Crowd-Funding & Peer 2 Peer Fundraising - #TXNS

The Texas Nonprofit Summit (#TXNS) was here again last week! Here are the tips and best practices from one of the more interesting sessions I attended.

Crowd-Sourcing, Crowd -Funding and Peer 2 Peer Fundraising: Fading Fads or a Permanent Slice of your Annual Funding? Rich Dietz, Founder, Nonprofit R+D and Jamy Squilace, Director of Product Management Ablia

Why I picked This Session

As a nonprofit micro lender, we see clients turn to all kinds of alternative funding, from credit cards and predatory lenders, to asking their families and crowd funding. I wanted to learn more about how to lead by example, because if we can crowd fund,we can help our clients do the same...leading by example. I've explored the platforms: causevox, kickstarter, etc.  

 

Session Summary

With the growing influence of peer persuasion in everything we do, fundraising habits are rapidly changing, especially with prospects and donors under age 35, the "Millennials". The fastest-growing fundraising trend is around funding activities that leverage peer networks, but are these new channels here to stay or will they go the way of portal pages and donor address labels?  In this session, you'll learn how and why these communication channels can offer exciting opportunities for improving and expanding your acquisition efforts, engaging millennials, and improving donor retention.  You'll walk away with important insights into the differences in fundraising to the current generation from past generations, the rise of peer-to-peer micro-projects, the power behind experiential events and personal fundraising pages, and more.  Join us to see why peer-to-peer fundraising is a must in your mix of fundraising strategies, and to learn how to effectively use crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding.

Moral of the Session: turn strangers into friends, friends into donors, donors into fundraisers

What I learned

  • Have smaller goals - don't intimidate donors with a high goals
  • Empower your audience to peer to peer fundraise, friends asking friends
  • The biggest difference is the ASK is moved from the organization to an individual (would you give to a fundraiser or grandma?)
  • 57% gave because of the participant/peer fundraiser
  • only 32% of peer to peer sponsors were asked to make a second gift since becoming a sponsor
  • keep donors loyal by building the relationship online; millennials especially are averse to paper direct mail
  • Make sure fundraising pages are easy: name and email, ability to personalize
  • Give tools: sample blogs, tweets, social share buttons, etc.
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The question I asked: How do we keep donors loyal through online engagement when algorithms work against us, more stores and orgs turning to email marketing, and google and out look shifting to junk, easy to unsubscribe - how do we not frustrate peer to peer fundraisers?

Their answer: Be old school. What used to work works again. Call donors. Email. Social media doesn't translate to donors.

Session Homework: Investigate Penelope Burk's material

FundraisingAmber Kanicrowdfunding, crowdsource, crowd, kickstarter, donor, abila, product management, texas nonprofit summit, rich dietz, jamy squilace, credit, audience, social media, #TXNS, fundraisingComment