Causes.com's director of community and support, Jen Burton's, presentation on the intersection of community & online fundraising using the Causes platform. Presented April 27 to the Online Community Meetup in SF.

1. Exploring the intersection
of community and
fundraising with Causes
Jen Burton
jen@causes.com
@justjen | @causes
http://exchange.causes.com

2. Intro to Causes

3. In brief...
• >150,000,000 Facebook app installs
• >500,000 unique Cause communities
• Access to raise funds for the 2+mm registered
501(c)3 orgs in the US
• >$30mm raised for nonprofits to date
• Multiple communications channels for
nonprofits

4. Some features of the platform

5. Text
Community

6. So? Where’s the community part?
• Causes is, by design, a network of distributed communities
• We have as many Community Managers as we have cause administrators and nonprofit partners (we’re
talking hundreds of thousands).
Strengths Weaknesses
• Massive scale • Massive scale
• Trusted sources network exposure • Multiple communications channels
• Singularity of focus • Confusing site/platform architecture
• Multiple communications channels • Anyone can create, promote and grow a
• Dedicated nonprofit support team cause
• Dedicated community team
• Anyone can create, promote and grow a
cause
Opportunities:
Redesign
Deeper focus on key features
Become the only vehicle for giving you want to use

7. I hear about a cause or project

8. I am compelled to give...
Time or money both count...
as does the simple act of posting to profile (or tweeting or emailing or...).

9. Moving from strangers to volunteers
• The very basis of the Causes model is
dependent on your network telling YOU
what they care about
• We believe that you’re more likely to get
involved with a nonprofit or cause if your
friends or family urge you to do so
• When these people, with whom nonprofits
may have otherwise never interacted, join
a cause, donate or promote, they’ve just
become that nonprofit’s newest volunteers

10. Communicating with your members
Facebook Open Graph:
Like, Comment, Engage
Get impact stats on your bulletins

11. Tools for
Nonprofits

12. Nonprofit Partner Center tools
• Causes’ Nonprofit Partner Center is free for any
registered 501(c)3
• Gives access to
• Send bulletins to all causes benefitting your org
• Track donations
• Create custom fundraising projects
• Create and promote petitions
• Communicate with donors, admins, members
or all three types

13. Snapshot of Partner Center Tools

14. Fundraising projects
• Provide donor choices
• Images
• Descriptions
• Set project goals
• Fundraising
• End date
• Keep your donors informed
• Build relationships
• Give recognition
• Close the loop
• Send project completion info
http://nonprofits.causes.com/

15. causes.com/donate

16. Case Studies

17. Case study: JCCCNC
• Small, local Nonprofit
organization
• Reached out to current list
• Promoted the project and
cause URLs offline (fliers,
traditional media etc)
• Promoters invited their FB
friends
• 1,336 individuals promoted
the project (this doesn’t
include the cause-specific
invitations)
• They use the nonprofit
partner center to reach out
to both donors and
members
• Causes facilitated matching
grant from The
Salesforce.com Foundation

18. Case study: Trees, Water and People
• Small nonprofit in Colorado
supporting sustainable
development
• Most donors were Native
American and brand new to
this org
• Cause members posted
on Facebook
• Invited friends to
donate
• Project spread through
each person’s network
• Org recorded a video and
wrote a guest blog post
for Causes
http://exchange.causes.com/2011/03/trees-water-people-brings-solar-energy-to-the-pine-ridge-reservation/

19. Sneak Peaks

20. Fan Page tab integration
•Project & general
giving tabs for pages
•Simple set up for
Nonprofits or any
fanpage admin
•Supports fundraising
projects or general
giving & encourages
giving (time, money or
share)

21. Featured Project Emails
• Editorial email program
• Select partners to start
• Larger effort in a few
months
• All fundraising projects
• Announce/Kick off
• Action-specific updates
(donors, promotors etc)
• Mid-campaign update
• Campaign wrap up

22. THANKS
To:
YOU
Susan Tenby & The Techsoup Team
The #OCTribe
The #NPSL Tribe
My colleague, Susan Gordon
-- Jen Burton | jen@causes.com |@justjen