Fundraising for Nonprofits on Facebook Provides More Than Just Dollars

When I think of fundraising, the first thing that comes to mind is a donation check. I’m sure many donors also have this image in their mind, but fundraising can be so much more! Just as the saying goes, “Ask and you shall receive,” think about what you are asking from your donors on Facebook and your other social media sites. Are you limiting yourself to just financial contributions?

Currently I am working on a golf tournament and have created a Fundly account to promote the event and the camp for foster children that it is supporting. Of course we are asking for money to aid the cause, but a Fundly website is more than just a financial donation site. From small to large nonprofits, there are a variety of ways to reach out to your donors.

Here some non-monetary asks that we have made: golf participants, volunteers for the day of the tournament, corporate sponsorships, and business donations for the raffle that will be held at the banquet after the tournament. We also made a separate section where people can directly work with the nonprofit by volunteering as camp counselors, provide prayer support for this ministry, donate craft items for the campers, or volunteer at registration.

Updating and recruiting golfers has been much easier through this site, too. With each post that the committee chairman puts on the Fundly webpage, the golfers that he is friends with can be reminded of discounts, deadlines and new course features that have been added to the tournament. He can also post how many spaces are left and promote the mission of the cause.

In a sad turn of events, one of the golfers who had participated several times in this event passed away a couple of weeks ago. We knew he loved to golf and wanted to help the children in this organization, so we also have started receiving donations in memory of this incredible man and will send his family a list of family and friends who contributed a gift in remembrance.

While every organization could certainly benefit from monetary contributions, it’s important to remember that social media networks are not limited to just one type of donation. With Fundly, there are a variety of ways to get your supporters to join as partners to your cause. What will you ask for today?

If you want to raise money on Facebook for your cause, you can start your own Facebook fundraising campaign today with Fundly!

10 Tips on Using Facebook to Your Non-Profits Advantage

Facebook is a force to be reckoned with. Here are some incredible statistics: there are more than 800 million active users. More than 50% of these users log on to their accounts every day. The average user has 130 friends. With these mind-blowing numbers, it would be ludicrous not to tap into Facebook to reach more donors with your cause.

Fortunately, Facebook has posted “10 Tips for Non-Profits on Facebook  ” to help organizations use their resource effectively. For those who are new to the social media world or if you want to make sure you are using this tool effectively, take note!

1. Create a Facebook Page – “First off, Pages allow you to publish directly into the news stream where you can engage your fans with a variety of different media, such as videos, polls and status updates. Secondly, Pages allow you to analyze how fans are interacting with your page via the Insights Dashboard, giving you instant feedback to help you adjust your method. You can also do things like buy advertising on Facebook for your Page to increase your number of fans.”
2. Use “Causes” – “Anyone can create a user-created advocacy group on Causes and administrators of those groups post announcements and communicate with members of that cause through email and Facebook notifications, foster discussions, share information, sign petitions and fundraise.”
3. Be Unique – You can do a simple link to your website, but a lot of people won’t take the time to click on it. Make you message timely, concise and specific to your cause.
4. Be Active – Let your donors know what happens on a daily basis. Ask for their opinions on news events or on polls that pertain to your subject matter. Interact with your Facebook following and allow them to share their stories and passion for why they choose to support your organization.
5. Reply – You don’t have to comment on every post, but it helps your donors feel more connected and invested if they know a real person is behind the text.
6. Create an App, Game or Quiz – Find new ways to engage your donors and give them reasons to come back to your page frequently.
7. Add a Store or Donation Box – Put these boxes on your front page for easy access. “There are all types of features you can add to your Page that allow your fans to feel ownership of your organization, like a fan badge or a sign petition box for their profile pages. The added bonus of this type of promotion is that, whether it’s published to your fan’s wall or their profile page, it also gets lots of new eyeballs to notice you.”
8. Consider Your Feedback – What is working and what isn’t? What is getting you a lot of traffic?
9. Segue into Other Media – Use texting, e-mail, Twitter and phone networks to fully get your message across. People use a variety of media so hit all your bases.
10. Try a Facebook Ad – “Facebook ads — displayed on the right-hand side of a user’s Page — are an easy, economical and effective way to increase your fan base or visits to your page. The self-serve advertising system allows you to place orders for people (or profiles) that match whatever demographic requirements you may have, mothers of children with a certain illness for example, and you’re only charged for performance.”

