Boomer Ronin

Don’t believe the hype about social media. Really, you know better.
Social media is about giving your supporters a platform to connect online and not about raising money. Yes, really. Take a look at your online donations. How many new donors are you really getting from your Twitter and Facebook accounts? Be honest. Yes, it may be that you aren’t doing it right, Kivi Leroux Miller has published some good blog articles about that. But not doing social media right means you are not getting more listeners to cultivate into donors. Although this may eventually translate into donations, it should not be your primary focus.

Prospects
When it comes to social media, what you are getting is prospects – an interested audience to pitch your message to and potentially cultivate as donors. This is undoubtedly extremely valuable.

So here’s the gist. Find more ways to really connect prospects to your story by offering webinar open houses, one-on-one Skype meetings, g-chats, or bring them in for an informal but transformative visit if they live in your city. This is the step in which you get to play nonprofit innovator, or what Seth Godin would call a “linchpin”.

Old Friends
Don’t forget your current donors. They are giving online because they are already bought in to your mission. Appreciate them, invite them to connect in person at your organization. Even mix current donors with new online friends for peer-to-peer cultivation in those new and awesome cultivation webinars or web conferences. Think of current social media donors as your frontline army, leading your social media campaign, fully equipped with the tools they need to indoctrinate others to join your cause.

Take Responsibility
Remember online fundraising is gaining speed and donors have more information than ever before. You cannot afford to stay behind or watch from the sidelines. But you also cannot afford to follow blindly as a social media strategist (with little fundraising knowledge) convinces you that they will raise a lot of money for you just by making your Facebook page pretty.

You must find creative and effective ways to spread your organization’s message and using that leverage to decrease the degrees of separation between you and online prospects. If you focus on educating current donors and teach them the art of cultivating prospects they will help you spread your organization’s fire online and get you closer to your prospects. You will be able to develop authentic relationships between your online friends and your organization and then translate friends and followers into donors.
Now, isn’t that a Facebook status to twit about, you digg?

Yaromil Fong-Olivares is a consultant with Hans Hageman & Associates. She is also a creativity coach who can be found here.

Don’t let the information superhighway bite your marketing efforts in the rear end. Recently, I read a blog post about grammar from a well-known writing blogger. Of course, as with many bloggers, at the end of her post she made a sales pitch for her writing consultation services.

The title of the post was great. It definitely drew me in and made me want to read more. She also had a decent list of grammar errors that I would say we can all benefit from revisiting from time to time.

Not So Fast
Sounds fine, right? Wrong. The most crucial aspect of her post – her explanation of how to unlearn these grammar errors – was actually difficult to understand. I read it a few times; I even asked for others’ opinions and everyone I asked found it equally confusing. From reading the post I can tell the blogger is very knowledgeable but I certainly wouldn’t hire her to teach me.

How does this apply to your marketing? Blogging is the new selling. That means your blog is the bridge between you and your donors. Your blog is under scrutiny and thus you must pay attention not just to what you are writing about (content), but also style (how) audience (who), and schedule (when).

Get Out In Front
Here are some questions to help you increase donations with your blog:

o Does your blog design reflect the organization’s culture, values, brand, finances?
o Is your blog overly technical and full of nonprofit jargon?
o Can your average donor’s children (regardless of age) connect with the blog?
o Does your blog include audio, video and written posts?
o Is your blog’s font too small and potentially alienating older folks?
o Do you encourage readers to leave comments, ask questions, and post additional information related to the topic of your blog?
o Do you have a set time and day when you post new entries?
o Does your blog have a sign-up feature and is it prominently displayed on both the blog and your website?

Send this to a nonprofit that’s doing god work but may only be treading water in the social media ocean.

One of the biggest challenges of small nonprofits is getting attention and becoming known beyond our immediate niche or community. With a little help from your donor database and a $7 pack of post-its you can change that in one day. Think of it as “take your post-it to work day.” Get donors involved in a fun and easy marketing activity that engages current donors, gets you new ones and definitely gives your website traffic a boost.

Start by choosing a segment of your donor base that is easy to reach via snail mail and email. Since this is a new and interactive friend raising campaign and the ability to easily reach donors is key to its success, I recommend limiting the mailing list to 500 individuals.

Here is the golden nugget: send each of your donors a post-it note along with a letter requesting that she serve as the official ambassador for your organization for one day by wearing the post-it note. The sticky note should be simple, easy to read and it should only include the following information:

My name is _____________________
I HEART XYZ Organization (for the more traditional folks: I proudly support XYZ Organization)
Website

2. Choose a meaningful date & prevent your sticky note from ending up in the recycle bin by doing these 2 things:
1) Limit the time between the arrival of the sticky note and the wearing of the sticky note. My suggestion is to allot for 1 week for mail delivery and 1 week for “safety.” For instance if you send out your sticky note on the 1st of February, schedule wearing the sticky note for the 15th of February.
2) Choose a date that matters. Depending on the culture of your organization it can be the date the organization was founded, a related holiday, even the birthday of the organization’s founder or current Executive Director.

3. Make sure the request to wear the post-it letter includes the date and its meaning, how many people will be wearing the sticky note (i.e. how many supporters you are sending it to), 3 concisely written recent program accomplishments, and a photo of a program participant wearing the post it.

THEN (and this is just as important as the sticky note)

4. Send 3 simple and brief E-blast reminders to your supporters. The first E-blast should arrive in your donors’ inbox 5 days before the post-it wearing day and it should be about making sure that the post-it arrived. The second should arrive the day before and it should be about reminding supporters about the big day. The third E-blast should arrive early morning on the actual post-it wearing day. All E-blasts should include the exact language used in the original post-it along with encouragement to recreate the sticky note in the case that the one you sent is missing.

Next post: Follow up: how to raise the most money out of your “take your post-it to work” day.

Yaromil Fong-Olivares is a nonprofit communications and development consultant with Hans Hageman & Associates. Find out more by clicking on her tab or our “Services” tab.