Campaign Spotlight
The Fundly community is full of everyday people doing incredible things. Each week, we see great campaigns that grab our attention and touch our hearts. Here’s what stood out this week:
______________________________________________________
RoseRunners #TayAndBay Campaign
Rachelle started a nonprofit after losing her younger sister in a tragic car accident. In the car was her younger sister, her brother Taylor who broke his neck and his fiance, Bailee. Rachelle started the Rose Runners nonprofit to keep alive her sister’s spirit. Check out there compelling video on their Fundly page and it’ll move you as much as it moved us. Click HERE to check it out!
_______________________________________________________
Help Our Friend Stephen
Randolph Group is raising funds for their good friend and sous chef, Stephen. He was found under the Williamsburg Bridge in NY unconscious and suffering from a traumatic skull fracture after being mugged and beaten. Always taking care of their own, Randolph Group is raising funds to help with his financial/medical needs. Stephen practically has the whole state of New York sharing his story over Twitter and they’ve almost reached their goal! Click HERE to check out Stephen’s campaign!
_______________________________________________________
Phoebe Kate’s Adoption Fund
Jessica met Phoebe Kate as a 3 week old in the remote mountains of Northwest Haiti. Her mother died giving birth to her and her father brought her to a local hospital at his wits end. Jessica was in Haiti for two weeks volunteering and agreed to help the doctor care for Phoebe Kate. She fell in love and started the adoption process in July 2012. It’s a long, tedious, and expensive process but she is determined. Check out her campaign HERE!
The Latest-And-Greatest Fundly Product Enhancements
Hello Everyone!
A BIG update this week from the Product team here at Fundly! We’ve been hard at work and listening to all the feedback that has been coming in over the last couple of months and we’ve taken them all to heart! We recently pushed out a major release here and wanted to share with everyone all the details on the release!
Next Generation Campaign Pages
You may have seen bits and pieces of this throughout the last couple of months, but we have officially rolled this out across the site! We’ve updated the campaign pages to put more emphasis on personalization and images/videos! Don’t worry though, all your favorite components of the page are still there and we’ve started to highlight friends activities higher on the pages well!
Here’s an example of a page that is already live on the site! Note the stronger social callouts for the supporters as well as a new treatment for the showcasing fundraisers, supporters and teams!
“Blog-Like” Page Updates
Yes they are finally here! We have improved the “Updates” tab on the campaign pages so that they are more focused around continually telling a story with microblogging! Each blog post can have images associated directly to them as well as a new commenting platform that will allow your visitors to comment directly on an update!
Themalize Your Page
We will be officially rolling this out to all Campaigns and Event Creators when publishing their fundraisers! Users will now be able to upgrade directly from the site and build out customized colors and branding for their pages! Have fun and enjoy!
New Emails
Happy fundraising!
- Dennis Hu, VP of Product
Six Social Innovation Summit Stories That Made An Impact
By Dave Boyce – CEO, Fundly
Last week I attended the Social Innovation Summit 2013, which took place at the United Nations in New York. The summit connects and inspires a global network of leaders to discuss the key strategies and business innovations creating social transformation across the corporate, investment, government and nonprofit sectors. Basically, it’s a place where really nice people are coming together to improve society.
In today’s blog post, I wanted to highlight some of the events throughout the week that left an impact on me:
- Libby Leffler, strategic partner manager at Facebook, spoke on the panel “Insights into Millennials and Social Change.” I was excited to hear her panel because Fundly is a close partner with Facebook — we see 27% of our donation volume directly from our Facebook integration. She used percentages to make her points, mentioning 93% of Millennials use internet, the same percentage mobile and 63% use smartphones. She discussed how Facebook is “cause agnostic;” 75% of Millennials gave last year, with 15% giving over $500. But they don’t want to give if they can’t see the tangibles, she gave the example of Charity: Water, which helps dig wells and how they use Facebook to show which well your money is bestowed.
- Bridget Moynahan, actress and celebrity ambassador of Hole in the Wall Gang Camp introduced Zak Stengel, an 11-year-old with lymphoma and a camper from Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. The celebrity-kid combo brought the audience to tears thinking about what it is like to live with a life-threatening disease, and what an incredible refuge the camp can be for those kids. Afterwards, I had several people ask how they could give-back to the camp.
- Magatte Wade, founder and CEO of Tiossano, spoke on the panel “Women & Girls: Innovation is a Mindset.” Her positive energy filled the entire UN General Assembly room, I got the sense she could move the world through telekinesis and her infectious personality. She used a phrase that I will never forget: “complain by creating.”
- Dan Pallotta, entrepreneur, author and humanitarian activist for Advertising for Humanity encouraged the nonprofit sector to stand up for itself. He pointed out that other groups have legal defense funds and advocacy groups, why not nonprofits? He also mentioned that nonprofits to date have let others tell us how we should be measured, how we should be valued… Why is it that the #1 metric for measuring a non-profit is the percentage of funds used on fundraising and overhead? This isn’t the most important number. It’s impact. Outcomes. We need to stand up for our rights to change the world.
- Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org gave some great advice on how to get things moving in the social world. He reiterated how important the subject line is. For example a title like “Profile of an Unsung Teacher Hero” only got 4K views, but when they chanced the title to “Teacher Caught on Camera Making Student Cry — It’s Actually Pretty Amazing” they got 150K views.
- Glenn Close, actress/producer of Trillium Productions Inc. and Co-founder of Bring Change 2 Mind, gave a touching and heartfelt overview of mental illness, encouraging us to love people who have an illness, not equate them with their illness. Her personal experiences with her own sister and nephew took center stage, which made all of us think about the people in our own lives.
Jumpstart Your Fundly Campaign! Webinar
We hosted our first webinar yesterday to better support our Freemium and Subscription customers. Thank you to all those organizations that joined and provided us with feedback!
Our webinars are designed to help you leverage our fundraising platform to tap into your personal networks’ networks and turn them into new-donor networks.
During the webinar, we learned:
-
How Fundly is structured
-
How to speak Fundly and set-up your account
-
How to create and launch your Fundly campaign
-
How to maximize your Fundly platform
Our goal is to help and guide you to be successful in your fundraising campaigns!
Make sure to check out yesterday’s webinar. And join in on the fun to Jumpstart your Fundly Campaign! by joining our next webinar on Wednesday, June 19th from 10am-11am PT.
Note: Our webinars are offered every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month from 10am-11am PT.
Fundly & Bloomerang Announce a Partnership that Marries The Best of Both Worlds: Crowdfunding & a Donor Retention CRM
Peer-to-peer fundraising has gained a lot of momentum in the nonprofit world because it gives your supporters and advocates the tools they need to become fundraisers through their networks. All of us at Fundly know that social fundraising is a uniquely useful addition to any nonprofit’s fundraising tool kit.
We are always building our product and looking for ways to make nonprofits more effective. To that end, we’re excited to announce our partnership with Bloomerang, a customer relationship management (CRM) software focused on nonprofit donor retention and loyalty.
Bloomerang helps nonprofit organizations to reach, engage and retain the advocates they depend on to achieve their vision for a better world. Their cloud-based solution is rooted in principles of philanthropy, simple to use and focused on empowering your team to achieve remarkable results through enhanced donor loyalty.
So what does this mean for your organization? Our partnership with Bloomerang gives nonprofits a powerhouse combo with the ability to attract new donors through social networks and then keep them with amazing CRM. This integration will also allow nonprofits and other organizations to avoid the hassles on data transfers and information sharing.
Check out the customers for this partnership: National Down Syndrome Congress and Texas Humane Heroes, both nonprofit organizations have taken advantage of the partnership and are already live.
Learn more how you can start supporting and donating to a cause today by creating a Fundly Account.
Campaign Spotlight
The Fundly community is full of everyday people doing incredible things. Each week, we see great campaigns that grab our attention and touch our hearts. Here’s what stood out this week:
_______________________________________________________
Moore Public Schools Tornado Relief Fund
http://fundly.com/moorepublicschools
The EF-5 tornado that churned across the city of Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th, the two hundred mile-per-hour winds pummeled both Plaza Towers and Briarwood Elementary, destroying the schools but not the spirits of the students, teachers and administrators. Now, the rebuilding starts and donations will help provide hope to those who lost so much. There’s been several campaigns to help out the tornado victims on Fundly, click here to check out other disaster relief campaigns.
_______________________________________________________
Troopathon 6: “Salute Our Troops” #Troopathon #Carepackage #SOT
http://moveamericaforward.fundly.com/Troopathon6SaluteOurTroops
Troopathon is a once-a-year event held by Move America Forward (MAF), a non-profit charity dedicated to serve those who protect us, our brave troops. Help send a care package to our troops today, MAF has a goal of $25,000 in care Package Donations.
_______________________________________________________
Running The World for Charity
http://fundly.com/running-the-world-for-children
Nikolas, a 9-year-old boy runs marathons across the world for charity because he believes every child deserves to feel happy and special, be warm, and be able to attend school every day, even on cold winter days. Nikolas is raising money and awareness for Operation Warm, Inc., a nonprofit that provides new winter coats to children living in need throughout the United States.
Does Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Mean “One and Done?”
Author: Jay Love, CEO of Bloomerang (originally post appeared on the Bloomerang blog)
Peer-to-peer fundraising has basically revolutionized certain types of special event fundraising practices. The essence of P2P is utilizing the relationships your event participants already have by allowing them to reach out, usually electronically, for sponsors who underwrite their participation. It is not uncommon for such fundraising practices to double or triple the amount raised for events using this practice. That is phenomenal for the nonprofit because the mission impact of such events can be doubled or tripled.
If Only We Worried About Donor Retention
Alas, like so many wonderful new technology enhancements to traditional practices, certain shortcuts to raising additional dollars can have a downside or two. In this case, the new donors usually have more of a relationship with the event participant than they do with the charity running the event. I know I have personally been guilty of ignoring the solicitations from the charity after the event even though I sometimes made a generous donation. In a few cases, I did not even recall ever donating to the charity!
I do not have any statistics to quote here, but my guess is the renewal rate for those first time donors, via peer-to-peer fundraising, may be lower than the already dismal renewal rate of regular first year donors.
Ideas to Improve the Peer-to-Peer Donor Retention Rate
The ideas suggested below are based upon my personal experiences and what inspired me to make that all important second gift and in a couple of cases upgrade my giving. My ideas are not based upon scientific research. However, all of them might be considered common sense in most circles of fundraising.
Here are ones I found useful in creating a more in-depth relationship with me (in no particular order):
- The next communication (after the electronic thank you) outlined the mission of the organization in a personalized manner. In addition, the economic impact of the event on the mission was spelled out, usually with a chart or graph.
- The person who I sponsored sent a personalized word of thanks a few weeks after the event. It further stated what the charity’s mission personally meant to them.
