Online Fundraising: 4 Standouts in Crowdfunding and Giving Days

Kevin White/Missouri State University

For most charities, online fundraising remains a small slice of revenue. But every year, that slice grows larger: Online support grew by a median of 23 percent in 2017, according to a survey by M+R, a consulting company.

For our May cover, the Chronicle looked at nonprofits’ successes using Facebook, crowdfunding, giving days, peer-to-peer fundraising, and more. Here, we highlight crowdfunding and giving days.

Look Ma, No Matching Gifts!

Purdue raised $28 million in its giving day last year — a figure that tops the 2017 giving-day totals for every other college and university last year as well as for Minnesota’s statewide event. The tech-wealthy Silicon Valley raised just $8 million two years ago before it gave up on the giving-day idea altogether.

Online Fundraising That Works

For our May cover, the Chronicle looked at the success of nonprofits using Facebook, crowdfunding, giving days, peer-to-peer fundraising, and more.

• How Giving-Day Strategists Are Making Tweaks to Keep Raising Millions
• Tips for Keeping New Donors After a Giving Day
• A Bike-athon Pro Talks About How to Motivate Your Volunteer Fundraisers
• How 4 Groups Netted Big Returns in Online Fundraising With Just the Basics
• 6 Top Social-Media and Peer-to-Peer Efforts Include YouTube Star and Cute Cats

Even more impressive, Purdue reached this height without help from matching gifts, according to Amy Noah, vice president for development at the Purdue Research Foundation. Ninety-four percent of the day’s donations came in online.

Since Purdue’s giving day began in 2013, 44 percent of donors have been first-time supporters of the university. Organizers point to a few ingredients of their success:

Competition. Leader boards for dollars raised show how each of the university’s participating colleges and organizations is faring throughout the event. Thirty-six challenges are stuffed into the day.

Constant social-media sharing. Donors compete for “greatest selfie on campus” or post Instagram videos of themselves singing “Hail Purdue.”

A war room. The development department’s 211 employees take turns helping out for 30 hours straight. (Noah brings a sleeping bag every year.)

Real-time stewardship. “We do a lot of spur-of-the-moment thank-you videos on iPads,” Noah says.

[[video url="https://youtu.be/Vg1tI3FEQ-E” align="right” size="half-width” class="" starttime="" caption="" credits=""]] A focus on data. Employees make sure alumni from every state participate and that the number of countries represented increases each year. If data show social-media activity on a hashtag but no alumni giving in a particular country, the fundraising team purchases digital ads aimed at Purdue alumni there, says Kate Jolly, director of digital fundraising. In 2017, donors came from 56 countries, up from 44 the previous year.

$37 Million, and Growing Fast

Colorado Gives Day isn’t the first regional giving day, or the biggest: Those honors go to North Texas Giving Day, about to launch its 10th year, having raked in $39 million last September.

But Colorado’s statewide event, begun in 2010, is swiftly gaining, with nearly $37 million raised last year. More than 2,300 charities benefited from December’s Colorado Gives Day, and its 153,955 individual donations bested North Texas’s tally by nearly 83,000.

“The biggest secret to our success is that nonprofits are so involved in it,” says Dana Rinderknecht, director of online giving at the Community First Foundation, which co-sponsored the event with FirstBank. “Nonprofits have incorporated it into their year-round fundraising plans. It’s part of our DNA out here in Colorado.”

Donors, she says, tell her as early as September, “I’m saving up for Colorado Gives Day. I’m starting my list.”

For some, those lists are long. Since 2015, organizers have tracked “10 plus” donors, who give to 10 or more charities on Gives Day. In 2017, about 2,500 of them supported an average of 15 charities, for a total of $7.2 million. In 2015, only 1,100 donors were “10 plus.”

[[video url="https://youtu.be/vqKE0B5NVyc” align="center” size="full-width” class="" starttime="" caption="" credits=""]] The main portal for Gives Day donations, ColoradoGives.org, runs all year, connecting people with causes, communities, and organizations to support. They can also purchase e-card gift certificates for friends and family to make contributions; children can use the e-cards to give on their own online portal, Kids for ColoradoGives, which launched in September 2016 and helps youngsters learn about supporting causes.

Unlike other local and regional philanthropy events, Colorado Gives Day doesn’t rely much on prizes or post a leader board. Says Rinderknecht, “It’s about the big number and making the pie bigger.”

A Drive That Brought in Many First-Time Donors

Joining a trend of charities running crowdfunding drives for special projects, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums launched its first Kickstarter campaign last May, to raise $150,000 to provide endangered African penguins with artificial nests. (The birds typically build nests from their guano, which doubles as a farming fertilizer and is growing scarce.)

Over 30 days, 2,207 people kicked in $193,560 for “Invest in the Nest.” A majority of donors had never supported zoos, aquariums, or even conservation projects before, says Rob Vernon of the association. Among the secrets to the success:

A year’s planning, including creating a schedule for social-media posts and goals. One key decision: the focus on the penguin from among 13 other endangered species, a choice made in part because of the bird’s popularity.

A compelling video that laid out the case to donors. It featured expert testimony from a zoologist and footage of frolicking penguins. The campaign followed up with videos thanking donors and showcasing more of the birds.

Buy-in from association members. About 100 zoos and aquariums shared campaign social-media messages.

Prizes for gifts of all sizes. A $3 gift netted a personalized thank you; $10,000 or more earned naming rights to a nest installed in a penguin colony in South Africa.

How Playing to the Crowd Filled the Gaps

Since it revamped its crowdfunding site in 2016, Missouri State University has seen fundraising for student, staff, faculty, and other special projects take off, both online and off.

In 18 months, featured projects have raked in more than $240,000 through the site — and $190,000 more in offline gifts, including stock transfers. The site is “helping to fill the gaps between annual giving and major gifts,” bringing in donations as big as $10,000, says Melanie Earl-Replogle, director of annual funds.

A recent effort to raise unrestricted funds for Missouri State’s athletic teams netted $67,000 of its $110,000 total on the site.

Fifteen percent of all crowdfunding donors to the university are over age 60, and most crowdfunding gifts by all donors arrive by mobile device, Earl-Replogle says.

“I don’t think the coaches or athletes ever touched a laptop,” she says. “They ran their campaigns on smartphones.”

More than 60 percent of the athletics drive’s supporters were new Missouri State donors. Data from the site is helping the university identify prospective big donors.

“When you have people putting $5,000 on a credit card, they’re raising their hand,” she says.