#FundraisingFriday is a campaign meant to inspire individuals to commit to donating at least $10 to one of their favorite nonprofits every Friday. First tweeted in May 2012 from @NonprofitOrgs, the hashtag has since then been tweeted and retweeted thousands of times. If you are a nonprofit, use the #FundraisingFriday hashtag to ask your followerers and fans to donate. If you...
As follow-up to 29 Online Gift Stores That Benefit Nonprofits, below are 19 nonprofits that are offering symbolic gifts and adoptions this holiday season. These gift programs are ideal for socially and environmentally conscious holiday shoppers that would prefer their spending directly empower nonprofits. They also make excellent gifts for activists and advocates of global development, environmental conservation, and wildlife...
Since the launch of the iPhone on June 29, 2007 many mobile fundraising apps have been released, but few have been successful. Some apps were based on good ideas, but ahead of their time and others simply weren’t good enough to keep users interested. Six years later the design and functionality of fundraising apps has improved significantly. Still in their...
The Mobile Web is often discussed as a future trend that nonprofits have time to prepare for, but the reality is that by the end of 2014, the majority of your supporters and donors will be viewing your website, email communications, blogs, and social media content on smartphones and tablets. In truth, the Mobile Web is already here. Going mobile...
The African Wildlife Foundation’s Annual Safari Sweepstakes promotion is as close as it gets to perfect. The design and branding is modern and mobile-optimized, visuals and call-to-action graphics are prioritized over text, and social media is integrated throughout the entire process of entering the sweepstakes. Not only by entering the contest may you win a trip of a lifetime, but...
As a follow-up to Five Online Fundraising Best Practices for Small NGOs in Developing Countries, below are five social media best practices specifically tailored for small NGOs in developing countries. Once your NGO has laid a foundation for online fundraising success by launching a mobile-optimized website, an e-newsletter, and having the ability to accept online donations, your NGO is...
Launched in 2007, YouTube’s Nonprofit Program has gone through multiple changes over the last six years. Initially the program was only offered to qualified U.S. nonprofits and the benefits were limited to premium branding functionality and the ability to add a Google Checkout donate button to nonprofit YouTube channels. Today, however, the program has been expanded to Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland,...
This blog post officially launches the research stage of writing my second book which will be published and shipped in Spring 2014. A follow-up to Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits, this book will place much more emphasis on using social media and mobile technology for fundraising. That said, I am very curious how social...
There absolutely is a math to social and mobile media. If your nonprofit has a good content strategy in place and understands the power of integrating all your nonprofit’s communications channels (website, email, Facebook, texting, etc.), then as your numbers grow on social networks so will your e-newsletter and mobile lists which in turn significantly increases your fundraising success. It’s...
Until recently the nonprofit pioneers of the Social Web had to mostly rely on their intuition that their social media campaigns were resulting in more dollars raised online, an increase in brand and cause awareness, and higher rates of volunteer recruitment and retention. However, as LinkedIn, Blogger and Myspace all celebrate their 10-year anniversary this year, nonprofits have now...
My e-newsletter is by far the driving force behind Nonprofit Tech 2.0. Those 27,000+ subscribers produce more return on investment (ROI) in terms of bringing in new clients and webinar attendees than my 600,000+ Twitter followers and 40,000+ Facebook fans combined. And even though a recent report pointed out that email open and donor response are dropping in the nonprofit...
Nonprofit website design and online fundraising have dramatically changed in recent years due to the rapid rise of social media and mobile communications. Using the Wayback Machine – a website that allows you to view archived screenshots of your website all the way back to 1996, below is an exploration of how the World Wildlife Fund’s website and online...
Each year I select 31 Favorite Nonprofits to which I donate 10% of my webinar income. Part of the reason is a commitment to altruism, but I also use (for lack of a better word) these 31 nonprofits to study how nonprofits are progressing in online fundraising, social media and mobile communications. That said, over the last few days...