Calendar

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 management can be a full-time job, but rarely can small organizations afford that kind of staff time. Social tools can really engage donors or customers, recruit volunteers, or advertise a new service or opportunity in sites where people spend their time. Creating a social media team which mixes staff, board and other volunteers can really extend reach. The challenge then becomes managing all that effort in real time for measurable goals (often referred to as conversions in measurement tools like Google Analytics).

This session will dive deep into Hootsuite as one tool to manage scheduled posts, author roles, and monitoring channels for engagement. Ensuring consistent voice across authors and scheduling some posts for review will be discussed, as well as a brief overview of other platforms such as Tweetdeck and Buffer. Steve Boland of Next in Nonprofits will be available for individual tests and troubleshooting following the presentation.

Social media management can be a full-time job, but rarely can small arts groups afford that kind of staff time to really use the tools to engage donors, recruit program volunteers, or advertise a performance in channels where people spend their time. Creating a social media team which mixes staff, board and other volunteers can really extend a nonprofit’s reach. The challenge then becomes managing all that effort in real time for measurable goals (often referred to as conversions in measurement tools like Google Analytics).

This session will dive deep into Hootsuite as one tool to manage scheduled posts, author roles, and monitoring channels for engagement. Ensuring consistent voice across authors and scheduling some posts for review will be discussed, as well as a brief overview of other platforms such as Tweetdeck and Buffer. Recommended Hootsuite primer available here: http://mashable.com/2013/09/18/hootsuite-beginners-guide/.

Hosted by the Three Rivers Community Foundation and Initiative Foundation.

Crowdfunding is a tool to seek and secure financial contributions from many donors in order to achieve specific project goals in a short period of time.  This exciting presentation by Steve Boland, Managing Partner of Next in Nonprofits, will review the common crowdfunding tools such as Razoo, GiveMN, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and discuss the essential elements of successful crowdfunding campaign.

Grant Writing is a key source of funding for most nonprofit organizations and in this session participants will learn how to make their proposals stronger. Barb Downs, Grants Specialist of the Initiative Foundation, will lead participants through writing clear and concise narratives that show program/project impact. Additionally, participants will review grant budgets and have the opportunity to ask their pressing grant related questions. 

This complimentary workshop will be presented at First National Bank of Elk River in the Training Room from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Doors will open at 8:30 with light refreshments

Donors don’t all think of themselves as philanthropists.

At least, not yet.

What has stood in the way of millions of individuals counting themselves as philanthropists has been the misperception that they don’t give enough to make a difference like those big foundations do. For any single person, that is mostly true. Aggregated, however, the individual is mighty. Aggregated, the crowds can do things even the large foundations cannot do.

Join CommitChange and Next in Nonprofit’s Steve Boland for a discussion on how you can turn your donors into your biggest advocates and mission communicators. Donation processing sites can help bring tools to encourage purposeful donors across charities, but both sides of the giving equation need to promote the benefits of millions of engaged philanthropists instead of millions of disconnected donors.

GiveMN.org has a range of tools available to help Minnesota nonprofits raise the support they need. One set of tools involves the creation of projects for teams, and then individual fundraiser pages which support the project goal. Spend an hour with the GiveMN.org staff, Steve Boland of Next in Nonprofits, and Peter Rachleff from East Side Freedom Library to talk about how these tools have been used in a start-up nonprofit, and how the Library provided support for its volunteers to help bring in new resources.

This breakout session from 1:45 to 3:00 PM is part of the full day Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Fundraising Conference. 

Join GiveMN for real life lessons for turning your best donors into your best (online) fundraisers. GiveMN fundraiser technology allows your donors to share your mission and their passion while activating their communities on your behalf. What’s holding them back? What’s holding you back? If the answer is “I don’t know,” you need to be in this session! We’ll hear stories from nonprofits who do this well and explore how to activate your donors, identify lucrative communities of participation, optimize GiveMN technology to bring your story alive and recognize your best donors and fundraisers.
Dan Moore, director of development, operations, and product, GiveMN
Steve Boland, managing partner, Next in Nonprofits