Connections : P2P Fundraising

2008 National Catholic Development Conference

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:33:00 GMT

I'll be presenting later today at the 2008 National Catholic Development Conference here in Orlando, Florida. NCDC is celebrating 40 years and this event was created specifically for fundraisers of Catholic organizations.

My presentation is called "Pass it On: Using the Social Networks of Your Supporters for Viral Marketing and Team Fundraising" and combines concepts around people to people fundraising and social networking. It builds and adds to other presentations that I've given over the past year.

I'm going to share some update statistics, ideas, nonprofit examples, and ways for organizations to get started. I also think it's important to talk about what people in the audience are doing and how it's working so far. It's helpful to show that this isn't just theory, but instead something many organizations are using and getting results from today.

According to the Giving USA 2008 report, faith-based organizations accounted for more than 33% of the $306.39 billion donated to US charities in 2007. The amount of online giving to this organizations has experienced tremendous growth over the past few years. Blackbaud works with a large number of faith-based organizations with fundraising, accounting, school management, analytics, direct marketing, and online engagement solutions.

Rock Band and Fundraising

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:33:00 GMT

Unless you've been living in an isolated fishing village, then you've probably heard of the video game Rock Band. It's an extension of the popular Guitar Hero game that adds drums, bass, and vocals to the once solo lead guitar.

The games all draw a connection to the popularity of karaoke and before that — interpretive dance. Since hitting the market in November 2007, Rock Band has sold over 3.5 million game units and 21 million songs. It has even brought about a resurgence of some bands from days gone by.

As the game's title suggests, the hook is that you can be the star of your own rock band. You can play the instrument of your choice solo or with others. It takes a lot of the experience of playing an instrument and simplifies it down to a level that can be fun. (That's not to discount the skill involved at the Expert level.)

Listening to live music is entertaining, but playing it is so much more fun. People are naturally inclined to be part of an activity than just a spectator. And no Rock Band enthusiasts are going to quit their day jobs to make a career out of it.

Rock Band reminds me a lot of people to people fundraising and how it has transformed online fundraising over the past few years. The focus of most P2P fundraising has been around event-based activities. We're all very familiar with the numerous ways that nonprofits have used a "friends asking friends" approach to raising money.

Just like with Rock Band, people would rather be active participants than just another check writer. Especially because these team fundraising initiatives usually involve a much more personal connection to the causes and events. Blackbaud and a number of other companies provide solutions that allow nonprofits to do this type of fundraising.

Some people would call this the continued disintermediation of professional fundraisers. Some people would call this the next big wave in personalized fundraising. The reality is that it's probably a little bit of both. Embrace it. Rock on. For those about to fundraise, we salute you.

Book Review of CauseWired

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:02:00 GMT

Tom Watson explores the societal impact of online social networks in his new book CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World (Wiley, November 2008) CauseWired is the first book focused on making sense of social media in the nonprofit world. Watson not only gets it — but he also explains why social media matters in understandable terms.

The book begins by explaining that wired causes are on important aspect of how social networks impact our world. These "CauseWired consumers are superinformed consumers who expect to create and support causes, change politics, and have personal involvement in the brands they support economically."

"For nonprofit organizations and the philanthropists who support them, a grasp of the coming influence of social networks in causes will be, frankly, key to survival in a world where your grandfather’s style of check - writing charity no longer applies."

Watson addresses the hype factor of Web 2.0 and goes on to explain how the "sheer number of users is staggering" and can't be discounted. Part of his research for the book required him to dive into the medium. Tom's companion website for the book can be found at http://www.causewired.com/ and gives an ongoing account of changes that continue to transform wired causes.

To understand the context for wired causes, Tom Watson recounts his own personal journey through the many technological twists and turns he has witnessed. He wants the reader to understand why these changes in media and technology are transforming the "underlying human impulse to help others" and how to think about where this is all going in the future.

