Editor’s Note: Perhaps the best way for nonprofit organizations to learn how to effectively increase their online presence through innovative multichannel programs is to look to their peers that already are utilizing Web 2.0 channels for advocacy, friendraising and fundraising. We asked Katrin Verclas, executive director of NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network, to talk about some of the organizations that she sees as leading the way. Here … her responses:
Amnesty International
Amnesty ran an edgy campaign last year — the Air Torture project — aimed to raise awareness about the use of “extraordinary renditions” in a “not your usual policy work,” attention-getting way. Consultant Alia McKee of Sea Change Strategies wanted to grow Amnesty’s list, raise money for its work to stop torture and cultivate its uber-activists in an exciting new way. Amnesty created an advocacy landing page — www.airtorture.com — that mirrored an actual airline booking page. From that page, people were encouraged to download a boarding pass with information that could be printed and sent to that person’s congressional representative, tell friends about the campaign, download blog badges to post on a personal blog, and, of course, make a gift.
The campaign added 17,000 new names to the file without any paid marketing; raised $34,000 directly attributed to e-mail, with $108,000 total online giving in June and significant spikes on days when Air Torture appeals were sent; and generated five top blog mentions and some 30 personal blog posts. According to McKee, the list growth from this campaign was astonishing, especially without any marketing.
Care.org
CARE very effectively has used the Web for a set of beautiful, multichannel campaigns. The organization spent some money and created video, flash animation and some wonderful stills. The “I am Powerful” campaign — and the Care Power Circle — have been particularly effective, exceeding donation projections significantly. The “I am Powerful” video was one of the most forwarded pieces of its site; it’s very effective, providing an emotional appeal and targeting women in a compelling way — and women constitute a core (and increasingly affluent) slice of the online-giving space. The visuals are beautifully rendered, and all online materials — video, virtual field trips, photo galleries and e-cards — are designed with print media in mind as well, making for a consistent look and feel.
DonorsChoose.org
The innovative nonprofit known as “the eBay of Philanthropy” wanted to launch a national online marketing campaign around back-to-school fundraising. It devised a model of 10 individual campaigns with customized messaging streams in the 10 states and cities where DonorsChoose has active programs. With its consulting firm, M&R Strategies, DonorsChoose developed a coordinated messaging stream and outreach materials, including pages of downloadable banners and icons, and reached out to hundreds of Web sites. Banners were posted widely, from local civic sites, “mommy blogs” and news stations, to national online advertising networks and media sites such as The Atlantic Monthly and National Geographic.
The six-week campaign resulted in more than $1.5 million in funding for public-school projects. More than $750,000 of that total was from individual donors funding projects online; the balance came from foundations and other grant sources. The campaign dramatically outperformed DonorsChoose’s previous e-mail marketing. Response rates for back-to-school messages were five times as high as the organization’s average full-list e-mails. Thanks to this viral marketing, one-third of the “citizen philanthropists” participating in the campaign were first-time donors.
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is experimenting with new media such as Flickr, podcasts and MySpace, targeting new audiences and being (for an old environmental organization) very hip. Earlier this year, it held a photo contest on Flickr that got supporters engaged by offering them a chance to win placement for their photo in a calendar and Web site. Almost 16,000 photos were submitted and more than 2,000 people joined the group on Flickr. See it at www.flickr.com/groups/thenatureconservancy — there are some really great photos there!
The Nature Stories podcast just turned a year old last February. It’s now available through NPR at http://podcast.prx.org/nature and highlights stories about the fascinating and often unexpected ways in which people interact with places in the natural world. Episodes have focused on statues on Easter Island, birding in New Zealand, Christmas in Bosnia, ice hotels in Sweden, mushroom hunting in Yellowstone and the “private” life of a wolf pack in the wild. The podcasts have been downloaded and listened to by more than 150,000 people and have helped the organization connect to new, younger audiences.
The Nature Conservancy also is using the Care2, Digg, Netscape and Newsvine social news/media networks to spread news about its success in conservation. This drives traffic to the Web site and helps reach new supporters. See www.care2.com/news/member/253502285?sort=front_page for a profile page with examples of some of the stories on the Care2 News Network, http://science.netscape.com/story/2007/02/24/rhapsody-in-blue-photo-essay-of-the-worlds-luckiest-butterfly for great commentary by Netscape users for a story posted there, and http://digg.com/environment/5_MILLION_ACRES_of_the_Great_Bear_Rainforest_saved_from_logging for positive comments from Digg users. These success stories have been read and viewed by tens of thousands of visitors all around the world.
