Beth just posted a great piece on Fight Hunger’s campaign to Click to Feed Child. The campaign in Facebook, takes the user to a page where clicking on sponsors donates $.19. This is similar to the long-standing fundraising sites for The Breast Cancer Site, the Rainforest Site, and others.
The three most likable aspects of the campaign, as Beth lists them, are also the aspects that make the campaign successful regardless of the organization’s size, location, service area.
1. “It’s easy and makes me feel good. I don’t have to donate, but the simple act of clicking contributes.” Make sure that the campaign doesn’t require donation of money from every participant: People could raise awareness of your campaign through their networks, donate time/volunteer skills, contribute stories of their own experiences that support your services or fundraising topic, etc.
2. “It takes me to the web site and there are plenty of opportunities for me to opt into getting in their lists.” Direct people back into your site and provide plenty of options for continued giving/participation in the campaign (opportunities to take part in the other options that they hadn’t yet done), staying in the loop with a newsletter sign up, and other media tools like blogs and videos to view, especially ones that focus on the campaign or campaign issue.
3. “It seems like an excellent way to leverage a network you’ve built up in Facebook.” Put campaigns out in the places where people can find them and take action without you directly asking them to, like Facebook. One of the greatest aspects of social media tools is that it can save organizations a great deal of time: Create the campaign/message once, put it out into social networks, and then let individuals, groups, and networks pick it up from there. If you already have a presence in a social networking space, like Facebook, and you create a campaign, then you already have a base of people who will likely be willing to donate themselves or spread the word for you to their networks.
You do not need to be a large organization to take advantage of these tools. Even small grassroots nonprofits could and should be participating in social media, especially when it comes to fundraising. Some would even argue that it is most important for the smaller organizations as they are already behind when it comes to internal capacity, awareness, and resources.
The main lesson: Get your cause out there where others can do the fundraising for you!