Fresh Perspectives on Social Change | nonprofits |

Crowdfunding is a major buzzword these days, especially in the non-profit space. There’s a good reason for this: it’s projected to become a $90 billion dollar industry by 2025 and 30% of that money will be directed toward charitable causes. Despite this opportunity, I find that we non-profiters are generally fearful of crowdfunding because it is something new that we don’t understand.  So, let’s take some time today and unpack the basics of crowdfunding.  I’ll chat about what it is, talk more about why you should do it, and finally, share some tools that will help you crowdfund like a pro. First, what is crowdfunding? It’s the process of raising money for a project or venture from a large number of people. This is typically done online and is based around a defined timeline. For example, you want to raise money to build a school in 6 months, so you create a crowdfunding campaign aimed at raising a certain dollar amount within that time. Why crowdfund? Because more and more donor dollars are showing up there every day. If you don’t get the hang of this, you’ll risk losing out. Crowdfunding is great for highlighting a one-time project or need at your organization. It also serves the dual purpose of raising money AND awareness. For example, this campaign at a small non-profit serving homeless individuals raised $70,000 for a one-time project AND brought in a whole new crew of volunteers. Check out the video they used: This is new to me, I’m scared! Don’t be. Yes it’s a new trend in giving, but once you go down this road, you’ll find that it’s very similar to donor drives you’re used to: make people part of something larger than themselves, tell a great story, and make the ask.   Okay, you’ve sold me. But where do I begin? First, you need to choose a crowdfunding platform that best fits your campaign. There are lots of them out there and you don’t necessarily want to go with one just because it has tons of people. For example, Kickstarter has millions of people funding projects, but they don’t host many charitable campaigns and you get nothing if you don’t hit your donation goal. Indiegogo is more cause focused, but they take a high percentage of funds raised and the projects on there tend to be more about creating a physical product. GoFundMe has been a go to for charitable contributions in recent years, but their fees are quite high and they’ve had a number of fraudulent campaigns.   So, you need to sit down with your team and get very clear about how much you want to raise, who you’ll invite into the campaign, and how you want to reach them.   P.S. WonderWe is the only crowdfunding platform by and for non-profits. Our fees are the lowest, tools are the easiest to use, and you can access a social network of cause minded folks.  You should check it out! :) Once you’ve picked your platform, here are some tools to get you started: First, there are three articles you should read: Stanford article Beth Kanter article National Council of Nonprofits Article Those are the three best articles I’ve found to help understand the basics of crowdfunding. Here are the major takeaways: It’s important to get significant buy in from your tribe before you launch your campaign.  Too many campaigns just launch without building a bunch of pre-launch buzz. Don’t let this happen to you, you have to get people jazzed about the campaign before it launches.  To do that, you need to let all your stakeholders know about the campaign your planning, and encourage them to share with friends and family.   People will donate to your campaign mainly for these reasons: Participation: They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. People: They care about and believe in the people running the campaign and want to support them. Purpose: They believe in the campaign’s goals and want to help move those goals forward. Perk: They want a reward in exchange for their contribution. Be careful offering physical ‘perks’ in a donation campaign.  I know you may love the idea of giving a T-shirt to everyone who donates $25, but studies have actually shown that physical gifts lead to lower donations. However, it can be very helpful to come up with a non-physical gift.  For example, donors could receive a letter from someone they helped or get their name on a donor wall. Tell a great story. This should be straightforward, but you’d be amazed at how many crowdfunding campaigns die because they fail to tell a compelling story that brings people into a movement. Your priority needs to be creating an emotional story that draws people in and concludes with a strong call to action. Let’s check some examples on this: Story of military vets in Chicago who help kids get home safe NY Times Invisible Child Series Check out this video from our local Big Brothers chapter: Deputize your volunteers and donors. These people already love your mission, so why not deputize them to help you with the campaign?  Have them share it with friends, help you craft the story, and empower them to become a part of the change you’re creating. What about timing of your campaign?  This depends on the type of campaign you’re running and what you want to raise money for.  As a general rule, there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ time to run a campaign.  It depends on the project you want to raise money for, what you know about your stakeholders, and the time your team has to execute.   Use the tips above to lay the foundation for a crowdfunding campaign and reap the benefits of the biggest thing to happen to donations since the internet.

