Frog Loop

It was a sunny SxSW Saturday last week where people came together for Zoetica Media's brunch and brainstorm session -- with one nonprofit in mind:  Safe Place.
Community and a Strategic Starting Point The goal was to look at Safe Place's community, internally and externally, and offer a strategic starting point for this nonprofit's social media plan.
They are doing vital work in the Austin area. Their team provides shelter, a 24 hour hotline, and educational services to those impacted by sexual violence and domestic abuse.  
I haven't discussed this topic very much, especially in a brainstorm setting like this. Despite that discomfort, I was motivated by just how compelling a discussion group can be in the face of greater community impact.
Key Questions: A Social Media Plan Takes Shape Who really is a community partner?  How do they engage with eachother?
These questions were at the heart of discussion.  And Narissa Johnson, Safe Place's communications director, observed some interesting results from the conversations.  
In this onsite video interview, we talk about what most stood out strategically for taking her social media plan to the next level.
What do you think about these ideas? What would you add for moving her social media plan forward?

 

Jill Foster blogs at Live Your Talk, on resources and stories to help professional women be excellent communicators through social media and public speech. She is co-founder of DC Media Makers and founding editor of Women Grow Business.

SXSW was a total whirlwind filled with some of the biggest thought leaders discussing social media (of course) but also about the power of online fundraising and crowdsourcing. While many nonprofit campaigners didn't make SXSW this year, we at Care2's Frogloop and some of our guest writers attended several sessions. What were the key take-aways at this years conference?

When building a fundraising campaign via crowsourcing:

• Build personal relationships with people first.
• Don't treat potential donors like an ATM machine.
• Keep expections simple. (Editors Note: This was part of a live discussion between Beth Kanter and Mark Horvath of the Invisible People project).

Check out more nonprofit campaigner take-aways below.

Michael Cervino, Beaconfire: For online campaigning, a whole new world of tools and tactics is opening up for nonprofits as the commercial sector invests in social media, social networking and more sophisticated UI experiences. I saw dozens of new services and tools at SXSWi of which nonprofits could take advantage. But at the core of whether any of them will make a difference was a pervasive question by many in the sessions: What is your nonprofit’s story and why should constituents care? If we can’t answer this question in spades, no new tool in the world is going to help you build your base, improve your advocacy and raise money for your cause. Be authentic, be transparent, and be relevant before you start worrying about being “cool” or “edgy.”

Michaela Hackner, Forum One: Community is king - both online and offline. It's the way we not only identify ourselves, but most importantly a true vehicle for change. Our communities vet good ideas, apply the "trust" layer, and motivate us to take action. It is the groundswell of communities that provides the momentum and sustainability for social change. This week has reminded me that the power and benefits of getting communities together in person shouldn't be overlooked. Human contact leverages passion that sometimes gets lost online. It re-energizes and inspires. It reminds us why we do what we do.  For me, I'm excited to get more involved with my local community when I get home, and apply those local lessons on a global scale.

Clint O'Brien, Care2: It was a scary revelation that both AOL and Demand Media are using the same mechanized approach to creating content. As I understand it, first they use an algorithm to detect what people are already talking about a lot on the Interwebs, then they assign writers to blog about those matters. Talk about an echo chamber!

Has your nonprofit been frustrated with the lack of comprehensive analytic tools for Twitter? How can organizations on a budget be expected to truly measure their impact and engagement using social media, if they don’t have the tools to properly analyze it? Thanks to Shana Glickfield of the BeeKeeper Group, I discovered a great new tool called tweetlytics that provides detailed analytics and slick graphical renderings of data then many of the other budget oriented Twitter analytic tools don’t have. Here’s how it works.

Organizations can sign-up to monitor between five and fifteen campaigns at a time that they are promoting on Twitter. Campaign Managers tag multiple keywords for each of the campaigns that they want to analyze. For example, if I were setting Tweetlytics up for a group like Planned Parenthood, a campaign would be Save Roe. Some keywords I would tag and track for the Save Roe campaign within Tweetlytics would be prochoice, Roe Vs Wade, Planned Parenthood, as well as opposition keywords like anti-choice, prolife, etc.

