SWEET Online Fundraising Blog

"The Social Media Bubble" - and nonprofits

The Social Media Bubble is a thought provoking article on Umair Haque's blog on Harvard Business Review. 

In it, Haque suggests that the ephemeral connections that masquerade as "true relationships" on social media will prevent the Internet from acheiving its true promise.

Haque goes on to suggest that the collective time that people spend creating "visceral attention grabs" on facebook could be put to better use. 

He makes some good points.  Whether you agree with him or not, the significance of this article is not in the content but in the concept.  One thing that I know is that bubbles happen, in no small measure, because people in important places say that they are going to happen.  The perception of depreciation starts with the thought leaders and spreads pretty rapidly thereafter.

This is not to say that I'm anticipating a Facebook implosion in the near future.  But for nonprofits, what if it did?  What if Facebook died or was replaced?  Or much more likely, what if Facebook started charging or selling more of your organization's info to advertisers?

What happens to all the effort being put into fan pages, cause pages, etc...? 

Have you reaped any benefits from having a Cause or Fan page so far?  If Haque is right, then you probably haven't.  And you probably won't.

A nonprofit's stability can be measured by the strength of its relationship with its members (i.e. the investors and stakeholders).  If organizations strive to foster these relationships in an environment that's not conducive to  strong relationships,  then the time and energy that orgs spend on Facebook will be self-defeating.

Of course, you'd have to buy into Haque's premise to buy into this concept.  But it's not far-fetched.  Repeatedly posting messages on your Cause page bulletin board may not be the best way to build relationships. 

Nonprofits should definitely take a long hard look at their effort and strategy in social media, lest they allocate too much of their limited resources in fostering relationships with donors in a milieu that's better suited for Farmville.

Hospital Network Boosts Fundraising with Walkathon and Marathon Software

The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System (NSLIJ) is running 2 pledge event fundraisers that have netted over $175,000, to date, for hospitals in their network.

This is a clear cut example of a hospital system taking the fundraising bull by the horns by enlisting the people that benefit from its services to generate the funds required to keep it running. 

In addition, NSLIJ has empowered their fundraisers with SWEET Walkathon and Pledge Event Software, making it easy for their event participants to generate large sums quickly and easily.  Several individuals have raised over $1000 already.  Some have even exceeded $3000!

This is an uncertain time for many in the health care system, but NSLIJ is showing that they can use proven fundraising methods and tools like SWEET to mitigate some of the uncertainty.  And people are seemingly more than willing to help.

Every Woman Matters http://www.everywomanmatterswalk.com is a walkathon to benefit the new Katz Institute for Women's Health and Katz Women's Hospital.

Tri-ing for Kids!! http://sch.tri-ingforkids.org/ is a grassroots group that will compete in the Mighty Montauk Triathlon on June 12, 2010 to benefit Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park. The group consists of all levels of participants, from elite triathletes to newcomers to the sport.

"Lets See What Happens" Approach Will Doom Your Walkathon or Pledge Event

All too often I get calls from organizations planning first year pledge events or walkathons that fail to set revenue and participation objectives for their event.  Needless to say, this approach is destined for failure.

The "let's see what happens approach" prevents organizations from truly buying in to meeting the goals for their event.

Take for example, the decision to use walkathon or pledge event software for their event.  An event planner using the "let's see what happens approach" will undoubtedly choose the vendor that charges based on percentage of transaction.   This results in a lose - lose scenario.  If you don't raise that much money, you don't pay a lot but in the end the organization does not benefit from the event.  If you raise a lot of money you are stuck with exorbitant fees and overcharges because your cost for the software is uncapped.

There are also cultural drawbacks for using the "let's see what happens" approach.  If you haven't planned properly, you certainly will not know how many people to expect to attend and how much they should be raising.

If there are no goals, there is no incentive to strive towards something and plenty of ways to make excuses to justify failure.  In the end, it's an approach that will waste valuable resources and doom your event to fail.

SWEET Walkathon Software: Mashed Up, Tricked Out, Raising Money

The Preeclampsia Foundation (www.preeclampsia.org) recently launched its SWEET Website for the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia(http://www.promisewalk.org/).

The event is in its early stages but the website has been the fulcrum for over $24,000 raised in the first 2 weeks of its launch.

The Promise Walk SWEET website is a mashup of some of the most powerful services online.  A quick glance at the home page shows Google Maps and the familiar pushpins serving as the gateway for online registrations at walk locations around the country. 

To the right is content from an RSS feed of a Wordpress blog simultaneously sharing info and providing SEO benefits.

Inside you'll find a photos taken from a Flickr gallery.

Under the hood is a world class payment gateway.

The result is a fundraising machine that has been very successful, very quickly.

The credit goes to the forward thinking leaders of the Preeclampsia Foundation, including Executive Director Eleni Tsigas, who prioritized the online component of this nationwide event. 

She understood, that there is no other way to run a nationwide, multi-location event without a top-notch web site. 

By using SWEET, the Preeclampsia Foundation also avoids hitting their donors with unnecessary and hidden transaction fees.  This keeps the donors and the organization happy.  

For more information about the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia please visit www.promisewalk.org.

For more information about the Preeclampsia Foundation please visit www.preeclampsia.org.

For more information about SWEET Walkathon and Pledge Event Software please visit http://www.blueskycollaborative.com/bscv2/Main/SWEET/Default.aspx