Heather Mansfield - Mobile for Good: A How-To Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits

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For those who give generously

T o effectively use mobile and social media for fundraising, your nonprofit must understand that there is both an art and science to crafting, telling, and distributing your nonprofits success stories online. The staff responsible for your online communications and fundraising campaigns must think and create like an artist, yet implement an online communications and fundraising strategy based upon research and the study of online behavior.

In the past the academic discipline of communication studies primarily examined how messages are interpreted through an individuals political, cultural, economic, and social lens, but today, as a direct result of the rise of mobile and social media, communication arts and science are also the study of how an individuals interpretation of online messages triggers online reactions. For mobile and social fundraisers, it helps to consistently remind yourself that behind every donation, every like, every share, every retweet, every +1, and every repin, is a human being who was inspired and thus decided to donate and support your cause. Nonprofits that combine the artful creation of content with a scientific approach to mobile and social media are those that excel in their mobile and social fundraising campaigns.

The ability to inspire giving requires exceptional writing, digital imagery, and video skills. The foundation of your nonprofits fundraising strategy is the capability to create website articles, blog posts, e-newsletters, status updates, tweets, pins, and text messages that evoke empathy and trigger the impulse in your donors and supporters to take action on behalf of your nonprofit. Discussed throughout this book is how the art of writing, creating, and editing text and visual content can significantly increase your fundraising success, awareness for your cause, and your donors long-term commitment to your organization. Millions of nonprofits, charities, and NGOs worldwide are now active on mobile and social media, but its only those that have mastered the art of mobile and social content that stand out from the barrage of emails, status updates, tweets, and mobile alerts that mobile and social donors now experience daily.

No matter how compelling your stories and visual content may be, if your nonprofit does not actively study and put into practice the science of mobile and social media, then your stories will go unread, your photos unseen, and your videos unwatched. There is a math and science to mobile and social media, and tragically the vast majority of nonprofits do not understand the science behind the effective use of mobile and social media to inspire giving. This book was written to change that. There are scientifically proven methods for growing your website and blog traffic, your e-newsletter and mobile alert subscribers, and your social network communities. Furthermore, now 10 years into the era of mobile and social media, there are also proven tactics to increase your like, share, retweet, and repin rates. In recent years, fundraising and mobile and social media best practices have primarily focused upon online conversation and crafting a personality for the nonprofit. In this book, however, your nonprofit will be encouraged to expand beyond conversation as the primary metric to gauge your mobile and social media success. And more importantly through scientific data and analysis, we will prove why your nonprofit should do so.

This book was written during the summer and fall of 2013. Since most fundraising data are not released until late winter or early spring, the majority of the fundraising data and statistics sourced in this book are from 2012. By the time this book is available for purchase in 2014, the first reports on mobile and social fundraising for 2013 will become available. That said, from this point forward all mobile and social giving will increase. The trends in mobile web use and online giving guarantee significant growth in the years to come. For access to the most current mobile and social fundraising data and statistics, there is a series of annual reports and studies that your nonprofit should become a regular reader of: