Online Fundraising Blog

How to use Facebook’s consumer marketing strategy for your nonprofit

Beth Pickard — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:02:27 +0000

Facebook just surpassed the highly boast-able milestone of 500 million site users. And in an interesting PR move, instead of boasting about themselves and their product, the folks at Facebook are using the opportunity to highlight their users. You can read more about the project, Facebook Stories, at BoomTown, but the premise is this: Facebook collects stories [...]

This week’s Best Practice in Action- July 1: Create a Team!

Ashley Morrison — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:02:38 +0000

Nothing can help build momentum and participation for an event like team spirit! Creating a team helps create a community and the sense that you’re all in it together, working toward a common goal and FirstGiving Teams makes teambuilding a snap. Whether running a marathon, a local race, or just raising money for an end-of-year [...]

This week’s Best Practice in Action- June 23: Get post event donations!

Ashley Morrison — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:26:01 +0000

As every dedicated fundraiser knows, the fun(draising) never stops! This is especially true in the days and weeks surrounding a major fundraising event. Too often fundraising efforts peak just as the event is about to occur and drop sharply after the event has concluded. But, as mountain climbers know all too well, reaching the summit [...]

How to create a Twitter strategy for your nonprofit in less than 140 minutes

Beth Pickard — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:00:11 +0000

You just created a Twitter account for your nonprofit. Now, what? Lots of people are talking about how Twitter can help you engage with your network of supporters by making it easier to listen and communicate. But it can be difficult to make sense of a new set of tools when it feels something like [...]

This week’s Best Practice in Action- June 17: Get Creative!

Ashley Morrison — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:42:30 +0000

Sometimes the best fundraising strategy is just to get a little creative, like trying to raise $10,000 in 10 days. Our friends at Down Syndrome Association of Greater St. Louis (DSAGSL) were deep into their campaign for their 2010 Step Up for Down Syndrome awareness walk held on June 13, 2010. Donations were coming in, [...]

Fundraiser spotlight: Kate Farren for Team M4M

Beth Pickard — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:00:54 +0000

I have never been a natural runner. In fact, my freshman year, I attempted to run track to keep in shape for volleyball and basketball seasons. I will never forget when my track coach said, “Katie, some people are born runners and others need to be made runners… we have our work cut out for [...]

Improvements to your FirstGiving account: Email your supporters with our new email tool

Beth Pickard — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:00:07 +0000

We’ve been hard at work making it easier to communicate with your supporters. Now you can email people on FirstGiving right from your FirstGiving account. This is useful if you want to: send an email to all of your supporters at once send separate emails by event send separate emails to fundraisers and donors Here’s how to use it: Sign [...]

Please join us for a free webinar: Raise over $100,000 with a fundraising rewards program

Ashley Morrison — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:44:56 +0000

Ok, so I have my event set up, what about a strategy to make sure it raises money? With a little planning you can put together a simple and effective fundraising plan for your next campaign or event. Learn how the nonprofit, One Home, Many Hopes, implemented a rewards program to raise over $100,000. Who should [...]

This week’s Best Practice in Action- June 3: Use Your Facebook Page

Ashley Morrison — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:26:22 +0000

Many nonprofits are unclear about how to use social media tools such as Facebook to promote their cause. Ironically, the free and easy to use tools are the ones where you can benefit the most from when combining social media outlets and FirstGiving fundraising pages. That is not the case with our friends at Horace Mann Educational Associates [...]

FirstGiving: Official Online Fundraising Partner 2010 CIGNA Falmouth Road Race

Ashley Morrison — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:07:50 +0000

FirstGiving is proud to announce that we have been named the Official Online Fundraising Partner for the 38th CIGNA Falmouth Road Race to be held on Sunday, August 15, 2010. Called the “Best USA Road Race” by Runner’s World magazine and “The Best of New England” by Boston Magazine, the Falmouth Road Race has a long [...]

New! Import event data to your database with custom fields

Beth Pickard — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:12:41 +0000

We’ve been hard at work making it easier to integrate your fundraising data with your database. Now you can add custom fields to your event reports. Custom fields are additional columns of event data that you can add to your FirstGiving data. Here’s how to use them: Sign in to [...]

Fundraiser Spotlight: Ian Ranshaw for Lupus Alliance of America

Ashley Morrison — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:46:23 +0000

Ian didn’t expect to lose his daughter Timberly to Lupus, but he is not giving up hope for other Lupus patients and is determined to spread the word about the potentially life-threatening autoimmune disease that affects over 1 million Americans. His family participated in the Walk for Lupus in Lapeer MI this year to raise money [...]

This week’s Best Practice in Action-May 20: Provide Promotional Materials to Participants

Ashley Morrison — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:35:58 +0000

Our friends at Climate Cycle not only equip classrooms with the tools to learn about climate change, they also equip their fundraisers with tools to run successful campaigns. Climate Cycle brings environmental education to the classroom by coordinating fun, hands-on events and learning opportunities. Their annual Ride for Solar on Schools allows participants to [...]

This week’s fundraising Best Practice in Action – May 14: “Save the Date” Emails to Past Participants

Ashley Morrison — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:32:48 +0000

As many fundraisers know, those most likely to give are those who have given before. Although this may seem obvious, fundraisers often fail to remind existing donors of upcoming events. Our friends at Children’s Hospital Wisconsin have a well thought-out fundraising strategy to remind loyal donors about their annual Briggs & Al’s Run & Walk. [...]

Fundraiser Spotlight: Heather Rine for the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area

Camille — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:08:46 +0000

Most of our Fundraiser Spotlights are about fundraisers running marathons, or sometimes performing other mindblowing feats of athletic ability. But most of us don’t run across countries or paddle across major oceans – and we still want to do our best to raise money for the causes important to us. Heather Rine is doing something within [...]

Please join us for FirstGiving’s Free May Webinar

Ashley Morrison — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:53:40 +0000

Fundraising Reports: Data Analysis Made Simple When reviewing your fundraising progress, sometimes a number is just a number. When using FirstGiving, the nonprofit account area converts all your fundraising activity into visual summaries, to make it easy as possible for you to understand data analysis. Who should attend: Nonprofits looking to understand data analysis and looking to [...]

This week’s fundraising Best Practice in Action – April 30: Promote your supporters and their FirstGiving pages

Beth Pickard — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:00:42 +0000

Purple pumps, black stilettos, and patent-leather boots. . . no, these shoes aren’t strutting down the runway, and we’re not talking about a fashion show fundraiser, either. This fine footwear is sported by participants in the annual “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” fundraising event, organized by Our VOICE, a rape crisis center in Asheville, North [...]

This week’s fundraising Best Practice in Action: April 16 – Promote your guaranteed race entries

Beth Pickard — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:00:49 +0000

Our friends at the Boomer Esiason Foundation have guaranteed entry numbers for the ING New York City Marathon this fall. That means that when runners are excluded from the lottery for official marathon numbers, the folks at the Foundation have a great opportunity: they can offer runners an guaranteed entry to the race as part of [...]

Boston Marathon Spotlight: John Wallaces II and III for Team Hoyt

Ashley Morrison — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:11:03 +0000

We all know that New England tends to bring unpredictable weather, especially on Marathon Monday. So far the weather experts are predicting 59 and partly cloudy, but keep in mind that in 2007, it was a chilly 37 degrees with rain and snow. Thankfully, John Wallace III is no stranger to running in different weather [...]

Boston Marathon Spotlight: Dave Granito for the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation

Ashley Morrison — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:57:20 +0000

As the trainer for the three-time Super Bowl champion team the New England Patriots, Dave Granito has been around one of the greatest teams of all time, and is familiar with competition and hard work. In fact, competition is what Dave thrives on. Not only is he competing by running, he is also aiming to be the [...]