Once the campaign is up and running, Campaign Managers login and generate reports. Reports can also be delivered to your inbox daily and include:

• Total tweets and links about campaigns.
• Top Twitter users who mention your campaigns. Campaign Managers can also click on the link and see the actual tweets.
• Top hashtags

SXSW is just around the corner. For five days nonprofit campaigners, techies, and social media enthusiasts will gather for one of the largest and most anticipated conferences of the year. But with over 3K+ attendees and hundreds of panels, core conversations, workshops and parties, it can be overwhelming to get the most out of SXSW. No worries though. Frogloop has put together a short list of the best nonprofit and political campaign related panels as well as parties and gatherings for the nonprofit community. Read on!

Panels

Debunking the Myth of Social Media Fundraising
March 13 at 12:30 PM

This panel will discuss several case studies showing successful fundraising strategies that incorporate Social Media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The panel will review results from a recently completed research project investigating social media fundraising strategies specifically supporting events.

PRESENTERS
Brooke McMillan, Stacey Monk, Frank Barry, Donna Wilkins and Jodie Kolkowski

2009 Iran Election: Women's Revolution? Twitter Revolution?
March 14 at 11:00 AM

By campaigning and protesting Iranian women surprised onlookers through their sociopolitical participation during the 2009 Iranian election. What led to the sudden appearance of an invisible part of Iranian society, and what role did emerging media play? This panel will discuss online political activity during and prior to the election.

PRESENTERS
Roja Bandari, Mona Kasra, Shireen Mitchell and Dr. David Parry

Not Just for Obama: New Media Gets Local
March 14 at 12:30 PM

Local political campaigns have adopted many of the tools of national campaigns but with varied success. This panel will examine the tools now being used in local races and by local activists (Facebook, Wordpress, Drupal, Twitter, SMS, etc) and give specific examples of success and failures.

PRESENTERS
Julie Blitzer and David Parmet

Crowd Sourcing Innovative Social Change
March 14 at 3:30 PM

In the past year, registered Twitter accounts have grown more than 1,500%, according to Biz Stone, Co-Founder of Twitter. With such an explosion of new voices, that’s a lot of tweets and noise for nonprofit campaigners to filter through.  So if you can only carve out 20 minutes a day to follow nonprofit leaders and thinkers discussing nonprofit issues on Twitter, who would they be? Tough question, right? There are so many smart folks. Here’s my top 10. Feel free to add your top picks too in the comments section.  Note: I have kept the list to only include one person per organization. And don’t forget to follow @Care2frogloop – Frogloop’s very own Twitter feed.

@jocelynharmon – Jocelyn, who has been working in the nonprofit sector for over a decade tweets about online fundraising and how to connect with donors, email marketing, and online advocacy. Jocelyn is also the Director of Nonprofit Services for Care2.com, the company who runs the Care2Frogloop blog.

@kanter – The go-to expert on social media for nonprofits.

 

@mobileactive – One of the best sources for information on integrating mobile into campaigns.

@NancySchwartz – As a nonprofit marketer, Nancy tweets about online and offline communications including email copywriting, fundraising strategy, and nonprofit resources she discovers.

 

@nptechblogs – Tweets about the latest articles from the top nonprofit blogs.

 

What does Homer Simpson have to do with your cause? More than you probably think.  

People including your activists, donors and prospects share a lot in common with Homer Simpson. And I don’t just mean they love bacon.  

We might not want to admit it, but people make irrational, Homer-like decisions every day. We cave to social norms. We opt for small, immediate satisfaction, rather than big long-term gain. We buckle to authority.  

The list of illogic is long. And it adds up to making decisions that are often contrary to our own best interests. 

But while we may be irrational, we are not unpredictable.  

Enter in behavioral economics.  

A reaction to “rationality”— the concept that people use logic and reason to make the best choices for themselves — behavioral economics identifies social, cognitive, and emotional factors that influence decisions. 

