Social Entrepreneur blog for the world changers
Social Media & Technology
Effective Use of LinkedIn
Oct 18th
While most non-profits realize the benefits of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, far fewer organizations fully realize the inherent power of LinkedIn.
As one of the original social networking platforms geared primarily toward professionals and businesspeople, LinkedIn can provide your organization with networking and marketing benefits, no matter the size of your non-profit. Here’s how to effectively use the LinkedIn platform to increase your organization’s reach and profile:
Establish a Presence
Non-profits should establish a solid presence on LinkedIn by creating a “Company” page with up to date information on the organization. Some examples of well written non-profit company pages include The American Red Cross and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Be sure to upload your logo and include current information on the page.
In addition to setting up your company page, appoint a key employee as your LinkedIn “voice,” the person who will, through their LinkedIn profile, moderate your activities on the site.
Start to Network
After your home base is set up, it’s time to start networking on the site. The first thing to do is to encourage your current supporters, board of directors, staff, volunteers, donors and friends to “connect” (the LinkedIn version of “friending”) with the staff member you appointed as your on-site point of contact, and to “follow” your company page.
In addition, use the “Groups” feature to join several groups that are closely related to your mission. You should also consider joining local business and non-profit groups in your geographical area.
Finally, search the “Questions” feature to find LinkedIn members who are asking questions that your organization is uniquely qualified to answer. Serve as a good resource on the site, and seek to connect with the people you help for a longer term relationship on the site.
Market Your Page
As with any social media outlet, you’re non-profit will reap the most benefit from LinkedIn if you actively market your LinkedIn page to people who are interested in your organization. This means asking people who stop by your website, read your e-newsletter, or otherwise show that they are interested in you to “connect” with you on LinkedIn and follow your company page.
You should also ask your supporters and those who are already connected with you on the site to spread the word to their colleagues and friends.
Using Status Updates
LinkedIn allows your organization to write short, Twitter-like status updates that will appear on your profile and on the update pages of everyone who is connected with you or following your company. This is one of the most powerful features of using LinkedIn for your non-profit. Use it wisely.
Remember, each status update cold be read by hundreds or thousands of people. Resist the urge to update your organization’s status ten times a day. Instead, use the status update line to push relevant facts and asks to your supporters. Reach out to them once per week, twice per week, or once per day to keep them informed and to ask them to take action (such as visiting a certain page on your website).
Starting Your Own Group
Once you’ve gotten your feet wet, gotten your supporters involved and connected, and reached out to build new relationships and networks, it’s time for the LinkedIn coup de grace: creating your own group.
Using the “Groups” feature, create your own LinkedIn group specifically for the use of your supporters and friends. Post relevant information there, ask questions, and upload pictures and logos. Invite all of your followers to join you there and get involved in the discussion. Starting your own group is a great way to open your LinkedIn network up to a real dialogue with your supporters and friends.
How You Benefit
What can your organization expect to gain from the time and effort you invest in the LinkedIn platform?
First, LinkedIn will allow you to draw your current supporters closer by engaging them on yet another level and in another place where they congregate.
Secondly, and more importantly, LinkedIn will help you in gaining access to your supporters’ own networks and Rolodexes. As you engage on the site, encourage your supporters to start helping you reach their own connections on LinkedIn.
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Joe Garecht is the creator of The Fundraising Authority, a free source of fundraising advice and tutorials for non-profits of all sizes.
Related posts:
- LinkedIn & LinkedIn Groups
- Web 2.0 One Tool at a Time
- How to Get Your Donors More Engaged
- Party for a Party’s Sake
- Tracking More Than A Name
Social Media Planning: It’s All About Engagement
Sep 8th
Do you run the Facebook page or Twitter profile for your organization? Have you ever experienced the moment where you are asked to explain what your plan is? I recently had a group of volunteers I was working regarding social media, and the first thing everyone wanted to do was create a fool-proof plan. It really bugged me at first, and I couldn’t figure out why. I realized that it was because everyone was viewing social media in the same they viewed any other marketing project–create a plan and push it out to your audience.