Tom begins with Hurricane Katrina as an example of social media creating a CauseWired movement. Bloggers were ahead of the mainstream media and the government when it came to telling the real story of what was happening on the Gulf Coast. Next came the photos on Flickr, the videos on YouTube, and numerous charities accepting online donations.

The book points to how the wired "infrastructure of personal interaction and its growth over the last three years creates fertile ground for fast - moving social activism online." It was this combination of technology elements that turned response to Katrina into a wired cause. And it still remains a wired social cause more than three years later.

"New technology and the human urge to communicate will create the basis for a golden age of activism and involvement, increasing the reach of philanthropy and improving the openness of politics, democratic government, and our major social institutions."

CauseWired then turns its attention to Facebook and the Causes application. Watson references the fundraising tool through the story of Eric Ding and his efforts to raise money for breast cancer research at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston. "What Eric Ding was doing with Causes on Facebook was not about building a fundraising campaign. It was about building an audience," says Watson.

Facebook illustrates an example of social pressure leveraging social data to drive people towards social causes. It's the ability to pull mass groups together and directing them towards causes that mean something to them and the people in their lives. Expect this capability to appear across multiple social networks in many forms over time.

"Causes do not spread just because they are good; they spread because people spread them. This seems simple and rather obvious, but it is the secret sauce behind the rise of all the online social networks. In short, people like being asked nicely by other people they know to do things for them; that request validates the relationship. This precept is as old as recorded civilization."

Author Tom Watson then turns his attention to the Darfur conflict and the role of social media. The Genocide Intervention Network got its start from using various social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster. The organization has continued to engage people via Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Change.org, and has been able to acquire activists, volunteers, and donors through theses channels.

The book points out that "using the power of the network to distribute a story, to sign people up to support a cause, and to occasionally bring them into the street is at the heart of the CauseWired revolution." Other nonprofits like Bright Hope International have also been able to reach the next generation of supporters by embracing social media and networks.

CauseWired then focuses on peer-to-peer philanthropy, a topic I'm very familiar with from the People to People Fundraising book. Watson discusses DonorsChoose and its eventual breakthrough to become a successful online fundraising tool. The same disintermediated approach to supporting a cause is what has made Kiva so successful. And there are some statistics that suggest many of these people are "new money" donors making their first philanthropic gifts using these websites.

"If you give people a chance to make an impact, and you let them see the evidence of their impact, they will respond. They naturally want to make a difference in the world, they want to respond but mostly they feel helpless. We give them something very tangible and provide feedback." - Matt Flannery, Co-Founder and CEO, Kiva

And what about those Millennials? Tom Watson covers them in the book too. He points out that there are "twice as many millennials as Gen-Xers and already a million more millennials alive than Baby Boomers." They are also more ethnically diverse, volunteer in large numbers, are more in tune with social causes, and "this is the most technically savvy and invested generation in American history." They want real change and are willing to take action to make it happen.

This also extends to the political arena. The 2008 US presidential campaign, citizen journalists, and how people are engaging and giving are explored. CauseWired is one of the first books to cover what the campaigns have been doing and what it can mean for other organizations. Some readers might let their own political views cloud the merits of what is being done, but putting those biases aside will help to get a better understanding of what's going on.

"Young people do not separate their causes into neat little boxes labeled POLITICS and CHARITY. They simply respond to what moves them, what their friends recommend, and what they believe might change the world."

While some political campaigns seem to go on and on without end, there is another phenomenon to be aware of: flash causes. Watson uses the Southern California wildfires of 2007 as an example of a flash cause. Twitter, Digg, weblogs, Facebook Causes, and other social media sites immediately became a rallying point for information and mobilization during the disaster. CauseWired goes on to detail other examples of flash causes in action.

Watson believes that there are two major trends on a collision course: "On one hand, people are ever more conscious of philanthropy and its role in commerce and society; on the other, these people are talking to each other more than ever before." The traditional fundraising practices of acquisition, cultivation, and stewardship are forever changed by wired causes. Are you prepared?

Involvement and engagement are now being built from the bottom of the giving pyramid on up. The author notes that "some structure is necessary in successfully organizing an online cause; pure groupthink rarely leads to accomplishment." There are some good explanations of approaches and processes to engage people and build CauseWired leaders.

The book ends with an extensive list of websites, blogs, social media sites, and other books worth reading. This is a great place to continue your understanding of some of the major concepts and examples featured in CauseWired. And sprinkled throughout the book are comments and insights from respected people in the nonprofit industry like Beth Kanter, Joe Green and Sean Parker, Allan Benamer, and Allison Fine.

Tom Watson's CauseWired is must reading for anyone in the nonprofit world. I have covered a lot of the aspects of the book in this review, but there is so much more to be discovered in its pages. I still didn't give away the really really good parts. Order your copy today.

2008 ePhilanthropy Foundation Symposium

Steve MacLaughlin — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:36:00 GMT

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)

Connecting Some Different Dots

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:24:00 GMT

Here are a couple of different connections worth checking out...

The Baudcast - Episode 8
This episode discusses Blackbaud NetCommunity v5.5, social networking noise, the European SONI Survey, and an interview with Marc Pitman. The panel discussion includes Chad Norman (Internet Marketing Manager), Melanie Milonas (Public Relations Manager), Allison Van Diest (Product Marketing Manager), and yours truly, all from Blackbaud. Look for more regular episodes and special guest appearances in the near future.

ePhilanthropy Foundation Symposium
This Saturday is the ePhilanthropy Foundation's Social Networking and Nonprofit Online Strategies Symposium at Columbia University in NYC. There are a lot of great sessions and you can register now for the event online. I'll be presenting a session called "Leveraging the Internet to Build Relationships and Expand the Reach of Your Organization Online" that takes some ideas from the People to People Fundraising book to the next level.

Inside the iPhone Numbers
The new features and the price cut on the iPhone G3 wasn't the most interesting information to come out of Apple yesterday. Steve Jobs noted in his WWDC Keynote speech that 98% of iPhone users are browsing online, 94% are using email, 90% are using text messaging, 80% are using 10 or more features. That points to some behavior trends that are reshaping the phone market as iPhone copies continue to hit the market. How much longer can we actually call it a phone?

2007 Online Giving Trends
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a series of articles about online giving trends in 2007. This is their annual review of what's changing and what's not in the online space. Nicole Wallace notes that "while Internet giving at many charities has continued to climb, the rate of growth has begun to taper off, and the increases haven't been enough to offset declines in direct mail." Much of the initial article seems to echo findings by Target Analytics in their 2007 Index of National Fundraising Performance: There are less donors giving more dollars and this trend has continued post-Katrina. Taking a look at some of the data from the articles also shed some light on trends. The Greater Des Moines Community Foundation had a 2929.5% YOY increase in online giving and the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund topped the list with $314,035,185 in online donations in 2007. There might be something to that whole community foundation market afterall. More on all of this in a future blog post...

Internet Symposium coming to New York City

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:04:00 GMT

Blackbaud Interactive is holding an Internet Symposium in New York City on Thursday, May 22nd. The event will have a good mix of topics and presenters. And I'm sure we'll have a few good surprises to show as well. Get more details below:

Where: Grand Hyatt New York | 109 East 42nd Street at Grand Central Terminal
When: Thursday | May 22nd | 8:30am to 5:00pm
Who: Nonprofits in the NYC area (limit two per organization)
How: To register please visit: http://www.blackbaud.com/internetsymposium

Space is limited so register early.

Free Fundraising Ideas Friday

Steve MacLaughlin — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:15:00 GMT

Professional Fundraising magazine over in the UK has published my "No donor is an island: don’t maroon yours without a paddle" article this month. The good news is that the concept for the piece came from my "No Constituent is an Island" blog entry from back in January. The bad news is that you have to be a paid subscriber to read the online version.

Not ideal, but I won't debate the whole free vs. fee content that the publishing world struggles with. So instead I thought I would offer up something else to read today.

