GiveForward

I recently got a good fundraising tip from Steve Mackel who runs MarathonTraining.TV and SoCalRunning.com and has been fundraising for charity for the past thirteen years.

Steve told me how important it is that people put up a good picture of themselves on their personal fundraising pages.  I couldn’t agree more.

The reason you want to do this is because it helps you make a personal connection with your donors so they’ll feel more engaged in your efforts and want to help you out by donating some big bucks to your fundraising efforts.

Any close-up of you showing off your pearly whites is good, but when possible, you should make your photo related to your fundraiser.  For instance, if you’re raising money for charity by growing a mustache, add a picture of yourself with mustache to make your donors chuckle.  Or, if you’re training for a marathon and you have a photo of yourself in all your high tech, dry-fit Super NIKE awesome jogging gear use that as your photo.  It will show your supporters that you are working your butt off to reach your goal (and if nothing else that you look good in a track suit).

Photo of yours truly growing a mustache for cancer research. Going for the 1970s Olympian Mark Spitz look.

Photo of Ben Kobren at GiveForward’s Run for a Reason 2008 (NYC)

This is a good example of a photo that would work.  If you are good at photoshop, just substitute your face in for Ben’s and tell people that it is you.

If you’re not good at photoshop….

Here’s how to add a Super-Awesome Photo of Yourself to Your Fundraising Page:

Step one: When you are logged in hit the button that says “Edit Fundraiser” (or “Start Fundraising” (if you don’t already have a fundraiser page).

Step two: Upload super-awesome photo of yourself from your computer.

Step three: Get lots of money from your donors.

Step four: Bask in the awesomeness of your photo.

If you have set a high fundraising goal for yourself like $5000, you’re probably going to reach a point when all your friends and family have contributed and the donations that once came in droves have now slowed down to a trickle.  What do you do if you’re still short of your goal at this point?

Well, when the going gets tough, the tough get creative.   One good strategy is to hold an offline fundraiser event and then contribute the money you raised to your fundraiser page. read more…

Once you’ve set up your  online fundaising page and started collecting donations, it’s important to keep your friends and family up to speed with the latest news about your fundraising efforts.  The easiest way to do this is through email.

And here’s the big secret to emailing — send out LOTS of them.

The reality is that the majority of your friends and family won’t donate the first time you ask them.  Most people don’t even donate the second time you ask them.  The trick is you have to be persistent and not get discouraged because in the end, the majority of your friends and family will come around for you.  You just have to keep asking.

As a rule of thumb, If your campaign is eight weeks or more,  send out an email every two weeks for the first six weeks and then three to four emails in the final weeks and days before your event or your fundraiser, as people often wait until the very last minute to give and most fundraisers have a big final push at the end.

One question people fundraising always ask me is “how do I keep repeatedly emailing my friends and family without getting on their nerves?”

The trick here is to make sure that your emails are interesting and that they offer some updated news to your donors.  I look at online fundraising as a two-way street.  You can’t just ask your friends and family to open their wallets without giving them something back. You absolutely must give your donors something in exchange for their generous donations, and the best currency to offer them is news and updates about about your fundraising efforts.

When you email your donors with a news update, make the news update the primary subject of the email and the solicitation for more donations secondary.  This way your friends and family will become more engaged in your efforts and will want to give to you instead of just giving to you out of a sense of obligation.

This leads to the next question:

What is newsworthy?

And the answer to this is, Almost everything.

If, for example, you are training for an endurance event such as 1/2 marathon or a marathon, you’ll want to email your friends and family any time you participate in a training race like a  5K or 10K, or you reach a training milestone (e.g. the first time you have a 10+ mile training run).  Tell them about your trials and tribulations.  If you let them know how hard you are working to accomplish your goal, they’ll be more likely to contribute

Even if you’re not training for an event like a marathon, there are tons of newsworthy items you can email your friends about.  Here are some other examples:

• You reach a fundraising milestone (e.g. 10%, 25% or 75% of your fundraising goal)
• You had a great personal experience volunteering for your organization that you want to share with others
• The non-profit you are raising money for is in the news (check the organizations website frequently to see if there are updates)
• You are having an offline event, e.g. a bakesale, a bar night, etc to raise money for your cause and you want to remind people who can’t come that they can still donate online at your fundraising page.

