Facebook 
Media FeedTracks to Success
The 8 Online Fundraising Changes You Must Make in 2010
by Katya Andresen
Exiting Center Stage: Changing your messengers and thinking portable in all outreach – Part 3
Online Fundraising Change #5: Switch Up Your Messengers to Attain Social Proof
Over the past few years, trust has eroded in traditional, official messengers. We increasingly look to people like ourselves for reliable information.
This adds up to a big lesson for 2010: You need to let other people – trusted people – speak for you. This is the year you must exit center stage. Change your messengers. It should not just be you out there online – it should be trusted leaders in your community, online thought leaders, and your most ardent supporters.
This concept of personal fundraising is a good idea for three reasons:
- First, personal fundraising is based in a two-way relationship, not a one-sided promotion. It puts the cause-related message in the mouth of the person most likely to prompt a donation: someone the audience knows. The act of giving becomes an attractive way for the audience to play a role in the relationship – to show that he or she is someone who cares about doing good, who wants to be a supportive friend, and who is a part of something larger then himself/herself.
- Second, the personal fundraiser is an authentic and authoritative messenger. Messengers from outside an organization are often more credible than those coming from the organization itself. That’s why an outside messenger – a donor that fundraises for an organization – has the potential to cut through the communications clutter.
- Third, people listen to personal fundraisers because their message is based in story. There is no more powerful form of communication when it comes to moving people to action than storytelling. Storytelling often comes more naturally to supporters than to charities’ staff themselves. The effect of these personal stories is remarkable as a fundraising vehicle for charities.
And, don’t just ask your fans for money – ask them to spread the word. Make sure it’s easy for them to evangelize on your behalf. How do you do that? Read on for online fundraising change #6.
Online Fundraising Change #6: Think Portable in All Outreach
Every single thing you do has to include a way for people to take your message to their own circles of influence. You want people to pack up anything they like and transport it online, like a super-duper cyber suitcase.
Instead of just looking at Facebook, Twitter, widgets, etc. as tools for you to start conversations about your organization, also think of them as tools for your supporters. The ultimate power of these tools is not what they can do – but who is using them.
Here are a few tips:
- Have great content. If something is fascinating and wonderful, people will want to share it.
- Make it easy to share. Network for Good estimates that about 5% of your donors might be uber-activists who would champion your cause and recruit others.
- First step: Do you have RSS on your website?
- Next step: Do you have links to your presences on Twitter and Facebook on your home page?
- Include ShareThis or another service throughout your website that allows supporters to share your content on any social network they inhabit. You want to make it easy for your supporters to integrate your cause into social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Change.org. Your supporters’ presences on these sites have implied viewer trust and therefore the greatest potential for converting viewers into a new community of donors.
- Include logos in a format that people can grab to put in their own posts and content.
- Think low-tech, too. Is it easy to print great content from your website in case people want to share information that way?
- Create campaigns for specific needs that your supporters can promote. You can do this with tools as simple as tell-a-friend on your email campaign tool (Network for Good’s EmailNow does this nicely), as well as tell-a-friend features on your donation forms (Network for Good’s DonateNow service has this built in).
Looking for useful stats to share with a skeptical boss to make the case for online fundraising? Wishing there were additional examples and explanations for your online toolkit and the four questions to answer for your donors? Get all of these complementary resources in the full eBook on which this series is based! Download your free copy of “The 8 Online Fundraising Changes You Must Make in 2010”.
Katya Andresen is Chief Operating Officer of Network for Good, as well as a speaker, author, and blogger about nonprofit marketing, online outreach, and the basics of social media. Fundraising Success Magazine named her Fundraising Professional of the Year in 2007. Katya traces her passion for good causes to the enormous social need she witnessed as a foreign correspondent in Asia and Africa prior to her work in the nonprofit sector.
Other articles in this series:
Main Page
Part 1 – OMG It’s 2010: Where are you, where are your donors and how can you achieve marketing glory in a Web 2.0 world?
Part 2 – This Isn't about You: The cures for nonprofit narcissism and the belief that need is enough to drive action
Part 3 – Exiting Center Stage: Changing your messengers and thinking portable in all outreach
Part 4 – Be Generous, Lazy, and Grateful: Pointing more than you build, and overhauling your acknowledgement system
This Tracks to Success article was edited by Julie Kaufman. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, useful tips, or are interested in writing a series for us, please email our Research team, or call our toll-free number: 877-784-7268.