Early in the recent recession, a large local non-profit was falling behind its annual fundraising target. This organization had never done any successful online fundraising, but wanted to immediately launch an online giving campaign to help make up the projected deficit.
The organization did not have the technology capability to accept donations online. The responsibilities for building an online capability for the organization were not necessarily clearly defined and were split between several departments. Now the development (fundraising) group urgently needed the technology & relevant online fundraising processes. The financial shortfall was creating a lot of urgency and high expectations for a quick inflow of new funds from “online”.
I joined the team as a consultant, working closely with several members from the responsible departments – brand management and development – who became leaders of the online focus. With a fully cross-functional team, the organization reviewed available software solutions and website providers. Convio was licensed for online engagement and a local agency, kabookaboo, was chosen for web design and development. We created two separate online giving campaigns and quickly deployed both.
As a result….
- The first event was a networked online campaign leveraging FirstGiving, where each member of the Board and the Leadership team conducted a mini-online fundraiser among their own contacts – and competed to be the largest contributors to the overall total. It was completed within 90 days and exceeded its targets for funds raised and new donors.
- The second was an event website & campaign which was designed and customized using Convio. The startup of Convio for this organization, including migration of its 50,000+ donor records and the event website and mailings, was completed on time, within 75 days of signing the software agreements. The campaign goals for capturing new contacts and generating excitement were exceeded and the organization created a long-term solution for future online campaigns and marketing.
- The leaders from within the non-profit gained a solid working knowledge of the fundamentals of online fundraising and of these tools as a result of their successes on these initiatives – and became the organization’s online leadership team for its future efforts.
