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Multichannel Marketing Ecosystems: Creating Connected Customer Experiences
Markus Stahlberg (Author), Ville Maila (Author)
Publication Date: 3 Nov 2013

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How many lists have you seen giving rules you should follow to retain a donor? I hope you collect them all, because retaining a donor is the most important task in fundraising. Even more important than acquiring the donor in the first place (I hope a few readers go head-to-head with me on that proposition). So I was pleased to read Willis Turner’s list with a twist — 30 Ways to Lose Your Donor — in Fundraising Success. Lists like this tend to repeat the same things, so I’m always looking to find something new, or if not new,

We’re always on the lookout for charities using Facebook in interesting ways to encourage social giving. Here’s a round-up of our top five:

1. Handicap International UK
2. Macmillan Cancer Support
3. Blue Cross UK
4. Meningitis Research
5. War Child UK

1) Handicap International UK – for smart use of the ‘About’ and ‘Featured app’ sections (and hashtags!)

Facebook’s Timeline layout provides an area at the top of the page for you to add 255 characters of descriptive text about your organisation. Handicap International UK has made its copy clear and concise so first-time visitors get a real sense of the organisation’s purpose, as well as what content they can expect by liking their page.

Next to its ‘About’ section, it’s clear that Handicap International UK has put a lot of thought into having prominent calls to action on the page, including ‘Donate Now’. With our Giving widget installed, Handicap International UK is able to process online donations on their Facebook Page. You can find out more about installing the widget on your charity’s Facebook Timeline here. It means your supporters will have a better experience as they can donate online without leaving Facebook.

Handicap International UK is also starting to use Facebook’s new hashtag feature. By using the #WorldPopulationDay at the end of their posts, they have ensured that they feature on the hashtag feed relating to that topic, where they can potentially attract new supporters.

2) Macmillan Cancer Support – for getting creative with the timeline feature

The timeline layout enables charities to go back in time and add important events to their organisation’s history. Macmillan Cancer Support has used the Timeline to tell the story of their charity right back to when it was founded in 1911.

3) Blue Cross – for making the most of great photos in their posts

Incorporating media assets into your Facebook posts is a sure-fire way to increase engagement with your audience. A recent study by Hubspot revealed that photos on Facebook Pages received 53% more Likes than the average post.

Blue Cross is one charity that knows the power of a good photo – and a cute kitten admittedly! This recent post generated over 238 shares.

Highlighting posts that span the width of your charity’s Facebook Page is a really useful way to encourage social giving if you have a particular message or appeal that you want to stand out and promote to your supporters. The Blue Cross did just this by making their post span the entire width of the page. They posted a message with the image saying thank you to their supporters and asked for text donations, using our free text donation service JustTextGiving by Vodafone.

4) Meningitis Research – for using the cover photo feature

The cover photo feature is a great way for your charity to have a real impact on visitors to your Facebook Timeline. By using an effective image, Meningitis Research Foundation communicates its focus on ‘research to save lives and inspire hope in its supporters’.

5) War Child – For using an email application to encourage newsletter sign-ups

Like Handicap International UK, War Child UK has used the top section of its Timeline to promote key calls to action, including signing up to their monthly e-newsletter. This is a fantastic way to add new names to email databases and ultimately recruit new donors. Check out popular email tools as well, such as dotMailer and Mail Chimp, to find out about their Facebook applications.

Which charities would you put in your Facebook Timeline top five? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Here is your chance to bid on an extremely limited number of Mattel Hover Boards personally signed by Michael J. Fox, with all proceeds benefiting the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Back To The Future Hover Boards

Fully sanctioned by Universal Studios, each signed Hover Board features “whooshing” sounds sampled directly from the original Back To The Future films and an authentic deco.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/10522-michael-j-fox-signs-back-to-the-future-hover-boards-for-charity-auction

Smile Ambassadors Brooke Burke Charvet and David Charvet, along with two of their children, Rain and Neriah volunteered with Operation Smile during the organization’s recent medical mission in Guadalajara, Mexico.

