Elijah van der Giessen

I help nonprofits build community.

Category: Net Tuesday

A monthly meetup in Vancouver that connects nonprofits and their allies with technical chops. http://www.meetup.com/Vancouver-social-media-nonprofits-social-change/

A/B testing email campaigns – an example — September 19, 2010

A/B testing email campaigns – an example

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September’s Net Tuesday brought up a lot of questions about best practices for email campaigning.

Long or short subject lines? One ask or newsletter style? Weekly or monthly? Text or HTML layouts?

Now I may not be a grizzled old veteran yet, but I’ve already seen that “best practices” for one organization may not necessarily be the optimal strategy for everyone else. So, you have two choices when developing your email campaigns:

  1. you can guess
  2. you can test

I suggest test! It’s fast and easy with most email service providers.

Example using Mailchimp (but almost any major service will do)

NOTE: this was not a statistically valid experiment because of the small size of the test group. I did this as a test of Mailchimp’s functionality and to show how easy it is to setup an A/B test.

I setup an A/B test on the from field of a recent invitation to the Vancouver Net Tuesday group (instructions). The test sent the two variants of the email to a random 30% of the total list, and then after 24 hours automatically sent the winning variant of the email (based on open and clickthru rates) to the rest of the mailing list.

  • Group A: NetSquared Camp
  • Group B: Eli from Net Tuesday

And here’s the stats on the test:

As the French say, “et voilà”.

Net Tuesday September notes — September 18, 2010

Net Tuesday September notes

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Thanks to everyone who came out to the Net Tuesday September event focusing on email marketing and fundraising. Your insightful questions were what made it all possible. Well, the awesome audience AND the panelists (Duncan Owen, Shannon Daud, and Ben Johnson.) Thanks all for making me look good!

There won’t be a Net Tuesday in October, but we’ll be back in November. In the meantime, you can relive the summer’s NetSquared Camp unconference with Russell Bennett’s great video.

What I learned this month:

  • Panels are a great format for Net Tuesday events. They have lots of energy and help bring the audience into the discussion because they support Q&As really well.
  • I need to bring in a mic and speakers for all future events. Struggling to hear the presenters sucks.
  • Name tags aren’t solving the “no mingling” problem. I need to bring in food AND assign people to start up discussions before the events.

Email campaigning service providers:

The panel didn’t have time to go deeply into their favorite tools for setting up and distributing email campaigns, but here’s the URLs for the tools mentioned.

For more see Seattle nonprofit consultants Groundwire’s great overview of email service providers with a focus on integration with Salesforce.com.
September’s Net Tuesday Vancouver has panelists — September 11, 2010

September’s Net Tuesday Vancouver has panelists

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September’s Net Tuesday is next week, and I finally have all the panelists confirmed. Better late than never, I say. :-)

TOPIC: Email communications – still alive and kicking

It’s easy to get distracted by that new-fangled social media stuff (so shiny!), but the folks on the ground in non-profits know that the real action’s in email. That’s where you raise the funds to advance your mission. That’s how you get people to show up to events. That’s how you get petitions signed.

There’s plenty of life left in email communications, and learning how to test, optimize, and integrate email campaigns is (I reckon) the best investment you can make in the online space.

Join a panel of  experts from Vancouver’s nonprofit community as they discuss the value of email to their organizations, how they manage and grow their lists, and how they test and measure their campaigns so that they’re constantly improving.

DATE: Tuesday, September 14
TIME: 5:30 (doors) 6:00pm (event starts)
LOCATION: W2 Storyeum, 151 W Cordova, Vancouver, BC

RSVP:

Meet your panelists:

BEN JOHNSON, Union Gospel Mission

Ben is an online marketing and research specialist. He’s raised over $1MM in donations online, currently works in the development department at Union Gospel Mission, and thinks email is the next big fundraising tool.

blog: http://979s.com.
email: mrbenjohnson@gmail.com
linkedin: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/mrbenjohnson/

SHANNON DAUD, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Shannon Daub is the CCPA-BC’s communications director and co-lead for the organization’s national online communications team.
email: shannon@policyalternatives.ca

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is a research institute focused on social, economic and environmental justice. The CCPA works closely with social movement groups to support education and mobilization efforts by bringing providing information, analysis and solutions in areas like climate justice, economic policy, health care, education, human rights and more. www.policyalternatives.ca •  www.policynote.ca

DUNCAN OWEN, David Suzuki Foundation
Duncan has been with the David Suzuki Foundation for 1 ½ years focusing on fundraising campaigns (direct mail, telemarketing, email), supervising day to day operations of the donor relations team and looking to find innovation and efficiencies.

