Advocacy and fundraising: Care2

Editor's Notes

• #2 Care2 has been around since 1998 and has helped over 500 NGO’s recruit millions of dedicated supporters and has significantly improved the nonprofit sector’s ability to raise money online. Justin works with nonprofits to develop strategy for nonprofits to reach Care2’s millions of conscious consumers, and Joe’s team implements campaigns to recruit activists, campaigners, and potential donors.
• #3 -advocacy puts the consumer/ donor at the center of the issue and makes them feel like a hero and it hits all points of the sales cycle
• #4 -these are the campaigns that we hear about that give us hope for Social Media fundraising. However, these are very difficult to replicate. Most of these have elements that most nonprofits won’t be able to replicate. Thus, consistent email strategy becomes much more effective.
• #5 -If this is what you should currently be telling people who sign up for your list, then this session is for you.
• #6 -This is the promise that has been presented by “viral” online campaigns
• #7 Getting people to sign up for your email list -”sign up to get spammed with requests for money from us”
• #8 Online version of farmers market – experience with asking people to sign up for list in person. Analogy of farmers market to a website – how do you capture traffic in a compelling way. When switched from “would you like to sign up for my email list” (so I can sell you stuff), to an advocacy type message “would you help me by becoming part of an army of fans who helps Olomomo get into coffee shops” the response was about 90% instead of 10%.
• #9 Think about one-to-one campaigning with your messaging. What would you say to someone face to face, one on one, to get them to participate in your organization? What’s in it for them?
• #10 Think about putting consumers at the center of your strategy and engaging them on their terms to feel ownership in your brand. A superactivist volunteered to take pictures of my product on his Everest trek. Free advertising and amazing photos that I integrated into a grassroots campaign for about $10 worth of product.
• #11 Then gave promotion to the superactivist by promoting his photos on the website. This led to others wanting to do do similar work – free branding, free word of mouth, more engaged fans, better stories to tell, authenticity.
• #12 -this is really hard to replicate – right now a lot of hype about social media, but what’s the cost? More than 10,000 individual donors contributed just shy of $250,000 - enough for 50 villages and 12,500 people to get clean water. As always, 100% of the money will fund water projects. Overwhelmed by the generosity and passion of the Twitter community, we couldn't wait to show their impact in real-time and answer the question, "What can this money really do?" So today, with lead Twestival organizer Amanda Rose and the help of satellite partner Evosat, we shot, edited, and posted the first of four daily videos from Northern Tigray, Ethiopia.
• #13 -and here’s what is possible for most groups via social networks – out of the top 500 groups with more than 20,000 members, only three raised more than $100k. The median was $570. Most of the more than 180,000 Causes raised zero, and only a few pennies per Cause member. Most of the Causes money was donated by the top 5 donors, many of whom were part of the organization or closely connected (seed donors).
• #14 If there isn’t a positive ROI, or there is another activity that you could be doing instead that has a better ROI, you shouldn’t do it.
• #16 Source – Convio Benchmark Study – this is what’s possible with an email list. Note the vast difference in predictable response rates when compared with the largest peer-to-peer fundraising audience ever built. Which is more scalable? Clearly email.
• #18 -a lot of nonprofits without ecampaigns have a tough communications challenge when it comes to online fundraising
• #19 New era of communication. Think “funky lamb chops” – not wonkyville.
• #20 -advocacy is a way to rally the masses around something they care about
• #22 You want a big red button on your desk that’s ready to go when you have a big opportunity to reach out to lots of people and engage them on your issues.
• #24 Care2 helped Care, Oxfam, CRS, and others extend their reach during Haiti because we had a large list ready to go.
• #25 For those of you who don’t do advocacy, there are lots of creative ways to engage your list.
• #26 Generic petitions and pledges are an alternative to timely advocacy campaigns. Basically, whenever you can create an excuse to reach out to your list in an engaging and authentic way – you should.
• #27 Brilliant use of an email list to leverage the investment in a mainstream media buy – also an excellent way to crowdsource your list in a way that is valuable but doesn’t fatigue them by asking for money all of the time.
• #28 Care2 is… The largest community of progressives -- civically-active people -- on the Internet 10 years old, founded by Randy Paynter, based in Redwood City, California -- with an office in Washington, DC Staff = 60 people Care2 is a for-profit company that is socially responsible and mission-driven The mission is to connect civically-active people to causes and nonprofits, empowering them to make a difference Audience = “cultural creatives,” progressives, “light greens,” people interested in lives of health and sustainability (LOHAS) Care2 signs up approx. 5,000 new members per day Care2 now works with more than 300 nonprofit groups Care2 does not sell or rent its list. We recruit new members, donors and supporters for our nonprofit partners strictly through permission based online marketing -- and we use Care2’s own voice when we do this, leveraging the relationship, loyalty and trust that Care2 has with its millions of members.
• #30 Ideally you have a big red button that enables you to reach people on many networks.
• #31 -here’s the holy grail – figuring out how to tie it all together. Lead with email list and you can leverage it to increase all of these channels through data appending.
• #33 Also what I call “the cycle of trust” because as campaigners, we’re selling something, and that doesn’t happen without trust. How are you engagaging people along each step of this “ladder of engagement”?
• #34 And what tools are appropriate for what strategy? Social networks may not be great for direct response, but they offer an excellent way to listen to constituents and build trust and personal relationships.
• #35 If your nonprofit were as sexy as these guys, you don’t need to sit through this presentation. And… great campaigning organizations are like great rockbands... Many great rockstars are excellent at creating experiences and mobilizing grassroots support towards the goal of making money and spreading a message. Sound familiar?
• #38 These are some of the services -- mainly in the form of promotional online campaigns -- that Care2 provides to nonprofit organizations.
• #43 While the email is not client-branded Care 2 will consult with the client so that the email content is relevant and accurate.