Whole Whale https://www.wholewhale.com/ Social impact digital agency Tue, 27 Feb 2024 17:57:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.1 https://i0.wp.com/www.wholewhale.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/cropped-ww-favicon.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Whole Whale https://www.wholewhale.com/ 32 32 How To Use ChatGPT + Meta’s Ad Library for Ad Insights & Ideas https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/how-to-use-chatgpt-metas-ad-library-for-ad-insights-ideas/ Tue, 13 Feb 2024 23:12:38 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=50493 Did you know that Meta has a public database of currently running and archived Meta ads? Using AI, you can identify top-performing content and trends to apply to generating new Meta ads. Here’s a step-by-step on how to do that.  This demonstration uses OpenAI’s paid GPT-4 model. The free GPT 3.5 model does not allow... Read more »

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Did you know that Meta has a public database of currently running and archived Meta ads? Using AI, you can identify top-performing content and trends to apply to generating new Meta ads. Here’s a step-by-step on how to do that. 

This demonstration uses OpenAI’s paid GPT-4 model. The free GPT 3.5 model does not allow file upload and limits messages to 4096 tokens (roughly 4096 words) inclusive of both input and output. Using the free version, you cannot analyze your entire dataset at once, but must split the file into separate messages, each a maximum of 2000 words long.

The Basics of Meta Ad Library

Meta has 3 versions of its Ad Library, each with its own caveats. 

Ad Library is a user interface that lets you search ALL the ads currently running and archived (up to 5 years) in the past across Meta. Social, election, or political ads have an archive of up to 7 years. EU ads have an archive of 1 year. In your search query, you must include location, ad category, and search term. Meta returns posts with each ad’s Library, Status, Start date, End date, Platforms, Categories, Estimated audience size, Amount spent, Impressions, Byline (who paid for the ad), and Creative. The caveat is that the data can’t be exported.

Ad Library Report is a limited interface that lets you search for ads about social issues, elections or politics. It can only search by predetermined filters: by advertiser, by location, or by preset date ranges. The interface returns information on the Disclaimer, Amount spent, and Number of ads in library, You can download a full csv report by date range.

Ad Library API is an application programming interface that lets you customize search criteria for ads in social issues, election or politics that were delivered anywhere in the world during the past 7 years, as well as ads of any type delivered to the European Union during the past year. It has more search filters and returns more data. The caveat is you need to do a little programming to get the data, there are still limitations to bulk export, and the accuracy and completeness of the data is still questionable.

For our purposes, we will be using the Ad Library to access a greater scope of ads and ad data, then export to pdf to circumvent the lack of bulk export features. Note that due to the export restrictions, you will only be able to analyze a small set of ads and the spend amount will be hidden, so this method works best for ad copy analysis of top performing ads or analysis of competitor ad copy. We will then import the data into ChatGPT for analysis.

If you have programming experience, see the Advanced section where you can use the Ad Library API to download up to *429 ads. 

The Easy Steps

  1. Pull up ad library view. 
  1. Sort by most impressions. This will help sort the most valuable ads to the top since the PDF export won’t include the amount spent and other details. 
  1. Export to pdf. Modify the total pages based on your needs. Pro-tip you can include 2 pages per to fit more ads into your export. 
  1. Prompt your AI to analyze your export.

Explore the content using the chat tool of your choice and ask for it to do things like categorize the ad themes.

Advanced Use of Facebook Ad Library API

Ok, let’s get technical. Using the Ad Library API, you can download ad data in the social, elections, and political category, or any ads in the EU from the past year. UNFORTUNATELY, Meta still makes it hard to bulk download ad data. I adjusted the data limit of my export and got it working for a day. Then, in subsequent data retrieval attempts, Meta threw an internal error, preventing access to its data. Additionally, the Ad Library API does not store image and video data, and some of the data is recorded in ranges versus concrete numbers, limiting your analysis.

When choosing the dataset you want to analyze, I suggest narrowing your search so that you are analyzing a more significant sample size of ads relative to the total number of ads for that search. For example, you can narrow your search to ads for 1 country and 1 month. 

Before you can access Meta’s Code Base to retrieve ad data, you need to verify your identity so Meta knows who’s accessing their code base.  

Identity Verification and Permission To Access Meta’s Code Base

  1. Confirm your identity and location. 

Go to Facebook.com/ID and follow the confirmation process required to run ads about social issues, elections or politics. This can take a few days.

  1. Create a Meta for Developers account

Visit Meta for Developers and select Get Started. As part of account creation, you’ll need to agree to Meta’s Platform Policy.

  1. Add a new app. 

Go to the Ad Library API page and select Access the API. You will be redirected to your apps tab on the Meta for Developers platform. You can then create a new app by selecting My Apps > Create App. Select Other use case. Select app type Business. This lets you access the Marketing API, which houses the Insights API you need to use to access Ad Library. Name your app. Add your contact email. Skip connecting a Business Account because you will not be accessing/managing a Business Account for this purpose. This is all you have to do with the app. For our purposes, the app only tells Facebook what permissions we need, which determine what parts of the Meta code base we’re allowed to access.

  1. Go to the Graph API Explorer to get your token. 

The Graph API Explorer is an online environment that lets you type in search queries and return data. A token verifies your identity and lets you access Meta’s backend. On the right, make sure your Meta App is selected. Select User Token. Permissions should be set to ads_read. You only need to read what’s in the Ad Library; you do not need to edit or post anything to the Ad Library. Click get access token and copy the token. The standard token lasts for 1 hr. Because of the lack of documentation online about the Graph API Explorer syntax and how to connect it to Ads Library, use your computer’s native command line or terminal instead. 

Export Data

  1. Type your search query into your command line or terminal. For this demonstration, I’m using a Mac OS. 

We will be using cURL commands. The cURL command receives a URL to transfer data to, or receive data from, along with other options for different purposes. Follow the below syntax, including commands, quotations, underscores, equal signs, apostrophes, brackets, and back slashes. Replace search parameters and return values with your desired values. For a list of search parameter values, see here. For a list of return values, see here.  

curl -G \

-d “search_terms=’voting'” \

-d “ad_type=POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS” \

-d “ad_reached_countries=[‘US’]” \

-d “ad_active_status=ALL” \

-d “ad_delivery_date_min=2023-12-01” \

-d “ad_delivery_date_max=2024-01-01” \

-d “fields=[‘id,ad_creative_bodies,ad_creative_link_captions, ad_creative_link_descriptions,ad_creative_link_titles,ad_delivery_start_time,ad_delivery_stop_time,ad_snapshot_url,bylines,delivery_by_region,demographic_distribution,estimated_audience_size,impressions,page_name,publisher_platforms,spend’]” \

-d “access_token=pasteYourAccessTokenHere” \

“https://graph.facebook.com/v19.0/ads_archive?limit=429”

*In the url, you can replace the version with the most up to date version of the ad archive. Because there is no documentation of the latest version online, I guessed the number. Any number higher than the latest version will return an error. You can also double check the online Graph API Explorer to see what version is currently running there.

Meta sets limits to how many data entries (ads) it returns using a pagination system. For me, the default was 25 entries. To adjust the limit, add ?limit=yourNumber to the end of the graph url. I tested the limit and the maximum number of ads I could pull was 429. GPT 4 can take files of up to 512 MB and only 10 files per chat. Set reasonable limits and make sure your file is under 512 MB. 

  1. Save your data output. 

Your search query will return your desired data in a json format. Json is a lightweight format for storing and transferring data. Save the terminal output directly into a text file (CMD+S for Mac). Do not copy and paste output as this will produce errors in the output file. In the saved text file remove the cURL commands and ‘data’ field that encapsulates the data you want to extract. You don’t want any nonstandard or superfluous information that will inhibit GPT from parsing your file.

This means, 1. removing the beginning of the file so that it starts at {“id”. 

2. remove superfluous fields at the end of the file that contain information on paging etc. The file should end with }}. See sample text to remove below.

],”paging”:{“cursors”:{“after”:”c2NyYXBpbmdfY3Vyc29yOk1UY3dOREV5TlRVd05Eb3lOekkwT1RNNE5EUXdPVGd3T0RJMQZDZD”},”next”:”https:\/\/graph.facebook.com\/v19.0\/ads_archive?search_terms=’voting’&ad_type=POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS&ad_reached_countries=[‘US’]&ad_active_status=ALL&ad_delivery_date_min=2023-01-01&ad_delivery_date_max=2024-01-01&fields=[‘id,ad_creative_bodies,ad_creative_link_captions,ad_creative_link_descriptions,ad_creative_link_titles,ad_delivery_start_time,ad_delivery_stop_time,ad_snapshot_url,bylines,delivery_by_region,demographic_distribution,estimated_audience_size,impressions,page_name,publisher_platforms,spend’]&access_token=&limit=25&after=c2NyYXBpbmdfY3Vyc29yOk1UY3dOREV5TlRVd05Eb3lOekkwT1RNNE5EUXdPVGd3T0RJMQZDZD”}}

Convert Data to CSV File

Convert your entire dataset to csv format before proceeding with additional commands that might cause data loss. CSV is a data storage format that can be read by spreadsheets. Because your current text file has an irregular json structure, specifying a regular structure will also help GPT to analyze and return the results you want for future commands.

Upload your file. Use this prompt to convert your file to CSV so that it can be read by a spreadsheet:

Task: Convert Irregular JSON Data to CSV

You are provided with a file containing irregularly structured JSON data, similar to the previous file. The goal is to parse this data correctly and convert it into a CSV file with the following requirements:

1. Each JSON object in the file represents a single record, and each record should correspond to one row in the CSV file.

2. The CSV file should have columns named “id”, “ad_creative_bodies”, “ad_creative_link_captions”, “ad_creative_link_descriptions”, “ad_creative_link_titles”, “ad_delivery_start_time”, “ad_delivery_stop_time”, “ad_snapshot_url”, “bylines”, “delivery_by_region”, “demographic_distribution”, “estimated_audience_size”, “impressions”, “page_name”, “publisher_platforms”, and “spend”.

3. For keys that contain nested objects, lists, or have multiple values within single keys, concatenate these values into single strings in the CSV.

4. If a JSON object is missing any of the specified keys, treat the corresponding field in the CSV as blank.

To achieve this, follow these steps:

1. Implement a custom JSON parsing logic that accurately identifies the start and end of each JSON object within the file, taking into account nested structures and concatenation of multiple JSON objects.

2. Parse each identified JSON object and convert it into a dictionary with a flat structure, ensuring that keys correspond to column headers in the CSV.

3. Concatenate values for keys with nested objects, lists, or multiple values within single keys into single string values.

4. Create a DataFrame from the parsed data and then convert it into a CSV file with the specified column headers.

5. Ensure that the CSV file is populated with data and follows the specified format.

Please execute these steps to convert the irregular JSON data into a CSV file correctly. In case of any issues or errors during the process, provide detailed information about the problem encountered.

Parse the entire content, ensuring every JSON object the file contains is converted into a row in the CSV file. Tell me the number of records extracted and converted into the CSV format. 

Additional Troubleshooting Notes: 

If your csv file contains no lines, 

  • GPT may need to adjust its parsing logic. Tell GPT to create a custom parsing logic to parse the data, taking into account your previous instructions.
  • your file may be corrupted and GPT can’t use a standard logic to parse each ad entry

If your csv file contains 1 line, 

  • GPT may only have read and parsed the first line of your data. Tell it to parse the entire content, ensuring every JSON object the file contains is converted into a row in the CSV file. 

Analyze Your Data Using AI 

Prompt your AI chatbot to analyze your table for top performers and trends. Use OpenAI or Anthropic to analyze an uploaded file.

Sample prompt: identify top performing ads. This gives you an overview of metrics to consider, what metrics GPT uses, a table for those metrics, and an explanation of how to determine top performers (high impressions, large estimated audience size, higher spend). 

Sample prompt: identify top performing ads by impressions/spend 

This gives you a new table that includes an impr/spend column and summarizes the top 3 ads by highest impr/spend.

Secondary prompt: identify [Ad Delivery Time Trends, Ad Performance Metrics, Demographic Distribution Trends, Geographic Trends, Publisher Platforms and Spend Trends, Content and Link Trends, Publisher Attribution (Bylines), General Campaign Theme] trends in the data. You can do this for top performing and worst performing ads.

Warning: Inaccuracy of Meta Ad Library API Data

There is documentation on the inaccuracy of Meta’s Ad Library data. There have been investigations that show that Facebook’s political spending numbers don’t add up, incorrect or incomplete data on ads with multiple creatives (you don’t know which creative people saw), inability to see creatives, and a lack of definitive spend. When conducting analysis using this API, do note these limitations. 

Resources

Ad Library API search parameters

Ad Library return fields

Number of Return Entry Limits

Marketing API Error Codes and What They Mean (terminal will output an error message in the format of html. A negative error means there’s something wrong with facebook’s side)

Data Inaccuracies with Ad Library API

How to use the Graph API Explorer tool 

Insights API code examples to get your ad data 

Create an ad campaign using the Marketing API, terminal, and cURL

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8 Best SEO Tips for Nonprofit Strategy in 2024 https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/best-seo-tips-nonprofits-10-minutes/ Fri, 09 Feb 2024 22:16:00 +0000 http://www.wholewhale.com/?p=1738

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SEO – Search Engine Optimization – (if you don’t already know) is the practice of improving and promoting a website in order to increase the number of visitors the site receives from search engines. Chances are you are on this page as a result of doing searches for SEO basics or intros to the topic and now you’re here! Basically, it’s about ranking higher in the search engine results for keywords related to your site. After all, how many people click on a link on the 4th page of a Google search (less than 1% FYI!)?

Before we get to tips, it is important to note that the biggest change to search is here with Search Generated Experience (SGE). Learn more about the ways you need to adjust your SEO strategy to be prepared for SGE

1. Research What People Are Looking For (not just what you have)

When we start creating our websites, we think about the content that we already have. Instead, we should focus more on what people need and are searching for. A great tool for this is the Google Keyword Planner – part of the AdWords toolset. The keyword planner makes it easy to find places which your audience is likely to visit and suggests new ways to connect with them using all of the targeting options available on the Google Display Network. The other useful tool for exploring new keyword ideas is the Keywords Everywhere plugin

Nonprofit seo keywords
Keywords everywhere shown for “Nonprofit SEO”

2. Study Seasonal Trends

Another fantastic tool is Google Trends. This can tell you a popularity of a specific searched term, based on time of year. For example – let’s say you want to make content about “Christmas”, but can’t decide whether you should make it “Christmas gift ideas” or “Christmas present ideas”. If you used Google Trends, you would see that twice as many people search for the term “gift,” so that’s what you ultimately should go with if you want to raise your chances of being discovered through the web.
Whole Whale does this with many terms including “Giving Tuesday” which comes up seasonally every fall. Below you can see how this shows up in our annual traffic in Google Analytics:

3. Build Evergreen Resources

Find useful content that your audience may use as an ongoing reference. For example: history, facts, glossary, background, how-to, tips are all the kinds of things that will still be relevant in a year (if written correctly). When making something (video, blog post, article) ask yourself if this is something that would also be interesting and useful a year from now. More on content marketing here.

4. Think About Quality Over Quantity Of Links

Every link is like a vote, and in Google’s world, the number of links coming back to you determines how authoritative you are. However, all links are not equal. High reputation or authority of a specific site matters a lot so think about your strategy. The more the better? No. The better, the better. Guest blogging can be a great way to build up backlinks to your content while also reaching new audiences. For example, Whole Whale regularly writes for Nonprofit Times, Huffington Post, TechSoup, Ad Libbing (Ad Council), and other publications to build reputation and links.

WWU Content Marketing Course

Online Course

Content Marketing + SEO to Drive Impact

We want to help you grow organic traffic by 20% year over year and drive greater digital impact.

5. Use A Proper CMS With Tags

CMS stands for content management system. Good examples are WordPress and Drupal. A good content management system makes sure that your code is in the right format for search. Also, it makes it easy to add tags, which help organize your content so Google can index it better.

