How Feel-Good Fundraising Lifts Revenue and Spirits

Since 2019, more than 227 million people have tuned in to a charity’s YouTube channel to watch Jackie and Shadow, a mated bald-eagle pair.

Friends of Big Bear Valley, an environmental nonprofit that teaches about the wilderness surrounding California’s Big Bear Lake, is famous for its nest camera that broadcasts around-the-clock footage of the lovebirds — and this spring, their clutch of adorable chicks.

The group posts daily recaps of the eagle family’s activities on its popular Facebook page to an audience of more than 1.1 million fans. Its executive director, Sandy Steers, says the social-media narratives help people from all over the world connect with her group’s mission because they develop real affection for the eagles.

“It helps them feel closer to nature,” she says. “It’s allowed people to open their hearts and let them in as part of the family.”

Online Community Building Pays Off

Since starting on social media in 2014, Friends of Big Bear Valley has grown its audience to 2 million followers on a variety of platforms by answering every question, sharing educational resources, and hosting a weekly live chat about Jackie and Shadow. Steers and another eagle observer, who writes under the pen name BKind22, post daily recaps to share the birds’ highs and lows.

Volunteer moderators ensure the conversation stays wholesome and politics-free — no small feat when the Facebook posts routinely see thousands of comments. But it’s when there are chicks in the nest that engagement truly soars.

Illustration: The Chronicle of Philanthropy; Friends of Big Bear Valley and Big Bear Eagle Nest Cam social media screenshots.

The charity has hosted fundraising contests to name Jackie and Shadow’s chicks in years when they hatch. In 2022, the last year they had a viable egg, just over 2,600 donors submitted approximately 10,000 names for their single chick, who was ultimately called Spirit. This year, with two eaglets to name, 54,000 submissions from 14,000 donors generated more than $100,000 in donations via PayPal in the final week of March.

The contest netted nearly $40,000 more than in 2022, Steers says. The group benefited from its larger online following but also by lowering the required donation to participate from $10 to $5 for one name. Participants could also submit multiple names; the group requested $10 for three, or $25 for 10 names.

Steers believed reducing the requested donation would help the contest go viral, and the change paid off. “It doesn’t mean you’ll get less money — it brought us more money because more people were enthused about it,” Steers said, adding that some of the donors were children whose teachers have shared the eagle livestream in school.

The group spent almost nothing to promote this year’s contest, said Jenny Voisard, media and website manager. “It took off because of media coverage and word of mouth. The only things we did to promote it were social-media posts, and we sent a press release directly via email to a few media outlets, and we published it on the website,” she said. Several national news outlets picked up the story for print, television, and radio after the campaign went viral.

The contest did come with some costs, however. The charity had to upgrade its website security, online-form software, email-distribution platform, and servers to handle the spike in online traffic. The website logged 6 million views in March — when the eggs hatched and the contest ran — compared with 2 million in February and 1.9 million in April.

After the submission window closed, students at three elementary schools in Big Bear Valley were chosen to vote on the eagles’ names from a random selection that narrowed the field; they christened the two eaglets Sunny and Gizmo.

‘The Eagles Drive Our Fundraising’

It’s been a blockbuster year for Friends of Big Bear Valley, but there is a catch, Steers warned. “The eagles drive our fundraising. When there aren’t eagles in the nest, or eggs don’t hatch, it does change our fundraising completely. We have to regroup based on what the eagles are doing.” Sunny and Gizmo learned to fly earlier this month and are now only occasionally seen on camera as they explore their territory. Jackie and Shadow will visit their nest periodically over the summer before returning in the fall for the next breeding season.

Steers says she expects YouTube viewership will decline over the next few months, but she has a plan to keep engagement up during the fallow period. “We’ll keep the cameras on 24/7,” Steers said. “When they show up, we’ll keep writing stories about it — not for fundraising, but because people want to know what’s going on.”

Her growing audience shows that people come looking for those feel-good updates — a lesson for any charity that wants to build a robust online following. Friends of Big Bear Valley’s powerful imagery coupled with evocative storytelling about the eagles have together driven its social-media growth. Many fans routinely share the group’s posts with friends and family. A sample from June 13, written by Steers: “Nature in its glory! Wednesday, before the sun peeked over the horizon, coyotes howled, Jackie chortled, and two gorgeous eaglets on their nest tree watched as nature came to life all around.”

While viewership is still high, the group is promoting its online shop filled with eagle-themed merchandise, including calendars, earrings made by a local artisan, and plush animals that sold out instantly. The shop became so successful following the contest that Voisard reports that it has been a major challenge for its small staff to keep up with order fulfillment.

The charity plans to use the revenue from the spring campaign to maintain and repair its nest camera equipment, continue its observation activities, expand its classroom programs, and support its Outdoor Adventure Days, an in-person event during June to lead guided birdwatching tours and wildflower hikes.