A digital success checklist for charities (Guest Post)
In a recent blog post for Tech Trust, digital marketing executive Matt Moorut shares a helpful checklist for all charities looking to branch out on digital channels.
In a recent blog post for Tech Trust, digital marketing executive Matt Moorut shares a helpful checklist for all charities looking to branch out on digital channels.
If your charity or non-profit is just getting into social media or online fundraising, it can be daunting. There’s a lot of advice out there, but sometimes that can be just add to the sense of “wow – we’ve got a lot to do”.
To help, here’s a really good checklist that you can use, taken from the book ‘Mobile for Good: A How-To Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits‘ by Heather Mansfield.
Go through the list below, ticking off the things that you’ve done. Hopefully doing so should break down what can seem a mammoth task into something more manageable!
Mobile and social fundraising strategic plan
□ Conduct an online communications and fundraising audit.
□ Organise a meeting to ensure organisational buy-in.
□ Write a mobile and social fundraising strategic plan.
□ Set a budget.
□ Create a system to track and report on success.
□ Implement your strategic plan.
Websites
□ Decide whether to launch a new responsively designed website, to mobile-optimise your current site, or launch a separate mobile website.
□ Select a Content Management System (CMS) and hosting service.
□ Hire a website and graphic designer.
□ Write content and secure photos for all website pages.
□ Launch a blog inside your website.
□ Prominently feature a “Donate” button and social network icons on your homepage and every page of your website and blog.
□ Add an e-newsletter subscription form to your homepage and every page of your website and blog.
□ Add social sharing and comment functionality.
□ Select a website and blog analytics service.
□ Get master copies of Photoshop files for all website and blog graphics from your designer.
□ Configure your website and blog for search engine optimisation (SEO).
□ Test your website on multiple mobile devices before launch.
□ Follow and study the World Wildlife Fund, Mercy Corps, Malaria No More, and Best Friends Animal Society.
Email communications
□ Select an email communication platform such as tt-mail or MailChimp.
□ Design e-newsletter and email fundraising appeal banner images.
□ Design e-newsletter and email fundraising appeal templates that are mobile compatible.
□ Prominently feature a donate button and social network icons in your e-newsletter and email fundraising appeals.
□ Get master copies of Photoshop files for all e-newsletter graphics from your designer.
□ Add social sharing functionality.
□ Create campaign-specific landing pages for email fundraising campaigns.
□ Create an e-newsletter subscribe page on your website for effective promotion on social networks.
□ Create an e-newsletter subscribe graphic to better promote your e-newsletter on social networks.
□ Experiment with online contests to build your email list.
□ Follow and study UNICEF, SOS Children’s Villages, ONE Campaign, National Park Foundation, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Online fundraising
□ Select a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform.
□ Select an online fundraising service that is mobile compatible.
□ Create a donate page on your website and ensure that the donation process occurs on as few pages as possible.
□ Set default donation amounts.
□ Add an optional mobile alert opt-in field, if applicable.
□ Add charity rating graphics.
□ Include programme vs. operating expense graphics.
□ Write and add giving impact statements.
□ Include tribute giving as an option on your donate page.
□ Create a separate donate page for tribute giving for effective promotion in email communications and mobile and social media.
□ Design promotional graphics for your tribute giving campaign for your website, blog, email communications, and social networks.
□ Create an ad for your tribute giving campaign for print materials.
□ Include monthly giving as an option on your donate page.
□ Create a separate donate page for monthly giving for effective promotion in email communications and mobile and social media.
□ Design promotional graphics for your monthly giving campaign for your website, blog, email communications, and social networks.
□ Create an ad for your monthly giving campaign for print materials.
□ Design a “Donate Monthly” button for your monthly giving campaign and add it to your website and blog.
□ Create a system to thank your monthly donors on a regular basis.
□ Ensure that your ‘thank you’ landing page includes social network icons, social sharing functionality, and a thank-you video or slideshow.
□ Ensure that your ‘thank you’ follow-up email is custom-branded and includes social network icons, social sharing functionality, and a ‘thank you’ video or slideshow.
□ Create a “More Ways to Give” page.
□ Create an annual thank-you and program achievement infographic or presentation and include it in your donor thank-you communications.
□ Add your tribute giving and monthly giving campaigns to your “More Ways to Give” page.
□ Follow and study Partners in Health, Feeding America, American Cancer Society, African Wildlife Foundation, and charity: water.
Social fundraising
□ Select a social fundraising platform.
□ Create a fundraising guide for your fundraisers.
□ Offer contests that reward fundraisers who raise the most funds during the campaign.
□ Create an email list solely for fundraisers, and throughout the year keep them updated on the causes that they raised money for.
□ Create a mobile list for fundraisers and occasionally text them fundraising tips and event updates.
