Strategic Online Communication for Nonprofits

The Upleaf Blog

You’ve probably heard about charities raising millions of dollars through online campaigns, mobile giving, or Facebook, but to many nonprofit organizations these tools are still a mystery– besides, how can you invest time in them when you’re already working more than 50 hours a week?

In this workshop we’ll explore some of the powerful tools and strategies available to nonprofits and how they can help you raise money, expand your impact, AND even save you time! We’ll present the key components of a comprehensive and integrated online strategy, how they fit together, and which tools might even be a good fit for your organization.

Workshop Details

When: April 8, 2010  10am-12pm

Where: Pueblo City-County Library, 4th Floor / 100 East Abriendo Avenue / Pueblo, Colorado

Registration: At the door– $20 participation fee

Most nonprofits know of Facebook’s tremendous potential as a fundraising tool.  Facebook Causes offers some great tools that nonprofits can use to learn more about their constituencies, manage fundraising campaigns, and mobilize their online communities.

Not all nonprofits who have a presence on Facebook have been able to harness its full potential, however.  A successful fundraising strategy requires: 1)  a cause that people care deeply for and can get passionate about; 2) a legion of highly engaged fans willing to advocate for the cause; 3) a well-coordinated fundraising campaign; and 4) some creativity.  It also takes time– time to build a critical mass of fans,  and time to build loyalty through regular and genuine communication.

But the justification for nonprofits to invest time and resources in Facebook has just become much more compelling.

JP Morgan Chase recently launched the Chase Community Giving Competition, which relies on Facebook crowdsourcing to choose which charities will receive a portion of the $5 million that Chase is giving away this year.  The competition started in December of 2009, with the top 100 charities (voted by Facebook users) winning $25,000 each and advancing to the second round, where another vote will determine which organizationwill receive the $1 million grand prize or $100,000 prizes for the final runners-up. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this competition is that it levels the playing field– some small organizations made it to the top 100 list and may even be awarded $100,000.

With this competition JP Morgan Chase joins the likes of the Case Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation, who have been using Facebook since 2007 to manage America’s Giving Challenge, which awards both daily and end-of-competition cash prizes to the nonprofits who can leverage the most donations from their fans.  More more than $2 million from Facebook users was donated through the competition in 2009.

So if you’re still thinking about building a presence on Facebook, it’s time to get started– both the competition and the rewards this fall will likely be better than ever!

Even if you don’t end up bringing in some of the big prizes from Facebook, the time you’ve spent raising awareness of your cause, engaging your constituents and building relationships creates valuable capital that will boost your broader online fundraising and help you reach your longer-term fundraising objectives.

Posted by Elizabeth Beachy, Upleaf Co-Founder

CNBC recently published a report on some innovative smartphone apps developed by nonprofits to enable consumers to use their buying power to support socially responsible companies.

What follows is an excerpt of the article by Cadie Thompson:

Advocacy organizations are mounting a mobile marketing push to promote more responsible shopping with apps that give consumers the scoop on how a corporation’s policies and actions align with the shopper’s own views on issues like sustainability and human rights. The apps encourage consumers to only buy products and shop at retailers that share the same moral pillars as the shopper.

“Smartphones are changing the way people are living their lives. They (apps) influence spending decisions and this is the next evolution of that,” Scott Ellison, mobile retail analyst for IDC, said. “Make an app easy, intuitive and fun and people will begin to change their behavior.”

Tapping into the App World for Change

The Human Rights Campaign launched their Buying for Equality app last Tuesday. The app rates companies using its 2010 Corporate Equality Index, an annual report that scores companies on a scale from 1 to 100 based on how well their policies support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Such policies include anti-discrimination protections, domestic partner benefits and diversity training.

Corporations in the app are color-coded based on their score either green, yellow or red. Green (score: 80-100) means the company supports the cause, yellow (score: 46-79) represents companies working towards supporting the cause and red (score: 0-45) indicating the company has not taken many steps to supporting the cause.

Although the app was initiated to help its core supporters — a loyal group of consumers whose buying power was projected to be about $712 billion in 2008, according to the marketing firm Whiteck-Combs Communications — HRC sees the app becoming a tool for any shopper looking to be more conscious. The app has gained over 4,000 users in its first week, Eric Bloem, the deputy director for the Workplace Project for HRC.

Read full article

Source:  www.cnbc.com