So obviously I summarized a lot of these points. I encourage you to check out their website
(http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/02/12/10-tips-for-non-profits-on-facebook/  ) to read the full descriptions and to see the many examples. Facebook is virtually free and the audience it reaches is incomparable to other advertising avenues. It’s so important to keep up with the times, and this is one of the easiest ways to keep your organization at the forefront of technology.

If you need to raise money   for your cause, Fundly provides the leading Facebook fundraising   tools to help you fundraise with ease, not only on Facebook, but enbles you to reach new donors via Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and many other social channels too.

Learn more about Fundly’s social fundraising tools today!

University of Massachusetts Launches Social Fundraising and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Fundlyannounced this week that University of Massachusetts, Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management will deploy it’s social fundraising application to support volunteer fundraising efforts.

Ed Brozman, Director of Development, UMASS Amherst Isenberg School of Management said:

“We are very excited to roll-out Fundly to our alumni volunteers this year.  An effective social fundraising strategy is a critical component of our growth plans for the annual fund, and we selected Fundly to help us ensure we meet our financing goals”.

Fundly will be used by the Isenberg School to engage alumni and boost capital campaigns by providing alumni with the tools they need to effectively raise funds from their associates and social networks.

Among the tools available to the supporters of the Isenberg School:

-          Facebook application linking the university’s websites to a supporter’s Facebook page

-          Address book integration and direct mail/e-mail solicitation templates

-          Contribution processing including a donations widget for any webpage

-          Tailored donation page

In addition the development office can now use Fundly fundraising oversight tools, including donor tracking and fundraising goals oversight.

Facebook fundraising and peer-to-peer fundraising are amongst the fastest growing fundraising ideas in higher education. Michael K. Thomas, President & CEO of the New England Board of Higher Education says:

“Fully leveraging the current trends in social networking is the most effective way for a university to significantly increase fundraising donations from its alumni base”.

Colleges, universities, and K-12 education institutions raise over $40 billion every year, 75% of which comes from individual contributions.

Do you want to use Fundly for your school fundraising? Sign-up free for a Fundly account here.

Open letter to Fundraising Chairs, Annual Giving Czars and Development Directors

Please, please, please stop using paper. Stop collecting checks in envelopes, photocopying them, and then driving them to the bank.  Stop hand-keying the names of your donors into a spreadsheet and wrestling with mail-merge to send thank-yous. Stop fighting with PayPal to get your account unfrozen.

It does not have to be this hard!  You signed up for this job because you are good at FUNDRAISING, not because you wanted to be CIO or CHIEF ACCOUNTANT.  And when you recruit volunteers, you want them to be FUNDRAISING, not pushing paper or stuffing envelopes!

Imagine a world where….

• You, yes YOU can set up your own donation page online, with your own messaging, and you can begin to take credit card donations right away
   
• You can send emails to your mailing list and track responses
   
• You can give volunteer fundraisers a login to record pledges and donations they are able to get from friends
   
• You, yes YOU can set up a Facebook fundraising campaign
   
• Every donation is automatically entered into your donor database, and thank-yous are automatically generated
   
• Your volunteers know when their pledges become donations
   
• You can track unfulfilled pledges and follow up as necessary
   

This may seem too good to be true.  To support this with technology in the past, you had to implement Salesforce.com, embed Paypal into your website, send emails from Outlook or MailChimp, either have volunteers learn Salesforce (yeah, right) or have them log their work in an online spreadsheet or (heaven forbid) on paper, and then somehow get all the information from PayPal, Salesforce, and the volunteers into the same place.

Until now.

Fundly is committed to making this process fun and easy.  5 minutes and you are up and running.  60 minutes and you have integrated your Facebook presence with your web presence and sent out your first email and Facebook solicitations.  1 day and you have your first volunteers recruited, helping you raise money by contacting their friends.

Donor record creation?  Automatic.

Inviting givers to become gatherers themselves? Automatic.

