Welcome again to our weekly giving season
session. We'll have weekly content that will help you
and your nonprofit get ready and most importantly, get through giving season. So, I'm Jenna, by the way, I'm the nonprofit
advocate here at Donorbox and I am joined by our fabulous fundraising coach here at
Donorbox. Kara. Hi, all. It's good to see you and thank you for making
us a part of your Tuesday. Absolutely. So as we enter the season of giving, we know
that fundraising is filled with tried and
tested and new and fresh and far reaching
features and products to keep your donations ticking upward, especially with Donorbox,
you've got a lot of options to evaluate and that's a good problem to have. So from the power of peer to peer to the repeat
giving potential of text to give the options really are pretty awesome. So which one or two or even three or four
methods will work best for your giving season campaign? So today we're gonna give you a high level
overview of some of the really grea
t tools available to you in your fundraising tool
kit through Donorbox and we're gonna talk about how to know which one of these fundraising
methods will suit your organizational, organizational needs the best. So we're gonna go ahead and dive right in
with a pole and then after that, I'll pass it over to Kara. So which of these fundraising methods have
you used before? And if it's something else, go ahead and type
it in the chat or maybe it's all of the above or a combination of them. So let us
know if you've used any of these. All right. Awesome responsive. Thank you guys for that. And with that, I'm gonna pass it over to you,
Kara. Awesome. Well, we have, we just talked a little bit
about some types of fundraising. and Jenna mentioned that there are many, many fundraising
tools out there, but we want to focus in on a few today and I will explain a little bit
about how they might fit into a general campaign for you. And then Jenna is gonna break them out a little
bit further and, and
just give a little more detail about each and what to look for in
your organization to make sure that you're ready to, to adopt those. So we will break this down a little bit. And, first we have a general fundraising campaign. So this is the umbrella campaign and we talked
the first week about campaigns. So our first giving season session, we mentioned
that a campaign is a time bound donation drive and it has a beginning and an end. And for year end, the look and feel may be
a little different
than your ongoing fundraising campaign or it may look very similar. There's no real right or wrong. But with, in that within your general campaign,
there are a few specific ways that you can provide donors opportunities to give to you
and your organization, right? These are ways to collect money and they can
be one off campaigns, but they often really work well under a larger umbrella. And so here is a quick overview and like I
mentioned, Jenna is gonna break them out for us a little further but
crowd funding. And I think this is the most logical year
end motivator. It's really easy to create a special crowdfunding
campaign for a specific project or just that general fundraising campaign between say November
and the end of December. And we have a visual for you too, of what
that is. And then we move into Peer to peer campaigns. Several of you said that you participated
in Peer to Peer before you or you've led a peer to peer fundraising campaign. And I feel like peer to peer really goes
hand
in hand with crowdfunding. It's really easy to set up that crowdfunding
campaign where everyone can donate. But then you could ask individuals to raise
money on your behalf and they go out to their networks and try to find 10 donors or something
that will donate. And they often ask their friends and their
family to support your organization. And they're also, they're often introducing
their friends and family to your organization through peer to peer fundraising. A Facebook birthday fundra
iser is an example
of peer to peer fundraising. And then a lot of times this time of year,
organizations will have a monthly giving drive or a monthly giving campaign as a targeted
campaign to grow those monthly donations. Sometimes they have a special name for this
monthly giving club and they communicate it over a month or something like that or they
may offer some premium gifts or an incentive to join. So, you know, as a monthly giver, you'll receive
this t-shirt or something. And and then th
ere's membership campaigns
which can be very similar to monthly as well. with those incentives to join in those in
those gifts and they, they might be a good fit for your type of organization. So it's something to consider and then lastly
text to give and this is very helpful if you have a fundraising event or an in person activity. And it's really easy for supporters to simply
text a number to on their, on their smartphone, to text a number and then they, it opens up
to your donation page. So t
hat's a general overview and a kind of
an elementary visual of how those might fit into your year end fundraising campaign. So Jenna, will you tell us a little bit more
about each of those? Sure can. Thanks for that, Kara. So like Kara said, we're gonna dive in and
just talk a little bit deeper on these different fundraising methods. And why we chose these specifically is because
they're available to you through Donorbox. Memberships, peer to peer crowd funding are
all within your basic plan and
then text to give is just a small monthly fee as an app. Janet, your slide did not advance. Do you want to show a picture? There we go. So just wanted to mention that all of these
are available to you. We know that you are all Donorbox users and
that's why you're here. So we really want you to use all of our tools
as you possibly can because they're there for you. So first up again, we've got crowdfunding
and as Kara said, crowdfunding is a really affordable way for new, as well as established
nonprofits to raise hundreds and even thousands of dollars. There are many benefits to starting a crowdfunding
campaign, especially for year end and giving days including sharing your or sharing your
organization with a new audience and quickly raising money to meet your fundraising goals
for an upcoming project or a campaign. So crowdfunding is especially great for these
campaigns that have a deadline. So giving Tuesday that's on November 29th
this year, there's a deadline, or a year end campai
gn, you're gonna end that at the end
of the year, right. So you've got a clock ticking a ticking down,
which is really, really great to use crowd funding for and crowd funding has become really
popular recently. So that's pretty good. So this can be really monumental to an organization,
especially for a smaller nonprofit. And I know that we have some nonprofit startups
in the group here as well. So with crowdfunding, you can raise funds
quickly with a personalized campaign and include donors in
participating for your cause. So you can brand your campaign, your crowdfunding
campaign with text images, videos and really make it your own very quickly in just 15 minutes. Espe, especially with Donorbox. You can also post campaign updates on your
crowdfunding page itself. So you don't have to go into your mail chip
or whatever that may be to send all these emails and updates. Of course, you should be communicating, but
you can do it right there through crowd funding as well as send those upda
tes to donors and
subscribers to the campaign. right within the Donorbox, crowdfunding page. Best of all with Donorbox, the power of share
ability in virtual donor walls, will automatically work as social proof for potential donors. So with crowdfunding, you have a donor wall
that you can enable and as people discover your campaign because all of your supporters
are sharing it on social media. They can scroll through and see that you know
Jennings made a donation for $10. You'll see people sayin
g enthusiastic things
about your cause so that it's built in social proof that it is working for you. So is a crowdfunding campaign, right? For your organization? Well, the answer to this question is, is it
depends on what you're trying to accomplish and what you've already got going from your
organization. So again, if you're looking to raise money
to pay for a specific project or program, crowdfunding might be a good fit for you. If however, you're looking for a way to fund
a general, ongoing
campaign or general operations for your organization, this might not be the
option that you need. So here are some questions you can ask yourself
to determine if crowd funding is a good fit for your organization. So first, what are you hoping to accomplish
with your fundraising campaign? Do you want to fund a specific project or
initiative? I know I'm really driving this home, you guys
and of course, the specific project and initiative is giving Tuesday in your end, if that's the
answer, that's
why you're here. Second is your message compelling. Can you tell a compelling story? Why funding is needed for your cause. Crowdfunding is all about storytelling. You really need to put together those strong
stories through text photos, videos, whatever that may be. Do you have that? If not, then start working on it. And then third, do you have an existing audience
who is already engaged with your organization and its mission? If so, that's great. You are already halfway there because those
peop
le are going to help you share that throughout. And if not, now is the time to start building
one. If you are a new nonprofit or you're just
starting up, you can ask your friends, your family to share your crowdfunding page, wherever
they can. And a little bit goes a long way, you can
really further your reach. All right. So if you want to learn more about crowdfunding,
you can check the link that I am just about to launch if I can find it here, we got a
lot of good links for you today to do to
do. All right. So there is more about crowd funding and again,
we're gonna open the floor up. Well, it's already 15 minutes. We're gonna open the floor up to you for questions
at the end of this session. So next one we have for you is peer to peer
fundraising. If you know me, you will know that I am the
biggest peer to peer campaign cheerleader ever. This is an amazing way to maximize your campaign
campaign, reach, engage your supporters and raise more funds and awareness for your cause. So as K
ara said, simply put peer to peer fundraising
is a method of fundraising that encourages your supporters to become fundraisers for
your organization. So instead of just donating peer to peer fundraisers,
become active in your mission by sharing their own peer to peer pages and their personal
connection with your cause with their friends, family and colleagues. So the biggest benefit of peer to peer fundraising,
I think is the level of impact that it can bring to your organization and awareness.
