Comments on: What I Learned from Building iGiveTwice.com http://causecapitalism.com/lessons-from-igivetwice/ *Good* for profit Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:54:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: admin http://causecapitalism.com/lessons-from-igivetwice/#comment-536 admin Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:48:01 +0000 http://causecapitalism.com/?p=868#comment-536 Joanne, thanks for this comment and for your support. I felt it was important (and somewhat scary) to share the honest results and take-aways. Joanne, thanks for this comment and for your support. I felt it was important (and somewhat scary) to share the honest results and take-aways.

]]> By: Joanne Fritz http://causecapitalism.com/lessons-from-igivetwice/#comment-535 Joanne Fritz Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:41:51 +0000 http://causecapitalism.com/?p=868#comment-535 Sorry to be late with my comment, Olivia. Thank you for this wrapup and for your great honesty. Your experience is a terrific case study that should be helpful to others about what to do and not do when executing their great ideas into practice. Congratulations on your work and heart. Sorry to be late with my comment, Olivia. Thank you for this wrapup and for your great honesty. Your experience is a terrific case study that should be helpful to others about what to do and not do when executing their great ideas into practice. Congratulations on your work and heart.

]]> By: admin http://causecapitalism.com/lessons-from-igivetwice/#comment-530 admin Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:38:38 +0000 http://causecapitalism.com/?p=868#comment-530 Another point I want to add is the difficulty of measuring the 'success' of the campaign. Particularly when I launched it (and it didn't have a tandem fundraising goal) I had a hard time developing a metric for 'success.' Because I wasn't driving traffic to one merchant or one product, I couldn't measure traffic and conversion rates. This is something I would spend more time planning for my next go around. Another point I want to add is the difficulty of measuring the ‘success’ of the campaign. Particularly when I launched it (and it didn’t have a tandem fundraising goal) I had a hard time developing a metric for ‘success.’ Because I wasn’t driving traffic to one merchant or one product, I couldn’t measure traffic and conversion rates. This is something I would spend more time planning for my next go around.

]]> By: admin http://causecapitalism.com/lessons-from-igivetwice/#comment-529 admin Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:36:08 +0000 http://causecapitalism.com/?p=868#comment-529 Ethan, Great suggestions about recruiting advanced donations. The campaign turned mid-way; I hadn't foreseen it as a fundraising tool but simply as a tool to raise awareness for ethical products and to loosely drive traffic to responsible producers and merchants. Interesting that you see a drop in giving/contributions in December. Thanks again for your thoughts. Ethan,

Great suggestions about recruiting advanced donations. The campaign turned mid-way; I hadn’t foreseen it as a fundraising tool but simply as a tool to raise awareness for ethical products and to loosely drive traffic to responsible producers and merchants.

Interesting that you see a drop in giving/contributions in December. Thanks again for your thoughts.

]]> By: ethan austin http://causecapitalism.com/lessons-from-igivetwice/#comment-528 ethan austin Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:44:47 +0000 http://causecapitalism.com/?p=868#comment-528 Even if this wasn't as successful as you had hoped, it was a great first start. As the saying goes, each time you fail, fail better than you did the last time. I think the hardest part of starting something is always taking the first leap. Kudos for jumping in headfirst! Two things: (1) I agree that the tweets were a bit confusing. I remember not understanding exactly what to do. (2) I agree that more lead time would be helpful. People like to donate to things that have momentum. My suggestion for next time is round up some donors ahead of time behind the scenes so that when you are ready to launch the campaign you can tweet shortly thereafter about how you've already raised X amount of money. People like to follow the leader and if others are already tweeting/donating, they'll tweet/donate too. Lastly, December, may not be the best month for the campaign. Traditionally, December has been known as a good time for giving as people make end-of-year donation to their pet charities at this time of year for tax purposes. However, at GiveForward this is actually one of our slowest times of the year. People are on their computers less around the holidays and they are busy thinking about holiday meals and presents. Our web traffic and donations go down drastically in Dec and don't generally pick up until after the new year. Hope this helps for your planning! Even if this wasn’t as successful as you had hoped, it was a great first start. As the saying goes, each time you fail, fail better than you did the last time. I think the hardest part of starting something is always taking the first leap. Kudos for jumping in headfirst!

Two things:

(1) I agree that the tweets were a bit confusing. I remember not understanding exactly what to do.

(2) I agree that more lead time would be helpful. People like to donate to things that have momentum. My suggestion for next time is round up some donors ahead of time behind the scenes so that when you are ready to launch the campaign you can tweet shortly thereafter about how you’ve already raised X amount of money. People like to follow the leader and if others are already tweeting/donating, they’ll tweet/donate too.

Lastly, December, may not be the best month for the campaign. Traditionally, December has been known as a good time for giving as people make end-of-year donation to their pet charities at this time of year for tax purposes.

However, at GiveForward this is actually one of our slowest times of the year. People are on their computers less around the holidays and they are busy thinking about holiday meals and presents. Our web traffic and donations go down drastically in Dec and don’t generally pick up until after the new year.

Hope this helps for your planning!

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