21 proven practices for a successful crowdfunding event
DESCRIPTION
On May 6, 2014, Give Local America raised more than $53 million for over 7,000 nonprofits around the country. An astounding result on its own merits and even more significant given that it was a first year event. This success has nonprofits asking themselves, “Can I do this on my own?” The answer is yes! You can do it on your own and reap the benefits of a crowdfunding event – up to millions of new dollars, up to 60% new donors and brandraising that is priceless. To make it as easy as possible to run your first successful event, we have consolidated four years worth of Giving Day experience into our new eBook, the 21 Proven Practices for a Successful Single-Day Crowdfunding Event. Miriam Kagan Miriam Kagan Now that same content is available in this one-hour webinar. You will learn: - Critical planning steps for crowdfunding success - How to choose the right nonprofit giving day model for your organization - How to choose the right technology vendor to keep everything running smoothly - How to manage the “day of” logistics - The post-giving day steps you need to ensure a stellar 2nd eventTRANSCRIPT
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Confidential document: Kimbia Inc. 2014
Hi!
Miriam KaganSenior Fundraising Principal
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Confidential document: Kimbia Inc. 2014
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Omni-Channel FundraisingTM Solutions
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Confidential document: Kimbia Inc. 2014
Why Crowdfunding?
• It’s here to stay
• Drives significant new revenue
• Recruits new high value donors – up to 60%
• Engages major donors
• Sustainability
Confidential document: Kimbia Inc. 2014
• A time-limited (in most cases 12-24 hours) online fundraising competition
• Bringing together your communities (donors, participants, advocates, alumni, corporate partners, etc.)
• Raising money for your community, nonprofits, programs, institutions
• A single online donation campaign
• Driven by a sense of urgency around matching funds and/or prizes
Giving Days: What Are They?
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• Increase revenue from a new revenue stream (across channels) -- it’s not just online
• Attract new donors and appeal to more hands-on fundraising demographic
• Generate buzz and excitement in the community, with sponsors, and on social media
• The long-tail effect: successful days may inspire major donors to give matches, endow future programs, etc.
• Increase lapsed participant, donor, alumni participation-new exciting way to engage
During a Dean’s reception held by Columbia College, one major donor was so excited by the results of the
prior year giving day he enthusiastically declared he was going to match the $1.2 million
raised by Columbia College that day.
During a Dean’s reception held by Columbia College, one major donor was so excited by the results of the
prior year giving day he enthusiastically declared he was going to match the $1.2 million
raised by Columbia College that day.
Giving Days: Why Do They Work?
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• Nonprofits and communities across a wide variety of verticals are getting started, with Foundations and Higher Ed leading the way.
Giving Days: Will It Work For Me?
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Yes!!!Compelling Demographics
Omni-Channel Engagement
Long-Tail Effect
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Do Crowdfunding Events Lead to More Giving?
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Give Local America May 6, 2014
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- $53 million
- 120 Communities
- 7,000 Nonprofits
- 305,000 donations
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Higher Education Events
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- Columbia University: $7.8 million in donations (Activated, reactivated donors represented 40% of total donations)
- Boston University Giving Day: $1,109,692.07 raised during first event
- Notre Dame Day: $918,000 raised during first event
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Community Foundation Events
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- North Texas Giving Day: $28.2 million raised in its 5th year (26% of donations from first time donors)
- Give to the Max Day: $17.1 million
- Give Miami Day: $3.27 million raised in its 2nd year
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21 Practices
in 4 Phases
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1. Create a Project Plan
• Document all tasks
• Assign each task to someone
• Set completion dates for each task
• Assign a project manager
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2. Choose a Crowdfunding Model M
OST
NO
NPR
OFI
T VE
RTIC
ALS
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Choose a Crowdfunding ModelH
IGH
ER E
DU
CATI
ON
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• Major Donors
• First Time Donors
• Influencers
3. Define Your Audience
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4. Compelling Value Proposition
• How you solve a problem
• Why you
• Show impact
• Use the language of your supporters
• Highly visible
• Use images
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Compelling Value Propositions Pay Off
• Sci-Port received 156 gifts totaling over $107,000 during Give Local America
• They were third overall in dollars raised
Sci-Port Value Proposition
“Louisiana’s Science Center provides a fun, educational environment for people of all ages to explore and actively engage in the world of mathematics, science and technology. Sci-Port serves to spark curiosity about the world around us, provides hands-on tools for using scientific discovery in everyday life, and encourages a passion for life-long learning.”
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5. Strategic Promotion
Your plan should include:
•Target audience
•Best channels to reach audience
•Messages that resonate
•Target number of impressions
•Monitor and measure
•Two-way communications
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Get Creative With your Communications
• Ask volunteers and board members to email key people
• Advertise at events
• Enable partners to embed forms
• Reach out to radio, TV
• Recruit corporate sponsors
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6. Set Explicit, Measurable Goals
Set SMART Goals: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound
•What is your overall fundraising goal?
•Are those goals realistic and attainable?
•Are they relevant to your Crowdfunding event?
•Can you set goals for specific times of the day?
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7. Recruit Online Ambassadors
• Consider board members, staff, volunteers, partners
• Schedule “workshop-style” training
• Review:
- Brainstorm
- Goals and timeline
- Draft letters to potential donors
- Strategize on donor outreach
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8. Incentive Structure• Create prize & match opportunities
• Incentivize healthy competition
• Prizes include:
- First project/program to reach goal
- Most donors in given period
- Most referrals from given partner
- Fund with most international donors
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9. Customize Messaging
Create specific talking points for specific audiences based on:
•Giving levels
•Giving frequency
•Giving focus
•Giving recency
•Channel preferences
•Demographics
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Confidential document: Kimbia Inc. 2014
10. Criteria for Choosing a Crowdfunding Platform
• Protects your brand
• Provides you with donor data
• Features real-time leader boards
• Makes forms easy to share
• Gives you peer-to-peer functionality
• Offers mobile-responsiveness
• Reduces form abandonment
• Assures scalability
• Includes multi-currency, multi-language and multi-country settlement
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11. Key Elements for Success
• Optimize forms for conversion and reducing friction
• Provide clear, prominent calls-to-action
• Make forms easy-to-use
• Keep forms short
• Prominently feature your crowdfunding event
• Give contextual reasons to give
• Provide suggested donation amounts
• Mobile-optimize your site
The University of Maryland featured personal video stories of scholarship recipients alongside donation forms
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12. Communications & Social Media Training is Critical
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Confidential document: Kimbia Inc. 2014
13. Event Day HQ
• Sufficient staff to field questions
• Community outreach
• Real-time communications
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14. Social MediaLeverage social media to amplify crowdfunding buzz and outreach:
•Use tracking codes to measure effectiveness
•Build a “spread the word” page
•Leverage Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and others
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15. Real-Time Updates
• Feature real-time results on home page
• Leverage social media, youtube, email to amplify results
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16. In-Person Events
• Farmers markets
• Potlucks
• Concerts
• A flash mob
• Evening of wine, hors d’oeuvres and jazz
• River parade
• Stream a live conference
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17. Leverage Peer-to-Peer Communications
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18. Say “Thanks”
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19. Enable Post-Event Giving
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21. Plan Your Next Event
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Kimbia’s Crowdfunding Solutions• A scalable and secure giving day website – owned by you and
hosted by Kimbia – that is proven capable of handling 392 transactions per minute
• Your brand, donor data and funds remain in your hands – not your vendor’s
• Social media training and access to online fundraising strategies and tactics
• Donation forms for each fundraising entity (nonprofits, partners) that can be copied and pasted on their site in under 2 minutes
• Nonprofit donation tracking URLs and real-time on-demand progress report
• Access to nonprofit data via GuideStar or a community foundation database
• Real-time Leaderboards to track progress and generate excitement
• Complete project planning and management, including dedicated event day support
Confidential document: Kimbia Inc. 2014
Want to Get Started?
• If you want to do your own crowdfunding event - email [email protected]
• If you want to do a crowdfunding event with others - contact your local community foundation. We can provide you with presentation materials. Contact [email protected]
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Q&A
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Confidential document: Kimbia Inc. 2014
Thank you!
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