6. Mobile Matters

Can’t emphasize this one enough. Make sure your mobile content is responsive. Pages that aren’t responsive get dinged…Don’t get dinged. You can use tools like Experte mobile test and Pingdom to test your site speed. Consider setting up accelerated mobile pages (AMP) around main content

7. Pay Attention To Google For Your Business And Staff

Create a Google+ page for your organization and connect it to your site. While author rank and ties to Google+ have been largely deprecated, there is still a huge benefit for organizations with a physical location to register their sites. You can manage how your businesses are showing up on Google or you can monitor your local search ranking with this MOZ local tool.

8. Use the Power of Pillar Pages

Create main theme pages that are then supported and link to supporting sub topics. Think about it as organizing content into buckets and then creating a descriptive table of contents around that page. An example on this site is our Online Fundraising page, notice how we break it into sections, descripe each one and then link to the supporting article. For more on this tactic, listen to our inhouse SEO expert talk about pillar page strategy.

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#DontTrainOnMe: Are you Polluting your LLM Brand? https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/donttrainonme/ Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:46:37 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=49976 Challenge: What is the common thread between these stories? 2024 People: We can just use the free GPT tools to create and edit our documents. You: I feel like there is risk here but I can’t put my finger on it yet. 2003 People: We can just upload all these party pictures to Facebook for... Read more »

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Challenge: What is the common thread between these stories?

2024

People: We can just use the free GPT tools to create and edit our documents.

You: I feel like there is risk here but I can’t put my finger on it yet.

2003

People: We can just upload all these party pictures to Facebook for fun.

You: I feel like there is risk here but I can’t put my finger on it yet.

1990

People: The ocean is huge and can just swallow all this plastic.

You: I feel like there is risk here but I can’t put my finger on it yet.
Future you: turns out maybe it isn’t so great to drink microplastics.

(Special thanks to Eric Antebi from the California Health Care Foundation for this one 😉 

Bigger is Different

The high-level lesson across these stories is that bigger is different and that data/plastic from the past doesn’t just disappear. There is a massive risk with using LLMs that train on your data, and part of that risk is that we don’t fully understand the scale of that risk as it gets bigger.

According to the World Wildlife Foundation, the average American consumes a credit card a week. Turns out a little bit of plastic dumped into the ocean over time adds up and comes back to hurt us. This is a potent metaphor as LLMs (Large Language Models) are described as being trained on oceans of web and other data. So, the risk of just putting a small amount of your sensitive data in the next model is like a drop in that ocean, not a problem.

But what if that drop is actually plastic polluting the person, topic or brand you work with? Leaders like OpenAI explain that these are probabilistic models that respond to prompts based on their understanding of natural language – they are not just copying from training data. However, it has been shown that these models can be ‘tricked’ into revealing training data, something that the New York Times based their lawsuit on (How to trick GPTs into releasing training data).

In 2024, OpenAI responded publicly to the lawsuit by calling the plagiarized content a “rare bug” caused by “intentionally manipulated prompts” to get “our model to regurgitate.” So you’re telling me there’s a chance? 

How much do you want to take that chance with your company’s internal documentation like HR reports, unpublished research, risk audits, and personally identifiable information? The truth is that ‘rare bugs’ are not that rare when there are active groups hunting for these vulnerabilities. Fore example, here is just one guide to how to trick a GPT store model into releasing its training data.

Bigger is different. As your company or nonprofit starts your generative AI journey, avoid putting plastic in your LLM ocean. Educate yourself and the team about why using LLMs that train on your data over time may hurt your brand or cause. 

Yeah, I know I am being a little extra with the alarm here. I am actually a huge user and advocate of leveraging AI for impact. 

The truth is that one HR doc or internal competitive go-to-market analysis associated with your brand is virtually invisible in the context of a trillion-parameter model. 

The truth is that one party photo of you on Facebook from the 00’s (probably) won’t ruin your career.

The truth is that one plastic bottle tossed into the ocean won’t hurt you directly. 

But remember my point – bigger is different. Especially when the rules of the platform aren’t final and the use of these models is still finding their outer edges. Much like when early users of Facebook thought it was just a college network and couldn’t imagine their future careers would involve using that same profile to manage millions in client advertising. If you don’t pay for the product, you are the product. 

This is why we built CauseWriter.ai for the Whole Whale team. To have access to models that are protected by the API agreements from the best platforms in the market. It may not have the bells and whistles of the latest AI-integrated writers on the market, but it is built to let you benefit from your data rather than large AI companies. 

How can I tell if a model is training on me?

If you aren’t paying for the product you are VERY likely being trained on. Though, even if you are paying for the product, you still may be trained on in the case of OpenAI…

Since writing this we have gotten a lot of questions about how to identify this. The answer is it is tricky because so many models and interfaces have obscured this disclosure. So, here are some examples of what it looks like when an LLM is disclosing that it is training on your content.

OpenAI example

OpenAI shows plan options and just omits that despite paying for a Plus level $20/mo they don’t list that data won’t be used for training. By following the enterprise policy, you can then see the explicit statement about training for the different service levels.

Here is an example of an option for GPT Store creators to actually select whether they wanted to use data to improve models. This option has since been removed, so assume the default is that all Store GPTs will be using your data to train unless otherwise noted.

Perplexity AI

Perplexity.ai is a AI first search engine that does a great job of citing its sources. Search chat content is used to train models unless users optout. Here is what that looks like:

Anthropic.com

According to an updated commercial TOS, their Claude model doesn’t use data to train new versions of their LLM. Though they do keep and review logs for compliance. Here is what this looks like in a statement “Anthropic may not train models on Customer Content from paid Services” – key word is PAID here.

Google Gemini Pro

Google Gemini that also powers the Bard Search is tough to figure out from a LLM training perspective. They collect and use data for safety reasons and have always saved and used search data for ads. For developers using the Gemini it looks like there are full data controls and information won’t be used for training – for now…

OpenRouter AI

This is an awesome clearing house for connecting with leading LLM APIs. While this is mainly used by developers, it is interesting to view some of the decisions that can be made that impact privacy of APIs that are routed through. Example of data privacy in the model description:

Another setting that is available offers a 1% discount if developers allow data to be used for categorizing training.

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13+ Lovely Valentine’s Day Fundraising Ideas and Strategies https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/valentines-day-fundraising-ideas/ Sat, 06 Jan 2024 04:12:00 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?p=10424 If you think this is another bit of click-bait list of fundraising ideas to do around Valentine’s Day, you’re half right. But the bigger takeaway here is that February 14 is possibly the biggest untapped day of giving on the calendar. Americans spent around $18.2 billion on gift-giving, flowers, and chocolate on Valentine’s Day 2017.... Read more »

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If you think this is another bit of click-bait list of fundraising ideas to do around Valentine’s Day, you’re half right.
But the bigger takeaway here is that February 14 is possibly the biggest untapped day of giving on the calendar. Americans spent around $18.2 billion on gift-giving, flowers, and chocolate on Valentine’s Day 2017. To put this into context, here are some stats around other (non-Christmas and non-Thanksgiving) holiday spending:

Claiming the Day

Let’s take a second to play a quick association game: Think about a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or an earthquake. What is the first nonprofit to come to mind? If you’re like most people, you probably answered the Red Cross.


UNICEF has Halloween; the Salvation Army and Toys for Tots have Christmas. But which nonprofit owns #ValentinesDay? How to make it yours…
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The biggest key in claiming a holiday for fundraising is combining an accessible peer-to-peer fundraising idea with consistency. To really get something to stick an organization must maintain a dogged consistency to reinforce the idea with consumers year over year. Your organization also needs to show up in search, news, and grassroots efforts by your supporters to make it a staple. Another quiet little secret is making sure you engage local Girl and Boy Scouts groups who are always looking for ways to engage in socially minded ways.
 
Let’s play a few more holiday-association games:

Halloween

Which group’s fundraising boxes come to mind? UNICEF has done an incredible job dominating this holiday with their trick-or-treat donation boxes.

Christmas

You’re walking down the sidewalk in New York and passing by Macy’s. Do you hear the bells? The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle fundraising program with the iconic bells and buckets is a perennial staple capitalizing on the season.  
Plus, which nonprofit puts a box in the entryway of the corporate entrance? Toys for Tots does an amazing job of capitalizing on the toy purchasing to give deserving kids gifts.

Mother’s Day

The May holiday might call to mind breast cancer awareness or newer contenders like #EveryMotherCounts.

Father’s Day

Capitalizing on both the holiday and baseball season, Father’s Day is dominated with messages of prostate cancer from the MLB.

Thanksgiving

Cold temperatures triggered One Warm Coat to start their campaign in 1992 around the day to raise coats for community.   
Crazy amounts of wasted food also resulted in donations to Second Harvest and as well as work with local charities to organize soup kitchens.

Easter

While clearly a massive day for giving to local church parishes,  in 1934 an enterprising group called the National Society For Crippled Children launched a campaign called Easterseals. Since then they have renamed the whole nonprofit to capitalize on the popularity of the Easter “seals” program.
Valentine’s Day does have groups like Eve Ensler’s V-Day that promotes ending violence against women globally through performances of The Vagina Monologues and other awareness events. Their efforts have evolved to further awareness activities with One Billion Rising, which is focused on organized campaigns globally. More focused efforts on relationship health have also been on the rise, including One Love Foundation’s campaigns such as #LoveBetter. However, this is the day of love and there is still A LOT more room to build on socially impactful uses of the holiday for good.


Americans spent around $18.2 billion on #ValentinesDay 2017. Time for a new #GivingTuesday? Here are 13 easy fundraising ideas to get the ball rolling.
Click To Tweet


13 Simple Valentine’s Day Fundraising Ideas

So how can you make Valentine’s Day work for your organization? Here are a few simple starts that dovetail with some of the holiday’s hallmarks (no pun intended). These ideas will be more powerful if they are done with the mindset of peer-to-peer fundraising and connection to your central cause. Rinse and repeat every year to claim the day.

1. Say it With Flowers

Flowers are the medium of communication for the day so organize sales campaigns  with schools, offices, communities to support the cause. Each rose or carnation can include a gift card that tells a short story of how an extra $5 or $10 went to support domestic violence survivors or creating a safe space for LGBTQ teens. Here are some ideas on designing this from Pinterest boards on Valentine’s day tags.

2. Partner with a Local Florist

Take Idea #1 to the next level and partner with local flower stores. Negotiate a portion of sales to go to your cause and add custom notes to flowers noting the cause. Think about the way gift wrappers work with department stores, while flowers might not need a gift wrap, there are ways to add value to get donations. If structured properly like holiday gift wrapping, organizations can use VolunteerMatch to find support.

3. Chocolate Covered Fundraising

Create chocolate-covered fruit or other confections that can be sold. Be unique  in tying the product to the cause. Think chocolate pops for pets, or lollipops for land, or making a product that represents your branding (think about all of those pink ribbon cookies served up in October). Again, there are some great chocolate ideas on Pinterest.

4. Guess the Love

Make good use of those candy conversation hearts that nobody ever eats: Put them in a jar and accept donations to guess the amount. Let the winner get the hearts (and requisite stomach ache that invariably comes with it), or just let the winner dump them on the boss/principal, ice-bucket style.

5. Charity Date Auction

Be careful with this one — you want to make sure that the community understands the expectations of the event (and that it doesn’t turn into an episode of Arrested Development). That said, an old-fashioned platonic date with some local bachelors and bachelorettes is both on-brand for Valentine’s Day and a good appeal to those who are single on February 14.

6. Named Cause Gifts

There  are a number of great plant a tree, help a family, and adopt a polar bear in someone’s name causes. These serve as great gifts, especially or a holiday that comes soon after the holiday gift-giving season.

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7. Cards for a Cause

Similar to flowers, create branded cards with a cause donation spin.

8. Candy Grams for Good

Take orders for chocolates or other seasonal candy to benefit your organization — and then fill away. Just make sure Gretchen Wieners gets one. You can also create a quick chocolate affiliate shop with folks like Chocolate.org.

9. Custom Valentine’s Day Greetings

Have a local celebrity or staff member record messages of love for people that donate to the cause. A few years ago, DoSomething.org did Valentine’s messages across snapchat made by a staff member dressed as Cupid. Doubling down on this could lead to creating something even more scalable like the tool built by Celeb Dial, but instead of prank calling sends messages of love. Alternatively, you can auction off celebrity greeting videos if you have celebrity partners with tools like Charitybuzz.

10. Premium e-Cards

Create branded ecards that audiences can download and send to friends and loved ones to spread a message. Pro-tip: try using a tool like Canva’s card maker to create these. You can also create fun ZOOM backgrounds that promote your cause and the day.

11. Galentine’s Day

Create a day of activity that you can brand and own around the day. Take a page from Leslie Knope and create a fun engagement around Galentine’s Day on Feb 13th. (What’s Galentine’s Day?  “Oh, it’s only the best day of the year. Every February 13th, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair, minus the angst. Plus frittatas.” — Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation)

12. Temporary tattoos

Create branded temporary tattoos — because sometimes the tattoos you get for your loved one shouldn’t last forever, but healthy relationships should. Make sure if you create designs that they aren’t time-stamped so that they can be reused the next year with a tool like this.

13. Put your organization on Tinder 

This is part publicity, but could be a fun guerilla tactic to raise awareness of your organization’s message and DTR (define the relationship) with new donors.

14. Email campaign

13 Valentines Day Fundraising Ideas

Send your constituents valentines or ask audiences to make your organization their valentine.
 
 

More to Love…

Amplify any of the ideas above by:

  • Pack it: Whatever the campaign you go with, have your biggest supporters register to push out a message on the day it matters most using a tool like Pack. 
  • Matching gifts: Engage a big donor with the idea of getting them to match the campaign’s efforts.
  • Make it a recurring gift: Consider this when you set up the donation page for the campaign. Catching someone when their wallet and heart are open is a great moment to ask for ongoing support, say on the 14th of each month.

Keep a Good Thing Going…

These are all just tactics that can be formed into campaigns. The bigger idea is to think with a 30-year lens and create something that can be repeated and adopted by an increasingly larger group of stakeholders.
Remember that the biggest floods start with a drop, and that there will be a reward to consistency. Just like at the end of a John Hughes movie.
Looking to write some more love (er, donor) letters? Check out our guides to fundraising email templates, donor thank-you letters, major donor thank-yous, and corporate donor messaging.
 

Tailor your messaging to important users with Lighthouse by Whole Whale. Learn more at getlighthouse.io. 

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What Nonprofit Digital Marketers Need To Watch in 2024 https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/what-nonprofit-digital-marketers-need-to-watch-in-2024/ Wed, 03 Jan 2024 23:17:51 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=49827 This is What WW is Watching in 2024 (besides whales)… Whole Whale was creating an internal strategic document and we decided to open it to the sector. You are busy and probably tired of overly verbose ChatGPT generated stuff, so we’re keeping a super high thoughts-per-word for you to quickly see what we’re looking out... Read more »

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This is What WW is Watching in 2024 (besides whales)…

Whole Whale was creating an internal strategic document and we decided to open it to the sector.

You are busy and probably tired of overly verbose ChatGPT generated stuff, so we’re keeping a super high thoughts-per-word for you to quickly see what we’re looking out for this year at Whole Whale.

Ads & Analytics

GA4 Improvements coming:

Fundraising

AI

Social Media

In 2024, nonprofits should prepare for major changes in analytics, fundraising, AI, and social media that will impact their strategy. Focusing on privacy-first data, authentic communications, and responsible AI adoption will be key to navigating an increasingly complex digital landscape. 

We’re here to help if you want to talk about a project.

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Don’t buy email lists in 2024, it could kill your domain for this reason https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/how-to-rent-or-buy-an-email-list-and-why-you-should-avoid-it-like-the-plague/ Tue, 19 Dec 2023 21:33:00 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=35399 Marketing and communication teams have significant pressure put on them to grow their reach and lists every quarter. This pressure leads many to want to see if there are new tactics or shortcuts that can be taken like buying/renting an email list.  Full disclosure, I have purchased and used email lists in the distant past... Read more »

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Marketing and communication teams have significant pressure put on them to grow their reach and lists every quarter. This pressure leads many to want to see if there are new tactics or shortcuts that can be taken like buying/renting an email list. 

Full disclosure, I have purchased and used email lists in the distant past and have NEVER seen any ROI from the tactic. Today, the downside of this tactic is even higher with an even smaller return on investment. 

Hopefully, this article will map out the pros and cons of email list purchasing. 

