Two emails arrived the other day from friends who had taken up the Case Foundation’s Giving Challenge to raise donations for the nonprofit organizations they worked with (Seva Mandir, active in India, and Mountain Fund, active worldwide). The Giving Challenge is a contest that encourages nonprofit organizations and their supporters to launch an online donation campaign. The incentive is a $50,000 prize to the campaign that attracts the largest number of donors.
I’d known about the contest for a while, but I’m a huge fan of both Seva Mandir and the Mountain Fund, and the emails got me thinking about whether the Challenge might be used to help a nonprofit reach goals that extend beyond simply winning the contest. The chance of any particular nonprofit winning the contest is statistically small, but the contest could still be a great opportunity to draw attention and donations to the organization and its work. Here’s an edited version of some suggestions I shared with both organizations, posted here in hopes that they help others create the largest impact possible from this and similar competitions.
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My first suggestion would be to think about using the contest to launch a campaign that combines the goal of winning $50,000 with a fundraising goal (i.e. raising $50,000 through $10 donations). The attached spreadsheet provides a quick introduction to the power of the kind of “viral marketing” that online campaigning can represent. It’s interesting to play with the numbers to see their effect on the amount of funds raised, and to get a sense of just how effective these campaigns can be.
A few related suggestions:
1. Consider setting the X in “ask X number of people to donate” with a number that’s meaningful to your organization and that draws attention to a little known fact that would connect them emotionally to the program that would be funded.
2. Ask them particularly to forward the appeal to their friends and colleagues who might not have heard of your organization before. As these would be reaching a new audience, make sure any appeal by email contains a solid introduction to what your organization does, where it works, etc. Although the percent of people who choose to donate in response to this campaign is very small, you should see new newsletter subscribers and other indications that the campaign is introducing your organization to future donors. Taking this step also substantially increases the chance of winning the Giving Challenge contest! 3. Be really clear about the deadline. Give people a reason to donate today and forward your appeal today.
4. Provide daily or near-daily email updates until the deadline arrives. Assume that your audience wants to know how the campaign is going, and that your email updates will serve to remind them to share your appeal with others.
Also, if you haven’t already, consider reviewing Peter Deitz’ blog. He’s an NGO consultant based in Montreal who specializes in this kind of fundraising. Among his recent posts you’ll see two slideshows that would be useful to a nonprofit organization that’s considering this and other kinds of online fund development activity: and .