Be a Mensch

Lastly (and this is one of the most important things you need to know), ALWAYS let your donors know how much you appreciate their support.  Be a mensch and be sincere.  Whenever you send out a new email asking for donations, start it off with a “thank you” and end it with a “thank you”.  Remember, your friends are under no obligation to donate to you, so let them know that you appreciate it when they do.

Okay, that’s your primer in emailing.  Questions and comments are always welcome, and if you need more advice, feel free to contact us directly.

Until next week, happy fundraising!

The single most important thing you can do to ensure a successful online fundraising campaign is to make sure your first five donors all give big-money donations.

Why is this so critical to your fundraising success? Well, it has to do with something I call the law of monkey see, monkey do.

When people visit your fundraising page, one of the first things they do is check out the donor list to see who has given and what the average donation size is.  Then they donate a similar amount. If they see that most people they know are donating between $50-$100, then they will likely donate between $50-$100 as well. On the other hand, if they check out your donor list and see that most people are donating between $10-$20, then they’ll probably donate between $10-$20 too.

To ensure that your first five donors all give nice big donations, make a list of the top five people you expect will be the most generous donors (e.g. Mom and Dad, Grandma and Gramps, maybe your spouse, a godparent or a close family friend).

Once you pick your “fave five,” ask them in person, call them, or send them an email asking them to donate X amount.  Tell them that you need their help to get the ball rolling and explain to them that if they donate X amount, subsequent donors will be more likely to donate X amount as well.

After your “fave five” have all donated, should you begin contacting your next closest group of friends and family and asking them to donate.  After the people in group # 2 have donated, you can start asking people in your next closest group of friends to donate, and so on and so forth…

Once you have a good number of donations on your page, you can then send the mass email to everyone in your contact book.  By this point, you’ll have a lot of momentum and people will be more inclined to donate.

My sister recently ran a half-marathon and used this exact fundraising strategy to raise $2500 for cancer research.  Before she sent out a single email, she personally asked some of her closest friends and family members to donate $100 each.  After they had all donated, she sent an email out to a second group of friends, but didn’t ask them to donate any specific amount.  Nevertheless, a good majority of them donated $100 as well because everyone else prior to them had already given that amount.  Within a week, and without ever sending out a mass email to everyone in her contact book, she had raised over $1000.  The strategy works really well.  You just have to be a little patient.

I hope this first tip is helpful. Until next week, happy fundraising!

New year’s is right around the corner and that means it’s time for new year’s resolutions.  Well, this year at GiveForward our new year’s resolution is to help more of our users reach their online fundraising goals.  That’s why we’ve decided to start a new section of our blog called the Fundraising Tip of the Week where, starting in January, we will provide a new fundraising tip or strategy each week to help you become a fundraising rock star.  That’s 52 tips in 52 weeks for the low, low price of FREE!! (1000% lower the newstand cover price)

And while the tips are scheduled to start in 2009, we’re even going to throw in an early sneak preview bonus tip coming out tomorrow…So now you get 53 weeks for the price of none.  Good Deal, right?

Anyway, until tomorrow, here’s wishing you all a grievance-free Festivus!

[youtube][/youtube]

Remember when you were a kid and Mom used to get on your case about writing thank you notes?   Well, Mom was right.  It’s always a good idea to thank the peeple that helped you out along the way.  That’s why we just added a new feature that allows you write personalized thank you emails directly to your donors.

Here’s how:

When you log in and go to “My Fundraisers” click on the “My Donors” tab.  From here you can send an email directly to Aunt Edna, your amigos or even the friend of a friend who sent you $10 to help with your fundraising effort.  So go ahead, be a mensch and give it a try.  We promise you,  Aunt Edna and the rest of your donors will really appreciate it.

If you read “The Three Ps to Successful Fundraising“, you probably already know that spreading the word to friends and family about your fundraising effort is critical to reaching your fundraising goal. But what you might not know is that there is a right way and a wrong way to spread the word to your peeps. You have to promote strategically if you plan on raising lots of money for your cause. This blog post explains how.

