Our Charity Dynamics retained strategic services clients receive weekly status updates that allow us to plan and track initiatives that help our clients reach their digital communication and fundraising goals.
Each week, we share the most innovative ideas we see in the industry and look for ways to keep our clients on the cutting edge. Here are three of our favorite ideas from the last month:
1. Greenpeace: Developing a Social Content Strategy
Every Non-Profit knows that social media has become a significant element of their campaign work but many are struggling to see the return on their investment of staff resources and donor dollars. Greenpeace has always understood the value of community activation and so it was a natural fit for them to extend these efforts online into social channels. They loved that social media enabled them to empower an active supporter base to post and share on their behalf, to extend the reach of their campaigns at relatively low cost, and enabled Greenpeace to accurately measure results. However their first forays didn’t yield the results they expected.
The power of the grassroots community that Greenpeace relied on in the early days, still exists online but has taken new forms and requires different engagement tactics within their chosen social media networks. Michael Hedelain, Digital Marketing Manager for Greenpeace Nordic explains, “People look to social media for escapism, not for bad news. We struggled to make our messages heard on those networks when we led with very problem-led messages. So we needed to change our approach.”
Given that people generally don’t respond well to negativity present in their social media feeds, Greenpeace decided to re-create their social strategies to be solutions-based, rather than issues-based, as they had done successfully via more traditional media channels for decades. Therefore, the campaigns you see today invite their community members to take a positive, meaningful, and measurable action vs the often controversial, attack campaigns Greenpeace has become known for.
Want to learn more about Greenpeace’s Social Content Strategy? Check out the full story including campaign examples: https://www.falcon.io/insights-hub/case-stories/cs-content-marketing/social-media-for-nonprofits/
2. Using Snapchat
Location technology has been around for a while, but it’s becoming more and more feasible to use to your advantage, as we have seen with the most recent Pokemon craze. You are now able to buy a Geo-filter for your supporters to use during advocacy or fundraising events. You can choose to purchase spaces that are a minimum of 20,000 square feet — about the size of an office — to a maximum of 5,000,000 square feet — roughly a few city blocks. And the Geo-filter can stay live for as little as an hour up to thirty days.
So how do they work? Geo-filters are small graphic images that usually frame the bottom of your photo, and they’re aligned with your location. For example, if you’re from the DC area, you’ll see a number of Washington DC-themed Geo-filters pasted on top of people’s Snapchat photos. The great thing about Geo-filters is your nonprofit doesn’t need to have a Snapchat account, to utilize them, and, people do not have to be following your nonprofit to see, and use, the Geo-filter. Anyone in the area with a Snapchat account can see them!
So how can you utilize this for your nonprofit?
Why not pilot a Geo-Filter at your next P2P event? During that time frame, when people get on Snapchat, they’ll be able to post Snaps with your filter to their story! Prices start as low as $5 for a few hours and you can choose a specific geographic area, your event date and the length of time you want to purchase. You design your filter and submit it through Snapchat’s online portal. Turn-around is pretty quick; Snapchat hopes to approve everything within one business day.
Want to know more about Snapchat’s geofilters? Check it out: https://www.snapchat.com/geofilters
3. Texting Is Millennials Favorite Channel For Two Way Communications
According to a new study and report by OpenMarket, SMS is the first choice for organizational engagement from those aged 18-34, with texting cited as the most preferred communication channel for receiving notifications from you. 72% of millennials say they text 10 or more times a day and 31% say they text more than 50 times a day. The leading factor in millennials’ preferences for texting is its ability for two-way communication with you, providing convenience, speed, and ease of use, says the report.
60% of millennials want to be able to text with you, but currently they’re only receiving five or fewer messages a week, with 20% noting they don’t receive any texts at all. As a follow-up to the OpenMarket’s first millennial survey earlier this year, this new research also revealed that over 83% of millennials polled say they open a text within 90 seconds of receiving it.
Check-out the OpenMarket Millennial Study Infographic for more exciting statistics: https://www.openmarket.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Millennials-Text-with-Businesses-Infographic.pdf
About Charity Dynamics Strategic Services Retainers:
Charity Dynamics Strategic Services Retainers are planned, hours based, ongoing engagements where project teams collaborate on the short and long term needs of the client. A strategic retainer allows for flexibility and access to the full diversity of expertise on the Charity Dynamics team including consultants, web developers, analytics, designers and UX experts. Raise more money, reach more donors and make a bigger impact by leveraging our team to meet your digital fundraising and communication goals.