So it's a really great way to engage your
supporters. So you're bored making sure they're staying
active for you, your volunteers, your donors and your other, your other supporters, maybe
they're your Facebook fans or whatever that may be. And it really throws a spotlight on your cause
and cast a wider net. So you're bringing in people and you're connecting
with people that you may not already have access to because your network and your supporters,
well, your supporters are tapping into their o
wn networks to bring those new donors in
for you. So, and this is a speedy session, y'all. How do you know if peer to peer fundraising
is right for your organization? Well, ask these questions. All right. Do you have a small staff? All right. That's fine. This is actually good in this instance. Peer to peer fundraising typically requires
less staffing than other types of fundraising because it relies on your supporter way, your
supporter base to do this fundraising for you. So if you have a litt
le capacity for fundraising
due to that, this can really help. It does take some upfront work and we will
be upfront about that. It does take some time to create those tool
kits and make sure that your peer to peer fundraisers are supported. But once you have those materials, your fundraisers
will be going strong for you. So this is a great option. If you don't have the capacity, maybe you're
a team of one. So consider that. So second, do you have an existing community
of supporters who are will
ing and able to share your work with others? So, this is where your board again comes in. You need to make sure that your board is fundraising
for you. Yes, please. Your volunteers, maybe you don't have a ton
of volunteer opportunities right now. offer for them to fundraise for you. Same for your previous donors if you've got
it. So that's kind of what your community looks
like. If you have a community like that, then Peer
to peer is a really good tool for you. And then again, finally, do you ha
ve the time
and resources available to get your campaign up and running again? There is some upfront work and you have to
consider that your peer to peer fundraisers may have never fund raised before ever in
their lives. So you have to give them the tools to be successful. And that does take a little bit of time and
effort on your part part before you launch it. But the good news is is we've done a lot of
that upfront work for you because we know how important this is and because we love
peer to
peer fund raising so much. So, Kara put together a really wonderful peer
to peer fundraising class in Donorbox Academy, it is free. So I'm gonna go ahead and launch that link
and it includes great guides, templates, tool kits, instructional videos to get you on your
way with peer to peer fundraising and then memberships. So you probably have lots of different ways
that people are giving your organization money already or again, if you're a startup, you're
considering lots of different ways. But
this is a really unique way that not all
organizations use, but you can consider for your own. So instead of asking people for one time donations,
you could ask them for something more stable, something that would help you build the kind
of infrastructure that allows your organization to be sustainable over time. So membership programs are a fantastic way
to cultivate, focused support for your cause and generate predictable revenue. Every organization wants that predictable
revenue. So your mem
bers play an active role in advocating
for your cause. And you really get them involved. So membership programs are built on the idea
that supporters will pay a certain amount on a rate occurring basis, whether it's monthly,
quarterly, yearly, whatever that means for you, rather than paying a lump sum upfront. So it's similar to how you might pay for a
gym membership or a subscription for Netflix or Hulu. So this model has been along around for a
while, but it's becoming pretty popular with nonp
rofits as well. So it allows you to get that stability from
your donors giving a recurring amount. You can depend on this and in exchange they
get something as well. So it might be an insider members only newsletter
or invitations to member only events and this is really great. So this is kind of the model they give you
that monthly, recurring or quarterly, whatever that is commitment and you give them something
in return. That's what a membership model looks like
generally. So this also helps c
reate a community behind
your cause. It helps people feel important like, oh yeah,
I get to go to those members only event or I got this super cool newsletter that was
written just for me, it really helps people feel even more connected to your cause. And build that strong community. So I often see this in museums or arts organizations. So, you pay a certain amount and you receive
this many tickets and special seats in the theater or whatever that may be. I've also seen some animal shelters do t
hat
really well. where members get exclusive discounts to unlimited
day play for their dog or whatever that may be. How do you know if a membership program is
right for you? Well, you wanna think about these things first,
do you want to build a community around your organization? If so, then m monthly membership might be
something that you want to consider. Do you need recurring revenue? And I think everybody's shaking their head. Yes, at this point, if so, then I would consider
this an option a
s well. And if you're saying yes to this, you need
to think about these things. Do I have the right infrastructure in place
