turning your social networks into donations

Fundraising in Social Networks? (A.K.A. Integrated Nonprofit Marketing in the Wired Age)

Justin Perkins & Heather Holdridge

•We work for Care2.com.•Care2 is a social network full of 9 million do-gooders.•We help nonprofits & political groups do List-growth, Advocacy, Branding, and YouTube Campaigns on Care2.•Care2 recruits millions of people for nonprofits annually •Justin@earth.care2.com & Heather@earth.care2.com

Be Prepared

Are you ready to quickly reach

several hundred thousand people

who trust your organization?

Be Prepared for Katrina-like Moments

•Care2 had largest animal activist list

•Recruited 5000 new donors

•Raised $205,000 for American Humane in one week

Save Darfur: 10 Days to $415,000

•In June of 2007, M&R helped Save Darfur raise $415,000 via email in 10 Days

•Over 6 months on Facebook Causes, Save Darfur raised $15,000 from nearly 1 million“friends” = $.02/friend

What Makes Social Networking Campaigns Work?

LOTS OF FRIENDS+

MEDIA EXPOSURE+

LOTS OF TIME+

LUCK+

NEWSWORTHY CAMPAIGN!

What!? “Flip the Funnel” is a pipe dream?

Yes, the dream has a few kinks in it:1. There are very few successful super-organizers in the world 2. The good super-organizers are spread too thinly across 1

million organizations to have significant financial impact for any one org

3. Returns to orgs from Peer-to-Peer fundraising is insignificant for MOST orgs and not a scalable strategy

4. MOST donors are happy giving $50, feeling good, and getting on with life

Who Should Try Social Networking Campaigns?

•Groups that have already

maximized their email marketing

strategies

•Groups with lots of volunteers

•Groups with huge email networks

and budgets to experiment

•Groups with dedicated staff for

care and feeding

Social Network Profile = Mini Website

Social Network Profile:•Layout, design, optimization

•Grow Friends list

•Post content

•Get people to do stuff

•Brand control

•It talks back at you

•Competing w/ other profiles

for attention

Website:•Layout, design, optimization

•Grow email list

•Post content

•Get people to do stuff

•Brand control

•It talks back at you

•Competing w/ other sites

for attention

Social Network Profile vs. Website (Pros)

Social Network Pros:•The tech platform is free

•Located in connected

audience

•In context of connected

friends

•Info can spread easier

•Posting content can be

easier

Website Pros:•Tracking of performance

•Customization

•Control of brand

•Optimize for goals

•Higher conversion rates

•More people using “Search”

than Social Networks

•Proven ROI

Social Network Profile vs. Website (Cons)

Social Network Cons:•Can’t track important stats

•Harder to customize & optimize

•ROI unproven & costs deceiving

•Lots of competition & noise

•Managing multiple systems

•Time-consuming

•Less control

Website Cons:•Can be costly to do well

•Most people aren’t surfing for

nonprofit websites

•Pace of technology hard to keep up

•Requires more highly-trained staff

•Coordination with email

•Driving traffic to website a challenge

Presentation Overview

1. Online trends

2. Nonprofits online

3. Integrated nonprofit

marketing

4. Social Network Strategy

1. Online Trends

From the Wayback Machine

Care2.com circa 1998

14

Recent Online Tech Revolutions

• CMS

• CRM

• SEO

• Mobile

• Web 2.0 technologies

Web 2.0 & Human Needs

•The need to connect with others

•The need to create, be creative

•The need to have voice and influence

Culture is Shifting

• Constantly wired

• Blogs competing with traditional news

• Less privacy

• Accelerated cultural change

• Information overload

Online User Behavior Shifting

• Instant gratification• Short attention span• Customization• Informal, quick,

personal• “Google” is a verb• User-generated

content• Online shopping

Informal and Personal Web

• Rise of bloggers• Personal voice• Transparency and trust• 3-way communication• A Facebook “Poke”

might go further than a press release

News, Noise & Opportunities

• The “War on Terror”• Global Warming hit

USA Today• “Green” is in• MoveOn.org & Dean

Campaign• Pending political Sea

Change

Top US Websites, Dec 2007

1. Google2. Yahoo!3. MySpace4. YouTube5. Facebook6. Windows Live7. EBay8. Wikipedia9. MSN10.Craigslist11.AmazonSource: Alexa.com

Web is mainly used for

Communications, Search, Web 2.0,

Shopping

2. Nonprofit Impact Online

Nonprofit Mindshare

(Hint: Most people are

NOT visiting nonprofit

websites !!)

Greenpeace.orgAmnesty.org

AARP.orgCancer.org

World Socialist

Alternet

Drudge ReportSalon.com

Field of Dreams

Even popular nonprofits only get about .0005% to .004% of all web

traffic!!

Nonprofit Marketers’ Toolbox

Choose the Right Tool

Sales Cycle

Cutting Through the Noise

• Huge email lists• Smart Guerilla

marketing• Constituent-centered

communication• Efficient use of web

presence• Coordinated efforts

across org silos

3. Vision for Integrated Nonprofit Marketing

Nonprofit Websites Circa 1998

Optimizing Marketing Strategy

Sales Cycle

Mission

Email = Best Lever for Impact

•Efficient•Timely•Drive traffic precisely•Traceable•Controllable•Proven ROI for $ and Advocacy•Personal medium•One to one•One to many•Viral•Grandma uses it

The value of an email address to a nonprofit is $9.50!

Nonprofit Benchmarks 2006

Email list is crucial, and still gives

nonprofits the most control of advocacy

and fundraising results.

List Growth: Speed vs. Value vs. Real Cost

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Low Quality

High Quality

Slow Growth

(<1k/month)

Rapid Growth

(>8k/month)

Banner Advertising$$$

Acquisition from Care2$$

Targeted List Swaps$

Social Networks

$

Democrats.com$$

Google Adwords$$

Collecting Opt-ins on your site

$$

Alternet$$

Canvassing $$$Name Acquisition Large, General

Audience$$

List Append$

Viral Campaigns$$ $

You get what you pay for! Time is money!

Cost of “Organic” Audience Growth

Conventional Nuts$3.00/lb

Organic Nuts$12.00/lb

Calculating Cost Of “Organic” List-growth

Staff Salary + Benefits (+30%)

Annual Email Subscribers

$40,000 + $12,000

10,000 email addresses

Total cost per email = $5.20

Instant loss!! = $2.20-$3.20

Trade-off of Grow vs. Buy

If the cost of growing your email list through in-house marketing is higher than $2-3 per email address, your organization is instantly losing money and lots of time.

Heather & Justin aren’t Stone Age Naysayers

Broadcast Era Paradigm

Network-centric Paradigm

Benefits of Community-building

• Identify Super-activists

• Crowd-source

• Deepen affinity with organization

Old Nonprofit Paradigm

• If you build it, they will come

• Crank out reports and press releases

• Slap press releases on websites

• Wonky, organization and issue-centric

• Static

wah wah, wah

Optimized Nonprofit Marketing

• Audience-centric• Story-telling• Search-engine

optimized• Timed with the news• Creative, fun,

personal, bloggie-style writing

• Funky lamb-chops

4. Social Network Strategy

Sales Cycle

Be conscious and realistic about the goals and possible outcomes for each tool that you use. What phase of the sales cycle are you serving?

Is it realistic to expect thousands of fundraising dollars from Facebook Friends?

(Hint: not really)

Main Ways that NPO’s Use Social Networks

Goal Examples Success?

Awareness & Outreach

New programs, building buzz

Yes

Advocacy Passing legislation

Some

Fundraising Donations Minimal

Long, long tail of Facebook Causes

•1000’s try, > 90% fail•Likely to get between $0-$30•ROI on time invested is negative•Average donation/supporter is $1.24•No way to communicate with donors en-masse•Frogloop.com/facebook-causes-analysis

Who Should Try Social Networking Campaigns?

•Groups that have already

maximized their email marketing

strategies

•Groups with lots of volunteers

•Groups with huge email networks

and budgets to experiment

•Groups with dedicated staff for

care and feeding

MySpace: a Place for Donors?

http://www.frogloop.com/myspace-analysis

Social Networks Fundraising & Advocacy ROI Calculator

http://www.frogloop.com/social-network-calculator

If you’re expecting to use social networks to raise money with minimal work, you can expect to see a -90% ROI against time spent by staff.

This is a conservative estimate using widely published benchmarks for online marketing, and an hourly wage of $10/hr.

Microsoft Instant Messenger & HSUS

Save Darfur: 10 Days to $415,000

•In June of 2007, M&R helped Save Darfur raise $415,000 via email in 10 Days

•Over 6 months on Facebook Causes, Save Darfur raised $15,000 from nearly 1 million “friends” = $.02/friend

Intermission

Distributed Work

10,000 people doing 10 minutes of work• =1,667 hours of work• = 42 weeks for one staffer• = 4 weeks for 10 staffers• = $30*1667 hours = $50,000• Value of volunteer hour = $18(Value of volunteer time study:

http://www.independentsector.org/programs/research/volunteer_time.html)

Action MySpace Google AdWords

Petition Signatures 406,678 446,072Care2 list sign-ups 2,258 13,456Citizen Petitions created:

58 422

August 15th, 2006 -January 30th, 2007

Myspace Friends = 2,328Petition sigs/Friend = 175

MySpace for Actions

Humane Society of the United States- Seal Campaign on MySpace

Results

Oxfam America in MySpace: meeting people where they are

That’s Nice, but . . .

55 Million!?!

February Tally for Fundraising:• 727,000 Donors• 82% raised online• >90% under $100• >50% $25 or less

“Web 1.5?” A Recent Example . . .

• June 20th: John Edwards

Campaign at $6.4MM Raised for

2nd Quarter

• ~30% short of announced goal

•June 25th Email Appeal: The

“Thermometer”

Enter Ann Coulter . . .

A Shift in Strategy . . .

• June 26th Email: Appeal tailored to Coulter language, new Landing Page Developed• Elizabeth Edwards calls in to Hardball to engage Coulter live

Spreading the Word . . .

Results . . .• Edwards hit $9MM goal for

quarter. 60,000 new donors.• Over 13k donors gave to

campaign online on site other than campaign site.

What they did well: 1. Saw an opportunity and took it.2. Used existing, identified

Edwards list of supporters3. Reached out to blogs, other

sites where message might resonate

We’re almost done…

The Ron Paul Story: The Insurgent Surges

The Setup

• Congressman Ron Paul running for President as Republican.

• National support has never exceeded 4%• Had raised a total of $8.2MM through 3rd

Quarter, 2007 BUT . .. • HALF of Paul’s donors gave under $200

Hallmarks of an Insurgent Campaign

1. Distributed Network

2. Autonomy--Giving up Control

3. Vibrant Feedback Loop--Transparency

Distributed Network

Supporters: Facebook

83,597YouTube49,866

MySpace130,592

Allowing the Network to Define itself

1. Allows supporters to connect, “tawlk amongst themselves”

2. Posts info/videos.3. Linking them up to

opportunities to get involved.

Ron Paul on the Facebook

Giving Up Control: What a Difference a Day Makes

The Backstory: Ron Paul had raised $8.2 million through the end of September 2007.Paul Supporter organized a day of fundraising on November 5th, presumed to invoke British 17th Century Revolutionary Guy Fawkes. Aimed for $10MM.

“Remember, Remember the 5th of November.”

Results: • Paul raised $4.3 million. • Campaign ran similar day of fundraising on Dec. 16th (anniversary of Boston Tea Party, raised $6MM.• Quarterly total was $19 million, far outraising any other Republican.

Facebook Primary

3 Key Takeaways!

•Be prepared for the big moment

•Be everywhere you can be, but prioritize -- right tools for the right purpose

•Meet people where they are

Think Like a Rockband

Links for more research

frogloop.com/social-network-calculator

frogloop.com/social-networking-tips

Contact

Heather HoldridgeDirector Political Advocacy & Nonprofit ServicesHeather@earth.care2.com202-465-3777x9101

Justin PerkinsDirector of Nonprofit ServicesJustin@earth.care2.com202-465-3777x9103

Blog & nonprofit communications tips -- lots of Social Networking Case Studies:www.Frogloop.com & search the tagged archives