Nonprofits Mobilize Online Supporters Into Action
July 8th, 2010 by John Cason
Many nonprofits have large followings of “slacktivists” online, but have trouble mobilizing them into action for the cause. Slacktivists are folks that “like” the organization on Facebook or follow them on Twitter, but do little to aid in the cause. Many nonprofits are asking “How do we get our supporters to actually do things for our cause?” At Mobilization Labs we call this “mobilizing your supporters.” Nonprofit organizations touch lives of millions of people in the United States and and all over the world. However, too often they do not have the staffing or resources they need to fully focus on their mission. And this isn’t a small problem. According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) there are 1,569,572 tax-exempt organizations in the United States. This large number consists of 997,579 public charities, 118,423 private foundations and 453,570 other types of nonprofit organizations, (including chambers of commerce, fraternal organizations and civic leagues).
They have to allocate already-limited financial resources towards staffing, programming, technology, and many other areas. Because of this the nonprofit sector is always looking for ways to increase the benefit for each dollar they spend. In essence every dollar spent needs to have a larger impact than it would have had anywhere else. In an ideal world nonprofits would easily be able to identify their most passionate supporters, most dedicated volunteers and measure the impact each supporter has on their mission. If they were able to do this they could begin to recognize and utilize their largest supporters (financially, volunteer service hours, online advocacy, etc.) Having the ability to easily easily identify top supporters will maximize the funds nonprofits spend on organizing supporters.
The social media age of sharing and social recruiting has made it easy to reach a larger audience of peers who believe in your cause. At a time when everyone is experiencing information overload from email and voicemails, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter allow organizations to develop niche communities of suppo
rters with like minded interests. However, it can be very difficult to mobilize people into action and then measure the impact supporters have online.
Several months ago, Atlanta Union Mission (AUM) launched an initiative to increase their grassroots activism efforts and mobilize volunteers. The Atlanta Union Mission was established in 1938 as a refuge for homeless and hungry individuals displaced by the Great Depression. Over the years, the Mission has grown from a single shelter in downtown Atlanta to six facilities, which provide emergency food and shelter, residential recovery programs and transitional housing. To grow their supporter community and foster greater engagement, AUM implemented the Wildfire Platform by Mobilization Labs, an online action network that gives their followers several easy-to-use tools to get involved in the organization’s mission.
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“Partnering with Mobilization labs and specifically integrating the Wildfire Platform is a huge step for donor and supporter development. We feel that being able to integrate into social platforms such as Facebook, Youtube and Tweeter while providing a hub for our own content is making an amazing impact. We believe in making our story of Rescue, Recovery and Re-Entry and the pursuit to End Homelessness in Atlanta available to as many people as possible, the Wildfire Platform is the cornerstone. Additionally, Atlanta Union Mission is excited to be part of a new form of Non-Profit support. We feel that Mobilization labs partnership is the catalyst needed to create this new “Digital Donation” giving a Tweet, donating a Facebook status, Passing along a Media clip or Youtube video. This platform will take Non-profit exposure, engagement and interaction to a unseen level of awareness. We are excited about the current results and the future impact.”
-Josh Deyton, Director External Marketing at AUM
We’ve taken some screen shots from AUM’s supporter website and have shared them below.
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Growing the Supporter Base
Easy Sign-Up with Facebook Connect
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Growing the Supporter Platform Through Facebook Invites
To find untapped supporters, an organization needs to find ways to engage new people with their message. The best way to grow your supporter base is through word of mouth advertising. With social networks, this means motivating your existing supporters to invite their friends and family. And you have to make it easy for them to do so.
If a nonprofit were to ask someone directly to join the cause, you would have several barriers to overcome. However, if a supporter of yours asks another one of their friends to join your credibility has skyrocketed. Now imagine if you could get your followers to recruit using their Facebook and personal email (like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL, etc) contacts. All of a sudden your referral system has become much simpler and has more impact. Additionally you have the ability as an administrator to track the impact of each person as they recruit new members to your supporter community.
We make this easy for your supporters by adding an “Invite Friends” button on each page. You can also make this an “action” where your supporters get points for recruiting their friends. Once you click the “Invite Friend” button, a window pops up in the page you are on. You have two options of importing contacts from your networks to invite – “Import from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc” and Invite from “Facebook.”
If you click to import from Facebook you will receive a request from Facebook to allow your nonprofit to connect to Facebook. Once that is accepted a screen appears with all of your Facebook friends. Recruiting Facebook friends to join your site is easily completed in several clicks.
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Growing the Supporter Platform Through Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL…
Not everyone has Facebook. Often if you are targeting elder generations in volunteering they will use email and phone systems only. The recruitment system is the very similar to recruiting via Facebook. Your supporters will click the “Invite Friend” button.
Instead of choosing to “Invite from Facebook” they will choose to “Import from…” Then your supporters will follow the instructions on screen. Let’s say they use Gmail. They will click the radio button beside the Gmail logo and follow the instructions onscreen. They will be given the option to select which contacts they want to send a personal invite to. Invitations will be sent in email format with any message you desire.
Mobilizing the Supporter Base
Mobilize Supporter Base with Actions Widgets, Contests and Leader Boards
In any volunteer coordination aspect you have volunteers that are more dedicated than others. You have a few that would give their left kidney for you, but often you have this large group that support you, but aren’t really activist. As mentioned above, we call them “slacktivist”. If you can create a system that rewards their actions for you they are more likely to continuing volunteering, posting/sharing links with friends, recruiting new volunteers, and supporting your mission.AUM uses Wildfire to encourage their supporters to act for their cause. They are hosting Atlanta Union Mission day with the Atlanta Braves on Sunday July 18th. When I connected into the AUM network I was told I had incomplete “actions.” These actions are the tasks that AUM is asking supporters like me to perform. These actions can be micro-targeted to specific supporters or those that match certain criteria found in the supporter database. As they perform actions, supporters accrue Personal Impact Points. These points can be used to drive contests that motivate supporters to stay involved.
When a supporter logs into the AUM website they are given a list of their pending actions. Below is an example of pending actions and the Impact Points received for them.
Measuring Results Against Organizational Goals
- How supporters are joining your cause
- What actions are most popular
- Quick look at common statistics
Impact Engine Statistics
- Who has highest “Impact Engine” points
- Supporters with the most new recruits
- Which supporters have the largest total impact on the platform
Social Recruitment
- Acceptance rates
- Growth rates
- Conversion rates
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The data gathered in the Wildfire Platform is presented in a very easy to understand, graphical presentation. By giving your supporters an action focused platform like Wildfire you will easily be able to measure the impact they have on your organization. AUM, politicians, entertainment groups use the platform to identify what supporters have the most points and to reward them. You may be surprised to find a supporter that lives for your organization’s cause. It could be someone you never knew was out there. You’ll find that supporters will really take charge of the point system by attempting to add more and more points to their profile. Past clients used our platform to identify their biggest fans and give tickets to walk the red carpet with them. A former Governor campaign awarded his top supporters a dinner in the Governor’s mansion. The prize you offer is limited by your imagination.
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Wildfire Platform Helping Non Profit’s Organizational Goals
The Wildfire Platform offers value in helping grow your supporters, mobilize your supporters into action for your cause, and tracking every action and micro-target segments within your volunteer base.
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For a full list of benefits the Wildfire Platform provides nonprofits, go to http://www.wildfireplatform.com/customers/nonprofits/. If you like our software please follow us on Twitter (@wildfireteam) and “like us” on Facebook. We’ll be sure to keep you in the loop on where we’re heading. We have good engineers constantly improving the Platform. If you think our software could help your organization, schedule a live demo with us. In the demo we’ll show you all of the bells and whistles of our platform.
