Friend-to-Friend Fundraising: Your Supporter is the Brand!

When your organization communicates with your constituents and the public, your mission is the centerpiece of your message. Whether the reader or viewer is motivated to respond depends on how well you communicate the value of your mission. If you've made them care about your mission, you have a much better chance of gaining their support.

But, according to USA Today and CBS News, those viewing your messages are also bombarded with 3-5,000 advertising, media and news messages per day. A portion of those are from the 1.5 million other nonprofits in the USA, each asking for support. Your message can easily become lost in this deluge of information. How can you ensure your message gets through?

Social Media Fundraising
Studies show that consumers and donors are relying more and more on word of mouth from friends, family and colleagues. When it comes to movies, restaurants, vacation spots and charities to support, people want to make sure that their hard-earned dollars will be spent well. So when someone they personally know and trust makes the “ask” on behalf of your mission, it carries a lot more weight than appeals made directly by your organization.

Also, when the fundraising goal is associated with your supporter, his or her friends, family and colleagues want to help them succeed. So instead of “Help support our cause", the message becomes "I'm walking to support this cause. Help me reach my goal?" In other words, your supporter, not your mission, is now the primary message and motivation for action. The likelihood and degree of response is based on the personal relationship the reader has with your supporter. When it comes to the constituents of your constituents, your mission is secondary.

But that is exactly how you can cut through the clutter of messages and media. People are becoming immune to communications from businesses and institutions. They've learned to tune them out. But they care about what your constituents have to say. It's not spam, or a commercial, or junk mail. It's their sister, son, neighbor or friend.

Using Twitter, FaceBook, blogs and email, your supporters can also extend your reach far beyond your own website. Better still, when the tweets, posts and blogs are from your constituents, they are much more likely to be responded to and passed along.

One way you can help support your constituents is to have a vigorous Internet presence, not only on Twitter and FaceBook, but also YouTube, flickr and other social media. Not only can you provide content that your constituents can promote, but they can write on your FaceBook wall. They can help you build "social capital" and spread awareness for your cause.

Although social media sites like these are free, they still require a substantial investment of time and effort. How can you get a return on that investment, beyond spreading awareness?

Online Donor Pages
There's a well-established marketing axiom regarding promoting and continuing your brand throughout the entire cultivation process. This simply means the message and visuals in all your communications for a particular campaign are consistent. So if your constituents are willing to make the “ask” for you, using their own email account, FaceBook page, Twitter or other personal media, you should consider providing a way for them to collect donations on their own personal fundraising page. A donation page that has your supporters photo, name and personal story telling why they care about your cause will have a higher rate of conversion, as well as higher donation amounts, then your own general purpose donation page.

Plus, by providing such friend-to-friend donor pages, you give your supporters more ownership of the fundraising process, making them feel even more appreciated and a part of your organization. And helping your constituents become fundraisers is a great way to reduce your new donor acquisition costs.

Now I'm certainly not suggesting that your organization's own branded fundraising efforts become secondary to supporter driven social network and friend-to-friend fundraising sites. But helping your supporters develop into a supplemental army of fundraisers and promoters can only increase your development efforts, and perhaps decrease your costs. So empower and encourage your constituents to be fundraisers today!