Fundraising іs thе lifeblood fоr many organizations аnd thе gathering оf charitable contributions оf various people fоr а certain cause. Wіth thе advancement іn technology, thеrе аrе many opportunities fоr fundraising online, literally fоr anyone thеsе dаys. In thе olden dаys thеrе used tо bе certain centers whеrе yоu cоuld gо аnd mаkе your voluntary contribution fоr thе particular cause thаt yоu might care аbоut. However, today wіth thе advent оf online fundraising platforms, yоu cаn gіvе your desired donation tо thе intended cause online sitting right аt home.

Whеn yоu аrе raising funds fоr а cause yоu hаvе thе option оf promoting your cause online thrоugh social media networks. Yоu cаn advertise fоr your cause online аnd definitely, yоu would bе able tо sее positive results іn а vеry shоrt tіmе wіth an increase іn donations аnd mоrе user activity.

 Email іs another wаy whеrе yоu cаn raise many funds fоr thе intended cause, since іt іs usually thе fastest wаy tо gеt your message оut tо your potential donors. Yоu cаn sеnd bulk mails tо аll your friends аnd family speaking аbоut thе fundraiser yоu аrе raising money online fоr аnd yоu would bе flooded wіth contributions frоm аll оvеr thе world, since wіth thе web, thеrе аrе nо geographical boundaries.

One advantage thаt Fundraising Platform like Fundly іs yоu cаn reach оut tо а large number оf people іn а shоrt span оf tіmе suiting right аt home, especially wіth thе use оf social media networks like Facebook. Yоu cаn reach оut tо people sitting іn thе оthеr end оf thе globe wіth а fеw clicks оf thе mouse. Thіs іs а vеry effective аnd efficient method оf getting donations fоr а noble cause. By using technology іn thе right manner, yоu аrе оnly able tо hеlp а fеw needy people оr а worthy cause. Thіs would gіvе immense satisfaction tо thе mind whеn yоu аrе busy wіth your daily schedule аnd hаvе lіttlе tіmе left fоr оthеr activities.

Donors, sponsors, corporate partners аnd оthеr supporting organizations аrе eager tо promote thе relationships thеy hаvе wіth charitable organizations. Increase your effectiveness аnd reach by empowering thеsе supporters tо advocate аnd raise funds оn your organization’s behalf thrоugh thеіr social networks like Facebook, Twitter аnd Linked іn. Portable donation forms cаn bе personalized аnd shared by everyone, anywhere frоm Fundly. Reporting tools mаkе іt easy fоr yоu tо sее whо raises thе mоst money fоr your organization sо yоu cаn immediately acknowledge аnd encourage thеіr efforts.

An online fundraising platform like Fundly is great tо use during a fundraising campaign tо raise awareness, increase donations within а limited amount оf tіmе, аnd energize your base. I suspect thаt yоu wіll аlsо need tо educate your fundraisers аbоut thіs brand nеw wаy оf fundraising merely by tweeting оr posting.

Fundraising іs thе lifeblood fоr many non-profit organizations аnd thе gathering оf charitable contributions from various supporters around the world. As important as this is, so is picking the right online fundraising platform to not only accept donations online, but multiply the amount of supporters, donors, and donations you can get when you go social. Reason being, Fundly is a great solution for successful fundraisers of any shape and size.

The times are definitely changing. No longer are buttons that say “I Like Ike” or traditional door-to-door canvassing enough in the campaign world. In these times of fast-paced media, iPads, laptops and iPhones, candidates are turning to social media to gain approval and public support from voters.

Laura Phelps writes in the Miami Herald that many local and presidential candidates are putting a lot more stock into social media sites. Consultant Josh Koster, a managing partner at Chong and Koster, a progressive digital-media communications firm, said “campaign budgets used to be about two things: raising money and spending it on TV. But this year’s budgets reflect today’s new media market as more Americans go to the Internet for news. This is the first major election cycle that online strategy is receiving a large media budget for advertising.”

Michael Beach, a co-founder of the Republican digital-strategy firm Targeted Victory, estimates that approximately 25% of a candidate’s budget is designated for online strategies. He believes that while social media won’t fully replace commercial spots and voter recruitment campaigns, it will continue to have a larger role in the upcoming election and beyond.

Phelps brings up some interesting figures when it comes to politics and the internet. She states that, “60 percent of all U.S. adults and 76 percent of U.S. adult Internet users are on Facebook, according to the Pew Research Center.” Furthermore, “22 percent of adults online used social networking sites such as Facebook to connect with campaigns or learn about the election.”

“Facebook and social media make it much easier to organize to raise money and to engage supporters because successful campaigns ultimately are about social organizing,” said Andrew Rasiej, a co-founder of techPresident, a blog that covers how candidates use Web technology. “If a political conversation is happening on Facebook, then to be able to donate where the conversation is happening is key.”

Obviously Facebook and Twitter aren’t just affecting how people are socializing, but it also is impacting the political world and how voters are choosing to support their candidate. Fundly is proud to be a part of this monumental change on the electoral horizon with so much emphasis on social media, and we are excited to participate as a democracy and technology partner together to reach the masses. We have several candidates using our social fundraising platform to reach their supporters, collect donations,  and we would love to come aside your campaign to help you achieve your potential.

Mark Zuckerberg’s “law of sharing” states that the amount of information shared digitally will double every year.

One of social media’s most powerful and influential women, Sheryl Sandberg (chief operating officer of Facebook) shared with The Economist exactly what she thinks this means.

The internet has evolved from a place where people search for info to a place that powers – and empowers – the individual. In recent years, the individual has engaged in a new sharing experience online.

Increasingly, there is a convergence between the virtual self and the actual self. As Sandberg explains it, technology enables the individual to share themselves. The individuals shares information because they care – about what they are sharing or about who they are sharing with. A single act of sharing, in turn, can cause others to care. It’s this positive dynamic between sharing and caring that has ultimately created a culture that encourages sharing online.

Fundly embraces this sharing-caring relationship. We’ve created a social fundraising platform that allows donors to share their support for a cause with their friends.  When these donations are shared digitally, donations grow. The world thrives.

Sandberg says that launching of the Facebook timeline in 2012 will further enable and encourage individuals to share a 3-dimensional version of themselves online.  Only time will tell the full impact of this timeline, but it’s safe to say that it will be profound. With more than 800 million users worldwide, Facebook’s timeline will directly shape the virtual identities and lives of more than 800 million individuals.

Choosing to share your support for a cause online might be one of the most influential decisions you make.

There’s a quote in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding that the women in my family love: “The man is the head [of the family], but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants.” Apparently this is true when it comes to donating to charities.

According to a press release posted by Business Wire on MarketWatch.com, “In nearly 90 percent of high net worth households, women are either the sole decision maker or an equal partner in decisions about charitable giving, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2011 Study of High Net Worth Women’s Philanthropy, released today. The power and influence of women in philanthropy may mean that some charitable organizations will need to adapt their messaging and strategies to appeal to women’s distinct charitable giving behaviors and motivations.”

These are some of the key findings from this study:

–Women spend more time than men on due diligence before making decisions about giving to a charitable organization.

– Women expect a deeper level of communication with the organizations they support and place greater importance than men on the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization and hearing about the impact of their gift.

– Women want to be actively involved with an organization and its mission, with volunteering being among the most important motivations for women to give.

– Women are more likely than men to stop giving to an organization they had previously supported whereas men tend to support the same causes year after year.

Women tend to make more of an emotional investment with their giving and in their budget a portion is marked for a predetermined charity. Women also expect an update of how their giving was used and that it was successful in the project that it was earmarked for.

The study also found that women give to make a difference in the world and to set an example for the next generation. Volunteering tops the reasons why women are motivated to give. Women stop giving if they are pestered too much with solicitations or if the amount that they are asked to give is too high.

It’s a tightrope that non-profits have to walk between appealing to age, sex, financial demographics, communicating without overkill and being heartfelt without being sappy. At least there are a bunch of studies that help to guide charities know who their audience is and what appeals to the masses.

Learn more about Fundly today and how you can use our social fundraising platform to reach women via Facebook and other social networks to garner support and donations for your cause.

It’s no secret that our government is ailing when it comes to balancing a budget. As of December 13, the U.S. National Debt Clock reveals that we currently owe $15,067,709,105,674.70. (For you number crunchers, that means that each of the 311,846,207 people who live in the U.S. owe $48,317.76.)

As a non-profit you may be feeling some of the effects of these numbers as the government holds back some of its funding. Many charities are creating new strategies to improve private donations in this precarious economy.

Patrick Wall writes on Crain’s New York Business that many non-profits are seeking out new ways to cultivate relationships with donors. Holiday giving campaigns and random mailers are coming back with minimal success as contributors want to become partners in the cause and not just wallets to be pried open.

“’Today’s donors don’t want to be seen as piggy banks,’ said Adrian Sargeant, a professor of fundraising at Indiana University. ‘They want to be seen as people who are active in the cause.’

