Reducing the violence in the world, especially terrorist violence, requires a multi-faceted approach, and the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR) promotes one of the most important avenues toward that goal: increased interfaith understanding.

The CPWR is the world’s largest and oldest global interfaith organization, and offers a number of programs and campaigns that seek to promote greater harmony and justice around the world.  Aside from the many challenges of their main mission, the CPWR was also recently in danger of shutting down completely due to insufficient funding.  But with a well-run campaign and the help of CauseVox, the CPWR is back to full strength after having raised over $150,000 ($64,000 of it online)!

How did they do it?  The same way they do everything – they brought a diverse group of people together and inspired them to support a common cause.  Using a CauseVox campaign page and a simple video, they invited people to “Become hope builders.” Then, with an all-out online blitz empowered by their support network and constituent communities, they reached their goal just in time to save their organization.  Now, their global programs can continue, and hopefully bring greater harmony and peace to the diverse people of the world.

Congratulations, CPWR!

For more information, please click here.

It’s easy to get distracted by the “big fish” – the small number of supporters that empower your mission through large donations. But if you spend all your time wining and dining them and neglecting the little fish, you are doing your nonprofit a huge disservice. 

The donor who gives $1 may end up being just as much of an anchor to your organization as the big fish that gives $1000.

That’s because just $1 can get your foot in the door.

The idea behind getting your foot in the door is that little commitments can turn into big ones. The theory goes that a small agreement can create a bond between the asked and the asker. Even if the person asked only agreed to an inconsequential request, they are much more inclined to agree to the next one. People often feel an obligation to act consistently with their earlier choices. 

In short, it’s a lot easier to get the person who has already given you a buck to eventually to give you more money than it is to get someone who’s never engaged with you to donate a large amount.

So how do you take the person from donating $1 to $1000?

Three steps:

1. Engage

Ask them to like you on Facebook, Tweet about their donation, or sign up for a newsletter. These are low-level commitment items that will still keep you on their minds and in the familiarity-zone.

2. Cultivate

Treat them like a valued part of your network. Invite them to fundraising events that get supporters in the same space together, whether it’s a fun run or a fancy gala. This also helps build community.

3. Ask for more

Now you can move in for the larger commitment. They know you, they feel comfortable with you. They’re not put off when you approach them with a big request. In fact, they’re ready and willing.

Eventually, if you do things right, the little minnow will grow into a big fish.

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Ugh. Let’s talk about failure.

It’s a sad topic, but here’s the reality — not every crowdfunding campaign has a happy ending. Many crowdfunding campaigns fall short of their funding goals.

You’ve worked hard in setting up your site, rallying your friends and family, and pitching the press. It’s a tough pill to swallow when you’ve put yourself out there and things just don’t work out as you intend it to.

No one wants to fail, especially in front of the whole world.

What do you do next? Here are three steps to take after you have failed.

Accept the failure

After missing your crowdfunding goal, you have to go through the five stages of grief. This otherwise known as the Kübler-Ross model. 

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

You may not experience these five stages linearly, but the goal is to come to accept the failure of your crowdfunding campaign. If you can explain failures as temporary, specific, and external, then you will persist even in the face of adversity.

It’s at this point where you can move into a growth mindset.

Identify what you did well

Now that you have accepted the failure, it’s time to embrace it fully. Gather your crowdfunding team together to perform a review. Some people call this a post mortem or after-action review.

Always start on the positive. Focus on what you and your team did well. Ask yourself:

1. What strategies worked?
2. What tactics paid off?
3. Why did our donors contribute?
4. What are you proud of?

The goal here is to move beyond the overall failure and to see what areas that you did well in so that those actions can be reinforced and encouraged for next time.

Determine what you did poorly

Next, figure out what didn’t go well. These are the potential areas that “broke” the campaign. Ask yourself:

1. What did we spend too much time on?
2. What did we focus too much on?
3. What caused delays?
4. What channels didn’t work?
5. Did we have the right idea?

