Personal giving pages: the ironic twist
September 8, 2003
By Louise Chatterton Luchuk
Can you imagine a fundraising initiative that jumped from
raising $7,000
in 1999 to $1.5 million in 2002? The organizers of the CIBC Run for
the Cure
(a fundraiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation)
certainly can!
Pioneers in online fundraising, they have learned that
online personal
giving pages can enhance how, and how much, individuals are able to
fundraise on behalf of an organization. CUSO
and the Canadian Landmine
Foundation also know
the power of personal giving pages. They're about more than
just enabling
online donations. Personal giving pages enable organizations to use
technology to enhance the 'personal ask'.
Not sure what a personal giving page looks like? Imagine the ability
to personalize an e-mail that can be sent quickly and directly to a
wide range of potential donors. And because it's a
personalized e-mail
from a friend, family member, or colleague, and not a blanket e-mail
solicitation, it is more likely to be read. Now add features such as
immediate electronic tax receipts and links to the
organization's website
for more information. Put this all together and you can see
how technology
- often thought to be impersonal - is making large-scale fundraising
a personal experience. Therein lies the irony.
Canvassing beyond one's own neighbourhood
The CIBC Run for the Cure began in 1992, but it wasn't until 1999 that any type
of online technology was incorporated. That year it became possible to
register online. Every year enhancements are developed and fundraising
totals increase. Besides all the features mentioned above,
last year organizers
enabled team registrations and challenges. For instance, national store
chains can register teams from different locations and then send e-mail
challenges to coworkers based in another community. Near or
far - it doesn't
matter - people are not limited to canvassing their neighbourhood. In
fact, more than 50% of online money raised comes from beyond
the participant's
postal code says Deborah Kroeger, national director of
information
technology for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
A personal dinner invitation goes high-tech
The Night of a Thousand Dinners began
in 2001 as the signature fundraising event of the Canadian
Landmine Foundation,
a young organization with only four staff. The event involves
individuals
signing up online to host a dinner in support of the Adopt-a-Landmine
project. Each host creates a guest list and a personalized electronic
invitation is sent. An RSVP link allows the host and the
foundation staff
to track dinners and donations (guests have the option to
donate online
or at the dinner party). Hosts can access recipes as well as
party ideas
and props (e.g. name cards for table settings) online as well. A Host
Kit is sent via "snail mail" and includes a video about the
project, celebrity
endorsements, coasters, brochures, etc. to educate the host and guests
about the project. There is also a toll-free number so that those who
are not comfortable, or are unable to access the Internet,
can still participate.
"We were looking for a major fundraising event," recalls
Chris Gallagher,
director of business development and marketing. "We decided
on an annual
fundraising dinner but wondered how we could push the idea further and
still do it cost effectively. The Night of 1000 Dinners is
less elitist
than a traditional black-tie ball held in a hotel and allows us a far
greater reach in our fundraising." In fact, over the course
of two years,
the event has spread to 31 countries and involves embassies
and ex-patriots
living overseas. To date, more than $2 million US has been
raised. Again,
technology is involved in giving a large-scale fundraising
event a personal
touchÖand a successful outcome.
Not just for a one-time event
While personal giving pages work well for one-time events,
CUSO has adapted
the idea for their purposes. Implemented only this past spring, their
system was first tested out with CUSO staff. "We had a few
bugs we needed
to iron out to make sure that all the pages were set up right
and translated
but we're getting the hang of it," says Jacques
Paquette, administrative
coordinator. Starting this fall, cooperants (i.e. CUSO's
overseas volunteers)
will be trained on how to use the system. Cooperants will set
up personal
giving pages with a personalized message and images. They will easily
be able to track how much money they have raised and, in the
future, they
will also be able to keep supporters updated while away on
their overseas
stint. A further benefit, says Paquette, is the public awareness that
personal giving pages provide. When a personal e-mail is sent
to a potential
donor they are only a click away from finding out more
information about
CUSO and they are only another click away from forwarding
the e-mail on
to another potential donor.
The other side of the coin
Lest organizations become mesmerized with the dollar figures, Kroeger outlines
some of her new realities. Leading up to the October run, she
will receive
between 500 and 1,000 e-mails a day with lots of questions
about participating
in the run. "You need the staff in place to deal with the inquiries,"
she advises. The volume of online activity has been so significant, the
run organizers experienced a bandwidth crunch and it was necessary to
expand the capacity of their web server.
Kroeger also mentions the many new processes that need to be worked
through. For instance, how will your online database transfer
information to your general fundraising database? What reports need
to be generated for your finance people? And, who is going to write
the communication material? You can have the online technology in
place but who will write the content of the e-mails to solicit
donations? "It's completely different," says Kroeger "than if you are
writing a direct mail piece. You need the PR/marketing people in
place. Plus you need the marketing team and the IT people to work
well as a team and follow the same timelines."
In the set-up phase, Paquette has found their system
cumbersome to manage.
"For every appeal, you have to set up all the pages, change
the content
and have it translated." But he adds, "It's still worth it."
When it comes down to it, assesses Philip King,
president and CEO
of Artez Interactive (a
company that
has developed the personal giving pages software used by
many nonprofit
organizations), people think that going online is going to
be different
but it really isn't. People donate because they have been
asked and "if
you get my friend, colleague, vendor, or family member to ask
me, there's
more of a guarantee that I'll say 'yes'. You need to get
inside people's
social network." That's exactly what personal giving pages
make possible
on a grand scale. The technology may not be simple but the concept and
the effect really are.
Louise Chatterton Luchuk is a freelance writer and consultant who
combines her love of writing with experience at the local,
provincial
and national levels of volunteer-involving organizations.
For more information,
visit www.luchuk.com.
