The Future of Fundraising: Live Interactive Chat Recap

The newest addition to TechSoup's vast array of nonprofit resources is a live monthly interactive video chat series, Nonprofits Live. The event blended virtual video speaker conferencing; online presentation and video; and live audience chatting and social networking, including conversation on Twitter using the #NPLive hashtag. Nonprofits Live provided a more robust and interactive alternative to the traditional webinar.

TechSoup kicked off its Nonprofit Live series with a discussion on the Future of Fundraising. The discussion featured guest speakers Jen Burton, community director at Causes; Tom Dawkins, co-founder of StartSomeGood; and Miles Orkin, national director for mobile and web at the American Cancer Society. Each guest speaker gave a brief presentation about the unique ways their organizations are using technology to drive innovation in the realm of nonprofit fundraising. The guest speakers then answered questions submitted by the viewing audience via chat.

The following is a brief summary of the discussion highlights:

• Jen Burton, Community Director, Causes: Causes provides online fundraising tools for organizations that register with them. Once registered, nonprofits can create a custom, branded cause platform for their online fundraising complete with video and photo functionality. Causes' fundraising platform allows nonprofits to tell their story and engage donors. Causes allows donors to take control of their donated dollars and choose exactly how their money will make an impact. It is worth noting that "millenials," according to a study on Generation Y donor behavior, are particularly more inclined to donate when they know exactly where their money is going. Causes has recently expanded their Facebook offerings to allow fundraising via custom tabs for pages. Causes differs from Kickstarter in that even if fundraising goals are unmet, money that is raised is still donated. Causes works with Network for Good as their payments processor so they only work with U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Causes does not take any fees from donations and is a for-profit company with revenue coming from advertising and sponsorships.
• Tom Dawkins, Co-Founder, StartSomeGood: StartSomeGood is a "crowdfunding" platform, that attempts to bring many of the features Kickstarter has brought to the arts sector to the social change sector. StartSomeGood, unlike other fundraising platforms, is open to nonprofit, for-profit and even unincorporated groups who want to make positive social change. A very young organization, StartSomeGood just went live this past February. StartSomeGood's funding model is based on a tipping point model instead of an "all or nothing" model like Kickstarter. The tipping point model provides security to donors by ensuring that fundraising goals will be met that can deliver on the promised funding goals. Fundraisers get set a minimum amount goal, that provides enough funding to get a project started, and a maximum amount, that provides the ideal amount of funding for projects. Fundraisers can build campaign pages on StartSomeGood to tell their stories to seek funding. Through their platform, StartSomeGood aims to remove the barriers that prevent people from becoming change makers.
• Miles Orkin, National Director for Mobile and Web, American Cancer Society: The American Cancer Society (ACS) raises money both off and online and is undoubtedly the nonprofit leader in online fundraising. Data drives ACS' fundraising tactics and success. ACS collects data by tracking what is happening online and offline. For nonprofits using new media, obtaining metrics can be difficult, because the type of data available is different than those available from traditional fundraising methods, but needs to be done. Fundraising channels needs to be integrated. ACS does this by syncing email appeals with direct mail, online and social media appeals so that they complement one another. Strategy is key as it cuts across new and traditional media channels. ACS has moved into using mobile and concluded that it is not just a tool for soliciting donations but to connect and has developed new campaigns to capitalize on mobile technology. However, ACS believes that while technology may have changed the principles of engagement, watching donor behavior, and improving to meet their needs are the same.

Some questions from participants were directed to individual speakers but a number of audience members just wanted ideas on developing strategies for fundraising success. Jen Burton suggested visiting Causes online for an extensive set of resources for individuals and nonprofit organizations looking for best fundraising practices from their online community. Tom suggested that the most important thing one can do when fundraising is to "just ask." Tom feels that tweeting and Facebook status updates can get lost among the ongoing flow of information on those channels and is, therefore, not the same as directly asking. He also noted that surveys have found that non-donors who have been asked why they do not donate to charity respond that it is because they were never asked to.

The entirety of the Q&A session can be viewed on the Nonprofits Live page on the TechSoup site. Several hundred viewers watched the chat and sent questions and comments via the chat option during Nonprofits Live's inaugural session. Despite a couple of technical hiccups, the event delivered on its promise of providing a unique and highly informative online learning experience. Audience members and speakers responded positively to the opportunity to connect on TechSoup's Nonprofit Live channel. And TechSoup will continue to follow its opening success with the Nonprofit Live by continuing the series in the months ahead.

In the meantime, TechSoup invites you to watch the recording of its first Nonprofits Live session, view the speakers' presentation materials, and continue the conversation in the Nonprofits Live Future of Fundraising online forum.

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