Nolo’s Fundraising Tips for Busy Nonprofits

I just came across the excellent and well-written report "Sweet Deals: School Fundraising Can Be Healthy and Profitable," by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (and authored by Joy Johanson and Margo G. Wootan).

Wow! It's a couple years old (2007), but given how many kids selling cookies and candies on behalf of their club, team, or school still cross my path, remains highly relevant. And the report doesn't pull any punches, making the case that, "Given rising obesity rates and children's poor diets (only 2% of American children eat a healthy diet), it is no longer acceptable to sell junk food to children through school fundraisers."

I would even take it a step further and say it's not acceptable to sell this stuff to anyone. Although adults are held more responsible for their actions, the statistics are equally dire: Around one third of the U.S. population is classified as not merely overweight, but obese. And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says that obesity increases the risk of a whole host of health troubles, such as coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, many cancers, hyptertension, high cholesterol, stroke, and so on.

Even people who keep their weight down can, through poor dietary habits, put themselves at risk for a number of diseases, such as cancer, bone loss, anemia, and more.

Having a child selling candy -- and candy for a good cause, no less -- is just an unfair way to tempt an already-unhealthy populace. There are alternatives, as the report describes -- granola bars, fruit, and non-food sales items. Hopefully with a little creativity, the nonprofit community will come up with even more healthy options.  

If you're feeling the Twitter void from Miley Cyrus having deleted her account, here's something new to keep you busy: tweets from Bill Gates!

Which raises the question, is someone at your nonprofit keeping the world up on your activities via Twitter yet? It's one of the fastest and easiest methods of reaching out to people.

Of course, one has to wonder whether Gates writes his own entries or delegates this to his PR team -- he is, after all, reputed to be a pretty busy guy. But if you don't have your own PR team to handle such things, just bear in mind that there's something to be said for the personal touch, with messages that come from your heart, as your nonprofit confronts its challenges, in real time.

I don't usually follow the sports news -- much less point other people to it -- but you've got to check out this article by Rick Reilly, of ESPN Magazine.

It's about a curmedgeonly lawyer named Alfred G. Rava who attended an A's game to benefit breast cancer causes, at which women were offered free mammgrams and floppy plaid sun hats. When Rava didn't get a hat (because he's a man), he sued.

I wish I could offer some words of wisdom about how to avoid such situations, but complainers like this guy are hard to anticipate.

In the meantime, comfort can be drawn from Reilly's report that other A's fans have shown no interest in cashing in on the settlement that resulted from the lawsuit.

 

It was only a matter of time before Marge posed nude for a charity calendar, right? Don't miss it, November 15th. The episode is called "The Devil Wears Nada." 

A fascinating article in the Boston Globe discusses how the combination of fundraising and cause-related marketing embodied in the pink ribbon (which indicates that a portion of a product's proceeds will go to breast cancer charities) is a victim of its own success.

Yes, the pink ribbon raises money for cancer research and education. But it also boosts corporate profits, creates an increasingly visible to reminder to women suffering from a disease they'd like to forget about once in a while, and for some, is just too much pink!

There's no easy lesson to be drawn here -- and many charities wish they had the problem of their cause having become overly visible -- but it is a reminder that mixing charitable work and business can create some unexpected public relations issues.

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.

A study by the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund found that, among American women, almost half make the decisions on which charities their household will support and how much to give them. Although that's not a majority, it starts getting more significant when you see that the vast majority of men (92%) say their wives are their primary source of influence in making charitable-gift decisions.

And who's influencing these influential wives? Their friends, family, and coworkers.

So now you know which networks to tap into -- and who to ask for when you call a donor's home.

The latest in Nolo's nonprofit podcast series is available for listening. It's an interview with Jennifer Spoerri, PR consultant, about how nonprofits can turn these tough economic times into valuable media opportunities. Listen here. 

Say whatever you like about social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter -- and the overabundance of information they generate -- but for cash-strapped nonprofits, they offer enticing ways of putting your message in front of more people's eyeballs, for free.

If you're the time-stressed person in charge of creating material for such online forays, you'll appreciate that Twitter is (at least for today), the most time-efficient of them all, with its mandate that you restrict your update messages to 140 characters. And now there's a new twist (or is that "tweest"?): Charity Tuesdays.

Through some grassroots organic process, Tweeters have started a nonprofit-themed meme and have been posting updates about their favorite charities on Tuesday. They tag the message with "#charitytuesday" so that others can easily search for these entries, and the phrase will appear in the right column of the site under the top 10 "trending topics" if enough people use it (as has been the case today).

There's nothing to stop you, as a nonprofit, from posting your own Charity Tuesday messages about your work. Just encouraging people to support your cause may be enough, though the catchier you can make your entry, the better. Hint: It's better to say something pointing directly to the cause, like, "Help hungry kids or animals," than to say "Support our group." And if other individuals like your phrasing or your cause enough, they'll even retweet your message!

Here are some sample tweets that show a couple of ways the #charitytuesday tag has been used:

• From Twitter user @nikki_madebig: "#charitytuesday we need YOUR causes!!! http://madebig.com/ has over 350 cause, but we need MORE!!! join us 2day! http://bitly.com/VjC1e"
• From Twitter user @WPCL_Teens: "Help your local library on #charitytuesday! (We're in West Chester, PA!)"
  

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."