DISQUS

chrisbrown · 5 months ago

Jason:
Thanks for the link to my blog. I also saw a really great example of this when Denise Wakeman (The Blog Squad) celebrated her 50th birthday by asking for donations to Kiva (an organization that loans funds to people to help them build a business and get out of poverty). She used Twitter and other social media to build awareness.
Thanks again,
Chris Brown

JasonFalls · 5 months ago

Thanks Chris. Good to get another tool out there for folks to consider. Keep up the good work!

KBodnar32 · 5 months ago

Jason,

I completely agree with your three points. We were discussing this topic at Triangle Social Media Club last night and we also made a point to say that it is important to have someone within the organization that encourages and helps members/recipients share their stories with others as an add-on to your first point.

ie. Make it easy for people to talk about themselves...

JasonFalls · 5 months ago

Well said, Kip. Thanks for the thought!

Tamsen (@tamadear @Sametz) · 5 months ago

Here's the thing about good stories: you can see yourself in them.

That's where a lot of nonprofits (and other organizations) fail: they either don't tell a story, or more often, they tell a story that doesn't have an obvious place for the donor. The passion, the facts, the importance of the cause mean nothing to a potential donor if that potential donor doesn't see how *their* gift, however large or small, can make a difference.

Nonprofits love success stories--but those stories, for all intents and purposes, are over. Done. No opportunity for change.

Pair that success story with another story, this time where the ending is unclear, and you make it nearly impossible for someone not to give.

So perhaps the real key to storytelling, is to start the story "in medias res."

JasonFalls · 5 months ago

Excellent additional thoughts, Tamsen. Thank you!

Jim "Genuine" Turner · 5 months ago

I think we need to capitalize on the 140 number. Sort of a "Tweet your safety in 140 characters and locations".

This is excellent Jason and I commend you for helping out. We all cannot help with our checkbook, but we can help in other ways. Bravo.

JasonFalls · 5 months ago

Thanks, Jim. I'm sure Josh and the folks at NSP will love the Tweet your safety idea. Good thinkin'!

joshabner · 5 months ago

On behalf of National Safe Place I want to say thanks to Jim, Tamsen, Chris and all others who commented, and an obvious thanks to Jason and Social Media Club Louisville for their time and talent. The three-part training series have been among our most attended and highest rated online trainings, so I know our programs feel better equipped to reach young people and other audiences in their communities using social media.

Jim -- I love the 140/140 connection between the number of Safe Place programs and the Twitter count. We're always looking to grow, and I know we have some potential new programs in the pipeline, but I'll talk with our team and see if we can't capitalize.

As Jason points out, outreach through social media doesn't change the key factors in cultivating relationships; it provides a tool to more efficiently do so. Hammering home the message of crafting a compelling story and sharing tangible outcomes that result from your supporters' efforts is a message nonprofits can not hear often enough.

Sara · 5 months ago

Great points. I do feel that PayPal is not a good choice for nonprofits, because they do not vet the claims of organizations or individuals who "accept donations" through PayPal. Post-Katrina there were a lot of people who wanted to help, who got rooked by sham companies that set up PayPal accounts and took their money and ran.

I really wish that Guidestar would get its act together and make it easier to give donations online in a more "Web 2.0" fashion. Guidestar is impeccable in its vetting of nonprofit organizations and they provide a lot of good research tools online, but they could be so much more for nonprofits if they wanted to be.

JasonFalls · 5 months ago

Good perspective, Sara. There are several widget and donation options that do vet the claims. PayPal certainly has its flaws for this purpose, but is insanely easy to use. It depends upon how thorough you need or care to be with the donation functionality. Whatever the choice, however, I would always recommend a solution that makes it as easy as possible without putting the donor through a process just to give.

Thanks for the insight.

Erin McMahon · 5 months ago

Jason,

These strike me as three great keys to nonprofit ~fundraising~ success. But I think that there is an important distinction to make. Nonprofit success with social media does not always entail fundraising. You didn't say it did, but the title of your post could be a little misleading. Sometimes nonprofit success in social media means recruiting volunteers, or getting action on advocacy efforts, etc.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

;)

JasonFalls · 5 months ago

Excellent thoughts and a valid differentiation, Erin. Thanks for throwing that out there. Obviously, the post was meant to focus on fundraising, but you're right - there are lots of other magnificent uses for social media beyond just that. Strike up a post about them on the United Way blog and we'll make sure people come see it!

storyboarding · 5 months ago

I don't think raising funds from social media would work, in my point of view, it just doesn't add up and it sounds out of tune.

Signature: Telling stories with right storyboarding presentation together with PowerPoint presentation is like owning a printing press and printing your own currency.

JustGive · 5 months ago

JustGive.org connects people with the causes they care about most. Our powerful promotions and array of attractive giving options inspire donors to give more—and more often—challenging them to make charitable giving a part of their everyday lives. We remove barriers to online giving by engaging and being responsive to donors, making it easy for them to select charities and types of gifts, and completing their transactions quickly and safely. Since JustGive was founded in 1999, we have sent $100 million to over 60,000 charities.

David Katz · 1 month ago

Hi Jason,

You probably haven't heard about the social network I have recently launched called JackTheDonkey.com as we are still relatively new and working to get up to speed. JackTheDonkey.com is the community where your time online supports the charity of your choice...and it's FREE!

Jack is what some call a socially responsible social network, as we donate more than 1/2 of all ad revenue generated by an individual's time on...line to their choice of more than 20 charities from across Canada, the US, and now the UK (1.1 cents every impression paid at par depending where the charity is registered).

To help make this an even more effective tool for non profits to stay top of mind among existing supporters, while trickling onto the radar of potential supporters....we have recently incorporated the charity's twitter feeds onto the profile pages of their supporters (viewable to everyone in the community).

Please join us: http://www.jackthedonkey.com/Register1.html (and remember to check your spam folder for the activation email).

If you are free to chat further, I'd greatly appreciate that.

Thanks,

David

(twitter.com/inyourfacebook)

JasonFalls · 1 month ago

Thanks, David. Probably more appropriate to pitch via email but thanks
for sharing. I'll check it out.

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Jason Falls
jason@jasonfalls.com
Twitter: @JasonFalls
C: 502.619.3285