March 3rd – Raleigh, NC

1804 Hillsborough St
Raleigh, NC 27605

This course offers a conversational approach to moving your nonprofit organization into Facebook and Causes.  We will be covering an array of Facebook/Causes topics specifically for non-profits including:

• Why Facebook? Why Now? Learn just how big Facebook has become and how it can be leveraged to raise funds, awareness, and launch new events.
• Difference between the various types of pages. Should you be using personal pages, Organization profile pages, fan pages, groups, etc? What the pages mean and how to use them to your advantage.
• Accessing your donors/volunteers social graphs. Everyone knows everyone. Leveraging your Donors/Volunteers and events participants to expand your network and find your next top donor.
• Fundraising with Causes. Setting up your organization to raise funds on Facebook Causes. Using the built in tools to allow you constituents to network fund-raise.
• Affiliate and 3rd Party Fundraising. Learn why and how affiliate fundraising will be huge for your organization. Give your 3rd parties a platform they can use to raise funds for you directly.
• Tools to integrating Facebook into your existing fundraising systems. Many of the fundraising systems you currently use can be integrated with Facebook, allowing your participants to actively raise funds and recruit for your organization.

These topics are tied together with not only real world examples, but also the concepts that are at the heart of their success.

Tickets are $37.50 and can be purchased at eventbrite

Testimonials:

• I would highly recommend Phoenixfire Solutions’ classes for anyone seeking to further understand Facebook and the value it can provide.
• The content of the class was fantastic! The principles and ideas can be easily implemented to improve our current Facebook strategy!
• This class was extremely beneficial for our organization. We have known about the importance of social media for a long time and have been using it for awareness and events. However, the seminar gave me an in-depth understanding of how all the pieces fit together. I now feel like I can develop a more effective strategy with social media because I feel confident in my understanding of it.

A colleague sent me an article today that I wanted to expand on a bit and share with you.  The post was for the “Diary of a Social Venture Start-up” over at Good.is. The point of the article is pretty straight forward and something I’m sure  most of us would agree with perception is important, and what you need to do to change the perception of  your organization.

Your Packaging Needs to Pop.

Hire a professional designer or web designer to build a brand that is representative of your mission. It should be consistent across all channels and help be part of why the donor picks you off the shelf.

The way it looks matters more than you think. How much does it matter? 60 to 65 percent of the population are visual thinkers, meaning they prefer images to words. Your mission critical messages have zero impact if you can’t get people to stop and see them. If your development teams are spending their time developing materials, then who is building and maintaining the relationships your going to need going forward.

In-store Display

Listening and interacting with your donors and constituents is essential. Its not enough anymore to put an ad in a magazine or newspaper (if you can still find one in business to put an ad in ). You must be engaged in social networks.  I mean on there really listening, talking to the people who can help your cause, and adding value to their efforts as well.

In 2009 Americans have almost tripled the amount of time they spend on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. In August of this year 17%  of all time spent on the internet was on social media sites, up from 6% in August of 2008. (via Nielson Co.)

So what do these numbers mean to you. They mean your donor base is there, interacting with their friends, posting pictures of events they were recently at, and talking about your organization. They are talking about how they wish they could contact you there because they have questions. They are talking about how you screwed up their donation, and how they will just give to a different organization next time. The point is that they are there, and they are talking, and the best part is that they would love for you to be part of that conversation.  Social Media has unlocked something extraordinary for non-profits, an opportunity to talk one on one with donors, participants, constituents, and sponsors. The kind of access your development staff has dreamed about since the day they first stepped through your door.

As much as we all wish the mission was enough, its not. You are competing for a withering attention span, against nearly 1,010,400 other charitable organizations in the US alone. Does your product have what it takes to catch the consumers eye?

John Fuller is the President of Phoenixfire Solutions and a professional with more than ten years experience in IT, seven years in non-profit, and four years in design.  Taking his love for all things technological and all things artistic,Phoenixfire Solutions came into being.  John’s expertise offers a unique perspective from someone who has been both the client and the vendor.  After experiencing years both the good and bad of outsourcing solutions, John has made it his mission to bridge that gap for companies and non-profits that have fallen prey too many times. Connect with John on Twitter: @phoenixfire8383 & LinkedIn.

This week there was a decision made here in Mecklenburg County, NC that most people probably didn’t even hear about and if they did, it most likely didn’t even cause a stir. But for the “little guy” non-profits in the area, it was a victorious week.

On Tuesday evening, the Mecklenburg County Commissioners voted unanimously to open up charitable giving through employee payroll to more non-profits, which until now had only allowed payroll donations to go to the United Way of Central Carolinas and the Arts & Sciences Council.

So you may be asking yourself, why is this so great? First let me preface this by stating that this is not a diatribe against United Way. But rather perspective through the eyes of the organizations I’ve worked for. All three have been local or statewide chapters of national non-profits. While the concept of participating in a federated group such as UW was something we’d either wished to do or had tried, the bottom line was this. The requirements of a member agency were too cumbersome for an office of less than a handful of staff (Ex: Adherence to fundraising blackout dates, required staff participation in UW activities). So it wasn’t lack of desire, but rather a decision not to try in participate if we couldn’t hold up our end of the bargain. In my case, I may be the President & CEO by title, but I’m also the Programs Dir, PR Specialist, Dir of Finance, HR Manager, and at times, the janitor. So no matter how well intentioned, the desire to participate & the ability to do so didn’t go hand in hand.

The end result for organizations like us is to look for the few and far between employee giving programs that were not actually UW campaigns. Of course we always had the possibility of receiving funds through direct designations given to us through UW.  But what so many don’t understand is that we don’t receive 100% of those funds. There’s a percentage taken off for UW processing fees. (Sidebar: While I don’t protest a need for a fee, the amount of that percentage…well…that’s a whole other blog in and of it’s self.)

Lest I digress, I do need to add, that for us, we found a great resource in Community Health Charities, a federation yes, but with a much more user-friendly approach to their member agencies. Still, when only one or two federated groups are allowed in a campaign, we still miss out.

So allow me to loop back around to the County Commissioner’s decision this week. For the first time ever, our little “non-profit that could” has a real chance of connecting further with our supporters who work for the county. And that is music to the ears of an organization with a whole lot of heart & a whole lot of dreams, that just needs the backing to continue to support the amazing growth they are experiencing. Our national CEO says all the time, “No money, no mission” and while the optimist in me is required to test that theory every single day, I feel it’s truth all too well when I look into the eyes of someone we serve and know we could be doing so much more for them. And so it is for those eyes and the eyes of all those my fellow “little guys” serve that I claim Tuesday, July 7th as a day of victory, a day worth celebrating. Thank you to all those that stood up as advocates for us, most specifically the folks at Community Health Charities & Earth Share North Carolina. Finally, thank you to Mecklenburg County for giving us a chance!  My hat is off to you.

Christine John-Fuller is a Non-Profit Consultant for Phoenixfire Solutions, as well as President & CEO for The Lupus Foundation of America, Piedmont Chapter.  A non-profit executive with nearly a decade in the industry, Christine has blended her experience in special events, fundraising and media relations to help lead several national organizations on a local and state level. In these roles, Christine has developed a keen sense of the ever present needs of non-profits and small businesses which includes a balance of administration, marketing, programming and raising of funds.  As a consultant for Phoenixfire Solutions, Christine offers thorough investigation of an organization’s current makeup, insightful analysis of areas of need, and implementable action steps for moving forward.  Connect with Christine on Twitter: @christinemjohn and LinkedIn.