Fundraising: We all know what it is and why we want to do it. From the very beginnings of the nonprofit “world” fundraising has always been an integral part of the process. But what happened when the Internet came along? Surely the rules for online VS offline fundraising are different! What separates them, and what similarities can they share?

Knowing the key differences and similarities between both these avenues for fundraising can make or break your success.

Join us this Wednesday to chat all about online VS offline fundraising. Don’t forget your #NPtalk hashtag! The chat begins at 2pmCST– we look forward to seeing you there!

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You want an engaging video to enhance your next campaign.  You’ve gotten past the “everyone else is doing it” approach and you understand what video can and can’t do for you. Now where do you start?  This article will highlight steps for planning and production – whether you’re hiring a professional or doing it yourself.

For fun we’ll call this an infographic – made for a DIY video session at a Minnesota Council of Nonprofits conference.  That’s Xavier Lopez-Ayala’s boss Biscuit overseeing the process.

That Feeling

Video has unique strengths in communicating emotion and empathy.  While facts and figures are unlikely to stick with your audience, they will be left with a feeling for the organization, the issue, the work.  This touchy-feely graphic glow wants to make sure that everything you do in this project is centered on and motivated by “that feeling“.  You can’t go wring with “that feeling“.  The other feeling yes, but not that one.

Goals

As with any significant project, you need to know what your goals are.  What is the purpose of the video? What outcomes are you looking for? Who are you trying to reach, and what effect do you want to have on them?

Think about your audiences and how they will experience the video in relation to your overall marketing or a specific campaign. Is “that feeling” relevant to all audiences?

Think, write, scrawl, or draw your way to a clear, concise statement of the goals for the project.

Approach

Think about various approaches to the project; take a little time to question assumptions you may have.  Ask your cohorts and especially members of your audience for input.  You may be able to genuinely and effectively reach your people better with an unedited talk through a webcam or phone than with a complex animated sequence.  Will the approach and style reach your audience and compel them to help, give, spread the word?

Personal bias alert: I think video should be as genuine and direct as possible – using the medium to speak through rather than to the technology.  Natural sound unencumbered by background music; real conversation, real people. As soon as a viewer notices a special effect or gimmick, their attention goes there rather than to that feeling.  OK, I did the personal bias.

Plan

Now it’s time to think backwards a bit.  How will you get your video – and other campaign components – in front of the right eyeballs?  Will there be in-person events, a webpage layout including YouTube video, references to or from other campaign elements?  How will your video work best within these contexts? How will you promote these outlets?

Take stock of the resources you have – these could include:

• equipment
• staff or volunteer time and skills
• professional help aligned with your vision and style
• proposals for any outside help
• dedicated project funding
• any needed higher-up approvals
• anything else that’s standing between you and a finished product.

If you turn up short, you may need to budget and raise funds specifically for the campaign project.  Often a committed donor will see the multiplier effect in supporting a good campaign project.

Produce

The squiggly line comes from the perspective of a narration-free documentary producer, with “scriptwriting” hanging between planning and production. A tightly scripted video will have more of a chronological progression from script to preparation to shooting to editing.  How this plays out is heavily dependent on the project, the style, and the people involved – hence I’ll spare the details here.

Distribute

Now you get to put into action the distribution you carefully planned – didn’t you?  Again the details will vary, but keep your target audience in mind.  Are you reaching them? Are you using your social media, direct mail, whatever tools are at your disposal to make sure the right people see it?  Even if your project goes viral in the general public, if the right people don’t see it then the goals won’t be met.

Assess – in whatever way is meaningful to you – and gloat over the results.  And follow the dotted line to put what you’ve learned back into the next project.

This is a general view of a production process – the basic process should apply to most projects.  Beyond that, common sense and a thorough understanding of the org or issue, the messages, and the audience will get you through a process which could take between a few hours and several months.

Good luck and good skill, and stay in touch “that feeling“!

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It was two years ago that I inadvertently started using the #NPtalk hashtag to talk about nonprofit social media and communication topics. Much to my surprise more than 30 people began to chime in to answer my questions and discuss each topic. It was during that time that I was direct messaged by a participant and asked if I wanted to start a Twitter chat. Of course I had no clue what that meant, but this person quickly brought me up to speed. I asked the participants of that conversation what they thought. They said go for it. And so I did.

