Nolo’s Fundraising Tips for Busy Nonprofits

It's the type of situation that could give nightmares to anyone working in a nonprofit : A midnight fire, the building gutted, the recent remodeling job in ruins. And in the case of the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society's fire last night, a dozen cats who died.

Today is usually my day to walk dogs at the Humane Society, and I was looking forward to seeing some of my favorite four-footed friends. Instead, I stopped by this morning to find people in tears and staff trying to figure out what was next, with their offices gone or unusable.

But in terms of disaster response, their handling of the situation can offer lessons for any group facing something similar. First off, everyone there has remained positive, assuring the media and other contacts that they plan to rebuild -- and to keep on finding care for the affected animals and placing them for adoption in the meantime. That's crucial for anyone making a donation, because no one wants to think it will go to a lost cause, or to merely reduce the insurance company's liability.

Second, they've made themselves available to the press, with plenty of coverage explaining to people how they can help, where to donate, and how the donations will be used. 

Technology has been a help to them. Even without an office, they've gotten onto email and started sending out messages to volunteers and other supporters, alerting them to the situation and what can be done.

Here's hoping the response leads to a speedy rebuilding, and a better-than-ever space for the animals! In the meantime, think about your own nonprofit's disaster preparedness -- would you be ready with off-site lists of supporters and means of reaching out to them? What steps can you take now to make the tasks easier?  

According to a survey in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the American Cancer Society (ACS) was number one among nonprofits doing online fundraising last year. It raised $114 million online, an impressive 13% share of its total contributions.

What is the ACS doing right? I don't have the behind-the-scenes info, but looking at its website, I can make a few, hopefully educated guesses. Notice, for example:

• The home page contains interesting, substantive content. Studies have shown that people rate substantive content number one in importance when evaluating a nonprofit's website. The ACS offers a host of topic links, like, "Learn About Cancer," "Support Programs and Services," and "Cancer Facts & Figures."
  
• The home page also leads people quickly to donation opportunities. Readers can click to "Join the Fight Against Cancer," "Get Involved," and "Donate Now," not to mention on a special headline inviting people to participate in the Relay For Life.
• When you click the "Donate" link (under "Join the Fight"), you're given an introductory reminder of the good that your gift does, plus various options for how to donate. And in case you remain unconvinced, there's another link called "Learn How Your Donations Help." This provides even more detail on ACS's research, advocacy, service, and other programs supported by donations.
  
• The payment page is simple to fill out, provides logos with assurances about the security of the information you'll be transmitting, and actually has an 800 number that people can call for help! That last bit probably isn't realistic for most smaller nonprofits, but at least put your organization's phone number up, with information on when to call if need be, and who to ask for.

Well done, I say. And have a look at my free article for more information on "Using Your Nonprofit's Website to Help Fundraise. "

The Lawrence Hall of Science, in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus, is known primarily as a place to take your kids to learn about math and science. So you've got to hand it to whoever there thought up "Geek Out Night," their new-ish monthly event where adults can mingle, meet scientists, play with the exhibits that are usually surrounded by a crowd of kids, and visit a cash bar.

It's not an event that every nonprofit can repeat -- but worth noting is how the organization took its existing assets and found a new (and fun) way to use them, reaching a different audience.

Too bad I missed the one where you bring in your broken old electronics (toasters, DVD players, etc.) and their experts helped you take it apart, put it back together, and see if you could make it work!

I'm always on the lookout for a good way to convey the notion of "planned giving" to your donors. It's hard to find a middle ground between vague, circular statements like, "Plan a planned gift today!" and overly direct statements like, "At least leave us something when you die!"

That's why I was impressed by a recent ad in Nature Conservancy Magazine, which displayed a number of gorgeous landscape and animal photos, and read:

THEY'RE MORE THAN PLACES OF LIFE AND BEAUTY
THEY'RE YOUR LEGACY IF YOU WILL IT

Clever, huh? And the "If you will it" was in orange (which unfortunately I don't know how to reproduce on this blog screen). This little tag line manages to convey the positive side of planning for one's demise -- making a lasting difference to the best parts of this world -- while actually getting the word "will" in there.  

Of course, now that they've come up with this word combo, other nonprofits can't simply copy it. But it's a great illustration of the infinite combinations that words offer -- play with the possibilities long enough, and you may come up with a great tag line of your own.

It's always fun to read about an unusual fundraising idea, and here's one that caught my eye recently: Portable Playhouse, a nonprofit that visits pediatric units in hospitals and recovering women in outpatient cancer centers and helps them make their own beaded jewelry, is going for a Guinness World Record.

They aim to string together the world's longest necklace, over two miles long. For a dollar, donors can add a bead to the strand.

And as a bonus, this project is bringing them media coverage, including the following article on the Philanthropy Project's website.

With many nonprofits still struggling to integrate modern technology into their fundraising and other activities, it's worth giving a special round of applause to those whose websites earned nominations for the prestigious Webby awards, honoring the best of the Web. (We'll set aside for the moment the fact that one of these nonprofits, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, probably has no lack of technological expertise at its disposal.)

The nominees include the aforementioned Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Causecast ("where media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment, and education converge"); charity: water (yes, that's really its name, apparently a clever way to capitalize on people's Web searches); Outward Bound; and The Nature Conservancy.

A quick glance at these sites reveals what the judges admired, and what other nonprofits designing their websites can learn from. Most of them show clear organization, an up-front and brief explanation of their mission, colorful and vivid use of photos and images, interesting content, and other clever ways to draw in readers and get them more involved in the cause.

Although the Webby awards aren't specifically about these websites' effectiveness in bringing in funds, check out the methods that some of them use. For example, the Nature Conservancy puts a number of donation and other options under the heading "how you can help," and encloses it all in a bright yellow box -- the brightest thing on the page. Charity: water opens its site with inspirational video, and offers two buttons underneath; "enter site," and "donate $33." Note that these don't appear too pushy; they're just a realistic part of supporting a good cause.
 
The Webby winner will be announced on June 8th. For more detailed tips on creating a website that's effective for fundraising purposes, see my article, "Using Your Nonprofit's Website to Help Fundraise."

Well, with the election now hours away, it's hard to blog about anything else. And I can't decide whether to follow every news tidbit or just tune it out until it's over. Meanwhile, my email inbox offers no lack of election-related reading material -- most of them ending with a pitch for money.

But I must say I've been impressed at the Obama campaign's ability to produce email subject lines that ignite curiosity. As another fundraising commentator pointed out (I'm sorry, I can't remember who gets the credit), one method that the campaign has used is to have the emails come from different sources -- Joe Biden, Michelle Obama (I usually open those), various campaign staffers, and Barack Obama himself. Even if they're really written by a communications person, that added sense of individual perspective goes an amazingly long way toward making me want to hear what they have to say.

Many of the emails' subject lines are also cleverly suspenseful -- things like, "Last chance," or "Our best shot in Ohio." Or they offer videos, or other special features.

Obviously, their campaign didn't invent these techniques, but they've provided a look at how any nonprofit can, despite emailing people on an almost daily basis, keep those emails from becoming an unwanted and repetitive barrage.

Sometimes a simple "thank you" is the best way to forge connections between a nonprofit and its supporters -- and that's just what People's Grocery recently did, with its "Flavors of the Garden" party. People's Grocery is a relatively new organization, developing creative solutions to the health problems in West Oakland stemming from a lack of access to and knowledge about healthy, fresh foods. Their projects include operating community gardens to grow and distribute organic fruits and vegetables, youth training, nutrition and cooking classes, and more. You can also sign up for a regular "Grub Box" of organic seasonal produce, the cost of which helps sponsor similar boxes going to low-income residents of West Oakland.

The party was billed as "a special thank you celebration for all our Harvesting Justice Table Captains, volunteers, donors, & supporters with delicious appetizers and yummy beverages crafted by local Bay Area chefs from organic seasonal produce grown at People's Grocery's gardens and farm. See the new Grub Box, meet the people who are People's Grocery, listen to live music and taste the flavor of summer with People's Grocery."

It lived up to its billing -- great food and music, good company, all in a lovely urban garden setting. But, the cynic might ask, did it directly contribute to their bottom line? Well, from my limited one-person view, I'd say yes. For starters, I was there as the guest of a volunteer, but the entry person was prepared for folks like me, and put my name on their mailing list. I know I'll be hearing more from them, but that's good -- I encourage organizations to make sure everyone who shows the slightest interest has their name captured for future contact.

And I heard one volunteer, perhaps inspired by the good time she was having, say, "I want to give People's Grocery more money after I get my next disability pension check -- I hope it doesn't go down too much with the whole economic crisis, but I'll try to give anyway." I'll let that one speak for itself.

Every nonprofit that hopes to attract gifts from donors' estates knows how hard it is to find language with which to refer to that possibility in print. Words like "estate," "bequest," and "planned giving" are vague or jargony. And this is one case where simplifying the language -- for example, saying something like, "leave us money after you're dead" -- really doesn't work.

That's why my eye was caught by a page in an Audubon magazine (January 2008 happened to be the one I was looking at), with the heading: "Your Beneficiaries: There are more of them then you realize!"

Accompanied by a photo of children looking at a bird nest, it aptly, even humorously, reminds people that they care about a wider circle of life than their immediate family; and that by naming Audubon as a beneficiary in their wills or other documents, they can contribute to a better future for all.

Unfortunately, now that they came up with this nice language, it's off-limits, copyright-wise, to anyone else who might want to use it. But it's a good source of inspiration, and proof that you don't have to get into a language rut over this.

I just got an email from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that grabbed my attention enough to read to the bottom (and that rarely happens).

It contained excerpts of actual letters from people responding to WWF's "Time for Change" challenge to make changes in their lives and/or raise money in honor of Earth Day (April 22). My favorite was the one from the ten-year-old having an earth-friendly birthday party, complete with endangered-animal sponsorships instead of gifts.

It's not that the ideas in the letters were particularly revolutionary -- one person planned to raise money with a garage sale, another to collect loose change at a school -- but there's something irresistible about seeing people coming together and sharing their own enthusiasm about participating in a cause. (Who knows, maybe some of the younger participants will grow up to be fundraisers!)

Does your organization have members who could be encouraged to take up a similar challenge? Even if this doesn't raise a lot of money on the spot, it seems like a great way to create a sense of energy and community.