Reasons not to rent or buy a list

  1. Spam score of .3% means your domain is done. Google will literally block your domain if a spam score of .3% is hit by any send. of 5k emails This would be devasting for an organization as no future emails would make it into the Gmail inboxes of your supporters.

    Let’s make sure you understand this because you actually shouldn’t need any other reason beyond this. Starting in 2024, it’s no more Mrs. Nice Google. Bulk senders, you know, the ones flooding over 5,000 messages your way? They’ll need to show some ID (read: authenticate their emails), make unsubscribing as easy as pie, and keep their spammy vibes below a new threshold.

    Gmail’s AI has been flexing its muscles, already slashing unauthenticated messages by a whopping 75%. And with these new rules, Google’s aiming for an inbox so spotless, you could eat off it. Industry pals like Yahoo are on board, nodding in agreement that safe and secure email is the way to be (many more may follow). And for those bulk senders scratching their heads on how to clean up their act, Google’s playing the gracious host, offering clear guidance before the 2024 crackdown.

    Seriously, you can stop reading and just skip to the bottom which gives you alternative ideas to buying a list.
  2. CAN-SPAM fines
    Let’s start with the scary legal argument: it is technically illegal to send unsolicited, ‘cold emails’ to people that haven’t opted-in to hear from your organization. This may be a bit of a grey area when working with an ‘email broker’ that is sending it on your behalf. Learn more about the CAN-SPAM fines which can be up to $16,000 per violation.
  3. ESP Reputation and getting booted
    When buying a list your company will need to send the emails from your domain and ESP (email service provider). So if a list of 5,000 just show up in your MailChimp, Constant Contact, or Emma account and 10% get flagged as spam when you send a blast out your account will probably be flagged as spam and possibly booted.
  4. The math doesn’t add up…
    The cost of messaging a cold audience that doesn’t know your brand at a rate of $6 per CPM can be beaten by almost any thoughtful social ad targeting that will have much better measurement. The time involved with managing the process can add up with copy revisions and negotiations.
  5. You aren’t the only one buying that list
    Like using a porta potty, someone was definitely there before you were there. Gross metaphor aside, consider the quality of the list and how willing someone who gets blasted with these cold relationship emails is going to respond to your message.
  6. Brand Reputation
    Consider how hard your company has worked to build its brand and then consider how that might change if you are seen to be a spammer…
    “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”
    – Benjamin Franklin
    “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
    – Warren Buffett
  7. You don’t rent relationships, you earn them
    For good organizations customers, supporters and donors are like friends. Relationships built over time on trust. Now consider how successful you, personally, would be at making friends if the first step of the relationship was you buying their data.
  8. No free lunches
    Buying or renting a list can seem like a quick tactic that can give a quick boost to your marketing goals. The sales pitch is very convincing, pay X and you’ll be magically handed your perfect customer. Just remember, there are no shortcuts in the relationship game. What’s more, if there were AND they worked the tactic would be exhausted instantly because everyone would do them until they didn’t work. 

How to rent/buy and use a purchased list

Let’s first define the difference between renting and buying a list. Renting a list doesn’t give full access to the data and only offers temporary message sending depending on the agreement. The cost vary based on the target audience, but a general consumer list will run about $6 per CPM (thousand email impressions), so a list of 5,000 will cost about $800. 

Once purchased, the ‘email broker’ will send out the agreed message to the audience at the agreed time/date. 

Buying an email list is more expensive than renting but allows your organization to fully use the information purchased for emailing or remarketing targeting. Costs range greatly based on the target audience and data request, but roughly $1 to $4 per email or $100 to $400 per thousand emails (CPM) should be expected. 

5 Things to do instead of spend money buying a list

  1. Lead acquisition ads on Facebook or Linkedin that will deliver highly targeted, opt-ed in leads.  
  2. Invest in creating a survey, whitepaper or resource download you can use as a lead magnet.
  3. Pay for Linkedin Sales Navigator, it lets you send much more targeted messages for a B2B audience. Still kinda spammy but can work if you’re thoughtful. 
  4. Offer a Amazon gift cards as a signup promotion.
  5. Hire a creative freelancer on Fiverr.com to create a fun promo video.
  6. Invest in a part-timer to do any of these tactics to grow your email list 
  7. Starting a small money fire and record it as a TikTok marketing stunt because burning your money might be a smarter move than buying a list.
    Disclaimer: it is illegal to destroy US currency but so is sending cold email so pick your poison.

Companies that offer renting buying of email lists


If you weren’t convinced by this article not to buy a list here is a list of companies that offer these services:

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2024 Top Nonprofit Conferences https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/nonprofit-conferences/ Mon, 11 Dec 2023 02:49:00 +0000 http://www.wholewhale.com/?p=2725 The best nonprofit conference list to help you find the best networking/learning events.

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Nonprofit conferences are finally coming out of the ZOOM rooms and the 2024 season for conferences are now being announced and planned.

2024 is a unique time for conference-goers. In-person events are growing as people want that IRL experience, but many have pivoted to a hybrid learning environment. It’s great to have options. However, even the best conferences take up work hours, often require travel, and are always associated with hard costs. If you want to get a full lay of the land, scroll down to access our full database of conferences. These cover all areas of the nonprofit sector, in the US and abroad. And, if you just want the highlights, our top picks are below.

Top Nonprofit Conferences for 2024

Quick calendar list:

  • March 2024

    • 5-7 The Unthinkable, virtual, website.
    • 8-15: SXSW Civic Engagement & Climate Change + SXSW EDU in Austin, TX. Website
    • 13-15: Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in Portland, OR. Website
  • April 2024

    • 3-5: Create Good in Durham, NC. Website
    • 5-9: AFP ICON in Toronto, Ontario. Website
  • May 2024

    • 14-16: Engage For Good in Minneapolis, MN. Website
    • 15-16: The Collaborative (Classy) in Chicago, IL. Website
  • June 2024

    • 11-14: Points of Light Conference in Houston, TX. Website
  • July 2024

    • 17-19: ANA Digital & Social Media Conference in Los Angeles, CA. Website
  • October 2024

    • 21-22: Cause Camp in Colorado Springs, CO. Website
  • November 2024

    • Upswell (Dates and location TBA). Website

SXSW Civic Engagement & Climate Change + SXSW EDU

Note: We combined our summaries for the SXSW bonanza because, Texas.

  • When: March 8-15, 2024 (Civic Engagement, Climate Change & more)
  • Where: Austin, TX & Online (Hybrid)
  • Websites: https://www.sxsw.com/conference/civic-engagement/    &    https://www.sxsw.com/conference/climate-change/ 
  • What: Mega-marketing and tech conference. These tracks cover innovation, activism, comms, education and tech. So much tech. 
  • How much:  ~$1,360 (depending on level)
  • Audience size: 15,000 (SXSW EDU); 37,000 (SXSW)
  • Who attends: Professional fundraisers, nonprofit communications teams, and tons of vendors. And, everyone else. SXSW EDU is more focused to educators, government and people working in the ed space. 

About: If you’re the kind of person that thrives in crowds, parties, and socializing, this is your home. You must attend this conference. SXSW’s Civic Engagement & Climate Change tracks are hosted under SXSW at large. These could be particularly interesting for nonprofit professionals, but many other tracks are offered that could also prove to be valuable. These include Advertising & Brand Strategy, Startups, Tech, Media and more. The main issue here is that socially conscious programming competes with the broader SXSW circus, including celebrity mainstages and a dizzying amount of vendors and exhibitors in the main hall (which is more like an airport hangar). 

SXSW EDU is a more focused conference in the lead-up to the main event. If the ed space is where you live, the exposure to the newest concepts and lessons from case studies is excellent. The exhibit hall and networking parties don’t get started until the main conference on March 11, so if you’re shelling out for this, make sure you love the session topics.

Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC)

  • When: March 13-15, 2024

  • Where: Portland, Oregon (& virtual)

  • Website: https://www.nten.org/gather/ntc

  • What: The longest-running, nonprofit-focused tech conference in the US

  • How much:

    Early: November 15–December 14
    $575 members / $875 non-members

    Regular: December 15–February 15
    $675 members / $975 non-members

    Last minute: February 16–March 15
    $775 members / $1,075 non-members

  • Audience size: around 2000

  • Who attends: Nonprofit communications teams, techies, and some fundraisers

We LOVE the community around this conference. The sessions are well-curated, with specific tracks and great opportunities for networking. There are parties thrown by vendors plus a larger gathering hosted by NTEN. NTEN programmers carefully choose their venues with accessibility in mind, and the whole event is planned with great attention to inclusivity. Be sure to do your homework on the sessions you go, to as some may feel like they’ll require advanced research. Make sure you save time for the sponsor exhibit hall. 

The Nonprofit Marketing Summit: The Unthinkable

  • When:  March 5-7, 2024
  • Where: Virtual
  • What: Nonprofit marketing, fundraising, and leadership conference
  • How much: free for virtual
  • Audience size: 1,000 in-person attendees; 3,000 online attendees
  • About:

    Can you imagine a world in which your nonprofit achieves its fullest vision? 

    Picture this: You’ve accomplished your mission and can now rest easy, knowing that you’ve solved a critical problem in the world.

    If that seems unthinkable – you’re in the right place.

    You’re invited to join us on a 3-day journey into The Unthinkable.

    We’ll transform your boldest dreams of impact into tangible reality. Throw off your shackles and head into the unknown with us as we dare to think/dream/activate bigger than ever before. All leading to an unthinkable impact.

    This is your call to break free from conventional marketing and uncover fresh, imaginative, and revolutionary strategies designed to help you drive unthinkable results and ultimately, activate mission success.

    Join us in venturing into The Unthinkable and grow beyond what you’ve ever imagined.

The Collaborative (Classy)

  • When: May 15-16, 2024
  • Where: Chicago, IL
  • What: Nonprofit marketing, fundraising, and leadership conference
  • How much: ~$320-$499 for In-person
  • Audience size: 1,000 in-person attendees; 3,000 online attendees
  • Who attends: Anyone in the nonprofit or social enterprise space looking to learn more about fundraising and technology best practices, Classy platform features, leadership lessons, and insights on how to grow your organization. 

About: Collaborative, brought to you by Classy.org, is a two-day experience dedicated to nonprofit professionals. With fundraising and technology at the forefront of the conversation, we’ll explore best practices and learn how to leverage the latest technology to raise more. Extend the experience by attending our new User Conference bonus day for Classy customers. 

AFP ICON

  • When: April 5-9, 2024
  • Where: Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Website: http://afpicon.com/
  • What: The largest conference in the world for fundraising professionals
  • How much: Varies by membership and registration date, ranging from $999 USD (Preview Rates) to $2,300 USD (Onsite Rates)
  • Audience size: around 4,000
  • Who attends: Professional fundraisers, nonprofit communications teams, and tons of vendors

About: Hosted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, this is the Super Bowl of fundraising conferences. Representation from all of the main players in the CRM and donation platform games are here. Content is focused on the trends and tactics in fundraising with a lot of time (we’re talking hours a day) is allocated to the sponsor exhibit hall. Big points for networking and parties, which are thrown by the conference and sponsors. Remember when going that this is a group of fundraisers: Their job is to raise money. Game. On.

Engage For Good

  • When: May 14 – 16, 2024
  • Where: Marriott Minneapolis City Center
  • Websitehttps://engageforgood.com/conference/ 
  • What:  Nonprofit and Corporate Social Responsibility conference  
  • How much: ~$445–$1,395
  • Audience size: Around 300
  • Who attends: CSR professionals, nonprofit marketers, executives, cause marketers  

About: Formerly known as the Cause Marketing Forum, this focused audience works (as the original name would suggest) in the cause marketing ecosystem. Content sits at the intersection of purpose and profit, featuring case studies of successful partnerships. Networking happens between sessions and at the opening day after-party. This is a great conference to learn from experts about smart earned-revenue models, and about how the CSR world at for-profit companies operates. 

National Conference of Volunteering and Service: Points of Light

  • When:  June 11-14, 2024
  • Where: Marriott Marquis Houston
  • Website: https://www.pointsoflight.org/conference/
  • What: The world’s largest conference focused on volunteer and service, bringing together more than 2,000 nonprofit, government, business, and civic leaders to gain and share the knowledge, resources and connections..
  • How much: ~$525 – $950
  • Audience size: around 2,000
  • Who attends: Volunteer coordinators, nonprofit communications teams, gov’t and social entrepreneurs and vendors. Many organizations involved in the old Hands-On Points of Light and AmeriCorps networks.

This multi-day conference offers plenty of breakouts and practical, learning-driven tracks with an eye towards cross-sector collaboration. Service and volunteerism are a core theme, with many sessions focused on utilizing AmeriCorps and corporate volunteers. Networking is encouraged during breaks, however there isn’t a main reception for dedicated networking. Plenty of vendors are on-site to share insights and exhibit their work.

Cause Camp

  • When: October 21-22, 2024
  • Where: Colorado Springs, Cheyenne Mountain Resort
  • Website: https://cause.camp/2024conference/ 
  • What: Nonprofit marketing, fundraising, and leadership conference
  • How much: TBD Jan 15th 2024
  • Audience size: Typically 300, Open
  • Who attends: Nonprofit story tellers, executives and fundraisers

About: Presented by Nonprofit Hub, Cause Camp features a small audience and presenters with a high amount of polish. The content is carefully curated and well-paced. Networking happens between sessions and at an opening-day party. The community is very welcoming and it is clear why many people return year after year.

BETTER, HIGHER, SUCCESSFUL  – TOGETHER 

An homage to the Olympic motto, Cause Camp 2024 embraces the words, “Better, Higher, Successful – Together”. Nonprofits can only thrive when the collaborative spirit of the sector is strong. Cause Camp draws in hundreds of nonprofit professionals, top industry experts and problem solvers for a two-day nonprofit conference that equips you to solve real issues facing your organization. Let’s unite and make the world a better place, together.

Create Good

When: April 3-5, 2024.
Where: Durham Arts Council, 120 Morris Street, Durham, NC

Cost: $175-275
Website: https://www.creategoodconference.com/

About: Create Good is a 2-day conference to inspire nonprofit communicators to amplify their missions with the latest tools and techniques. We invite communicators from around the country to share what they have learned, creating the most meaningful and eye-catching work. It’s a fun, laid-back conference where folks who love nonprofit communications finally feel seen. In its 9th year, this conference brings back repeat attendees and fresh, diverse faces every year.

It’s a conference designed for nonprofit communicators, focusing on inspiring them with the latest tools and techniques. The event brings together communicators from around the country who are engaged in meaningful and impactful work, offering them a platform to share their experiences and learnings. The conference aims to uplift the entire sector through a mix of smart insights and fun, with a commitment to those driving change in the world. For more details, visit Create Good Conference.

Upswell

  • When: November ? 
  • Where:  US 
  • Website: https://independentsector.org/upswell/
  • What: Nonprofit fundraising and marketing conference
  • How much: TBA, but hosting free pop-up events now through the Fall
  • Audience size: Open
  • Who attends: Professional fundraisers, nonprofit communications teams, and tons of vendors.

ANA Digital & Social Media Conference 

  • When: July 17-19th, 2024
  • Where: InterContinental Los Angeles, located at 900 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
  • Website: July Social media conference
  • What: Nonprofit fundraising and marketing conference
  • How much: $99-$999
  • Audience size: Around 200
  • Who attends: Professional fundraisers, nonprofit communications teams, and tons of vendors.