Join us as we re-launch this podcast geared for non-profit leaders and other change agents!  This is the place where we start conversations to get you tools to crowdfund, maximize volunteers, and measure impact like a pro.

Did you know that thousands of businesses are paying their employees to volunteer at non-profits just like yours?  It's true.  But, you need a strategy to find and recruit these volunteers in a way that creates a win-win for your non-profit and for the business.  Join Barry and Josh today as they chat through the strategies you need to take advantage of one of the best opportunities to hit volunteerism in years. 

Have you been feeling a little to comfortable lately?  If so, chances are you are not being all you can be as you work to bring people into your movement.  Join us today as Josh and Barry chat about the importantce of seeking discomfort as a way to move yourself and your organization forward in a positive way.

Liza is a Certified Volunteer Administrator, and she brings a great deal of knowledge to the table as she and Josh chat about some practical steps you can take to bring in more volunteers, more deeply engage your current volunteers, and generate stronger recruitment efforts at all levels of your non-profit.  This is a DO NOT MISS interview packed with practical tools and resources for you to start with right away. 

That's right - we want to thank all of you for listening in, and we hope you've found our episodes very valuable!  We've enjoyed connecting with all of you, but we've chosen to put the podcast on hold to focus on bringing value to volunteers and volunteer coordinators with webinars, whitepapers, and other resources.   Have a quick listen as Josh explains, and we'll hope to catch you all soon!

Join us this week as Josh recaps this first year of the non-profit neighbors podcast. Specifically, we'll chat about the main tactics you can use to help your cause get noticed in a world where people's attention is so focused on so many other things. Listen in to learn exactly how we grew a large audience with this podcast, built a following around our blog, and recruited a following of folks dedicated to helping us support non-profits! Here are some highlights from strategies discussed: 1.) Join conversations 2.) Find unique points of entry  3.) Lift people up  4.) Be creative 5.) Channel your passion   Tune in as we chat about what this means for you in 2015!        

Today is a fun and festive show, and it's also packed with some great insight from none other than the Grinch himself! Believe it or not, that surly green dude has some great advice for us as leaders of volunteers, and we're joined on today's show by our friend Barry Altland - a thought leader in all things volunteer leadership.  Barry brings some awesome creativity (and theatrical flair) to the stage today as he acts out several moments of The Grinch movie and weaves them into volunteer leadership. Join us for a heartfelt and fun discussion that will leave you ready to bring the spirit of Whoville into your new year! SHOW NOTES: -Love podcasts & audio learning??  We've gotten you a free audiobook from Audible.com!!  Click here for our EXCLUSIVE link! -I referenced this article on 'support networks' -Barry Atland can be found by clicking here.    

Corey & his company, Realized Worth, are thought leaders in the area of CSR – meaning they work with large companies to implement paid volunteer programs for their employees.  I’m really excited to be presenting this interview for us, because I think that this is one of the most important trends for us to take advantage of as non-profit leaders.  The fact is, paid volunteer programs are one of the most highly requested benefits by prospective employees.  Simply put – companies that don’t have a paid volunteering program are losing out to the companies that do.  We as non-profits can use this to our advantage in two ways: first, by understanding these programs we can be prepared to search for these kind of opportunities in our area.  And secondly – if we think they aren't being offered, we can approach companies (armed with the knowledge that Corey presents us here) and present them with lots of evidence to show them why they should offer paid volunteer time. This truly is a must listen interview.  Corey and his team are genuinely amazing folks, and they’re really becoming the gurus in the CSR space.  So, have a listen, get inspired, and get your local companies on the ball with their volunteer program! Books: Purpose Economy Tribal Leadership Skills Based Volunteering Orgs we Discussed: -taproot -linkedin for good -sparked -catchafire Twitter @realizedworth @realizedcorey  

I've been dying to interview Jay for quite some time because his organization, Firespring truly is a thought leader on all things non-profit website/web presence. Jay is something of a celebrity in our space, and this interview shows exactly why.  Jay is amazingly generous, insightful, and full of great ideas for how we in the non-profit space can rock our presence in the online space.   Plus, as Nebraska's one and only B-Corp the cats over at Firespring truly are making waves in the cause based space.   Tune in this week for some easy to implement tools that will take your web presence to a whole 'nother level!  My Favorite 'Jay Thought': Non-profits tend to rely on a 'go to geek'... but if you want to step up your game you need to find a pro to manage your web presence. SHOW NOTES:  Bloomerang - donor management software.

Have you ever wondered how you can leverage technology to deeply engage with your key stakeholders?  Do you feel like your organizational message would benefit from greater consistency and clarity? Then you've gotta listen to this interview with Michael Robison of the A Group! This convo is packed with actionable ideas and resources that you can start using right away to dramatically strengthen the way your organization connects with your stakeholders. Building a following of raving fans and sold out volunteers doesn't happen by accident, rather, it comes through a process that involves dedicated strategy & the right tools. Tune in today as Michael and I put those tools in your hand! SHOW NOTES Special offer for neighbors: www.agroup.com/neighbors mrobison@agroup.com www.agroup.com www.textifymobile.com

Where it all began for me - AmeriCorps, Cleveland, 2003 (I'm the curly haired dude in the upper right :) Join Josh today as he connects directly with you and speaks from the heart. The theme for the day is how we as movement leaders can and must jostle people into taking action for social change. Josh shares a personal story & uses it as a way to lay out some key strategies you can put into play right away to cause people to get involved. Tune in for heartfelt discussion about ways we can use our stories and our heart to ignite movements. QUOTE "Every person has a revolution beathing within his or her chest" - Adam Braun SHOW NOTES I referenced one article - The Tool That Every Volunteer Coordinator Needs

Charlie Rose is the dean of City Year, a national non-profit and part of the AmeriCorps network.  Each year, City Year empowers thousands of young adults by inviting them to serve as corps members in the nation's most neglected urban settings.  Its focus and heart is to crush the achievement gap and make national service a universal call for citizens of the United States.  Charlie's one of the most inspirational change agents I've ever met, and was a major role model to me from age 18 on.   Join us this week as we go backstage to learn about City Year, the people that make it up, and what makes AmeriCorps volunteers tick. This is another edition in our series focused on understanding AmeriCorps members so we can make their alums an integral part of our mission.  

This week, Josh co-hosts the show with Dylan Manderlink.  Dyalan is a guest blogger at Volunteermark and has been doing an amazing job sharing her insight around her long history as a volunteer and social justice crusader.   Josh is an AmeriCorps alum and Dylan has had lots of experience with these programs.  Tens of thousands of these alums are in communities all over the country, and they make for excellent and dedicated volunteers because they have already been instilled with many of the values we cherish in volunteers: love of community, dedication to social justice, and much much more. Join us as we talk about why these alums make for great volunteers, and how you can find and recruit them in your community! SHOW NOTES AmeriCorps website Josh's AmeriCorps program, City Year

You don't wanna miss this one!  Isaac Shalev is the fearless leader of sage70.com whose mission in life is to help non-profits make the most out of the data they have. Sound dry?  It isn't!  Isaac is a highly engaging dude, and he has some amazing insight for how we can take data we already have, and use it to recruit more volunteers, train our volunteers better, and fundraise much more effectively. Isaac also has some tremendous insight for us in terms of data security and management at our organizations.   I'm not kidding when I say, it was one of the most powerful and inspiring interviews I've ever been on!  Thanks Isaac! SHOW NOTES Isaac's organization - www.sage70.com

Today, Josh takes the mic and walks through some awesome (and easy to implement) tactics that you MUST get rockin' with social media at your nonprofit. This isn't theory - Josh has tried all of these things, and he too was first intimidated by social media & how it fit in with nonprofits...but, he's made the mistakes and learned the tricks so you don't have to! Tune in to learn about the following: How not to get overwhelmed with social media The right way to nurture relationships with social media How Linkedin can be an amazingly powerful tool to recruit mobile volunteers And much much more! SHOW NOTES Josh chatted about the following resources: Tweet Deck - amazing tool for making sense out of the chaos that is Twitter Canva - The only resource you'll ever need to edit photos for twitter and other social media Blimpie Podcast - Looking at ways you can join 'uncommon' conversations Barry Altland's Cohosted Show - Barry's an authority on volunteer attraction.  Join us as he unpacks five critical strategies you should think about  

  Join us today as Josh co-hosts the show with Barry Altland, an author and thought leader in the area of volunteer engagement.   Barry's website and book info can be found here - and brief notes from our discussion can befound below. Barry is a truly inspirational leader - and anyone in the non-profit space will find these insights on volunteer attraction to be highly valuable. Five Ways To Apply “Otherliness” When Leading Volunteers   Defining “Otherliness,” and Why It’s Important for Your Organization’s Long-Term Results #1 – Rethinking Volunteer Recruitment #2 – Initially Engaging Volunteers - Using Open-Ended Questions - Aligning Volunteer Passions with Roles/Offering Choices #3 – Offering Ongoing Coaching to Longer-Term Volunteers #4 – Rethinking Volunteer Recognition #5 – Addressing Volunteer Performance Expectations                 - Example of Perceptions of Generational Differences                 - Example of Perceptions of Lack of Volunteer Engagement - Applying Grace and Acceptance to Volunteers

I've been struggling a lot lately with this idea of relativism, and of our tendancy (and when I say 'our' I'm definitely including myself!) to be vanilla in our conversations about social change. We're being vanilla in our conversations when we try to avoid speaking truth for fear of hurting feelings.  We're being vanilla in our conversations when we fail to stand up for what is right, and we're being vanilla when we stop fighting for what we believe in. So, don't be vanilla.  Tune into this podcast for some practical strategies for speaking TRUTH through your non-profit. Quote of the Day: 'I don't know what the key to sucess is, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.' - Bill Cosby Huff Post article I spoke truth to: Link to that here This is your podcast!  What resources do you need? We would love your help!  If you tell us about the resources you'd like from this podcast, I will go out and get them.  So, if you're reading this, please take 2 minutes to answer the following in the comments below, or, email your responses to podcast@volunteermark.com: 1.) What are the resources you need that you'd like us to talk about in this podcast? 2.) What is the biggest challenge you're facing at your organization? 3.) Do you have anyone you'd like us to interview (someone who can provide us with a ton of knowledge on a specific topic)?

  Join us today as we sit down to talk with Carmel Boss - the founder and executive director of CoAbode - a revolutionary non-profit serving single moms all over the country.   Carmel's heart to serve mothers, reshape our communities, and support children in these situations is truly inspiring.  Tune in for valuable insight on non-profit formation, volunteer recruitment, and innovative solutions to old problems. 

In this episode, Josh unpacks some amazing resources for telling your story to prospective volunteers.  Telling effective stories is one of the most critical things you will do as you recruit and retain rockstar volunteers, but you have to do it in the right way in order for it to work.  Tune in as Josh walks you through the process of crafting a powerful story, closing with a call to action, and the resources you can use to build your story. SHOW NOTES: Mobileys (please check us out and vote for us! We're down at the bottom of the page) Blog 1 I mentioned... Blog 2 I mentioned... Super Service Challenge