The People to People Fundraising book continues to be getting a very positve response out there. I have gone ahead and posted my chapter from the book online and you can download and read it for free. Click the link below to get your hands on it:

"The Changing Nature of Community: Leveraging the Internet to Build Relationships and Expand the Reach of Your Organization" - by Steve MacLaughlin in the book People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities

This is the opening chapter of the book at sets the stage for everything that follows. I wanted to provide some context for how we got here and where things are going next.

I also wanted to note that the ePhilanthropy Foundation will be having a Nonprofit Social Networking Symposium at Columbia University on June 14th that will include several authors from the People to People Fundraising book. I am doing a session called "Leveraging the Internet to Build Relations and Expand the Reach" that will discuss concepts from the book and some brand new ideas as well.

AFP 45th International Conference - Day 3

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:02:00 GMT

This is my last day in San Diego at the AFP International Conference before taking the red-eye back home tonight. I had been mulling over an April Fool's Day post but decided anything really humorous would also probably cause me some trouble. The Agitator took today's date as an opportunity to an older faux news story from The Onion about the Flehner-Lathrop Syndrome Foundation.

Bob Geldof is today's keynote speaker and he takes the main stage at 9:30am this morning. The speakers have all been very good this year and I'm looking forward to hearing Geldof's remarks.

From 11:30am to 12:30pm today I will be doing a book signing with Jim Greenfield and Ted Hart for People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities. The book is now in its second reprint and Ted informed me last week that this is the fastest selling book in the series published by Wiley.

On a related note, Blackbaud is sponsoring an event in London called "Social Networking for Charities: People to People Fundraising" on May 1st. The event is part of the UK launch for the People to People Fundraising book. Click here to get more information and to register online.

Odds and Bookends

Steve MacLaughlin — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:30:00 GMT

Beth Kanter is giving away a copy of People to People Fundraising at the Nonprofit Technology Conference next month. Beth will give it to the person who posts the best comment about using person-to-person fundraising strategies on her blog. A few people have already posted comments. So even if you don't win...there are some good ideas to read through.

Ted Hart has launched a companion website for the of People to People Fundraising over at http://www.p2pfundraising.org. There is a free enewsletter you can sign up for along with some more information about the book, the authors, and some forums.

Ted, James Greenfield, and I will be doing a book signing at AFP's 45th International Conference on Fundraising on April 1st from 11:30am to 12:30pm. (No word on whether or not this is some kind of April Fools Day joke.)

Next week I'll be blogging about a few new things, including the Blackbaud NetCommunity API, some promising online trends, and hopefully other things worth reading.

People to People Fundraising

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:45:00 GMT

(originally posted on BlogBaud)

The new book People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities recently hit the bookshelves. It was around this time last year that I was sending the draft of my chapter in the book to the editors.

The book covers a variety of important topics related to how nonprofit organizations can leverage Web 2.0 and other social networking technologies.

The contributors to People to People Fundraising bring with them a lot of experience and this is an excellent way to either start or enhance your understanding of this important trend.

My task during the writing process was to put together the introductory chapter for the book. So the challenge was to paint a broad, but still vivid and engaging, picture of what people to people fundraising means in order to setup the rest of the book. Amazon.com has the “search inside” feature setup and the chapter appears as the excerpt. Click here to take a look at some of what made it into print, including this paragraph of prose:

“A fundamental reality of fundraising is that people give to people with causes, not to organizations. Buildings and brochures may in some ways influence people, but they cannot hold a conversation. People need to feel a personal connection to the causes and initiatives they choose to donate to. The power of personal content, communication, and collaboration all combine to create a sense of community.”

So where do we go from here? Lots of places, hopefully. Over the next year I will be spending a lot of time writing and talking about applying the notion of people to people fundraising in a variety of different ways. As always, this needs to be a two-way conversation so you feedback and ideas are very important. With that in mind there will be some upcoming ways to get engaged in the dialogue. Stay tuned…