He’s got book learning too, including a Bachelor of Multimedia (Business Marketing) and a Graduate certificate of digital and direct marketing.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Duncan has been in Vancouver for 3 years.
Net Tuesday September 2010 – email communication isn’t dead yet — August 22, 2010

Net Tuesday September 2010 – email communication isn’t dead yet

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TOPIC: Email communications – not dead yet!

Join a panel of  experts from Vancouver’s nonprofit community as they discuss the value of email to their organizations, how they manage and grow their lists, and how they test and measure their campaigns so that they’re constantly improving.

DATE: Tuesday, September 14
TIME: 5:30 – 8:00pm
LOCATION: W2 Storyeum, 151 W Cordova, Vancouver, BC

RSVP for the next Vancouver event:

Social sharing copy for NetSquared Camp Vancouver — July 19, 2010

Social sharing copy for NetSquared Camp Vancouver

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NetSquared logoAlready RSVPed for NetSquared Camp Vancouver? Hooray!

As of this evening 71 people have registered, but we’re got room for more! Please invite your friends to join us at NetSquared Camp. Feel free to use the copy below (or draft your own message.)

Social sharing copy

EMAIL

I’m going to a cool summer camp and I think you should too. NetSquared Camp is a free, one-day event where nonprofits meet geeks to develop practical skills in social media, marketing, communications, design and technology. You bring your questions and professional challenges. We’ll table them with your peers and some of Vancouver’s brightest to workshop actionable applications for social change. NetSquared Vancouver: by sharing knowledge, experience and best practices, we can all make exponential gains for social good. RSVP for your ticket to practical, positive change:http://netsquaredvancouver.eventbrite.com

FACEBOOK

I’m going to a cool summer camp and I think you should too. NetSquared Camp is a free, one-day event where nonprofits meet geeks to develop practical skills in social media, marketing, communications, design and technology.

http://netsquaredvancouver.eventbrite.com/

TWITTER (Our hashtag is )

meet geeks to make gains for social good. Camp is free and fabulous: http://bit.ly/a3YrBH

>17 characters remaining for reTweets

NetSquared Camp organizers meeting 2 — July 5, 2010
NetSquared Camp Vancouver — July 4, 2010

NetSquared Camp Vancouver

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Register for NetSquared Camp Vancouver in Vancouver, British Columbia on EventbriteDate: Saturday, August 14
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00pm
Location: SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street
Cost: By donation!

Attention Social Change geeks! You are invited to join us at Vancouver’s first NetSquared Camp.

What’s that? It’s an unconference bringing together nonprofits, activists and social entrepreneurs with their friends and allies in the world of technology and communications (social media folk, developers, designers, writers, marketers….)

NetSquared Camp Vancouver will focus on practical skill development and peer learning, so come with your questions and experiences.

Example topics:

  • how do I grow and manage my email list?
  • What fundraising strategies work best online?
  • Facebook Groups vs. Pages – which is right for me?
  • What’s CRM and why should I care?
  • How do I make a blog work for my organization?
  • How do I create a social media strategy?
  • What are best practices for Google Adwords?
  • How do I make an awesome Youtube video that converts to web traffic?
  • What’s the point of your website?
  • What is Drupal and why should you care?

Got a great topic you’d love to share? Add it to our wiki.

Internet Help Desk:

Are you new to this newfangled internet stuff? Why not join us at the Internet Help Desk?

Get one-on-one help from local experts who can answer your questions about such topics as:

  • How to create an email campaign
  • How to use Google Analytics
  • How to setup  Google Adwords
  • How to create a free site using WordPress.com

It’ll be awesome fun. See you there! RSVP now.

Net Tuesday June: How to turn your party into an EVENT — May 9, 2010

Net Tuesday June: How to turn your party into an EVENT

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RSVP now on Meetup or Facebook

NetSquared VancouverLast month Net Tuesday focused on event-based fundraising. But some of you were even more curious about the process of creating an event.

And so, because I’m here to help you scratch your itches, the June Net Tuesday will feature a how-to on creating successful local events.

Also featuring:

  • Helen Stortini, Growing Chefs, on her event fundraising software solution
  • Apps 4 Climate Action with David Hume, Executive Director, Citizen Engagement, Ministry of Citizen Services

Events are hard.

