Since many nonprofits receive up to 40% of donations at the end of the year, nonprofits typically focus on end-of-the year campaigns, specifically in December.
Since today is Cyber Monday, I thought I would focus on organizations using the Thanksgiving holiday and the following shopping rush to engage their community. I found most of these examples by browsing my circle of nonprofits on Google+ to see what programs organizations were sharing there.
Nonprofit Online Stores
The Pablove Foundation, an organization focused on pediatric cancer research and treatment, shared a creative stop-motion video highlighting holiday gifts available in their online store for cyber Monday today. Stop-motion video is fun and people love to share it. I thought it was a nice way to draw attention to online shops, which usually aren't very compelling for people to share.
Good Spotting
Another holiday program that launched recently is the Case Foundation's #GoodSpotting contest. Snap a photo of someone doing good this holiday season and submit your shot on the foundation’s Facebook Page for a chance to win $500 in shopping cash and $5,000 for the charity of your choice. I especially love the video they created to for the campaign that shows the personality and humor of Case Foundation staff with funny #GoodSpotting shots Case staff doing good.
Epic Thanks
Over the week of Thanksgiving Epic Change encourages people to share their gratitude with the community in Epic Thanks and donate in honor of the thing of person in their hearts they are most thankful for. This year Epic Change asked community members to submit a grateful image (or dance) to share with the community. The resulting photoblog is compelling. Here’s my grateful post and one of my other favorites.
Green Gift Monday
The Nature Conservancy is encouraging supporters to skip cyber Monday in favor of Green Gift Monday by pledging to “give the gift of green this holiday season”. The site features green gift ideas, a gift guide, and links to regional green gift opportunities.
These were some of my favorites, but of course there are a ton of other holiday programs going on now. Have you found any other compelling examples? Share them in the comments.
Avi Kaplan is the Online Coordinator at Rad Campaign, a firm that provides web design, web development, and online marketing and strategy to nonprofit organizations and political campaigns.
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