- I was invited by the charity to become a regular subscriber to the one of their newsletters in the format I desired.
- I was sent a one off email asking if I would like to visit the charity at some point in the future.
- When I said yes to a visi,t a personal call was made to me to establish the details.
- The first follow-up gift solicitation was more than 6 months later, but less than 9 months
Lo and behold! A relationship was formed between myself and the charity via the practices above. It did not seem manipulative in any way. In fact, it felt normal and good. Perhaps there is a nugget or two in the items above, which can help your organization move your peer-to-peer fundraising into a donor retention dream come true. Just think how powerful combining the immense outreach and growth in new donors peer-to-peer can bring with better than average donor retention results. Imagine the impact those events can have long term!
Bloomerang Fully Integrated With Fundly Peer-to-Peer
I am personally excited to announce the integration of the Bloomerang Fundraising Database/CRM Software Service with one of the finest P2P fundraising solutions available: Fundly!
Notice the word integration when I talk about our sharing of information with Fundly. This allows the nonprofit organization staging the event to avoid the hassles of data transfer on a manual or, worse yet, sloppy batch-oriented basis. All of us at Bloomerang are proud of integration and what they will mean immediately to our numerous shared customers!
Habitat for Humanity shows how very possible it is to get new donors in big numbers
In our most recent webinar hosted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Habitat for Humanity discusses their enormous success with Fundly and how they achieved it.
In this webinar the Habitat for Humanity team shares their insights and best practices on how they implemented Fundly and are using social fundraising to ignite two of its most innovative fundraising campaigns, the Global Village and Carter Work Project volunteer builds.
The goal was to empower volunteers to share their personal stories about their build experiences and to allow them to fundraise their build trip costs. Through the Fundly platform, Habitat was able to successfully reach the networks of their volunteer’s networks. Although there were some initial concerns around cannibalization of their existing donor base, Habitat for Humanity was surprised to learn that 84% of the donors through their crowdfunding platform were brand new to the organization.
Want to learn more about how Habitat for Humanity turned their volunteer base into fundraisers, and the myths and truths to campaign success? CHECK OUT the Chronicle of Philanthropy webinar co-presented by Habitat & Fundly:
Want to bounce off some ideas around crowdfunding after watching this webinar? Shoot me an email hana@fundly.com!
Subscribe to our NEWSLETTER and learn all about what’s going on in the world of social fundraising.
Giving through Crowdfunding – Oklahoma would do it for you
I grew up in Oklahoma. I played in the creek down the street, built makeshift traps for horned toads, and fished off the dock of Boomer Lake in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Tornado warnings were a fact of life in Oklahoma. I remember kneeling in the interior hallways of Will Rogers Elementary School, organized by classroom, with textbooks covering the back of our heads and necks to protect from falling debris while we listened to the sirens and hoped we would be spared. I can only imagine how it would feel to then have the roof lifted, the walls disappear, and surrounding houses disolve.
It is truly a darkest hour for many people in Oklahoma right now. I am literally praying for the people I consider “my people” and worrying about how they will rebuild their lives. The truth is, Oklahomans are rugged, resourceful, and generous. So in the long run, they will recover, rebuild, and tell their grandchildren about the tornado of 2013. They will not, however, get their lost loved ones back.
The one thing I can take solace in is that my company, Fundly, has built a platform that can help right now. Although Fundly’s primary mission is to provide event fundraising capabilities to organizations with runs, walks, rides, dinners, galas, and benefit concerts, in times of crisis it is also a perfect platform for immediate relief. Giving through crowdfunding is:
- Direct
- Immediate
- Rewarding
For those in need it also becomes a convenient way to set up a recovery fund: for a family, a church, a school, a neighborhood…
We have already seen dozens of campaigns set up on Fundly to help in all of the above ways. We have seen over $800,000 raised in less than 24 hours (http://disaster-relief.fundly.com). I want to help every family and every church and every neighborhood in Oklahoma that is full of strong, believing, caring, resilient people who just need a hand right now. I know they would do it for me.
Take a look at the page. Find a campaign that speaks to you. Support Oklahoma in their time of need. Use your social network for good and help raise money for a campaign. If you have a reason to start a campaign, start one.
We are all part of this. Oklahoma would do it for you.
#PrayforOklahoma
-db
Tapping a new donor base: the 75% of Millennial Donors
From time to time some of my nonprofit clients will ask me why they’re doing all this work to simply launch a crowdfunding campaign (note: launching a crowdfunding page on Fundly is easy peasy, but the prep-work and management required towards success still relies on dedication and hard work).
Our answer at Fundly is new donor acquisition! Allow me to elaborate further – new donor in terms of getting access to a brand new network of people who have never been part of your database before through your Fundly page AND new donor in the sense of reaching a whole new type of donor, the Millennials.
For years, nonprofit organizations have been trying to find ways to reach and engage with the Millennials. According to the recent Millennial Impact Report, 75 percent of young people donated to causes in 2011. Most gifts sizes the Millennials gave were $100 or less per organization. However, as we all know in nonprofits, no donation is too small and programs can still benefit from these contributions. 75% of all Millennials donating on average $100, that’s no small potatoes!
At Fundly alone, I just learned that 77% of donors are 44 years old or younger and 58% are 34 years old or younger. So where are you going to get your Millennials?
Congratulations folks – crowdfunding is the way or the tool that will allow your organization to reach and engage with the Millennials while enabling you to build your organization’s base of future donors. The beauty of it all is that you’re doing this while getting “free” promotion and still collecting small giving from those who already are onboard with your cause. The reason crowdfunding is the future is because it is the best method for engaging your future donors.
