I had the good fortune to sit with Shannon Raybold at a recent conference to learn more about her approach to web campaigns with the United Nations Foundation.

Here's the transcript.

Billy Bicket: Can you share a quick summary about who you are and what you do?

Sharon Raybold: Sure, my name is Shannon Raybold. I’m the Internet Director at the United Nations Foundation. I develop and manage the online strategy that includes fundraising for multiple campaigns from climate change, to malaria, to sustainable development and advocacy on UN related activities. Part of my work is focused on moving the UN Foundation from a completely offline organization into an organization that taps into the potential of both on and offline outreach and tools.

BB: How are you organizing your efforts relative to that giant challenge?

SR: I’ve started small and I’m showing progress points -- via sign-ups to the site, traffic and donations. Since the beginning of the year we’ve seen our online supporters grow by 90%. With one campaign--nothingbutnets.net-- we’ve raised $3M online alone over one and a half years. So the thought is to build slowly with a focus on infrastructure, because I inherited a hodge-podge of applications that don’t work well together. Part of the goal of integrating infrastructure is to make it easier for staffers outside the web team to understand and use the tools they have access to for their programs and include web thinking in their everyday lives. Much of my approach to this work involves taking a data-centric approach to our work. Currently, our data lives among four separate silos. With a CRM, we’re able to make data-driven decisions.

BB: How are you going about the work of infrastructure?

SR: My team consists of myself, a new media specialist, an online organizer and a writer. We all tend to work on everything, although we all have specific assigned programs and are currently in the process of implementing an integrated CMS and eCRM.

BB: How does your team measure the success of your activities?

SR: The team is very new so it’s a learning process. For now, we’re focusing on the three metrics I mentioned above, constituency growth, donations and website visits.

BB: Can you share a bit about what you’ve been working on?

SR: Sure, The Nothing But Nets campaign is a project we recently launched with great success. Because of its success, we’ve been given a lot more leeway to try new things in other program areas.

BB: Where did the idea for this campaign emerge?

Randomly, and it happened extremely quickly. Rick Reilly, a Sports Illustrated columnist watched a BBC special on malaria, and called the UN Foundation to see what he could do to help. Together, we created NothingButNets.net. The initial website was thrown up in a few days. Rick published an article about malaria, taking a very light and simple approach to the subject, instead of a wonky approach. Rick related it to sports. A net in Africa could mean life or death. Considering Rick had never asked his readership for anything before, his ask to send $10 or $20 to buy a net spurred $1.2 million in contributions for bed nets to prevent malaria.

BB: What are some of the key learnings your team and the UN Foundation took away from this campaign?

SR: The number one learning we’ve taken out of the Nothing But Nets campaign is that it is essential to have an integrated online and offline strategy. This campaign is a success online because the web is not a secondary thought, but is consistently thought of by every member of the team (even those who never touch the Web). In addition, the UN Foundation partnered with Sports Illustrated, the National Basketball Association’s NBA Cares as well as the People of the United Methodist Church. An unlikely group, for sure, but one that allowed for broad outreach, mainly to un-tapped audiences. The most unusual aspect of the campaign is that the donors are 73% male.

The message was very clear and compelling, “$10, send a net, save a life.” Simple and elegant. Pulling on the heart strings, while not being too Sally Struthers-esque.
Malaria kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds. It’s the number one killer of children in Africa. It’s also a huge drain on the economy, because people are often very ill and unable to work. Yet, the solution is so simple and cheap.

BB: How did Rick and the UN Foundation connect?

SR: Rick went on line, found the UN Foundation website and called our office.

BB: Looking at the partnership that made this successful, can you share a little bit about who the players are?

SR: Our partnership team at the UN Foundation, led by Elizabeth McKee (now the Director of Nothing But Nets), brought together Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated, NBA Cares, and the United Methodist church, with the idea of building an entirely new constituency around malaria. Working together has proven to be amazing, though it has its challenges. Together, we work with the Measles Initiative (a partnership with the UN Foundation, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and the American Red Cross) to use the proven distribution methods already in place for country-wide measles vaccination campaigns. The Measles Initiative often adds other health interventions such as insecticide-treated nets to the measles campaigns. Nothing But Nets provides needed bed nets for the integrated health campaigns.

BB: How would you characterize the key components that made this campaign successful

SR: The simplicity of the site and message. The blog is major vehicle in helping to illustrate the interest in the campaign around the world.

Also, providing models for others to get engaged in creative ways: for instance, we use a lot of user-generated content to spur participation. One seven-year-old girl and her mother raised over $13,000 for the campaign through presentations at school and church.

Another important aspect is called ‘net-raisers’ – the same software you use for a walk-athon or marathon. What this has allowed for users, is to give people a way to engage their friends and family in what is important to them. The average donation was $100 more than the average one-time donation. The Net-o-meter is another cool tool we used that showed our progress. For every $10 donated, the ticker counts another net so individuals can always track our progress.

BB: How long was the campaign?

SR: Rick Reilly’s column ran in May 2006. The UN Foundation officially launched the campaign, with the new website, in October of 2006.

BB: What inspired the re-org of your web strategy from day one through week six?

We did a major reorganization and overhaul of the site because people were expressing a great deal of interest in doing more. We did the re-design and began implementation of our new strategy in six weeks, though I recommend taking more time. The impetus for the short turn-around was that we were taking Rick Reilly to Africa, to show him and our supporters what his article had enabled. Before Rick Reilly’s return, we put together a strategic media plan in order to illustrate how the bed nets were affecting actual children. We began to put a face to the overwhelming problem – and could show actual results.

From that trip, we were able to gather stories from health workers, mothers and children whose lives had been affected by malaria. Elizabeth McKee wrote an e-mail describing her trip experience and focused on a particular mother and child she met with. That e-mail helped to raise one million dollars. It is often more effective to connect with people using one or two stories that illustrate the whole instead of focusing on the numbers. A child dying every 30 seconds is overwhelming, but this child being covered by a bed net is a simple solution that anyone can contribute to.

BB: Any lessons you’d like to share about this campaign w/ nonprofit leaders and organizers involved in community building?

SR: A community is not a one-time thing. Actually, it needs resources and dedicated staff time. I’ve also learned that allowing for people to not only tell their friends about the campaign, but keep track of who joins and donates within their team has been an invaluable tool in fundraising as these donations tend to be significantly higher than one-time donors.

From the outset, the Nothing But Nets team was committed to using the Web to complement offline activities, which is unusual. With everyone always thinking about the Web, truly thinking about it in every meeting and conversation, how the Web could augment our activities, we have five people, not just me, moving our constituency forward. Moving forward, I’m committed to making web strategy an integral part of the UN Foundation’s other program areas.

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Thanks for sharing your experience with the NetSquared community, Shannon!

Great stuff. For more information about Nothing But Nets, or the UN Foundation's Web strategy, contact Shannon Raybold sraybold(AT)unfoundation.org.