Now here we are, 2 years later with a thriving online community—something I never imagined would sprout from a simple hashtag I planted! We grew from a simple chat to having our own website, community blog which everyone can contribute to  and, of course, the Twitter chat that started it all has continued weekly on Wednesdays to discuss topics about online marketing, social media, technology, fundraising and just about anything else you can think of!

Wait, it gets better…

What’s most exciting about this amazing community is that we are at the beginning of building something even greater. What can you look forward to as we evolve? We are still figuring that out. But with your continuous feedback on what you want you’d like to see from #NPtalk the possibilities are endless!

Some things currently in the works:

A membership community which will provide a place for leaders to come together and learn from one another through private forums, webinars and additional resources that will not be available to the passive visitor. We want #NPtalk to be THE place that nonprofit and business leaders join together to discuss how to do nonprofit work better.

We are also considering extending the community blog and turning it into a digital online magazine where we will provide businesses and nonprofits a place to share ideas, learn from one another and discuss the difficult questions about advancing nonprofit missions in a new economy. Our goal is to create a bridge with businesses and nonprofits where everyone learns and works together towards social good. All of this will be determined by what you, our community, decides is important and relevant. NPtalk is built by nonprofits for nonprofits. So tell us what you think!

Although this is a pro-bono venture, and I personally make sure the community operates and invest some of my resources to keep it going strong, I did not create this amazing community alone. The kindness and generosity of many people who gave their time to get it off its feet deserve so much thanks. They are:

Jamie Milliard – A rising star in the nonprofit world. Jamie has been an integral part of making this chat a reality. First, as a volunteer to help with transcripts and other technical items. Then, as an advisor – allowing me to bounce ideas off her and always willing to give me time and consideration. Jamie’s continued insight has been key as I have moved ahead and tried new things out.

Kristin Majai Peterson – Our first sponsor! Kristin has donated a ton of her creative talents to this community. Kristin designed our logo and continues to design other little things as we need them, whether it’s online or offline. Having a top notch designer available whenever I need it has been essential to creating a branded professional presence. Lately Kristin has designed the cute Post-It notes that we are offering for people who sign up for our Enews. Although Post-It notes are a small gift , we hope many people in our community will sign up, connect and spread the word both online and when they write notes around their office.

Peter Semington – Having a printer as a sponsor may seem counter intuitive, right? We are an online community so what could we need printed? As we have progressed both online and offline we have needed different pieces of collateral printed. Pete has always been there to offer his services free of charge!

Community bloggers – This list is long but they have all been incredibly important to launching the blog and keeping it going. Thank you to each and every one of you for your dedication and continued work.

• Amanda Bingham
• Alexandra Baird
• Adrienne Lynch
• Amy Sample Ward
• Amanda Welliver
• Britney Dickey
• Clint Carlson 
• Ephraim Gopin
• Hannah Feder
• Jeff Achen
• Jamie Millard
• Josh Braaten
• Jessica Green
• Justin Ware
• Kimberly Bettcher
• Keith Privette
• Liz Heinecke
• Lee Odden
• Rick Fuentes
• Robert Killen
• Robert Rowell
• Steve Braker
• Sharon Howell
• Shari Ilsen
• Susan Perri
• Tonia Zampieri

 You, the community- So many of you have emailed or reached out via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or even the phone to give feedback and offer ideas, suggestions and guidance. This community exists because of you and your continued investment as a participant and a guide. Thank you.

These two years have passed quickly. We look forward to the future and the many more great things from this community. From a simple hashtag seed, a community tree bloomed! Here’s to another 2 years of learning, sharing and growing.

Have a video project in mind for your next campaign? Steve Braker (@WorthwhileFilms) will be on #NPTalk on May 9 to discuss workflows from concept through planning, production, editing, and distribution. If provoked, Steve may also hold forth on honesty, emotion, gimmickry, and sound treatments. In the meantime, you may want to ponder this and look for some explanation in an upcoming NPTalk blog post.   Don’t forget your hashtag!

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In early April, the 50-million-user photo sharing application Instagram was bought by Facebook for more than $1billion, putting the future of photography and its use in social media in the limelight.

With a promise to users from Facebook that they’ll be improving the future of photos and related applications on the social media platform, a new age is dawning.

How are you using photography for your organization? Have you utilized Instagram before? Do you think you may utilize Instagram more now that it’s becoming an integral part of Facebook?

Share with us your thoughts and ideas at our next #NPtalk this Wednesday! Don’t forget your #NPtalk hashtag!