To learn more about Fundly and the Millennials check out CNBC’s recent article, Millennials Want to Donate to Charities, Save the World. Really.
Hana Yang | Customer Success Manager
Have any questions? Shoot me an email at hana@fundly.com!
Subscribe to our NEWSLETTER and learn all about what’s going on in the world of social fundraising.
Subscribe here http://social.fundly.com/newsletter
10 Reasons I love Team Fundly
What Do Disneyland and Crowdfunding Have in Common?
Every year, millions of families flow through Disneyland’s amusement parks, gorging themselves on overpriced fast food and thrilling at themed rides. Why do all of these people spend exorbitant amounts of money on just a few days here? One reason: Disneyland has invested an extraordinary amount of energy, thought, and money into creating an experience for its patrons, to create what it calls “The Happiest Place on Earth”. People aren’t there for the rides or the cotton candy, they are purchasing the chance to transport themselves (or their children) to a land of princesses, Indiana Jones, and chipmunks.
What many fundraisers don’t realize is that their donors aren’t making a simple financial transaction when they donate—they are purchasing an experience. The experience of giving back, of contributing to a cause larger than themselves, or simply supporting a loved one. The experience that each donor is expecting or hoping for when he or she gives may vary by campaign, but if you use the tools embedded in the Fundly platform such as video, images, customized email templates, and automated thank-you notes, to name just a few you can significantly improve the overall experience for your average donor. And I promise you, when you deliver an incredible giving experience you will win ardent supporters, who will pass the word on to other potential advocates and donors.
As you work to build a captivating experience for your donors consider the following ideas:
- Nothing Beats Visual: If it were possible, you would want every potential donor or supporter to experience your cause and solution in-person. The emotion that an in-person experience evokes can never be fully replicated by any other medium. But the next best way to tell your story is through visual media. Make a video of yourself explaining why your cause is so important to you. Post pictures of your solution in action. Give the donor the feeling that she is right there, experiencing the pain, joy, and intensity that you are in that moment.
- Reduce Frustration: In addition to evoking emotion through powerful storytelling, another key component of the experience is making the process of listening, empathizing, and giving as seamless as possible. Spend a moment thinking about this, from first contact to actual donation what does your donor experience? Does your flow make sense? What can you do to make it even more effortless to contribute to your cause?
- Long-term engagement: Lastly, perhaps the most powerful experience you can provide someone with is the sense that they are needed. That they are an integral part of your organization’s long-term success. Explain to your donors that you are in this for the long-haul, and that you want them to feel the same way. And treat them that way. Don’t just hit them up when you need cash. Tell them about your challenges and triumphs. Keep them informed of your progress, and share your goals and visions for the future.
If you engage your social network thinking of a donation as just a financial transaction you should expect a cold, impersonal response fitting of that approach. On the other hand, you can give them an experience they won’t forget, and you’ll soon find yourself surrounded by willing supporters and fellow change makers.
Give it a try, and let us know how it goes at curtis@fundly.com.
Can a personal story from a volunteer fundraiser be the path to new donor acquisition?
Absolutely and here’s why! Volunteer fundraisers have a personal story to tell about your cause since it usually explains the reason(s) why they support your cause at all. That personal story is hugely valuable since a volunteer fundraiser’s mom is far more likely to throughly read and understand their son’s story than anything your cause could ever put in front of her. The same can be said for any of your volunteer fundraisers’ other personal relationships.
The stories that are shared will reach a universe of people you may have never known existed, which will help your organization fill the top of your cause’s new donor acquisition funnel. We’ll be writing more about the ‘new donor acquisition funnel’ soon, but to give you a quick understanding it moves people from just barely becoming knowledgable about your cause to understanding why supporting your cause makes a positive impact in the world and eventually it converts them into donors.
Start the process of tapping into your volunteer fundraisers’ social networks by sharing personal stories.
The most important personal story is yours, so tell YOUR personal story first. Leading by example is important and works well when asking others to do something they may not be comfortable with. Many aren’t as comfortable writing or expressing their passion, especially knowing that their words could make it into the worldwide web. As the champion of your cause, you shouldn’t hesitate to share your personal story with the world, so share it loud and proud!
Once you’ve shared your personal story with your networks, ask your volunteer fundraisers to write about how your cause impacts their lives.
To many people, asking them to write about how your cause has positively impacted their lives is like giving them a way to say ‘thank you’ to your cause. That can make writing a personal story an easy task since there’s no risk in saying ‘thank you’ nor will it be viewed as self-promotion, which are two of the most common fears when it comes to sharing a personal story.
As part of asking your volunteer fundraisers to write their personal story, you’ll want to instruct them to include a paragraph asking every other recipient to share their personal story. At the very least, your volunteer fundraisers will find that their friends and family will pass their story along. In some cases, you’ll even get some of your volunteer fundraisers’ friends and family sharing their own personal stories about your cause with their networks! To make your life a bit easier, here’s an example of a paragraph I’ve used to ask people to pass my personal story along:
“As you can tell, I’m passionate about CAMP and hopefully that’s rubbing off on you a bit right now. 
If it is, please share my story with everyone you know or share your own story!”
When asking your volunteer fundraisers to share their personal story, don’t forget to use your own personal story as an example of what you’re asking them to do. That might just end up being the reason why they feel comfortable promoting your cause with their personal story.