“To acknowledge that, Mr. Sargeant warns, nonprofits seeking lasting support must treat donors as partners, not checkbooks with legs. Organizations that reach out to supporters only during giving campaigns and that send out generic mailings may come up dry the following year. In fact, 50% to 70% of people who make initial gifts to a nonprofit never return, the professor notes.”

Many organizations are trying new ways to gain long term supporters, not just occasional donors. Moving away from “fundraising events,” some charities are creating community events and free celebration banquets to thank donors and engage new ones in their mission. Creating partners allows people to invest emotionally in a cause with lasting long term effects.

Wall also writes that many non-profits are engaging their board members to recruit associates to give and to give more themselves. I’ve seen award banquets and balls honoring major donors which therefore brings in their social circle to the charitable event. Not a bad way to tap into potential supporters.

Social media updates are also a great way to keep in contact with your donors and help them to feel a part of your organization. This is an easy and affordable way to stay connected with your supporters. As a non-profit, trying new ideas and keeping abreast of the trends can certainly help your non-profit to succeed.

If your non-profit or charity organization needs to fill the gap in funding, check out Fundly’s leading social fundraising platform today and raise money online via social media, strengthen relationships with donors, and increase donations over the long-term for your organization.

The non-profit world thrives on great ideas.

Great ideas, all too often, thrive on money… and lots of it.

The Alliance for Global Good, a non-profit that promotes collaboration and sustainability in philanthropy, recently announced a fund to promote innovation in philanthropy. The Innovation Fund will initially have about $10 million.

Though logistics are still getting ironed out, David M. Brand, the alliance’s chief executive, is interested in helping great ideas gain prominence and attention. Many organizations, especially small ones, are doing extraordinary things but receive little attention.

Brand cites Sweet Beginnings, a honey business that trains young people that have been incarcerated, as an innovative inspiration for the fund.

The for-profit honey business was created by the North Lawndale Employment Network to help residents of some of Chicago’s lowest income neighborhoods gain employment.  By creating a market-driven revenue stream by selling honey, Sweet Beginnings has been able to see growth even during these tough economic times.

Brand hopes the Innovation Fund will help both established and start-up non-profits. The fund will begin accepting proposals for requests early next year.

“We want to take an operation and help it grow and mature,” Brand said.

To learn more about how innovative fundraising can help your organization grow, check out Fundly’s social fundraising tools today!

There is a fundamental change occurring in the way non-profit organizations, entrepreneurs and individuals are approaching the aspect of fundraising. Traditionally, when fundraisers are held in the physical world, their presence and visibility are limited to the location from which the fundraisers are being held and the number of individuals who help fundraise. Thanks to technology, the art of fundraising has been exponentially enhanced through social media and platforms that allow individuals to collaborate, donate and collect for a common cause. People from all over the world are now able to publicize their causes and raise money online in order to better the situations of themselves and those around them.

The most popular method for online fundraisers is a technique called crowdfunding. Crowdsourced fundrasing allows individuals, business and causes to put forth an idea, determine a goal for the amount of funds to raise and set a deadline for raising the funds. Typically, crowdfunding social fundraising sites will display your project along with projects from a variety of categories. Individuals who are interested in funding or donating to projects can visit the site and select the fundraising project that is closest to their interests. By default, these sites can add a great boost to your effort to raise money online but when coupled with other approaches, can be even more effective.

One of these approaches is the concept of integrating your crowdfunding opportunity with direct social networking platforms. Most likely you already use a service such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or LinkedIn. These services can be used to vastly boost your earning potentials through crowdfunding sites such as Fundly, the largest online social fundraising platform in the world will allow you to share your fundraisers directly with all of your friends and also allowing donors to share your project to all of their friends. Such methods have been shown to increase fundraising potential by up to 50%.

Once these mechanisms are in place for your project, one will be able to fundraise quickly, cheaply and with little effort. Since your project is viewable online by millions of people, the amount one can fundraise in a given amount of time is much larger than compared to a traditional fundraiser. When you raise money online, you also avoid the conventional costs of a fundraiser; some sites may charge a fee for their services, but in the end it is worth it when compared to the extra money said cause generates. Once you have advertised your event and others are donating to the cause, you can typically sit back and watch the dollars roll in as individuals contribute and announce to their friends that they have contributed, which leads to more donations.

By following these tips, you too can begin to raise money online for your favorite cause, charity or start-up. There are individuals with deep pockets out there waiting to hear from you; all you have to do is make your case and promote your cause. By turning your fundraiser into an online fundraising event and integrating it with social fundraising platforms, your project will receive the time, attention and funds it truly deserves.

There is not even a single organization without a website. Another thing is that they can take full advantage of specific applications. First, it is rare to find a design in which users can easily identify the objectives of the corporate website and they include fundraising in a prominent position. This means that the vast majority of websites are timid calls for economic cooperation, placing this option among many others and not in a very visible way. The same happens with social networks. Both are powerful weapons!

Conversely, nor are doing the exercise to define precisely who their audience is or which their priority is. In this way, they can modulate the content, architecture and design based on the needs of users. Sometimes they overstate the importance of graphic design on the contents and how to organize them. It can be a very flashy website and an original piece of art, made entirely with Flash programming, which provides very interesting elements to display the usual information. But the problem is this does not have the ability to help users find what they seek. By contrast, social networks are the perfect combination. In this sense, the many applications are grandiose to raise money online.

Another weakness in the use of the Internet for fundraising is that some people focus on the website and forget about interacting with users. It’s like having a nice shop running through vendors liabilities. The quality of the genre, the way it is presented and the ease of finding what clients are looking are basic qualities of a good shop. Social networks spread the word and can guide and encourage donors to give money to various fundraising campaigns. This metaphor summarizes the features of a website to showcase and e-mail as a tool drive donations as well.

It is imperative to dominate the Internet metric, i.e., tools and indicators to assess overall results and followers. You have to know what really gives you the measure of the effectiveness and efficiency in the use of the Internet to fundraise, and what practical implications can be drawn from reading the data.

For instance, a fundraising campaign illustrates the ability of Social networks to spread messages for specific causes. In short, the Internet is a great tool, but if you know how to use it for your own behalf. It’s not as simple as it seems at first sight. In addition, everything is evolving at a breakneck pace. It is not easy to keep abreast of all developments. But if you do not want to miss the future, have to get to it even though it is running. It’s not hard to start up your own fundraising campaign to raise money online when using a high quality online fundraising platform like what Fundly provides for non profits, schools, groups, and other fundraisers that need to raise money.

To make your next fundraising campaign a success, make sure to tell a short but engaging story that will touch people and hopefully prompt them to give to your fundraiser.

Tony Martignetti hosts the Fundraising Fundamentals podcast for The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

This month, he interviewed Daniel Watson, executive director of Restoration House, and Sandy Rees, a fundraising consultant, about year-end fundraising.

Their message? Keep going. Don’t get scared by the economy. Give people one last chance to give.

In regards to fourth-quarter appeals, Sandy warns non-profits not send one out after December 10. If you do, “it will get lost in the holiday rush.”

Rules for e-mail appeals are different. The week between Christmas and New Year is a good time to send an electronic appeal (though you may want to exclude people who sent in big December donations).

“Place no weight on the current economy,” Sandy says. If you do, you’ll get scared, be timid, and not bring in the money you need to.

Daniel shares that he has raised more money than ever in recent years. He thinks it’s largely because he hasn’t let the economy worry him.

Sandy and Daniel also spoke about how to best utilize board members this time of year.

Give board members a few clear tasks instead of asking them “to help fundraise.” You can’t be vague, Sandy warns. You might be more specific and ask them to share the organization’s story with 10 people, for example. Board members can also be instrumental in sending holiday cards to donors, and some organizations have “signing parties” where board members prepare these cards.

This time of year is also as good of a time as any to acquire new donors. People are thinking about the less fortunate and looking for opportunities to help.

Check out how Fundly’s social fundraising platform can help your non-profit attract new donors and boost donations in December and year-round.

Craig Newmark founded Craigslist in 1995 and classified advertising was changed forever.

Today, social media is changing the world as we know it. Early this year, Newmark responded by launching craigsconnect to “link up everyone on the planet using the Internet to bear witness to good efforts and encourage the same behavior in others.”

A recent craigsconnect infographic looks at how the top 50 non-profits use social media.  Craigsconnect particularly wanted to see if high-earning non-profits outperformed lower-earning non-profits in the arena of social media. The verdict: a non-profit’s income does not increase their visibility and social media interactions.

Here are some other interesting facts:

• 92% of non-profits have at least one social media button.
• Only 12% of non-profits use LinkedIn (Lots of untapped connections here!)
• 90% of non-profits have a Twitter share button on their sites.
• The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is low on the income list but boasts an impressive 97,000 fans on Facebook.
• PBS has the greatest Twitter following. (PBS is also low on the income list.)

You can view the infographic by liking Craig’s Facebook page (smart way to boost fans, Craig!) and can keep connected by checking out craigsconnects.

Fundly’s social fundraising platform is keeping up with these top non-profits. We understand the importance of staying connected in this fast-paced, web-based world. Our Facebook fundraising application makes it easy for donors to share their support for your cause with their friends Facebook every time they make a donation.

Keep social, keep connected and thrive.