But they can also be a major part of an organization’s fundraising or engagement-building strategy.

Make the planning of your next event (or your first!) less hard by following these steps, courtesy of Marc Smith of Amuse Consulting:

How to turn your party into an EVENT!
  1. Create a mission statement for your event.
  2. What’s the buzz? What do you want people to say when they leave…?
  3. Venue, Venue, Venue. Choose the right venue based on tip #1 and #2.
  4. Know what your target audience is.
  5. Your event starts with the invitation and ends with a follow-up Thank you.
  6. Create layers of participation/entertainment.
  7. Be the Host! Have someone else run the logistics for you.
  8. Base your budget on a per person basis.
  9. Thank you gifts that are memorable, useful and have a life.
  10. Have fun! If you enjoy it, they will.

Marc Smith’s interactive presentation will take us through these steps as he guides us through the process of creating an event.

And I’ve already warned Marc that the Net Tuesday crowd is an inquisitive bunch, so don’t worry about interrupting him with questions!

Marc Smith’s Bio:
Founder and principal of Amuse Consulting, Marc Smith brings more than a decade of event planning experience to each event. Having worked for seven years at Capers Community Markets in Vancouver as Regional Demo and Special Event Coordinator, Marc planned a wide variety of sponsored and in-store events. He is a graduate (and valedictorian!) of Leadership Vancouver, and is a founding board member of the BC Ethics in Action Society. He is a board member of Just Singing Round Foundation and has volunteered for three years for Dining Out For Life for A Loving Spoonful. Marc’s full CV is available on Linkedin.com/amuseconsulting.
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Net Tuesday event notes: Event-based fundraising —

Net Tuesday event notes: Event-based fundraising

/Elijah van der Giessen/1 Comment

Yahoo!

Last week’s Net Tuesday event was everything I could have hoped for. It’s been almost a year since I took over Vancouver’s Net Tuesday meetup from Joe Solomon and I’m thrilled with the evolution of the event. There’s now a strong presence from local nonprofits every month, and because the events have become less technical we’re getting questions from people outside Vancouver’s Technorati.

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

As always it’s the folks who volunteer to be speakers that make Net Tuesday work. Mad props to Sarah Hall for sharing her fundraising wisdom, love to Rob from Mobio for the smooth introduction to their iPhone app, and most especially to everyone who came out. You ask good, hard questions and the presenters love how engaged you are.

Twitter:

The group decided that we’d all use the hashtag #ntvan because it’s short and clear. So if you’re commenting on Net Tuesday Vancouver on Twitter please append a “#ntvan” to your tweet.

And why should you bother using hashtags? Because you can do cool things like the automated event summary on http://hummingbird604.com/

So, what did we learn this month? That there’s clearly no clear answers when it comes to friends-asking-friends fundraising platforms. There’s a TON of tools and there’s no obvious winner among the bunch. Based on your particular needs you’ll have to do some laborious research to find what’s best for you.

But Sarah’s best practices for fundraising apply to ALL of the online fundraising platforms, so give her slides another look (see below).

Notes from the Canadian Cancer Society’s  Sarah Hall: (with annotations by Eli)


Facebook causes – stops working in Canada as of May 31, 2010
Give Meaning – Vancouver-based
Artez – Toronto-based
Blackbaud Sphere/Kintera – not cheap!
Convio / Get Active -also not cheap!
Democracy in Action – A nonprofit Company
Salesforce.com – free licenses to the to the core product for charitable nonprofits.
Raisin
Chip In – a widget for accepting Paypal donations. You don’t need to be a nonprofit
Pinc Giving – based in Delta, BC
Canada Helps –  if you’re a registered Canadian charity you’ve already got a page here. Includes giving pages that anyone can setup. (thanks Ben for the correction)
Paypal – love ’em, hate ’em… they’re ubiquitous and easy to use.
Gift Tool – Vancouver-based.
Civicrm.org – opensource software… the sandbox demo they offer is quite impressive.

Also recommended – checking out NTEN and Techsoup to read more.
And checking out Beth Kanter’s blog.

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Facebook Causes donations no longer accepted in Canada —

Facebook Causes donations no longer accepted in Canada

/Elijah van der Giessen/2 Comments

Update: June 27

Causes offers some back-story on the situation:

CanadaHelps’ donation processor, Chase Payment Tech, contacted Causes and insisted that we drastically alter our security standards as they relate to the processing of donations.  We are working to find a way to meet these standards without adversely affecting users’ experience or undermining Causes’ ability to provide its donation platform to Canadian nonprofits for free.

