Episode 135: The GoFundMe Impact in Annual Giving - The Possible Wave of the Future

Welcome to another edition of "Around with Randall", your weekly podcast for making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett. I'm so thankful to you for joining me on this edition of 'Around with Randall".

I talk a lot about my limitations in the area of technology and in terms of the social media world that I really don't know that much about. And yet, today's podcast is on that. Let me walk you through a couple pieces of information which I've talked about here, and you may have seen ,and it's kind of led me to this thought process which is odd considering the traditional way I like to communicate. The first is that the work that certainly the Giving Institute does and my dear friend Nathan Chappelle and dear friend Brian Crimmins and Michael Ashley have written about in the Generosity Crisis about this decreasing number of charitable donors in the United States. And we're under 50 percent of households in the United States giving to some charity annually, doesn't want. Number two is the fact that there's no way to escape the growth of the connection to social media. Even though I don't have a Twitter page or a Facebook page, I would be non-genuine, not genuine in saying that it's a growth. It is what it is. And then there was an article that came out here recently out of the Chronicle of Philanthropy which talked about the growth of GoFundMe campaigns.

So you put all of those pieces together and what it's made me wonder is that are we evolving slowly and maybe not as identifiable as maybe some might like into a new world of what I'll call annual giving that maybe models itself a little bit more on the GoFundMe model. GoFundMe has seen dramatic increases. And for many part of the study or the the article written in the Chronicle of Philanthropy was this people can see that as their generosity is their charity even though it's not legally charitable. So what does this all mean?

So I did a little digging and what I found was that I didn't have a full understanding nor the depth of how much money is going through GoFundMe. And there are other platforms, so this is a limited. They're the biggest, but not in totality. Listen to this. So according to the GoFundMe statistics from 2022, a donation and I use that in air quotes because technically most of the time there's not a charitable intent, sometimes going to a family, sometimes it's going to an investment in products, and there's all kinds of different things that it can be used for to help people. It's philanthropic but it's not a legal donation. A gift is given every second of the year. That $25 billion has gone through GoFundMe since its inception somewhere you know 15, 20 years ago that 28 million people made or sent a gift or donation or something.

last year in 2022, that we can identify who are the most likely people in terms of geographic area to where gifts or donations or GoFundMe support is given. The most generous states according to GoFundMe include Vermont, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, which is all kind of interesting because those all seem to be in very similar places. And then running into West Virginia is the top five. In terms of cities a little bit different. We see Marietta, Georgia; Spring, Texas; Spring Silver Springs, Maryland, which is Washington, D.C.-area; Sarasota, Florida; and Bradenton, Florida.

So all these things are leading us to this conversation around what does this all mean? If there are a donation, again in air quotes, every second and normally these GoFundMe projects are to help people, are we missing the boat in the nonprofit world being too traditional? And when I say that I'm talking about me.

So I want to throw something out at you as a thought that may be worth some contemplation not sure I could even execute it and then I'm going to talk about the Tactical steps on maybe some things around this concept. Should we be embracing a GoFundMe style philanthropy through your nonprofit, more aggressively, that almost either supplements or replaces the annual giving platforms that we're used to. And if you know me and some of you who listen do know me personally, you're probably like the one guy I never thought I'd hear that from is Randall. But you start looking at the numbers. The numbers of donations are dropping particularly in the people below $250,000 or less in income. But yet we know in the GoFundMe world that the donations are increasing exponentially, and many believe it's from that same population. Is it unreasonable for us to posit that those who are giving to GoFundMe are actually our former donors who are giving more directly? And they may not understand or think about it that way. But maybe that's one way to construe it. Could we implement this kind of process into our nonprofits to recapture these maybe individual or lower annual giving dollar amount givers, donors? How would you do that?

Well, the first thing is you're going to have to have a serious conversation about staffing. This can't be done, and we'll get into the tacticals about what what it might take, this can't be done just by snapping a finger, waving a wand. Number one is you gotta have people to do the things we're going to talk about in the Tactical here in a moment.

But number two, you gotta have the people that understand it. The one person I wouldn't hire is me. I'm 52. I got gray hair, and I don't have a Twitter account or a Facebook account. I'm lucky to have a Twitter or a LinkedIn account so if we don't have the right people and skill sets then this becomes very difficult because time. Number two becomes really important. They've got to go find the right stories, which we'll talk about. They're going to have to go find the right technology and support online platforms, things of that nature, that you can track that data.