Social media is all about community-building and engagement. Running a successful social media campaign can take significant planning. But in the first several months of using a new social media tool it will take time to build your community. The first three to six months of using social media is all about building your network and growing your community. Until you have a good group of people, a critical mass, having a comprehensive social media plan does not do a lot of good.
If you are starting a project and everyone is asking for a plan, ask them if they would commit to engaging in the medium as you get started. Most people want a plan because they are unsure of how to use the medium. A social media plan will be more successful if it is modeled by its implementers than if it is imposed upon an audience. Ask the volunteer or staff group that is helping you get things started to “like” your status updates, retweet your twitter messages, and leave comments on your blog. This is the best way to get your community started and to a point where you can do some big planning. You will also be able to use your volunteers to get things jump-started and everyone will be more comfortable with the work when they see how easy it is to promote your content.
Related posts:
- Don’t Start Social Media Too Late
- Social Media Etiquette
- Getting Started with Social Media Volunteers
- Let’s Get Real: Why Use Social Media
- Social Media Classes for Nonprofits: Seattle
Social Media Planning: It’s All About Engagement
Sep 8th
Do you run the Facebook page or Twitter profile for your organization? Have you ever experienced the moment where you are asked to explain what your plan is? I recently had a group of volunteers I was working regarding social media, and the first thing everyone wanted to do was create a fool-proof plan. It really bugged me at first, and I couldn’t figure out why. I realized that it was because everyone was viewing social media in the same they viewed any other marketing project–create a plan and push it out to your audience.
Social media is all about community-building and engagement. Running a successful social media campaign can take significant planning. But in the first several months of using a new social media tool it will take time to build your community. The first three to six months of using social media is all about building your network and growing your community. Until you have a good group of people, a critical mass, having a comprehensive social media plan does not do a lot of good.
If you are starting a project and everyone is asking for a plan, ask them if they would commit to engaging in the medium as you get started. Most people want a plan because they are unsure of how to use the medium. A social media plan will be more successful if it is modeled by its implementers than if it is imposed upon an audience. Ask the volunteer or staff group that is helping you get things started to “like” your status updates, retweet your twitter messages, and leave comments on your blog. This is the best way to get your community started and to a point where you can do some big planning. You will also be able to use your volunteers to get things jump-started and everyone will be more comfortable with the work when they see how easy it is to promote your content.
Related posts:
- Don’t Start Social Media Too Late
- Social Media Etiquette
- Getting Started with Social Media Volunteers
- Let’s Get Real: Why Use Social Media
- Social Media Classes for Nonprofits: Seattle
Mobile Giving Research and Opinion
Aug 16th
You’ve been provided some facts and general information about mobile giving. I’ve learned a lot through this process and want to hear your thoughts and experiences in the mobile giving space. Below are a few different theories and philosophies regarding some of the benefits and specifics of mobile giving.
Instantly Viral
Cell phones and smart phones are all over the world and have saturated America. People carry their mobile phones with them almost all of the time. As nonprofits try and find creative ways to reach out to their constituencies, text messaging is a great way to get a personal message out. Providing donors with instant information about the needs of your organization improves the urgency of your message. As we’ve seen through fundraising with Haiti, the mobile platform has an incredible ability to respond to an urgent need in a short period of time.
Emerging Industry
Katya from the Nonprofit Marketing Blog wrote about mobile giving in a recent post.
“Most of us don’t have optimized websites or email outreach. Nail the basics. Then think mobile.”
In the mind of many nonprofits, mobile giving is an emerging industry. The technology has been around for several years and through Haiti it has increased in popularity. If you are struggling to communicate with your donors through traditional channels, get those mastered first. Make sure your organization has an effective website before running a mobile campaign. One of the great values in mobile giving is the ability to point people to your website through an embedded link.
