As I mentioned in my last blog post, Entering the World of Online Fundraising: A few free tools to get you started, I’ve been trying to expand my knowledge of the possibilities and challenges associated with online fundraising.  A report released this week by Convio, Insights into Integrated Marketing Constituent Behavior, provides interesting data to suggest that organizations can increase their development success by implementing online strategies that complement their traditional fundraising methods.

Looking specifically at the experiences of a large international nonprofit, CARE, Convio explored what happens when a nonprofit transitions to dual-channel marketing or, in other words, when they work to engage people both through traditional direct mail tactics as well as through online techniques. Based on their analysis of CARE’s donor data, Convio reports that dual-channel donors are the most valuable. Specifically:

One of the great benefits of being on the staff of Greenlights is getting to sit in on some of the workshops we host. Recently, I’ve been trying to expand my knowledge of how social media can be used to enhance fundraising so I took the time to attend two awesome classes: Social Media Bootcamp, taught by David Neff, CEO of Greenlights’ member organization Lights. Camera. Help., and Online Fundraising taught by Richard Dietz founder of Greenlights’ business partner, Nonprofit R + D. Both of these guys did an incredible job imparting vast and valuable information in a short period of time. Since I could not possibly recap all the great information they covered in a blog post, I’ll settle for sharing a few nuggets I learned, namely information on some free resources that can help those of us just moving into the online fundraising arena.

Google’s Nonprofit Program – A great place to start.  Nonprofit organizations can apply to participate in this free program which will give your organization access to all kinds of resources that could be useful in your fundraising efforts.

• Want to see whether promoting your events or encouraging individual donations through social media venues is driving people to your webpage?  Google Analytics provides detailed statistics about the visitors to your website.
• Interested in seeing what people are saying online about the event you hosted last week?  Google Alerts lets you enter key words, for instance the name of your event, and then alerts you whenever new related content has been posted on the web.
• Website Optimizer allows you to test different versions of a webpage to see which generates more traffic or responses.
• Google Grants provides organizations with in-kind donation of free AdWords advertising.

YouTube’s Nonprofit Program.  Another free program, accessible through the Google Nonprofit Program, that allows eligible organizations to create their own YouTube channel. Some benefits offered through the program include:

•  The option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout “Donate” button.
•  Listing on the Nonprofit videos page.
•  The ability to place a Call to Action overlay on your videos to raise money or find volunteers.
•  You can even embed a YouTube video on your own website!

Facebook Causes – Allows your nonprofit to create a community on Facebook that can incorporate fundraising, advocacy, and information sharing. One of the coolest opportunities I learned about through our workshop was the Birthday Wish option on Causes. Once people on Facebook have joined your cause, they can create a birthday wish that encourages all their friends to donate money to your organization in their honor.

The Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy has a webpage dedicated to technology tools for fundraising. One tool in particular to check out is their Review of Online Giving Tools. It includes a detailed comparison chart of online giving options that nonprofits can use to collect online donations.

Word Press is web software you can use to create a website or blog.  It’s free and given that I am using it to write this blog, it’s easy to use!

Want more information?  Greenlights has two free resources to check out:

Social Media – Taking the First Step is a document in Greenlights Online Resource Directory that provides lots of good information on how to take advantage of social media opportunities through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Social Media and Donor Engagement, Cultivation is a great blog post by Haila Yates, our Communications & Outreach Manager that gives five tips for engaging with supports via social media.

Of course, there are many more tools out there that you will want to explore as you enter the world of online fundraising.  If you’ve tried some, leave us a comment letting us know what has worked (and what hasn’t)!

As Greenlights’ continues our membership drive, I am excited to present the second installment of our series featuring some of the incredible member organizations we get to work with.  This week’s feature nonprofit, Austin Child Guidance Center, is a Greenlights member and holds a unique position in that they have been a member since Greenlights opened our doors in 2001!

Russell Smith, Austin Child Guidance Center’s Executive Director, joined the organization a little over a year ago when he replaced  Dr. Don Zappone, who had lead the Center for almost thirty years. I asked Russell to tell me a little about ACGC and how membership with Greenlights has impacted the organization.

Would you tell me about the mission of Austin Child Guidance Center and the services you offer?

Established in 1951, ACGC is the oldest children’s mental health agency in central Texas. The mission is to improve the mental health of children and their families through early intervention, diagnosis, and treatment to help them develop the emotional skills for meeting life’s challenges. To achieve this mission, Austin Child Guidance Center employs a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors who provide individual, family, and group therapy; psychiatric evaluations and psychological assessments; parent education; and training of current and future mental health professionals. ACGC has provided mental health services to more than 130,000 children and trained more than 650 professionals pursuing master and doctorate degrees in the mental health field.

In what ways has Austin Child Guidance Center benefited from its Greenlights membership?

ACGC had a transition in leadership in 2010, with the long-time Executive Director retiring. Greenlights came in and did an extensive organizational assessment, helping the board and staff identify critical areas that the agency needed to focus on during and after the transition: governance; fundraising; organizational culture; technology; human resources and organizational structure; financial management; and community partnerships. The Greenlights report was used throughout the transition to help focus ACGC on our critical strategic priorities. We continue to utilize the report to assess where we are and what we need to focus on in the future.

ACGC also attended the Greenlights Board Summit in 2011. We connected with many people interested in our mission, and we have added a new board member who we met that evening.

Austin Child Guidance Center has been a long-time member of Greenlights, and we have benefited from their trainings, job postings, executive director search service, resources, and expertise. In my previous position as Executive Director of YouthLaunch, Greenlights consultants led our strategic planning process. Greenlights lent us their conference room for our board meetings, and we benefited from their Financial Toolkit, their trainings, and their guidance.

Do you have advice for other nonprofits as they think about transition planning?

I would recommend that all non-profits develop a leadership transition plan to ensure that the organization does not falter if key leaders leave. I believe that the transition process helped ACGC recognize the things that can be accomplished internally, and the areas in which outside expertise is needed. With some outside help and guidance, we emerged from the transition a stronger agency.

Would you recommend Greenlights membership to other nonprofits?

I do recommend Greenlights membership to other non-profits. Greenlights is a critical resource to non-profits, providing training, consulting, resources, and connections. They are a unique organization providing needed services to the non-profit community.

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Learn more about the great work of the Austin Child Guidance Center or get involved at http://www.austinchildguidance.org/.

Learn more about Greenlights member benefits and join our community today!
Join or renew your membership during this month’s membership drive to be entered for a chance to win a free ticket to the Texas Nonprofit Summit (scheduled for September 20-21, 2012)!

Image by Tobyotter on Flickr

I recently read The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution by David La Piana. A compelling premise in this book is that for nonprofits to survive and thrive in today’s rapidly changing environment, we must develop systems that support quick, yet strategic, decision making.

One component of the quick response system included in the book is the development of a Strategy Screen. A Strategy Screen is “set of criteria that your organization uses to choose whether or not a particular strategy is consistent with its identity.” Once developed, it allows an organization to look at opportunities that come up and quickly determine whether a particular program, activity or initiative strategically supports the mission of the organization.

How do you develop a Strategy Screen? La Piana recommends the following steps:

• Develop a set of criteria against which you will evaluate opportunities. One criterion should always be that the strategy must be mission-aligned. Another should always be that the opportunity builds or reinforces the organization’s competitive advantage. The reminder of the criteria will vary depending on what the organization values. For instance, do you value sustainability, collaboration, breadth or depth of impact?  Any or all of these could be added to the criteria against which you judge opportunities.
• Look at opportunities/issues/challenges and evaluate them against the set of criteria. When a decision needs to be made regarding how an organization will respond to a particular opportunity or challenge, use the criteria to weigh your options. For instance if your organization needs to find new space, consider how a move to a proposed location will impact each of the criteria, including accomplishing your mission and maintaining your competitive advantage.

Interested in more information on how to survive and thrived in our rapidly changing world?  Contact us at Greenlights!