because you'll need to be able to handle the billing and payment processing. But with Donorbox, we make it really easy,
you're covered there. And if you're not, then take a look at Donorbox
memberships. You also need to develop a plan for how to
keep consistent communications with your members. And next question, do I have specific benefits
that I can offer my members? So i
f you're offering a membership, what are
you giving them in return? What does that mean for your organization,
what can you do to make them feel special? And then, you know, we have some case studies
that I'm gonna share in the Donorbox community. I have some really great membership programs. I dug them up but forgot to add them in here. So keep an eye out in the Donorbox community. We'll share the link in just a few minutes. So you can see some great examples of some
membership programs. But if
you would like to learn more about
Donorbox memberships, you can check out the link here. All right, I know we're nearing close. So I've got one more little bit for you and
then we'll open up the floor. So our very last tool for the day is text
to give who here has a smartphone right next to them right now. Yep. Let me know in the chat. Is it sitting within a foot of, of where you
are? And that should be proof all you need. Why text to give is so, yeah, why text to
give is so impactful. So, tex
t to give is a fundraising method that
empowers donors to give to organizations via their smartphones, using their phones, texting
application supporters can donate to your nonprofit. So we are constantly checking our phones and
tablets to stay on top of everything from family to work to the latest news, right? And 91% of Americans own a smartphone. That's kind of a staggering statistic that
black box shared with us. And if your nonprofit isn't taking advantage
of mobile giving options, you're l
ikely missing out on some significant donations. So here are some interesting facts and statistics
to keep in mind when deciding on how important mobile fundraising is to your organization. So last year, 28% of online donations came
from mobile devices. The average donation amount on mobile devices
is $42. The number of transactions completed through
mobile devices has increased by 50%. So
that's a pretty good conversion right there. And 54% of nonprofit email messages are read
on mobile. I mea
n, I read almost all of my emails on
mobile after work hours. So text to give is especially great if you
are you know, marketing on radio or TV as well. You can hear that person read off if you would
like to donate to. So and so just text this thing to this number,
right? And same for TV, it makes it really accessible
and even if you're hosting a fundraising event, you can print out your text to give number
for each table with a cute little frame around it. So people can text and donate right th
ere
as they're enjoying their cocktail hour. And it really adds a clear CT A. You can also print this out on banners at
community festivals or he put it on volunteer t-shirts while you're at it. So some really great options with text to
give. So if you're wondering if text to give is
right for your organization, some things to consider, do you have a mobile responsive
fundraising page and form if you have Donorbox and you're using Donorbox? The answer is yes. Donorbox is already mobile responsiv
e and
looks really great on any device, whether it's tablet, mobile laptop, desktop. However, if you're not using Donorbox, I would
consider switching because as people text to donate, they're gonna click on that link
and it needs to fit beautifully in their phone. So it's just simple, easy, seamless. And then do you have limited resources and
a small budget? I think this probably will hit home for some
of you here if the answer is yes, that's fine. Because text to give is very affordable. We ha
ve two different text to give plans and
you can turn text to give on and off at any point during the month and we prorate for
partial months. And are you looking for an alternative way
to ask for donations? Have you been doing some stuff? And maybe you just want to judge it up a little
bit text to give appeals to everyone because everybody's got their phone in their hand
and our culture of immediacy, people want to give really easily. So if you're looking to experiment with fundraising
methods,
this is really affordable. You don't have to pay for any materials or
print anything to get this done. You can do it right here. And then of course, everybody wants to encourage
repeat donations, right? So with Donorbox, we make repeat donations
with text to give as simple as texting a single word. So there you have it. I think text to give applies to everyone. I know that was a lot. I'm going to go ahead and share our text to
give landing page for you to learn more. And I'm gonna pass it over t
o Kara for our
practical action and then we'll dive into some Q and A. OK. Sometimes a task can sit on to do list way
too long. I know that's the case for me. I keep moving it to the next day and the next
week. So I want to encourage you today. Your practical action is this, choose one
of these fundraising types for your year end campaign. Get into Donorbox and create it, give yourself
30 minutes or an hour or whatever it is. You need to block out today and just get it
knocked out. And our suppo
rt team is here for you. If you get stuck, you can reach them directly
at support at Donorbox dot org. And I just encourage you to start building
today and feel free to share your new campaign that you create today with us and with your
peers here in the Donorbox community for feedback. So we would, I'm excited to see all these