The big takeaway? People make decisions like Homer Simpson, not Spock.  

What’s more, in the nonprofit space these irrational decisions have high stakes. We’re not asking people to buy a Coke. We’re asking them to change the world. Their decisions matter — a lot.   

So what’s a nonprofit marketer and fundraiser to do?  

Mark your calendar for March 30, 2010 where some of the top minds in online fundraising and social media will gather in DC at the Newseum for the Online Fundraising Strategies Conference hosted by Artez Interactive. Join Care2's Jocelyn Harmon and Eric Rardin who will be leading the soup to nuts panel, Nonprofits and New Blood: An Overview of Online Acquisition Tactics and Strategies.

The workshop will discuss why recruiting new donors, advocates, and members are critical to nonprofit's growth. There are numerous tactics for online acquisition including Search Engine Marketing, Co-Registration, Email List Rental and Lead Generation. Nonprofits will also learn ways to evaluate the performance of online acquisition programs so that they can improve their return on investment. Finally, nonprofits will hear about best practices in converting new subscribers into donors through direct appeals, multichannel conversions, and peer-to-peer fundraising.
  
Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the top thinkers in the industry and network with your peers at the Online Fundraising Strategies Conference.
  
Click here to see the full agenda and register.



You should follow Frogloop on Twitter.

Receive monthly updates

Is your nonprofit reaching women and harnessing their power for social change? If your nonprofit is not actively marketing to women and recruiting them, your organization is missing out on major fundraising opportunities. During last week’s webinar The She Spot – Best Practices in Marketing to Women, Lisa Witter co-author of the book The She Spot and Morra Aarons-Mele of Women Online discussed why women are the market for changing the world and how to reach them.

“Women have numerical advantages,” said Witter and Mele. The average profile of a volunteer in the US is a working mother. Surprised? Check out these stats.

• Women give more to nonprofits then men.
• In the last four presidential elections, women voted at higher percentages then men.
• Women are connectors. Women are twice as likely to pass on information about your cause. So if your organization is not connecting with women in your campaigns, your nonprofit is missing out on major word of mouth marketing.
• Women make 83% of consumer purchasing decisions.
• Latina women are 3.5x more likely to respond to direct mail.
• 70% of women say that it’s important for companies to engage in corporate social responsibility and be active in their local community.

Connecting with women in online social networks is also important, said Mele. Social media allows nonprofits to get to know their audiences because they can engage back and fourth with them real time.

The demographics of the US are changing. An estimated 40% of the US is comprised of people of color, according to 2008 US Census data. Yet many nonprofits online lists aren’t diverse. Why aren’t nonprofits cultivating diverse activists and donors (a topic Jocelyn Harmon of Care2, Shireen Mitchell of Digital Sistas, and Ivan Booth of Rootwork and I will be discussing on our panel at NTC on April 10th)?  People of color care about the environment and climate change, women’s rights and equal pay, healthcare reform, labor reform, human rights, etc. Yet outreach and cultivation to diverse communities are typically done around election time, instead of as part of our regular campaign outreach work. This is a big mistake.

“Many people of color's lives are impacted by social justice issues everyday, some significantly more than others. Many are committed and have died for the issues they believe in. They are committed activists and nonprofits should be cultivating them,” said Shireen Mitchell, founder of Digital Sistas, a nonprofit that focuses on promoting women's equality in technology and a public speaker on this issue.

Furthermore, by not having diverse activists and donors, nonprofits are missing out on interesting and new ways to discuss, approach or address social justice issues with diverse audiences which also brings diverse perspectives, said Mitchell.

During the 2008 Presidential election, voter turnout increased by about “2 million more black voters, 2 million more Hispanic voters and about 600,000 more Asian voters, while the number of non-Hispanic white voters remained statistically unchanged,” according to the US Census Bureau.

Are nonprofits harnessing the social power of diverse communities who care about issues that nonprofits advocate?

“At the most basic level, all nonprofits are trying to change something in the world. It goes without saying that how we go about organizing, communicating and fundraising and whom we engage in our work can have a dramatic impact on our outcomes,” said Harmon in a recent blog post on Diversity, Community, Technology and You.

Before Web 2.0 took over the world, people were part of smaller online participatory communities called listservs. Remember them? Though not as sexy as Twitter, people are still active on listservs and they continue to be valuable tools for nonprofits and community groups to connect with people who are passionate about discussing issues, sharing resources, and engaging in thoughtful and sometimes heated debates. Yet even after all these years, many organizations still haven’t mastered how to use listservs in building successful and engaging online communities.

The biggest barriers groups face is how to structure listservs.

• Should they be moderated?
• How should people frame their topic for discussion when they post to the listserv? By subject line categories?
• How do you handle posts that are just “loosely” related to the community? Is that considered off topic? Is that a bad thing? Should the posts be rejected?
• How do you handle heated debates and inappropriate comments?

Do you see a pattern emerging from the questions above? Organizations are typically uncomfortable giving up control. But if organizations are going to truly engage people in meaningful discussions online, they need get comfortable letting people talk, even if that means that they don’t share the same perspectives as some members of the community.

“I think there's a delicate balance to be had. Moderate too little, and everyone except the loudmouths and bullies get shut out. (I say that as a loudmouth myself, no offense intended.),” said Jaclyn Friedman who runs the very active Women, Action & The Media (WAM!) Media listserv.

Since the days of Edward Bernays, marketing has attempted to convince consumers of their hidden desire to buy products.  Have fifty years of manipulation run their course?   Many leading members of the cause marketing industry feel that consumers are beginning to demand corporations not only provide quality products but also become responsible members of the community.  Can your nonprofit afford to not become part of a cause marketing campaign?  I spoke with three leading practitioners of cause marketing to find out.

The way people view the role of corporations is constantly changing. Today many of the leading Fortune 500 companies have enacted pro-social campaigns.  Everyone from Exxon to Wal-Mart have initiatives that engage non-profits and local communities.  Corporate America’s sudden enthusiasm for doing good is being backed up by statistics as well.  According to the 2008 Cone Cause Evolution Study, 79% of respondents said they would switch brands (provided price and quality were equal) to the one that is associated with a good cause. Carol Cone, one of the pioneers in the cause-marketing world attributes the change to trust issues and a changing demographic, "Consumers expect companies to have profits with purpose and there are many reasons for it.  The first is because Millennials are the most pro social demographic since WW2.  The second is because of the tremendous erosion of trust in big corporations.  So companies are now expected to not just make a profit but also become engaged in social issues."

Enter Cause Marketing

Unlike corporate philanthropy, cause marketing is really about the collaborative effort of companies and nonprofits to achieve things they could never do alone.  Take the Nothing But Nets Campaign, a collaborative effort of the UN Foundation and a number of corporate partners including the National Basketball Association and VH1 to stamp out Malaria.  Nothing But Nets successfully leveraged the UN Foundation's expertise in infectious disease with their corporate sponsors money and celebrity resources to create a vibrant campaign that distributed over 2 million bed nets in 2008. 

 

We've all heard and lived the 80-20 gospel: 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.  In the consumer products world, it's the 10-50 rule: in any product category, 10% of consumers account for more than 50% of profits.  In the online advocacy and politics world, many of us have internalized the "Power Law" thanks to Clay Shirky and other leading thinkers in our space.  But there's a gap between knowing the Power Law and putting it to use as an engagement ladder to identify and cultivate those superstars that might make up 20% of your list.

We can start to bridge the gap by getting a handle on three things:

1. What's the ideal profile of a superstar for your organization? Is it a monthly donor? Someone who signs up and then shows up for offline events?  Someone who organizes those events? Do your superstars submit content for your website, emails or direct mail? Do they forward, post, and retweet your content?  If I told you I could bring you 1000 people who would consistently deliver on three things - what would those things be? What contributions made well and consistently would move the ball furthest for your organization?

Being clear about what you need from the most active 20% of your supporters, activists, readers, or volunteers is the first step to ensuring you're building structures to find, cultivate, and support those critical folks.