About: Formerly DMA: Washington Nonprofit Conference) Hosted by ANA (Association of National Advertisers), which acquired DMA Nonprofit Federation, this multi-day conference offers plenty of fresh ideas and expertise. Networking is encouraged during breaks, and there is also a reception.  ANA runs many conferences that can be found here: 

Here’s a summarized list of ANA conferences for 2024 with URLs:

  • ANA/AEF Future of Marketing Leadership Conference

    • Date: Feb 28 – Feb 29, 2024
    • Location: New York, NY
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA Media Conference

    • Date: Mar 18 – Mar 20, 2024
    • Location: Orlando, FL
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA AI for Marketers Conference

    • Date: Apr 8 – Apr 10, 2024
    • Location: Hollywood, FL
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA Brand Masters Conference

    • Date: Apr 15 – Apr 17, 2024
    • Location: Carlsbad, CA
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference

    • Date: May 5 – May 8, 2024
    • Location: Orlando, FL
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA In-House Agency Conference

    • Date: May 14 – May 16, 2024
    • Location: Carlsbad, CA
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA MarTech for Marketers Conference

    • Date: May 20 – May 22, 2024
    • Location: Orlando, FL
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA Masters of B2B Marketing Conference

    • Date: Jun 12 – Jun 14, 2024
    • Location: Naples, FL
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA Digital & Social Media Conference

    • Date: Jul 17 – Jul 19, 2024
    • Location: Los Angeles, CA
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA Brand Activation & Creativity Conference

    • Date: Sep 10 – Sep 11, 2024
    • Location: Virtual Event
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA Measurement & Analytics Conference

    • Date: Sep 16 – Sep 18, 2024
    • Location: Chicago, IL
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference

    • Date: Oct 22 – Oct 25, 2024
    • Location: Orlando, FL
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA Masters of Advertising Law Conference

    • Date: Nov 11 – Nov 13, 2024
    • Location: Scottsdale, AZ
    • More Info
  • 2024 ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference

    • Date: Nov 18 – Nov 20, 2024
    • Location: Las Vegas, NV
    • More Info

If we missed any quintessential nonprofit conferences or you would like to add your conference to the list, please add it below:

Also, just in case you are in charge of planning a conference, we love presenting and sharing our knowledge with the sector. Here are the topics we like to present around.

And here’s our podcast on how to effectively attend a conference with Social Media for Nonprofit

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37 Social Media Ideas for Nonprofits https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/social-media-ideas-nonprofits/ Sun, 10 Dec 2023 02:25:00 +0000 http://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=post&p=3880 Great ideas to jumpstart your social media posts.

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We all have hundreds of ideas for content to post on social media… until it’s actually time for us to post something to social media. And as New York City Ballet co-founder George Balanchine once said, “My muse must come to me on union time.” We’re willing to bet that the NYCB digital team feels the same way, especially when it comes to getting the right content onto Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedInPinterest, or any other social media marketing platform (we won’t judge you if you’re still trying to make Friendster happen).

If your muse is stuck in traffic, however, here are some of our favorite social media post ideas to get you started. The key with all of these ideas is to be human, and to look at your analytics to see what is working. Build on those strategies that are driving engagement and throw out the ones that aren’t.

Wait, why don’t I just use ChatGPT? 

Generative AI is great for creating content as long as you give it the right prompts and know how to treat it’s content as a first draft. Here is a Social InfluencerGPT trained to help nonprofits from CauseWriter.ai.

1. Shareable Quotes

Create a template using Canva that you can use and reuse with multiple iterations for inspirational quotes. We love how quickly orgs like Stand Up 2 Cancer can turn these out on Instagram. A consistent look will help establish your credibility as a content producer. Make sure to include your logo or website URL so it can be traced back to your organization.

2. Stats and Facts

Get ready for another Canva template: Pull facts and stats from your annual report, recent research, or static content on your site and make a shareable image with a fact. Bonus points for adding visual elements like graphs to help drive the point home.

3. Be a curator

Make a Twitter list (hidden or not) of influencers like bloggers, journalists, news sites, and partner organizations who may share information that’s useful to your audience. This makes it easy to retweet or find new ideas for content that works well, and content that can be repurposed on other platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook.

4. Meet users on their (hashtag) level

Jump on existing trends, like #MotivationMonday, #WisdomWednesday, or #FridayReads — or other hashtags that you find trending on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Using these will give your posts more visibility. #ThrowbackThursday is the perfect opportunity for nonprofits to illustrate impact over time. 

5. Create your own hashtag series

Create a custom series (like #ReadingRecWednesdays) and consistently publish content that users can come to expect. Lung Cancer Foundation of America does this with their #LivingWithLungCancer series, highlighting the human face of a disease they’re working to cure. 

6. Curate content from underrepresented voices

Do you work in a field that works for the rights of a marginalized or underrepresented community? Amplify their voices on your platform. We love nonprofit literary magazine Electric Literature’s #ReadMoreWomen series for this very reason.

7. Fill in the _______.

Post fill-in-the-blanks and ask users to respond with their answer in the comments. These work best when you present them in a visual way, like a colorful image with text. If you’re less established and worried about no one responding, ask volunteers or staff members (and their friends/family) to get the ball rolling.

8. LOL CATS

When in doubt, integrate cat videos. But seriously – does owning a pet help people recover from a certain illness? Was there a recent news story related to dogs in your field? Again, points to LCFA for owning this idea with #CatsAgainstLungCancer

9. Ask the audience

Crowdsource your content: Have users post their own photos to Instagram using a hashtag you create, and repost the best submissions. Or ask your followers what they’re reading/watching/listening to. This creates great user engagement, and also adds to your arsenal of content spread out over time. Another example from Electric Literature: They asked followers to share their literary-inspired tattoos, and even turned it into a website article (check out Account Strategist Whaler Olivia Giovetti’s Tolstoy and Milan Kundera-inspired ink). 

10. Be alert

Set up Google Alerts on key phrases that are related to your organization so you’ll consistently get updates when your cause is buzzing. Respond in near real-time when people are actually having a discussion.

11. Share your website content…

But tailor it for the medium. Social media platforms prioritize content that keeps users on their site versus getting them onto yours, so consider ways of condensing articles as slideshows or Powtoon videos for Instagram and Facebook, curate a condensed Tweet-thread with takeaways and facts, or come up with an infographic for Pinterest.

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12. Bring people behind the scenes

Show your impact in action, but also consider your company culture. We love seeing Team Fox in action at the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

13. Make everyone on your team a photographer

Equip your team to take photos and videos at on-the-ground events whenever possible. Set up a Google Drive folder or an email address that your staff knows they can send footage to. For presentations, have speakers add a slide to their deck asking users to tweet questions, photos, and videos from the presentation. Make it as easy as possible for your staff to collect useful content.

14. Borrow like an artist

Steal content from your other platforms and see what similar organizations are doing to engage their audience. If a post did well on LinkedIn, make sure to tweet out an abridged version. Host your Youtube videos on Facebook to gain more views.

15. Livetweet conferences or other industry events

A quick burst of activity on your Twitter or other accounts like this can mean a lot of new followers and engagement, while establishing your organization as a thought leader in the space. Follow conference and event hashtags — and consider following those that you aren’t attending as well — you can still add to the conversation. 

16. Quiz time

Ask quiz-style questions, and have users comment their guess in the comments. Follow up the next day with the answer. (Boom! Two separate post ideas in one!)

17. Make me laugh, clown

Don’t be afraid to keep it light! Find funny gifs on giphy, memes on memes.com, political cartoons, ecards, or make your own funny content from jokes or funny celebrity quotes. Search for “animated .gif” + your topic, or take a shot at creating your own.

18. Click around on Reddit

It’s one of the top platforms for user-generated content and there are constant discussions (ranging from serious to, er, very light) on a huge variety of topics.

19. Cultivate a community of guest bloggers

Getting people to write content for you is a win-win-win because it (a) helps their exposure, (b) builds their commitment to your organization, and (c) gets you free content for your site, which builds your SEO and gives you fodder for social media. Reach out to your extended network and build a list of volunteers who will write just for you.

20. Tap into FOMO

Frame content in a way that makes people feel like they are missing out on news or information everyone should know.

21. Ahhhhh!

Can you illicit shock in your posts? Is this something you have to see in order to believe? Browse the titles of UpWorthy.com to see how they make ordinary posts into must-reads.

22. Be useful

Create content that makes people better at doing what they do as it relates to their jobs or relationships. What are some tips you can offer on a regular basis?

23. Incite controversy

Is there a hot-button issue or debate that you can play into or represent a devil’s advocate position? “You won’t believe Trump’s opinion on X” will sadly work for a depressingly large range of issues.  

24. Tap into the meme stream

Not just visual memes, either! Internet culture has its own lexicon of joke frames (think of it as the knock-knock joke but with even weirder humor). Crisis Text Line is a pro at this.

25. Stats + questions

Another great thing that Crisis Text Line does is use its Crisis Trends data on social media. Rather than just throwing up dry numbers, however, they then make it personal: “According to our Crisis Trends data, Mondays are the most stressful day of the week. What tips and tricks do you use to make manage Monday anxiety?” Asking open-ended questions also incites conversation, which will serve you well in social media algorithms.

26. Share, share, and re-share

You’re likely getting your content in front of less than 10% of your total followers. If you have an article or resource that you want to max on your social media, don’t be afraid to share more than once. Look at publishers like the New York Times, New Yorker, and Paris Review on Twitter and Facebook to see not only how they re-share content, but also how they test out different captions with each share to keep it interesting for those who may have seen it the first time.

27. Save the date

Content is especially relevant and re-relevant on holidays and anniversaries. Check out some of the spring and summer holidays we collected here, and also consider birthdays/birth-anniversaries, historical dates, or UN Awareness Days as opportunities to share something relevant.

28. Humans of New York

Highlight people in your organization, whether it’s your team or (even better) those who benefit from your services. What do your employees do outside of the office? How people been impacted by your services? Consider a Humans of New York approach.

29. Giveaways and contests

Contests and giveaways will drive action. Use a tool like Shortstack to run a content-locked download or a giveaway of merch or swag (this can also be a great way to collect email addresses from entrants).

30. #OTD

Tell your history in real time — use #OTD (on this day) to share milestones from your org from the past, whether it was new hires, breakthroughs, expansions, or just that day that your colleague’s dog came into the office and made everyone’s day.

31. Go Live

Stream on Instagram or Facebook from a presentation, a practice session, or a demonstration (either of your work or a protest demonstration — it all goes in 2019).

32. Build your email list

An email address is far more valuable than a social media follower. Use social media like a more interactive pop-up and remind your followers (old and new) that there are more ways to connect with your nonprofit than social media.

33. Break up an image into a grid

This is especially fun on Instagram. Try taking one image and breaking it up into 3, 6, or 9 squares. Release over time so users can see the full picture (literally) as it comes together. Get more ideas for social media images with our social media graphics template.

34. Q&As and AMAs

Pair up with partners or influencers to host a conversation, AMA, or virtual panel — aggregated by a hashtag — around your work or cause space. Promote in advance and then consolidate into a Moment on Twitter so that people can follow from start to finish.

35. Ask an expert

Source questions for one of your in-house experts and have them answer over time, either as short-form videos, or as photos with the answer written down. Have fun styling these with props.

36. Make it personal

Why do your employees work for your organization? Highlight their stories on your social media — most likely they have some history with your cause which is why they work for you.

37. Hand over the keys

Host a takeover — perhaps every week another team member takes over and shares photos or updates from their day in the field, or perhaps it’s a partner, student, beneficiary, or donor who gives your audience a glimpse into their day. The Metropolitan Opera routinely has its artists take over their Instagram for behind-the-scenes looks at performances.

Inciting action on social media

Consider the emotion that your post is being designed to elicit in your audience. Aim for high-energy emotions because those are the ones that get people actually sharing or taking action around your content.

Ideas are cheap. Execution is what ultimately matters. Don’t lose sight of what matters with your social strategy. Are you trying to move people up an engagement ladder? How does your content support this?

Want to learn more about social media for nonprofits? Check out our newest Whole Whale University course! We’ll teach you how to drive nonprofit impact using engagement data and how to be your own social media guru. 

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Giving Tuesday 2023: Predictions, Stats & Facts https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/givingtuesday-stats-and-facts/ Mon, 04 Dec 2023 02:17:00 +0000 http://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=post&p=3646 Early Results show Giving Tuesday 2023 raised $3.1 Billion The GivingTuesday Data Commons estimated on Nov 30th that giving in the United States alone on November 28th (Giving Tuesday) totaled $3.1 billion, a modest increase of 0.6% from 2022. 34 million adults in the U.S. participated in GivingTuesday in some way (a 10% decrease from 2022, mirroring trends in the... Read more »

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Early Results show Giving Tuesday 2023 raised $3.1 Billion

The GivingTuesday Data Commons estimated on Nov 30th that giving in the United States alone on November 28th (Giving Tuesday) totaled $3.1 billion, a modest increase of 0.6% from 2022. 34 million adults in the U.S. participated in GivingTuesday in some way (a 10% decrease from 2022, mirroring trends in the nonprofit sector over the past year), contributing critical support to causes, communities, and non-profit organizations as they kick off the giving season this year.  

 “We are concerned to see a decline in participation in line with giving trends from the past year. GivingTuesday’s mission is to inspire generosity among as many people as possible, not just raise as many dollars as possible. Generosity has such important correlations with civic participation, community cohesion, and well-being.”

Asha Curran, GivingTuesday’s Chief Executive Officer

Whole Whale Predicted: Giving would surpass $3.45 Billion on November 28th, 2023

Based on our analysis that incorporates an adjusted linear regression, trends in Google Search terms around “Giving Tuesday,” and national giving trends, we predict that $3.45 Billion will be raised on Giving Tuesday 2023. This will be a 11% or $450 million increase over 2022’s record-breaking $3.1B.

As of December 2023, it looks like this estimate was overly optimistic.


Google Trends of search for past 5 years of “GivingTuesday”


This year is less predictable due to a number of factors that we see impacting this macro-giving. Some of the negative indicators that we think could slow giving:

  • Decrease in net search interest in September
  • Inflation concerns with rising rates cooling the economy.
  • A hangover from reduced giving in 2022 continues to depress giving this year

Some of the positive indicators that may help Giving Tuesday results:

Want more tips from the GivingTuesday experts? Check out our course with Chief Whaler George Weiner and GivingTuesday’s own Director of Digital Strategy Kathleen Murphy. You’ll learn best practices and get practical tactics for your campaign.

We’re huge nonprofit data geeks at Whole Whale, and few raw data gets us as excited as the data we collect each year around Giving Tuesday, the epic day of giving that has followed Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. since 2012. You don’t want to miss out on this great day of nonprofit love — here are 31 ideas for Giving Tuesday and 48 general fundraising ideas to add to your calendar if your nonprofit is thinking about participating in this year’s #GivingTuesday on November 28th, 2023. 


One of the most striking things to note when it comes to charitable giving on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving is that overall giving in the US has been anchored to GDP at the rate of 2%. Since Giving Tuesday’s founding in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y, this unofficial kick-off to end-of-year giving has yet to move overall charitable contributions beyond this 2% threshold. 

 

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Giving Tuesday Facts and Statistics

Here is our breakdown of relevant stats and facts by year for Giving Tuesday, along with general giving trends and Giving Tuesday’s place in the larger Thanksgiving shopping headspace.

Who Knows About Giving Tuesday?

In a 2015 national survey by the John Templeton Foundation, 93% of consumers said they were familiar with Black Friday, while only 18% were familiar with Giving Tuesday. Sadly search behavior around these two keywords is even more disproportionate, according to Google Trends data that indicates search volume.

Historic Giving Tuesday Stats

YearWhole Whale predictionActual donation amount % IncreaseTotal Participants
2023$3.45 Billion$3.12.0634 Million
2022$3.2 Billion$3.1 Billion15%37 Million
2021$3.0 Billion$2.7 Billion13%35 Million
2020$605 Million*$2.4 Billion22%34.8 Million
2019$502 Million*$1.97 Billion*393%24.7 Million
2018$363 Million$400 Million33%N/A
2017$280 Million$300 Million79%N/A

*Whole Whale’s predictions did not include additional institution reporting before 2021. Total giving calculation began including large institutional gifts and not just individual donors after this point. 

Giving Tuesday 2022 Stats

  • Total amount donated: $3.1 Billion
  • Participants: 37 million participated during the 24 time frame.
    • Whole Whale predicted $3.2 Billion
    • Compared to 2021 this was a 15% increase in giving.
  • Total US Giving: $499 Billion down 3.4% YoY after adjusting for inflation
    • Total charitable giving has fallen only three other times in the last 40 years in current dollars: in 1987, 2008 and 2009.

