Soapbox Engage Blog

To effectively raise money and build an engaged group of supporters, your organization needs more than just a donate page on its website. You need strategies and tools like online petition software that move people from casual visitor to recurring donor and dedicated supporter – all while minimizing overhead.

Online petitions are an effective tool to capture the casual visitor and active donor alike, and move them down the engagement path - even if yours isn't an advocacy organization. In today's advocacy world, online petition software can ensure your organization is making meaningful connections with your supporters in a way that delivers on your mission.

Here are nine reasons why your nonprofit should consider using online petition software.

Online petitions can be an effective way for your nonprofit to build support around an issue while expanding your mailing list - even if your not primarily an advocacy organization.

Done right, and with the right service, petitions can be an outstanding addition to a complete engagement path that cultivates more donations and supporters for your nonprofit.

But how do you know if the service you are considering is the right service? Here are ten questions every nonprofit should ask when considering an online petition tool.

As folks all around the nation participate in what has become an annual tradition in #GivingTuesday, we wanted to highlight some great friends and clients doing wonderful work in the world.

Photo credit: #GivingTuesday

Check out the latest Tweets from some of those clients and friends and learn how you can help them in their efforts.

Effective online fundraising is more than a donate button. It’s a complete path that moves people from casual visitor to recurring donor and dedicated supporter – all while minimizing overhead.

Join us tomorrow for our first in a series of webinars throughout the month of December!

We'll be highlighting strategies and tips to complete your path for more online donations and supporters as well as presenting the tools available within Soapbox Engage to complete your path.

Tucked into the Winter '14 Force.com Platform Release from Salesforce.com is a little gem that nonprofits, and Soapbox users in particular, can get excited about: the addition of flexible API limits.

Effective online fundraising is more than a donate button. It's a complete path that moves people from casual visitor to recurring donor and dedicated supporter - all while minimizing overhead.

How does your nonprofit's path look? Is it a single donation page and a strategy involving crossed fingers and wishful thinking? Is it a cobbled together collection of tools that kinda sorta work together?

If so, not to worry! You're not alone - and we're here to help!

Seven essential facts every nonprofit fundraiser should know about the path to online donations:

As fast as it arrived, amazingly Dreamforce 2013 is now in the record books.  San Francisco was taken over by more than 120,000 attendees at the Salesforce.com event, including more than 6,000 non-profit organizations, making Dreamforce one of the largest technology conferences for our sector in the world.

Before the last day of Dreamforce comes to a close, I thought I'd share some of my experience from the event to help those newbies in 2014 prepare for the event.  Also, I'm interested in hearing your feedback too, so please contribute your thoughts in the comments.

At PICnet, we love what we do. Deeply. And the prime numero uno reason for this is that we work with great clients who are rocking the world for social good.
We're happy to share the next in our occasional series of personal little love notes from a PICnetter to one of our clients. Julie Dennis sends this out to the good folks at City Parks Alliance.

Who is City Parks Alliance?

City Parks Alliance (CPA) is the only nationwide membership organization dedicated to urban parks. By uniting hundreds of civic and community leaders, government agencies, and recreation authorities, CPA is able to hold steadfast to its mission of engaging, educating, and nurturing the creation, revitalization, and sustainability of parks and green spaces in cities.

With so many great sessions on-tap for Dreamforce 2013 next month, we were a bit overwhelmed in choosing the sessions our team will be attending.  The Dreamforce agenda tool is fantastic, but we needed something a little more straight-forward to see a high-level overview of all the sessions in one spreadsheet.

So, we're pleased to present our Dreamforce 2013 Non-Profit Sessions spreadsheets.  It includes every non-profit session, listings by speakers (we wanted to make sure to catch our buddies on stage), and a listing of the meet-ups.  Enjoy!

Your organization's mission matters most of all. It's not the technology but your purpose that should be front and center.

It's not the hammer but the house that it's building that is the focus and goal.

We couldn't be happier to have our latest Soapbox Engage Partner agree so strongly with that fundamental principle that they named their whole firm for it: Mission Matters Group!

Are you getting the most of out your organization's communications megaphone?

Review these three quick content pointers - and grab our free Soapbox Communication Planner to help you plan the publishing of that content for maximum effect.

We're proud to say a hearty "Ahoy there!" to the latest Soapbox Engage Partner, Bigger Boat Consulting.

Aboard Bigger Boat are some fantastic mates dedicated to launching unmitigated Salesforce success for nonprofit clients.

As they tell it:

With the current protests in Turkey and Brazil, focus is again being drawn to the role of social media in mass movements agitating for change.

Mobile-friendly channels such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are being leveraged by organic groups of individuals to speak out and mobilize.

News outlets are highlighting social media's ability to bridge national boundaries to inspire and inform groups thousands of miles away from one another - as well as confuse and muddle their messages and goals.

We commented earlier on the massive explosion of mobile internet use and how it is contributing to 2013 being the year of responsive web design - responsive web design being a powerful and flexible way to make your site mobile-friendly.

How do you know if your site traffic justifies the investment in making your website mobile-friendly? If you've got Google Analytics tracking traffic, you've got ready-made reporting waiting for you.

At PICnet, we love what we do. Deeply. And the prime numero uno reason for this is that we work with great clients who are rocking the world for social good.
We're happy to share the next in our occasional series of personal little love notes from a PICnetter to one of our clients. Julie Dennis sends this out to the good folks at the Global Fund for Women.

Who is Global Fund for Women?

Global Fund for Women funds women-led organizations at the local, regional and national level. Through its support grants, the Global Fund for Women advances women’s rights by increasing resources for and investing in these organizations. Their main vision is to create a sustainable world where women and girls realize their human rights and have a voice to create change.

On Monday, Google announced that it will retire Google Checkout in November 2013.

What does that mean for organizations using Google Checkout to accept online payments? As Google notes: