The Best Thing You Can Do TODAY
Are you still using yesterday’s tools to find today’s donors?
Where do you go to look for new donors to support your nonprofit in 2014?
If you’ve not yet tapped into the power of electronic communication to find new supporters – social, mobile, email, crowd funding, online donating — read my recent post on Maximize Social Business: The Answer to Finding Nonprofit Donors: Social Media.
While this is in no way a slam dunk, neither is any type of lead generation strategy a magic bullet to converting leads into donors. You still have to do the hard work of building relationships with these folks. Yet… you need a connection before you can bond.
Today’s for profit marketing experts are bullish about using social media to generate new connections. 58% of marketers who have been using social media for three years or longer state that it has helped them boost sales. Non profit marketing folk? Not so much. Most still think of social media primarily as a means for broadcasting to existing constituencies.
It’s time to seamlessly integrate social media into your marketing mix as a lead generator (i.e., prospect finder) and relationship-building tool.
Today, digital has permanently disrupted the traditional donor-engagement process. Today, people in every generation are online. It’s called “Generation C” (for “Connected”) – and it knows no demographic boundaries. Don’t think it’s not for you. It’s for everyone.
The most important work of development has always been to uncover people with shared values.
Whether you thought about it this way or not, that’s what all your strategies did – print materials, events, press releases, etc. You told your story. People who connected with your story engaged with you (they opened your mail, volunteered, came to an event or advocated on your behalf). Then you built on that engagement until, ultimately, the time was ripe for them to invest. That’s when you asked (at least I hope you did).
Social media beautifully enables this process.
You can chat with folks in real time. You can ask and answer questions. You can offer little gifts, in anticipation of the gifts you may ultimately hope to achieve. It’s an awesome way to do the most important work of development. And development is what gets you to fundraising .
Start Finding Donors Today…
Get my updated ‘Hop on Board’ Nonprofit Social Media Guide. You’ll get 27 full pages with more than 100 tips, resources and tools to help you with your resolve to fully embrace social media for your nonprofit. Get started today!
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