2008 ePhilanthropy Foundation Symposium

Good morning from New York City. I'm attending today's ePhilanthropy Foundation Social Networking and Nonprofit Online Strategies Symposium at Columbia University. The agenda for the event is pretty exciting and there are 100+ people from across a variety of nonprofit organizations attending the day long event.

Mark Sutton from Firstgiving and I already earned our keep this morning by figuring out some audio/video/projector workarounds. The weather is great here today and I'm seeing some familiar faces at the event already.

Up first this morning is Mark Rovner from Sea Change Strategies with a plenary presentation called "ePhilanthropy Unplugged: What You Need to Know Before You Turn the Computer On" that will start in a little bit.

The day then splits into two tracks and I'm doing the first presentation in the Advanced Track. The name of my presentation is "Leveraging the Internet to Build Relationships and Expand the Reach of Your Organization Online" and starts where my book chapter in People to People Fundraising left off. I used 90% new ideas in today's presentation and 10% totally brand new ideas. About 5% of the brand new stuff worked and the rest didn't. I try to take my own advice when I tell people in the audience to do a lot of experimenting. But the room was packed and there were a lot of questions before, during, and after my presentation. That's always a good sign.

The morning sessions are done and I'm now listening to Nicci Noble present about "People to People Fundraising and Community Building." Nicci is an Electronic Fundraising Specialist with The Salvation Army National Headquarters. This session is part of the General Track and the audience is mostly new or smaller nonprofits that are trying to use the Internet more effectively or at all. (For all the focus on the latest and greatest techniques it is important to remember that this is still brand new stuff for many organizations.) Nicci talked about how the Internet is where you find both donors and fundraisers. She shared some important lessons learned from Katrina and other her time with The Salvation Army. There was also a valuable discussion on the fundamentals around where to start, what the costs look like, and the realities all organizations must face.

I'm now listening to Phillip King from Artez Interactive give his presentation called "The Search for Sneezers: How to Fund Fundraisers in Epidemic Proportions" and he started out by talking about Paul Revere and William Dawes. (10 bonus points for obscure historical trivia.) Phillip talks about how vital epidemics and people to people fundraising have some things in common. If you had the choice would you rather grow your donors or your fundraisers? The simple math: # of people x % who fundraise x # of people they ask x % who give x avg. gift = $$$s raised.

I plan to blog and tweet about various speakers and happenings throughout the day.

(Updating Reguarly)