5 Tips on Digital Fundraising
Top 5s from Google and Facebook for Nonprofits
From bake sales to gala dinners, fundraising is the bread & butter for Nonprofits. Having worked in a number of them I’ve always been fascinated by the different ways of finding and engaging new audiences and ultimately, getting them to support your worthy cause.
Couple of nights ago the Australian Event Managers Forum hosted an event with speakers Christopher Mulcahy from Google and Marta Bonzanini from Facebook, on digital event fundraising, there were some great tips so thought to share my notes here with you:
Top 5s from Chris at Google:
- Use Google Grant — $10,000/month in-kind AdWords advertising on Google search
- Stand out from the crowd (ask “Would I pass it on”)
- Communicate the impact (what can the donation achieve)
- Ensure donation is easy and adapt to multi-devices
- Engage Gen C
The ‘C’ in Gen C stands for: creation, curation, connection, and community; also known as the Youtube generation, Chris highlighted the importance for charity running campaigns to engage Gen C as not only do they engage your content (especially ones that tell an authentic story)but actively create their own, thus help reaching new audiences, an example was drawn from The Thank You Water campaign taking on the supermarket giants in Australia:
And a week later the Gen C made some of their own:
By no means they were professionally done but contributed hugely to the success of the campaign, where Coles stocked the Thank You range 3 weeks after the campaign went live and Woolies follow suite a week later.
More on Gen C from Google’s thinkwithgoogle here.
Chris also launched his new fundraising platform Give Wisely on the night, which it’s entirely free for charities, you can find out more via givewisely.com.au.
The Top 5s from Marta at Facebook:
- Find your unique voice (speak in first person)
- Engaging content (express identity & it’s visual)
- Tell stories on facebook
- Close the feedback loop (Make your follower the star of your page)
- Build a dialogue with your community
Marta emphasised the power of telling stories on facebook, particularly with visual contents. She pointed out a few examples: the Australian Human Rights Commission page, where interesting stories on history of human rights were told; and the ‘I fucking love science’ page, sure most of us would have seen its posts how they stimulated our curiosity on science when otherwise may feel so distance.
And the incredible LEGO ‘Imagine’ ad ran on facebook with these images:
These visuals with a few LEGO blocks targeted kids as well as adults, capturing the power of imagination, which is ultimately what LEGO’s product is.
More on Closing feedback loop and Building a dialogue with your community:
- Share behind the scene photos & video;
- Post updates on member of your group or volunteers;
- Feature posts on celebrating milestones or even the small wins;
- Ask questions;
- Post regularly;
- Respond personally to followers posts to show that you’re listening
Some more extra resource on facebook’s nonprofit page:
or the Fundraising Institute Australia:
Thoughts and Feels?
What’s your experience been with digital fundraising campaign with your organisation?
Do you have other great tips and resources?
Would love to hear from you too, find me on twitter @ricky_keung or get in touch old school via: rickykeung@me.com
Hope you’ve found the Top 5s useful or at least spark some fresh ideas!
some classics..