The goal here is to pinpoint the points of weakness so that you can grow and learn to run a crowdfunding campaign successfully next time.

Chart out a plan for next time

Take your learnings from what you did well as what you did poorly. Come up with a plan on what you would do differently next time, how you would focus your time, and how you could make your next crowdfunding campaign a success.

Failing does not equal being a failure. Failing gives you an opportunity to learn, grow, and achieve in the future. So pick yourself up because there’s no reason why you can’t reach your goals.

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You’re staring at that darn little blinking cursor on your computer screen, waiting for inspiration to hit. You’ve got to write that blog post. Or newsletter. Or Tweet. You’ve run out of ideas. Where are you going to come up with great content?

When your mental resources have run dry, there are lots of people out there who can bring inspiration and perspective to your content. Here are five ways to source content that will kick-start your efforts: 

1. Experts

Host someone who knows the ins and outs of your industry for an online interview or Q & A. They can talk about the social challenges and problems surrounding your cause and best practices for engaging them. Giving experts a voice on your platform lends you credibility, too.

2. Volunteers

Volunteers are die-hard fans of your cause. Why else would they spend their most precious resource – their time – joining with your nonprofit? Share a volunteer’s personal story about their experience with you and their interaction with the people you are trying to serve.

3. Donors

Get someone to talk about why they choose to use their hard-earned dollars for your cause, your nonprofit. They make the statement that you are trustworthy, and can make others more comfortable donating as well.

4. Partners

If you collaborate with other organizations, host them for a guest post on your blog. You’ll be building community, fostering solidarity, and expanding the base of people who know about your work.

5. Relevant News

There’s a lot going on in the world that relates to your mission – otherwise you wouldn’t be working on it. A well-timed article might speak directly to your issue and by sharing it you show that you are in touch and relevant to the current state of affairs. Practice newsjacking: inserting your views and perspective into current issues and spawning media coverage for your organization.

Where does your nonprofit source its content? What’s your go-to spot for inspiration?

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By incorporating video in the campaign in question, UTS saw an inspiring 30% increase in giving.

Wow!

More specifically, each year, UTS runs a campaign in order to raise funds, a portion of which go directly to students at the seminary in the form of scholarships.  Normally, they run a mail campaign that includes testimonials in which students express gratitude and describe the impact a scholarship had on their lives.

This year, however, was a little different.

In addition to the print campaign, Brice took his camcorder and sat down with a diverse array of students to capture their testimonials in video interview format.  He then edited the footage with free desktop software, and uploaded it to YouTube.  As a part of the email portion of the campaign, supporters were sent a link to these videos.

The impact was amazing.

“For the first time, donors had faces to put with the requests for funding,” Brice said.  “The videos created an emotional, human connection between donors and beneficiaries that inspired significantly greater giving than in past years.”

This leads to a few lessons:

• Emotional, organic, real, live communications are often best when it comes to fundraising.  While statistics and well-written appeals may have their place, they can’t replace the oldest type of connection that can be made between people.

• Less is more.  UTS’s videos were each 45-60 seconds.  This kept the message focused, and impactful, and minimized disruption to the target audience’s day.

• You don’t need video skills to create videos.  Brice is not an IT professional, nor is he a videographer (or at least, he wasn’t prior to the campaign in question).  As he said, “If I can do this, anyone can.  You don’t need to have a lot of technical skill – it’s the content that matters.”

• Video is cheap.  Believe it or not, videos can be created and shared very cost-effectively with free editing tools and video upload platforms.   While a professional video could easily cost thousands, you can make one yourself for far less.  Scrounge up a camcorder to borrow, and you’re in business.

What’s the biggest takeaway?

Dive in to the video pool with both feet.  The water’s fine!

To see the videos, please click here to be taken to UTS’s YouTube channel, and view any video with the title “United’s Effective Ministry Fund testimonial.”

