The CitizenGulf project was just unfolded last week. A national event on August 25 with would-be meet-ups throughout the country designed to create awareness for the Citizen Effect project, seeks to raise funds and awareness for fishing families. The effort also fits the nonprofit's citizen empowering philanthropy philosophy, which is identifying actionable problems and solutions amongst major problems, such as this one -- the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. How does one go from an oil spill to a national meet-up event? What strategies and tools will be deployed? Here's an inside look on how we scaled from a nonexistent program to a national effort in just three months.

Strategy Begins with Research

We began our effort with a very visible citizen…

More...

If your nonprofit has been contemplating entering online fundraising contests, check out the 2009 American Giving Challenge report released by the Case Foundation. Over the course of 30 days, individuals competed for donors donations and matching awards for their favorite charities. The challenge raised $2.1 million dollars for nonprofits from over 105,000 donations.

“The open design enabled any individual supporting any organization to enter the contest, and truly leveled the playing field between large established institutions and smaller grassroots organizations, said Sokunthea Sa Chhabra, Director of…

More...

Think it's too soon to start preparing for year-end fundraising? Think again!

Earn your overachiever’s gold star and get cracking with nine steps you can use now to raise more money in December.

You might know that 40 percent of all online donations come in during December. But did you also know that year-end fundraising doesn’t just happen in December? It takes months of list building, inspiring donors, cultivating them, testing, and analyzing metrics to make the absolute most of year-end opportunities.

Join Alia McKee Scott of Sea Change Strategies, Milo Sybrant of Amnesty International, and Eric Rardin of Care2 for a great discussion on concrete ways you can maximize your strategy and tactics this year.…

More...

DC Digital Capital Week (DCWEEK) a 10 day festival in Washington, DC focused on technology, innovation and all things digital capital kicks of June 11^th. There’s a terrific nonprofit track on June 16th with seasoned nonprofit campaigners ranging from Carie Lewis from the Humane Society of the United States to Alan Rosenblatt from Center for American Progress. There’s even a probono consulting lounge where nonprofits can ask experts for advice on every topic under the sun.

“DCWEEK is about technology, creativity, innovation and engagement, which goes well beyond just the technology…

More...

The 2010 PDF (Personal Democracy Forum) was the place to be for nonprofit and political campaigners last week in NYC. With movers and shakers ranging from Clay Shirky to Arianna Huffington, campaigners heard first-hand what strategies they should be focusing on in their online advocacy, fundraising and social media engagement.  Couldn’t attend the conference or all the sessions you wanted? Check out some of the key take-aways of PDF by some of our favorite nonprofit experts.

 

“I loved Eli Pariser's presentation and his main theme that we have to be careful about filtering too much, cutting ourselves off from…

More...

• Worried about your aging donor file?
• Interested in attracting new and younger donors to your organization?
• Wondering how to best segment donors by age to achieve greater fundraising success?

Join us for Show Me The Money: Reaching Donors Across Generations, a joint webinar by Convio and Care2 on May 25th at 2PM to build on the new report of the same name by Convio, Edge Research and SeaChange Strategies.

In this webinar, you will learn about the differences and similarities among Matures, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Y in their approaches to giving. You'll also hear how experts at Amnesty International USA and AARP/AARP Foundation are using age segmentation to achieve better fundraising and communications results.

More...

The 10^th annual NTC conference ignited engaging discussions on just about every topic under the sun. From Beth Kanter and Allison Fine’s presentation on the importance of having a “Networked Nonprofit” to Sarah Dijulio’s session on Super Heroes of Online Fundraising that dived into strategies nonprofits should consider using when testing fundraising messaging, nonprofit campaigners gained valuable skills. For example during the Super Heroes of Online Fundraising, Dijulio discussed the importance of creating a data template for how your organization will evaluate results before you conduct a test. It’s also important to ensure sample sizes will give statistically significant results. Good…

More...

What an incredible line up of panels the folks at NTEN programmed for the 10th annual NTC - scheduled for April 8th - 10th in Atlanta. With so many informative panels to choose from (such as Diversifying Your Tech and Online Communications Teams by Frogloop bloggers Jocelyn Harmon and myself as well as Ivan Booth and Shireen Mitchell) on topics ranging from online fundraising, recruitment, and social media - it was a real challenge to come up with my top 12 picks. Have some favorite panels of your own? Let us know in the comments section.

For those of you in DC who can't make it to NTC this year, Care2 is hosting a remote viewing party on Friday, April 9th.

More...

Have you ever wondered how your nonprofit can get more from your online fundraising? What do you do with those thousands of warm leads that the online environment can create so effectively? Call them! Nonprofit organizations have discovered that online channels and the telephone are a 'killer combination' when it comes to fundraising and deeper engagement with supporters. 

Join experts Deanna Bickford of Stratcom, Leslie Karp of Defenders of Wildlife, Michael Johnston, President and CEO of HJC New Media and Eric Rardin of Care2 for this informative webinar on April 6^th at 2PM EDT that will explain how nonprofit organizations are leveraging the telephone to deepen the fundraising and…

More...

SXSW was a total whirlwind filled with some of the biggest thought leaders discussing social media (of course) but also about the power of online fundraising and crowdsourcing. While many nonprofit campaigners didn't make SXSW this year, we at Care2's Frogloop and some of our guest writers attended several sessions. What were the key take-aways at this years conference?

When building a fundraising campaign via crowsourcing:

• Build personal relationships with people first.
• Don't treat potential donors like an ATM machine.
• Keep expections simple. (Editors Note: This was part of a live discussion between Beth Kanter and Mark Horvath of the

More...