Tuesday, April 13, 2010

My new position--WOO HOO!!

I am extremely fortunate to announce that I am now the Director of Fundraising and Communications for Cadence Sports Online. This is a part time role, so I will still be able to look for jobs and move. My role at Cadence is EXACTLY what I want to be doing--I am writing the communications for a few of the events that Cadence is producing. This includes the fundraising encouragement letters, the registration pushes and the social media pushes for the events.

I am really excited about this opportunity because I will be able to look in depth at the emails and social media and how it will impact these events. One series has a fundraising minimum and the other doesn't--so it will be interesting to see how different reactions to different types of emails.

I am extremely lucky because both of the nonprofits that I am working with are forward looking and are willing to try different things. From my friends at other nonprofits, I have heard that the opposite is usually the case, so I am extremely fortunate to be working with organizations that aren't stuck in the mud.

One of the things that I am looking to do is to hit the $0 fundraisers...Most experts say that it is best to concentrate the focus on the participants that are already fundraising, rather than to focus on the ones that are at a $0 balance.

I don't believe in this--I think that there is a HUGE opportunity that we are missing. For an event that less than 20% of people are fundraising for, getting the remaining 80% to donate SOMETHING will hopefully make the sloooooowww cultural transition to making this event a fundraising event, not an awareness event. I have come up with a few different ideas and done some cost analysis on some of the different ways that we can recognize those who do donate, which will hopefully encourage others to do the same. My boss calls this "Shaming". I look at it the other way--we just need to do something that is fun and recognizable and will get people talking, which will hopefully translate into getting at least a portion of those $0 balance fundraisers raising some funds.

I will keep posting on any updates for the events, and how things will turn out with these great organizations!

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