As 2010 comes to an end, we’d like to thank you, our readers, for your continued interest and support of FundraisingIP.com! We appreciate your comments and suggestions and will continue to provide you with useful fundraising information and uncover new fundraising ideas in the coming year.
What was popular on FundraisingIP.com in 2010?
Our free checklists have continued to be very popular in 2010. Including our new social media strategy checklist, that together with our post Does Your Group Have A Social Media Strategy? offers ideas and helpful do’s and don’ts for groups getting started with social media.
Also popular this year:
>> How To Create a Website
>> List of Fundraising Ideas
>> Fundraising Events
>> Writing Fundraising Letters
Challenging year for raising funds creates new opportunities
2010 has been another tough year for raising funds. A sharp drop of donations at big charities is a reflection of what has been happening to smaller charities as well. To find new ways to raise funds, charities are using technologies like mobile phone apps to increase awareness and solicit donations (for example, search for Salvation Army Kettle and Bellringer apps in the iTunes apps store) and new commercial fundraising products are being developed, like SwipeGood, an ATM card that rounds up your purchase to the nearest dollar and donates the difference to charities.
The future of giving is also changing as more wealthy individuals are pledging more of their money for good causes. Bill Gates’ “Giving Pledge” has so far signed up 40 billionaires who have pledged to give away 50% of their wealth by the time they leave this world. And you’ve certainly heard of Mark Zuckerberg, one of the billionaires on the list and the founder of Facebook, who has decided to donate 100 million dollars right away to Newark schools.
Cause marketing campaigns by Target, Chase and Pepsi have been creating a buzz around winning charities but are still controversial because of how votes are solicited. Maybe the next generation of these campaigns will be more sophisticated and will benefit even more groups.
Mobile donations in 2011?
Charitable groups are anxiously hoping for Apple to clear the way for mobile apps that let them raise funds. The main issue holding Apple back from allowing these type of apps is that it currently has no way to track if donations go to legitimate charities. If Apple works to resolve this issue and in fact goes through with allowing donation apps in 2011, this will be another great fundraising opportunity for charities. You can sign a petition addressed to Steve Jobs to let charities collect donations via their mobile apps and devices.
Our own mobile app!
With all the changes going in charitable giving, we can all agree on one thing: that we can’t be static and keep relying solely on traditional fundraisers. We have to find new ways to harness donation dollars and get younger generations involved. One way of doing that is to take advantage of new technologies.
So we’ve decided that this year we will create our own mobile app and pass on all that we will learn about it to you, our readers! We figured the best way to learn and write about this topic is to actually do it. So if you’re stuck with your traditional fundraisers, because you don’t know where to start with all this new technology available, keep an eye out for our posts on mobile apps. This is new for us as well and we will start out with simple options that won’t break the bank.
We thank all of you for your continued interest, support and feedback and wish you a great new year 2011!