Online Fundraising

I’m not a fan of #GivingTuesday. Don’t get me wrong, though. I do like the idea of it. Promoting philanthropy at a time of year that has become associated with extreme consumerism is a nice concept. While I have no quarrel with the idea of #GivingTuesday, I do have several problems with the reality of…

If you don't have extra money or time to give to charity, a new startup suggests donating something else: yourself. More specifically, your (anonymized) shopping data. Data Does Good, a benefit corporation, lets users choose a nonprofit to support and link up their Amazon shopping history. The startup's system automatically strips away personal information, then…

Twitter is experimenting with allowing certain nonprofits to accept donations directly through tweets. Like how only a select few nonprofits had access to Facebook’s early launch of their Facebook Fundraising Tools, only a select few nonprofits currently have access to Twitter Donations. It is unclear if Twitter has plans to provide access to more nonprofits…

In the end, no matter how much you think you know (or someone else knows), it’s really easy to do some landing page testing these days. If you haven’t been testing aspects of your landing pages, then you need to get on it quickly...

After Black Friday and Cyber Monday smashed all sorts of retail records, #GivingTuesday 2016 made sure it wasn't the odd day out. The day of giving, founded in 2012 by New York City's 92nd Street Y, brought in a record $168 million in charitable donations worldwide—a 44 percent increase over last year's $117 million tally. But some underlying numbers might give pause...

Charities and nonprofits could hardly contain their enthusiasm leading up to #GivingTuesday. On social media, everything from National Geographic to the Kennedy Center has been promoting it for days. No shame there. Whole Whale, a consultancy for nonprofit organizations, estimates that the charitable-industrial complex can expect to end the day with a record haul of…

Twitter remains a keystone of any social media strategy. Used well, it can help your organization understand how potential members are finding content that interests them, and it can attract the right kind of followers to your account. To whet your appetite a bit, here's some examples we love. Nonprofits Who Rock at Twitter 1. The Stroke…

The bucket of ice that sparked a viral social-media campaign has a new home at the Smithsonian. The National Museum of American History is opening a new exhibit on the history of philanthropy on Tuesday. A showcase item will be the blue bucket that was used to dump ice water onto Jeanette Senerchia in 2014.…

I first wrote about #GivingTuesday back in 2013, one year after its initial launch. It’s three years later, and my stance has yet to be swayed. I am not saying #GivingTuesday should go away. Its results have been successful and there’s no reason to think it won’t continue its ace track record of fantastic fundraising. But here’s what I am saying: If your nonprofit participates in #GivingTuesday, do it right...

It’s not often that you see the word “fun” and “algorithm” in the same sentence. (Okay, fine. Maybe you do, if you’re a marketing nerd like I am.) But think about this: Google has really been around for more than two decades. With a history like that, there's got to be at least some compelling trivia,…