Sanky Blog

This year’s NTEN conference opened in San Francisco with a video of Executive Director Holly Ross dancing to Beyonce’s hit song “Single Ladies.” Do I need to say more? Hopefully we’ll be seeing this video on YouTube sometime soon. The opening speaker, Clay Shirky, really hit home with the idea of Web 2.0’s “openness.” In this new media age, nonprofits can’t keep their brand, image, and message locked in a box. Even if they try to … “openness” will happen whether they like it or not.

Later in the day, I attended a great breakout session on communication to donors. The keyword at the session was “emotion” which made some of the techies in the room squirm. Social media, especially Twitter, were the hot topics this year. My favorite quote from the conference, which really summed up the hype about social media, was, “Before you invest time and resources in Twitter, your emails better look like this.”

It seemed that everyone at that conference wanted to talk about their successes, failures, and questions about social media. The person from HSUS said they raised $600,000 from a Facebook campaign, but to do so, they needed to build a Facebook application and a lot of staff time. I know we were at the NTEN (i.e. npo techy conference), but most nonprofit organizations simply don’t have resources to build Facebook applications, much less vigorously promote social media campaigns.

A question I posed during one of the sessions was, “How do donors renew from Facebook?” No one knew the answer. I suspect they will renew like an event donor or walk-a-thon supporter, constituents who don’t renew easily. Investing in donor relationships through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media might not turn an immediate profit, but the long-term branding and awareness benefits makes social media a worthwhile investment.

I believe that in the future we will see social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace become even more useful tools for building community for nonprofits. Organizations who already have huge brand recognition through direct mail, telemarketing, and online fundraising will undoubtedly continue to see significant donations through these sites. Smaller nonprofits, who are still finding their way into the social media market, must continue to make strategic decisions to capitalize on this growing trend.

At the conference, I took some time to take a look at mobile fundraising, which is currently at the point where online fundraising was more than a decade ago. The Mobile Giving Foundation has made mobile marketing an increasingly profitable fundraising tool for nonprofits. They have worked with the major mobile providers to wave their fees for processing donations. Although there is still a limit to the size of mobile donations, this was recently increased from $5 to $10. And what I’m most excited about is the ease with which donors can make recurring or monthly mobile gifts, a feature that gives this medium some real legs.

Last on this exciting topic is the ability mobile giving has to connect with Facebook and MySpace. This integration creates some interesting future potential to fundraise in this medium on a larger scale – giving fundraisers the ability to reach new audiences with micro-donations.

The weather was sunny in San Francisco, but windy and cold. Overall it was a great conference and I congratulate the NTEN team and all the volunteers for pulling off a very successful conference. As many conferences this year have struggled, the NTEN flourished. I’m looking forward to Atlanta next year, and to seeing if everyone will still be buzzing about Twitter, or “Tweeting” about something else.

By: Paul Habig, Executive Vice President, SankyNet