All that’s left for your volunteer fundraisers to do after their personal stories are written is to:
- paste their personal story onto their volunteer fundraising page
- ensure that their volunteer fundraising page is connected to their social media networks
- use Fundly’s sharing tools to email, post their personal story to Facebook and Tweet with the click of a button
- include a link to their personal fundraising page in their story
Give that a shot and let me know how it goes. We’re always interested in hearing from you!
You may reach me anytime with your thoughts, comments, or questions at hana@fundly.com.
Could something like HRC’s red and pink equal sign work for you?
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve seen the red and pink equal sign splashed all over Facebook these past few days. You may also know that the Human Rights Campaign started this trend by changing their traditionally blue and yellow logo to red and pink, then encouraging their supporter base to follow suit by using their newly colored logo as a profile picture.
That is Genius for a few reasons:
- It’s super easy for anyone to change their profile picture,
- The sheer act of changing your profile picture is one of the most recognizable actions in everyone’s Facebook news feed,
- It costs nothing to change a profile pic and, most importantly,
- It is HIGHLY VISIBLE!
If you’re reading this and thinking, “hey, maybe that will work for my cause” then you’re wasting your time reading this post. GO FOR IT! Gaining visibility will drive traffic to your fundraising pages and traffic on your fundraising pages means you will see more donations.
Don’t hesitate by thinking you have to use a logo that is well understood and meaningful, either. Use a flat color and let everyone know that it represents your cause (when people don’t know what it means, it’ll draw interest)… Use an image of a person who has been positively impacted by your cause… Use any image that you don’t hate and go with it…
Your friends, family, colleagues and supporters wouldn’t mind simply changing their profile picture to something meaningful to your cause if it will make a difference. Try it out and let me know how it goes by emailing me at mike@fundly.com.
Why fundraising and Fundly became an important part of my life
About a year ago a crippling disease took away my sons ability to live a normal life. He is a 3 year-old boy who will never know what it’s like to walk or even breathe without assistance. Getting this news was heartbreaking, it was life changing and it was eye opening. I was now made brutally aware of how unsafe the world is and how much need for awareness and funds there is in the world.
I saw the many, many disparate causes in the world that didn’t fall under a big enough umbrella to receive enough attention, support or funds. I felt helpless to help any of them, helpless to help my son. I was powerless to fund research or afford the medical equipment he needed.
I looked and looked and wondered where individual fundraisers, the under $20 million organizations, the communities, the nonprofits that didn’t have deals with major retailers or dozens of staff members could make a difference in this world.
Where was the place for a father trying to raise funds to afford medical equipment for his son?
I’d like to say I found Fundly, but that was my friend. He set up a campaign and sent it to me. We thought it was the best option, so we made some edits and activated the campaign, which sent it through our social networks. Within 24 hours we had $5,000, almost 70% of our goal. My jaw, along with some tears, dropped.
I discovered that I had a whole community of people, people who cared; people who wanted to help but didn’t know how; people who weren’t aware or just needed to be asked. Fundly gave me that way to ask and I hadn’t even realized it. We raised $19,500.
19 people clicked on the “Become a Personal Fundraiser” button on our Fundly page, raising between $100 and $2,500 each. I never asked a single one of them to do it, nor explain to them how to do it.
Working for Fundly I’ve since learned how we make it easy for people to rally behind a cause in a way that is difficult and cumbersome otherwise.
But before I knew about open graph integration with Facebook. Before I knew that Habitat for Humanity has found huge success with Fundly. Before I knew all the technical innovations that make Fundly work, I knew that through Fundly I could now afford a wheelchair for my son.
And that is why I believe in Fundly.
How to Be an Agent for Change
This weekend I spoke about “leading change” as a panelist at the Silicon Valley Education Conference (www.siliconvalleyeducationconference.org) in Mountain View, California. The conversation was so refreshingly honest and insightful, I thought I would share with you my takeaways.
If you want to be an agent for change–a leader of change–there are three things you can do:
- Lose yourself. Make a commitment to yourself that you are not interested in what you deserve or what you are entitled to. 90% of the important advances in the world are accomplished by tired people. Focusing on yourself–trying to be less tired, trying to have more time for yourself, trying to protect your own interests–will only make you unhappy in the end. Forget yourself and decide that you will focus externally, knowing that in the end, working on “greater good” is what has the power to make people (including you) happy.
- Decide who you are. There are three types of change agents:
- Visionary: Someone who can see with true clarity of vision what others cannot see, and who can motivate and inspire others to get there. Nothing happens without this person.
- Organizer: Someone who may not have seen it on their own, but recognizes it when he/she sees it, and can bring extraordinary organizational skills to bear to make sure the vision becomes a reality. Nothing happens without this person.
- Doer: Someone who rolls up their sleeves and dives in with unparalleled craftsmanship and pride. Whatever their unique skillset, they apply it within the organizational framework to advance the mission with efficiency and excellence. Nothing happens without this person.
- None of these roles is more important than the other two. They are all equally necessary to effect change. The most important thing is to recognize which of these describes who you are and then commit to play that role the very best you can. Don’t get caught up in titles–figure out which of the three roles you were made to play, and then evaluate opportunities to play that role.
- Choose your cause. You must actively look for your cause–it will not come looking for you. Don’t wait for someone to give you “permission” to create change. By its very definition, opportunity to effect change will not emerge out of the status quo, and you will not find it in your current job description. Being a change agent doesn’t require a title or a certain job anyway. You can make positive change where and when you decide to. Look for the cause you care about, identify the role that you can do well, make sure the people filling the other roles are as passionate and capable as you , and then JUST DO IT!