Giving Tuesday 2021 Stats

  • Total Giving: $2.7 Billion
    • Whole Whal predicted $3 Billion
    • Compared to last year: 37% increase
  • Participants: 35 million people participated in GivingTuesday 2021, 9% increase YoY
  • Total US Giving: $484 Billion 4% increase

Giving Tuesday 2020 stats

  • Total amount donated: $2.4 Billion
    • Whole Whale prediction: $605 million – didn’t include additional institution reporting.
    • Compared to last year:  +$500M or 25% over 2019
  • Participants: 34.8 million people participated in GivingTuesday 2020, a 29% increase over 2019
  • Total US Giving: $466 Billion

Giving Tuesday 2019 stats

  • Total amount donated: $511 million* Later updated in 2020 to $1.97 billion
    • Whole Whale prediction: $502 million
    • Compared to last year: +$131 million ~ 28% 
  • Participants: 24.7M

Giving Tuesday 2018 stats

  • Total amount donated: $380 million, later updated to $400 million
    • Whole Whale prediction: $363 million
    • Compared to last year: +$100 million
  • Total US donations: $427.7 billion (Giving USA 2017) which represents 2.05% of the 2018 US GDP ($20.89 trillion)
  • Mean gift: $105 (Giving Tuesday Data Project)

Giving Tuesday 2017 stats

  • Giving Tuesday gifts: 2.5 million
  • Total amount donated: >$300 million
    • Whole Whale prediction: $280 million
    • Compared to last year: $168 million in 2016 meant a growth of 44% YoY
  • Total US donations: $410 billion (Giving USA 2017) which represents 2.12% of the 2017 US GDP ($19.39 trillion)
  • Average gift: $111 (Giving Tuesday Data Project)
  • Social Mentions: 1,010,045 (Giving Tuesday Data Project) 

Giving Tuesday 2016 stats

  • Giving Tuesday gifts: 1.56 million
  • Total amount donated: $168 million
    • Compared to last year: $116.7 million in 2015 meant a growth of 44% YoY
  • Total US donations: $379.89 billion (according to Giving USA), which represents 2.05% of the 2016 US GDP ($18,561.93 billion)
  • Average gift: $107 (Blackbaud)

Giving Tuesday 2015 stats

  • Giving Tuesday gifts: 698,961
  • Total amount donated: $116.7 million
    • Compared to last year: $47.5 million in 2014 meant a growth of 45% YoY)
  • Total US donations: $358.4 billion (according to Giving USA), which represents 1.99% of the 2015 US GDP ($17,968.2 billion)
  • Average gift: $137 (Blackbaud)

Giving Tuesday 2014 stats

  • Giving Tuesday partners: +20,000 (15,000 of which were NGOs)
  • Total amount donated: $47.5 million
  • Total US donations: $358.38 billion  (according to NP Trust), which represents 2.06% of the 2014 US GDP ($17,348.08 billion)

Giving Tuesday 2013 stats

  • Giving Tuesday Partners: 8,500 (7,000 of which were NGOs)
  • Average raised per partner: $3,857 per NGO
  • Total amount donated: $27 million
    • Compared to last year: $12 million in 2012 meant a growth of 125% YoY
  • Total US donations: $335.17 billion, which represents 1.99% of the 2013 US GDP ($335.17 billion)
  • Average gift: $143 (Blackbaud)

Giving Tuesday 2012 stats

  • Giving Tuesday Partners: 2,500 NGOs
  • Average raised per partner: $4,800
  • Total amount donated: $12 million
  • Total US donations: $228.93 billion, which represents 1.5% of the 2012 GDP ($15,553.8 billion perUS GDP trend)
  • Average gift: $101 (Blackbaud)

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How to write a year-in-review recap (that doesn’t sound like one of those season’s greetings letters) for your organization https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/year-review-recap/ Mon, 13 Nov 2023 05:00:00 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?p=10017 You know the moment: You’re going through your mail when you catch the hint of a red envelope. A snowflake stamp. “So it begins,” you think. You open the envelope and the single sheet of green paper that was clearly at the end of an ink cartridge. “Season’s greetings to our friends and family!!!” it... Read more »

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You know the moment: You’re going through your mail when you catch the hint of a red envelope. A snowflake stamp. “So it begins,” you think. You open the envelope and the single sheet of green paper that was clearly at the end of an ink cartridge. “Season’s greetings to our friends and family!!!” it reads at the top.
It’s hard to get that image out of your head when it comes time to recapping the year your organization’s followers. And yet, this is the friends and family that actually wants to hear from you. So how do you send a year-in-review to your supporters that avoids the humblebrag cliches?

Read on for our tips on writing a year-in-review recap that your fans and friends (and family) will actually want to read…

Show, don’t tell

Instead of spelling out for your supporters each way their donation dollars kept the needle moving forward for your organization, make your recap dynamic and visual. You can even consider it a preview of what your annual report will look like in the new year.
Email marketing, design, and testing tool Litmus played to its strengths with its year-end email in 2016. The result looks like an infographic for the company’s year in data with a link to its website for more highlights, including what their most popular email was for the year.
Likewise, retail platform Big Cartel had some seasonal fun with its year-end email in 2015, turning their year of accomplishments into a board-game style timeline.

Big Cartel's 2015 Year-in-Review Email

Big Cartel’s 2015 Year-in-Review Email

Focus on their accomplishments, not yours

Don’t be like Taylor Swift. Flip the script from “Look what you made me do” to “Look what you did.” Chances are your organization’s successes in the past year were thanks to the support of countless donors and advocates.
The ACLU recently marked the one-year anniversary of the 2016 U.S. presidential election with an email campaign that was all about making the political, personal: They used a first-name call-out in the subject line (“Olivia’s year of fighting back”). They also tailored the language of the body text to focus on supporters versus the organization itself: “You blocked the Muslim ban. You saved our health care. You’ve defended Dreamers and their families.” The campaign ended with a call for users to share their activism stories, bringing traffic back to the ACLU site.
Regardless of your cause, now is the perfect time to say, “Thanks for giving.”

ACLU's Year-in-Review, one year after Election Day 2016

ACLU’s Year-in-Review, one year after Election Day 2016

Make them dig a little deeper

Creating an information gap between what you outline in your email and what you say on another platform (i.e., your website) will pique user interest and, as seen above with examples from both Litmus and the ACLU, give users a reason to revisit your site. As Campaign Monitor notes, this information gap has been proven to cognitively induce a feeling of deprivation, thereby motivating humans to act.
So go ahead, make your supporters curious to know what’s in the box. But in order to tear off the wrapping paper, get them to take that one extra step.

Give them something to do

Don’t be afraid to ask for a little something extra in your recap: According to Network for Good’s research, 12% of annual giving occurs in the last 3 days of December.
For users who have donated in the past year, ask them to consider a recurring donation as a New Year’s resolution. For users who have not donated in the past year (or ever), let them know that there is still time to make a difference before the clock strikes 12.
You can even get creative in this department, either with a matching gift or asking users to help crowdfund for a promotion, as charity: water did on a 2015 campaign for the BioSand Filter — adding a little seasonal touch to get people further into the spirit.

charity: water’s 2015 holiday campaign

Have a holly jolly headline

Don’t forget your subject line and preheader text! Consider how you’d like to frame the theme of your year in review and think of subject lines and preheaders as the wrapping and bows to go with it. Play with the suite of holiday- and winter-themed emojis, focus on the positive highlights of both the year that has passed and the year to come, and remind people that they can still make a difference in your cause sphere. For more on crafting a winning subject line, check out our guide.

Don’t just ChatGPT this…

The temptation to use chatgpt to just write this email is strong. Please don’t, AI is fine for first drafts but your audience is becoming savvy to emails and content written with lazy use of chatgpt. That said, if you want a little help from AI, here is a trusted, custom-built end-of-year AI writer from CauseWriter.ai.  

We’re making a list…

…and were making spirits bright. Sign up below to get more merry updates from Whole Whale. (Our friends at the North Pole cross-reference their list with ours.)

Guide

End of Year Campaign Guide

Make sure your next giving season is better than the last with our guide to end-of-year fundraising.

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Short Video Made Simple With AI + Canva Bulk Create https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/canva-ai-shorts/ Fri, 27 Oct 2023 00:00:07 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=49159 Short videos are exploding on platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. As a nonprofit, you likely want to tap into this trend to raise awareness and engage new audiences. But creating a high volume of quality short videos can be time-consuming. In this article, I’ll show you how to use AI and Canva’s... Read more »

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Short videos are exploding on platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. As a nonprofit, you likely want to tap into this trend to raise awareness and engage new audiences. But creating a high volume of quality short videos can be time-consuming. In this article, I’ll show you how to use AI and Canva’s bulk create tool to simplify and accelerate your short video production. 

Step 1: Use AI to Generate Your Video Content

The first step is generating the raw content for your short video scripts. You can do this manually, but AI tools make it much faster.

I recommend using an AI assistant like Anthropic’s Claude, CauseWriter.ai, or Openai. Feed it some seed data relevant to your nonprofit and prompt it to turn it into a trivia quiz. For example, you can input a list of high-earning nonprofit executives and have the AI generate quiz questions around guessing each person’s compensation.

The AI will instantly output properly formatted trivia questions and multiple-choice answers in a spreadsheet. You now have unique video content tailored to your nonprofit, with almost no effort on your part.

Make sure to note that you want a table output so you can quickly move it to a spreadsheet to do a little clean-up.

Step 2: Import the AI-Generated Content into a Canva Template

Next, head over to Canva and find a suitable short video template. Search for things like “trivia quiz video” to find templates with animated quiz graphics and text elements.

Open the template and click on Bulk Create. Upload the AI-generated spreadsheet. Canva will automatically map the columns of data to the text elements in the template.

Double check the mapping is correct, then hit Create to rapidly build versions of the template for each row of your spreadsheet. Here is a look at a customized video layout we created.

Step 3: Download and Customize Your Videos

Once Canva builds all your short video drafts, download them individually. Tweak each one slightly if needed to perfect the look and feel.

The hard work of creating the content and basic structure is done. Now you can focus on the finishing touches to polish your videos before publishing.

Automate More Creative Work with AI (so you can be more creative)

This combination of AI content generation and Canva bulk templates can be applied to all kinds of nonprofit short videos.

Imagine churning out hundreds of videos by pulling your organization’s facts and figures into engaging quiz show or trivia formats. Or using supporter testimonials as commentary for “person on the street” style videos.

The more data you feed the AI to work with, the more unique content it can produce. Take advantage of these tools to take your short video productivity to the next level. 

Ideas for Nonprofits to Bulk Create Short Videos

  1. Animal Species Quiz: For animal welfare nonprofits, you could create a quiz where participants have to match the animal species with the correct organization that protects them.
  2. Disease Fact Quiz: For disease-focused nonprofits, you could create a quiz with facts about the disease they are focused on. Participants would have to guess if the facts are true or false.
  3. Animal Rescue Stories: Share a brief story of an animal rescue and have participants guess which organization was responsible for the rescue.
  4. Disease Symptom Match-Up: Participants could be asked to match the disease with its corresponding symptoms. This can also serve as an educational tool to increase awareness about different diseases.
  5. Guess the Breed: For animal welfare groups, post pictures of different animal breeds and have participants identify them. This could be particularly useful for organizations focused on specific breeds.
  6. Medical Breakthroughs Quiz: For disease-focused groups, create a quiz about medical breakthroughs related to their cause. Participants could guess the year of the breakthrough or the organization that made it.
  7. Famous Animal Ambassadors: For animal welfare nonprofits, a quiz could revolve around famous pets or animals associated with their cause, asking participants to match the animal with the organization.
  8. Innovative Treatments: For disease-focused nonprofits, a quiz could involve matching the organization to one of its key innovative treatments or research initiatives. This would help educate people about the impactful work these organizations are doing.

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How to: Microsoft Clarity for Nonprofits (and why you should) https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/how-to-microsoft-clarity-for-nonprofits-and-why-you-should/ Tue, 26 Sep 2023 22:54:57 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=48831 Introduction to Microsoft Clarity Microsoft Clarity is a cutting-edge behavioral analysis tool that empowers organizations to understand user interactions on their websites. With its robust suite of analysis tools, Clarity aims to enhance the user experience, making it an invaluable asset for nonprofit organizations looking to optimize their digital presence. Learn More The Value Proposition... Read more »

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Introduction to Microsoft Clarity

Microsoft Clarity is a cutting-edge behavioral analysis tool that empowers organizations to understand user interactions on their websites. With its robust suite of analysis tools, Clarity aims to enhance the user experience, making it an invaluable asset for nonprofit organizations looking to optimize their digital presence. Learn More

The Value Proposition for Nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations often operate on limited budgets and resources, making it crucial to maximize the impact of their digital strategies. Microsoft Clarity offers a compelling solution by providing real-time analytics that facilitate data-driven decision-making. The tool allows organizations to test and optimize content, understand confusing elements on webpages, and analyze user behavior. Why Use Clarity

Key Features to Leverage

Clarity comes packed with features designed to provide deep insights into user behavior. Session Recordings allow you to observe how users navigate your site, offering a window into their preferences and pain points. Heatmaps provide a visual representation of user clicks and scrolls, helping you identify areas that attract the most attention. The tool also employs Machine Learning algorithms to offer actionable insights, taking the guesswork out of website optimization. Supported Features

Security and Compliance

Data security is a paramount concern for any organization. Clarity addresses this by being GDPR-compliant, ensuring that the data you collect is secure and handled responsibly. Data Security

Getting Started

Setting up Microsoft Clarity is straightforward. Organizations need to sign up for an account and install a tracking code on their website. Once this is done, you can immediately start collecting and analyzing data to make informed decisions for your nonprofit. How to Sign Up

  1. Go to https://clarity.microsoft.com/ and select Sign up.

  1. Choose a sign-up method and follow the steps on the screen.
  1. On successful sign-in, you can view the Projects page.

Try Demo

To further leverage the capabilities of Microsoft Clarity, you may consider integrating it with other analytics platforms like Google Analytics. Additionally, exploring case studies can provide real-world examples of how Clarity has been effectively used in a nonprofit setting. Additional Resources

Should I use Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics? 

FeatureMicrosoft ClarityGoogle Analytics 4
FocusUser behavior analyticsWebsite traffic analytics
Key featuresSession replays, heatmaps, insightsTraffic sources, pageviews, conversions, ecommerce tracking, custom reports
PricingFreeFree and paid plans
Ease of useEasy to use and understandMore complex to learn and use
Integration with other toolsIntegrates with Google Analytics and other Microsoft productsIntegrates with a wide range of third-party tools

Additional notes:

  • Microsoft Clarity is a newer tool than Google Analytics, and it is still under development. However, it has already become a popular choice for user behavior analytics, thanks to its simple interface and powerful features.
  • Google Analytics 4 is the most popular website traffic analytics tool in the world. It offers a wide range of features and reports, but it can be more complex to learn and use than Microsoft Clarity.
  • Both Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics offer free plans.

Which tool is right for you?

If you are looking for a user behavior analytics tool that is easy to use and affordable, Microsoft Clarity is a good option. If you need a more powerful website traffic analytics tool with a wider range of features and reports, Google Analytics is a good choice.

Whole Whale Recommendation:

We recommend using both Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics together. Microsoft Clarity can help you understand how users are interacting with your website, while Google Analytics can help you track your website traffic and conversions.

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The WHALE-com Email Series Model https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/the-welcome-series-model-for-nonprofits-whole-whale/ Wed, 20 Sep 2023 01:39:28 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=48728 Onboarding new supporters is like getting a car up to speed on an expressway. Without a proper on-ramp, vehicles struggle to merge safely into fast-moving traffic. Similarly, nonprofits need to properly accelerate engagement with new subscribers through a structured welcome series. These emails act as the onboarding ramp, steadily gaining momentum by providing inspiration, education,... Read more »

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Onboarding new supporters is like getting a car up to speed on an expressway. Without a proper on-ramp, vehicles struggle to merge safely into fast-moving traffic. Similarly, nonprofits need to properly accelerate engagement with new subscribers through a structured welcome series. These emails act as the onboarding ramp, steadily gaining momentum by providing inspiration, education, and opportunities for involvement. 

Well-crafted welcome series smoothly accelerate new supporters from unaware to actively engaged. Just as accelerating lanes allow cars to safely merge at highway speeds, an effective nonprofit welcome series seamlessly integrates new subscribers into the fast flow of the organization’s community and mission. This onboarding ramp is essential for nonprofits to foster lasting involvement and support. Welcome series help new supporters gain speed and successfully merge into active participation.