□ Design promotional graphics for your social fundraising campaign for your website, blog, email communications, and social networks.
□ Create an ad for your social fundraising campaign for print materials.
□ Design a “Fundraise” button for your social fundraising campaign and add it to your website and blog.
□ Add your social giving campaign to your “More Ways to Give” page.
□ Send follow-up ‘thank you’ emails to social fundraising campaign donors with your nonprofit’s branding and social network icons.
□ Send follow-up campaign update emails.
Crowdfunding
□ Select a crowdfunding provider.
□ Write your project summary and set up your crowdfunding campaign(s).
□ Donate to your own crowdfunding campaign before launch.
□ Design promotional graphics for your crowdfunding campaign for your website, blog, email communications, and social networks.
□ Create an ad for your crowdfunding campaign for print materials.
□ Add your crowdfunding campaigns to your “More Ways to Give” page.
□ Send follow-up ‘thank you’ emails to crowdfunders with your nonprofit’s branding and social network icons.
Mobile fundraising
□ Select a text-to-give provider such as Vier 2 or JustTextGiving.
□ Launch a mobile alert campaign.
□ Add a mobile alert subscription form to your home page and every page of your website and blog.
□ Add a mobile alert icon to your website, blog, and e-newsletter and email fundraising appeal templates in proximity to your social networks icons.
□ Add your text-to-give campaign to your “More Ways to Give” page.
□ Create text-to-give and mobile alert promotional graphics for your website, blog, email communications, and social networks.
□ Create ads for your text-to-give and mobile alert campaigns for print materials.
□ Sign up for Google for Nonprofits and Google Wallet.
□ Follow and study the National Wildlife Federation, Humane Society of the United States, Human Rights Campaign, Greenpeace, and the American Red Cross.
Mobile and social content strategy
□ Write a mobile and social content strategy.
□ Create an editorial calendar.
□ Integrate mobile and social media into print materials.
□ Integrate mobile and social media into news articles and press releases.
□ Integrate mobile and social media into your blog.
□ Integrate mobile and social media into image and infographic campaigns.
□ Integrate mobile and social media into video.
□ Integrate mobile and social media into online petition campaigns.
□ Integrate mobile and social media into online contests.
□ Integrate mobile and social media into your online store.
□ Integrate mobile and social media into e-books and digital reports.
□ Integrate mobile and social media into smartphone and tablet apps promotions.
Facebook
□ Design and upload custom graphics to your Facebook Page.
□ Optimise your page for Facebook Graph Search.
□ Launch a Facebook Group, if applicable.
□ Experiment with Facebook Events.
□ Add Facebook Location to your page and request to merge existing Facebook Places Pages.
□ Follow and study the Trevor Project, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
□ Design and upload custom graphics to your Twitter account.
□ Organise followers into Twitter lists.
□ Unfollow if you have mass followed.
□ Host and participate in tweet chats.
□ Follow and study Oxfam International, Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), Idealist, Gates Foundation, and the Acumen Fund.
Google+
□ Design and upload custom graphics to your Google+ page.
□ Merge your YouTube channel with your Google+ page.
□ Optimise your page for Google Search.
□ Experiment with Google+ Communities.
□ Experiment with Google+ Events.
□ Claim your Google+ Local Page.
□ Host and participate in Google+ Hangouts.
□ Follow and study Zoo Atlanta, New York Public Library, KQED Science, American Heart Association, and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).
LinkedIn
□ Design and upload custom graphics to your LinkedIn page.
□ Add products and services to your page and request recommendations.
□ Experiment with LinkedIn Groups.
□ Ensure that all staff members have maximised their LinkedIn profiles.
□ Follow and study the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), Conservation International, and the Environmental Defence Fund.
YouTube
□ Design and upload custom graphics to your YouTube channel.
□ Maximise your channel and video titles for YouTube SEO.
□ Create introduction and closing slides.
□ Utilise InVideo Programming.
□ Create YouTube Playlists.
□ Sign up for the YouTube Nonprofit Program.
□ Add a Google Wallet donate button to your channel.
□ Experiment with call-to-action overlays and video annotations.
□ Follow and study WITNESS, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Big Cat Rescue, Anaheim Ballet, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
□ Name, describe, and build your boards.
□ Learn to brand and embed text on images.
□ Follow and study the Wilderness Society, Plan International, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), EarthShare, and the Cleveland Clinic.
Instagram
□ Learn to share screenshots.
□ Add hashtags to captions.
□ Download and experiment with third-party Instagram apps.
□ Follow and study Water.org, Surfrider Foundation, Oceana, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and DoSomething.org.
Tumblr
□ Design and set up your Tumblr theme.
□ Prioritise images, quotes, and humour.
□ Follow and study To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA), Nature Conservancy, Human Rights Watch, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and First Book.
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