Episode #221
How would you like to raise $100,000 through social media in 4 weeks?
This week’s video is a mini case study on how Rebecca Whitham and Steve Sullivan from the Woodland Park Zoo used social media to raise over $149,000 in about 3 weeks.
You’ll learn what they did to make the social media campaign a success, and you’ll also learn what wasn’t a success in the campaign. Rebecca and Steve share their insights with you.
It’s a bit longer than the normal videos, so fill up your cup of coffee, kick up your feet, and enjoy. 🙂
If you have any stories or advice on raising more money through social media, please share them in a comment box under the video. Your nonprofit friends will appreciate it.
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If you have any stories or advice on raising more money through social media, please share them in a comment box. Your nonprofit friends will appreciate it. 🙂
Great video post! However, maybe I missed it, but how many ‘shares’ did they receive on social media? I understand the 800 donors who gave, but part of their goal was 10 shares/follower. Thank you!
Great post! It sounds like the zoo’s plan was comprehensive and thoughtful. However, Facebook’s new algorithms have changed the efficacy of this medium. In October 2012, our camp (a residential youth camp) began a $30 in 30 Days “Make Change for Camp” drive to raise funds for scholarships, utilizing FB, email, Twitter and Youtube. Like the zoo, Facebook was our primary driver to our 9,000+ fans, utilizing Youtube videos from our campers, and followed up with emailed asks to our entire database.
Our launch was enthusiastic, with our first week’s FB posts averaging 2,600-3,200 fans reached (which was above our normal average). Then, in week 2, Facebook implemented their new algorithm, and within a day we were only reaching 900-1100 fans per post (on some days we reached only 400 fans.) Obviously, FB wants you to pay to reach all your fan base, At the time we had no plan to overcome this strategy, and decided to let it play out so we could test our FB reach.
We found several other factors that diminished our results (the length of the drive, the timing of the drive — it was part of our annual appeal so we couldn’t completely track what donations were from other appeals and what were from ‘Make Change’). However, in the end, we determined that our much reduced Facebook reach — which was the motor of the “Make Change” appeal — was the main reason this drive failed. Next year, we plan to repeat the drive at a different time of year, and we will be paying the fees that FB now charges to make sure that most of our FB messages get to ALL of our fans.
Something for others to think about before you embark on this interesting appeal.
This is GREAT information Connie! I’ve been wondering about how the FB algorithms would affect outcomes. Nice to know we need to budget for this too now – nothing is free…even for nonprofits.
This was very helpful, an excellent example of an organization effectively using social media. Many organizations are struggling with trying to figure out how to incorporate social media into their fundraising efforts. This one taught me a lot about what kind of organization this could work for, the demographics it targets, and what is required behind the effort to make best use of it. Thank you!
Great video, it was interesting to learn how they used the various social media avenues to reach out to their supporters. I was surprised to hear that though they exceeded their fundraising goal they didn’t do it with 10,000 donors. I will definitely try to learn from this and apply it to our upcoming fundraising goals. Thanks for posting!