At Whole Whale we leverage a WHALE-com series timeline and email outlines to make sure that the supporters a nonprofit acquires merge well.

Here are the elements:

Welcome

Heart

Action

Learn

Engage

Welcome Email  

When to send: Sent immediately upon signup

The first email thanks the person for signing up and gives an overview of the organization and its mission. Hopefully, you are also able to make them smile. 

This email shares an emotional story to build a connection to the mission.

Email Outline: 

– Warm greeting and thank you for joining 

– Quick facts about mission, community served, org history

– Overview of focus areas and programs 

– Set expectations for upcoming series

– Link to website for more info

Heart Email

When to send: 3 days after the Welcome Email

This email shares an emotional story to build a connection to the mission.

Email Outline:

  • Story of a single mom who used the food pantry and job training program to get back on her feet
  • Quote from her about the impact of these services
  • Stats on the number of families served by the food pantry each month
  • Tie to mission of providing food, housing, and skills to local families
  • Invite to visit the website to read more client stories


Action Email

When to send: 5 days after Heart Email

This email provides clear ways to take action and get involved. A closed mouth doesn’t get fed… time to make a clear ask. 

Email Outline:

  • List 3 current volunteer opportunities with links to sign up
  • Details on upcoming fundraising gala event
  • Quick advocacy actions like signing a petition
  • Button to become a monthly donor

Learn Email

When to send: 4 days after the Action Email

This email educates on history and programs. It is also great if you are able to teach them something new about the larger cause. 

Email Outline:

  • History and major milestones since founding in 1985
  • Introduce Executive Director and Board President
  • Infographic showcasing all programs and communities served
  • Invitation to attend a site tour

Engage Email

When to send: 5 days after Learn Email

This email inspires deeper engagement through donor impact.

Email Outline:

  • Show donor impact at $10, $50, and $100 levels
  • Stories of real donors and why they give
  • Share the progress bar toward the current fundraising campaign goal
  • Inspire them to become a recurring giver
  • Button to donate any amount

The full WHALE series provides a strategic mix of inspiration, education, and clear ways to get involved with the nonprofit over the 2-3 week time span.

In summary, a strong welcome series acts as an onboarding ramp that accelerates engagement among new nonprofit subscribers. Just like cars require acceleration lanes to merge safely at highway speeds, nonprofits need structured email sequences to smoothly integrate new supporters into active participation. At Whole Whale, we are experts at working with nonprofits to create high-impact welcome campaigns. 

Our team can help build the ideal onboarding ramp for your organization and community. We know the right strategies and frameworks so you can effectively educate and inspire your new subscribers to become engaged advocates. Let us help accelerate your nonprofit’s supporter engagement through a welcome series tailored to your mission and community. Together, we can build an onboarding experience that allows new supporters to merge seamlessly into the flow of your purpose.

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The AI Avatar Uncanny Valley Problem (and Solution) https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/the-ai-avatar-uncanny-valley-problem-and-solution/ Fri, 15 Sep 2023 22:19:19 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=48672 When it comes to integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the nonprofit sector, there’s an emerging trend that organizations need to be mindful of – the use of humanoid AI avatars. While these avatars can offer a novel and engaging way to interact with audiences, they can also pose certain risks that could potentially harm an... Read more »

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When it comes to integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the nonprofit sector, there’s an emerging trend that organizations need to be mindful of – the use of humanoid AI avatars. While these avatars can offer a novel and engaging way to interact with audiences, they can also pose certain risks that could potentially harm an organization’s reputation and engagement efforts. One of these risks is falling into the ‘uncanny valley’ – a concept coined by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970.

The ‘uncanny valley’ refers to the unsettling or eerie feeling people experience when they encounter an AI avatar or robot that looks and behaves almost – but not quite – like a human. As these avatars become more human-like, people’s positive responses towards them tend to increase. However, if they approach a point of being almost indistinguishable from a real human, yet still possess clearly non-human characteristics, people’s reactions can shift dramatically from positive to negative.

This adverse response is often triggered by features such as lifeless eyes, synthetic voices, stiff facial expressions, or awkward movements. These elements can heighten the perception of the AI as an ‘other’, triggering a sense of discomfort or even revulsion in human observers.

The risk of falling into the ‘uncanny valley’ is particularly high with humanoid AI avatars. Despite advances in technology, most AI avatars today still possess non-human characteristics that make them fall into this valley. This can result in unsettling user experiences, potentially alienating audiences instead of engaging them.

Therefore, for nonprofits considering the use of AI avatars, it may be more beneficial to opt for clearly non-human avatars. These can still offer an engaging and interactive way for audiences to connect with an organization, without the risk of unsettling them.

Non-human avatars like ‘Chippy’ are less likely to fall into the ‘uncanny valley’ as they don’t strive to mimic human appearance or behavior. They can still effectively communicate an organization’s mission or services, whilst avoiding the potential pitfalls associated with humanoid AI avatars.

Chippy – created by Whole Whale with AI and D-id.com

We are entering an era where AI is becoming increasingly integrated into our daily lives. For nonprofit organizations, this presents exciting opportunities to connect with audiences in new and innovative ways. However, it’s also important to navigate this terrain with caution. By being mindful of the ‘uncanny valley’ and opting for non-human AI avatars, nonprofits can leverage the benefits of AI whilst minimizing the risks.

Learn more about how you can easily create these AI Avatar videos.

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Facebook Fundraisers No Longer Provide Free Processing https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/facebook-fundraisers-no-longer-free-processing/ Wed, 13 Sep 2023 21:04:08 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=48636 On August 30th Meta announced a new partnership with Paypal to cover the donation processing of Facebook Fundraisers (additional help article). This isn’t just a backend shift, nonprofits will need to agree to new terms and now acknowledge that donation processing fees will be now be deducted. Since it’s launch in 2016, this program has raised... Read more »

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On August 30th Meta announced a new partnership with Paypal to cover the donation processing of Facebook Fundraisers (additional help article). This isn’t just a backend shift, nonprofits will need to agree to new terms and now acknowledge that donation processing fees will be now be deducted. Since it’s launch in 2016, this program has raised over $5 billion. 

Key Info about the change to PayPal Giving Fund

  • Meta will no longer cover donation processing fees after October 31. Donations will be subject to a fee charged by the payment processor.
  • Effective October 31, 2023, Meta will partner exclusively with PayPal Giving Fund (PPGF) to support donations benefiting nonprofits in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
  • Meta will no longer support donations through Meta Payments or Network for Good after October 31.
  • Nonprofits must review and accept updated Charitable Donation Terms and switch to PPGF before October 31 to avoid losing access to some fundraising tools.
  • After October 31, PPGF will receive and grant donated funds to nonprofits according to their policies and timelines.
  • Meta will provide limited transaction reports but no longer issue tax documentation. PPGF will provide donation reports and receipts.
  • New recurring donations and campaigns will not be supported after September 15, 2023. Existing ones will be paid out through October 31.
  • Payment of funds will move from a max of 45 days to 90 days with PPGF.

Just tell me what Nonprofits need to do

  • Nonprofits should take required actions ASAP to avoid disruptions to fundraising. Review emails from Meta and Help Center for full details.
  • Update any ads. Nonprofits are currently able to run On-Facebook Donation Ads. Ads that are set up before a nonprofit switches to PPGF will stop delivering on October 31, 2023. Once nonprofits switch to PPGF, they should set up new On-Facebook Donation Ads to avoid disruption.

Why this change to Paypal matters for nonprofits

  • The value proposition of getting fees covered while not getting full donor information may change the reason to push this vector of giving.
  • Switching payment processors could cause disruptions to donation revenue if not handled properly before the October 31 deadline. Nonprofits rely on this funding.
  • The loss of recurring donations and tax documentation from Meta could impact donor relationships and retention. Nonprofits will need to find ways to minimize this.
  • Processing fees will now come out of donations, decreasing the net amount nonprofits receive. They may need to adjust fundraising messaging and goals.
  • Changes to reporting mean nonprofits will have less insight into Meta donation data and metrics. This could impact decision-making.
  • With a new provider handling donations, nonprofits will need to get familiar with different systems, policies, and timelines to ensure smooth operations.

In summary, these are major changes to how donations are handled on Meta’s platforms. Nonprofits will need to quickly adapt to avoid disruptions to their critical fundraising pipelines and donor relationships. The impact could be quite significant if not managed properly.

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Fundraising Lessons from the Father of Advertising | Ogilvy on Fundraising https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/ogilvy-on-fundraising/ Fri, 08 Sep 2023 18:18:22 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=48560 What if we could have a conversation about fundraising strategy with David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy a leading marketing/PR firm and deemed the ‘Father of Advertising’?  I think there are many timeless lessons that still apply to current strategy that can be gleaned from looking backward. Decades before the dawn of digital ads and social... Read more »

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What if we could have a conversation about fundraising strategy with David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy a leading marketing/PR firm and deemed the ‘Father of Advertising’? 

I think there are many timeless lessons that still apply to current strategy that can be gleaned from looking backward. Decades before the dawn of digital ads and social media, advertising legend David Ogilvy penned his seminal book “Ogilvy on Advertising” sharing hard-won lessons on how to effectively persuade consumers. 

While focused on selling products, many of Ogilvy’s principles and “rules” around research, messaging, and motivating action remain surprisingly relevant today, especially for nonprofit organizations seeking to engage donors and volunteers. By translating these lessons into the nonprofit context, we can gain valuable insights into crafting campaigns that inspire participation rather than simply grab attention. Though originally focused on advertising, Ogilvy’s wisdom contains enduring truths around driving action and results that can aid any cause, even with today’s new tools and platforms.

The 5 key points from “Ogilvy on Advertising”

  1. Do your homework – Study the product, its competitors, and research consumers’ views before developing advertising. Thorough understanding leads to big ideas.
  2. Make the product the hero – Focus ads on the virtues and benefits of the actual product. Don’t rely too much on cleverness.
  3. Repeat what works – Run successful ads repeatedly until they stop selling. Don’t discard them too quickly just for novelty’s sake.
  4. Learn from direct response – Direct response ads that elicit direct orders reveal what really sells. Apply those lessons to general advertising.
  5. Focus on selling – Judge ads by sales results, not awards. Creativity matters only if it sells. Remember your goal is persuading consumers.

Now let’s translate these for nonprofit fundraising:

  1. Do your homework to know your donors – Research your donors, their interests, and motivations for giving. Survey existing donors on what compelled them to support you before.
  2. Make the mission or program the hero – Focus messaging on your nonprofit’s values, impact, and service. Don’t rely too much on gimmicks or guilt.
  3. Repeat what works – Keep using effective stories, calls to action, and emotional appeals. Don’t change just for novelty’s sake.
  4. Learn from direct response – Study annual appeals, door knocking, and other methods that inspire immediate action. Apply those lessons.
  5. Focus on participation – Judge success by number of donors versus just total dollars raised. Participation builds loyalty and community.

Takeaway #1 Know Your Donors

Ogilvy had an “aha” moment when researching Rolls-Royce – discovering in a trade journal that their engineers focused extensively on reducing noise. This engineering insight became his headline: “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in a Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”

For nonprofits, this shows the value of thoroughly researching your donors’ demographics, history, and motivations before crafting appeals. Surveys, interviews, and data analysis can reveal the equivalent of that Rolls-Royce insight – the key emotional triggers, values, and desires of your existing and potential supporters. Those insights should drive messaging and campaigns.

Key Takeaway #2: Spotlight Your Mission as the ‘Hero’

In the book, Ogilvy realized in a flash of insight that taste was irrelevant for whiskey – it was brand image alone that motivated purchases. This showed him that ad campaigns should spotlight the product itself – the emotional impact it provides.

For nonprofits, this means focusing ads on your organization’s values, mission impact, and service results – the heart of your “product.” Rather than gimmicks, spotlight your mission. A charity combating homelessness should feature stories of providing shelter, not just cute mascots.

A great tool to see how different companies make their product the hero is by looking through swipe files curated by sites like https://swiped.co/

There are a few key ways a nonprofit’s mission or program can become the “hero” of their fundraising campaigns:

  • Tell emotional stories about the mission’s impact on real people’s lives. Put a human face on the cause through case studies, testimonials, and videos.
  • Use statistics to vividly demonstrate the scale of the problem being addressed. This helps show the mission’s importance.
  • Share enthusiastic endorsements from recognizable opinion leaders, celebrities, or experts. Their passion can be contagious.
  • Convey the mission as urgently needed and highly solvable to inspire hope and action. Donors want to feel they are fueling breakthroughs.
  • Have brand ambassadors who can winsomely explain the mission’s value at events and appearances. A relatable human voice connects.
  • Feature the mission’s beneficiaries as the motivational focal point. Helping real people should be the star.
  • Illustrate the concrete change created by donor support. Show how gifts further the outcomes step-by-step.

Essentially, nonprofits must craft campaigns where the mission itself shines as the undeniable hero that compels giving, rather than relying on gimmicks or guilt. Clear human impact should take center stage.

Key Takeaway #3: Stick With What Works

Ogilvy was struck by research showing repeated ads retained readership. This convinced him to keep running successful campaigns for years without change. For nonprofits, this means rigorously testing different emotional appeals, stories, and calls-to-action and then reusing what proves most effective. Avoid changing messaging just for novelty’s sake. Analyze results data to double down on what inspires action.

For example, if a mailed appeal with a matching gift incentive consistently outperforms others, keep using that format. Or if a certain donation thank-you gift reliably increases donor retention, offer it in campaign after campaign. Lean into what works.

You can also employ “drumbeat” advertising strategies that repeatedly expose audiences to your messaging. 


This could involve:

  • Running digital ads on a consistent daily/weekly basis to stay top-of-mind.
  • Having monthly giving programs with regular donation reminders.
  • Sending a recurring newsletter or print mailing to engage supporters.
  • Using weekly social media posts focused on your mission’s impact.
  • Creating an always-on text-to-give campaign for impulse donations.

The goal is to develop sustained relationships through habitual positive exposures.

Key Takeaway #4: Learn from Direct Response

Many general advertisers used brief 30-second TV commercials that aim to build vague brand awareness in the 60s. They air these ads sporadically and often buy cheaper late-night slots. However, Ogilvy noticed that direct response advertisers who wanted immediate sales take a very different approach. They would run lengthy 2-minute infomercials making a strong sales pitch directly to the viewer. And they would concentrate their spending to air these infomercials during high-viewership primetime slots when maximum numbers of their target audience are watching.

This opened Ogilvy’s eyes to how direct response advertisers carefully test and optimize tactics for immediate action and sales conversion rather than just broad messaging. Their long-form copy and primetime targeting were more effective for their goals.

Ogilvy realized general advertisers could learn a lot from understanding and applying the proven response-focused tactics of direct marketers. The lessons went beyond just copy length and media slots, but those were prominent examples of the difference in mindset.


However, immediate action doesn’t necessarily mean short immediate messages. This runs counter to short-form trends on TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube that occupy our attention. For example, long-form storytelling may still convert better than short snippets – the current long-form podcasts that top business charts are showing this. 

Nonprofits should look at direct response lessons from podcasting, email, social media, and texting campaigns. What motivates instant digital engagement and gifts? There are tons of ideas that you can shop on Meta (Facebook) Ads Library.

Make digital appeals personal and highlight donor benefits. Use time-limited offers to create urgency. Focus on optimizing donation channels for mobile. Test different calls-to-action and reduce friction in online giving. Collaboration with experienced digital fundraisers is invaluable to learn what resonates. Immediacy and response are key, even as short-form content proliferates.

Elements to include when studying techniques that inspire immediate action and applying those lessons:

  • Analyze effective ad appeals – what motivates rapid response? Personal stories, donor benefits, time sensitivity?
  • Look at successful door-to-door and street canvassing – how do they compel instant giving? Passionate explaining of impact?
  • Evaluate telethons and phone banks – what makes people donate on the spot? Empathic listening and answering concerns?
  • Review tactics like monthly giving programs and recurring emails that generate habitual support.
  • Research urgencies and offers that prompt action like matching gifts within 24 hours.
  • Survey existing donors on what spurs them to give quickly when appealed to.
  • Test digital engagement tactics like emoji reactions, quick polls and unfortunate consequences of inaction.
  • Study email subject lines and opening sentences that motivate instant open rates.
  • Talk to fundraising professionals experienced at spurring immediate response.

