Fundly News Roundup: Global Giving

This week, a social fundraising campaign that captured the attention of the world came to its conclusion, while other initiatives around the country have only just begun. New technological developments could fundamentally change the way people donate to charities and events, and one philanthropic billionaire used his social connections to bring unprecedented levels of charitable giving to global outreach organizations. Here’s a roundup of the week’s events:

Bus monitor campaign just the start

Karen Klein campaign closes – An online fundraising initiative to benefit bullied bus monitor Karen Kline came to a close this week, netting a grand total of $703,833. A video of Kline being taunted by some of the children she was hired to protect went viral, eliciting an outpouring of support from people in 84 countries and all 50 states, according to the Christian Science Monitor. The fundraiser’s organizers are planning to launch a new social fundraising project that aims to raise $7 million to support anti-bullying campaigns.

Fundraising not child’s play, but benefits sick kids

Jack’s FUNraising Page – A social fundraising campaign benefiting children with rare diseases is inching closer to its $20,000 goal. Nine-year-old Jack Pullman from Worcester, Massachusetts, who was diagnosed with a number of interstitial lung diseases, started a fundraiser on Fundly.com to raise money to buy video games, board games, and other toys for the kids at the UMass Pediatric Infusion Unit. With $16,623, he’s more than three-fourths of the way toward his goal.

SeriousFun Children’s Network – Halfway across the country in Michigan, the SeriousFun Children’s Network is also hard at work raising money to benefit sick youngsters. This week, the organization hosted its “Night of Serious Fun” fundraising event, with the proceeds going toward opening a new camp that will serve hundreds of sick children in the state. The site, North Star Reach, will be open year round and feature a state-of-the-art medical center, according to the Observer & Eccentric.

Food and funds

An Lac Mission – A group of Buddhist monks in Ventura, California, will be hosting a fundraising party featuring a wide variety of vegetarian Vietnamese and Sri Lankan food. The event is designed to raise money to repair and renovate the monks’ temple, according to the Ventura County Star.

Taste of Camarillo – The monks aren’t the only Southern California group using food to raise funds, according to the Star. The Meadowlark Service League on July 29 hosted its 25th annual Taste of Camarillo fundraiser to help raise $150,000 for local charities. The event featured food from local vendors in Camarillo, California, as well as music from local groups.

Fundraising to stem the tide

Hamburg, Iowa – Residents of the small farming community of Hamburg, Iowa, recently banded together in an online fundraising effort to bring in $5.6 million to fix the town’s levees in preparation for flood season. According to The Wall Street Journal, last year’s heavy snows led to record-breaking floods, which overran the town’s levees, causing serious damage to farms and businesses. Residents are reaching out to potential supporters through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

Raising money on the move

Twentyseven Global – Recently, mobile application development firm Twentyseven Global announced that it had created an app to help facilitate social fundraising efforts. As social fundraising gains popularity, non-profit groups may start utilizing mobile technology to help bring in funds. Fundly.com offers a Facebook-based app to help users recruit supporters, post messages and process contributions within Facebook.

Buffet’s buddies demonstrate power of social fundraising

The Giving Pledge – Billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffet has used his social connections to enlist the support of 81 of his billionaire friends to donate about half their wealth to charity, according to Forbes. The source pointed to statistics that show people are 200 times more likely to give to a cause if asked by a friend.

Fundraising News Roundup: Online Fundraising & the Ripple Effect

Non-profit organizations aren’t the only groups taking advantage of the benefits of social fundraising. Individuals and communities have been finding success with this kind of fundraising as well.

This week, news emerged about a campaign to benefit kids in New York, and campaigns undertaken by children in Massachusetts and Washington. Across the pond, a new study came out showing the powerful ripple effect of big-dollar donations. Here’s a roundup of the most recent events in fundraising.

Cyril van der Haegen – The friends and colleagues of Rhode Island-based illustrator and conceptual artist Cyril van der Haegen have launched a fundraising campaign on Fundly.com to raise money to pay for his cancer treatments. In addition to soliciting online donations from friends and family across a variety of social media outlets, Haegen’s many artist friends donated original works to an auction that was held at Comic Con in San Diego from July 11 to 15.

The Commune Cares – After his insurance company rejected payments for end-of-life treatments, the friends of Wash Pratt-King banded together to raise money to help him and his wife, Tashi, through their difficult time. At just 23 years old, Wash was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor. Now 25, the money raised through his friends’ Fundly campaign is going to defray the cost of his medical bills and day-to-day living expenses. Friends were so successful in their efforts, they have doubled the goal from $10,000 to $20,000.

Stepping Stones Learning Center – This organization provides care and education for children both with and without special needs in Rochester, New York, and set an ambitious fundraising goal of $350,000 to purchase a new facility and expand its space. The group has so far raised $155,000, and Stepping Stone leaders are optimistic that a Monte Carlo night and an annual 5k run/1k walk in August will bring in even more money.

The Pathway Home – Another group with an ambitious goal is well on its way to reaching it. The Pathway Home has so far raised more than $256,000 of its $600,000 target on Fundly.com, and with a deadline of September 30, it appears well positioned to achieve its goal. The non-profit residential treatment group is dedicated to serving veterans who received traumatic injuries, including amputations, PTSD and brain injuries.

Driving Mrs. M – Amputations aren’t limited to veterans, however. Recently, a third-grade teacher in Massachusetts, Anne Mekalian, lost both arms and legs to a blood infection contracted while in the hospital. Her students, moved by the plight of their teacher, embarked on a crowdsourcing fundraising campaign to help with her treatment and recovery. In addition to the online campaign, students set up lemonade stands across the town to raise money.