During the medical mission, the family met with children suffering from cleft lips and cleft palates, whose parents were too poor to help them receive the surgery they so desperately needed.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/10521-brooke-burke-visits-mexico-with-operation-smile

UNICEF, the Commonwealth Games Federation and the Glasgow 2014 Commonweath Games have today announced a partnership for children that seeks to touch the lives of children in Scotland and in Commonwealth countries across the world.

Ewan McGregor Supports UNICEF Glasgow 2014 Commonweath Games Initiative

The partnership aims to raise funds for UNICEF work in Commonwealth countries across the world, and hopes to make next summer’s sporting event a big moment for children, aiming to inspire and enable children to be the best they can be.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/10520-ewan-mcgregor-and-david-beckham-support-unicefs-commonwealth-games-initiative

In a testimony to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations last week, San Francisco 49ers Wide Receiver (formerly of the Baltimore Ravens) and Oxfam America Ambassador Anquan Boldin called on members of Congress to take action to ensure that mining companies operating in West Africa respect human rights.

Boldin’s testimony reflected what he witnessed on an Oxfam America trip to Senegal in March with fellow NFL wide-receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Roddy White. Boldin was joined at the hearing by Ghanaian energy expert Mohammed Amin Adam, the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy.

“During my visits to Africa I promised the people I’ve met that I would do everything I can to bring their stories back to the US,” said Boldin in his testimony. “Today, I call on the Congress to support measures to strengthen human rights protections for communities impacted by the in the oil and mining industries in Africa.”

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/10519-nfl-star-testifies-on-the-impacts-of-mining-in-african-communities

Lake Tahoe was taken by storm on July 19th when 15 of the greatest names in sports battled for the title of Korbel Hole-in-One Champion.

Sports and entertainment superstars pose with Korbel California Champagne owner and president Gary Heck during the second annual Korbel Celebrity Hole-In-One contest in Lake Tahoe

With a powerful drive, Olympic Gold Medalist Skier Bode Miller landed 10 feet 11 inches away from the pin, blowing his competition out of the water to win this second-annual competition. In honor of Miller’s win, The Korbel Toast Life Foundation donated $5,000 to the Tahoe Tallac Association. The Hole-in-One Competition took place on hole 17 and is a featured event at the American Century Championship of celebrity golf, currently being played at the Edgewood Golf Course in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/10518-bode-miller-wins-charity-hole-in-one-competition

Really good to see a Scottish event underway. It is always interesting to see how different the marketplace place is in SCotland versus the English

Legendary rocker Paul McCartney has sent an urgent letter on behalf of PETA to Philippine President Benigno Aquino III asking him to press ahead with the transfer of Mali, the 39-year-old solitary and ailing elephant held captive at the Manila Zoo, to a lush, spacious sanctuary in Thailand.

“I have great regard for governments that intervene on behalf of animals, just as yours did with the May 2012 directive ordering that Mali be evaluated and considered for transfer. That said, time is passing, and it has been more than a year since that directive was issued – yet Mali seems no closer to enjoying her well-deserved retirement at an approved sanctuary”, McCartney writes. “I have heard from my friends at PETA that various government authorities are continuing to deny that Mali’s welfare should be within their jurisdiction.”

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/10517-paul-mccartney-puts-his-weight-behind-elephant

DoSomething.org and the VH1 Save The Music Foundation have released the final crowd-sourced music video for Band Together: a national campaign that rallied young people to create a crowd-sourced music video with singer-songwriter and American Idol winner Phillip Phillips.

Video: Phillip Phillips - Gone Gone Gone (Band Together Cover)

How it worked: each week, for six weeks, Phillip Phillips delivered an easy video challenge on YouTube. Young people participated in the challenge by uploading a video on YouTube of them performing the action. Each week, the creators of the best video selected a VH1 Save The Music Foundation school to receive a grant for their music programs. The best user-submitted videos were mixed into a YouTube cover of Phillip Phillips’ hit song “Gone, Gone, Gone.”

