new media strategies for nonprofit outreach and fundraising

New Media Strategies for

Outreach & Fundraising

Sarah McMaster

Director of Marketing & New Media

Mount Wachusett Community College

Fundraising: Reframed?

• Outreach as an outcome of research – Process of identifying who in your service area

aligns with mission

• Affinity as an outcome of outreach – Process of interesting potential stakeholders in

your mission, services, activities

• Fundraising as an outcome of affinity – Process of building relationship and involvement

Fundraising: Re-framed?

• Mission alignment

Research

• Educate

• Inform Outreach &

Communications

• Empathy

• Support Build Affinity

• Fundraising

• Volunteering Involvement

Mission

Governance

Strategic Planning

Fundraising

Events

Outreach

Public Relations Social Media

Membership

Creating a Plan

We need to understand your organization

• what are the key attributes?

• What impact?

Who is your prospective stakeholder?

• is there a typical profile/demographic?

What are potential communication

channels?

• specific associations

• Community events

• specialized publications

Driving Key Actions: Conversion Funnel

Social Media

Website

Fundraising Page

Donation!

Fundraising 2.0 Audience Medium Key Action

Current Members Member e-newsletter Membership Renewal

Board & Committee members

Meetings & email marketing

Time, Talent, Treasure

Prospective Members

Current Donors In-person Continued giving

Prospective Donors - Gen Y Kickstarter Donations for XYZ project

Prospective Donors -Boomers

“Town hall” events Inclusion in Estate Planning

Prospective Donors – Gen x Facebook Donations & Engagement

Volunteers Twitter Workday attendance

Online Ambassadors Facebook Share online content

Components of a Good New Media Fundraising Campaign

• Social sharing

• Online transactions

• Real-time

• Mobile-friendly

• Back-end metrics

• Low overhead/resources

Crowdsourcing/Crowdfunding

Services like:

• Kickstarter

• GoFundMe

• Indiegogo

• Crowdfunder

• RocketHub

Kickstarter

• Project based

• Arts culture, technology

• 5% fee structure

• Connect directly with funders

• Limitations are outlined: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines

Next Steps

• Review website

• Do audience segmenting

• Assess conversion funnel user experience

• Identify new strategies

• Tell your story

Review

Assess

Adjust

Review website

Does it communicate our mission?

Is it easy to use?

Focus groups

Is it mobile friendly?

Can visitors make a donation?

Do audience segmenting

Who are your stakeholders really?

Is there a good way to group them in terms of interests?

Affinity?

Services?

Demographics?

Assess conversion funnel user experience

How do you get there?

How many clicks?

How many barriers?

What is required v. optional information?

What is the overall experience?

Identify new strategies

Are you extending your reach with social media? Feeding the funnel?

Can you pilot a crowd funding initiative?

Communicate with segments in more personalized ways?

Are you measuring? Who will want to know?

Tell your story

Back to basics

Cultivate ambassadors

Use images & video to show your story

Tell your story using every means within your capacity

Resources

• Content Creator

– Storytelling

– Photography

– Video

• “Techie”

– Dashboards

– Reporting and data

Questions & Discussion

Email:

smcmaster@mwcc.mass.edu

LinkedIn:

www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmcmaster/