Personal Fundraising Blog

Massachusetts Nonprofit raises over $70000 with hike-a-thon

Wilderness Heals is a three-day pledge hike to raise funds for the Elizabeth Stone House.

The event has posted some impressive numbers thus far including one hiker who is personally responsible for raising over $6500.

Elizabeth Stone House is well on their way to raising their goal for the event.

Wilderness Heals uses SWEET Fundraising Software for its pledge event.  For this implementation,SWEET integrated with the nonprofit's Sage Payments gateway, adding Sage to  the already long list of payment gateways that SWEET is compatible with.

Nonprofits Should Avoid This Online Fundraising Software Feature

http://www.firstgiving.com/Riding4Renal_CircaRigel

"Due to delays in FirstGiving forwarding funds..."

YIKES. 

The problem with legacy systems is that it's really tough to change anything.  There is absolutely no good reason for FirstGiving or any other vendor to have a nonprofit's donations before sending them the money.  None, whatsoever.  It's like having your paychecks mailed to your neighbor to deposit into your bank account instead of using direct deposit.

Choose an online fundraising software where the money goes from the donor, to your payment gateway, and then to your bank.  No one else needs to be involved in theis process.  Certainly not a software company.

Inserting a software company into that process, puts your money and cash flow at risk.  Look, software companies are cubicles and messy desks filled by geeks trying to make it through the day.  I should know.  The chances of them screwing something up and causing delays in your funding.  Highly, highly likely.

The moral of the story?  Choose an online fundraising software that connects directly to your own payment gateway so your money will be in your bank account in a timely fashion.  Eliminate the software middlemen, reduce fees, and reduce errors.

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.

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.

The Right Peer to Peer Fundraising Software Is a Vital Component of A Development Arsenal

It's been called a number of things:  "Friends Asking Friends," "Team  Raising," "Viral Fundraising," and "Third Party Fundraising."

No matter its called, there is no denying its effectiveness.  In a time when corporate sponsorships are difficult to come by, development directors are finding that their peer to peer fundraising campaigns continue to grow.  

I'm not talking about social networking fan pages,or twitter pages.  I'm talking about real dollars generated by a simple and elegant model that leverages software to exponentially increase the askng power of the nonprofit.

Rather than theorize, let me share a success story.

Global Volunteers is a non-profit organization engaging short-term volunteers on micro-economic and human development programs in close partnership with local people worldwide.

For over 25 years, Global Volunteers has mobilized thousands of volunteers annually on work projects around the globe. 

For the last 2 years, Global Volunteers has subsidized these projects with donations from their peer to peer fundraising program. 

http://donations.globalvolunteers.org/

At the site, you will find hundreds of volunteers currently engaged in raising the funds they will need for their airfare and living expenses.  Volunteers have raised over $250,000 from almost 2000 donors from inside their own networks.

The peer to peer fundraising campaign is now a vital and growing part of the Global Volunteer Business Model.  http://www.globalvolunteers.org/organization/about.asp

By using SWEET Fundraising Software as their online platform for peer to peer fundraising, Global volunteers, has managed to keep their expenses for software to less than 2%.  This means more than 98% of the money goes to the organization.

It's wise to use a website to raise money.  More importantly, the money raised through the website needs to go to the organization, not a software company.

There's a right way and a wrong way to get your peer to peer fundraising program online.  Global Volunteers has done it the right way.

Nonprofit in New York Uses SWEET Walk-a-thon Software to Raise over $500,000

Yup.  A cool half million in a "bad economy."  They are still going too.

http://www.everywomanmatterswalk.com/

The North Shore LIJ Health System hosted a walkathon on May 16th that raised over $500K for Katz Institute for Women's Health and Katz Women's Hospital of the North Shore-LIJ Health System.

Some interesting bits of data that might help your organization pull this off:

1. Over 2800 people registered online using SWEET to participate in the event.
2. The software cost less than 1% of the total revenue.   Less than 1%.
3. Over 8000 new people to date who could be converted into mailing list members for other campaigns.

We love to share our clients' success stories.  This walkathon was certainly a smashing success.  Sweet!