2. How will you know who your potential superstars are?  With a clear profile of an ideal superstar in mind, you can set up the analytics tools and reporting to help you identify them - the first step toward learning more about your superstars and cultivating them.  If you're all about content and ideas (i.e. Mother Jones or the New Republic) then you should set up analytics tools to help you identify the people who both read and share your content most.

“Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life,” said author Gabriel García Márquez. This quote “resonates with how we live our lives today, and perhaps how we have lived since the start of human society,” writes blogger Stowe Boyd. It got me thinking about how much personal info online activists are willing to give up to nonprofits. Will constituents easily offer their cell phone numbers now that nonprofits are looking at mobile fundraising more seriously?

Frogloop spoke with several mobile experts to gain their perspectives on the mobile market, what success nonprofits like Rock the Vote are experiencing with mobile marketing, and if nonprofits should start integrating mobile into their communications plans. In part two of this series, Frogloop will explore strategies to optimize mobile campaigns.

Should Nonprofits Require Mobile Numbers on their Registration Forms?

Most mobile experts agree that nonprofits should start collecting cell phone numbers as part of their list building and engagement strategies but that nonprofits would probably see a decrease in sign-ups if they made cell phone numbers a required field (though many acknowledged there is no definitive data on this and that it’s sill being compiled). However, nonprofits could deploy a marketing tactic such as the Obama campaign did when they promoted the VP announcement via mobile. Supporters who gave the Obama campaign their mobile numbers were the first to hear the VP pick. Smart move by the Obama team, but of course that was a presidential election, so your nonprofit would have to find a compelling enough hook to do something similar.

Are People Comfortable Giving Up Their Mobile Number?

The jury is split and it also depends on the demographic. Most consumers are not comfortable providing this information,” said Chris Parandian, of MobileDiner.com. “Cell phone numbers are so personal.”

Parandian raises an excellent point. Cell phone numbers can be safe guarded as more private then say email because the majority of people who have email addresses have at least three email accounts that serve different purposes (personal, business, etc), according to e-Marketer. People don’t want to be marketed to everywhere despite marketers attempts to reach them at every opportunity.

Did you know that:
•    women control two-thirds of all wealth in the U.S?
•    women make 80% of all household purchasing decisions?
•    women donate twice as many to charities as men do?

If your nonprofit is not actively marketing to women and recruiting them, your organization is missing out on major fundraising opportunities. Join Fenton’s Lisa Witter, author of The She Spot, and Morra Aarons-Mele of Women Online for a free, 1-hour webinar on Thursday, February 25th on best practices for recruiting and retaining women donors. The moderator will be Michelle Coyle, Director of Nonprofit Services for Care2, the 12 million member social network of “do-gooders” used successfully by hundreds of nonprofit organizations to recruit loyal donors and advocacy supporters.

The She Spot: Best Practices in Marketing to Women
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 2 pm EST

We have a limited amount of webinar lines, so please take a moment to sign up now. It's free.

About the presenters:
Lisa Witter Lisa is the Chief Strategy Officer for Fenton Communications. She is an experienced for-profit executive, social entrepreneur, communications strategist, author, blogger and social commentator with expertise in the nonprofit sector, philanthropy, politics, women’s issues, social marketing, new media, international affairs, corporate social responsibility, and leveraging pop culture for social change. Lisa is the co-founder of She-Source.org, and co-author of The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for Changing the World – And How to Reach Them.

Morra Aarons-Mele Morra is the founder of Women Online, and utilizes social media strategies to help employers, employees and communities connect with women. She also consults with leading organizations on how women can use the internet for professional and personal development. She is the author of the upcoming “Women and Leadership in the Digital Age,” part of the new Sage Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership. Morra writes for BlogHer.com, MomsRising, the Huffington Post, and guardian.co.uk.  

Michelle Coyle (moderator) Michelle is the Director of Nonprofit Services at Care2, where she helps nonprofits customize strategic campaigns to reach Care2’s membership of over 12 million.