Thank you notes?  Automatic.

Facebook integration?  Automatic.

Aging pledge report?  Automatic.

You get the idea.  Fundly has been doing this long enough to know what works and what doesn’t, and what is overkill.  We left out the overkill stuff and made the rest of it very simple.

So…  stop wrestling with customer support for Salesforce and Paypal.  Stop begging your cousin for help on your website.  Stop wondering if you are employing best practices for online fundraising.

Cough up the $0.00 it takes to get started with Fundly and get started already!

Sincerely,

Dave Boyce, Fundly CEO

Universities and Colleges are Using Facebook to Battle Cut-Backs in Giving

During a time that major gifts are down, many our nations Educational institutions have to rethink their fundraising strategies.

Arizona State University’s Paola Bolivn talks about tapping into a larger donor pool in this article:

“Finding a way to tap into that large alumni base – even if it means contributing a small amount – instead of simply relying on the generosity of a few deep pockets should be the course of action.”

Adding a donation button to an existing Facebook page and asking current students and active alumni to reach out their friends could give a boost to alumni donations.

Current Industry Practice #1: Assign your volunteers a list of alumni to contact on behalf of the institution.  These contacts may or may not be personal friends.

Challenges: Contact information is often out of date.  It is a time-consuming process to recruit, manage and incentivize the volunteer force.

Benefits of Facebook fundraising: Since volunteers are selecting the people they will reach out to through their pre-existing social network, the result is ‘friends’ asking ‘friends’.  Guess what?  Friends already have the most up to date contact information for people in their existing social network.  In addition, people are 10x more likely to give a donation when a friend is doing the asking.  No lists to manage.   Easily expand the number of volunteers without increasing the cost of managing the volunteers.

Current Industry Practice #2: Once a supporter makes a pledge to the organization, collecting the pledge is a manually intensive process

Challenges: requires additional mailings to the donor and a second point of contact to actually collect the donation

Benefits of Facebook fundraising: Donations are processed at the time that the solicitation is made, all inside of the Facebook environment.  Donors are also encouraged to post a badge to their own wall expressing their support of the institution and to share with their friends.

It turns out that adding a donation button to your Facebook page and accepting donations within the Facebook environment is more difficult than you would think.  This is where Fundly can help.  Fundly has a simple-to-use Facebook application that allows an organization to:
Recruit supporters to solicit funds on their behalf

1. Track and manage all the donors andthe contributions on-line
2. Allows supporters to donate inside the Facebook environment and virally spread the word to others in your community

To get started with Fundly, it will only take minutes to begin your own Facebook fundraising campaign today.

Fundraising for Nonprofits on Facebook Provides More Than Just Dollars

When I think of fundraising, the first thing that comes to mind is a donation check. I’m sure many donors also have this image in their mind, but fundraising can be so much more! Just as the saying goes, “Ask and you shall receive,” think about what you are asking from your donors on Facebook and your other social media sites. Are you limiting yourself to just financial contributions?

Currently I am working on a golf tournament and have created a Fundlyaccount to promote the event and the camp for foster children that it is supporting. Of course we are asking for money to aid the cause, but a Fundly website is more than just a financial donation site. From small to large nonprofits, there are a variety of ways to reach out to your donors.

Here some non-monetary asks that we have made: golf participants, volunteers for the day of the tournament, corporate sponsorships, and business donations for the raffle that will be held at the banquet after the tournament. We also made a separate section where people can directly work with the nonprofit by volunteering as camp counselors, provide prayer support for this ministry, donate craft items for the campers, or volunteer at registration.

Updating and recruiting golfers has been much easier through this site, too. With each post that the committee chairman puts on the Fundly webpage, the golfers that he is friends with can be reminded of discounts, deadlines and new course features that have been added to the tournament. He can also post how many spaces are left and promote the mission of the cause.

In a sad turn of events, one of the golfers who had participated several times in this event passed away a couple of weeks ago. We knew he loved to golf and wanted to help the children in this organization, so we also have started receiving donations in memory of this incredible man and will send his family a list of family and friends who contributed a gift in remembrance.

While every organization could certainly benefit from monetary contributions, it’s important to remember that social media networks are not limited to just one type of donation. With Fundly, there are a variety of ways to get your supporters to join as partners to your cause. What will you ask for today?

If you want to raise money on Facebook for your cause, you can start your own Facebook fundraising campaign today with Fundly!

Woman Uses Fundly and Facebook to Help Fulfill Stranger’s Last Wish

With this being Social Media Week, it’s essential to know how to use Facebook to fully unleash your online fundraising potential. Here is a great example of the power of Facebook:

While talking to a friend one day, a young woman named Crystal Mills learned of a man named Dustin Hughes, a husband and father who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.  Feeling the overwhelming need to help, Mills decided connected with Hughes on Facebook. Using Fundly and Facebook, Mills has now achieved her goal to help.

On June 24, 2011 Hughes was rushed to the emergency room where it was discovered that he had a brain tumor; it turned out to be stage 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme, an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer. Hughes states, “In the blink of an eye, my world changed forever.”

With a burden to help Hughes and his family, Mills contacted him via Facebook and asked what top items are on his “bucket list.” Hughes replied that his biggest dream was to take his boys to Disneyland one last time.

Amazingly, in just a few months Mills’ goal of raising $10,000 for this incredible cause has been met and exceeded! Currently, $10,135 has been raised on fundly.com/operationhughestroop with the generous contributions of 110 donors and supporters. Mills shares that, “The money WILL officially be sending these boys to Disneyland, but that’s not all. Dustin had also shared a wish that he thought would be the hardest to accomplish, which is to start a charity for glioblastoma multiforme cancer, the cancer that he is winning the fight against, and help others do the same. We are going to make this happen.”

So what made this online campaign so successful and how can you apply it to your nonprofit fundraising? Well, first of all I can’t help but think that Mills is a stay-at-home mom with no marketing skills or a staff to strategize with. She was sincere, heartfelt and genuine.

Secondly, the pictures on her website are beautiful and portray a message that hits to the heart of the matter. Thirdly, this cause has mass appeal to anyone who has a family; it’s not too specific so as to alienate donors. Finally, she used social media tools brilliantly. She posted on Facebook, there were several YouTube videos to upload and the message spread like wildfire. If Mills can run a successful fundraising campaign using Fundly, just think what you can do!

Tomorrow’s blog will focus on Twitter and how to incorporate this tool into your online fundraising plan. The more ways you can connect with your donors, the better!

In this series:

Happy Social Media Week – http://bit.ly/yKlkNr

Woman Uses Fundly and Facebook to Help Fulfill Stranger’s Last Wish –http://bit.ly/wluGiv

Twitter vs. Facebook: To Tweet or Not to Tweet – http://bit.ly/ADdqwn

Implementing an Online Fundraising Plan for Beginners – http://bit.ly/x5BymH

Starting Your Own Blog – http://bit.ly/yxR2kG

Why Nonprofits Should Harness the Facebook Obsession

Last night my husband was watching television after dinner and the program captured my attention. While I was earnestly trying to work on my laptop, I kept hearing the words “Facebook,” “Mark Zuckerberg” and staggering numbers and statistics. I finally gave up what I was doing and plopped down on the couch next to him; as a member of the social media fundraising world, The Facebook Obsession on CNBC was like History of the World 101.

Everyone knows the product that is Facebook. Everyone knows that the Facebook god is Mark Zuckerberg. What astounded me was the snowball effect that Facebook has had growing from a small group of Harvard guys armed with laptops at a kitchen table to the mega machine that it is today. I was also blown away by the value of the company and Zuckerburg’s commitment to stay at the helm. Now with the company going public, many others have a chance to profit from this technological marvel.

What is it about this website that has millions addicted? (Even as I am writing this I decided to look up some facts on Facebook and was sidetracked for 15 minutes reading friends’ posts!) Is it that life is so busy that this is the only way to keep up with friends? Are we all so nosy that we want to know when people go to Starbucks or are up all night sick? Are my friends and contacts the only ones who write crazy or pointless posts? (I won’t even bring up how one dad posted a picture of his kid at the hospital with a big gash in his head….)

