Personal Fundraising Blog

Razoo: Tastes like chicken

Razoo, a fairly new entrant into the online donation game recently ran a very successful campaign called Give to the Max Day in Minnesota.  You can find more info here www.givemn.org.  You can see the results of their GiveMN promotion here:  http://givemn.razoo.com/images/share/GTMD_2009_results.pdf

You'll note some great participation in what appears like Razoo's first big PR push.

My first impressions of Razoo is that they are an AJAX-y, Web 2.0 version of FirstGiving (among others) which has been at this for years.  Oh and Razoo is such a snappy name.

According to their site "Razoo is a new way to donate and raise money online."

Not sure about that.  Much of Razoo's offering looks familiar.  One thing that is VERY different is that Razoo has a Foundation/benefactor/investor that provides rebates to organizations for the Network for Good fees.  It worked well for this campaign but I had to ask, how could they sustain that? 

Even further, how does Razoo make money because the are not a nonprofit?  My guess is that the plan is to get a critical mass of participating orgs, and then charge transaction fees down the road.  Sounds like a mid-90's dot com business model.  Give away a bunch of stuff for free and then start charging people once you have a large enough database.  We all know how that went.

Setting aside my business model apprehensions, I think it's worth a shot for NPO's looking to test out a person to person fundraising campaign.  There are no fees (for now) so why not right?  Get while the getting is good.

The numbers that they are touting are really impressive.  In this first give to MN campaign, the average amount given per donor was in the $380 range.  That is very high.  Almost too high to believe.  Hmmm.

But hey, if your org can replicate those numbers, then great!  But it does require a ton of work to be succesful.  Just slapping a couple of pages up there won't really result in a lot of revenue.  Raising money is just not that easy.

The jury's still out on Razoo but nice work so far.  I'm not sure how long the "Foundation" will reimburse orgs for transaction fees or how much the "Foundation" has invested in Razoo but, the reimbursement money won't last forever.  You can be certain of that.  Till then, the big winners will be orgs getting 0% transaction fee online donations and of course Network for Good, which banked $63K on Give to the Max Day.

A Useful list of Dont's for your Year End Fundraising Appeal

Step by Step Fundraising has a lot of useful and actionable content for the nonprofit fundraising pro.

Here's a link to a top ten list of things NOT to do in your year end appeal.

http://stepbystepfundraising.com/top-10-ways-to-screw-up-your-year-end-fundraising-campaign/

New a-thon ideas for nonprofit organizations

Every year around this time we hear from more organizations that are looking for pledge fundraising software for their events.

This year organizations are getting very creative.

We're still getting our share of walk-a-thons, and bike rides.  But this year we are also making the fundraising web sites for:

Bowl-a-thons

Bowling events with a  pledge fundraising component.  Bowlers raise money for their nonprofit.

Golf-a-thons

Golf marathons where golfers accept pledges per hole.

Chess-a-thons

Chess tournaments with a pledge fundraising component.  Participants raise money and compete against other participants. 

Build-a-thons

Homew raising events by Habitat for Humanity.  Like extreme home makeover with a pledge fundraising component!

The bottom line

The bottom line is that organizations can find an a-thon format that meets their budget, aligns with their brand, and is something that their members can get excited about.  And regardless of the format, any a-thon should have a pledge fundraising component and use software like SWEET Pledge Event Software to streamline the registration and fundraising process.

Top 5 Things to Consider When Choosing Walkathon and Pledge Event Software

We've had so much activity in the past few weeks from people looking for software for their pledge events. 

The bump in activity probably coincides with budgets being refreshed in the new fiscal year and the beginning of planning cycles for 2010 events.

We've heard from people around the country with many different kinds of events.  Bowl-a-thons are popular this year.  We've heard form people planning Golf-a-thons too.  Of course, we've had our usual complement of walkathons and bike rides.

Regardless of the type of event, you can't have an effective a-thon without an online site that makes registration simple, communication easy, and fundraising effective.

Here are the top 5 requirements to consider when you choose software for your walkathon, bowlathon, or pledge event.

1. The software must support YOUR registration requirements.  Do you need to know someones shoe size?  Your site should easily support that?  The bottom line is that if you find yourself changing your event so it works with the software, then you've purchased the wrong product.
2. Donations must go directly to your nonprofit.  Vendors who act as middle-men for your donation do so for one reason alone; they can skim off the top of your donations if they pass through their coffers.  There is no justifiable reason why a software company needs to handle your donors' money.
3. Avoid software vendors who work on commision.  Software vendors must not deduct a percentage of your transactions.  Since your software vendor has nothing to do with how much money is raised, they shouln't be paid based on a percentage of money raised. 
4. The software should look, act, and feel like your own web site.  Sending users to a different site with long scary URLs will prevent some folks from using the site. Remember, that the more people that use your site, the lower your costs will be for the event.  Don't give people an excuse to bail. 
5. The software should not take away your time and resources away from planning the event and fundraising.  Feel like saving money and buying a do-it-yourself solution?  Every hour that you spend on building a web site is an hour that you could be spending on recruiting and fundraising.  Sometimes, do-it-yourself is not the best way to go (I'm thinking of my Dad fixing the washing machine many years ago - it did not end well).   Get a professional to give you a professional site.

For more information, visit http://www.blueskycollaborative.com/bscv2/main/SWEET/