Need help with video storytelling? Check out our free ebook!

“Deirdre Hatfield, 27, was steps away from the finish line when she heard a blast. She saw bodies flying out into the street. She saw a couple of children who appeared lifeless. She saw people without legs.” - NY Times

This week, two crude bombs were detonated by an unknown party at the Boston Marathon. The FBI is currently investigating the attack.

CNN reports that 3 are dead and 152 are wounded from the terrorist attack. Included in the dead is an 8-year old boy, who was there to cheer his dad on towards the finish line.

Year after year, the Boston Marathon is a symbol of human achievement and inspiration, but now has been pulled into a blanket of fear.

Our first careers were equipping our nation to fight the war on terror. Today, we’re equipping people like you to make a difference.

From now until June 30, 2013, we are waiving 100% of our CauseVox fees for any fundraising campaign created on CauseVox to help those effected by the Boston Marathon.

Just click here to apply for a fee waiver.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those effected by the Boston Marathon terror attack. Please email us at support@causevox.com if you have any questions or if there are other ways that we can help.

PS: Please help spread the word by sharing this blog post on Facebook and Twitter below.

- Rob and Jeff, Founders of CauseVox

“CauseVox’s design was so simple and straightforward … ”

-Cris Valerio, Innovator in Residence at IDEO.org

Cookstoves in Tanzania, sustainable business plans for selling water in Kenya, and something called TEDx in a box:

Welcome to IDEO.org.

A Bit of Background

IDEO.org is the relatively new philanthropic arm of the innovative design firm IDEO.  For the past year and a half, IDEO.org’s aim has been to, “[E]radicate poverty through innovation and design.”  IDEO.org is currently working on projects in Kenya, India, San Francisco, and Ghana, designing solutions for sanitation, healthcare, employment, and more.  The projects are staffed by IDEO.org Fellows, a mix of internal IDEO designers and social sector professionals from around the world, who join IDEO.org for one year. The IDEO.org Fellows work on projects related to alleviating the problems of poverty around the world.

Funding for projects at IDEO.org comes from two sources:  1) project fees paid by various partners that work with IDEO.org on certain projects, and 2) philanthropic contributions.  To date, contributions have been obtained through traditional methods, such as a “Donate” link on the main webpage, social media campaigns, snail mail solicitations, e-mail newsletters to regular supporters, and fundraising events.

But for the most recent campaign, IDEO.org wanted something a little different.

The CauseVox Campaign

“We wanted to differentiate this campaign, and highlight the fact that funds would go to support the Fellows program directly,” said Cris Valerio, one of the campaign organizers.  She did a bit of searching for online fundraising platforms, and came across CauseVox.  As the opening quote indicates, she was drawn to CauseVox’s simplicity of design.  “We also wanted to incorporate video, and CauseVox let us do that easily,” she said.  In addition, she reported that the fact that donors could cover CauseVox’s fee through “tips,” was also a welcome feature.

IDEO.org created a CauseVox page, a video, and then they were off and running.

Mainly, their campaign was broadcast to their current network via social media, e-mail, and mailing lists.  It was also spread beyond their internal network through word of mouth.  The campaign chugged along, and when all was said and done, they had raised over $27,000 (thanks in part to a large swell of support in the final days)!  Their campaign page can be seen here.

“If we learned a lesson from the campaign, it was that we might have had even greater success had we tried to reach outside our current network and connect with new supporters,” said Valerio.  That aside, the folks at IDEO.org sounded quite pleased with the results of their campaign and the great support they got from their donors.

Proceeds from the campaign will help to fund next year’s IDEO.org Fellowship class. The organization is considering pursuing projects involving health in India, mobile banking in Uganda, and other projects that are designed for broad impact.

Other recent projects include 1) a new sanitation offering in Ghana, which included in-home toilets for many, and 2) a scalable business in Kenya that sells water alongside hygiene and nutrition projects.