Of course, whenever you are involved in change, the highs are high and the lows are low. When you are at your lowest, remember point #1 above. It is not about you. You are working toward a higher good. If this venture doesn’t work out, the next one will. The less you can focus on yourself and the more you can focus on the change you are making for good, the easier it will be to get through the low times. When you are able to stay focused and determined despite the odds, you will be surprised how often things break your way. Things that seemed impossible suddenly become possible, and pieces that didn’t fit before suddenly find a solution. This does not happen when you give up or get discouraged or distracted, but it happens a surprising percentage of the time when you stay focused.
I really enjoyed my co-panelists, Josh Edwards (Amazon) and Jessica Johnson (RBL Group) and the moderator, Maggie Goloboy (McKinsey). Thank you!
-db
Is Fundly the fundraising world’s Easy button? Kind of, but not really…
From time to time an interesting question comes up in our initial conversations with customers as they ask “How exactly does Fundly help me raise donations? Do you provide me with donors? Access to new potential supporters? If I connect my campaign to Facebook, won’t people come in droves to donate like I’ve seen on so many of your successful case studies?”
At first glance, it may certainly seem as though Fundly is the secret sauce driving outsized donations for organizations that use our platform. However, Fundly is just one piece of the puzzle in successful crowdfunding. Organizations must have an existing base of supporters that they can tap into in order to effectively crowdfund. Once that is in place, Fundly’s platform is able to kick-in and turbo charge the fundraising process in two ways:
Fundly Simplifies the Ask:
Ask any volunteer what the biggest barrier to fundraising is for them and the response is almost always related to the “ask”. The fear of imposing on someone on behalf of something you care about can be uncomfortable, inconvenient, and let’s be honest it can be a drag to get out there and pound the pavement. I know, I’ve sold countless Makahiki tickets as a Cub Scout in Hawaii.
This is where Fundly starts to shine! Countless design and development hours have gone into a ridiculously simple and easy product that allows anyone to create and promote a cause in just minutes. Seriously, check out this page created by an 8 year-old! From there Fundly automatically begins updating each volunteer’s Facebook Wall and other social networks with posts about their fundraising activities. That means little to no effort is required of volunteers to “ask” their friends and family members to support their cause.
Fundly Enables You to Tell Your Story:
You have a unique and powerful story to tell. There’s a reason that you and your colleagues invest countless hours and a great deal of energy promoting your cause. Your ability to harness this story and tell it will directly influence your fundraising results. Fundly helps you and your volunteers to tell your story in three ways:
- Parent/Child Campaign Relationship: Fundly campaigns are built in hierarchical layers, with child campaigns pulling content from their parent campaign. In other words, if you invest the time upfront to develop a compelling story for your campaign, as volunteer fundraisers sign up to fundraise for your campaign their pages will seamlessly pull your original content onto their volunteer pages as well!
- Visual Media: A picture is worth a thousand words and meaningful videos can be incredible catalysts for creating positive emotional connections and driving donations. Fundly’s current site and upcoming design enhancements feature visual media front-and-center, meaning you can showcase your cause with a variety of assets and medium.
- Templates Galore!: As a part of our effort to make social fundraising as simple and pain-free as possible we’ve developed all sorts of compelling templates geared for different audiences including volunteer fundraisers, donors, and casual supporters. These templates allow you to quickly spread an effective message that directs people back to your campaign page so you can reach as many people as possible.
Fundly isn’t a silver bullet for your fundraising needs… But it can be a powerful enabler that allows you to more simply and fully access, expand, and strengthen your existing community of supporters.
Give a Fundly campaign a spin if you haven’t already, and we’re always interested in hearing your thoughts, comments, or questions! You can reach me anytime at curtis@fundly.com.
The Latest Fundly Product Enhancements
Hi everyone, I’m Will, part of the product team here at Fundly. As always, we’re listening to your feedback, and working on ways to improve our product so that you reach your fundraising goals and impact the causes you care about.
We’ve been seeing that a lot of you are using the email system on our dashboard as a really effective tool for you to gain supporters and donors! With that in mind, we’ve made some improvements that we’re really excited about. I’ll share a couple that will help make you a fundraising machine:
Action Oriented Email Templates
Having trouble getting donors? Team members? Fundraisers?
We understand that pulling the right thing to say out of thin air is difficult, so we’ve created a handful of email templates for you. You can use them to build personalized emails that ask your friends for their help in making your campaign successful. Each template has a different purpose and specific calls to action that make it very easy for your friends and family to understand how they can help:
- Get Supporters,
- Get Donors,
- Get Fundraisers (you’ll only see this if you are a campaign owner),
- Invite Team Members (you’ll only see this if you are a team captain),
- Send Thank You,
- and even a Custom Blank Email for any other emails you would want to write.
Save and Preview Email Templates
Using our default messages in the email templates as a launching pad, you’ll be able to easily customize and personalize your emails so that they really speak about your cause to your friends and family.
Once you edit the messages in the emails templates, you can preview your emails before sending them out to ensure their quality and you can even save those emails for later!
Connecting to Gmail and Yahoo
We know that getting new supporters, donors, and fundraisers through our email system was challenging since finding, copying and pasting your friends and family members email addresses can be tedious. We now aim to solve that problem by allowing you to simply import your contacts from GMail and Yahoo by connecting your GMail or Yahoo email accounts!
Don’t worry. Just like before, you can still send emails to your existing supporters, donors, and fundraisers by clicking on the ‘Add From List’ button.
Once your GMail or Yahoo email accounts are connected, you can quickly type in the names of your friends and they’ll show up just like they do when you send an email directly from your GMail or Yahoo Inbox!
Revamped Look for Email Templates, now Optimized for Action
We’ve revamped the aesthetics of our emails, but more importantly, we’ve optimized them to drive results.
While it’s still early, our data shows that the effectiveness of these new email templates has improved dramatically. We’ve seen a 160% increase in click-through rates for emails sent through the Fundly Email system!
Here’s an example email sent from the Get Donors email template:
Last Call!
One of the many ways we make you successful in raising money for the cause you care about is our “Two Days Left Reminder” email.
When your campaign has only two days left and you haven’t reached your goal yet, we automatically send out an email to all of your supporters to help you make one last push to reach your fundraising goal.
Last week, we also revamped our Two Days Left Reminder email to look better and make it more effective.
We’ve succeeded! By increasing the urgency and making the call to action very clear, the effectiveness of this email has skyrocketed with an 825% increase in donation conversions!
Sneak Peak of Fundly 2.0
We have collected all of your feedback, mixed in the insight from your successful campaigns, and baked it with Fundly love. We’ve come up with a drastically improved version of campaign pages with visual storytelling, allowing you to better communicate your causes’ mission through video and pictures.
Stay tuned!
We are always trying to make our product more effective and easier to use, and I am excited to listen to your feedback. If you have any suggestions or ideas for improvement, please email me at will@fundly.com!
My Thermometer is Not Filling Up–What do I Do?
Hi all! This post is a trouble-shooting guide for your crowdfunding campaign.
I often get questions and concerns from people who have launched a crowdfunding campaign and are not seeing the results they expected. More often than not, there is no reason for alarm, and some simple adjustments can get the campaign on track. Here is the checklist I work through with people to help them tune up their campaigns.
Question 1: How did you set your goal?
The rule of thumb for setting your fundraising goal is to plan for each individual fundraiser to be able to raise +/- $1,000. If you are raising money by yourself, set a goal of $1,000. If you have 4 other people actively fundraising for your campaign, set your goal at $5,000, etc. If you are trying to do this by yourself, and you have a $20,000 goal, it is likely you will be disappointed. And this part is important: EVEN IF YOU HAVE A LARGE MAILING LIST. Mailing lists are not good sources of donors, unless you have proven them to be so. A mailing list is worth as much as a mailing list is worth. So if you’ve emailed to your list before and gotten $5,000, then you are likely to get $5,000 this time. Don’t set your goal higher than that unless you have additional fundraisers reaching out to THEIR lists also. Here is a simple formula you can use for setting your goal:
- # of fundraisers * $1,000
- + Previous yield from whatever lists you are using
- = goal
By the way… if you follow the rest of the program, you will probably exceed this goal, but that is good… setting a reasonable goal and exceeding it builds momentum!
Question 2: How many people have you told?
Generally, if you are working with your friends–people who know and love you–it works like this:
- Tell 100 people
- 30 people click through
- 10 people support
- 5 people donate an average of $100 each
So if you have raised $500, it’s probably because you told 100 people. If you have raised more, it’s probably because you have told more people.
- If you want to raise more money, tell more people.
- If you have run out of people to tell, recruit personal fundraisers to work with you, and tap into their networks as well.
If for some reason you are not seeing results like the ones above–in other words, you told 100 people, but you haven’t raised any money–there are a couple of other things you can check:
- How well do the people you have told know you? Are they actually friends, for whom you have done favors, and who will want to support you in this? If they are just acquaintances, you may see different results. And if they don’t know you on a personal basis at all, all bets are out the window. In this case, you have to put them in the “mailing list” category and value them based on past yield (see “How did you set your goal?” above. The key is to reach out to your inner circle first–your mom, your best friend, your college roommate, your neighbor…. people who will definitely respond and support your cause.
- How compelling is your story? Is it the case that if a person lands on your page, they will be sucked in and compelled to donate? You may need to tune up your story: see “How compelling is your story?”
Question 3: How compelling is your story?
Take a look at your page. Imagine you had never seen it, and you arrived there through a referral from a friend. Does it compel you? Are you moved? Are you motivated to pull out your wallet and give away some money? If the answers to any of these are ‘no’ or ‘maybe,’ you probably could do some work on the page to get it there. This is important: FIXING YOUR PAGE WILL NOT SOLVE ANY TRAFFIC PROBLEMS. You can have the most gorgeous page on the planet, but if you are not telling people about it, it will not produce results. What we are addressing with this question 3 is CONVERSION, not traffic. You still need to tell hundreds of personal connections about what you are doing and get them to visit your page if you want to raise money. But I digress… let’s talk about how to make your page awesome.
- Does it make you cry? If you were a brand new, uninitiated visitor to your page, would it make you cry? Would it make you mad? Would it make you feel worried, guilty, sad… anything? If you want people to give to your cause, you have to touch some emotion deep within them. Giving away money isn’t a casual thing—it requires an emotional connection. Figure out what that connection is, and turn the dial up to 11:
- Is it outrage? Then emphasize the injustice or inequity. Make sure the reader feels angry and resolved to help.
- Is it sympathy? Then show sympathetic images and tell sympathetic story. Make the reader fall in love and want to help.
- Is it friendship? Then show what an awesome guy you are, and evoke the good times you spent with your friends, and appeal to their friendship to help you out.
- etc.
