The Extreme Fundraising Blog

Jim Bush wasn’t able to make it to Andrew Mosawi’s Web 2.0 seminar here in Montreal. So I thought I’d blog my notes and tweet the link to him.

Web 1.0 - all about commerce
Web 2.0 - all about people

It’s all about relationships, not the technology

The fastest growth in internet users is grandparents. Our DIRECT MAIL folks are GOING ONLINE!!!

Average policing time on Wikipedia: 4 minutes

Wikipedia: 1.5 million articles and growing. Encyclopedia Britannica: 42,000…

Blogs: Kryptonite locks were breakable by a Bic pen. The blogosphere rallied and Kryptonite missed it.

Bloggers: more likely to have an income over $75,000 and are much more likely to buy things online

Seth Godin “The best blogs start conversations, they don’t control them.”

Widgets: flickr, facebook (see my frcoach blog), 6degrees, chipin.com,

How do we treat a $20 giver that pulled in $50,000 gifts for your org from his network?

YouTube: can have great success telling your story. no need to have professional film crew

Wired Mag: Wired. Tired. Expired. Do, or stop. They recommend focusing all your efforts in one space rather than diluting it across 4 or 5 platforms.

What’s important to your organization? Engagement or money.

“Causes” engage but don’t necessarily monetize

Kiva.org, givemeaning, donorschoose: it’s almost like we missed a step…donors used to have to go through someone to help people…

Content is king: no more going to websites, with RSS the content comes to me,

The Long Tail: Donor Pyramid is the head of the tail, it still applies but the longtail is in social networking, we can now impact conversations than ever before

What does that look like for your organization? Where are you putting your effort?

Twitter is like hanging out with your friends. Blogging is like reading their homework.

Don’t you wish you were here?

I read an interesting post on the Chronicle of Philanthropy about the Google for Nonprofits portal.

Looks like things many of us are already using, or ought to be using, to promote our organizations. (Granted, it’s probably a bit odd to have a “Google Checkout” badge on the links for the Vineyard Church of Waterville AdWords ads! But folks in our church like to pay their tithes and offerings online!)

What intrigues me most about this offering, is a quote in the Chronicle article:

“Many of us have heard from our friends in the [charity] community that, while they knew our tools could be helpful to them, sometimes they weren’t sure exactly where to start,” [Bob Boorstin] says. He believes the portal will help answer such questions.

Check it out for yourself and tell me what you think:
Google for Nonprofits

The grants and gadget options are particularly intriguing! These may be innovative ways to engage your donors.

Last week, I blogged about what I like about Oprah’s show “The Big Give” and about my concerns.

I still like it. I loved the way the guys teamed up for the Denver orphanage. The shock and gratitude on the directors face moved me to tears.

Another person got voted off. His “kindness” was considered weak and not benefitting the “neediest” person.

While I understand the criticism, I wonder if the judge’s criteria (which are really Oprah’s criteria) are ones our donors are rating us on as well.

Right or wrong, perceptions reign.

And The Big Give way be a way for us in nonprofits to learn to tell our stories and evaluate our work in ways that resonate with donors.

I’d love to know what you think. Am I on to something? Or am I selling out?

Use the comment link right under the blog title to tell me what you think!

Thanks to everyone that responded to my “how do you find fundraising help in the web” email last week.

Many asked me to share my results so here they are:

Fundraising search terms

non-profit capital campaign, planned giving forms, annual campaign, foundations, grant opportunities, grant writing workshops, sample donation request letter, chocolate tasting fundraiser, +fundraising, +humane society, fund raising, fundraising, , fund raiser, fundraiser, contribution, contributions, donation, donations, development, development department, giving levels, benefits, donor benefits, tax deductible gift/donation/contribution, in-kind giving, non-profit, non profit, nonprofit, Funds required, Funds for Africa, Funding for Higher Education, major gifts, planned giving, philanthropy, fundraising, fundraising, Executive Director, Non profit org, "gift+annuity+reinsurance", "direct+marketing+association", "chronicle+philanthropy+top+400", "fundraising+consultant", "development+consultant", “development training”, “fundraising training”, “fundraising classes”, “annual giving”, “fundraising courses”

Fundraising Help Websites

• Fundraisingcoach < -- Thanks for saying this was a terrific resource, good enough to share with your friends!
• http://www.raise-funds.com/
• http://www.idealist.org/
• http://foundationcenter.org/
• http://www.afpnet.org/
• http://www.procopiofundraising.com/bulletin.html
• http://www.networkforgood.org

Happy searching on the web. Also, I’ve set up an "Ask Without Fear!" Facebook page and a "Fundraisingcoach.com" Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, would you become fans of those pages?

• Ask Without Fear! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ask-Without-Fear/7433235241
• Fundraisingcoach http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fundraisingcoachcom/10465001750

While you’re there, feel free to become my friend!

Anyone that’s read my $100,000 Guide to E-mail Solicitation knows that I’m a big proponent of simple, effective emails.

Chris Brogan has an incredibly helpful post on Writing More Effective Email. Read it and benefit.

I love the simple concept of using the subject to clearly state what the emails are about. Wouldn’t that one step alone make life easier?

One of my favorite stories is Winston Churchill’s definition of “diplomacy.”

According to what I heard, Churchill said: “Diplomacy is not saying, ‘Lady, your face is so ugly it would stop a clock’ but ‘Darling, when I look into your eyes, time stands still.’”

I love it!

And I was reminded of this when I read Seth Godin’s great post After the Lawyers.

Read it and then look at the your “official” notices on your mailings and brochures.

What can you do to make them sound more like the rest of the things you write?

Check this out: now you can search for a nonprofit on GuideStar and make a donation at the same time!

Click “donate now” and you’ll get a link like this snazzy way to give to the Inland Foundation.

All the more reason to have pretty 990’s!

You can bet I’ll be finding out how to do this with my healtchare system’s fiscal folks! The latest 990’s are from 2003. Our financials are much better now!

I’ve just tweaked my page at Squidoo.

Sorry. My “lens” at Squidoo!

If you use Squidoo, I’d love to hear the things you like most about it. Feel free to post a comment here.

Nancy Schwartz is hosting this month’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants.

Check it out to see what the three top things some of us are committing to in 2008.

It’s not to early to start thinking about your 2008 goals. Be sure to check out my MagnetGoals program!