By Michael Cervino
Vice President, Beaconfire Consulting, Inc.
This article was originally published in OnPhilanthropy.
I recently received an email from a colleague and friend with this subject line. She was asking me to support her efforts to raise money for Easter Seals by walking in their national "Walk With Me" campaign. I clicked through the email link to her personal walk-a-thon page and there she was, smiling broadly with all the charm and salesmanship I have come to appreciate from her. Not only did I give, but I forwarded the message on to two other friends who I thought might be interested.
What I participated in represented more than a novelty in online fundraising. Rather, it is part of the online revolution made possible by the maturity of event fundraising tools. National and local organizations across the country are adopting these tools to augment and enhance their efforts to make more of their walk-a-thon or run-a-thon, to name a few. I have had the good fortune of being both a participant in these events and a consultant, advising organizations on how to use these tools. From both perspectives, there are some lessons to be shared in how best to integrate Internet event fundraising tools into an organization's programs.
Why are these tools important? For many organizations whose current offline program generates the revenue and constituent engagement necessary for sustainability, adding in these new tools can seem extraneous or complicated. The evidence is mounting, however, that the online tools can add tremendous value in a variety of ways to both mature and newly-formed programs. Fundraising tools that permit teams and/or individuals to create personal giving pages and solicit sponsors can add much to an organization's development function.
Audience Reach. These tools increase the potential pool of sponsors by reaching beyond the geographical boundaries inherent in traditional paper pledge forms. Families, friends and colleagues around the country (and even the globe) can be invited to share in the fun. Analyses by online vendors of the software and of my own client activities indicate participants who use the online tools ask twice as many people to contribute as paper-only participants.
Participant Motivation. Participants who create personal pages online are more likely to receive motivating messages from the organization to ask people to pledge than those using traditional means. This results in greater solicitation and an increase in overall pledge and contribution activity.
Organizational Branding and Messaging. Many organizations seed the communication from participants to sponsors by providing Website templates and email message copy. These efforts ensure participants are sharing the key messages of the organization and are using fundraising copy that is effective.
Increased Outcomes. The data published by companies in this space like Convio and Kintera, also paralleling our clients' experience, indicate that participants who use the online tools generate more contributors per participant, and have higher average rates than participants who use traditional paper forms.
Taking the Anonymity Out of Sponsoring. Each year, millions of Americans sponsor "a-thon" participants - but few organizations ever know who those sponsors are. The online event tools provide a means for the contributor to opt-in to ongoing communications for the organization if they want to receive them. Our clients have seen 10-20% of contributors choosing to receive opt-in messages, yielding thousands of new relationships for the organizations to develop. Furthermore, the fact that these individuals have actively opted-in to receive communications indicates a higher level of commitment than a traditional event donor.
Opening the Door to New Opportunities. Some organizations have found innovative ways to extend their use of the event fundraising tools beyond the physical event. Organizations like the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation have created virtual events to fill the gaps where physical events can't occur. Other organizations have permitted constituents to use the tools to raise funds around their birthday, anniversary, or wedding. Once the infrastructure and support are in place, the sky is the limit for how the tools can be used for community and relationship fundraising.
The benefits of using these tools can be tremendous. However, using these tools is not a simple "plug and play" proposition. Organizations must be prepared to fully embrace them and the strategies that drive their success as an integrated part of their event program. Tacking the tools onto the program as an afterthought will not deliver the real value potential of the technologies.
Here are a few "must dos" to achieve success.
- Develop a plan for educating and training the grassroots event coordinators on the value and use of the tools.
- Integrate the discussion of the use of tools into every planning and coordinating meeting.
- Prepare starter copy for Web sites and emails that can be used to seed efforts of participants.
- Have a communications calendar for when and how to talk with participants as the event progresses.
- Incorporate the online URL and promotional language about the benefits of the tools in all marketing materials — particularly those for the participants.
- Create a feedback process to capture what is working and what is not from the field, and have a rapid response protocol to address issues.
- Adopt the tools yourself: Use them as a participant and contribute as a sponsor, and make sure your leadership does as well. Set the example.
Soon it will not be a question of whether or not you should use them, but a mandatory requirement to be competitive in the event fundraising space. I believe it is not just my singular experience that makes my case, but rather the experience of the hundreds of organizations using online tools to raise millions more than they would have otherwise.