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When you’re a nonprofit with a tight budget, it can be hard to find cheap and easy ways to promote your organization, get your mission out to the masses and find volunteers to aid your efforts.  Creating a community may seem like a daunting task but there’s an easy way to start that take a little effort but produces great results – social media.  Using innovation and creativity, platforms like Facebook and Twitter can take your far.  Below is an excerpt as taken from Unleashing Innovation:  Using Everyday Technology to Improve Nonprofit Services,  a report from MAP for Nonprofits that was researched and written by Idealware.  It explores one nonprofit’s journey with venturing online and taking the leap into social median to help reach their immediate needs.

Community Thread, Stillwater, MN

As one of Minnesota’s eight volunteer centers, Community Thread connects people with volunteer opportunities, provides volunteer support to other nonprofits and sponsors large scale opportunities to volunteer. Executive Director Valerie Jones said the organization wanted to find a way to reach a new and larger audience, and the organization’s strategic planning process had identified marketing as a priority.  A staff member began experimenting with using Facebook to reach out about events and opportunities. “We hired a young person,” Jones said, “and one day, she said, ‘Can I try this?’ I told her to go for it. Once we got a response, we started getting more conscientious about what we were posting.”  Jones quickly realized she’d found a means not just to promote the organization and its events, but to recruit and engage volunteers, and bought into the social media effort. The organization’s social media presence became like a snowball gathering mass.  “Let’s see, now we do Facebook, Twitter and a YouTube channel, and we guest blog for the local Patch (community news website),” she said. “It became clear to us that we could use messaging there to engage people for volunteering.”  Last year, when the nearby St. Croix River flooded, Community Thread served as the volunteer manager for relief efforts and used its Facebook page to spread the word, recruiting roughly 1,500 volunteers for flood relief efforts. “That emergency created a lot of public awareness,” Jones said. “Facebook was an immediate channel to keep people up-to-date.”  She estimated that the organization’s other programs recruited about 200 volunteers using social media last year, as well.

In addition to posting links and invitations to events and to volunteer, staff began taking photos at events and posting them with quotes from participants. “We use a lot of photos—we’re kind of obnoxious with our camera,” she said. “We’ve had great luck using photos and pictures to tell our story.” That led to an attempt to create videos, beginning with one celebrating the organization’s annual “Spring Into Service” event. The only cost for social media is staff time, Jones said— from two to four hours a week spread out over five days.  So far, she has not yet begun using any analytical tools to measure results and is tracking only the number of volunteers, though she said there are other signs that point to the success of the effort.  “We get people who call and say, Hey, I saw this on Facebook, how do I sign up?” she said. We also get some walk-in traffic from people who say they saw this on their friend’s Facebook page, and they want to participate. And it’s increased a number of backdoor things— local businesses will say, ‘We heard about you, are you new?’ Well, no, we’ve been here for 43 years. The only thing we’ve changed is the social media.”

Community Thread’s marketing committee supported the social media effort, as did several board members ”who were not tech savvy but had heard from their grandkids or kids that social media is big,” Jones said.  But not everyone was comfortable with the idea.  Karla Bataglia, Community Thread’s senior center program director, said she had some skepticism about embracing the new approach. “I’m an old school person,” she said. “My kids had to literally grab my telephone—you know the old kind, about two inches thick, with a long antenna?—out of my hands and make me get a small phone. It was a huge phone, like a CB radio. I’m a little intimidated by it all. The language of computers, and Twitter, and what I assume is in Facebook, is also not common to me, and the lingo seems to change so quickly. I’m afraid by the time I get in there, things are going to change so quickly I won’t be able to keep up.”  But as other programs within the organization began to experiment, and succeed, using social media, Bataglia said she realized she risked being left behind.

A big thank you to MAP and Idealware for allowing us to reprint this great information to share with you!

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With the words “volunteer appreciation” one of the first things to spring to mind are myriad ways to say “thank you” to someone who has donated their precious time and labor to benefit your nonprofit organization.  That’s a good thing; you can’t say thank you too much, and if you can do it creatively, so much the better.  But what you do before the work even begins can have a profound impact on how a volunteer enjoys their experience, feels valued, and is connected to your organization.

Before the Work Begins

Go Out of Your Way to Find the Right Match

That pile of papers to be filed is threatening avalanche and you’re nearing your deadline for your next big mailing.   But resist the temptation to assign those jobs to the next volunteer who walks through your door.  Investing the time to find the right work for each volunteer can pay big dividends.

Why it’s important to find the right match

1. The volunteer enjoys his or her work

This is a key goal in appreciating our volunteers: we want the people who are donating their time to have fun doing it!  Work that engages the volunteer in their strengths can feel much more meaningful, and someone working in their “sweet spot” is likely to find the experience more enjoyable.

2. Your organization doesn’t miss out on valuable skills

That person you randomly assigned to that stack of files may be the best filing clerk you’ve ever seen, but are you missing the fact that they also have the skills to be a fundraising captain?  Is the person you put to work licking envelopes a copywriter who can freshen up your website or someone handy enough to repair that faucet in the break room that still leaks because you can’t afford to hire a plumber?

3.  Engaged volunteers are more likely to volunteer again and eventually become leaders within your organization.  They can also become your best ambassadors and promoters.

4.  Your organization makes the most efficient use of its resources.

Your supporters want to know that you are using all of your resources wisely – and this includes volunteer time.  Matching volunteers to the best job for their talents accomplishes this.

Yes, there will be tasks like those mentioned above that will still need to be done by volunteers – but even those jobs can be customized:  does your volunteer prefer folding, stuffing, sealing, or stamping? You’ll have to get to know them to find out.

Get to Know Your Volunteers – some questions to ask

People volunteer for all sorts of reasons.  Some may be looking for a social opportunity, others may be looking to develop skills to enhance their resumes, and others are simply looking to do what they can to further your organization’s mission.  Understanding these motivations is key to finding the right match for your volunteer.  Start by thanking them for volunteering, and then ask some of the following questions:

• Why did they volunteer?

• Why do they feel connected to your organization?

• Do they have personal and/or professional goals that can be met through the volunteering?

• What do they like to do?    What do they hate to do?

• What do they consider to be their strengths or weaknesses?

• Do they prefer to work alone or in a group?

• Are they looking for a short-term commitment or are they hoping to volunteer regularly over a long period of time?

Take the Time to Train

You provide training and continuing education for your employees, and your volunteers shouldn’t be any different.  Once you’ve identified a volunteer’s skills and found applicable work for them to do, don’t skimp on the training.  The volunteer will feel more confident and will be able to execute the task in the way that’s most beneficial for your organization.  This training might be a 10-minute explanation of the job, or might involve sending the volunteer to a day-long class to receive training in a particular software package.  The training should include a clear explanation of how the work they are doing is tied to fulfilling the mission of your organization.   And, it’s another opportunity to say thank you.

After the Work is Done:  Beyond Thank You:

So you’ve applied the advice above, taken the time to learn about your volunteers, and matched them to the perfect tasks for their skillsets and interests. And certainly you’ve thanked them at every turn.  Here are some final ways you can show your appreciation:

Ask for Feedback

What did they like about their job?  Did they find ways it could be done better next time?  Asking your volunteers for this type of information not only improves your organization’s processes, it lets your volunteers know they are valued and trusted members of your team.

Reward Work Done Well with Greater Responsibility

Asking a volunteer to do more for your organization is a clear sign that you appreciate the work they’ve done.

What You Can Do for Your Volunteers

Find out how can you help them meet the personal and professional goals identified earlier. Can you make an introduction, serve as a reference, write a LinkedIn recommendation?  Is there additional training they would like that can make their volunteer experience more valuable for both parties?

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These days, it can seem like we live our entire lives online. Believe it or not, we’re also seeing this in the volunteering world as nonprofits are starting to leverage the growing trend of virtual volunteering.

While virtual volunteering didn’t start with the Internet, it certainly has grown with it, and now nonprofits all over the world can engage volunteers all over the world to do work… well, all over the world.

But is it really as effective as offline, face to face volunteering? Is it right for YOUR organization? What are the best practices for engaging virtual volunteers in service to your mission?

Join us on April 25, 2012 for a lively (and virtual!) #NPtalk about virtual volunteering. We’ll be joined by Online Communications Manager at VolunteerMatch, Shari Ilsen.

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On March 30, Facebook began the mandatory switch over to its new profile/brand page layout: Facebook Timeline.  This hasn’t been the first page layout change Facebook has made in its history, but the non-optional change has made some Facebook users cringe more than ever.

What is your take on this new Facebook Timeline layout? Does it hold promise for nonprofit brand pages? How are you utilizing the new additions? What has been a struggle. Check out the transcript below for this #NPtalk chat to find out what your colleagues think about the changes and advice on best practices.

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Recently I was invited to be a social media ambassador for a nonprofit event. You may be asking yourself: “A social media ambassador? What is that?”

Let me explain.

Children’s Defense Fund of Minnesota (CDF) decided to do things a bit different this year for their annual “Beat The Odds” event in that they decided to create some social media buzz. Their efforts were extremely successful but the question remains, how did they do this?

Here’s Their Social Media Plan in a Nutshell:

1) CDF found several volunteers who were advocates for CDF and also social media savvy. They found two amazing women to lead this effort. Jennifer Patterson (@unplannedcookin) and Liz Heineke (@Kitchpantrysci) . This was an important element of success for this social media “campaign”. Success in a venture like this requires passionate advocates who can speak the language. Liz and Jennifer talked the talk and walked the walk and were the backbone of this campaign.

2) Even for a nonprofit that has volunteers heavily involved there are costs to proper marketing campaigns, and this social media campaign was no different. Expenses included a Tweetup event held several weeks before the main event to educate the ambassadors as well as provide other social media people a chance to connect, a social media ambassador table at the dinner and the cost of staff to run the campaign and outreach. To cover the cost of their campaign CDF looked for sponsors. They brainstormed who to approach for sponsorships, including both a natural fit for social media such as internet companies and online marketing companies, but also looking at who may have connections to make the pitch for the sponsorship. It turns out the CDF has strong connections with several Minnesota Vikings players and the fit was found with this organization.

3) They also chose an emcee who also actively uses social media. They reached out to local TV reporter, Jason DeRusha (@DeRushaJ), who is a serious social media junkie and he graciously accepted. He turned out to be a great choice as not only is he an excellent emcee and carries a passion for causes such as CDF, but he is also well loved in the Twin Cities social media community. Every member of the social media table knew Jason, and that made it a fun night. 

4. They put together a list of people who they viewed as both well-liked and as influencers, with large audiences of Twitter followers for good reach. CDF focused on recruiting people who could reach diverse groups as well. Their focus for this event was to find people who had reach in the following groups:

•  Nonprofit
• Technology,Communications/PR
• Twenty-Thirty Somethings
• Under 18 (youth voice)

The diversity in voice is imperative and CDF did a great job looking and finding people to fill in each category.

5. CDF hosted a pre-event tweetup at a local restaurant. This was a great way to get our social media ambassadors informed about CDF and what they do, as well as generate buzz about the event. Read Arik Hanson’s post here for information about how CDF’s tweetup was successful in so many ways.

6. At the tweetup CDF announced that there would be a blogging contest and that the winner and a guest would be invited to sit at the social media table at Beat the Odds. This was a way to generate online conversation about childhood

poverty. An important lesson learned from this blogging contest was the importance of getting the announcement out to as many people as possible through email blast, social media and other channels.

6 Other Tips you can Learn from the CDF Social Media Ambassador Campaign:

1. Setup a Twitter feed on a screen for people to follow during the event!  Invite audience members to join the social media ambassadors by promoting the hashtag on the event’s program, through an announcement screen and announcements by emcee. The ambassadors will get the conversation going, but it helps to get audience members involved too.

2. Provide fact sheets on each table to help attendees get their facts right. Be sure to include sample tweets and your event hashtag. The easier you make it for people to share the more sharing that will happen.

3. Place your social media ambassadors towards the front of the event – give them premium seating. Remember it’s a press table and you want them to have the best pictures and best view of the event. You also want them to feel special. They may not have paid for the table or be your biggest donors, but your social media ambassadors have the power to extend your reach far beyond a donation.

4. Make a point of introducing the Sponsors and Social Media table and inform the event attendees that the purpose of the table is to help spread information and build an online community of advocates for issues facing name your cause.

5. Make sure your organization’s social media manager is sitting at the social media table at the event. They should also be tweeting throughout the event on the organization’s twitter handle and using the event hashtag. This will make it easy for others to retweet important facts.

6. Gather your social media ambassadors and the sponsors for a group picture at the event. This helps connect the ambassadors and sponsors and brings a personal touch to the process. This is all about people and relationships so introduce your sponsors and the ambassadors they sponsor as it will create positive feelings for future sponsorship! Who wouldn’t want that?

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