Soapbox Engage Blog

If you work for a charity or nonprofit, chances are, there's a day in the calendar year that's dedicated to your organization's cause. According to NP Tech for Good, 64 known cause awareness days take place throughout the year. With two months worth of causes, it's a lot of recognition to go through. That's not even including some of the awareness months out there. The cause days are so frequent that some causes share the same day. Consider our personal favorite, World Penguin Day, which shares April 25 with World Malaria Day. Okay, it's not the best, but we'll take it.

So how do you play up your cause over the course of that day? Preparation helps, but here are a couple specific ways of going about it.

You know that Facebook is one of the main resources for developing a strong rapport with your constituents. With more Likes attached to your page, there's a chance more people are looking at your mission and cause, increasing the potential for additional volunteers as well as donations. A lot has changed in recent years, and as Business Insider notes, the recent restructuring of the news feed has resulted in significant challenges for nonprofit organizations. But that doesn't mean you should throw in the towel when it comes to that social media channel. Here are some ways to make sure you're still reaching out to customers through the feed and beyond.

We're proud to feature this guest blog post by Ashima Saigal, Founder of Database Sherpa. Database Sherpa is a Salesforce.com consulting firm serving nonprofit organizations and a Soapbox Engage Partner.

By Ashima Saigal, Founder, Database Sherpa

Salesforce does it again, working toward their mantra of Clicks Not Code, with Process Builder. Released in Spring 2015, Process Builder takes Workflows and Visual Workflows to the next level. You can create records, update fields on any related record, launch trigger-ready flows (immediate or scheduled), send an email, post to chatter and submit for approvals with Process Builder.

So, what does this mean for a nonprofit?

It can be difficult to find new donors. Every person has their own unique tastes, and more importantly their own reasons to be interested in your cause. There are many things going on in a potential donor's head that could either favor your appeal or cause it to be ignored. In addition, today's society is increasingly individualistic and fragmented, turning everyone into special snowflakes. It's become increasingly less useful to send out blast communications and expect people to follow through. So what can you do then to drum up support or increase the amount of money raised through each donor? Targeting your donors can be the answer. Here are some ways to do precisely that with the help of nonprofit CRM software:

Each person has his or her own donor preferences. How will you target them?

Tomorrow, we will be hosting a gathering of community members for a Salesforce.com Nonprofit Starter Pack Community Sprint, and we couldn't be more excited! What's a community sprint? It's an event where everyone, whether accidental techie or rockstar developer, can collaborate in person to contribute to an open source project. And, oh what a great open source project the Salesforce Nonprofit Starter Pack is! Empowering thousands of nonprofits to manage donor and supporter data, track program metrics, and do just about anything with data they need to through free or deeply discounted tools, we confess we're massive fans and couldn't be happier about lending a hand to help make it even better.

With the Salesforce Nonprofit Starter Pack, your nonprofit can transform its ability to connect with supporters and advance your mission.

We'll be giving a round up of the day's events and accomplishments here on our blog after the keyboards are set aside and the dust settles. For now, we'll just give a massive shout out to the fantastic community members who are giving of their own time and resources to make a contribution for the good of the nonprofit sector!

So, you've got a lot of supporters, and many of them make donations on a regular basis. But not every donor is the same. You need to think about them both as individuals and as different groups of people.

But they all donate money, what's the difference?

It's how much money they contribute. Depending on the amount of money they're willing to give, people have certain expectations for you and your nonprofit.

Like, they want a place on the board? Special privileges? Snacks?

No, not snacks. However, through giving more or less money, donors have different expectations about how they should be treated and what they should have access to. They also have unique ideas on how they receive communications from you regarding your organization. But the behavior varies with the amount of money contributed. This is why you should consider using donor levels. Nonprofit CRM software can help you develop and assign them to new and existing donors.

Each person here donates differently. What levels will you put them in?

Every nonprofit, including yours, are likely still envious of the ALS Association. Last year's Ice Bucket Challenge campaign not only raised a significant amount of cash for the organization, but brought a huge amount of attention to the condition also known as Lou Gehrig's disease and its overall lack of research funding. Can you imagine what would happen if you could knock out two birds with one stone like that for your cause?

