Mobilizing to Fundraise

Just about every organization has social media as part of the engagement process and many use mobile giving to raise funds. Together the two barely register in the giving scale, unless there is a natural disaster.

The question that requires an answer is whether engagement results in fundraising that isn’t immediately tracked. Clearly, the hope is that it does. The other challenge is expanding mobile giving to include more than just emergencies, given the capabilities of new phones.

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Social Philanthropy: Raising Money on YouTube and Twitter

by Amy Sample Ward
The Nonprofit Times

Money is always a hot topic of conversation at SXSW from new start-ups looking for venture funds to nonprofits looking for philanthropic support, all for innovative ways of changing and shaping our communities and the world. One panel, moderated by Cheryl Contee of Fission Strategy, focused on the conversation from the social philanthropy perspective; that is, what are various kinds of organizations doing to raise money though socially engaged channels like YouTube and Twitter. Contee framed the conversation with a great question, asking if we see social media as democratizing voices, giving anyone with connection to the Internet the ability to share a message, how do those same tools make money just as freely accessible?

Ramya Raghavan, Nonprofits and Activism Manager at Google/YouTube, says that she sees two trends in the future of online giving through video. The first is engaging a donor at the first step and keeping them engaged. Many people donate online yet have no long-term connection to the nonprofit organization or project. "We are seeing people through YouTube create a long term relationship with donors. Like charity:water's thank you campaign: they came out with a series of personalized 'thank you' videos to their donors and are showcasing their staff in these videos." The second trend is live-streaming, where video is both a real-time feed and experience as well as an archived resource to be replayed. Last month, the American Foundation for Equal Rights live-streamed "8", a play featuring George Clooney, Martin Sheen, and Jane Lynch, about California's Proposition 8 trial. It had hundreds of thousands of live viewers. Certainly having celebrities helps generate views, but it is just an example of what you can do with live-streaming.

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Power and Influence Top 50 Nonprofit Executives

Whether it’s cloud computing for program management or email for giving, nonprofit technology leaders are driving how organizations collect and interpret information. And that information is turned over to some of the most innovative entrepreneurs in the nation. That’s why leaders in technology and social entrepreneurs heavily weight this year’s NPT Power & Influence Top 50, the annual listing of the 50 most influential executives in the sector for the previous 12 months.

See the full NonProfit Times Top 50 list here.

Cause Marketing Still Bringing In Big Bucks

Despite the ailing U.S. economy, companies in North America are expected to spend $1.55 billion on cause partnerships during 2009, a 2.2 percent increase from the $1.52 billion invested in those programs during 2008, according to Chicago-based IEG, LLC. The amount spent in 2007 was $1.44 billion, according to IEG.

Read the rest of The NonProfit Times article here.

Getting Familiar Via Social Media

Facebook can be "the greatest time sink in human history," said Sree Sreenivasan, multimedia professor and dean of student affairs at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. But the most popular online social network on the planet also can be an invitation into a prospect's life to which nonprofits didn't previously have access.

Sreenivasan suggests "friending" people on Facebook whom you would invite to a garden party, such as friends and business clients. The mistake that's often made, however, is that people give everyone access to the entire house, and not just the garden. "You'd like everyone at your party to use the Port-o-potty" outside, not have hundreds of people traipsing through your bathroom. Friending everyone you know on Facebook is like giving everyone full access to your bathroom, all the way to your medicine cabinet.

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2008: Giving Dropped $6.4 Billion; Largest Decline On Record

by Mark Hrywna

Overall giving in the United States declined last year by 2 percent, the largest drop since records have been kept and the first since 1987. Giving by individuals again made up about three-quarters of all giving but declines in foundation endowments and grantmaking might make for an even more challenging environment for next year’s report.

Community foundations, in particular, have been hit hard, first because of the declining value of their endowments, but also the lack of additional or new gifts because of the economy. The biggest impact on family foundations, meanwhile, depends on the size and commitments they have. There’s been some evidence in the last year that smaller family foundations have chosen to convert to a donor-advised fund within a community foundation. Other larger foundations have decided to go into their endowments to maintain their grantmaking.

Read the full article here.

$50 Million Social Innovation Fund To Target Education, Health, Economy

First Lady Michelle Obama outlined education, health care and economic opportunity as three focus areas for the administration’s efforts to promote social innovation and entrepreneurship as a means to solve some of the nation’s problems.

Those themes will key the $50 million Social Innovation Fund approved as part of the $5.7-billion Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, signed by President Barack Obama last month.

"The idea is simple: to find the most effective programs out there and then provide the capital needed to replicate their success in communities around the country that are facing similar challenges," Obama said. "By focusing on high-impact, result-oriented nonprofits, we will ensure that government dollars are spent in a way that is effective, accountable and worthy of the public trust."

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