Anyway… all this got me thinking about how nonprofits can harness this power for good. If so many people have this crazy addiction, just think of the masses that can be reached using this online tool. At Fundly we’ve heard tons of stories about people using social media to raise money to help friends recover from an apartment fire, strangers donating funds to make a cancer patient’s final wishes come true and people uniting to bring attention to a plethora of passions and causes.

It seems like Facebook isn’t going anywhere and nonprofit organizations would be remiss not to jump on board. It is certainly worth the time and effort to post weekly updates and the needs of your charity. Just think what could happen!! Start up ourFacebook fundraising campaign today and raise money online quick and easy for your non-profit fundraisers.

89% of Non-Profits Use Facebook

Brafton.com highlighted a report that 89% of non-profits use Facebook. We all have learned by now that social media is a cost effective and successful way to communicate with donors, but I still find the number staggering. It’s incredible how far the online community has come in such a short time.

With over 800 million users and more than 50% of those users logging on every day, it would be a huge missed opportunity for non-profits to not use this amazing cyber tool. Furthermore, their users interact with over 900 million objects including pages, groups, events and community pages (which must be thousands of non-profits!)

Facebook is a great informal resource to reach out to your donor base. Brafton.com commented that, “consumers respond best when social media content demonstrates the personality of the business. While some industries should stick to fact-based, straight-forward content, others, including nonprofits, can use share information via more compelling styles and tones to garner interest.”

How do LinkedIn and Twitter compare in the report to Facebook’s impressive numbers? “Cause marketing (like general consumer use) is lower on these platforms. According to the study, Twitter actually saw fewer users among nonprofits in 2011, with 57 percent reporting use, when compared to 60 percent in 2010. The same was true for LinkedIn, with 30 percent saying they had a presence – a 3 percent dip from 2010 when 33 percent of organizations were active on the professional networking site.”

Now, I wouldn’t throw away the baby with the bath water. While LinkedIn may not be the best way to connect with donors, it is a great tool to connect with other non-profits and garner advice. Twitter is not to be disregarded either with over 200 million users dedicated to “micro-blogging.” I personally like it for its condensed language verses lengthy posts that sometimes sandbag Facebook.

Regardless, social media networks are unarguably one of the best tools that charities and non-profits can master to reach donors with minimal financial investment and the potential for a substantial profitable gain. Fundly has dedicated itself to creating a dynamic platform for non-profit organizations to reach out to donors with a new and exciting fundraising strategy.

With over 800 million people using social media, who could you reach with your mission? Put it together and start your own or several facebook fundraisers today.

89% of Non-Profits Use Facebook

Brafton.com highlighted a report that 89% of non-profits use Facebook. We all have learned by now that social media is a cost effective and successful way to communicate with donors, but I still find the number staggering. It’s incredible how far the online community has come in such a short time.

With over 800 million users and more than 50% of those users logging on every day, it would be a huge missed opportunity for non-profits to not use this amazing cyber tool. Furthermore, their users interact with over 900 million objects including pages, groups, events and community pages (which must be thousands of non-profits!) Facebook is a great informal resource to reach out to your donor base.

Brafton.com commented that, “consumers respond best when social media content demonstrates the personality of the business. While some industries should stick to fact-based, straight-forward content, others, including nonprofits, can use share information via more compelling styles and tones to garner interest.” How do LinkedIn and Twitter compare in the report to Facebook’s impressive numbers? “Cause marketing (like general consumer use) is lower on these platforms.

According to the study, Twitter actually saw fewer users among nonprofits in 2011, with 57 percent reporting use, when compared to 60 percent in 2010. The same was true for LinkedIn, with 30 percent saying they had a presence – a 3 percent dip from 2010 when 33 percent of organizations were active on the professional networking site.”

Now, I wouldn’t throw away the baby with the bath water. While LinkedIn may not be the best way to connect with donors, it is a great tool to connect with other non-profits and garner advice. Twitter is not to be disregarded either with over 200 million users dedicated to “micro-blogging.”