Congratulations, IDEO.org – we (and the rest of the world) are eagerly awaiting your next creative innovation!

The Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) is a conference for university students that are creating projects, products, and organizations for social impact. Each student that attends makes a commitment to a social action.

We spoke at CGI U on how students can raise funds online for their commitment. Tyler Gage from Runa, a tea company, shared techniques on getting funding for your nonprofit or social enterprise.

Read more about how Runa has raised over $6MM in funding.

Staff an advisory board
An advisory board helps your startup organization get credibility. Well known advisors and mentors can lend their reputation to help boost what other funders think of you.

Tell a persistent story
Engaging funders or investors involves creating a dialogue and building a relationship. One of the ways to do this is to tell a persistent story about your progress.

Think about sequential fundraising and using small successes to tell stories to funders.

Your first line of funding
Your first round of funding will come from friends, family, and fools. When you start out, you are unproven. Friends, family, and fools are those that are most likely to support you.

Fake it until you make it
You have to hustle. When you’re starting out, sometimes you have to present a solid front until you can bring substance to fill it up.

Don’t hold your breath for government grants
Runa was able to scale their operations by obtaining government grants. Even though government grants can have large payouts, they may take the right connects and a long timeline to win.

Seek out competitions for funding
Runa was birthed from winning a business plan competition at Brown University. Whether you are a nonprofit or a for-profit, look for competitions like those to help refine your business model and provide seed funding to get started.

Get to product/service as soon as you can
Start producing your product or service as soon as you can so you can demonstrate progress and then report on social impact. When what you do becomes tangible, funders are more likely to support you.

The Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) is a conference for university students that are creating projects, products, and organizations for social impact. Each student that attends makes a commitment to a social action.

This past weekend, President Clinton invited us to present at CGI U to help these students raise funds for their commitment.

If you’re looking to get funding for your project, you can follow these tips too.

1. Start with a compelling story

The single most important asset you have in raising funds is your story. Stories are important because they bring you more awareness and in turn, more donations. Journalists, funders, and individuals are looking for great stories.

Here’s an example of a compelling story from The Adventure Project.

Storytelling compels you to take action. It creates emotion, which drives fundraising results.

In our Starter Guide to Nonprofit Video Storytelling, we talk about the types of plots that you can use to develop a compelling story.

• Challenge plot - This plot is about a protagonist succeeding against an enemy. Obstacles seem insurmountable, but they inspire us by appealing to our appreciation for perseverance and courage.
• Creativity plot - This plot is about someone making a mental breakthrough or solving a problem in a unique way. Creativity plots make us want to do something different and try new approaches to solve problems.
• Connection plot - This plot is about people who develop a connection across a divide—racial, class, ethnic, religious, demographic, etc. These stories make us want to help others. They are about our relationships with others

You can use these plots to craft your story.

2. Find your true believers

Come to terms that you can’t go it alone. One person can make a difference, but it takes a team of people to change the world. Find a founding team and advocates to support your cause.

One Girl Australia raised $50,000 the first year they ran Do it in a Dress, a global campaign to empower girls in Sierra Leone with education. The second year, the campaign raised over $270,000! They were able to do this by raising up 100 champions that served as fundraisers, event organizers, and true believers for the cause.

To find your true believers, create a list of the people in your network that have these characteristics:

• Responsive – They respond to your emails, Tweets, and posts. These people are engaged in what you do.
• Giving – They give their resources, whether it be time, money, or reputation.
• Sustained passion – Those that have a persistent interest for the cause. People that are irrationally passionate typically burn out very quickly.

Find these people, recruit them, and add them to a list that you can easily track.

3. Extend your reach (bloggers & press)

The more reach you have, the more likely you’ll be able to get more funding online. Focus on building relationships and getting into publications or blogs.

For SXSWCares, a crowd funding campaign for disaster relief, we worked with the press to get featured in CNN, NYTimes, Forbes, AdAge, and more.

