Here’s a fundraising scenario and projection for you to play with.
Assume your nonprofit has 100,000 active donors, 15% of whom are "missionaries" — that’s the proportion of donors who, in our DonorTrends survey, consider themselves active recruiters for at least one cause or charity they support. Your nonprofit might have a bigger or smaller cadre of missionaries. Do you know?
Then let’s assume one-third of those missionaries have a personal site on Facebook or MySpace. Recent Pew data we reported last week indicates 35% of adults have a social network profile.
Now, let’s ask them to raise some money for your latest urgent project or need.
Here’s what the math might look like:
100,000 donors x 15% = 15,000 missionaries
15,000 missionaries x 33% = 5,000 social net recruiters
50% of these recruiters rise to the challenge = 2,500 personal fundraisers
(too high? … this engagement is what they say they thrive on)
2,500 personal fundraisers each reach out to 10 online friends, 50% of whom contribute = 12,500 new donors (too high? … I’ve seen reports of even higher response rates)
12,500 new donors x $35 average gift = $437,500
(too high? … if anything, looking at average online gifts across many nonprofits, too conservative)
And each of those 2,500 personal fundraisers also gave $35 themselves = $87,500
Total return = $525,000 + 12,500 new donors
(and, of course, many of the non-recruiting missonaries will have contributed personally)
Return per personal fundraiser = $210
Total cost = negligable
Go ahead. Pick this scenario apart. Give us yours. Then go find some missionaries! Oh … and what would you be prepared to invest to get one of them?!
Tom
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Love your math. What a fantastic way to communicate the impact of missionaries. Way to agitate, Tom.
The research I’ve seen suggests that despite these rosy scenarios, online friends are worth about a penny a piece. The only groups for whom this scenario holds are groups with hundreds of thousands of members.
Good theory, but to suggest you can get that return from people recruiting over social networking sites is extremely optimistic. It is one thing having them join a ‘group’ on Facebook etc, it is another for them to click through this to actually contribute to your cause.
Jus wanted to add my two cents about how to fundraise with these folks once you get them to join your list – especially in a bad economy. Two of the biggest takeaways from Obama’s incredibly successful fundraising campaign were to: 1) embrace low dollar donors; and 2) make the case that donors are part of a movement.
http://tinyurl.com/7cgo7m
Tom:
I think your math is right on the button until you get to where each missionary has to get half of ten friends to contribute. What makes you think that even one out of ten will do it?
The little experience I have had with “friend get friends” programs is that you get only slightly more response than with a good qualified donor list. So assuming that we get a 2% response from those friends of missionaries, the response is going to be a lot less than 5 out of 10. My guess is more like one out of fifty.
Perhaps that is way too pessimistic, but I certainly think it would be worth testing.
Look forward to reading your column in which you report on the results of people’s tests.
RP
Great that you’ve suggested this formula, and I think you’re onto something. But I’m with Richard Pordes who predicts more like 2% to your 50% for the friends of friends. The real power for the social media fundraising is with the first level “fans.” Nonprofits should spend their time deepening relationship and appreciation with them–welcoming and encouraging their engagement. What we know from “old fashioned” fundraising (and giving behavior) is that their friends may give once or more often, but that few will become “fans” themselves. Some may become regular donors, but few will become those leading, engaged total fan folks. That’s ok, though, and it’s completely worth investing energy in, as a strategy.
Look forward to seeing actual data on it!
[...] supporters of your cause who actively recruit new people. These missionaries have the potential to create wealth for your organization simply because of their influence within social networks and their passion [...]