Raising Money with No Heartstrings to Pull

by Kivi Leroux Miller on June 15, 2011

in Nonprofit Communications

I’m happy that I don’t get too many complaints about my webinars, but one that I do hear from time to time is this: “We don’t have puppies, or kids, or people in desperate situations. Tell us how to make (fill in the blank — storytelling, social media, etc.) work when you don’t have any heartstrings to yank on.”

It’s a very good question and it’s certainly made me more actively seek out examples of nonprofits who are doing great marketing and fundraising without direct connections to the people who are ultimately served. These are often research or policy organizations, or those positioned as technical assistance or resource providers who are a few steps removed from the action on the ground.

When Susan Gordon of Causes and I talked about the free webinar we are putting on next week (register now to join us) where we’ll discuss fundraising on Facebook and other social sites, I asked her to identify some groups that has less-than-ideal situations for social media fundraising, meaning the work was not as tangible as we might like to see.

Here are a few examples Susan identified of nonprofits who have raised at least $1,000 with projects that were pretty general:

Sophia’s Cure – Pledge of Compassion

The Migraine Research Foundation Facebook Challenge

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation

Fast for Freedom (Not for Sale Foundation)

Help Us Find Tomorrow’s Leaders (Public Allies)

Join Susan and me on Tuesday for a FREE webinar:  Raising Money Via Social Media: Using Causes and Your Facebook Page.

Today’s Book Giveaway

What ideas do you have for marketing research or policy organizations that don’t have great people stories or immediate or concrete results at the ready?

Leave a comment below, and you’ll be entered to win a free copy of  “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.  We’ll draw the winner next week, so you have plenty of time to add your ideas.

I’m giving away a book each day this week, in celebration of the one year anniversary of my own book’s release, The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause (on sale for $23.29 at Amazon).

  • Rebekah Gienapp

    In the past, our organization has sometimes taken on policy campaigns where we didn’t have much direct connection with people affected by the policies. So, often I asked people to imagine themselves in a situation. For example, “what if you had to get by on minimum wage? Would you choose to pay your utility bill, or buy groceries?”

  • http://www.tripointfundraising.com Amy Eisenstein

    Great topic and great title! The grass is always greener… those with heartstrings to pull complain that they don’t have natural constituencies like alumni or patients or members. There are always people who will be interested in your cause (you are, after all) it’s just a matter of finding them.

  • http://www.event360.com/blog Event360

    Thanks for this post. When you don’t have those strong emotional ties, it can be hard to get people to connect to the larger cause. Rebekah, great suggestion — getting people to imagine a situation and putting a “face” to a cause is a good way to try and get supporters to think about what they’re giving to on a more concrete level. 

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