-long program aside in order to participate. It’s a tool, and not every tool is right for every organization.

I’d ask:

• Do you have time for a bootcamp? What will get put aside while you’re doing it?
• What will the results of making that time be? Will they be lasting results?

Dennis Fischman

I wrote about ten reasons a nonprofit should not be on Facebook, and it all boiled down to what your nonprofit can and should do first. (https://dennisfischman.com/ten-reasons-your-nonprofit-should-not-be-on-facebook/)

I feel the same way about Giving Tuesday. IF you already take care of your donors as if they were your best friends, and you want to invite them to a party that you and other nonprofits are throwing, then great! But how many nonprofits are really showing the #donorlove that way?

Giving Tuesday PROS (CHEERLEADING)

PRO:

Caroline Avakian

I think one of the best parts of GivingTuesday are the collaborations and partnerships that are forged because of it. I was working at Trickle Up, a global poverty alleviation organization, when GivingTuesday started and we got to publish a few pieces in the Huffington Post based on HuffPo’s partnership with the GivingTuesday campaign and the NGO alliance group, InterAction. It gives smaller NGOs a chance to be a part of something bigger than them. We also forged partnerships with other orgs we were on GivingTuesday coordination calls with. It’s a win-win all around. @CarolineAvakian

Rob Wu

At CauseVox, we have seen the sheer growth of GivingTuesday as the motivating factor to nonprofits trying online fundraising for the first time. By taking part in GivingTuesday, nonprofits learn, in a very short amount of time, how to set impact-based fundraising goals, tell a compelling story, and use social media.

A few case studies from CauseXox:

• Movers & Shakers: National Domestic Violence Hotline’s GivingTuesday Campaign
• Project Renewal Raises Over $77,000 on Giving Tuesday
• Movers & Shakers: Danielle Festa of Grey2k

Kivi Leroux Miller

I was hired last year by a handful of community foundations to teach nonprofits basic communications planning and donor stewardship using both Giving Tuesday and Give Local America as hook. It’s a totally new concepts to at least 75% of orgs in training.

From the Nonprofit Marketing Guide: 5 Ways to Harness the Awesome Fundraising Potential of #GivingTuesday

Joe Waters

I think it’s great at getting nonprofits focused on building a real audience – an army! – and communicating with them via social media.

Pamela Grow

If they’re already focused on the right things, especially building a solid email list, go for it. I love what one of my subscribers did last year for Giving Tuesday.

Julia Campbell

GivingTuesday is a national day of giving and it gets a TON of media coverage. People search on the hashtag all day long. People that may never have made a donation online give for the first time on that day.

It is not something your org should overlook, or sneeze at! You may not raise millions, but you may get new eyeballs on your cause, new ambassadors to spread the word and best of all – new donors!

Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz

GivingTuesday has grown such that nonprofits have an opportunity to embrace it, and leverage the day as part of a well-planned, overall yearly communications, outreach and development strategy.

Giving Tuesday: PEARLS OF WISDOM

Noland Hoshino

Giving Tuesday and other giving days force a nonprofit organization to sharpen and fine tune their message while competing with other organizations.

Most nonprofit organizations have campaigns that last days or months. Keeping donors attention for that long can be tiresome. A giving day campaign condenses your tactics to just 24-hours with immediate results.

Farra Trompeter

Giving Tuesday has grown in popularity, recognition, and success to a point where I don’t think nonprofits can afford to ignore it.

The challenge lies in figuring out how to plug it into the rest of your communications, especially if you are implementing a year-end appeal or annual fund campaign at the same time.

Rather than create a separate Giving Tuesday campaign, I think most orgs should integrate it into their overall calendar. If you are worried that it might take away from other efforts, consider testing a single channel ask–such as a 24-hour match promoted on Facebook or a selfie sharing campaign (giving voice over money) on Instagram.

If you are worried that asking for money on this day can hurt other efforts, ask for something else. Use Giving Tuesday to ask for time, passion, activism, and other efforts that might engage your donors beyond giving money.

Ehren Foss

A successful Giving Tuesday campaign depends on:

• How much the nonprofit has already adopted these kinds of tactics and technologies (how valuable is learning/training?)
• How well it aligns with their existing strategies and programs.
• How well they can segment and steward their constituents to make sure to ask the right constituents to join them in GivingTuesday in the right ways.

Practice working together as online communications, online fundraising, and major gifts teams. What happens if a major prospect gives to Giving Tuesday or comments on a post? Does your team know how to work together?

Mickey Gomez

Taking part in a broader effort can bring new attention to your nonprofit, whether through donations, education or simple awareness. The messaging around national, state or regional giving is also quite inspiring, and confirms the power of philanthropy by amplifying giving on a single day to maximize quantifiable impact.

Where the sector needs to focus, in my opinion, is on maintaining the momentum AND further developing ongoing communication strategies that respect how donors would like to receive information after taking part in such an initiative.

The Takeaway

Giving Tuesday, like any campaign, is much more successful if you do your homework.

If you’re community isn’t as engaged as you like, maybe Giving Tuesday can be a catalyst to build a stronger community. Success largely depends on how well you plan, your definition of successful participation, and what investment (and sacrifices) you’ll need to make.

Check out these related articles:

The post Is Giving Tuesday a Waste of Time? appeared first on Socialbrite.

Facebook is testing a new fundraising app that just might make giving as “social” as liking, commenting, and sharing.

Called “Fundraisers”, the app will include a set of fundraising features for charities and nonprofits:

• Share fundraising campaigns with Page followers
• Use photos and video to tell fundraising stories
• Track progress toward a campaign or project
• Update supporters when fundraising goals are achieved
• Customize donation amounts
• Get donations via credit card or PayPal

But this isn’t the first time Facebook has dabbled with fundraising features:

• In 2012 Facebook recommended a few third-party apps for fundraising.
• In 2013 Facebook tested a Donate Button that never really took off.
• In January of 2015, Facebook launched a Call-to-Action button for Pages that includes a“Donate” option.
• More recently Facebook has partnered with large charities on campaigns like fighting Ebola (below) and the Nepal earthquake.

A Donate Button for the News Feed

Fundraisers puts the donate buttons where it matters – in the News Feed! This lets people donate directly from their news feeds instead of having to visit the Page (which rarely happens).

Below is a fundraiser for the Syrian Refugee Crisis that allows users to choose a specific donation amount. According to Facebook, users will be able to donate and share fundraisers in just a few taps.

And here’s a video demo of the donor experience:

Fundraiser is being tested with Mercy Corps, World Wildlife Fund, and 35 other nonprofits in the U.S. and will expand that list soon. You can sign up to get news about the rollout.

The post A Facebook Donate Button for the News Feed that Might Actually Work! appeared first on Socialbrite.

Black Friday sales were down 11% while #GivingTuesday had a banner year!

By Ritu Sharma

The final numbers are rolling in, and by all accounts the three-year-old day dedicated to giving known as #GivingTuesday, is proving once again that Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren’t the only spending days top of mind in our communities.

That the long weekend of frenzied indulgence and gluttony kicked off by Thanksgiving can be bookended with such generosity is heartening.

And the generosity is evident in the numbers. Here are the results from some of the day’s top campaigns:

Nonprofit leaders are humbled and overwhelmed by the results, which continue to be record-breaking: All this while U.S. Black Friday sales dropped 11.3% and Cyber Monday sales were up less than expected at only 8% (despite an increase in online sales), as noted by Mashable.

We reached out to leaders in our network to see their reactions on the success of #GivingTuesday and insights gained from this year’s giving day:

“#GivingTuesday 2014 saw a 36% increase in online giving compared to 2013 with Blackbaud processing more than $26.1m in online donations. There was a 15% increase in the number of nonprofits that received an online donation versus last year and overall transaction volume saw a 50% jump on a year over year basis. 17% of the forms were viewed on mobile platforms indicating the modern donor is increasingly mobile.” – Steven R. MacLaughlin, Director of Product Management at Blackbaud

“Network4Good processed slightly over $4.5 million across all our platforms which is 148% increase in donations over last year. We credit this increase in part to our dedicated efforts this year in enabling and supporting small and medium size nonprofit organizations who can’t participate at the same level as nonprofits with large marketing budgets. We provided extensive training, tools and resources to small and medium size nonprofits to enable them to participate in the annual day of giving.” – Jamie McDonald, Chief Giving Officer, Network for Good

“Each year for Razoo’s #GivingTuesday we try to improve the effectiveness of the prize structure to maximize nonprofit and donor engagement. Compared to last year’s results, with 30% more nonprofits participating, we experienced a 67% increase in the number of donors, a 62% increase in online donations and a 49% increase in the average number of visitors per hour, all contributing to a $1,775,511 day – a 56% increase over last year.” – Robert Lotinsky, Executive Director, Razoo Foundation

Crowdrise has been a really good, very effective partner in getting the word out for, and raising money for, a bunch of good orgs. The combined effort with #givingTuesday has been even more successful. I’ve got a really good team, and they let me know this is solidly in my wheelhouse, that’s how it started for me. – Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist and Craigconnects

“Nonprofits who raised money through Salsa on #GivingTuesday in both 2013 and 2014 saw an incredible increase of 47% year-over-year. Even though we have done a lot of education in the community and published data demonstrating that #GivingTuesday works and doesn’t share shift year-end dollars, we still are only seeing about 10% of Salsa client participating this year. We’d like to see that number and the overall #GivingTuesday movement continue to grow.” –Christine Schaefer, VP, Community, Product & Marketing for Salsa.