campaigns. And yeah, absolutely. Get going today. That's our, that's, that's my practical action. All right. And I know we went a little bit over Kara. So let's we have a
couple questions in here. And so let's see. Two questions are the same here. So I'm going to, ok, how can we have some
say over what the peer to peer fundraisers are saying to advertise to their campaign? I think that was backed up in the chat too
and mentor the fundraisers instead of just leaving them to their own devices. And I think this is an excellent question
because the key to your success is to giving them the tools that they need for success. And what I recommend usually doing is CRE
i
s having some sort of kickoff meeting or zoom call or something to, to introduce the
campaign. Once they, they've identified, they wanna
raise money for you and say, hey, I'm gonna give you all the essentials. We can go through some questions and just
introduce them that way. And then in that Peer to Peer tool kit that
Jenna mentioned, it's free for you at academy dot Donorbox dot org. There is actually a manual that you can customize. It's a template and you can get in there and
customize it in
Google Docs or in Microsoft Word and make it specific to your organization. But it some sample promotional, email, copy
and social media posts and some ideas of when they can schedule those around your event. I would also encourage you to touch base with
your fundraisers frequently and check in and see how they're doing. If you have some that need some extra help,
just be prepared to ask them or you know, to provide that help to them and ask them
how they're feeling and, and how, how you can st
ep in for that. So definitely mentor, mentor, mentor, I love
that. You use that phrase. Yes, that's a great question. And Jennings, you said, can we have more than
one crowdfunding campaign going at the same time? Yes, you can for sure. Especially if you have a couple different
projects you're funding fundraising for at the same time. The only thing that I discourage and Jenna
mentioned it. II I don't like seeing crowdfunding campaigns
up for your general overall fundraising campaign indefinitel
y. because people like the gratification of seeing
that needle move. So if you have a crowdfunding campaign that
you can kind of break down into smaller milestones through that, I think that that's great. So, yeah, absolutely. I would, I would open more than one at a time,
if that's beneficial to your campaign. And on that note, to everyone with Donorbox,
you can have unlimited campaigns, you can have unlimited crowdfunding, unlimited peer
to peer. of course, be strategic. But as Kara said, if y
ou have different projects
and initiatives, we don't limit you in that way. Absolutely. And, I would encourage you to, to, be cautious
of who you're communicating those campaigns to. Sometimes people can get confused if you're
promoting all of them at the same time. So if you're promoting a couple at the same
time, just make sure that you're communicating them to different groups of people and potential
supporters there, or you're communicating that they might have a menu of choices that
they ca
n choose from. Just make it, put yourself in the supporters
shoes and just look for clarity. Yes, absolutely. Great. And we have one, we have a question here about
the security around text to give lean Thank you for asking that. Yes, absolutely. The giving method is secure. So that text to gift code opens up to your
donation page for that. So it has the same security as your online
giving site does. And if you're using a Donorbox hosted page,
that is secure. If you're hosting it on your own page
, I would
make sure that you're going through whatever steps you need to go through to make sure
that it is a secure page people have. If you look up in your like if you look up
in your web address bar right now, you see that padlock there is a, that padlock gives
a lot of people a lot of comfort and security when going to donate. So make sure if you're hosting it on your
page, you have a secure page that you're inviting donors to visit. Thank you for that Kara and let's see. So from Kelly, I re
ally like the template
for the text to give that you showed on that slide, you've previously given text. Yes, if you'd like to give again, is there
a version for this for people who have donated via other platforms? For example, if they've just donated via Facebook
fundraiser or Donorbox, so we do not have that feature. Currently, I like where your head is at. What I would suggest there would be to look
at people who have given in the past and maybe send them a communication and email and with
l
etting them know that you're now using text to give, right and say, hey, we saw that you
gave $100 for this X amount. Would you consider giving through our text
to give campaign? And then once they've used your text to give,
they will get this message. So this is triggered by people who have automatically
or who have already donated through text to give. But you can still let people know about your
text to give campaign in this way. And then you can kind of get that in that
get them in that loop
. And I know today's session was packed and
speedy. If you have any questions at all, you can
reach it out out to us at academy at Donorbox dot org or we encourage you to join our Donorbox
community. You can ask questions here. You can ask them anonymously if you like. you can share some thoughts, give some feedback,
whatever that may be, we wanna hear from you. All right. Thanks everyone, everyone.
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