The Wrong Way. I guess it makes sense to first start off by telling you what not to do. What you don’t want to do is set up your fundraising page and then IMMEDIATELY send a mass email to everyone you know asking them to donate. Sending a mass email to start off your campaign sounds intuitive, but in fact, this is a bad idea. No bueno amigo.

It’s not that mass emails are necessarily bad. In fact, mass emails are a great tool and SHOULD be used. It’s just that sending the mass email should be the LAST step you take, not the first.

Here’s why:

First, mass emails are impersonal. People don’t feel as compelled to donate when they receive a mass email. People respond much much much more positively when they receive a phone call or a personalized email that is directed towards them.

Second, if you send out a single mass email to everyone you know, you have no control over who donates first. Why does it matter who donates first? Well, it has to do with the law of monkey see, monkey do.

When people come to your fundraising page, they check out the donor list to see the average donation size. Then they donate a similar amount. If they see that most people are donating between $50-$100, then they will likely donate between $50-$100. On the other hand, if they check out your donor list and see that most people are donating between $5-$10, then they’ll probably donate $5-$10 too.

By contacting all your friends, family, co-workers and schoolmates at the same time with a single mass email, you’re leaving your fundraising campaign entirely up to chance, as you’ll have no control over who donates first. For all you know, your first few donations might be from people who give you $5 or $10 prompting subsequent donors to donate equally small amounts and making it hard for you to ever reach your fundraising goal.

To summarize, mass emails can be a very useful tool to reach out to lots of people. However, the mass email should always be the last step, not the first!

The Right Way. The right way to promote your fundraising page, is to use what I oh-so-modestly call “Ethan’s Super-Awesome Strategic Fundraising Model”. In short, what you’re going to want to do is to categorize your potential donors into different groups and then contact them over a period of weeks starting with your Big Guns (i.e. those likely to donate the largest amounts) first.

STEP ONE: Subdividing Your Contact List

The first step in creating a strategic fundraising campaign is to break down your potential donors into three different groups.

Group One: Your Base

The first group is your base. Your base consists of parents, grandparents, spouses, aunts and uncles, godparents and siblings. These are your BIG GUNS — the people you know will donate to your campaign and are likely to be the most generous with their contributions.

Group Two: Your Semi-Awesomes (more awesome than 99% of the rest of the world, but a little less awesome than your base)

This second group consists of friends, extended family, family friends, and co-workers. A good number of these people will donate to your campaign as well, but they might not be quite as generous as your base and it might take a few requests before they all donate.

Group Three: Your Stretch Group

Your third group of potential donors is your “stretch” group. This group consists of facebook friends, friends of friends and other acquaintances. These people probably won’t donate the first or even second time you ask them, but with a little persistence you can probably win over a good number of these fine folks as well.

STEP TWO: Contacting Your Subgroups

After you’ve broken down potential donors into three groups, the next step is to begin contacting your base. Since you probably speak to most of these people on a regular basis, it’s best to call them first and ask them to contribute to your fundraising effort before you send them an email. By calling them first, they’ll be quicker to donate once they actually get your email request.

What’s nice about handpicking your first few donors is if they all give you nice big fatty $100 or $200 donations, subsequent donors will follow their lead and donate similar amounts, or at least amounts somewhat close to that range.

Once you’ve raised a good bit of money from your base (which could take anywhere from a few days to about a week) you should begin contacting your Semi-Awesomes. You can call these people on the phone if you are close with them and have the time. If you don’t have time to call, sending them personal emails requesting that they donate should be sufficient.

Continue emailing individuals and/or sub-groups of people (e.g. college buddies, high school buddies, co-workers) on your list. After about half of your semi-awesomes have donated. You can begin to email your “stretch group” of Facebook friends and acquaintances. Again, keep going down the list and don’t stop until you’ve contacted everyone you know.

STEP THREE: Rinse and Repeat

Once you’ve contacted everyone once, it’s time to rinse and repeat. Even close friends and family “forget” to donate right away so you’ll have to keep reminding them, often three, four, five or even six times before they donate. But don’t get too frustrated. Persistence always pays off and if your friends and family like you even a little bit, they’ll almost certainly come through for you in the clutch!

Persistence

Okay, so quick review. In the first two sections we discussed the importance of personalization and promotion. The last thing you need to remember on your path to becoming a fundraiser rock star extraordinaire is that persistence pays off. It’s rare that people donate immediately after your first email or phone request. Don’t get discouraged and don’t take it personally. Sometimes it takes people the second, third, fourth, fifth or even sixth request before they donate. However, if you are raising money for a good cause and you are proud of what you are doing, your friends and family will be more than happy to support you. They’ll all come around eventually. Sometimes they just don’t get around to it right away and it takes a little nudging on your part to get them there.

So you must be wondering, how the heck am I going to send my amigos three, four, five, or even six emails without getting on their nerves. Well, the best way to send multiple emails to your friends and family over a short period without getting on their nerves is to offer them updates and new information about your fundraising efforts instead of just asking repeatedly for donations. That’s why it’s really important to keep your fundraising page updated with new photos, videos, blog entries and notes on your event calendar.

For example, let’s say you are running a marathon to raise money for AIDS research. Every time you reach a significant training or fundraising milestone you have a new reason to email your donor list. Tell them very briefly in the email about your accomplishment and encourage them to check out your fundraising page for the updated photos and blog entries. Your friends and family will like to hear about your progress and the emails will serve as a gentle reminder to all those who haven’t donated yet.

Remember, you’re raising money for a good cause. Always be proud of what you are doing, and never be shy about sending out multiple emails. Eventually, most of your friends and family will end up donating. People just need reminders.

Okay, that’s it. Those are the three Ps for successful fundraising. Personalization, Promotion, Persistence. Make them your mantra and you’ll have no problem reaching your fundraising goals. Of course, if you ever have any more questions about fundraising tactics or strategies, feel free to email me (ethan@giveforward.com) or even give me a ring on my cell phone (949) 400-0132. I’m always happy to help.

Need a refresher?  Check out Step One: Personalization or Step Two: Promote.

Promote! Promote! Promote!

Once you’ve created a fundraising page that you are really proud of, you’re ready for step two: promoting the heck out of it.

It’s important to remember that just because your fundraising page is up on the web, it doesn’t automatically mean thousands of people are going to open up their wallets and give you money. In reality, the success of your fundraiser depends on two factors: (1) how strategically you promote your fundraiser; and (2) how much effort you put into promoting your page.

Developing a strong fundraising strategy is so integral to success that I have devoted an entirely separate blog entry just for this one topic. For the purpose of this blog entry, however, we’ll just focus on the second factor – fundraising effort.

Putting in 110%

Promoting your fundraiser is just like promoting anything else. You need to get the word out if you want it to be a success. Think about it like this – if you were to throw yourself a birthday party but you didn’t invite anyone to it, would anyone show up? Probably not. Well fundraising is no different. You’ve got to tell people about your fundraising page if you want them to show up.

Below I have listed some of the more effective strategies on how to best promote your page to your friends and family. I’ve also included a section on how to best get the word out to people you don’t know.

Promoting Your Fundraising Page to Friends and Family

Telephone. Email is going to be your most effective tool for reaching the masses, but don’t be shy about picking up the telephone to reach out some of your closest friends and family.

One of the best fundraising techniques is to first call your friends and family on the phone to let them know about your fundraising efforts. Once you’ve given them a heads up about your fundraiser, follow up by sending them an email with a link to your fundraising page. Even a brief, two-minute phone conversation before you send out the email will translate into higher donations and a quicker response rate from your donors.

Email. Email everyone you know, and by everyone we mean EVERYONE. Just because you haven’t talked to your freshmen year roommate since you got drunk and accidentally spilled a Dr. Pepper on his laptop, doesn’t mean he won’t donate to your campaign. People are generous and you’ll be amazed to find out that some of your biggest donations will come from people you haven’t seen in years. So don’t be bashful. Start sending those emails to anyone and everyone you know. As a general rule of thumb, if you’ve said “hi” to a person in the last 15 years, they’re fair game for an email.

However, if possible, try to avoid sending a mass email to everyone in your contact book.  Instead, try sending emails to small groups of 10-15 people. So for example, you might send one email to friends from your study abroad program, while you’d send a separate message to your co-workers, a different one to your cousins in Massachusetts, and another one to the people you know from your Wednesday night softball league. Remember, people are much more generous if they know you took the time to write them a personal email. If you have the time to do so, the extra effort on your part will definitely pay off.

