The three most likable aspects of the campaign, as Beth lists them, are also the aspects that make the campaign successful regardless of the organization’s size, location, service area.

1. “It’s easy and makes me feel good. I don’t have to donate, but the simple act of clicking contributes.” Make sure that the campaign doesn’t require donation of money from every participant: People could raise awareness of your campaign through their networks, donate time/volunteer skills, contribute stories of their own experiences that support your services or fundraising topic, etc.

2. “It takes me to the web site and there are plenty of opportunities for me to opt into getting in their lists.” Direct people back into your site and provide plenty of options for continued giving/participation in the campaign (opportunities to take part in the other options that they hadn’t yet done), staying in the loop with a newsletter sign up, and other media tools like blogs and videos to view, especially ones that focus on the campaign or campaign issue.

3. “It seems like an excellent way to leverage a network you’ve built up in Facebook.” Put campaigns out in the places where people can find them and take action without you directly asking them to, like Facebook. One of the greatest aspects of social media tools is that it can save organizations a great deal of time: Create the campaign/message once, put it out into social networks, and then let individuals, groups, and networks pick it up from there. If you already have a presence in a social networking space, like Facebook, and you create a campaign, then you already have a base of people who will likely be willing to donate themselves or spread the word for you to their networks.

You do not need to be a large organization to take advantage of these tools. Even small grassroots nonprofits could and should be participating in social media, especially when it comes to fundraising. Some would even argue that it is most important for the smaller organizations as they are already behind when it comes to internal capacity, awareness, and resources.

The main lesson: Get your cause out there where others can do the fundraising for you!

Grassroots nonprofit organizations are often overwhelmed by the underpaid and overworked lifestyle. Technology is available in abundance to help save time and money and better tool volunteers and staff to do the work they are passionate about. BUT, one problem that surfaces time and again is getting the right technology into the organizations and learning to use it so time, money and resources CAN be saved. The most compelling piece of the puzzle, though, for small nonprofits working in the field is that technology can really make or brake success.

The report covers innovative uses of technology, indicators of success, and factors that foster success. Organizations were compared by field, organization type, location, and more.

Complimentary to the event we conducted on the 19th on distributing content for nonprofits, in which I lead a breakout session on video, organizations included in the report are using video cameras to film events and demonstrations to use in future outreach efforts. Some are even leveraging youth in the community with technology affinity to help produce the videos, providing educational opportunities for the youth involved as well as producing quality video media to use as an organization.

Let’s cut to the chase though.

Here are the highlighted factors for success for internal and external technology use:

Internal:

• At least one technologically knowledgeable staff person
• Creativity in thinking of ways to use the technology and research the possibilities
• Allocation of sufficient time and money for training, adoption, and maintenance of the technology
• Staff receptivity to technology
• Understanding of and willingness to listen to the communities served

External:

• Availability of knowledgeable and affordable support personnel
• Start-up funding
• Reliable technological infrastructure

If you haven’t yet, you should definitely check it out, as all organizations can learn something from the grassroots stories in the report.