Oxfam America
Oxfam America, in addition to using traditional channels such as its site and e-mail lists and marketing, also is experimenting with social networks and new media. Last fall, Oxfam partnered with MySpace to launch “Rock for Darfur” to raise awareness about the situation in Darfur. Twenty bands around the country held concerts and donated the proceeds to Oxfam America. It raised about $16,000 from MySpace users directly. More importantly, 200 media outlets covered the story pointing to the PR and earned media value of clever use of new media.
Also noteworthy is the Starbucks campaign in which Oxfam is calling on coffee industry leaders to sign agreements that recognize Ethiopia’s right to control the use of its coffee “brand names.” With these agreements in place, Ethiopians could occupy a stronger negotiating position with foreign buyers, capture a larger share of the value associated with their names and better protect their brands — regardless of whether the trademarks were granted. To date, more than 96,000 people have taken action online. Oxfam produced a Starbucks campaign video posted on YouTube that has been viewed more than 43,000 times. Recently, the organization asked supporters to join in a photo petition asking Starbucks to support Ethiopian coffee farmers using Flickr, nicely integrating the different social and new media in a comprehensive campaign. (For more on this campaign, check out One Good Idea on Page 13 of the August issue of FundRaising Success.)
Network for Good and Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
The goal of the dinner game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” is to connect every actor to Kevin Bacon within six film roles. The civically minded Bacon bought the URL and gave it to Network for Good for organizations to raise money virally. And they do. Six Degrees has raised some $500,000 for nonprofits. Network for Good itself, of course, is the nonprofit engine that has generated more than $100 million for 20,000 nonprofits.
At sixdegrees.org celebrities link their names to a nonprofit cause, and a user looking up one of these celebrities gets information on that nonprofit in the process. Users can post their own pictures, stories, favorite nonprofits — becoming celebrities for their own cause with widgets to add to their own sites.
While community and widget fundraising is still minuscule in comparison to direct online appeals, it’s growing and soon could become a valuable part of nonprofits’ strategies.
Katrin Verclas is executive director of NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network.
Multichannel Stars
Editor’s Note: Perhaps the best way for nonprofit organizations to learn how to effectively increase their online presence through innovative multichannel programs is to look to their peers that already are utilizing Web 2.0 channels for advocacy, friendraising and fundraising. We asked Katrin Verclas, executive director of NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network, to talk about some of the organizations that she sees as leading the way. Here … her responses:
Amnesty International
Amnesty ran an edgy campaign last year — the Air Torture project — aimed to raise awareness about the use of “extraordinary renditions” in a “not your usual policy work,” attention-getting way. Consultant Alia McKee of Sea Change Strategies wanted to grow Amnesty’s list, raise money for its work to stop torture and cultivate its uber-activists in an exciting new way. Amnesty created an advocacy landing page — www.airtorture.com — that mirrored an actual airline booking page. From that page, people were encouraged to download a boarding pass with information that could be printed and sent to that person’s congressional representative, tell friends about the campaign, download blog badges to post on a personal blog, and, of course, make a gift.
The campaign added 17,000 new names to the file without any paid marketing; raised $34,000 directly attributed to e-mail, with $108,000 total online giving in June and significant spikes on days when Air Torture appeals were sent; and generated five top blog mentions and some 30 personal blog posts. According to McKee, the list growth from this campaign was astonishing, especially without any marketing.
Care.org
CARE very effectively has used the Web for a set of beautiful, multichannel campaigns. The organization spent some money and created video, flash animation and some wonderful stills. The “I am Powerful” campaign — and the Care Power Circle — have been particularly effective, exceeding donation projections significantly. The “I am Powerful” video was one of the most forwarded pieces of its site; it’s very effective, providing an emotional appeal and targeting women in a compelling way — and women constitute a core (and increasingly affluent) slice of the online-giving space. The visuals are beautifully rendered, and all online materials — video, virtual field trips, photo galleries and e-cards — are designed with print media in mind as well, making for a consistent look and feel.
