Animoto Gives Free Pro Accounts to Nonprofit Organizations

Animoto is quite possibly the easiest way to turn your photographs and music into a dynamic, DVD-quality video presentation without the need for special skills or expensive technology.

They have recently launched Animoto for Causes and have invited nonprofits to apply for free all-access professional accounts. Their most recent press release gives the details:

Animoto for a Cause will donate pro accounts to organizations and people who are working toward improving their community and the world at large. Community activists, large or small non-profits, humanitarian fundraisers, and college organizations are examples of the groups Animoto is encouraging to apply. The pro package includes:

• Unlimited full-length video creations.
  
• Free access to Animoto's commercial music library of 300+ songs, all of which are licensed for promotional purposes.
  
• A call-to-action feature that links a video to an outside website, perfect for driving traffic to a site and asking for donations or volunteers.
  
• Unlimited DVD-quality downloads, which are more than double the resolution of standard Animoto videos. DVDs can be burned, re-sold, or played during fundraising events.
  
• The ability to post videos to MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and other popular social networking sites.
  
• A text feature that allows relevant information and stats to be included in the video.
  

"Animoto is dedicated to helping any person or organization, no matter how large or small, with their cause - whether it's helping the homeless, saving the polar bears, or just getting people at your school to recycle," says Brad Jefferson, CEO and Co-founder of Animoto. "Animoto for a Cause is our gift to those people who are trying to make a difference, and we want to help empower them with a tool to reach their community in new and exciting ways. We're excited to donate our pro accounts to those who are trying to make the world a better place."

They partnered with 20 high profile nonprofits to launch the program Check out the case studies for inspiration.

I received this information from the Wild Apricot blog which is a great resource on web technology and social media tools for nonprofits. Tech Soup is another great resource for free or reduced price software for your organization.

Are you getting Impact Philanthropy Group's e-newsletter? Subscribe now for fundraising tools and tips that will help you make a greater impact for your organization.

Social Networking: Is it the Pot of Gold at the End of the Internet Rainbow?

Everywhere I look there are conference sessions, webinars and white papers on harnessing the power of the Internet to raise money for nonprofit organizations. I agree that the Internet is a powerful tool that can be used to build the connection between a donor and a charity. But does it work for fundraising? Is it something that warrants the executive-level development positions that I'm starting to see advertised?

I was an early adopter of the Internet as a tool for strengthening the impact of the organizations I worked for. Way before Y2K hit I had launched the equivalent of an e-newsletter and online appeal – years before specific technology would be developed for these purposes. And it was successful.

The inspiration for my very first online appeal came while I was working at home late one weekday evening. Our year end appeal had come from the printer that day, and I had brought a few copies home. These weren't just any year end appeal. The founder of the organization wrote eloquently and honestly about his experience in a way that resonated and connected with the organization's donors. The average gift for these appeals was 10 times the average direct mail donation. To take it from idea to gifts coming in the door, however, was exhausting. It usually took six weeks of solid badgering and cajoling and I'm sure at least one bottle of bourbon on his part. Every year, just as I had finally given up on actually getting this to the printer in time to increase our fundraising numbers for that year, he would come through with something that took my breath away.

Needless to say, I wanted to get as much mileage out of this appeal as I could. So, I decided to just type out the text of the appeal, include a donation link and send it to the e-mail list of supporters that I had gathered to e-mail whenever anything newsworthy happened. There were maybe a thousand (at most) names on the list. The response was amazing! Donations started coming in 10 minutes after I hit send. We raised more than $25,000 from that e-mail.

So, I know it can happen – but I also know it doesn't happen that often. Before long, everyone was in the game and there were more e-newsletters available than I would ever have the time to read. Then Social Networking hit, and there was MySpace and Facebook and Twitter. I was slow to adopt the social networking sites, personally and professionally. My Facebook page is less than a year old, and I've been tweeting (or should I say, I've been following "tweeters") for about three months.

A few weeks after I joined Facebook, I set up pages for some clients and started inviting people. I must admit I was amazed to see how many people joined. Friends of mine joined causes that they had no connection to, Numbers of members rose much faster than I anticipated. It was hard for me to believe that these members would actually become donors.

The Washington Post article, To Nonprofits Seeking Cash, Facebook App Isn't So Green reinforced my belief that it was a bit too easy to become a member of a cause – said as the proud member of 31 Facebook causes. My sense was that such casual joining does not reflect a real connection to the cause, but most likely a connection to the person who sent the request. The Post supported that supposition.

According to the article:

• 179,000 nonprofits use Facebook Causes as a vehicle to promote their organization and secure donations.
  
• Only a tiny fraction of these have been able to bring in even $1,000.
  
• Fewer than 50 of the 179,000 fundraisers have raised $10,000.
  
• 25 million Facebook members have signed on as supporters of at least one cause. Only 185,000 have actually made a donation.
  
• The application allows Facebook users to list themselves as supporters of a cause on their profile page, but fewer than 1% of those who have joined the cause do so.
  
• 25 million of Facebook's 200 million members have signed on as supporters of at least one cause, making it the third-most popular of the more than 52,000 applications on the site.
  

What does this mean for non-profits?

Even though Social Networking is not quite living up to all the hype, it is an important and easy way to connect with people who care about your organization. Relationships are always going to be the things that drive your fundraising income. Facebook is one way to help you do this, but as with everything else, you have to invest time and energy to see results.

How can you make sure you are making the best use of Facebook and other social media tools?

• Get in the game. If you don't already have a Facebook page, get started now. Wild Apricot's non-profit technology blog has a great beginner's guide for non-profits using Facebook and a description of Facebook applications you can use on your cause page. These were written before the "new and improved" version of Facebook, but most of the information is still the same.
  
