Three Lessons in Social Media Fundraising

Now that the warm days of summer have finally graced us with their presence, January seems like a distant memory. But for those of you who participated in the Case Foundation Giving Challenge, it probably feels like yesterday. We hate to bring up all those sleepless nights and the constant campaigning, but now we've got a great write up about the Challenge from Beth Kanter and Allison Fine.

A total of nearly 2 million dollars raised from nearly 75,000 people means there were a few lessons learned. Many align nicely with some of the principles of We Are Media. Here are a few tidbits I found particularly compelling:

LeVar Burton, Fundraising Guru? (or Join! Renew! Give! Get!)

Marc Ruben, M+R Strategic Services

In a packed room at the 2009 NTC in San Francisco, LeVar Burton loomed large. Well, not LeVar in the flesh, but rather his metaphorical presence, in the form of the famous adage from his "Reading Rainbow" TV series: "Don't take my word for it."

All those tried-and-true strategies you read about in case studies, blogs, and, yes, this venerable online publication? They may not work for your organization.

You've gotta test things for yourself.

Effective Fundraising with Facebook Causes

Susan Gordon, Causes

Facebook provides an unprecedented opportunity for nonprofits: 200 million monthly active users, about half of whom are signing in and communicating with their friends on a daily basis, is an organizer's dream.

But can nonprofits fundraise effectively using Causes?

Our top fundraising cause is the Nature Conservancy who has raised $262,984 to date, and we've seen another 15 nonprofits raise over $50,000 so far. Across the platform, users have donated over $9 million in 24 months and our daily donation total is up 10x over the past 12 months.

We're not promising a magic bullet for fundraising. But we have developed some excellent tools that, when combined with your knowledge of fundraising and messaging, can bring in donations from new donors who you have never before reached.

Google Grants Advanced: Maximizing Your Grant To Meet Your Organization's Goals

Flickr Photo: thelearnrOver the weekend, I encountered a new phenomenon: AdWords squatting. I met a guy trying to develop a business around finding obscure, but potentially lucrative search terms, building up a quality AdWords presence for them, then, presumably, selling the rights. His best success so far was -- and I cannot make this kind of stuff up -- "adult incontinence".

This is the mindset we're competing against with our Google Grants accounts.

Go search for "polar bear" on Google. You'll find ads from the NWF and Defenders of Wildlife up against ads for travel services for polar bear-based tourism.

Google's not going to give us top placement just because we're trying to do good, so join us for our Advanced Google Grants webinar series, "Maximizing Your Grant To Meet Your Organization's Goals", to learn best practices from the Google Grants team.

> Learn more and register today!

Small is the New Big: 2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study Released

We just released the 2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study with our fantastic friends at M+R Strategic Services. The report is chock full of amazing and interesting information you can use to make better decisions about your online campaigns.

To help folks get started, we hosted a release party. Get the recording to see how Children's Defense Fund and HRC use benchmarks to increase the performance of their online campaigns.

Or, for those of you who can't be bothered to open another link -- that's how I roll, so I feel you -- here are some highlights from this year's report: