May 12, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Online fund-raising experts shared tips with more than 400 participants from around the world today in the first 24 hours of a three-day conference held entirely online.
The International Fundraising Conference, organized by Resource Alliance, a nonprofit fund-raising training organization in London, featured sessions on how to raise money with online advocacy and marketing, social-networking sites, e-mail appeals and online newsletters, video solicitations, and other methods.
The use of social-networking tools is growing popular around the globe, said Michael Johnston of Hewlett and Johnston Consultants, a Canadian firm. He pointed to a Dutch effort that substituted a speed-skating event for the walkathons and bikeathons so common in North America.
In the Dutch campaign, participants in the skating competition created a personal Web page about the race, explaining why they were participating and how much they wanted to raise, and sent e-mail messages urging their friends and relatives to help them meet the goal by making a secure donation on their page. The skating event garnered $150,000 in its first year and doubled that amount in its second, said Mr. Johnston.
In another session, Scott Goodstein, an online fund-raising expert who worked on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, described how the campaign Web site raised millions of dollars with an effort dubbed “Artists for Obama.” Hip-hop musicians and other artists created images for campaign posters and donated them to the campaign. The posters sold for a maximum price of $60 or $70 on the site, generating an extra $2-million, Mr. Goodstein said.
Responding to a question about how charities can cut down on the number of people who unsubscribe to their online communications, Nick Allen of Donordigital, a San Francisco consulting company, suggested a tactic a company recently used on him when he tried to cut off service.
Mr. Allen was a paying member of Netflix—the company that rents DVD movies to members who order films online and receive and return them via regular mail—and he tried to cancel his membership by sending Netflix an e-mail message. He immediately received a reply stating that the company would honor his wishes, but it also asked him to consider paying a sharply educed fee and keeping his membership.
Mr. Allen said he agreed to the Netflix offer and suggested that charities test a similar approach—or at least ask unsubscribers to explain why they wished to cut online communications. That information, he said, could be valuable, and help groups maintain better ties with their online supporters.
