Thanks to everyone who sponsored, presented, attended, and called in to today's brown bag session. A special thanks goes out to today's speakers: Suzanne Rainey and Andrew Cohen from Forum One Communications and Hilary Zwerdling with M&R Strategic Services. You can check out a wrap up of their presentations by clicking here.
Also, we'd like to give a shout out to the wonderful people at OneWorld.net and Interaction who also sponsored today's event.
If you couldn't make it or call in, here are some of the great takeaways:
- Leverage what assets you already have - there's not much time for the holiday giving season left, so now's not the time to try and reinvent the wheel . Use your current audience to cultivate these donations.
- Use a personal "ask" - start small with your ask, even if it's as low as $10 - you'll get more
- Video can be a great way to make your cause more personable to potential donors - you don't have to spend a fortune on them, either
- People love to talk about themselves - let them. Their creativity may inspire others.
- Use mini celebs - a columnist in a local newspaper or magazine may not be a global sensation, but he or she does have a large, captive audience. If you can get them to write about your cause in a column, they may be able to recruit donors for you.
- There was a great discussion about social networking, particularly Facebook apps. A lot of the discussion echoed the points in our own Facebook Causes article.
Here are also the fundraising options mentioned today:
- Direct mail
- Major Donors
- CFC
- Social networks
- Events
- Grants
- Telemarketers
- Ads (TV & Radio)
- PR
- Advocacy
Which of these are best for you to capture those last-minute donations? Well, the ones that have worked in the past and the ones that require the least infrastructure.
Mobilizing your current assets is the most effective way to cash in on end-of-year donations, particularly if you don't have any big plans, yet. For most, this would be emails, direct mail, and hitting up your major donors.
To download today's documents, please click on the links below:
Care2 Brown-Bag .pdf
Holiday Fundraising-Care2 & ForumOne
Thanks to today's sponsors and speakers!
Care2
OneWorld.net
Interaction
Here are the articles that were featured during today's presentation:
Procastinators Guide to Year-End Fundraising by Mark Rovner, Sea Change Strategies, and Care2.
MySpace.com: A Place for Donors?
Is It Worth It? An ROI Calculator for Social Network Campaigns
The Long, Long Tail of Facebook Causes
These are the links that were mentioned today:
NothingButNets.net
African Wildlife Foundation
Heifer International
ChangingthePresent.org
Save Darfur Coalition
Oxfam America
Nothing But Nets video:
If you enjoyed today's session and would like to receive more information about social networking and other nonprofit online communications, sign up for frogloop's monthly newsletter!
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