So as of May 31 Causes will no longer accept donations for Canadian charities.

===================

Most of my lies are unintentional.

Like when I suggested at the last Net Tuesday that Facebook Causes was a good introductory way to experiment with friends-asking-friends donations. That particular lie was unintentional.

Causes on Facebook | HomeThankfully Darian Kovacs of Venus Marketing set me straight by letting Net Tuesday know that as of May 31 Causes and Canada Helps (who processes the donations for Causes) are splitting up. This isn’t going to affect the American charities on Facebook Causes, but it means you won’t be able to donate to your favorite Canadian charity on Facebook. Which would be a shame, because Causes’s Birthday feature actually works at raising money.

Damn. I hate it when Mom and Dad fight.

Anyone know the full story?

Here’s the message Canada Helps sent out:

Dear charity,

As of May 31st, 2010, Causes on Facebook will no longer support donations to Canadian charities. Charities and donors will be unable to fundraise using the Causes on Facebook application after this date.

While CanadaHelps has attempted to work with Causes for a different outcome, Causes on Facebook has chosen not to meet the security standards that are required to process credit cards and work with CanadaHelps in the Canadian market.

CanadaHelps puts the safety and security of your donors first. As part of our mandate as a charitable foundation, we provide charities with cost-effective online fundraising solutions that are safe, secure, and trustworthy. We thank you for your continued use of CanadaHelps. We continue to look for alternatives for charities and donors to use Facebook as a fundraising platform.

If you have questions or comments about the decision to stop supporting Canadian fundraising on Facebook, please direct them to Causes on Facebook at partner@causes.com, (510) 981-0790 or
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/about. If you have questions for CanadaHelps, please don’t hesitate to be in touch with our Director of Program Development, Zenia Wadhwani (zenia@canadahelps.org).

Sincerely,
Owen Charters
Executive Director

Causes sent this to Canadian charities on May 12, 2010

We are writing to let you know you that after May 31, 2010 it may no longer be possible for users to make donations to Canadian charities on the Causes platform.

Recently, CanadaHelps’ donation processor, Chase Payment Tech, contacted Causes and insisted that we drastically alter our security standards as they relate to the processing of donations.  We are working to find a way to meet these standards without adversely affecting users’ experience or undermining Causes’ ability to provide its donation platform to Canadian nonprofits for free.

We will keep you updated as these discussions progress.  Moreover, the Causes Team will continue to support your work and answer any questions you may have.  Whatever the outcome, all other cause functionality will remain operational after May.  Do not hesitate to reach out to us at support@causes.com.

Sincerely,

The Causes Team
support@causes.com

Causes sent this to Canadian charities on May 14, 2010

Dear THE DAVID SUZUKI FOUNDATION (Canada),
We are writing to let you know you that after May 31, 2010 it may no longer be possible for users to make donations to Canadian charities on the Causes platform.
Recently, CanadaHelps’ donation processor, Chase Payment Tech, contacted Causes and insisted that we drastically alter our security standards as they relate to the processing of donations.  We are working to find a way to meet these standards without adversely affecting users’ experience or undermining Causes’ ability to provide its donation platform to Canadian nonprofits for free.
We will keep you updated as these discussions progress.  Moreover, the Causes Team will continue to support your work and answer any questions you may have.  Whatever the outcome, all other cause functionality will remain operational after May.  Do not hesitate to reach out to us at support@causes.com.
Sincerely,
The Causes Team
support@causes.com
Our mailing address is:
Causes
2105 Martin Luther King Jr Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
Causes sent this to Canadian charities June 1, 2010

Last month, you should have received an email from Causes about our donation services in Canada. We regret to inform you that we have been unable to reach an agreement with our transaction-processing provider that would allow us to continue processing donations in Canada without introducing substantial fees. As a result, Causes has temporarily suspended donation collection for Canadian charities. We will continue to look for ways to re-open this functionality in the near future.

The good news is that while Canadian charities will not be able to collect donations on Causes, they will be able to use the other tools on the platform to build communities, spread awareness, and run advocacy campaigns. We very much value each of our Canadian partners and hope that Causes remains a core part of their online strategy.

We apologize for the inconvenience and welcome your feedback at support@causes.com

It has always been our goal to provide nonprofits and activists with online fundraising tools that are both easy to use and affordable. This vision will continue to guide our work and we look forward to helping you achieve your mission.
Sincerely,

The Causes Team
support@causes.com