Celebrities helping nonprofits to bring in donations is a tactic as old as fundraising itself – who doesn’t know St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital has long been an important cause for Marlo Thomas, and her father Danny before her? As nonprofit fundraising increasingly moves online and into social media, it seems natural to look to celebrities and “weblebrities” with significant reach who will donate their names and clout to the cause. Geoff Livingston and Henry T. Dunbar of Zoetica teamed up with PayPal to take a closer look at what works – and what doesn’t – in online celebrity fundraising. In a recent whitepaper, they shared case studies from five different social media fundraising campaigns on Regift the Fruitcake, DonorsChoose.org, TwitChange, Six Degrees, and Facebook’s Causes platform. Some of their findings may surprise you!
Being a “household name” and having a big following is no guarantee, and in fact someone who donates their name without doing much else is less likely to be successful for your cause. Here are some of the critical factors that successful social media spokespeople had in common:
- they have a tight-knit community that they engage often and develop relationships with
- they engage their personal networks and resources, not just their public ones
- they show a strong personal connection and commitment to the cause
As in more traditional celebrity fundraising, donors connect more and are more willing to give when the appeal comes from someone who believes in the cause, tells a personal story about why they’re supporting it, and comes across as authentic. A well-known public figure with a personal connection to a cause (like Michael J. Fox and his work for Parkinson’s research, for example), can accomplish a lot for a nonprofit. However, in social media campaigns, larger followings or better name-recognition are not necessarily enough – campaigns typically do better when the spokesperson engages the community on a regular and more personal basis. For example, Ali Edwards, a mother of an autistic son, used her scrap booking blog to campaign for Autism Speaks, becoming the number-one fundraiser on Kevin Bacon’s “Six Degrees” site – outperforming such heavy-hitters as Ashley Judd, Nicole Kidman, and Kanye West.
Two of the case studies also revealed that closer collaboration, sometimes with fewer and more active participants, can really pay off. For instance both DonorsChoose.org and Operation Smile (a big winner on Regift the Fruitcake) often provide help to their celebrity spokespeople, working with them on best practices, reminding them to stay engaged, and sending them resources and information to help them stay on track. In their Blogger Challenge in 2008 and Social Media Challenge in 2009, DonorsChoose.org saw that the most engaged and lesser-known participants were the most successful, with 5 percent of the bloggers bringing in 90 percent of donations. In 2010 they decided to focus more on supporting those bloggers individually, and brought in more in donations than they had done previously with the Challenges. Their biggest celebrity-centric fundraiser, run by Reddit to support Stephen Colbert’s “March To Keep Fear Alive,” was already doing phenomenally well when Colbert got involved and put it over the top with his own promotion.
So, it’s really no surprise that social media fundraising – whether celebrity-driven or not, is social first. Nonprofits can bring home fundraising wins when they recognize and can work with both celebrities and “just folks” who have a passion for the cause and a willingness to use the strengths of social media. Good luck, and keep it social!
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