Magnolia Web Strategy

Do you know where your end-of-year campaign is?

As the air gets a little bit cooler and the days get shorter, it’s time to start hunkering down to plan your end-of-year giving campaign. Even in cooler economic times, end-of-year campaigns are still when the bulk of individual donations are received, so it’s always worth it to make sure you’re giving it all you’ve got and engaging your supporters like never before.

Not sure where to start? Here are some great resources:

Downloads:

A great e-book from Network for Good:
25 STEPS TO FALL & HOLIDAY FUNDRAISING SUCCESS

and last year’s great
Online Fundraising Survival Guide: 12 Winning Strategies to Survive & Thrive in a Down Economy

Links

Fundraising in a downturned economy

Fundraising when money is tight (audio transcript of interview with Mal Warwick)

Is integrated fundraising for real?

Ten things to avoid in email campaigns.

Ten best practices to increase online response rates. (you need to get a free membership for this article, but it’s worth it)

Slideshow:

If you’re new to the world of online fundraising, here’s a link to a training I recently did for Right To The City member organizations called Getting Started With Online Fundraising.

Webinars:

While They’re Hot! Converting Leads into Donors. (this one is October 1st and it’s free)

Case Foundation’s ‘Gear Up For Giving’ Social Media Tutorials (a series of several tutorials over a one-month span, also free)

I highly recommend the webinars. If you can’t make (or missed) the Oct. 1st webinar, be sure to check out the Case Foundation’s series. They’re all presented by highly skilled experts and you really can’t go wrong with that price.

All that great reading got your idea mill rolling? Looking to put a little extra ooomph into your end-of-year giving campaign and need a little help making it happen?

Contact us anytime to discuss how together we can make your 2009 holiday giving season your best one yet. That’s what we’re here for.

This is a great example of a small organization leveraging its networks to raise money in a short period of time.

One thing I think they did a great job at was approach this process as a campaign – and they gave it everything they had for a finite period of time, thereby engaging their supporters, building their networks, escalating the excitement of the campaign right through to the final day, and then it was complete.

Read the article:

The goal was simple. Earn a permanent spot on the GlobalGiving website by raising at least $4000 online from 50 individual donors in three weeks. Win up to $6000 in additional bonuses for out-fundraising the 70 other participating organizations.

The challenge was daunting. How does Critical Exposure, a little non-profit with a small group of supporters raise more money than the dozens of other participating organizations, many of whom have a large, established fundraising base?

The answer was clear. Use an array of social media channels — including Twitter, Facebook and crowd-sourcing to turn our small group of tech savvy supporters into a powerful fundraising force.

Full story at the Frogloop blog.

“Nobody cares about your website,” Gerry McGovern tells business folks: “Your customers couldn’t care less about your new look, your new design or whether your dog has just had kittens.”

So never mind the navel-gazing and self-congratulation, the personal stories, the excuses for a lack of recent updates, or the announcement of your new blog design… The primary job of your website is to meet the needs of your “customers,” not to blow your own horn.

Focus on your audience: That’s the single most important piece of advice you’ll ever get about publishing a successful website or blog.

Does this advice apply equally to non-profits?

Yes, and no.

Read the full article at Wild Apricot

So says Trendwatching.  Here’s the logic.  People are disgusted by the forces that led to the recession.  They are seeking authenticity and meaning.  Which is making giving the new taking:

Passionate, empowered individuals (if not entire generations) being more willing and able to give, to share, to collaborate; to be more ‘generous’ in many ways.

Visit Katya’s blog for full story.

Do you know why you’re using Twitter? Do you know what kind of returns you’re getting from your account and all those followers?

Avoid the “time-suck” of social media, and learn how to put your accounts to work for you.

Here’s a place to start: the Twitter 101 Guide for Business. Published by the Twitter folks themselves.

I love WOMM (word-of-mouth-marketing) and I love the Frogloop Blog, so naturally I really love this post. If you’re not taking advantage of most of these simple tools, spend a little time getting acquainted with them. They can really give your organization some oomph.

WOMM (word of mouth marketing) and earned media should be key components of any communications plan to market your nonprofit’s website. If your nonprofit is not taking advantage of free tools like Add This, a widget that encourages users to share your organizations articles or webpages on the most popular social networks or branded toolbars like FreeCause, then your nonprofit is missing out on some big marketing opportunities.

Check out these 10 tools and strategies to market your nonprofit on the web, connect with your members and reach new supporters. I have also ranked them from easy to moderate to time consuming.

Visit the Frogloop Blog for full article.

This spring, Facebook made some significant changes to the functionality of Pages on their site in order to help brands market more effectively. This has led to a lot of discussion and encouragement aimed at nonprofits about how to market via Facebook. I’m not anti-Facebook but I do want to lend a little objectivity to this discussion so before you just dive in, consider these 4 reasons why Facebook might not be right for your nonprofit (at least not yet)!

1. None of your key stakeholders, i.e. donors/members/volunteers/advocates, etc. communicate via Facebook.

Based on the current stats regarding the HUGE number of people that are on Facebook (over 200 million at last check), it is highly unlikely that none of your key stakeholders are on Facebook.

Visit ‘Marketing For Non-Profits’ and check out the rest of the article.