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/10516-phillip-phillips-is-gone-gone-gone-for-charity

Hi Emily, I'd be very keen to meet up with other legacy fundraisers in Scotland. I'm based in Glasgow. Happy to host meetings. Thanks, Catriona Catriona

The last ten years have been pretty darn good for the charity sectors in New Zealand and Australia. External factors such as domestic disasters, (earthquakes, fires, droughts and floods) economy and government policy have all done their best to break the resolve of the sector but overall we have seen great growth amongst professional fundraising charities.

Much of this growth has come from ‘individual fundraising’.  This would include regular giving (automatic debits), direct mail, and other appeals.
But despite a good decade, some organizations have bucked the trend and have slipped backwards in their fundraising.
I wanted to get to the bottom of this and been looking at the fundraising transactions of individuals who have supported 70 Australian and NZ charities.
Using this data, and what I knew about these charities, the first thing I noted was that it was internalities (decisions made by employees and boards) not externalities (economy, government change etc) that caused their problems.
Those internalities seemed to only come from two decisions that various charities have made which ended up pushing income from individuals backwards.
This blog covers the first.  Another blog is coming about the second.
The first way to destroy your fundraising income seems to be 'Investing in brand'.  Putting money into brand awareness, advertising, events, launches; often, but not exclusively, associated with a re-brand.
‘Brand' is incredibly important for the long term survival of a fundraising charity.  Having a great brand helps keep loyal donors, win corporate donations and means you are more likely to be front of mind when people write their wills. 
But branding is not about big ads, prescriptive fonts and cool logos - it is about how the charity behaves; what it feels like to be helped by them, to help them and to be thanked by them.  
Brand is not about how a charity ‘looks’ it is about how people experience that charity.
The best branded charities tell fantastic stories brilliantly and use fundraising advertising activities (like online, direct mail, phone calls, direct response TV and events) to position themselves.  Good fundraising is good branding.
There is never a need for a charity to spend money on 'awareness' for fundraising purposes.  Awareness definitely helps fundraising, but the cost of achieving increased awareness is simply not worth it compared to investing that money in good fundraising, that in turn, increases awareness.
The other benefit is that good fundraising will increase awareness in the right target audience.
If a charity struggles with fundraising, then brand and brand awareness may well play a part, but spending money on building that awareness is not an effective solution.  There are plenty of case studies of charities with no, or little brand awareness, succeeding in fundraising.
Jeff Brooks, author of Future fundraising now (the best fundraising blog) says that a re-brand is a sure fire way to cripple your charity, and he is mostly right.  But some, such as Cerebral Palsy Association have proven that a re-brand is not what hurts; it is what you do with your money that is key.
CPA have enjoyed great growth since their rebrand from Spastics Centre, but it wasn't their rebrand that did this, it was their considerable and careful investment in planned fundraising that worked.  They invested in donor acquisition and retention from key target audiences.
From benchmarking I can clearly see how some of the charities who stopped growth and went backwards achieved this by switching money from fundraising into ‘branding’.
After a while, the bosses came to their senses and the charities are now heading for growth again after record acquisition years in 2012 and 2013 - despite a very obvious dip in fortunes, these organisations managed to survive.  
For these charities the 'brand suicide' attempt failed - but not without victims.  Some of these case studies also went through massive change of staff, collectively missed out on tens of millions of dollars and lost the confidence in their marketing and fundraising teams by their boards.
Build, protect and nurture your brand fiercely.  Make sure the way you handle complaints reflects your brand.  Make sure your communications all tell the story of your beneficiaries.  And make sure you don’t waste precious money on building brand awareness.
That won’t guarantee success – but getting it wrong is a great way to guarantee failure.
In an upcoming blog I am going to look at the other decision a few organisations have made to try and reduce their fundraising income.
Sean


Thanks for subscribing, I really appreciate it and do hope that you find this blog useful. Take care.