You should follow Frogloop on Twitter.

 

Receive monthly updates

While high dollar donors comprise less than 2% of total online donors, their gifts make up 18%+ of funds raised ever year. Chances are, your organization doesn’t have a 4-digit donor strategy as part of your online fundraising program, but organizations may want to start experimenting with one.

A new white paper released by M+R Strategic Services, that studied the Human Rights Campaign fundraising program, suggests that nonprofits need to look at past donation data to identify audiences for high dollar appeals. A good place to start is to pinpoint:

• Donors who gave more than $50 monthly through a sustainer program.
• Monthly sustainers who have become inactive but were giving more than $75 before they canceled or became inactive.
• Donors who gave $200 or more cumulatively in the past 12 months.
• Donors who gave at least 2 gifts of more than $100 within the last three years.
• Supporters who bought a ticket for a fundraising event in the past 3 to 9 months, or who have ever made a gift at a fundraising event other than buying a ticket.

Once your organization has identified prospective major donors, M&R suggests crafting online fundraising appeals that:

• Is specific and make the case why your nonprofit needs the money.
• Use hooks from the news and recent events.
• Utilize deadlines and have a sense of urgency.
• Offer appropriate premiums.
• Offer paid membership to this exclusive club and provide benefits such as free magazine subscriptions, invitations to exclusive events, etc.

One of the biggest lessons of all? Don’t get discouraged and keep experimenting.



Should CEOs and Executive Directors Use Social Media? 

I get asked this question a lot. Should Executive Directors be tweeting or be active on Facebook? Blogger and social media trainer, Beth Kanter says "It depends."

"There are definitely some benefits to having your Executive Director or CEO being present on social media channels.  They can provide a human face to your organization's work, a unique viewpoint, and serve as a thought leader in your field," said Kanter.

To be successful, EDs need to be authentic and not use ghost writers. They also need to be comfortable with technology and being transparent, Kanter said.

Beth also lists some great ED's who really get social media including Holly Ross of NTEN and Scott Harrison of Charity:Water.

Check out the rest of the article here.

Is Microgiving the New Layaway?

It's no secret that nonprofits have had to get creative to raise money online in this down economy. Joanne Fritz of About.com, takes a look at how donors are relying more on microgiving than ever before. One of the best examples Fritz sites is a comparison of the average donation made during the 2004 Tsunami ($208) and the recent Haiti earthquake ($109). Why? Because a big chunk of donations were raised via mobile which only allows between $5 and $10 donations.

I’ve lost 3.5 pounds since January.  My goal was to get to the gym every day of the week and because I’ve managed to do this (most days), I’ve lost some weight.  I realize this isn’t very interesting or surprising. Everyone knows that exercising helps you lose weight.  What is surprising is that, unbeknownst to me, the reason I trimmed a few pounds is because I’m doing something different.  I’m following the “change pattern” outlined in Switch: How to Create Change, when Change is Hard, the new book by brothers Chip and Dan Heath – the same co-authors whose previous bestseller was Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.

I’m sure you’re wondering what my personal weight loss has to do with the important social change effort that your nonprofit is attempting to undertake.  According to the Heath brothers – a lot.  In fact, they believe that there are general principles that apply to all changes – whether individual, organizational or societal.  By outlining these principles in Switch they hope that more change efforts will succeed. This book’s message and advice seems especially important for nonprofit professionals whose work is all about achieving major social changes, to make the world a better place.

The Rider vs. The Elephant

The first principle of Switch is that change requires appealing to both our emotions and our reason.  The Heath brothers put it this way:

“Our emotional side is like an Elephant and our rational side is its Rider.  Perched atop the Elephant, the Rider holds the reins and seems to be the leader.  But the Rider’s control is precarious because the Rider is so small relative to the Elephant.  Anytime the six-ton Elephant and the Rider disagree about which direction to go, the Rider is going to lose.  He’s completely overmatched.”

Repeat after me. "I will no longer send out fundraising appeals with boring subject lines and long-winded pitches."

