By the time big donors arrive for a gala, savvy event organizers are thoroughly prepared with contingency plans. There are a few extra vegetarian dishes on the buffet and a spare set of notes on the speaker’s lectern.
The same risk-management strategies used for physical events should also apply to online fundraising events, like giving days—even though the potential problems and solutions are not always as obvious.
Because many online campaigns rely on social media—which is notoriously unpredictable—it’s important to think about what could go wrong and how to quickly correct course.
The University of Michigan development team took time to brainstorm possible problems that could arise during its Giving Blueday online fundraising drive held on Giving Tuesday in 2014.
The event raised $3,252,309 for the university, helping to create “emotional momentum” for the university’s larger, eight-year capital campaign, says Tom Szczepanski, assistant vice president of development.
The Michigan fundraisers prepared in advance to head off potential calamities by asking themselves, “What if…”
1. There’s a breaking news story. An important national or international story or a big development on campus could divert attention from an online campaign and make prescheduled appeals for donations seem insensitive. To avoid this problem, assign a staff member to monitor the news and adjust social media posts as necessary.
2. There’s bad weather, and the university is closed or staff are unable to commute. It takes a lot of manpower to monitor an online fundraising drive. In Michigan, the high risk of snow and ice made this a primary concern. Nonprofits should consider whether staff members are able and permitted to work from home if a hurricane or snowstorm hits.
3. There’s a power outage. Is there a backup power source available? Can staff work from a different room or building? The Michigan team asked staff members to take their laptops with them the night before the event in case the “war room” set up for the event lost power and they had to work from elsewhere.
4. The website server goes down. Make sure someone on site has the troubleshooting skills necessary to address such a problem, and enlist IT professionals to be on call during the campaign.
5. The online-giving software or the email system goes down, is very slow, or can’t handle the giving volume. Too many donations seems like a good problem to have—unless they cause the whole system to crash. The University of Michigan team ran stress tests to make sure the donation platform could accommodate a lot of traffic.
6. There are negative reactions in social media or the press, or critics “hijack” the Twitter hashtag with mean-spirited posts. The spontaneity of social media, which can make an online fundraising event so much fun, can also make it spin out of control if people use the opportunity to criticize the campaign or the organization running it. Figure out in advance what tone to take in case reactions turn negative, and keep the audience in mind.
7. There’s a massive email-sending error. The University of Michigan planned a series of emails to reach potential donors, and the team was worried that a glitch in the distribution tool could interfere with the information push. For insurance, the university’s fundraisers had two different email platforms ready to use. One of them was new, and they tested it with a different mailing in advance of Giving Blueday.
8. There’s a higher-than-anticipated level of unsubscribes to email communications. Given the number of emails planned, a large number of recipients might have chosen to unsubscribe early in the sequence, reducing the reach of the later messages. In the case of a rash of unsubscribes, the team planned for greater use of social media and additional outreach to news outlets.