SWEET Online Fundraising Blog

Volunteer raises over $100,000 for Westchester Nonprofit

Tri-ing for Kids!! http://sch.tri-ingforkids.org/ is a grassroots fundraising group started by Doug Rabin.  This year, Doug and his team of triathletes competed in the Mighty Montauk Triathlon and in the process raised over $100,000 for  Schneider Children's Hospital http://schneiderchildrenshospital.org/.

They used SWEET for their online fundraising this year and their donations grew by $60,000 over last year's total!  Even more proof that:

1.  Peer to Peer fundraising is the best fundraising model online.

2.  Volunteer fundraisers can be as valuable as major donors

3.  SWEET (www.blueskycollaborative.com) is an incredibly effective tool for online fundraising.

1994: The Year Kintera Fired All of It's Designers

Look at one of Kintera's Friends Asking Friends sites is like going back in time to the mid 90's. 

Look at  these screenshots:

 

Seriously?

The fonts, the graphics, the layout.  It's  all  so antiquated. 

Where are the Social Media links? 

There's a scrolling marquee on the page.  Yes, I said scrolling marquee.

This is a premium vendor.  Organizations pay top dollar for this service!?  Buying Kintera's Friends Asking Friends is like paying for a Mercedes and getting a 1976 Oldsmobile.

Wow.   If nothing else - Friends Asking Friends has made time travel possible.  Gotta go.  Melrose Place will be on in a bit.

"The Attack on Nonprofit Status:" Good or Bad?

Here's a thought-provoking abstract regarding ideas being floated by lawmakers that are designed to give significant tax benefits to socially active for-profit organizations.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/nonprofit/2010/06/hines-horwitz-nichols-the-attack-on-nonprofit-status.html

There is even a mention of creating a whole new tax exemption status, a hybrid nonprofit/for-profit company form known as the Low-Profit Limited Liability Company.

If instituted,changes like this will drastically alter the Nonprofit Sector.  By giving other companies tax exemptions you are, in effect, eliminating the biggest competitive advantage that nonprofits currently have.  It's also plausible to think that nonprofits would then be competing with larger companies with more dollars, resources, incentive, and perhaps even talent.

Is the sky falling?  I don't know.  If the mission is the important thing, then creating an environment where the solution can be acheived as quickly as possible is a good thing. 

Call it Darwin's natural selection or Adam Smith's invisible hand.  Either way it is capitalism and it's hard to argue against.

The fragmented nonprofit sector will roll up and donors' dollars will go to  the group, nonprofit or for-profit, that can best achieve the mission.

It doesn't sound that awful, really.

4 Tips for Producing Quality (Fundraising) Web Videos

4 Tips for Producing Quality Web Videos.

In my last post i shared a story about how a nonprofit is using video to drastically improve its fundraising results.  Here's a follow-up post that explains how to go about producing the videos that will give your organization an edge.

More Success Stories About Using Videos for Fundraising

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/06/nonprofits_banking_on_video_to.html

A nonprofit in Cleveland has seen 500% increases in campaigns that add a video appeal. 

This is worth reading about and trying to repeat at your organization.

SWEET Fundraising Software Adds Paypal Payflow Pro

SWEET Fundraising Software has added Paypal Payflow Pro Gateway to its list of supported payment gateways.  The Payflow Gateway is Paypal's most robust and flexible gateway option. 

SWEET has integrated the Website Payments Standard and Website Payments Pro products from Paypal for several years now. 

With the addition of Payflow Pro, SWEET can now integrate all of Paypal's gateway options.  This is good news for the thousands of nonprofit organizations that rely on Paypal for their online payment processing. 

The United Way of NYC is using this feature of SWEET for its upcoming Bridge Walk.  http://unitedwaynyc.org/bridgewalk2010/

Bridge Walk will raise awareness and dollars to fund United Way initiatives that work to ensure substantially higher graduate rates, improved income stability, and healthier lifestyles for all New Yorkers.

We're proud to be involved in such an important project for one of the world's premier nonprofit organizations.

Nonprofit Q&A: Should I Switch My Walkathon Software? Letterman Style

You know thats it's time to change your walkathon software when....

(Cue the snare drum.  This is Letterman style.) 

1. You pay commission fees for your donations
2. Your software fees exceed $5000 every single year
3. Your donations actually have to pass through a software company where some anonymous nerds can easily lose  your money.
4. Your donations don't go directly into your bank account
5. You pay more for your website if your event raises more money (because the nerds are skimming off the top of your donation)
6. You have to wait more than 48 hours to get the money from your donations
7. Your walkathon site is ugly
8. Your walkathon site looks like the software vendor's website and not your own
9. You can't use the site to register people for the event without paying the vendor extra money.  (seriously)?
10. You can't ask your registrants questions like their shoe size, shirt size, meal preference, rock or disco. 

Should I Charge A Registration Fee For My Walkathon Or Pledge Fundraiser?

No.  We are asked this question quite often and our response is nearly always, no.  Here's the rationale;

1. For pledge events where people are supposed to raise money, organizations should give an opportunity to raise money to as many people as possible.  This means eliminating all barriers to participation.  It's a numbers game and the more people there are that ask for money on your behalf, the more that the event will raise.  So, eliminate registration fees and all other barriers.
2. Do the math.  Once people pay a registration fee, they feel like they have done their part.  Organizations should put the emphasis on the number of donations that people generate.    Is it better to get a $25 registration fee from one person or 2 $20 donations from their donors?
3. Develop a culture of fundraising.  From the beginning, you need to set expectations.  Participants in your event are expected to raise money.  Once you've set that expectation, then you can foster it in the future by  asking people to raise more each year.

How Much Money Will My Event Raise?

For pledge event like walkathons, bowl-a-thons, marathons, triathlons, and other  peer-to-peer fundraising events, here's a good rule of thumb.

Number of people who are raising money  X  5  X  50  = Total amount raised.

For example:

100 people   X  5  X  $50  =  $25,000 raised

If you want to raise $25K, recruit a 100 people to raise money. 

This is based on a gazillion data points over nearly a decade clients using SWEET Walkathon and Pledge Event Software.

You can expect a participant in your walk or pledge event to acquire 5 donations.  The average donation size is $50.  Use this info for projections and also to gauge how your event is doing.

Nonprofits can Learn from These 5 Small Business Social Media Success Stories

5 Small Business Social Media Success Stories.

As nonprofits scramble to leverage social media,they may find these small business success stories useful.  Converting social media into donations can be a challenge so take a look at how these small businesses converted their social media activity into real revenue.