Number three is, and maybe the most important is, you've got to have stories to tell. And again here in a moment we'll talk about the tactical about what that means. It can't be just give to us because that's not what's happening in the GoFundMe world. They're specific things, and those things have characteristics that are very similar at least in the successful ones that you can look at and kind of figure out. You have to have a budget. It may not be the same kind of budget, which means we're going to have to get a lot more knowledge on what costs are because you're not mailing stuff out. You're not designing the online, or excuse me, the digital mail pieces, different kind of budgeting process. What does that look like?

And finally notice in the beginning, probably, two minutes ago I said supplement or replace. I think supplements the right word because you have a generational giving conundrum right now. My parents, 80 and older, aren't going to get on social media. So is there a way to combine, which we'll talk about in a moment, traditional annual giving with this online GoFundMe world? We might evolve to getting rid of the mail someday. I can't answer that yay or nay. But it isn't today and so you've got to be aware. Plus I think we all, at least the people I speak with, we're all looking at our donor lists, our portfolios, our our CRMs, and we see a lot less younger people. So this has an advantage in building up a pipeline for down the road.

Staffing time, stories, budget, generational considerations are all important in this thought process, in framing how do we do this. So what are the tactical things that I can see, or at least sense, in a good way to consider how to build these out?

So let's start with the most important in every story you read. Every expert you read and all the experts are like 21 or 22 doesn't mean they're not experts. They just, it's not my expertise, but they all say the same thing. And when you think about it, it makes sense. We'll tie it into a study from 1994 to make that validation for you. You have to tell a story. If you do one of these or ten of these they have to tell a story. That story has to spark interest, and has to be emotional, and it has to be captivating, and it's got to be short.

I still read books on airplanes. When I watch and when I read or when I'm waiting in an at an airport, or I have a few moments, only when I travel because when I'm home there's a lot, so much going on. Everybody else has readers, has iPads. People don't read as much, and if you think about just the ability for Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram, and all these other things that are happening so quickly, they're not long stories. They have to be captivating, and they have to tell the value of what you're trying to accomplish in a very quick manner. And they have to be generalized enough. What I mean by that is not for the support that's specific but to whomever because who we're dealing with going back to Princeton file in the Seven Faces of Philanthropy is the altruistic donor, the person who sees something and goes I want to help, I can do something,they are not going to be interested in long-term communication on the front-end. It has to be simple, short, and immediate. Visual, impactful, emotional.

Don't forget, if you've ever listened to one of my trainings on The Seven Faces of Philanthropy I talk about the altruist. The best nonprofit in the world who handles altruistic donors is the Red Cross. There is a hurricane hitting right now and boom we got a commercial, you know, text 666776 and the Red Cross will get 10 bucks. And you're like that family doesn't have a house. That family lost its roof. The tornado went through. The hurricane hit. It's that level of connection, which is contrary to what we talk about in terms of what Nathan Chappelle, Brian Crimens, and Michael Ashley talk about in the Generosity Crisis is a radical connection. What I talk about is transformational relationships. That still has a place in the major gift platform. I'm not saying get rid of that, but that can't be the same philosophy with this group of people because they won't pay attention. Quick, immediate, impactful, general in terms of meeting lots of people's criteria, in terms of impact.

Number one, tell a story. Number two is be specific in use names. You have to become an expert at social media. You have to be able to share this so you can get a lot of people involved. And they're set up to this. The way I kind of look at it or think about it, you're starting with your closest supporters. Look, we're going to be doing this. Would you be willing to give 10, 15, 20, and then tell everybody what you're doing and sharing that on their platforms? If you're not building out a map of how you communicate, this then, you're going to leave this opportunity at not full capacity or potential.

There are studies out there, particularly from GoFundMe, that say the first three days in these inspirational campaigns which is really maybe more applicable than the GoFundMe campaigns, the inspirational campaigns, the first three days and was critical. The ones that have the most outreach in the first three days are the ones that drive the most revenue. So your planning piece has become important. Everybody in your organization, all their family members, your closest donors, all their donors, your email list, your people who are connected to you on LinkedIn, or that are a friend on Facebook. You gotta prep to get them ready for a launch.

You might also figure out who are the people that are connected to a ton of people. Can you get a celeb to get on board? Let me give you two examples. I work with a client who has a very famous movie star who's really bought in to their organization and their, in its health care, and the specifically what they do. And they're now beginning to understand that she puts out one tweet, one post, it's a game changer in terms of recognition. Are there people that you can align with in your community that have a huge social media presence and they want to be philanthropic? They may not give their money, but their connections can open your doors,

The second is just in my world I have something that's going to come out here very shortly that I'm very proud of. Who I affiliate with and how I market that is directly related to how many connections they have, and we'll talk more about my project probably in the next week or two, to get it as wide and as quick as possible.

Number three is, you got to be creative. Do you pair this effort for this particular annual giving opportunity for a social media kind of inspire campaign with a current event that still has a lot of the hallmarks of traditional fundraising? Do you pair it with a radio-a-thon so it stretches beyond just where the radio can be heard? Do you pair it with traditional mail, so if you're trying to do an annual giving campaign for something in Pediatrics can you mail out stuff to your traditional donors but at the same time build out this social media campaign that can build out more than the people you normally reach? Creativity in that connection and partnering might be interesting.

Number four is to have a clear goal in mind, and the goal isn't we're going to identify a whole lot of five and ten thousand dollar donors from this effort. There's very specific data out there that says the most successful kind of inspire campaigns, the go to me funding efforts have options that start at five dollars. If you started at 50 or 100 you've limited your capacity, particularly from someone who doesn't know you. Who looks as this as an instant decision. That's altruistic. It's got to be smaller than that. That's why the Red Cross says text 666784 whatever for ten dollars to go to the Red Cross, or you're, they're targeting a smaller dollar figure. Smaller is better. And once they're in the door they become nine times more valuable as a repeat opportunity. If you can connect to them, I'm not saying they're going to give a million dollars, what I'm saying is you might be able to get them to do other things in similar areas. It's a way to widen your database.

Number five, make it easy to pay. It's got to be simplistic. The Red Cross going back to that example, text six numbers, or text Red Cross to these six numbers, you're done. It shows up on your bill. You don't have to do anything. We all automate our bills, pay through our credit card, or how easy is that, how do you make it easy for people who aren't normally attached to you. We'll go to our website and go through six pages and then put it - no - it's got to be so simple. Whether it's a scan code, or whether it's an easy connection, or using, a little leery of Zelle and some of these others because some banking regulations, but how do you get them easily into the payment mode.

Number six, your title means something. Remember I was talking about reading and attention span and how if they don't get it in the title they're gonna loot. You're never going to get them to the body of the work and when you talk about the body of the body of the explanation, it can't be big. It can't be long. Quick. Does your title describe exactly what you're doing? Does it tie it emotionally to someone or to something?

Number seven, and finally post updates so these people who are proud can share that with other people in their networks. You might pick up more donations. Give them updates. And lastly, don't forget to thank them. And it's not the traditional here's your letter, thanks. It's gonna have to be more creative than that. Stewardship is changing and particularly with this group of people.

These are just seven things about telling a story, and being specific, and using names, and building out your prep network so you're ready to go in those first three days, and being creative with the traditional things we do, and having that goal in mind, and being small in the beginning gifts to build out a reservoir, people who might want to support you, and making it easy to pay and double clicking on the or double checking on the title to make sure it says something, and finally giving updates, and thank yous are just seven things I've come up with. Again, I am the strangest guy to bring this up, but I think there's something to this. If we're going to re-engage people who as we talked about 28 million people last year went through GoFundMe alone, which means they didn't make that five or ten dollar donation to our non-profits, they were philanthropic in a different way. Can we take that and find a way to meld it into what we're doing in a meaningful way to get people back involved. It's something to consider. I just can't believe I'm the one saying it.

Don't forget check out the website, the blogs, lots of information throughout the website. The blog's 90 second reads you get an RSS feed right to your front door of your computer. If you'd like to email me it's podcast@hallettphilanthropy.com. The world's changing. I'm trying to keep up, and I'm sure you are too. But what will remain consistent is people who need help and people who want to help, and our job is being in the middle to connect that conduit to get them that help from the people who want to make a difference. Which brings me to my all-time favorite saying, some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, then there are those who wondered what happened. We live in a world where people who are trying to make a difference, be people who make things happen, are trying to help your mission or your communities you know longevity or that other nonprofits that you're around to make the world a better place because they're the people and they represent the people who are wondering what happened. And organizations that are also in the same boat wondering what happened, they're valuable philanthropy whether you look at it through the traditional sense or this new way is going to be critical. If we're going to get to where we want to go as a society and a culture, and you're a big part of it maybe something today to think about and challenge the status quo, good for this old dog as well. I'll look forward to seeing you next time right back here on "Around with Randall." Don't forget make it a great day.