Scalability
Mobile giving is successful when you can effectively communicate with a large group of donors and when you have access to media channels. If you have a really small donor pool you may not be able to raise enough of a reach to justify the associated costs. Talk with the mobile giving business you’re considering working with and get a feel from them if they feel like your nonprofit is right for a mobile campaign.
Capturing Donor Information
In addition to donations, date, and time of the gift, and in many cases the cell phone number. However you can only text to this number you are not allowed to call it. Acknowledging this group of donors happens through follow up texts. Through follow-up texts and embedded links in your text message you can ask donors to fill out information such as an email or mailing address on your website.
I’d like to hear back from you one what your experience with mobile giving was like. If you were successful or unsuccessful, please leave a comment and tell us about it. I’d also like to hear from those of you that have not yet used mobile giving. What is preventing you from trying it out? What concerns do you have?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Here are a few research studies on the adoption of mobile giving in the nonprofit community.
- Convio, Edge Research, and Sea Change Strategies: Mobile Trends and Adoption
- Kaptivate Research Group: Nonprofit Adoption of Mobile Giving
What questions do you have about mobile giving? There will be a handful of experts regularly reading your comments that can help clarify and explain mobile giving beyond the information I’ve provided. Please leave a comment below with your thoughts about mobile giving. If your nonprofit has used mobile giving let us know who you worked with and what that experience was like.
Related posts:
- How Does Mobile Giving Work?
- Text to Give Pricing & Costs
- Building Community Online
- What Motivates Giving?
Text to Give Pricing & Costs
Aug 11th
When considering which provider to use, it can be difficult to find their pricing information so I’ve aggregated it here. There are more variables beyond cost since different businesses offer different options in reporting and wrap around services. Some of the providers require an application process for nonprofits for charitable or logistic reasons. Below I’ve provided a price chart for each business. Monthly fee packages govern the number of outgoing messages, simultaneous campaigns, and wrap around services you can run.
| Business Name | Sign-up Fee | Monthly Fee | Transaction Fee |
| mGive | $500 | $400 to $1,500 | $0.35 plus 3.5% |
| Mobile Cause | $350 | $100 to $250 | $0.50 |
| CauseCast | Uses Mobile Cause Platform | ||
| Give by Cell | $0 Waive | $49 | $0.48 |
| g8wave | $350 | $350 | $0 to $0.35 |
| iLoop Mobile | $1,000 | $500 | |
g8wave is a leader in the planning and deployment of integrated mobile strategies. For the past decade we have worked with brands, agencies and non-profits to build successful, long term strategic mobile plans.
Give by Cell – As one of the few Authorized Service Providers for the Mobile Giving Foundation, we help charities expand their fundraising efforts and reach new audiences with mobile technology. Features like real-time reporting and donor messaging help develop robust mobile giving campaigns.
Connect2Give is currently running a special summer pilot program. During the months of July, August and September you can take a “test drive” for a low cost and without a long term contract.
Other Associated Service Providers who I did not receive any giving information from: Mobile Commons, MPower, Give on the Go
Related posts:
- How Does Mobile Giving Work?
- Administrative Fee
- Mobile Giving Research and Opinion
- Eat Well – Give Well
- A Big Give Again
How Does Mobile Giving Work?
Aug 9th
Mobile giving is like the wild west of online fundraising. Nonprofits are still trying to understand much of what is being done in mobile giving. Some nonprofits are moving west and striking it rich, while others are having a hard time finding a place to start.
What is mobile giving? Basically a nonprofit provides its donors an option to give via text messaging by texting a specified keyword to a specified five or six digit number. When this keyword is sent, the cell phone companies send the designated gift amount to the nonprofit through the Mobile Giving Foundation or mGive Foundation.