I personally like it for its condensed language verses lengthy posts that sometimes sandbag Facebook. Regardless, social media networks are unarguably one of the best tools that charities and non-profits can master to reach donors with minimal financial investment and the potential for a substantial profitable gain.
Fundly has dedicated itself to creating a dynamic platform for non-profit organizations to reach out to donors with a new and exciting fundraising strategy. With over 800 million people using social media, who could you reach with your mission?

Start your own facebook fundraising campaign today for your non-profit and raise more money the easy way.

Social Media Brings Visibility to Non-Profits. Fundly Brings Donations.

Craig Newmark founded Craigslist in 1995 and classified advertising was changed forever.
Today, social media is changing the world as we know it. Early this year, Newmark responded by launching craigsconnect to “link up everyone on the planet using the Internet to bear witness to good efforts and encourage the same behavior in others.”

A recent craigsconnect infographic looks at how the top 50 non-profits use social media.  Craigsconnect particularly wanted to see if high-earning non-profits outperformed lower-earning non-profits in the arena of social media. The verdict: a non-profit’s income does not increase their visibility and social media interactions.

Here are some other interesting facts:

• 92% of non-profits have at least one social media button.
• Only 12% of non-profits use LinkedIn (Lots of untapped connections here!)
• 90% of non-profits have a Twitter share button on their sites.
• The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is low on the income list but boasts an impressive 97,000 fans on Facebook.
• PBS has the greatest Twitter following. (PBS is also low on the income list.)

You can view the infographic by liking Craig’s Facebook page (smart way to boost fans, Craig!) and can keep connected by checking out craigsconnects.

Fundly’s social fundraising platform is keeping up with these top non-profits. We understand the importance of staying connected in this fast-paced, web-based world. Our Facebook fundraising application makes it easy for donors to share their support for your cause with their friends Facebook every time they make a donation.

Keep social, keep connected and thrive.

Facebook Fundraising – Using Social Media to Fundraise on Facebook from Friends

Social media offers a distinctive opportunity to spread the word about a particular cause or fundraiser in a comparatively short amount of time. Facebook fundraising has become a terrific method to raise dollars for a cause, group or even a school. The number of folks that could be reached out to on Facebook far exceeds that of traditional fundraising efforts. This can be a excellent technique to let the globe, or those in every single person’s social media network, concerning the fundraising opportunity which is available. Social media provide cost-free advertising for fundraising on Facebook.

There are various organizations that use Facebook fundraising as a tool when raising money to support a trigger, group, club or school. This can be a fantastic tool to use, because as opposed to any other advertising tool besides word of mouth, it really is cost-free to utilize. Facebook is actually a platform that a lot of people are familiar with, and any newsworthy post can spread like wildfire. It is one of many easiest ways for folks to remain connected with each other. Numerous family members members that live in various countries are able to participate in fundraising on Facebook, simply because there is not considerably effort or connection required to spread the word.

Facebook fundraising is easier than sending a simple e-mail. This sort of fundraising gives the uniqueness that viral advertising and marketing can provide. The speed at which the message with the fundraising opportunity can go viral is quick when compared to classic methods of fundraising. Fundraising on Facebook has a fantastic benefit more than the conventional fundraising techniques, due to the fact with the amount of men and women that may be reached in a brief amount of time. This can be one of the easiest platforms to make use of when anybody wants to get a message out to a significant amount of individuals in a comparatively short amount of time.

Making use of Facebook as a platform to marketplace a fundraising event or opportunity is useful to the fundraiser. A lot of far more folks will have access to the fundraiser if it can be being posted on Facebook. There’s no set number of folks it can reach, but the bigger a person’s social network is, the larger the reach will probably be.

Facebook fundraising is one of the simplest approaches to raise funds for any cause, group or club. Fundraising on Facebook is quite common for many people who’re involved in a trigger that promotes their fundraising opportunities that are available to support. It allows individuals from all more than the globe to have access to many with the opportunities obtainable.

If your cause needs to raise money, you can create and manage multipleFacebook fundraising campaigns by using the simple and easy to use social fundraising tools provided by Fundly. Facebook fundraisers that use Fundly’s online fundraising platform to raise money online drastically increase the amount of donations in less time than traditional fundraising campaigns.