Henry Timms, executive director of the 92Y and founder of Giving Tuesday, told Mashable. “Around the world people came together for causes they care about. This is enabled by social media, but driven by compassion.”

Indeed, compassion is the motivator, but the democratization of philanthropy social media offers has expanded the reach of all nonprofits who understand that many small donations are as important as a few extraordinary gifts.

But not everyone is inspired.

Critics Seek “Perfect” Solutions

Tom Watson, president of CauseWired LLC, calls himself a “friendly skeptic” in thepiece he wrote for Forbes, but does admit he may have been “under-valuing one key factor: people are participating.” That fact is clear.

Peter Panepento, principal at Panepento Strategies, formerly with The Chronicle of Philanthropy and the Council on Foundations isn’t content to accept the success of #GivingTuesday without pushing for more.

He writes on LinkedIn:

“…GivingTuesday rewards the charities that already have the biggest networks, the most prominent corporate supporters and celebrity spokespeople, or the most clever attention-grabbing gimmick. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it’s also not going to cure cancer, reduce hunger, or improve pre-K education.”

Actually, #GivingTuesday may ultimately do all of those things – who’s to say? – though not overnight. But that wasn’t what the day was designed for anyway. The idea, right from the #GivingTuesday website, was to create a global movement, a “day dedicated to giving back… to celebrate generosity and to give.”

And to that end the day has succeeded, and everyone who took to social media, opened their hearts, opened their wallets, and made the time to volunteer, to donate, and to CARE deserves to celebrate that success without having to ask, “Did I do enough?” Because if you did SOMETHING where before you did nothing, then the answer is yes.

#GivingTuesday is not strictly about money.

Then, there are those who are concerned about donor fatigue from being asked to donate repeatedly by hundreds of causes and bombarded on social channels. To them, I say, it hasn’t stopped people from celebrating Thanksgiving and over-indulging that day or stopped people from spending on things they really don’t need. GivingTuesday as a day to celebrate giving and caring provides a balance to all that consumerism that we usually kick off our holidays with. It is an alternative way, though in our face, to bring back the spirit of caring and giving to the holidays. I’d personally rather be tired from giving and making a difference than getting obese or spending beyond my means.

Celebrating the Broader Impact

Beth Kanter notes, “GivingTuesday founder Henry Timms and Aaron Sherinian and the #GT early leaders approached it with a true network mindset. They did not wish to prescribe how nonprofits, individuals, companies, and others should participate – but they held the space, facilitated connections, and provided the platform for the network to participate in the way that was the right fit to celebrate the day. They offered us a buffet of options – and allowed us to pick and choose how to celebrate.”

In other words, there are other ways to be of service.

For example, we at Social Media for Nonprofits did not fundraise this year. We opted instead to participate by amplifying and supporting our partners in their efforts, rather than competing with them.

It was a thoughtful and deliberate decision on our part to use our resources in this way, lending our voice and perspective to several conversations that were taking place in the sector – including a Google Hangout on Air hosted by the #GivingTuesday folks on Growth of Philanthropy Through Digital Media, a community conversation with NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network), and conversations with leaders like Beth Kanter and more.

We gave our full-fledged marketing support to our network and all nonprofits that reached out to us by tweeting their campaigns, retweeting and posting on FB on their behalves.

We expect to launch our own campaign in the spring to provide an opportunity for our community of event attendees, blog post readers, speakers, sponsors, partners and more to participate and support us so we can continue to be a resource to the sector.

We have no doubt that in this way the spirit of #GivingTuesday will continue to reach us and others throughout the year. And we’re celebrating that.

How did you do, nonprofits? Was #GivingTuesday all you hoped for and more? What strategies worked or didn’t work? Share your success with us!

—

Ritu Sharma is the CEO of Social Media for Nonprofits, an organization committed to bringing social media education to nonprofits worldwide. She speaks frequently around the world on a variety of topics in the nonprofit and social media spheres with a passion for effecting social change through social technologies. She blogs at the Huffington Post on the intersection of social media, social change and leadership and at Social Media for Nonprofits. Follow Ritu at here LinkedIn or on Twitter at @ritusharma1

The post Initial reports for #GivingTuesday indicate astounding success! appeared first on Socialbrite.

3 reasons I’ve decided to embrace this campaign — and why you should, too

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, educators, journalists, general public.

As you all likely know by now, the ALS #IceBucketChallenge is taking your Facebook news feed by storm. Your friends, colleagues, heck, even your grandmother might have been nominated to dump a bucket of cold water and ice on her head in the name of charity. And in this case, it’s a very good cause. ALS is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease,a neurodegenerative disease characterized by muscle spasticity, rapidly progressive weakness due to muscle atrophy, and difficulty in speaking, swallowing, and breathing.

As a social media consultant working with social causes and nonprofits, I have taken great delight in the virality of this meme all in the name of a disease that gets very little attention and fundraising dollars.

Along with most social media memes or “viral schemes” comes the cynicism and the naysayer backlash — and I get it. I do. But the proof is in the numbers. Last year, the ALSA.org raised $1.9 million in contrast to this year’s $31.5 million, and that number is growing by the millions every day.

Here are three reasons I’ve decided not to be a cynic and embrace this challenge, and why you should too:

1Peer pressure and egoism have always been central themes in philanthropy and successful fundraising. If you’ve ever attended a nonprofit board meeting, you’ll see these two elements in play quite often and to great effect. Altruism isn’t selfless. It never has been and probably never will be. The ALS #IceBucketChallenge is no different. It’s just in your face more.

2The rise in social media has contributed to what many call, “armchair activism,” “slacktivism” or “clicktivism.” These words are pejorative terms that describe minimal effort, “feel-good” measures, in support of an issue or cause, that have little effect other than to make the person doing it feel like they have contributed. The bottom line is that “clicktivism” does build greater awareness and can be the potential first rung in the donor engagement ladder. It’s also cultivating a generation of future philanthropists and do-gooders.

There’s a reason why so many of the millennial generation are going into philanthropic careers or finding ways of incorporating good works into their daily lives. I think the rise in these types of online social good campaigns that flood our news feeds have a huge part to play in this phenomenon. The ALS #IceBucketChallenge is a perfect example of this.

3Building awareness is critically important. Yes, donation dollars trump all but there’s a reason nonprofits have communications and marketing departments. These teams are charged with not only raising money online but also building awareness and community for their cause. It’s the first step in creating a consistent and renewable supporter and donor base that’s loyal and motivated.

What’s your take on the ALS #IceBucketChallenge?

The post My take on the ALS #IceBucketChallenge appeared first on Socialbrite.

Milaap creates sustainability by blending crowdfunding and micro lending

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, educators, journalists, general public.

Icould begin this post by regurgitating any number of statistics on the sensory and information overload we all experience these days, but I won’t. We all know that that’s the world we live in. Technology has really broken down barriers to information and while that’s mostly a good thing, it can be really overwhelming as well.

As a result, breaking through the digital clutter these days is tough. So what do you do when your cause depends on you doing just that? How do you make sustainable giving a reality, so that both your cause and supporters benefit?

Milaap (disclosure: my client) is a unique online platform that blends crowdfunding with micro lending, giving people from around the world the ability to both lend and/or create personal fundraisers for India’s working poor. These micro loans – which start as low as $25 and are repaid in full at the end of the loan term – fund projects in fields as diverse as energy, water, and education. To date, Milaap has a 98% repayment rate, which is quite remarkable.

Here are three ways Milaap is socializing and changing the face of giving:

1. Anyone who gives through Milaap can set up a fundraiser for a project they are touched by. But here’s where it gets interesting; you can make these fundraisers social. In other words, you can bring your community in, asking them to join you in lending to this specific project, telling them why. So, all of a sudden, you don’t just have one person fundraising, you have 3, or 6, or 19… the possibilities are endless! Takeaway: Many hands do make light work. When you encourage people to involve their communities, you grow your own at the same time. This is what has enabled Milaap, over the last four years, to raise $1.6 million, give out almost 13,000 loans and take close to 50,000 people from oppression to opportunity.

2. What I really like about giving through Milaap is that the money you give is a loan—not a donation. While this in no way negates making donations to nonprofits, I think it’s a really smart approach. With the immense donor fatigue we all experience, it’s refreshing to know you will get your money back once the loan matures (unless you choose to relend it, of course, which many people do). As a small business owner myself, I love that approach, as there is accountability built into the process. Takeaway: Elevate your supporters’ investment of time and energy in your cause. Showing them the end-recipients are equally invested is a great way to do so.

3. The best way to touch someone’s heart is by telling them a story. And Milaap has great stories to tell—of its borrowers, of its supporters, of its employees and partners. It has a really rich content bank, especially of visual assets. But what it does very well is let its borrowers stories speak for themselves. I defy anyone to not be moved by the video above we put together for its flagship campaign in 2014, the #HopeProject. Takeaway: Stories work best when they come straight from the source. As much as possible, let those in your stories tell them.

Today is Milaap’s fourth birthday. To celebrate, it is hosting a round-the-clock, global online conversation on sustainable giving, and I do hope you’ll join. Here’s more on today’s #Milaap4Hope event (it’s very easy to join, just log onto the respective platform based on which event catches your fancy, and follow/use that hashtag).

If we all do our part, we can change the face of giving.

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