DonorsChoose.org
The innovative nonprofit known as “the eBay of Philanthropy” wanted to launch a national online marketing campaign around back-to-school fundraising. It devised a model of 10 individual campaigns with customized messaging streams in the 10 states and cities where DonorsChoose has active programs. With its consulting firm, M&R Strategies, DonorsChoose developed a coordinated messaging stream and outreach materials, including pages of downloadable banners and icons, and reached out to hundreds of Web sites. Banners were posted widely, from local civic sites, “mommy blogs” and news stations, to national online advertising networks and media sites such as The Atlantic Monthly and National Geographic.
The six-week campaign resulted in more than $1.5 million in funding for public-school projects. More than $750,000 of that total was from individual donors funding projects online; the balance came from foundations and other grant sources. The campaign dramatically outperformed DonorsChoose’s previous e-mail marketing. Response rates for back-to-school messages were five times as high as the organization’s average full-list e-mails. Thanks to this viral marketing, one-third of the “citizen philanthropists” participating in the campaign were first-time donors.
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is experimenting with new media such as Flickr, podcasts and MySpace, targeting new audiences and being (for an old environmental organization) very hip. Earlier this year, it held a photo contest on Flickr that got supporters engaged by offering them a chance to win placement for their photo in a calendar and Web site. Almost 16,000 photos were submitted and more than 2,000 people joined the group on Flickr. See it at www.flickr.com/groups/thenatureconservancy — there are some really great photos there!
The Nature Stories podcast just turned a year old last February. It’s now available through NPR at http://podcast.prx.org/nature and highlights stories about the fascinating and often unexpected ways in which people interact with places in the natural world. Episodes have focused on statues on Easter Island, birding in New Zealand, Christmas in Bosnia, ice hotels in Sweden, mushroom hunting in Yellowstone and the “private” life of a wolf pack in the wild. The podcasts have been downloaded and listened to by more than 150,000 people and have helped the organization connect to new, younger audiences.
The Nature Conservancy also is using the Care2, Digg, Netscape and Newsvine social news/media networks to spread news about its success in conservation. This drives traffic to the Web site and helps reach new supporters. See www.care2.com/news/member/253502285?sort=front_page for a profile page with examples of some of the stories on the Care2 News Network, http://science.netscape.com/story/2007/02/24/rhapsody-in-blue-photo-essay-of-the-worlds-luckiest-butterfly for great commentary by Netscape users for a story posted there, and http://digg.com/environment/5_MILLION_ACRES_of_the_Great_Bear_Rainforest_saved_from_logging for positive comments from Digg users. These success stories have been read and viewed by tens of thousands of visitors all around the world.
Oxfam America
Oxfam America, in addition to using traditional channels such as its site and e-mail lists and marketing, also is experimenting with social networks and new media. Last fall, Oxfam partnered with MySpace to launch “Rock for Darfur” to raise awareness about the situation in Darfur. Twenty bands around the country held concerts and donated the proceeds to Oxfam America. It raised about $16,000 from MySpace users directly. More importantly, 200 media outlets covered the story pointing to the PR and earned media value of clever use of new media.
Also noteworthy is the Starbucks campaign in which Oxfam is calling on coffee industry leaders to sign agreements that recognize Ethiopia’s right to control the use of its coffee “brand names.” With these agreements in place, Ethiopians could occupy a stronger negotiating position with foreign buyers, capture a larger share of the value associated with their names and better protect their brands — regardless of whether the trademarks were granted. To date, more than 96,000 people have taken action online. Oxfam produced a Starbucks campaign video posted on YouTube that has been viewed more than 43,000 times. Recently, the organization asked supporters to join in a photo petition asking Starbucks to support Ethiopian coffee farmers using Flickr, nicely integrating the different social and new media in a comprehensive campaign. (For more on this campaign, check out One Good Idea on Page 13 of the August issue of FundRaising Success.)
Network for Good and Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
The goal of the dinner game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” is to connect every actor to Kevin Bacon within six film roles. The civically minded Bacon bought the URL and gave it to Network for Good for organizations to raise money virally. And they do. Six Degrees has raised some $500,000 for nonprofits. Network for Good itself, of course, is the nonprofit engine that has generated more than $100 million for 20,000 nonprofits.
At sixdegrees.org celebrities link their names to a nonprofit cause, and a user looking up one of these celebrities gets information on that nonprofit in the process. Users can post their own pictures, stories, favorite nonprofits — becoming celebrities for their own cause with widgets to add to their own sites.
While community and widget fundraising is still minuscule in comparison to direct online appeals, it’s growing and soon could become a valuable part of nonprofits’ strategies.
Katrin Verclas is executive director of NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network.