The basic steps to get press are:

• Identify – Find people that write about your space or have some type of connection. Try Muckrack and the publication’s own directories.
• Cultivate – Once you have a list of people to target, figure out what they are interested in and start to build a dialogue with them. Be a resource and send them tips. Comment on their posts, and RT their Tweets.
• Pitch and update. Update them on your project if it hasn’t launched yet. Pitch them an interesting story if it has.

It’s wise to have some type of spreadsheet or tracking tool so you can track the conversation.

4. Create a fundraising site

A fundraising site is a website that allows you to tell your story and take donations. You can use CauseVox to create a beautiful fundraising site in minutes.

Tips in creating a fundraising optimized site:

• Personalize it - Studies have shown that you can get 14% more in donations just by having a site that has personality.
• Include a video. This allows for visual storytelling. 80% of the top grossing campaigns on CauseVox used a video.
• Leverage personal fundraising pages. Ability to create for each team true believer to create a personal page on your fundraising site. This is way for you to get more donations, and leverage their social networks for funding.
• Content fundraising. To use social media effectively, you’ll need to have great content. Allow you and your true believers to create content so it gets more shares, engagement, and SEO.

You can use these components to drive donations to your site.

Afternote: Hustle. 

The defining factor of success and failure that I’ve seen can be summarized into one characteristic: hustle. Hustle is living a challenge plot (see above). You’re faced with an unsurmountable challenge, but you chip away at it, until there is a breakthrough. Hustle doesn’t care how long it takes. Hustle makes 1+1 = a gazillion.

Becky Straw from The Adventure Project couch surfed for a year to get her nonprofit off the ground. Chantelle Baxter sold her apartment to get funding for One Girl. Becky helped take charity: water from living room startup to the fundraising innovator it is today. Chantelle will raise over half a million dollars (or more) this year.

You need to preserver to get what you want. You can do the same thing that Becky and Chantelle have done. Don’t give up.

Additional Resources.

We’re launching a few guides in April that discuss these topics in more details.

• Press for Online Fundraising
• The Definitive Guide to Online Fundraising
• Using Grants for Online Fundraising

Subscribe to our blog to get these guides for free.

So how should you adjust your fundraising strategy? Check out these six tips:

1. Don’t apologize or sound desperate when you’re asking

When you sound pleading, supporters will doubt your stability and your confidence, making them even less likely to donate. Emphasize your clients and their ongoing needs, and remain confident in your ability to meet them. Be honest about where you’re at, but don’t lose your enthusiasm.

2. Keep old donors close, but don’t overload them

In tough times, it’s important to stick with people you’ve built a relationship with. Remind them of their history with your cause, and invite them to continue participating. It’s also a good time to reconnect with donors who
have donated in the past but not recently. However, you don’t want to pressure them too much, or it’s a turn off.

3. Demonstrate financial responsibility

Now more than ever is the time to be transparent about your finances and your practices. Donors are wary to trust these days – bolster their faith by showing you have nothing to hide. You also need to show that you’re being
efficient with your resources. Take a close look at how you use your assets and what kind of return you’ve gotten in the past. If the time and investment you put into it isn’t paying off, divert those resources elsewhere.

4. Maintain corporate sponsorships

Individual giving may decrease, so make sure to maintain your contacts within businesses that sponsor you. Remind them that their connection with you is beneficial for them as well – cause marketing can increase loyalty
among their audiences.

5. Monitor your campaigns closely

You need systems and metrics in place for you to know exactly what’s effective and what isn’t. Track the progress of your current campaigns so that you can make informed, strategic opinions along the way. Evaluate past campaigns to see what worked well and where you can improve.

6. Don’t skip out on marketing and PR

While this might seem like the first thing to go, it’s important to keep the buzz up about your organization so that you will stay top of mind with supporters. Get PR and marketing consults on your campaigns so that they
can be more effective. This kind of advice is invaluable.

How has your organization had to adjust to the recession? Are things different now? Do these same principles apply?