What Kevin Bacon Knows about Marketing

What Kevin Bacon Knows about Marketing

About Network for Good Network for Good is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, founded in 2001 by AOL, Yahoo! & Cisco Our mission is to make it easier for nonprofits to raise money online, and for people to give online Network for Good has processed over $200 million in donations for over 30,000 nonprofits. We manage online fundraising on Facebook and MySpace

Agenda: What I Will Cover The Web 1.0 Stuff Get your house in order before you go out The Web 2.0 World What is it? What can I achieve? The Case Studies The Nonprofit Marketing Blog How TNC engaged a new audience on Flickr How Kevin Bacon Flipped the Funnel for Nonprofits

Download the slides from www.fundraising123.org

Reality Check Social networks are not a silver bullet for online fundraising.

First things first Who has a website? Can you collect email addresses on your website? Can you accept online donations on your website? How does your website engage your audience? Do you provide relevant content? Do you tell your story through pictures, videos? Is there SOMETHING portable on your website? How do people find your website? Do you have ANY IDEA? Do you use email marketing to drive traffic back to your website? Can people find your website in search engines? Do your publish your URL on every communication, both online and offline?

Why the boring fundraising stuff matters Small to medium-sized nonprofits account for 70% of giving via Network for Good

The Long Tail of Online Fundraising Because any nonprofit of any size can do it Because it s drastically less expensive and more efficient than conventional fundraising

Who Is Giving Online?* Online givers are young (38-39 years old) They are generous -- ($163) Men and women give online in equal numbers Virtually all (96%) have given to charity before, but 38% haven t given online before *Network for Good Study, The Young and Generous

So Get online Accept donations online Ask for donations via email (NOT OUTLOOK) See how you re doing, for example

Where is your traffic coming from? Your donations?

OK now you can look at Web 2.0

Official Definition Web 2.0 is about people using technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations (or nonprofits!) Adapted from Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff

My definition of Web 2.0 It s about people wanting to be seen and heard. And to connect with others.

So what? The messenger is everything.

Millions of megaphones

OMG! Where do I start? People LISTEN: Focus on where your megaphones hang out Objectives Decide what you want to accomplish (hint: community first, fundraising second) Strategy, Tactics, & Technology Avoid random acts of marketing. Don t be just another fool with a tool Adapted from Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff

Stuff to try out 1. Find people who are passionate about your cause (Google Alerts, Technorati) 2. Grow people s awareness & familiarity with your cause, and own the search engines! (Google AdWords, Blogging) 3. Amplify word-of-mouth & grow your email list (Flickr & YouTube) 4. Plug your supporters into fundraising widgets (SixDegrees.org) 5. Inspire people to visit your website and engage with you

How to listen

Whether to blog 1. Are you listening to your online community? 2. Do you have something unique to say? 3. Are you willing and able to say it? 4. Are you willing to be challenged and criticized? 5. Are you willing and able to dedicate the resources to succeed? Source: Matt Dickman, Techno//Marketer blog: http://technomarketer.typepad.com/

Tools to engage a new or existing audience Online photo management & sharing organizing photos and video

The Nature Conservancy Flickr Campaign Annual contest on Flickr Winners: annual member calendar and nature.org website E-mail cultivations, search engine ads and social networks to draw in both members and new leads Allowed entrants to participate solely on Flickr, but also by sending photos directly TNC picked the finalists, but let the public vote on the winners Never asked for money, only for engagement Source: Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

Outcomes Over 8,500 members of TNC s photo group on Flickr who have shared nearly 94,000 photos (~11 photos per member) One of the largest nonprofit groups on Flickr to date Great, positive feedback from members and new prospects Coverage for (and many links to) our photo contest in numerous photography and nature picture blogs, discussion boards Over 10% click-through rate on ads promoting the contest Over 7,200 new e-members registered Over 5,000 votes for 2006 contest; over 17,000 votes for Source: Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy 2007

Why did this work? People were the focus every step of the way.

What Kevin Bacon Knows about Marketing

The Six Degrees of Nonprofit Fundraising People give when people they know ask them to give. Synonyms: group fundraising, personal fundraising, viral fundraising, grassroots fundraising, peer-to-peer fundraising. Source: Peter Deitz, Social Actions, Founder

Six Degrees A person-to-person fundraising widget is the technology that makes that happen.

Meet the Wired Fundraiser

Robin s Story

Lessons learned with SixDegrees.org 1. Choose the right messenger 2. What attracts is celebs; what motivates is personal 3. Contests are good (URGENCY) 4. Uber-activists are the few, the proud 5. Give them the tools to fundraise WHERE THEY ARE ONLINE 6. Social networks are complex 7. Be prepared to help people; this is bleeding edge

To that last point My daughter s in college right now, so I contacted her.they [her friends] started putting it on their blogs and on Facebook, and she became so energized around it. -Tom, Helping Children Worldwide

4 Rules for Fundraising & Marketing in a Web 2.0 World Don t let your online presence be just a brochure website Go to where people are, using the infinite variety of the Internet Flip the funnel: Tap into user participation (personto-person fundraising, wired fundraisers, social media) Don t get carried away by the hype; you still need all the offline stuff

Closing Thought Inspiration + Know how + Tools = Change the World

Measurement Ingredients Engagement & Reach Page Impressions, Visits, Unique Visitors Time Spent, Pages per visitor Emails opened, click-throughs Videos viewed, audio plays Word of Mouth Number of Mentions, Posts, Comments Recommendations Mentions-per-user Send This To A Friend Inbound links Earned Media Offline media mentions Online media mentions Search Visibility Higher search results Greater search results share 3 rd party results Research Customer/stakeholder feedback Product sampling Source: Qui Diaz, Livingston Communications: www.livingstonbuzz.com

References Beth Kanter s Blog: beth.typepad.com Nonprofit Marketing Blog: www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com The Nature Conservancy: www.nature.org Peter Dietz/Social Actions: blog.socialactions.com The Buzz Bin: www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog

Causes on Facebook The 30+ audience is the fastest growing segment of Facebook.

Causes on Facebook The Causes application for Facebook adds the ability to solicit and make donations from within Facebook.

Causes on Facebook Allows American and Canadian 501(c)(3)s to recruit supporters and fundraise directly on Facebook Raised $3.2MM for 25,000 charities since June 2007 13MM total installs, 5MM monthly active users

Facebook Cause: Love Without Boundaries Has raised over $150,000 from 4,115 donors. A small nonprofit with just 3% overhead and an all-volunteer staff, Love Without Boundaries seeks to give medical care to orphans in China in hopes of readying them for adoption. Their staff, who are older, nontraditional Facebook users, were able to spread the cause through their social network, bringing in thousands of Facebook users who had never before heard of their small nonprofit.

Love Without Boundaries every bit of the fundraising was done by people like me, recruiting friends and sending emails. The old model--wooing big donors--requires considerable time and expense, albeit with bigger payoffs.

Facebook Resources For tips and resources, visit: http://www.fundraising123.org/social-networking Including: Starting a Cause on Facebook Everything You Need to Know About Using Facebook as a Nonprofit Marketing Tool