Calendar

Kickstarter may be the biggest dog in the crowdfunding world, but nonprofits have raised small amounts of money from large groups of people since the first collection plate was passed. What’s new is five specific elements that make a fundraising effort a crowdfunded campaign, and often brings more success to the nonprofit which engages all five principals in the right Internet tool.

Join Steve Boland, Managing Partner of Next in Nonprofits, for a primer on what makes a successful campaign, and how your nonprofit can take the next steps to bring this new option to bear for your mission.

Part of the full day Minnesota Nonprofit Technology and Communications Conference! Register to get this session and much more!

Crowdfunding: A start-up Nonprofit Case Study
Learn about the challenges and opportunities for a new nonprofit using crowdfunding to both fund capital needs and also build a donor and social support base.  East Side Freedom Library was founded in 2013 and needed to build connections with individuals as they took possession of a new building in the summer of 2014. The building needed work, and one option was to use a crowdfunding campaign to match a grant.  The campaign ran in June of 2014 and helped the Freedom Library go from no individual donors to over 300 with over $21,000 in online contributions and more in offline. This presentation will feature lessons learned from recruiting and training volunteer Team Captain fundraisers, ways to use promoted posts to meet new audiences, and the advantages and disadvantages of different platforms to collect and publicize donations.
Steve Boland, Managing Partner, Next in Nonprofits and Beth Cleary, Co-director, East Side Freedom Library, and Peter Rachleff, Co-director, East Side Freedom Library

Social media is a great tool to get the word out about your programs, but that’s only the beginning. Build strong communities through social media by creating meaningful conversations online and providing relevant, consistent information. This session will give you the tools to create your own social media plan, including tools for measuring success and templates for managing it all.

This breakout session is part of the full day conference. Registration for the full day is required.

(This breakout session is part of the full-day MCN Fundraising conference. Participants must be registered for the full conference in order to attend).

The mythical unicorn of getting ongoing contributions from donors is becoming less about cajoling the one-time supporter and more about offering a range of options that fit individual needs. Small-scale donors can use aggregation tools like Patreon.com to add up to a lot of money (say, $150,000,000 from 1,000,000 supporters this year), Drip is getting into the subscription support game, and existing donor database tools have the support options we need if more nonprofits used them better for the needs of supporters. This session will review case studies of recurring donation tools and platforms (from basic Stripe processing, to GiveMN, to more gimmicky options like GivingLoop), the donor communication that helps transition one-time or annual supporters to recurring donors, and a return on investment analysis of those platform fees.

Track: Fundraising Trends/Strategy Style: Formal Presentation
Presenter(s): Steve Boland, Managing Partner, Next in Nonprofits, Saint Paul MN