- Is it visual? Step back from your page. What do you see? Do you see lots of words… blah, blah, blah…. Or do you see bold, evocative images? Pictures sell your story. PIctures, and especially videos make it more likely for your campaign to convert visitors and supporters into donors. 4x more likely actually. So if you haven’t taken the time to put the very best pictures and videos you can into your gallery, do that now
- Is it specific? Here’s an important one. If I give to you, what happens? I don’t want to give you money if I don’t think it will help. So tell me…. what will my $100 do? Will it allow you to run a race? Go on a trip? Feed a family? Buy some medicine? What’s the overall goal? When you raise your $1,000, what happens? When your organization raises its $100,000, what happens? I want to know, because I want to be part of it. Be very specific about what the money is going to do.
- Do you have initial supporters? No one wants to be the first one to arrive at a party. You need to make sure there are people there and having fun–then everyone wants to be there. It’s the same with your campaign. An empty thermometer and only one supporter (you) doesn’t look very compelling. So do a little bit to get the party started. Get your mom and your college roommate and your colleague to come in and support your campaign. Ideally get 10 supporters on your page right away. They don’t necessarily have to donate–just get their faces up there. This will help it look like the party is already started. The second thing you can do is “seed the tip jar.” You can make your own donation to your campaign to get it started. If you have a $1,000 goal, you can put in the first $100. Now your friends know you are serious, and you have set the bar.
Question 4: Does the beat go on?
The average person has to hear about something 6 times in order to respond to marketing. Have you sent a 2nd email? Made a 2nd Facebook post? A 3rd? 4th? 5th? 6th? You should be reaching out to the people you know daily. After they’ve heard from you 3 times they will know you are serious. After they’ve heard from you 6 times they will start to understand that other people are supporting, the campaign is gaining momentum, you are paying attention, and they are not going to be able to slip away quietly without you noticing.
You may be saying to yourself, “What? Daily emails? That could get annoying. I’ll do weekly.” Or, “I’ll send out one and see what happens. My friends will respond quickly.” Well…. I don’t recommend testing that theory. We have experience across tens of thousands of personal campaigns, and we know what works and what doesn’t, and it turns out that even your really good friends need reminding sometimes.
All that being said, you don’t have to literally send an email every day. I admit–that could get annoying. You just have to do something every day. Here are some things we have done to make it easier to keep a daily drumbeat going:
- Post a new photo. When you do this, we send out an email automatically to anyone who is supporting your campaign and let them know to come back and look at the picture. We also post to your Facebook wall to capture new people
- Make an update on your page. This update could contain information about how the campaign is going that will now get pushed out to everyone following your campaign
- Connect your Fundly account to your Facebook account as well as any Facebook pages you administer. This will give your updates maximum visibility
- Share on Facebook using the Fundly tools, A link back to your campaign will be included automatically
- Tweet using the Fundly tools. A link back to your campaign will be included automatically
- Same for Pinterest
- Same for Google+
Basically, don’t ever let more than one day go by without an update to your “crew.” They will support and donate and promote if you keep them informed.
Question 5: What results should I expect by when?
This is the real question. Were you concerned about results because there is legitimate reason to worry, or do you just need to be patient? Let’s assume you set a reasonable goal, you have told enough people, you page is compelling, and you have continued the drumbeat daily. You are probably okay. But just to set you at ease, here is how a typical campaign plays out:
- The first quarter of the campaign you are campaigning the hardest, and you do get an initial surge.. but probably not more than 25% of your goal
- The second and third quarters of your campaign seem “dead.” The temptation is to think that your campaign is over, that you’ve done what you will be able to do, and therefore to sit idly by and watch your campaign fade. But it is natural for momentum to stall after your initial surge. If you know this already, you won’t lose confidence. It is important that you continue to post updates and send out emails during this whole period…. it’s an investment in your 4th quarter, where all the magic happens. Keep it up!
- The fourth quarter usually raises a full 50% of your money or more. This is where you start to “count down” to the end and celebrate wins with your followers. Everyone loves to be part of a winning team, so they will be excited to celebrate your progress toward a reasonable goal. Keep the drumbeat going, and brace yourself for a strong finish!
I hope these questions help you. As always, let me know of any comments or questions at djboyce@fundly.com.
Rock on!!
-db
C is for cookie, it’s good enough for me!
Here is a little success story about a sixty some year-old organization, which most of us have probably heard about. This is a large nonprofit organization with paid members who actively participate in the organization. The organization uses a very innovative fundraising approach of successfully leveraging their members as amateur volunteer fundraisers (AVFs).
A couple of times every year, the organization launches a fundraiser and recruits their AVFs to literally go door to door and raise money for the organization. Can you guess the one that I’m talking about? Bingo, the Girl Scouts!
So, what do they do? They motivate children, who are definitely amateurs and volunteering as fundraisers, to procure and sell cookies to you by going door-to-door. Not only does the Girl Scout organization sell you the cookies, but they also get really clever and get the kids (who’s going to say no to a sweet little girl!?) to write down all the information about your purchase. The kids obtain your address, your phone number, and exactly what you purchased.
Now do you think that there’s someone back at headquarters who is taking all of that information and aggregating whether Palo Alto buys more cookies than Mountain View or more cookies than Manhattan? I am sure they do. Do you think they use that list to improve and expand their lists? They certainly do.
So, if a Girl Scout club can figure out how to turn their members into amateur volunteer fundraisers, I’m confident that your organization can too. All it takes is a little bit of creativity and Fundly is here to help.