Charity Fundraising, charity fundraisers, online fundraising, fundraising.

Non-profits are setup to fail.  1.5 million exist in the United States today and the number continues to grow.  For funding, many non-profits rely on a grant pool that over time has remained constant, not nearly matching the increase in demand.  To exacerbate the growing need for more funding the world’s economy collapsed in 2008 and is showing only meager signs of recovery.

A reliance on grants and the reality of a shrinking pool of money have created a ‘can’t fail’ mentality for non-profits.  If a program is funded through a grant and the non-profit reports the funded program as a failure, the funder will most often choose to go somewhere else: find a successful program to fund.  A cycle of waste develops as non-profits choose to report only successes, for fear of losing the money.  In the end, broken programs receive money while potentially successful programs sit on the shelf and gather dust.
Innovations in non-profit fundraising techniques have helped non-profits succeed when others have failed even as traditional revenue streams have dried up.  Social media spaces like Facebook can make the specter of raising money a whole lot easier by spreading your fundraising goals over a larger pool.

With over 677 million registered users worldwide and Facebook fundraisingsearches up 85%+ the Facebook community is an incredibly fruitful space for getting your message out and attracting donors. You can share links to your fundraiser on your friend feed, message or email your friends directly, participate in groups and much more to gain exposure and raise money and supporters for your cause.

Facebook fundraising is a very simple process that can oftentimes be covered with minimal staff, allowing your resources to go towards creating truly successful programs.

And once your friends are informed of the good you are doing they can act as a bullhorn, letting even more people know about what you’re doing.  Your message can quickly jump on the exponential bandwagon in short order go viral.  In no time you can have people from across the globe reaching out and helping fund your cause.

Boiled down to its essence non-profit fundraising is about recognizing a cause, developing a message around that cause and getting that message out to the people who can best support you in affecting positive change around that cause.

Plays Well With Others: Socializing Your Fundraising Campaign

Often it feels as though something hasn’t happened until it’s happened online. And that’s as true for your fundraising efforts as it is for relationship statuses and your baby’s milestones (in excessive detail). People live almost every aspect of their lives on the web. It’s where they get information, do business, entertain themselves and most importantly, share with others.

Therein lies your fundraising success, an opportunity to maximize your efforts by reaching people through multiple platforms that have already laid the groundwork for you. But the pace at which these platforms are evolving is non-stop, inventing new ways to connect with people and increase your donor base. Still, one constant remains: human beings are social. They want to interact, to be engaged and acknowledged, and doing so, will spark the greatest reaction. Luckily, there are countless resources at your disposal to help you do just that. The trick is in knowing how to use them properly.

Twitter: no spam is good spam (unless you’re desperate. Then only on pizza.)

Twitter is great for quick updates and real-time campaigning, but you’ve got to be able to cut through the clutter to keep anyone’s attention. There’s a lot you can do with 140 characters to spread your message, but such limited space means each character needs to pull its weight:
• Strip your tweet. Keep it simple so the message isn’t bogged down by fluff, and room is left for others to re-tweet it. Include relevant keywords and stylize your tweet enough to sound human, but keep it short and sweet.

• Hashtag that puppy. Include Hashtags with topical nouns, causes, industries, etc that are associated with your message. This makes it more search friendly and helps to incorporate it as part of a conversation with users who are interested in that topic. Encourage others to re-tweet it.

• Follow tweeters carefully, and engage in a dialogue with them. If someone tweets you, respond back and re-tweet them. Ask your users questions, offer incentives and pass comments along. People are more likely to react if they feel like they’re talking with a human being, not a faceless organization.

• For the love of canned meat, don’t spam. Keep tweets relevant and engaging, not a barrage of useless information. Talk with your users. Don’t give them a rambling monologue.

Facebook: You like me! You really, really like me!

Facebook is all about community, to establish a link between you and your donor base. Once you get people to officially “like” you, they’re privy to all the great content updating your page. It offers a space for more in-depth conversation than Twitter and a richer atmosphere for your cause (with photos, profile information, associated groups and so on). But to avoid a moot Facebook profile that just sits there, you’ve got to create an experience for your fans:

• When creating your profile, define a vision or purpose for your page. Consider it from your fan’s viewpoint. What does you audience get out of “liking” your page? How can they interact with the cause and feel more connected to it?