• Connect your current donors to your activity on Facebook. These are the people who already support your organization and whom you have a good chance to engage and inform at a deeper level through your Facebook presence. Encourage them to connect with you through your website, e-newsletter and print publications.
  
• Post new and edgy content. Remember that your goal is to get your readers to "pass it on." Post something people will want to forward to their friends. The best example of this I have seen is MoveOn's personalized Mother of the Year video. I never forward things and was so delighted by this after receiving it that I forwarded it to at least 10 friends. When you click to enter the information to forward it there is a small box below your name that is checked (you can uncheck it if you want, but I didn't) that says "I want to hear more from MomsRising and MoveOn.org about mom & family issues." Sure, this is an issue that is relevant to me, one I want to hear about– and they got my name and e-mail because they created content clever enough to really make me want to forward it.
  

Are you getting Impact Philanthropy Group's e-newsletter? Subscribe now for fundraising tools and tips that will help you make a greater impact for your organization.

Creating Donor Loyalty

The most effective and efficient way to grow your non-profit base of support is to keep your current donors. It is estimated that it costs 10 times more to get new donors than to keep existing donors. I encourage you to think about what you are doing to inspire donor loyalty.

Niels Teunis discusses this in a recent blog post about what the Obama campaign can teach non-profit organizations. His points on maintaining donor loyalty are universal and in my experience are what makes the difference between an average organization and an exceptional organization.

From Niels' blog:

How to maintain donor loyalty?

The answer is still out there, but one thing I am pretty sure of.

We should stop looking at donors as donors. Instead, focus on building a movement and make people part of it. Let them contribute in many ways, not just by giving money, and give them a voice in the process. Yes, that is a HUGE lesson from the Obama campaign, and one that we ignore at our peril.

Incidentally, remember that book Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits? One of six ways that nonprofits are successful is by inspiring evangelists. Don’t just use supporters as cheap volunteer workers and pocket books. Make them part of a movement, your movement.

Of course, you better have a very good story, a story that tells how you are going to change the world and how I can be part of that movement, how I need to be part of that movement.

And one last thing, for today. The Obama campaign used their website to listen to people, to learn what was important to them.

What can you do to stop looking at your donors as only donors and incorporate them in building a movement?

Wealthy Donors Want Sound Business Practices and a Connection to the Cause

Bank of America released a study in February on the giving behaviors of America’s wealthiest donors. They randomly surveyed over 20,000 households in high net-worth neighborhoods across the country, and their results represent the opinions of 700 donors with household income greater than $200,000 and/or net worth of at least $1,000,000 excluding their primary residence. You know – all those people we are always looking for on our prospect lists.

The study revealed important information on what donors expect from our organizations and why they sometimes stop giving.

What do the wealthiest donors expect from non-profits

• Sound business practices (93%)
• Spend appropriate amounts on overhead (88.3%)
• Acknowledgment of contributions (83.7%)
• Protection of personal information (82.7%)
• Full financial disclosure (77.7%)
  
  

Why do wealthy donors stop contributing to organizations?

• No longer feeling connected to an organization (57.7%)
• Deciding to support other causes (51.3%)
• Being solicited too often (42.3%)
  

The results aren’t earth-shattering. I don’t look at them and realize something I didn’t already know. What I do realize when I look at them is that often, in the chaos of the often under-staffed and overworked world of non-profits, is that these donor motivations are not always top of mind for me or for my clients. Following are a few simple pointers addressing the points raised in the Bank of America survey that you may want to put in place at your organization if they don’t already exist.

Sound Business Practices

• You have developed a budget based on realistic revenue projections, and you are reviewing your income and expenses on a monthly basis with senior staff and board members.
• With your team, you have set measurable objectives for each area of operations. Progress toward these objectives should also be reviewed on a regular basis with staff and board members.
• Ensure that staff understands their responsibilities and authority, that they are empowered to make decisions relevant to their level of responsibility, and that their duties are documented in job descriptions and key tasks are documented in procedures.
• Based on the Better Business Bureau’s Guidelines for Charitable Giving your board should be made up of a minimum of five individuals. Not more than one or 10% (whichever is greater) should be directly or indirectly compensated.

Spend an Appropriate Amount on Overhead

• Make sure that you take these percentages into account during the budgeting process. The Better Business Guidelines for Charitable Giving indicate that no more than 35% of expenses should be spent on fundraising and administrative costs. However, many foundations, United Way agencies, and the Combined Federal Campaign want to see this number at 25% or less.
• As you progress through the year, check regularly to see where your percentages are coming in. Rarely is the budget we start out with in January exactly the same as what we ended up with in December. If you realize less is being spent on programs than originally anticipated, there is time to do a course correction if you don’t realize this after the year is already over.

Acknowledgment of Contributions

• Determine what a major gift is for your organization. For some organizations it’s $10,000 for others it is $100. An acknowledgment letter should be sent out within 48 hours of receipt of a gift at this level. The donor should also receive a personal phone call from the appropriate person acknowledging the donation. I would suggest for most organizations that this is probably $1,000.
• All other acknowledgment letters should be sent out within 30 days of receipt of donation.

Protection of Personal Information

• All organizations should have a privacy policy on the website that tells visitors what information is being collected about them by the charity and how that information is being used as well as information on how to contact the charity to change their personal information. The privacy policy should also indicate what security measures the charity uses to protect their personal information.
• Donors should be given an easy and visible way to opt out of having their information shared with outside organizations.

Full Financial Disclosure

• Audited financial statements and 990s should be available on your organization’s website as well as provided to any donor who requests them via telephone or mail.