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SixDegrees.org and Online Fundraising - Recap of DC Net Tuesday
Last week I attended my first DC Net2 meetup. There were about 40 people who came to the meetup.
Katya Andersen of Network for Good gave a presentation about SixDegrees.org and online fundraising.
SixDegrees.org
Kevin Bacon purchased SixDegrees.org. He wanted to do something charitable with the website and he contacted Network for Good.
In January 2007, SixDegrees.org was launched. People can setup charity badges through SixDegrees.org to fundraise for causes/organizations they care about. There can be up to 5 charities listed on a badge and the organizations chosen must be listed in Guidestar.
Right now there is a contest on SixDegrees.org, which is being held through March 31st. The six badges with the most number of donations will receive a matching grant of up to $10,000.
Facts
- 15% gave to charities because of celebrities, 76% gave to charities because they were influenced by friends and family
- People stop giving to organizations because of how they were treated by the nonprofit
- 3,000 people have sixdegrees badges, 12% of badges have at least 1 donation
- 20% donate through Network for Good because they can be anonymous
Lessons Learned
- what attracts is celebrities, what motivates is personal
- contests are good
- give people tools to fundraise where they are online
- social networks are complex, one widget does not serve all
Other Information
- Chipin is a good fundraising widget because the destination is a thermometer and you don't have to be a nonprofit to use this
- Network for Good recently held a pilot version of the badges. Beth Kanter, a blogger here on NetSquared, won that competition. Her campaign was a success and it showed that you needed to do something offline to help with online fundraising.
- It was suggested at the meetup that there should be mentors to help others with charity badges and serve as a resource.
Want more Information?
Check out Katya's blog at Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.
Two others who attended the meetup wrote blog entries. Usha of Beaconfire Consulting wrote a great entry at sixdegrees.org at Net Tuesday meetup. Matt of EchoDitto wrote an entry at Useful Widgets.
- eweinb04's blog
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Firstgiving
Another website that helps online users mobilize their online community to support non-profits is Firstgiving.com. Firstgiving is a website that helps anyone create a free personalized fundraising page for any non-profit registered through GuideStar. After you set up your page you can promote it to your online network via your blog or social networking page with a fundraising widget or badge. Another feature of Firstgiving is that they send any funds raised directly to the non-profit so no one has to worry about where the money is going or how it is getting there. Because of the personalization, donors feel motivated because they are helping out a friend or loved one and they can leave messages on the page announcing their support and encouraging the fundraiser along. Its a great way for fundraisers to rally their online network for a cause that they personally want to support.
http://lemonadeblog.com/?p=14
Thanks for sharing these notes!
Emily,
I really appreciate it when people take the time to post notes from sessions that we all can't attend. Thanks for doing this!
I'd also like to add a pointer to a case study I wrote
http://widgetfundraising.org