The industry is run by two organizations, Mobile Giving Foundation and mGive. Mobile Giving Foundation pioneered mobile giving, delivering the platform to various nonprofits through Application Service Providers (ASPs). When they first began, one of these ASP’s was mGive which eventually broke out on its own. Both of these organizations have brokered a relationship with the majority of cell phone providers enabling text-to-give campaigns. If your nonprofit is considering doing a mobile campaign, you will contract with one of these organizations or their partners.
Nonprofits receive 100% of every donation ranging from $5 up to $30 depending on the designated amount. Additional information and acknowledgements are sent to each donor through outgoing text messages. Many of the providers have additional services that allow you to integrate other features to your campaigns such as website widgets or online giving.
The various ASP’s and mGive charge the nonprofits certain fees to use the platform. There are initial sign-up fees, a monthly campaign fee, and transaction fees for each gift. Nonprofits receive their donations in the form of a check 30 to 90 days after they receive a gift.
Related posts:
- Mobile Giving Research and Opinion
- Text to Give Pricing & Costs
- Online Giving Thoughts
- How to Make a Thank You Call
- Getting a Hold of People
Interview with Adam Penenberg
Jul 14th
I recently finished reading Adam Penenberg’s book Viral Loop
You talk about finding a funding model that you can tie to a sustainable viral loop, can nonprofit do something similar using donations or fundraising?
Absolutely. Viral marketing relies on people passing on information they deem worthy–whether it’s a link to a funny video on YouTube, a political message, petitions, etc. If a nonprofit has a passionate core group of donors then the key would be to incentivize these donors to reach out to their social networks of friends, family, colleagues and neighbors. It would work well with a specific campaign. Ideally, the non-profit could create a Facebook application that could incentivize donations. Let’s say your organization is called Save the Cats (STC). I’d set it up like this: Create a Save the Cats branded app fueled by virtual currency. Just by downloading the you receive $100 in STC dollars. They can be spent at any number of retailers that donate inventory the retailer would like to sell anyway. You then get $30 off a shirt from the Gap, $20 off a rental car, $40 off a pair of rollerblades, etc. As your cash reserves dwindle you can earn more virtual currency–it doesn’t cost STC anything–by getting 5 friends to download the app and donating a certain amount of money. It should be small increments, say, $10 each. And so on and so on. Once you have a large enough installed base you can try al sorts of things. At the very least you gain thousands or even hundreds of thousands of new names to add to your donor lists. You raise money for your non-profit. And you spread your message. It’s a win-win-win for everyone involved.
Do you know of any nonprofits that you feel are using viral techniques you describe in your book well?
Causes on Facebook has something like a quarter-million fans. And it’s viral. I don’t know of many charities that have adopted viral models, other than the odd video or webpage the originators hope would go viral (for example: RSPCA viral charity communications). Barack Obama’s presidential campaign online was helmed by a founder of Facebook and it was viral–and very effective. I think political campaigns and any non-profit with a strong message could deploy viral marketing methods to multiply the impact of their fundraising at very low cost.
Do you have any recommendations about nonprofits that are thinking about engaging in social media and participating in online community?
Go where people are: Facebook, with its 500M users, and LinkedIn. Offer value. Give people a reason to donate to your cause beyond the usual appealing to their better nature. People are constantly bombarded with requests for money. You need to make your users feel engaged so much so that not only will they donate, they will spread your message for you–even without being asked.
Should nonprofits stay current with new and developing technology and online trends?
Obviously. Direct mail is very expensive and it annoys people. Calling people at home is even worse. It’s much more cost-effective to create a social media strategy that induces people to raise money for you through their social network of friends, family, colleagues and neighbors.
Could there be synergy for start-up viral businesses to work with nonprofit communities in a similar way to how Facebook approached universities?
As long as the business and non-profit share similar goals. Obviously KFC sponsoring breast cancer awareness is not an ideal partnership. But I like the idea of retailers working together with charities. And one of my favorites is Blanket America (http://www.blanketamerica.com/content/how-we-work): You buy something, and Blanket America will give a similar article to a person in need. In other words, Buy 1 blanket, you automatically donate 1 blanket. It’s charitable capitalism, in which the mechanism of giving is taken up by the retailer, not the buyer. In fact, the buyer just by doing what he normally does–buy a pillow, blanket, or something else–he is donating to someone in need. It’s a pretty interesting trend and offers all sorts of viral possibilities. The key is bridging the gap between businesses and charities. Once done, it’s very powerful.
Related posts:
- Turning it Over to the Donor
- Creating an Online Fundraising Plan: Interview, Part 3
- How to Make Your Fundraising Efforts Go Viral
- A Menu of Fundraising Experts: Interview, Part 5
- Getting Started with Social Media Volunteers
Are Fan Bases Major Donors?
Jun 14th
With the emergence of so many social media tools, there are fan bases developing all around you. I’ve seen websites that will tell give you a financial value of your network. I’m not sure how accurate they can really be, but the reality is that these kinds of groups are starting to hold more and more value beyond simply marketing.
Organizations can raise thousands–sometimes tens of thousands–of dollars through their blogs. These gifts will most often come at the micro level in amounts of $10 and $20. But when they are added together, they are significant. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, a fan base in many ways starts to act more like a single person than you would think. Should we start treating our online fan bases as major donors?
In order to cultivate your fan base, you will use many of the traditional relationship management techniques you would use in traditional moves management or major gifts fundraising. You will go into your online community and find leaders that you can use to encourage other readers to comment or give, in much the same way that you would in a fundraising campaign. Based on past experience and what you hear from your readers, you will tailor future messages to topics that interest them but are strategic to your organization. If you take too long in responding to a comment or are irregular about posting, you lose the loyalty of your readers. You need to stay in touch with your fan base in much the same way that you need to stay in regular touch with your donors.
What do you think? It is kind of a crazy idea to say that you can treat a group of people in a similar way that you would one person. And it is a little bit of a crazy idea to start thinking of that group in major gifts terms. If you are a fellow blogger, I’d love your thoughts regarding if this is something that you have observed as well.
Related posts:
- What is a Fan Base?
- More on All Donors as Major Donors
- All Donors as Major Donors
- Major Gifts or Middle Giving
- Organizing Your Donors
What is a Fan Base?
Jun 9th
I’ve been writing for A Small Change for more than 2 years now. I am always trying to keep track of what you, my readers, are reading, what your expectations are when you come to my site, and what content you’d like me to create in the future. It has been interesting to start watching online group dynamics, and where my readers visit and comment. For example I know that the vast majority of people who read this post will never comment, send it off to a friend, or tweet about it. In fact, a large number of readers will not even spend enough time on this page to finish reading this sentence.
Over the last couple of years, I have started to think of my readers as a uniform group or fan base (I don’t like the word fan base as it sounds so egotistical, especially in my context, but the trends describing a fan base illustrate my point really well). Although I have not had the opportunity to meet each one of my readers, there are specific trends that are consistent. Within that group, there are smaller sub-groups that follow behavioral and/or viewing patterns even more closely. For example readers in New York read my posts earlier in the day than readers in Seattle or California so I try and make sure my posts are live by 5 or 6 a.m. Pacific time so that people on the east coast can sit at their desks to read my blog first thing in the morning. Another example would be that a number of my readers write blogs of their own, these individuals have a higher propensity to leave a comment or share my posts with others.
For your nonprofit organization, it is valuable to know this kind of information about your donors. What cities and neighborhoods do they live in, what kinds of homes do they own? From that information alone you can make some general assumptions that will better resonate with your donors in your annual appeal or at events. As you track this information, you can use it to create a stronger relationship with your donors. As they become more responsive, you can ask them to do more, to come to another event or give an additional gift.
Related posts:
- Are Fan Bases Major Donors?
- Growing your Existing Donor Base
- Am I Talking About What You Want to Read?
- Tracking More Than A Name
- FYI- Busy Exciting Week
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