You don't need buckets of ice for a good viral campaign.

How does your SEO measure up?

Raising awareness for your cause can be a tricky business. You may have clipboard people on the streets and special ad placements in print and web publications, among other things. What about search, though? There are a lot of people thinking about your organization's mission, either directly or indirectly. These people could become donors, volunteers or supporters very easily. As a result, you should be looking at ways to improve your search engine optimization, or how you're seen and discovered on search engines. By doing that, you'll get more people to look into the projects your nonprofit is working on.

But how do you measure your SEO? Being a nonprofit is quite different from being a media page. You don't have people placing ads on your site, and you're not necessarily looking for page clicks. So here are some tips to get you going in the right direction, using basic analytics tools:

Playing video games fast has never been as charitable.

Last week, just outside Washington, D.C., a large group of video game players and fans gathered for a week-long event called Awesome Games Done Quick. It was a marathon streamed live on the Internet that had gamers finish video games as fast as possible using skills and a variety of exploits, a process called "speedrunning." You may think that this event seems ridiculous and unrelated to nonprofits. However, by running it like a telethon, AGDQ raised $1.56 million in donations through various channels in that week for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Such an incredible fundraising drive helps us provide valuable insights on using the Internet as way to hold events and raise money. Here are four lessons you can learn from this experience, especially as it relates to using nonprofit CRM software.

The Coast Guard Foundation made waves when it landed the celebrity endorsement of Sig Hansen, Deadliest Catch star, on the show Celebrity Apprentice. We sit down with Jennifer Fyk, Senior Director of Communications for the Foundation, to ask how nonprofits can leverage celebrity endorsements to further their missions and how using Soapbox for their website empowers them to get the most out of this unique opportunity.

Q&A with Jennifer Fyk, Senior Director of Communications, Coast Guard Foundation

Q: Why did Sig Hansen choose to support the Coast Guard Foundation?

A: As a crab fisherman who makes his living in the rough seas of Alaska, Sig Hansen is personally familiar with the life-saving work that the U.S. Coast Guard does on a daily basis. Once he learned there was a way to give back to the men and women of the Coast Guard by supporting the Coast Guard Foundation, it was a perfect fit.

Before we truly put an end to 2014, let's remember the best moments.

While some people like to think that looking back on 2014 is strictly limited to December, we at PICnet believe that a year-in-review should happen in January. After all, December is part of the year, so it's rather silly to consider the year finished before the ball actually drops. In any event, 2014 was a big year for us and we saw a lot of things happen in the nonprofit sector, from payments to petitions. Here are some of our best articles from the last year. We think you may find them enlightening and fun.

We couldn’t be happier than to see organizations using Soapbox for their website needs succeed so we could barely contain ourselves to learn that the Coast Guard Foundation reeled in Deadliest Catch star and Celebrity Apprentice contestant Sig Hansen’s nod as his charity of choice on the popular TV competition ruled by Donald Trump and his coif.

When you're sending out an email to your constituents, the idea is that they'll actually see it and open it. But the viewing part can be an assumption. There is a distinct possibility that your messages won't land in the inbox, but the spam folder. In some cases, they may even be blocked. As a nonprofit organization, your online presence and reputation depends on making sure your email gets to people consistently and effectively. As a result, you have to develop a strong strategy for ensuring overall deliverability on any message, whether it's a call to action or just a general newsletter. Here are a few ways of doing this, some of which can be easily managed with nonprofit CRM software.

High email deliverability ensures people get the message.

Now that the New Year's celebrations have come to a close, you should already have a strategy in place to improve your organization's standing this year. You do have one, right?

Of course we do! Why else did you publish that previous post?

That's true. In any event, planning and executing strategies is important to running a nonprofit organization. That includes implementing constituent relationship management software that targets and nurtures your members. But you also have to pay attention to what's around you, especially when it comes to current or new development. Otherwise, you miss small things that lead to big events like that viral "Ice Bucket Challenge" that the ALS Association completed last summer.

Well, nobody saw that coming…

But they were based on trends that were developing at that point: A straightforward silly viral campaign to raise awareness.

Our strategy isn't about raising awareness, though. It's about raising funds.

Well, then, there are trends to look out for there as well. Consider donors: They made a roaring comeback in the last year, according to fundraising expert Gail Perry in her blog. Building up your relationship is now more important than getting more of them. They're becoming more trusting of you and your organization to use their donations for the aim of your organization. Their mentality has changed, however. They are far more cautious with their money. They don't like the idea of donating for the sake of giving so much as they want to make an investment that has a return.

Getting donors on your side is a big trend for 2015.

What's your plan for the new year? What do you have in store for your nonprofit organization?

Well, we've got some balloons, silly hats and flat champagne…

No, what are your plans in terms of operations? What are you doing to further your mission in the next 12 months?

The same we've always done: raise funds and bring more people into the fold.

Perhaps you should look into more specific goals, since everybody does that. If you have specific goals for your nonprofit, you can actually achieve those results. Developing some resolutions around constituent relationship management (CRM) can help you do that successfully.

You should focus on your supporter relationships in 2015.

Well, then, what would you suggest?

For all the efforts you made in bringing donors into your organization this holiday season, you're probably wondering, is it worth it? Are the amount of money you raise and people you enroll enough to help you grow? Or does it feel like you didn't receive all that much money despite a lot of new people delivering funds to you?

How many people donated this holiday season? How many didn't?

Those are quite a few questions, so I'll just say yes to all of them.

Well, let's be a little more concise by posing a single question: Have you earned more donors and money than you have lost this past holiday season?

When you're working in a nonprofit, make no mistake: You're working with a lot of people all the time. Even if your cause isn't directly affecting somebody, you're dealing with many individuals and groups who have a stake in what you do or your intended mission. You're building connections with people every day. The question is: Is your entire organization capable of making those same bonds and building on them?

What relationships do you have with the people who support you?

It's great that you've been receiving a lot of donation for this holiday season. However, you know that after the holiday season is over, it's back to the usual business of focusing on the mission. The thing is, you get a lot of your money from the holidays. In fact, according to the Network For Good, one-third of all online donations are made in December. The only other time you'll be able to raise as much money is either through consistently scheduled annual or semi-annual fundraising, as well as if a timely event makes your cause a more urgent priority, like after a natural disaster.

Considering it's the holiday season, it only makes sense that people seem more than willing to give money to their favorite cause or charity. Their donations help you pursue your organization's mission by funding operations, run campaigns that raise awareness for your cause and expand your outreach. With that said, people donate for various reasons other than to provide you help. One reason is that, quite simply, giving feels good. When running your holiday campaign or any other fundraiser, make sure your supporters are happy making a donation. This seems obvious, but this sort of thinking will help ensure they feel more inclined to give more with greater frequency. You're building a relationship with the constituent by making them feel good, and when you use nonprofit CRM software to manage their donations and support, you can make them feel better.

Giving makes people feel warm and fuzzy

Studies have consistently shown that donating money to a charitable cause is heavily tied to positive emotions, including happiness. The Non Profit Times recently cited a study by Harris Interactive on people's emotions when they donated. The results showed that 60 percent of people who donated felt hopeful their contribution is making a difference. Forty-eight percent stated giving makes them feel satisfied, while 43 percent said it makes them excited.

We're now entering the second half of holiday donation season, and this can be a high mark for your organization. Donors give more money this time of the year as it is: The most recent survey from the Center of Philanthropy found that people give about 24 percent of what they donate on an annual basis to nonprofits and charities around the holidays. With the season's end fast approaching, you want to make sure you get the most out of your supporters in ways that build your relationship with them. This is especially the case as more people donate online.

Give them a guiding hand

As more people donate online, it's a good idea to give them a little guidance. If you aid them throughout the donation process, they'll feel inclined to make a larger donation while trusting you at the same time. The first thing you probably want to do is make sure your site is it's mobile-enabled. As Google noted, providing a great mobile site experience is essential. With so many of your supporters connecting to the Internet with a smartphone or tablet, more are going to find out about your organization on these devices.