Hi Jamie, Thanks for your email - great to get that information. I familiar with the charity you work for as I am part of a consortium of charities in NI

Hi Emily, my role has recently changed, so I no longer am responsible for legacies, however, my colleague Katy O'Donnell who has taken over my role, I know

To announce their summer clearance sale Honda in the USA took to twitter to ask people about their gripes with their new cars using the hashtag #wantnewcar. Then on July 15th they responded to the customers with Vine videos, they even got celebrities like Rebecca Black involved (check out her vine here) Results were good […]

Terina Keene says charity was nervous about partnering with insurance company Aviva on major project for homeless children

A partnership between Aviva and global homeless children's charity Railway Children has superseded expectations, despite the charity initially thinking it would fail, the organisation's CEO said yesterday.

Speaking at the Institute of Fundraising's national convention, Terina Keene said the charity was nervous about partnering with the global insurance company on a major project.

She said: "We didn't know anyone in the sector who had a really deep relationship with a corporate. We've had lots of partnerships with business, particularly in the rail industry. Normally they pay for a piece of work and we send them a shiny report about it. But we realised quickly that this wasn't going to follow the same pattern.

"Aviva was really keen to have an impact on the issue and also about making us more sustainable so we can continue to manage the issue," explained Keene.

When the partnership began in 2009 she wondered whether Railway Children, then turning over £3m, could deliver to the standard of such a large company. Keene said: "We had an acute sense it would fail. But now, we both feel like part of the other's team. This has been an unexpected outcome for us. It joins together different skills and strengths. Corporates are still full of humans, of people … we've been able to achieve a lot more than envisioned."

The Street to School project partnership between the two, brokered by corporate responsibility consultancy Good Values, was created because Keene and staff were frustrated that countless agencies had been working on the issue of homeless children for many years, but the number of children on the streets in UK, Africa and India – where the charity works – wasn't decreasing.

"We felt we needed to look differently at issues to make a longterm difference and stop the problem getting bigger, and we've got that," said Keene.

In 2009, Aviva made a five-year commitment to help 500,000 street children, or those children at risk of being homeless.

Impact measurement was crucial for the business, so it could prove to stakeholders and the media, what it was doing. Five key areas were addressed and are being measured including outreach and prevention, health and wellbeing, accommodation, education and employability.

The duo, along with 'Good Values', uses a number of measuring tools and techniques including the London Benchmarking Group model, Passport 2012 and the REACH model, and takes a lot of input directly from vulnerable children about what they need.

Keene and David Schofield, head of CR at Aviva, said the project had so far had a "substantial impact" with 600,000 children helped by working with NGOs and Aviva's global team. And lessons have been learned in many areas, including incorporating the voice and hopes of the children more.

In the 'measuring the social business impact of corporate partnerships' session, Schofield said: "Many businesses are having a go at this kind of thing now. But the challenge is how do we cut through and make a difference, and do something that will be good for staff pride and engagement and all stakeholders? This has been a massive cut through. We hope what we've done will encourage more funders to seek charity partners."

He added that the project had been featured in the Financial Times, achieved mass staff engagement and pride, with a 14% rise in the number of employees who believe Aviva's commitment to corporate responsibility is genuine.

• Finance
• Voluntary sector
• Charities

Claudia Cahalane
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Contratulations to Cancer Research UK who won the first National Award for Best Use of Insight to celebrate and reward the best examples of data insight in fundraising, drawn from the Insight […]

Would you associate AARP, the voice of America’s 50+ population, with adroit use of social media? If not, think again. AARP has some 80 Facebook pages with over a million fans, an active presence on YouTube and Twitter, and a “toehold” in about 15 other online platforms. Of course, if you have a nine-person team solely devoted to social media — and working in a sandbox with 37 million members — you had better get it right! Judging from this article on AARP’s social media strategy, I’d say they’re on the right track. Here are some observations by Tammy

HowardLake posted a photo:

Sign notifying visitors to Colchester Zoo that a £1 donation will be added to their ticket price to contribute to its charity's conservation work.