• Update regularly with statuses and wall posts that are applicable to your cause and will get people to act upon seeing them: whether it’s just checking out your page or following a link through to a full donation. The spam rule, as always, is in effect here. Avoid hyperbolic statements and excessive capital letters that make people feel as though someone’s yelling at them.

• Be generous with your information, time and resources. Offer incentives that compel people to move forward and respond to comments quickly and keep a conversation flowing on your page. Make it so that people feel acknowledged and rewarded for helping your cause, be it with interesting linkable content or documented credit for donating that they can share on their own profile.

Fundly: the Swiss Army knife of social media.

While Facebook and Twitter are the most highly used networks, they’re only a sampling of the myriad of options for marketing your cause. In fact there are so many, that undertaking a complete social media campaign can feel daunting. Fundly understands this issue, having built a fundraising platform that gives access to countless social media sites and the tools to easily manage them, from one online hub.
A free account offers links to your online fundraising page through email, Facebook and Twitter, along with a simple analytics dashboard to help you keep track of your online influence and donations. Information and tips to master your social media campaign and spread your content throughout the web allow donors to market your cause for you and multiply your audience.

Fundly makes the process as simple and manageable as possible so you can dedicate your time to raising money and championing your cause, without getting lost in tedious details. Embracing the marketing potential of social media is necessary for any fundraising campaign that wants to make an impact. While door-to-door canvassing and bake sales are good for fresh air and a sugar rush, operating online is the best way to reach your donor base and maximize support. And learning the nuances of social media now, puts you in a greater position to adapt to the constant evolution of online marketing.

So, hop online and master the fundraising campaign of 2011. Before we start quoting Bob Dylan. By using the Fundly online fundraising platform, you can create and track as many facebook fundraising and/or twitter fundraising campaigns as you wish. Increase your causes’ reach worldwide, gain new supporters, donors, and donations with ease. All you need to do is create a free account at Fundly today!

Facebook Fundraising – Making the Most of this Social Media Platform to Raise Money

Facebook fundraising is a growing trend for causes today. Fundraising started many years ago. A lot of schools, non-profit organizations from youth athletic clubs to cheerleading groups are raising funds to maintain the cost of their activities.

Facebook is a social networking site and has been a great fundraising tool in keeping in touch with supporters and donors. It has been the most efficient venue to spread the word with your cause and in gaining volunteers who in one way or another can provide help that will really contribute substantially in your campaign. Like many other fundraising tools, it is important that you know how to use it effectively so you can get the most of the benefits that it can offer. One of its main benefits is you can sign up with it for free. The only thing that you have to take note of is you will need to spend most of your time working with it.

To raise money online with Facebook, there are only few ways to get you started. First you need to set up personal profile of yourself on this social network. Nowadays, almost all people have their own Facebook account and this expands your donor base. The second step that you need to do is to create page for your nonprofit organization. Then you need to create a cause for your organization and have it attached to your page. You can ask everyone, your friends and neighbors to join and become a fan of your page. You can even encourage them to become members of your cause. After setting up your profile and page, you can ask more people to support you.

For Facebook fundraisers, after creating the page, don’t just wait for the money to come in. You have some work to do. One of which is reminding people on a regular basis that you have a presence on this social media platform and ask them for support. You should also give continuous effort in keeping them updated with your events and in reaching out to them.

In order for you to make the most out of your Facebook presence, there are some essential things that you should do. First you should set a plan and identify what you want to get out of it. Begin with an idea of the result you want to get. Or you will spend most of your time without getting anything in return. You also have to explore Facebook and its features. For instance, you can take advantage of teleseminar that allows you to learn new things. Spending time a little more to make your page work is also crucial. The more you play with it, the better you get and the more learn about using it. You may also want to check other nonprofit organizations that are doing great on Facebook. Take a look at their strategies and try to mimic them.
Facebook fundraising is an effective method of drawing more donors and supporters given that there are over 90 millions users of this social networking site and they are rapidly growing in numbers every minute.