Good Cheer Food Bank – A food bank on Whidbey Island in Washington is getting a boost from a young local, according to reports from the Whidbey Examiner. JaNoah Spratt, 12, has been collecting money for the Good Cheer Food Bank in the town of Langley since the age of 7, and has so far raised more than $20,000 by soliciting matching donations from local businesses, enlisting his friends to help raise money and, in his latest venture, writing a book about community involvement.

Peer Effect Research – A new study from researchers at the University of Bristol in England has illustrated the “peer effect” of social fundraising. The researchers found that large donations tend to increase the size of subsequent donations. In their example, researchers said that a single “donation of £100 typically shifts average donations from £20 to £30,” and the effect lasts for roughly 20 subsequent donations, according to phys.org.

Social media goes to school. Now, it’s time to make honor roll.

A recent survey by the MBA Tour  reveals that 85 percent of potential M.B.A. students use social media to research their top business school choices.

These same students are also looking at their school’s course offerings and looking for classes with a focus on social media. According to the same MBA Tour survey, a whopping 99 percent of these potential students identified social media as either “necessary” or “important” to their field.

Social media is radically and quickly changing the way we think about business. It’s also changing the way businesses think about social media. Many organizations, like Fundly  , recognize that social media is the most effect way to reach out to supporter and grow your organization.

The institution of school, however, is having a hard time keeping up.

Over half of current MBA students and MBA graduates said that social media options and classes were either “not up to par with the growing industry” or not provided at all.

In an April 2011 blog post  , U.S. News and World Reports writer Stacy Blackman highlighted some impressive social media offerings of some of the top business schools in the nation. Though several elite institutions including the Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business boast some rich course offerings, the MBA Tour survey reveals that there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Still, business schools may be at the top of the academic game.

Graduate schools in education, for example, have yet to embrace social media in their curriculum. Many aspiring teachers are not developing the social media tools, skills and information they need to educate their students on responsible use of social media.

Most high school teachers are still viewing social media as the enemy that keeps students from completing their homework.

Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English is in a league of its own. Under the instruction of Professor Dixie Goswami, high school teachers from across the nation gathered in Middlebury, Vermont this summer to take a course titled “Interpretive Communities: Using Social Media and Digital Tools to Engage Readers and Writers.” Over the six weeks they were there, they created and developed thriving, interactive online communities centered on books. What did they use to attract readers and potential readers?  Social media.

Maybe it’s time for school, at all levels, to reconsider social media – in both attitude and approach. As recent responses from MBA applicants suggest, social media has a lot to give. It’s time we all began to tap its potential.

6 Keys to Online Fundraising

Intimidated by online fundraising? It may be new to you, but if you follow these 6 steps you’ll be well on your way to an effective social fundraising   campaign.

1) Make it visible – Let everyone know that you’re actively fundraising. Email your contact list, announce it on Facebook and Twitter, and put a banner on the home page of your website. If you send direct mail, make sure to let people know that they can donate online as well. You would be surprised at how many people respond to direct mail with an online action.

2) Make it easy – “Big” and “obvious” are the key thoughts you should be channeling. Put a large Donate! button near the top of every page of your website. When a user clicks on that button, don’t make them log in or create an account. They should be able to start and complete their donation in 1 or 2 pages. Allow them to select from “suggested donation amounts” or enter their own amount if they wish.

3) Make it compelling – The story you tell on your donation page is the just as crucial as the home page of your website. Try different variations of your story to see which elicits the best response. Be sure to directly ask the reader for a donation. Use powerful images wherever possible.

4) Make it social – After their donation, the donor should be encouraged to share the news of their donation on Facebook and Twitter. When their friends see that they have supported your cause, they are much more likely to donate as well. Here at Fundly we like to call that effect the “Social Multiplier”.

5) Make it appreciated – Show gratitude for the donation through a timely email or letter. Help the donor understand how their money will be used and what effect it will have in the world. Give them the opportunity to get further involved with your cause. Every once in a while, write a handwritten letter to remember how it feels to express thanks.

6) Make it regular – Give donors the option of making recurring donations. Reach out to them again the next time you run a fundraising campaign. Send them periodic emails updating them on the progress your organization has been making.

Viral Storytelling for Online Fundraising

Here’s the recording of the webinar we recently hosted, Viral Storytelling for Online Fundraising  . After watching, please check out how Fundly can help you effectively tell your story to drive donations  .

Social media: a galaxy of learning opportunities

“Social media exposes us to a galaxy of dots, and through education with can provide students with the tools to begin the connection process.”

In a recent blog for Social Media Watch, Aran Levasseur made a compelling case for the educational use of social media.

Aran sites a study out of Harvard that shows that students one of the greatest factors in a student’s success is their ability to participate in study groups.

This study is consistent with psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s theory of social constructivism. We learn from and with each other. By design, social media is one tool that has tremendous potential to enhance learning.
Through social media, a class can increase opportunities for interaction with each other. The learning domain transcends the classroom walls. There are also thousands of opportunities for teachers to network with other teachers and learners online.

Social media also allows teachers to better connect with their students. In a recent piece for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Theresa Billiot writes about her positive experience using Twitter with an online class: “For my part, Twitter not only helped me to forge a stronger connection with my online students, but it also allowed me to help improve the academic work of all my students, online and on campus, in a new, interactive way.”

How should schools best use social media? Schools around the nation are struggling with this question and the answer is certainly different for each school and each level. Colleges such as Brown University and Boston University have turned to Google Apps. Many high schools, including Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward, Calif. have followed suit and “gone Google.” Other schools have turned to Wikispaces and WordPress as platforms for online communities.

The galaxy is big – but when the dots are connected – social media can strengthen and build intimacy within a community.

Check out Fundly’s social fundraising platform, and make us a part of your galaxy today.