Each month we highlight a couple of our nonprofit partners who have unique fundraising events, great success stories, or something else fantastic going on that we’d like to tell you about. Next up in our nonprofit fundraising series, the Nonprofit Spotlight, is Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and their Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All Star Charity Game (WFCA 09).
If Wisconsin could be any sport, it most definitely would be football. The Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All Star Charity Game is held every year and honors high school and college players along with anyone who has been an outstanding contributor to the state of Wisconsin football program. They invite players to compete by splitting the state into two teams, the North and the South, and then by division. All players involved are required to fundraise for the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. The game is Saturday July 18, 2009 and although they still have a few weeks left to fundraise they have raised over $73,000 already. They have fundraised for the game for the past three years and have raised a total of $130,153 through Firstgiving so far; and this year has been their biggest year.
Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin is one of the leading pediatric care centers in the united states. They Children’s Hospital is one of the 14 entities that make up the Wisconsin Health System. Located right outside of Milwaukee the hospital was built in 1894, and has grown to be a leader in pediatric trauma and and houses over 70 speciality clinics. Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin holds another big event in the fall; The Briggs & Al’s Run & Walk for Children’s Hospital.
The folks at soon-to-be-launched OnlyUp.org affectionately ask, <30? Part of the nonprofit sector and/or have big plans to make change in the social justice movement?
They’re building an online community of young people involved in the nonprofit sector, and they want you to be part of it.
In their own words:
OnlyUp is an organization that helps nonprofits prepare for the next generation of leaders through consultations, awards, and community-coalition building.
Young people have the vision and energy needed to revolutionize social justice organizations. Amplifying their voice and advocating for their needs will help revitalize the nonprofit sector.
To this end, OnlyUp plans to:
Publish a blog for information sharing, web newsletters to organize advocacy, and mobilize an active membership database
Provide constructive analysis of how nonprofits incorporate young people in goal creation and execution of their work
Connect young people with quality opportunities so they may learn from and contribute to their field: The website will include job listings from organizations that have established histories of providing real opportunities for young people
When a new staff member comes on board at your organization, it’s a good idea to set up a new login and password for your Nonprofit Account Area. Similarly, when somebody leaves, you can delete his or her login information.
This process is really easy and will help keep your staff informed and prepared about updating your Firstgiving account info.
Here’s a video that will show you how quick and easy it is to add and delete users:
Today we bring you another nonprofit fundraising Best Practice in Action from our weekly series. Each week we highlight an organization that has done an incredible job of promoting its online fundraising efforts with Firstgiving and show you how to do the same. This week’s Best Practice is. . .
Equip your fundraisers to make the most of their personal fundraising pages.
Our friends at Rutgers University’s Dance Marathon raise money online every year for the Embrace Kids Foundation. Their fundraisers are primarily college students, who don’t have a lot of money to donate themselves, but who are actively invested in the cause.
And where do college students spend a lot of time? Online.
To make sure all the Dance Marathoners knew how to make the most of their fundraising pages, Mike, one of the event organizers, created this quick how-to video and uploaded it to YouTube:
Dance Marathoners who needed an extra bit of inspiration or help could watch this video and learn how to use their Firstgiving fundraising pages as a tool to meet their online fundraising goals. Result? 471 college students raised almost $90,000 online for the Embrace Kids Foundation.
So, to recap:
Identify where your fundraisers live online, and use the most appropriate medium to reach them. You know your community best–communicate information about your event using email, Facebook, Twitter, or all of the above.
Happy fundraising and best wishes for success!
Share your own success stories of fundraising Best Practices in Action! Send us an email at bestpractices@firstgiving.com.
Firstgiving’s Account Management Team has been on the road for the past few months, talking with nonprofits like you about how to raise more money online and listening to your feedback. One thing you’ve told us is how helpful it is to receive an automatic email when someone creates a new fundraising page for your nonprofit.
But have you ever asked yourself, “What should I do next?”
Not to fear. . .this week we bring you #8 in our countdown of top 10 ways to use your page creation auto emails.
Number 10- Thank each fundraiser personally for creating a page
Number 9- Lead by example, create a page of your on to show off to fundraisers as an example
Number 8- Get inactive pages ACTIVE!
Don’t leave a soldier behind! We know that fundraisers sometimes create fundraising pages and then never receive any donations. It’s a busy world out there, and these fundraisers had all the intentions of fundraising, but for some reason they never got around to sending out their pages. We suggest giving them a “friendly nudge.” About 7-14 days after you have received the page creation email, check in on your fundraisers see which pages are still at $0.00, and reach out to these fundraisers by email.
Suggest ways for them to get their pages out at, work, school, and among their friends and religious communities. Direct them to the help section of our site if they have any questions, suggest adding a picture, YouTube video, or Flickr account. And most importantly, ask them to send out their pages!! Let them know how important their fundraising efforts are and remind them that with their help, you can reach your nonprofit fundraising goal.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: we are constantly inspired by you! Together, you, the thousands of nonprofit organizations, fundraisers and donors who raise money online with Firstgiving, have raised millions of dollars for causes you care about.
Today is an exceptionally exciting day in Firstgiving history as we count up to the $100,000,000 donation mark! Check our homepage for the most recent update:
Last week we hosted a sold-out webinar on using Facebook for community building and nonprofit fundraising. Well, technically it wasn’t sold out because it was free, but the session was completely full! If you missed it or couldn’t get in, you can see slides and audio for the session here.
During the session, we talked about Facebook Pages (aka fan pages) and why they’re good for nonprofit organizations. A Facebook Page is your nonprofit’s official presence on Facebook, and you can use it to send an unlimited number of messages to your fans, add applications, and track metrics (like how many people visit your Page). For more on why you might want to have an official presence on Facebook, check out our webinar.
One thing we didn’t get to in the webinar was the topic of adding “Favorite Pages” to your nonprofit’s Facebook Page. People who like your nonprofit’s Page on Facebook can become your fans, but did you know that you can connect to other nonprofits and organizations on Facebook through your Facebook Page? Here’s how:
1: Find a Page you want to add to your Favorites:
2. Select where you want to have the Page appear (if you have more than one Page on Facebook, you’ll need to choose one of them from the drop-down menu):
3. Voila! The Page now appears in the “Favorite Pages” box on your nonprofit Page:
In addition to the Elizabeth Peabody House (pictured above), we just added Will Work for Social Change, an organization dedicated to accelerating positive change by serving the talent-related needs of social entrepreneurs, to Firstgiving’s Favorite Pages. Visit our Facebook Page to see more of our favorite Pages or to become a fan!
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