Key Takeaway #5: Measure Participation

Ogilvy had a client who was launching expensive prestige advertising campaigns that received lots of industry acclaim and creative awards. The ads were hailed as beautiful, artistic, and innovative.

However, despite all the praise within the advertising community, the client’s actual sales were declining steadily. The metrics showed the ads were not effectively driving growth.

This was an epiphany for Ogilvy. It exemplified the gap between advertising awards versus tangible business results. Winning creative praise meant nothing if the ads were not boosting sales.

Ogilvy realized that no matter how much campaigns dazzle at awards shows, true success depends on what happens in the marketplace. Results, not applause, are the real test.

For nonprofits, this means focusing on donor participation and retention rather than just total dollars raised or how good something looked. 

Don’t get lost in the looks of a campaign, focus on the conversion.  

Don’t assume a viral TikTok with tons of views did anything for your campaign.

Growing your community of supporters is the only measure that matters.

Google Analytics is a must-use tool to help understand your campaign performance. Universal Analytics is the new version of this free web tracking tool and can take some time to understand. There is also a great tool from Microsoft called Clarity that is worth checking out. 

Set goals around expanding your donor base, repeat donation rates, monthly giving sign-ups, and other loyalty indicators. Track donation source data to optimize outreach channels.

Use surveys and donor journey mapping to understand how people engage initially and over time. Facilitate two-way dialogue to make supporters feel heard.

Share success stories about how many people are involved and the collective impact being made. Highlight growth in conversions. Judge appeals by participation, not industry acclaim. Effectiveness requires diligence more than artistry. Participation builds sustainable relationships. 

All that glitters isn’t gold… 

The landscape may have shifted, but Ogilvy’s core principles remain as relevant as ever. For all of today’s digital tools and short-form content, nonprofit success still relies on diligent research, showcasing mission impact, optimizing action, and measuring participation.

In a world obsessed with vanity metrics like views and applause, Ogilvy reminds us to focus on what truly matters – forging human connections and inspiring tangible support. This takes dedication more than razzle-dazzle. Mastering the long game wins over chasing quick viral hits.

Ogilvy built an advertising empire by respecting consumers and speaking to their needs. Nonprofits can do the same with donors. As he said, “You aren’t advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade.” Meet people where they are, but stay true to who you are.

The next game-changing campaign is out there, waiting to be crafted. Heed Ogilvy’s wisdom, but tailor it to today’s realities. Blend time-tested principles with bold new applications.

Progress lies not in imitation, but in imagination.

Curious what Ogily would say about your campaign or strategy? Why not ask him with this OgilvyGPT chat created by CauseWriter.ai

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What Search Generated Experience (SGE) Means for Nonprofits (Chat-first search)? https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/what-chat-first-search-means-for-nonprofits/ Sun, 03 Sep 2023 18:32:00 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=46911 Chat-first search, where people use conversation interfaces like chatbots to find information, is poised to overtake traditional search engine usage sooner than you might expect. This new type of information exploration is now being called Search Generated Experience or SGE for short by Google.  Some estimates indicate that in as little as 3-5 years, chat-first... Read more »

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Chat-first search, where people use conversation interfaces like chatbots to find information, is poised to overtake traditional search engine usage sooner than you might expect. This new type of information exploration is now being called Search Generated Experience or SGE for short by Google

Some estimates indicate that in as little as 3-5 years, chat-first could account for 50-70% of all searches (When Will ChatGPT Replace Search? Maybe Sooner Than You Think | PCMag). The last big shift in search was the rise of mobile-first searches which overtook desktop searching by May of 2015 after technically being around since 1997. While nonprofits had a decade plus to prepare for mobile-first changes, chat-first changes will come far faster. Nonprofits that are reliant on organic search traffic need to start optimizing for this new reality now to mitigate the drop in engagement and support as the sea change happens.

With the public launch of Google’s Bard chatbot which uses their LLM and search data as of May 2022 the clock has started on how the largest search engine will be shifting user behavior (Bard FAQ on how it works).

Jump to something more interesting:


A Visual Example of Chat-First Search

Sometimes a picture (of a search result) is worth a thousand words, so let’s show exactly what we are seeing in a chat-first search.

The following is a search for the longtail term “should my nonprofit use AI tools?” on Google present day (Q2, 2023). Whole Whale’s carefully created AI guide shows up after a featured area, driving a decent amount of clicks.

This screenshot is from the Google Bard chat results for the same question (May 2023). Note the complete lack of any citation to resources, removing any chance of traffic back to a website creator:

This next screenshot shows an example of the same search on Bing’s new chat-first search interface. Notice how Whole Whale’s same content is now pushed into a footnote, while the full answer is provided. 

This next example shows this same search result with Perplexity.ai, one of the more advanced chat-first search solutions. Again, Whole Whale’s content is shown as a footnote in the context of a full answer. 

How to create an AI Chat-first search traffic risk audit?

Search behavior is essentially divided into 3 buckets: informational, navigational, and transactional queries, each with different risks in a chat-first world:

  • Informational: Highest risk of reduced traffic. As chatbots and voice assistants provide direct answers, people may not click through to content. However, an opportunity exists to rank for long, complex informational queries if you publish helpful, authoritative content.
  • Navigational: Moderate risk of reduced traffic. While some voice searches for your organization’s name may decrease over time, improving your chatbot or voice experience can build new entry points and relationships. 
  • Transactional: Higher opportunity for increased traffic and conversions*. A smooth transactional experience via chat or voice can improve satisfaction and lead to more donations, petitions, or event signups. Focus on simplifying transactions through these interfaces.
    *However, there may be increased risk to conversions on site as the transaction point may move toward the actual chat interface as tools like ChatGPT Plugins and AutoGPT advance. IE if someone can make a donation to your charity through a chat interface because the AI assistant has access to the user’s wallet.

Here is an audit you can take to gauge your nonprofit’s traffic risk:

  • Create a CSV list of your inbound keywords with traffic #s from Google Analytics or Search Console for the past year.
  • Try to categorize your keywords into the 3 buckets above.
  • Apply a discount rate from 10% to 90% for each category accordingly.  


And now the scary part for nonprofits, let’s talk Ad Grant…
The Google Ad Grant is possibly the most generous in-kind donation to the nonprofit sector in history, offering $10k per month in text search ads to qualifying nonprofits. 

  • Take a look at your Google Ad Grant and pull a past year’s keyword traffic report
  • Organize and categorize the keywords with the buckets above.
  • Apply a discount rate of anywhere from 10% to 100% reduction of traffic. Yes, Whole Whale believes this chat-first search shift may make the Ad Grant as it is currently designed obsolete. 

Why will Chat-first search happen faster than Mobile-first search?

The rise of chat-first search overtaking traditional search inside the next 3 years will be spurred by the following factors:

1. ChatGPT was the fastest product adoption in history. Billions of people already use chat apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat and WhatsApp. Integrating search into platforms users know and love reduces friction and encourages adoption.

2. Voice assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant have introduced tens of millions of people to conversational interfaces. Interacting via voice is conditioning us to speak more naturally to get what we need.

3. AI and natural language processing have enabled far more sophisticated chatbots and voice assistants. Advancements in NLP are key to providing the seamless, “human” experience needed for chat-first to become mainstream. 

4. Chat-first offers instant information on a given topic based on a summary of the top 3-5 links. For example here were top searches in 2022 According to Google which all could be answered by a GPT tool.

What should nonprofits do to prepare for Chat-first Search?

A move to chat-first search means nonprofits will need to make some changes to navigate the transition:

1. Perform the Chat-first search risk audit outlined above to start the conversation internally. Or work with a firm like Whole Whale to do this 🙂 

2. Establish your organization as an expert. Create authoritative, well-researched resources that establish your expertise. Backed by evidence and expertise, your content is more likely to be recommended by AI systems and cited if there are unique opinions. Avoid flooding your content with generic GPT, Grey Jacket content that looks like everyone else’s, because it will be wiped out and worse decrease audience trust.

3. Focus on high-quality user experiences including video. Aim for highly relevant, useful and satisfying media content that keeps users engaged in ways that text just doesn’t offer (yet). Remember that the second(ish) largest search engine is YouTube and as misinformation rises it may push more people to get information from verified sources they can see. Start building your video-adjacent content library now. 

4. Track upstream search-side metrics. Analyze metrics like number of turns, queries per session and bounce rate within chat interfaces to better understand how people are engaging with your content so you can optimize accordingly. Tools like Bing Webmaster tools and Google Search Console will both evolve to show websites how their content may have been shown in referenced footnotes and potential transactions. Start familiarizing yourself with them now. 

5. Build content on very long-tail keywords and natural language questions. Optimize for the types of specific complex queries common in chat to rank higher in results. Provide comprehensive, helpful answers to common questions. 

6. Begin planning for your chatbot. The future of your site actually being a chat-first experience is rapidly approaching as users become normalized to interacting with the UX. Begin developing and identifying the content for your chatbot will need to be trained and pushed into a vector embedding. The content experience in conversational interfaces can be created for internal use cases to begin before external ones are tried. Note that we don’t think current interactions of GPT LLM models are safe for any user-facing interactions involving sensitive issues. 

Whole Whale’s CauseWriter.ai is currently helping many nonprofits navigate this type of internal chat solution. 

Building a chatbot will involve continuously optimizing your content and chatbot engine. Keep tweaking your content and conversation interfaces based on feedback and insights. Optimize for the types of natural language questions that drive the most traffic to stay ahead of changes.

Don’t Blindly Adopt this Tech

Our concern about public-facing chatbots is important so we’ll say it another way, current chat models are fine if when they ‘hallucinate’ when giving you a fun crepe recipe and call for too much flower. It is not safe when, for example, they do this when talking with a teen in crisis situations. There is huge potential for custom chats to be built for internal teams that need to respond to a variety of situations and content creation demands. 

Consider the ethical implications of any models that your nonprofit chooses to use and create an AI policy that can evolve with the tech. Invest in how your team understands and then implements this tech to work across the range of daily tasks that happen internally and externally. 


While chat-first search presents disruption, with preparation and the right focus on content and user experience, nonprofits can build productive new relationships and gain support through these emerging interaction types. Take steps now to adapt to this conversational future to generate new opportunities instead of scrambling to catch up. With strong expertise and helpfulness powering your conversational interfaces, nonprofits can achieve impact at scale as chat-first becomes the norm.

There are times for a wait-and-see approach, this is not one of those times. Whole Whale is actively working on planning for content scenarios and strategies that harness the tremendous potential of this tech for our clients. We happy to talk with anyone interested in starting a plan. 

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Guide to Refining Prompts & AI Prompts Terms https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/guide-to-refining-prompts-ai-prompts-terms/ Mon, 07 Aug 2023 20:33:52 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=48085 Imagine your intern runs up with a first draft of an article for the site, what are the chances it is perfect and requires no edits? Blank slate generative AIs (chatbots that don’t have context on your organization/data) are like over-confident interns. Rarely will 0-shot replies (the first reply to initial prompt request) be of... Read more »

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Imagine your intern runs up with a first draft of an article for the site, what are the chances it is perfect and requires no edits? Blank slate generative AIs (chatbots that don’t have context on your organization/data) are like over-confident interns. Rarely will 0-shot replies (the first reply to initial prompt request) be of the quality you need. 

Enter refining and iterative prompts.

Iterative prompt refinement forces clearer articulation of intent and goals upfront, enabling more aligned responses. Constructive feedback identifies weak points to address through rewriting. The process surfaces vagueness, irrelevance, and complexity to streamline. Distilling ideas into concise summaries presses for greater coherence. Rewriting strengthens logic, structure, and transitions. Collaboration provides an outside perspective to counter biases and assumptions. Overall, this methodology structures regular critical analysis of output to curate higher quality through ongoing refinement.

Basically, great writing comes from great editors. You are the editor.

The next time you are chatting away, give some of these refining prompts a try to increase to quality of the final product. And remember, always check any facts because this intern didn’t. 

Refining Prompt Examples

Clarifying Voice of Audience

  • Please provide more context about the previous reply – what was the intended audience, goal, and circumstances?
    • Rewrite the response incorporating the additional details to make it more tailored and appropriate.
  • Evaluate if the style and tone fit the intended audience and goals.
    • Rewrite to craft a more suitable voice (more passionate, enthusiastic, authoritative etc).


Strengthening Logic

  • Identify any flawed logic, questionable assumptions, or gaps in the reasoning of the previous reply.
    • Rewrite the response addressing those issues to improve the strength of the arguments.
  • Critique the previous reply, pointing out the flaws in thinking
    • Rewrite the response based on this evaluation


Summarizing Key Points

  • Distill the core ideas from the previous reply into a concise 5 sentence summary.
  • Provide feedback on how well the summary captures the essence.

Enhancing Clarity

  • Pinpoint confusing phrases, vague language, and complex sentences in the previous reply.
    • Rewrite the response improving clarity by simplifying wording and reducing perplexity.
  • Rewrite this for an 8th-grade reading level.

Building Persuasiveness

  • Suggest 3 specific ways the previous reply could be more persuasive for the target audience and goals.
    • Incorporate those suggestions into a rewritten version.

Strengthening Coherence

  • Identify ways the previous reply could have improved flow, transitions, and logical structure.
    • Rewrite the response enhancing coherence and organization.

Checking Relevance

  • Determine if any parts of the previous reply stray from the topic or intended goals.
    • Rewrite the response cutting extraneous content and sharpening the focus.

Updating accuracy

  • Based on the following information, update the inaccuracies in the previous responses. Based on this updated info: {}
  • Research relevant statistics, expert opinions, or factual details that could back up the main arguments. (if AI has internet access)

Providing Examples

  • Identify places where specific examples or anecdotes would make the ideas more concrete and relatable. 
    • Add 1-2 vivid examples to illustrate the key points.

Considering Counterarguments

  • Anticipate what objections or opposing views might be raised against the main arguments.
    • Address 1-2 counterarguments preemptively to strengthen the overall case.

Increasing Approachability

  • Pinpoint any overly academic language, jargon, or complex vocabulary.
    • Rewrite these parts in a more conversational and accessible tone.

Adding Multimedia Elements

  • Consider what types of visuals, infographics, video or audio clips could help engage the intended audience. Create an image prompt for these.
  • Incorporate 1-2 multimedia elements to enhance interest and impact.

You may have realized at this point that we’re basically talking about becoming a good editor with generative AI. So, here is a poem that captures the real goal of editing…

“A SHORT CONDENSED POEM IN PRAISE OF READER’S DIGEST CONDENSED BOOKS”

By Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

It has often been said
There’s so much to be read,
you never can cram
all those words in your head.

So the writer who breeds
more words than he needs
is making a chore
for the reader who reads.

That’s why my belief is
the briefer the brief is,
the greater the sigh
of the reader’s relief is.

And that’s why your books
have such power and strength.
You publish with shorth!
(Shorth is better than length.)

AI Prompting Terms to Know

0-shot learning: When an AI model can perform a task without additional training beyond its original dataset, relying only on capabilities acquired during pre-training.

Chain-of-thought prompting: Providing an initial prompt and iteratively refining it through back-and-forth collaboration to elicit higher quality responses. 

Few-shot learning: When an AI model is given very few real examples to adapt to a new task, often 5-10 samples, before inferring patterns to apply more broadly.

Few-shot prompting: Providing a model with a small number of real examples to adapt to a new task or genre.


In-context learning: Training a model by showing it unlabeled examples of a task embedded in the prompt.

Prompt engineering: The crafting of effective prompts that clearly communicate the intent while avoiding assumptions and leading language.

Prompt chaining: Building up prompts in a logical sequence, with each depending on and referring back to previous prompts and responses.

Prompt embedding: Incorporating a complete prompt within another prompt, useful for providing examples, context, and scoping the desired response. 

Prompt curation: Thoughtfully collecting, organizing and refining a library of prompts for easy discovery, reuse, and sharing.

Prompt taxonomy: Classifying prompts into a hierarchical structure with categories and tags to capture relationships and usage patterns.

Checkpoint prompting: Intermittently inserting comprehension checks into a long prompt to validate the AI understands instructions and is on track.

Prompt shaping: Gradually adapting prompts through positive and negative feedback to reinforce desired responses and discourage unwanted ones. 

Prompt augmentation: Altering parts of a prompt to generate variations for greater output diversity with the same base structure.

Prompt sampling: Trying a range of prompt styles and approaches to determine the most effective phrasing, tone, and complexity.

Priming: Providing some initial text or content to establish context and orient the AI model before the main prompt.

Soft prompting: Using more subtle cues and implicit guidance to shape the desired response vs explicit instructions.

Negative prompting: Specifying sample unwanted responses that the model should avoid generating.

Balanced prompting: Ensuring prompts cover multiple perspectives to mitigate bias, rather than skewing positive or negative.

Overprompting: Flooding the model with too much detailed prompting such that it decreases creativity and autonomy. As context windows grow, this may become a bigger issue with getting quality outcomes.

Underprompting: Not providing enough context or guidance, resulting in superficial, generic, or nonsensical responses.

Multi-step prompting: Chaining a series of prompts together in a logical flow to make complex requests.

Prompt masking: Hiding parts of a prompt during training to improve generalization and reduce overfitting.

Context Window: The context window is the amount of surrounding text provided to an AI model to establish relevant background before generating a response. Tuning the context window size allows focusing the model on the ideal details needed to produce high quality, targeted responses aligned to the prompt.

Prompt Library: List of custom prompts for a specific organization that is updated and maintained. This helps create a higher quality and consistency of generative AI prompt results.The Grey Jacket Problem: The result of using generic prompts in generative AI that yield results that may seem unique, but when viewed by the public look like everyone else’s content. Concept from Whole Whale when CEO wore the same grey jacket as another presenter on an AI panel.

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Low-cost A/B Testing Tools & The Demise of Google Optimize https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/low-cost-a-b-testing-tools-the-demise-of-google-optimize/ Thu, 20 Jul 2023 22:01:54 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=47840 The great search for free and low-cost A/B Testing Tools is upon us. Google is sunsetting its free website A/B testing tool, Google Optimize, in September 2023. For years, this tool made A/B testing an easy and achievable strategy for nonprofits of all sizes and budgets. A/B testing is a crucial tool for optimizing website performance... Read more »

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The great search for free and low-cost A/B Testing Tools is upon us.

Google is sunsetting its free website A/B testing tool, Google Optimize, in September 2023. For years, this tool made A/B testing an easy and achievable strategy for nonprofits of all sizes and budgets. A/B testing is a crucial tool for optimizing website performance and improving user experience. While Google has announced collaborations with three platforms to build integrations, the cost of these platforms may be prohibitive for many nonprofit organizations.

Let’s take a closer look at the three platforms with Google Analytics integration: AB Tasty, Optimizely, and VWO. Unfortunately, all three come with a hefty price tag for the level of testing offered by Google Optimize, starting in most cases at $30,000 per year. This cost, whether for a single license or agency, can be a significant investment for organizations, especially those in the nonprofit sector. 

However, there is a glimmer of hope for organizations seeking an affordable A/B testing solution. VWO offers a free plan for A/B testing for up to 50,000 users per month and offer a discount to nonprofits at higher paid tiers. The amount is determined on a case-by-case basis. Agencies, as an enterprise account, could potentially offer a discounted rate to their clients. 

It’s important to note that these platforms offer more than just A/B testing capabilities. They are incredibly robust platforms that come with a wide range of features focused on testing and understanding user behavior on your site. Depending on the budget and size of your team, you may want to consider how many of the features your team will have the time to use before going all in. 

The three tools with a Google Analytics integration are:

  • AB Tasty
    • Plans start at $30k/year (either for a single license or agency)
    • No nonprofit plan
  • Optimizely
    • Plans start at $30k/year
    • No nonprofit plan
  • VWO
    • Plans start Free for A/B testing for up to 50,000 users/month
    • Agencies can get an Enterprise Account and offer a discount to all clients
    • Nonprofits do get a discount but it is determined on a case-by-case basis.

There are dozens of tools on the market, and while other platforms may not have the same level of integration with Google Analytics, they do offer pricing options within reach for some nonprofits. Here are a few options to consider:

  • Convert: Starting at $99 per month, Convert offers A/B testing capabilities but limits the number of users to 50,000 per month. One of its key advantages is that it is known for not impacting site speed when running tests.
  • CrazyEgg: If your organization is already a CrazyEgg customer, it might be worth considering their A/B testing options. The basic level, priced at $29 per month, allows for 30,000 tracked pageviews per month. Additionally, their pricing models are more economical than VWO’s at higher tiers.
  • Intellimize: With pricing starting at $1,250 per year, Intellimize offers a cookieless solution with up to 5 million page views. Their platform also includes AI-integrated copy suggestions to help optimize your A/B testing efforts.
  • Zoho Page Sense: For $30 per month, Zoho Page Sense offers A/B testing capabilities for up to 10,000 visitors. Additionally, you can bundle it with other features like analytics, heat maps, and polls to get a comprehensive testing and optimization solution.

Google Optimize gone,
Organizations now seek
A new A/B tool.

– causewriter.ai

While we’re sad to see Google Optimize go, it made A/B testing achievable for websites of every size, we are interested to see what tools start to fill the niche of affordable testing. As your organization decides which option is right for you, take a moment to consider what works for your budget, staff expertise and fits in well with your tool stack. If website testing is not in the cards for your organization at the moment, don’t forget about A/B testing your emails, ads and pop-ups! Digital marketing offers endless opportunities to learn from your users about which messages, images, and layouts resonate with them. 

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+31 Trusted Nonprofit Fundraising Consultants https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/list-of-established-fundraising-consultants/ Thu, 20 Jul 2023 17:40:00 +0000 https://www.wholewhale.com/?post_type=tips&p=33837 Fundraising is a HUGE field and there are many great organizations that help improve the quality of the sector like the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). This group is a go-to for many fundraisers looking to learn and improve their skills. Hiring a Development Officer in-house is VERY competitive as one search on Idealist.org will... Read more »

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Fundraising is a HUGE field and there are many great organizations that help improve the quality of the sector like the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). This group is a go-to for many fundraisers looking to learn and improve their skills.

Hiring a Development Officer in-house is VERY competitive as one search on Idealist.org will reveal. As of writing this, there are over 1,600 open fundraising roles open in the US. Given this competitive landscape it can make a lot of sense to look for fundraising consultants and firms to help your nonprofit. While Whole Whale offers support for a specific kind of digital fundraising, there is a wide world of fundraising services that these companies can offer.

Fundraising Consultants

The following are some of the trusted nonprofit consulting network Nonprofit.ist. The full list of updated fundraising consultants will also help you find the right fit for your project.

Chelsea Brown

Chelsea Brown

I have experience as a “double agent” in philanthropy. I have worked in nonprofit fundraising and partnerships for more than six years, and I have worked in corporate philanthropy for three years. I have great insight on how best to align nonprofit mission-driven initiatives with corporate giving and philanthropy.


Diana Hoyt

Diana Hoyt |  Formula for Fundraising

My greatest joy is teaching fundraising and helping nonprofits raise even more money using donor analytics and donor-centric strategies. Having worked with hundreds of nonprofits across the country, I bring a broad and varied level of experience. I am honest, ethical, and no-nonsense. I believe in the importance of nonprofit fundraising and the power of nonprofits to strengthen communities and lives. My book, Formula for Fundraising, was placed on Amazon in February 2019.


Sabrina Walker Hernandez, MPA

Sabrina Walker Hernandez, MPA  Supporting World Hope

Certified consultant, coach, & facilitator that helps nonprofits build relationships that convert into more donations. I raised $14M in the 3rd poorest county in the US.


Katherine Ngaruiya, Ph.D.

Katherine Ngaruiya, Ph.D.  Kakati Consulting Group

We design comprehensive fundraising models, develop actionable strategic plans, implement new data management tools, and evaluate outcomes for continuous improvement. Recognizing that you are the expert on your organization and the community you serve, we hope to bring some perspective on how to improve the business and operations of doing good. We are happy to work with organizations across the continental United States.


Mark Goldstein

Mark Goldstein  | Communication Mark

If you need a grant writer, my team and I can help. Since 2000, we’ve helped US organizations of all types and sizes raise more than $43 million.


Amber Haywood

Amber Haywood  |  Fundraise Inc.

Consultant, strategist, and grant writer that helps nonprofits build equitable, sustainable organizations. Much of my work falls under the umbrella of development strategy and execution. I often partner with organizations to provide tailored development plans, grant writing services, and prospect research. Oftentimes, an extension of my services includes interim development director placement and executive fundraising support.


Deneene Graham

Deneene Graham  | Deneene Graham Consulting, LLC

Our mission is to help nonprofit organizations build and grow their infrastructure to secure grant funding. We bring our experience and skills to increase staffing capacity within established nonprofits, help emerging nonprofits establish grant programs, and provide coaching, technical assistance, and grant training to nonprofit staff and volunteers. Our key services are: Full Service Grant Writing, Grant Coaching, Training and Workshops.


Madeleine St. John

Madeleine St. John  | St. John Consulting

Donor engagement is central to philanthropy that is transformational, not transactional. That’s why our services and solutions at St. John Consulting focus on creating memorable and meaningful donor experiences that will transform your constituents from curious to connected to contributors.


Katie Appold, MPA

Katie Appold, MPA  | Nonprofit Nav, LLC

Nonprofit consultant and professor of nonprofit leadership. I help small to mid-sized nonprofits make strides in terms of fundraising, programing, and strategic growth. I specialize in campaign preparation, strategic planning and ED coaching. My experience lends itself to small to mid-sized organizations that rely on a combination of grassroots and formal philanthropy.


Jessica DiVito & Megan Frenz

Jessica DiVito & Megan Frenz |  Nonprofit People

We’re Jessica and Megan and we’ve been serving nonprofits for nearly 20 years. Together, we love solving problems, making connections, and being part of something bigger than ourselves. Most of all, we love nonprofit people. Like you. The amazing people who dedicate their lives to their causes.

Nonprofit People are a team of expert planners, strategists, fundraisers, writers, data specialists, designers and public relations specialists who believe collectively in working smarter, not harder.


Mara LaLonde

Mara LaLonde  MSL | Grant Consulting LLC

MSL Grant Consulting provides grant / fundraising education and strategic services – helping build skill-sets, boost confidence and get organizations the funds they need.


List of Large Nonprofit Fundraising Companies

Aly Sterling Philanthropy

Website: https://alysterling.com/

Aly Sterling Philanthropy is a partnership-driven consulting firm powering fundraising, strategic planning, and board leadership solutions for the well-positioned nonprofit. AS works with nonprofits across a wide range of industries, including arts and culture, the environment, foundations, and government.

Donorly

Website: https://www.donorly.com/

Donorly provides a powerful team of fundraising professionals with experience across sectors to get results. It was founded based on the idea that donor research is crucial to successful development and fundraising operations.

Brian Lacy & Associates

Website: https://www.brianlacy.com/

Brain Lacy & Associates provide services for nonprofits including augmentation, analysis of data, prospect research, major donor information, and matching gift data. The firm has over 30 years of experience and has worked with over 400 nonprofits to make custom-tailored solutions for success.

Alexander Haas

Website: https://fundraisingcounsel.com/

Alexander Haas is an Atlanta-based fundraising consulting firm that serves clients nationwide, including those in higher education, museums, schools, performing arts, human services, healthcare, and religious organizations. The firm can help develop fundraising plans, identify prospective donors, and strategize ways to gain support to meet fundraising goals.

Byrne Pelofsky & Associates, LLC

Website: https://byrnepelofsky.com/ (think this is old: http://fundraisingjba.com/)

With a full team of consultants and fundraising experts, Byrne Pelofsky helps nonprofits meet their goals while keeping focused on key criteria for each project. For example, the firm prioritizes stewardship, prospective donor development, and strategy implementation. Byrne Pelofsky has served clients in various sectors for services from grant writing to campaign management. 

CCS Fundraising

Website: http://ccsfundraising.com/ 

With 70 years under their belt, CCS Fundraising works with nonprofits across all sectors to create and execute tailored strategies. They offer services in five main categories: planning and strategy; campaign and development management; data analytics, systems, and research; training and leadership development; and crisis management, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Graham-Pelton

Website: https://grahampelton.com/ 

Graham-Pelton works with just nonprofits across all areas and provides sector-specific approaches to individual client needs. The firm is guided by their values of authenticity, optimism, being focused, being bold, and being emphatic. Their services include those related to fundraising, organizational effectiveness, and business intelligence.

Changing Our World, Inc.

Website: https://www.changingourworld.com/ 

Made of a team of dedicated impact consultants, Changing Our World, Inc. focuses on building collectives and community for social change. Guided by a three step process—immerse, inform, and implement—these tenets translate to their services offered in fundraising, corporate social engagement, research and analytics, and communications.

Aspire Research Group

Website: http://www.aspireresearchgroup.com/ 

Aspire Research Group is a fundraising and research consulting firm that specializes in boutique research, campaigns, and major gifts. The firm is especially committed to working with partners involved in performing arts, the environment and conservation, education, and women.

The Munshine Group

Website: https://www.munshinegroup.com/ 

Based in New Jersey, the Munshine Group is a nonprofit consulting firm dedicated to organizations in the Northeast corridor. Their services include those in fundraising, communications, corporate social responsibility, and strategy and implementation.

The Covenant Group

Website: https://covenantgrouponline.com/ 

Founded over 20 years ago, The Covenant Group specializes in fundraising campaigns for nonprofits and religious organizations. In addition, the firm offers services in planning studies, strategic planning, development audits, board training, and executive searches for nonprofits across sectors.

The Phoenix Philanthropy Group

Website: http://www.phoenixphilanthropy.com/ 

The Phoenix Philanthropy Group provides customized services for nonprofits to accelerate and enhance fundraising performance and build organizational strength. They’ve worked with clients across many sectors for services including fundraising, volunteer management, alumni relations, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and more.

Capstone Advancement Partners

Website: http://capstoneadvancementpartners.com/cap-wp/

Capstone Advancement Partners is a nonprofit fundraising firm based in Atlanta. They say they treat clients the same way they tell them to treat donors: like valued partners who give us the opportunity to make a difference in our communities. Previously, CAP has served clients in education, human services, youth serving organizations, religious organizations, and arts, culture, history, and environmental.

Focus Fundraising

Website: https://focus-fundraising.com/ 

Focus Fundraising consultants work side-by-side with nonprofit teams to strategize and execute plans to raise money. The team specializes their services in assessment, planning, messaging, research, and coaching.

Orr Group

Website: https://orrgroup.com/ 

Orr Group applies analytical frameworks and ROI-based models developed in the for-profit world to help with nonprofit development. Since its 1991 founding, Orr Group has worked with more than 600 nonprofits to help them innovate, execute, and manage their fundraising campaigns more effectively.

Want to get your site checked for inclusive language before the end of 2021? Click here to learn more about our Inclusivity Tool!

Fundraising Prospect Tools

The Prospect Finder

Website: http://www.prospectfinder.com/ 

The Prospect Finder is a full service fundraising research firm that helps organizations raise more money—and faster—through the use of data and technology. The firm is skilled in designing and implementing customized research solutions to meet clients’ specific needs. Specific services include donor database management, prospect identification, direct mail testing and analysis, online giving optimization, telephone solicitation surveys and custom reporting for all aspects of your organization’s fundraising efforts.

Chase Solutions, Inc.

Website: https://www.prospectresearch.com/

Chase Solutions is a national leader in prospect research and wealth intelligence for nonprofits and philosophy. Based in Cape Cod, Mass., the firm offers services in wealth intelligence planning, prospect research, presentations and conferences, and seminars and training.

 Fundraising Consultant FAQ

What next?

If you are ready to try to hire a fundraising consultant make sure to have a process that fits your organization. If hiring a Development Officer or Consulting firm is too expensive right now, Whole Whale has developed a full fundraising course that teaches our full Digital Fundraising strategy. The course is also a CFRE (Certified Fundraising Executive) approved for credits.

Online Course

Online Fundraising Essentials

Build a successful online fundraising strategy from the ground up

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