Harnessing Instagram for Fundraising

A photo might be worth a thousand words, but how many dollars is it worth to your fundraising efforts? For organizations that are active on Instagram, the answer may be, “Many.”  But, unfortunately, the organizations that can answer the question at all are few.

Instagram is the most underutilized social media platform for nonprofit organizations, despite its popularity. The reason has much to do with limitations in the platform. Instagram does not provide a way to include clickable links within the photos or comments. This makes it difficult to drive traffic to a website, and to covert viewers into donors. Because there doesn't appear to be a direct way to raise funds through Instagram, many organizations eschew the platform to focus on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

However, Instagram does one thing better than any other social media platform. It allows organizations to tell a visual story. By showcasing the emotional highs and lows, and the problems and solutions your organization deals with, followers can form a personal and emotional connection. And that connection can spell out good fortunes for your fundraising campaign.  You just have to know how to channel the power of a photo into action.

Be Transparent
Sometimes the best connections happen when you quit trying so hard to make them. Your organization’s Instagram doesn't need to be filled with carefully posed and edited portraits. Instead focus on providing an authentic and honest peek into the daily life of your mission, staff, volunteers and beneficiaries. Think of Instagram like a backstage pass into your organization. Post photos of the needs you are trying to meet, the work that it takes to get there and the results you are achieving, all on a personal, emotional level.

Provide Balance
Whether you are ending homelessness or cleaning the oceans, it's clear that passion must fuel a nonprofit. And, your Instagram followers need to see that to understand the need. But, that’s not all they need to see. Balance out the tears with plenty of smiles. Showcase happy volunteers, excited program participants, and the positive impact you are making. Both the ups and the downs need a spot on your Instagram feed.

Post Often
The beauty of social media over a static website is that you can get screen time with potential supporters on an ongoing basis. While you don’t want to spam anyone, you do what to be a constant presence since that is what will eventually convert followers into donors or volunteers. Be sure to post fresh content at least once at day.

Get Wordy
Have you noticed something about the photos in this post? They all contain a little something extra.  Words. While simple snapshots make excellent Instagram content, you can also rev up the impact with a bit of text, added in a basic editing program such as PicMonkey. You also have the opportunity to add relevant text in the description of each photo. This is the perfect spot to include your website address as well as some helpful hashtags.

Putting It All Together
We’ve discussed what to post, but how does it all come together to benefit your fundraising efforts? Including a call to action allows you to promote your website, your text-to-give campaign, or your next fundraising event. It can also be used to thank your current donors and volunteers in a fun, public way. But the real benefit is often less tangible. As follows share your content, you are increasing your reach. And as people experience your organization’s story in a visual format, they become more likely to donate and volunteer in the future.

Nonprofit Fundraising Toolbox - Inked to the People

This week, we're going to talk about t-shirts as a way to raise money for your campaign. If you've ever gone through the hassle of having a shirt designed and then printed, you're probably going to want to run away screaming in horror.

However, a new website called Inked to the People just might help change the way you feel about t-shirts for your cause.

Here's how it works. You create a t-shirt design. If you don't have a designer to create the shirt for you, that's okay, Inked for the People can help you with that. You can also use their design tool to create a basic design.

Once you have your design, upload it to the Inked to the People website at http://inktothepeople.com/.

Next, you'll need to set a goal. How many t-shirts do you want to sell? Try setting a small goal at first until you get a feel for how popular your t-shirts will be with your supporters.

Finally, you simple make the sale live and blast out the sale to your community! And the best part is, there is no out of pocket deposit needed. It's free to start a campaign. Once you meet your goal, Ink to the People will print up your shirts and ship them out. And then you'll receive your check about 3 weeks later.

Another option Inked to the People has for nonprofits is a partnership program that lets your supporters do all the work!

This allows your supporters to run their own t-shirt campaigns and contribute 5% of their sales directly to your nonprofit.

To sign up to be a partner, click here. http://inktothepeople.com/page/partnerships

Pretty cool, huh?

You never have to worry about the logistics of t-shirt printing again! And there's absolutely no risk involved for you. If you don't make your goal, all the money will be refunded, and you can either try again with a smaller goal or move on to the next big idea!

Nonprofit Fundraising Toolbox - Fundography

The work of a nonprofit is never easy, and trying to stay ahead of trends, putting together successful fundraising events, and promoting your cause takes never-ending dedication and commitment from you and your staff.

To help fuel your cause and get your creative juices flowing, we've put together a series of articles that will introduce you to new and innovative tools that you can add to your fundraising toolbox whenever you need to make a push for donations.

Fundography

 

Today's nonprofit tool is called Fundography, and it's a pretty amazing and innovative application that's really easy for you to put into play at all of your fundraising events.

The concept is simple. You organize one of your fundraising events as you normally would, something where you can invite potential donors to participate, such as a silent auction or a 5K.

Contact Fundography and let them know about your event. You can email them at [email protected].

On the day of the event, while everyone is having a good time, you and your guests take pictures using either a digital camera or an iPhone.

Then you simply upload those pictures to Fundography and create an Event Album.

Fundography will then allow anyone to purchase those photos for $2.50 a photo. For every photo sold, your nonprofit will receive $2 that will go toward your cause.

Here are a few tips Fundography suggest to help share your photos.

• Get posed smiling faces! 
• Photos of groups of friends are most likely to sell. 
• Always tell people you photograph the photo will be sold at Fundography.com. They won’t buy it if they can’t find it! 

It's that easy!

For more information on how you can use Fundography at your next event, visit their website at http://www.fundography.com.

New Changes to Twitter Every Nonprofit Needs to Know

Twitter is a grand global marketplace filled with people who want to talk about your particular cause, so if you're not on Twitter yet, you really need to be. We'll talk more in a later article about why you're nonprofit needs to enter the twittersphere, but for now, we're going to focus on some new changes to the profile page that will affect those of you who already have Twitter accounts.

Recently, Twitter has rolled out some pretty significant changes to your nonprofits Twitter profile page that you're going to want to address as soon as possible.

1. Your Nonprofit's Profile Picture Can Now Be Larger. 400 x 400 Pixels. Make sure you get the right dimensions for your image, or it could look distorted. If you need help, consult a graphics expert.

2. Your Nonprofit's Header Image Is Larger. 1500 x 500 Pixels. Again, it's best to stick to exact dimensions or your image won't look right.

3. You Can Pin an Important Tweet to the Top. Have an important message that you want everyone to keep in mind when they view your profile? Just pin it to the top and it will stay there until you remove it or pin something else.

4. Your Popular Tweets Are Highlighted in Larger Font. If you have a particularly popular tweet, it will now be highlighted in larger font so it's easier to identify.

Again, if you're not a graphics person or your organization doesn't have a graphics person available, you may want to consider hiring someone who can help you create the correct sizes for your Twitter images.

We recommend Bright Owl Creative, a small creative studio with experience working with nonprofits and who can work with the small budgets of our small to medium nonprofit customers.

How to Harness the Power of Pinterest for Your Nonprofit

If your nonprofit isn't on the social media site Pinterest yet, you're missing a wonderful opportunity to communicate in a unique way with people who share the same passion and desire as you and your organization.

The power and emotion an image can convey transcends a simple written message in ways you can't even imagine, and when it comes to drumming up donations and supporters for your nonprofit, Pinterest can be a powerfully effective tool.

If you're not familiar with how the social media giant works, here's a quick rundown. Pinterest is all about pinning images to create a board of like items. Many people use it for recipes or crafts, laying out all the beautiful images on a board that is easy to view and search through.

However, Pinterest isn't just for crafters and foodies! It's about capturing an idea through images and sharing it with the world, and what better way to capture the very essence of your nonprofit's mission than with images.

Of course, it's helpful if your nonprofit deals with a visual cause. The easiest example is animal rescue. By pinning images of the animals your organization helps, it shows potential donors the good you're doing with heartwarming pictures they can see and share with their friends and family.

There are many nonprofits out there already taking advantage of the creative way Pinterest allows users to communicate. Amnesty International currently has 21 boards ranging from Human Rights Quotes to Human Rights Books to Human Rights Events. You can see their profile here: http://www.pinterest.com/AmnestyOnline/

Creating a Pinterest account for your nonprofit is free and easy and now, Pinterest offers business accounts with a category for nonprofits so you can manage your boards with a team of users.

To create an account for your nonprofit, simply go to http://business.pinterest.com/ and click on "Join as a Business."

Once your account is created, take some time to think about the boards you want to create and how you want to organize your images.

Do you have images from a particular event or is there a topic you want to educate people on? Don't feel like you need to only use your images either! Feel free to pin images from other people's boards if they align themselves well with your own board's message.

Pinterest has become one of the fastest growing social media sites out there and it's easy to see why. With such a visual way to reach your potential supporters, your nonprofit can truly benefit from the tools available on this social site. So create your account today and get pinning!

Amazon Launches New Program, AmazonSmile, to Help Non-Profits

The online retail giant, Amazon.com has recently launched a new program that should bring a smile to any 501(c) non-profit organization.

Aptly named AmazonSmile, this new program allows shoppers to easily donate 0.5% of their purchases from Amazon.com to their favorite non-profit - which could be your nonprofit!!

All shoppers need to do to sign up for this program and start donating a percentage of their purchases to your non-profit is visit the website AmazonSmile.com. From there, they can sign into their Amazon account and then select your nonprofit from the search list.

Now, in order for your non-profit to qualify for this program, you will need to be registered through GuideStar USA. Guidestar receives their data from the information that has been submitted to the IRS, so if you're a 501 (c) nonprofit organization, chances are you're already listed in their database.

You will also need to register through AmazonSmile before you can receive your donated funds. Simply go to the AmazonSmile registration page and follow the instructions to get started.

Then, all you have to do is get the word out to your potential donors about this amazing program!

Almost everyone shops at Amazon.com at some point during the year and with such an easy and pain free way to gain donations, it's worth taking the time to make sure your non-profit is registered and your community knows how easy it is to give all year long!

How to Get Free Publicity for Your Nonprofit Organization

By Amy Detwiler

How do you spread the word about your nonprofit organization? I considered this question recently when I had the pleasure of attending a daylong seminar in which the closing keynote speaker represented an incredibly compelling nonprofit. Listening to this young man speak for an hour on his passion and the beloved father who served as the inspiration for the movement excited me about what he is doing.

This rather stimulating afternoon caused me to think about you and your nonprofit. What are you doing to create awareness? While not every effort of yours will cause the soul stirring excitement of the aforementioned gentleman, there’s no reason that you can’t get more people aware of what you are doing. In the mundane “real business” world this is called publicity.

Publicity is media coverage for your nonprofit for which you don’t pay one red cent. Think about all the paid advertising that for-profit businesses do — print ads, radio spots, television coverage — and the hoped-for sales they expect. Now imagine getting that same attention for free.

Frequent mentions in the newspaper, on TV or online translates into more awareness, donations, volunteers or what have you. However, to obtain publicity (save for the ubiquitous PSAs), your  nonprofit must do something worthy of media coverage, and you have to let editors and reporters know about it.

The process of getting publicity is simple, but it’s not easy. The simplicity of it begins with truly understanding what publicity is. It’s positioning your activities as newsworthy.

That small statement alone stymies about 90 percent of nonprofits. They spin their wheels sending out press releases on things that simply aren’t news. For instance, an animal rights nonprofit working to protect animals is not news, it’s your regular mission. Hiring a volunteer coordinator for your nonprofit is somewhat closer. It may be news, but it isn’t really exciting. Hosting a “Paws in the Park” 5K run… now that’s news.

Think of it this way. Editors and reporters are in the business of writing and publishing interesting articles. If you bring them stories – real stories, not fluff – you’ve just made their jobs a lot easier. Publicity is the classic quid pro quo; you get exposure and they get a story.

To begin the process of getting publicity, think about activities or actually create events that are newsworthy. Start by considering what you are already doing. Is there a way to find an angle that makes it a news story?

When you have your angle, put the information in a compelling news release to your local newspapers and televisions stations. Again, it could be about an event your are running or a feel-good story about how your non-profit is making a difference in the local community. Make it easy for editors and reporters by supplying them with everything they need to know – the who, what, when, where, why and how. Include photos if possible, as well as contact information so they can call for more details.

Sending a very newsworthy release in advance of the actual activity could even get a reporter onsite to cover the goings on!