In today’s battle of the inboxes, tweets, Facebook updates, text messages, and banner ads flying across the screen, organizations can’t afford to ignore online fundraising 101 strategies to motivate and inspire supporters to donate money. Don’t have the budget to hire fundraising strategists to help you craft your online fundraising campaigns? No problem. Follow these five tips and you will be on your way to increasing open and click-through rates and more importantly - raising more money for your nonprofit.

1. Short, Catchy Subject Lines

Hook your supporters right off the bat with a short and catchy subject line.

Example of Bad Subject Line:

Renew Your Commitment to End Dog Homelessness

What’s Wrong with it?

Aside from this subject line being BORING, you are also intimidating your members to shoulder a very big issue – that they alone are responsible for saving all dogs. Bad idea!

Example of Good Subject Line:

Help Keep a Puppy Safe in DC’s Blizzard!

This is a good subject line because it’s focused, local, timely, and a bit emotional. Who doesn’t want to keep a puppy safe from a terrible blizzard in their hometown?

2. Short and Sweet. Tell A Story

So you hooked your members with a short and catchy subject line, now continue to engage them in the body of the text with a brief (not 10 paragraphs), straight forward appeal that tells a story.

You don’t have to be the world’s greatest storyteller to tell a compelling story to your members. Why? Because every day you work on some of toughest issues facing the world or your community. You have access to the greatest stories at your disposal around the issues you advocate for and the people you help. Now share them. Tell your members how their $50 donation is going to help X, Y,  and Z. And be as specific as you can. For example: “Your $50 donation will help feed 5 puppies in our shelter for an entire month.”

When a nonprofit organization is beginning the process of doing a software implementation (such as a new website, or a new CRM or donation management product,) it is often unaware of the things that might underly whether such a project will succeed, how long it will take, and how much it will cost. Since nonprofits focus on their mission, and not software projects, that is an unknown to them, and understandably so.

In software development or implementation projects, this triangle (shown below) is often talked about. Software projects can be fast (that is, done quickly), done well, and/or cheap. But you only get to pick two of those. A project can be good, and cheap, but it won't be done quickly. It can be fast and cheap, but it won't be good. It can be fast, and good, but it won't be cheap.

The truth is, in my experience in doing or observing dozens of nonprofit related projects over the years, most often, it's hard enough to get one of these. In general, "good" is the one that people want the most - they want a well-designed, user-friendly product, with lots of features that work together well. Maybe they even want to integrate that with another system.

And, of course, being nonprofits, they don't have a bankroll to spend on a project, so "cheap" is often an important goal. In my experience, these ("good" and "cheap") are probably the two that are the most difficult to get into the same project. "Good" - especially in the parlance of a nonprofit, means "easy to understand", "easy to use", "intuitive." And, unfortunately, those are always the kinds of things that take the most time, expertise, and cost to provide.

Communities like Facebook, Twitter, and Ning are great networks to help brand your nonprofit, engage with your supporters, and connect with potential new members. But there’s no question you need to invest time in finding those people who are passionate about your organization's issues. With cause-based communities like Care2 (the B Corporation that started the Frogloop blog) however, it’s easy for nonprofits to connect with over 12 million do-gooders who care to make a difference in this world.

In 2009, Care2's community created more than 22,000 petitions resulting in more than 23 million signatures that drove tangible changes globally. According to Care2’s Defining Causes Report, the issues that garnered the most support in 2009 were animal welfare, the environment and human rights.

Check out the results:

• 8.7 million signatures on petitions related to animal welfare causes
• 5.1 million signatures on petitions related to environmental causes
• 4.3 million signatures on petitions related to human and civil rights causes
• 2.5 million signatures on petitions related to health
• 2.1 million signatures on petitions related to politics

The Care2 community’s signatures not only highlighted causes, but also had a direct impact on global issues including the European Union’s vote  to ban seal products, the passing of the American Clean Energy Security Act and the release of Euna Lee and Laura Ling from North Korea.



You should follow Frogloop on Twitter.

Receive monthly updates