Social Networking Sites. We know that you have about eight million friends on Facebook. Contact them. ALL of them. Even though you may not have seen some of these people since high school, it’s okay to let them know what you are doing and ask them to contribute a small amount to your fundraising effort. However, just like with regular emails, sending out a mass message to everyone is going to be ineffective. Instead, send out separate messages to small sub-groups of friends.

Additionally, a lot of our users have had success starting Facebook groups for their fundraisers and inviting all their friends to join.  It’s a great way to spread the word.

Text Messages. Sometimes you might not have someone’s email address but you have their number in your phone. Send text messages to all these people and make sure to include the URL to your fundraising page in the message.

Click here to continue onto Step Three: Persistance  or  get a refresher on Step One: Personalization.

OK, so I assume you’re reading this because you want to raise lots of money for your fundraising event. But you’re probably not exactly sure how to go about doing it. Well, if you already signed up to get a personal fundraising page, you’re off to a great start.

But I’d be lying to you if I told you that you can simply create a personal fundraising page, sit back and watch the money start pouring in. The reality is that creating your personal fundraising page is only half the battle.

The other half of the battle is convincing people to actually open their wallets for you. Luckily, this isn’t as hard as it sounds. If you can remember the three Ps to successful fundraising (Personalization Promotion and Persistence) you’ll do fine. Better yet, say the three Ps out loud, sing them in the shower, make them your mantra. Personalization. Promotion. Persistence…Personalization. Promotion. Persistence. I promise, if you follow these three rules, you’ll be a fundraising rock star in no time.

This is kind of a long blog post, so I’ve broken it down into three parts. Part I starts with the first P of successful fundraising — Personalization.

Part 1: Personalization

Creating a great fundraising page is the first step towards fundraising rock-stardomness. A great page demonstrates to potential donors that you are passionate about what you are doing and willing to put in the time and energy necessary to raise money for your cause.

A great fundraising page should include:

• Your Story – It is helpful to start off with a compelling story. People should know why you are raising money for your charity or cause. Give as much detail as possible. If there is a specific event in your life that inspired you to fundraise, let the world know about it. If the charity or cause you’re raising money for holds a special place in your heart, share this with others. People are much more likely to support you if you can demonstrate that the cause or issue you are raising money for is something that has significant meaning to you.

• A Description of Your Organization – If you are fundraising on behalf of a non-profit organization you should provide a description of the important work the organization does. You can usually find most of this information on the organization’s website. If you can’t find the information you need on the website, don’t hesitate to call the organization on the phone. Non-profits are generally more than happy to help and often have fundraising professionals who can even provide you with some great tips.

• A Description of How Donations Will Be Used – Another thing to remember is that people are more generous when they know exactly what their dollars are going towards. For example, if you are fundraising for a low-income elementary school, people are more likely to donate if you let them know that their $25 donation will buy a new soccer ball for the P.E. class or that their $100 donation will buy school uniforms for four students. You can usually find out this information by calling up the non-profit or organization for which you are fundraising.

• Photos – People like photos. So add lots, especially if they are heartwarming or funny. For example, if you’re raising money for an orphanage in South America where you worked as a volunteer last summer, upload some pics of you with the little munchkins from the orphanage. If you’re training for an event like a marathon or a triathlon make sure to let potential donors know how hard you’re working by uploading some photos of you in all your gear sweatin’ it out. Of course, bonus points are always awarded if you’re wearing spandex in any of your pics.

• Video –Adding a video to your personal fundraising page can be a great way to connect with donors. If you’ve got a good sense of humor, a funny video can be very effective. If humor is not your shtick, a video that is heartwarming or inspirational works equally well. Remember that the video doesn’t have to be fancy in order to be effective. So if you’re not exactly Steven Spielberg, don’t sweat it. Simply standing in front of the camera and telling people why you are raising money can be very compelling. In the end, whatever you end up doing, remember it’s best to keep it short (1-3 min) and to the point.

OK, that’s it for step one. Be creative and have fun with your page! Just remember, the more personal you can make it, the better.

Click here to continue on to Step Two: Promote