As hundreds of cyclists poured through the Summit City, there was hope that the event would not only bring some exercise and entertainment to the participants but hopefully a changed view of the community in general.Desperate times call for creative measures.
That’s the message non-profits are receiving as they deal with the lingering effects of the recession on a population stretched thin.
At some Salvation Army Red Kettle locations, that creativity has taken the form of the zip-zip of a credit-card swipe machine instead of clinking coins in a kettle. Closer to home, it’s been the reliance on cheaper digital communication instead of paper promotions.
Lettie Haver, librarian at the Paul Clarke Nonprofit Resource Center at the Allen County Public Library, said local non-profits have a history of being creative with their fundraising.
They’ll need that creativity to survive, according to marketing research firm Campbell Rinker, which studies non-profits. The company said a recent survey showed nearly seven in 10 Americans plan to cut back on charitable giving.
That projection corresponds to a drop reported by The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, which in September shared results of the Nonprofit Research Collaborative annual survey of non-profits. Fewer than half of non-profits surveyed reported increases in charitable contributions received through June 2011, compared with the same period in 2010, according to the Nonprofit Research Collaborative, which includes the IU center.
A quarter of non-profits surveyed reported giving remained level this year, while nearly a third, 30 percent, said charitable contributions have declined so far this year. The IU Center on Philanthropy said the numbers barely changed from the Nonprofit Research Collaborative 2010 survey, indicating non-profits continue to face a difficult fundraising climate.
Haver said she has seen many non-profits’ boards looking to the future and focusing on long-term goals.
But they’re not writing off the short term, because they still need to raise money. Haver said new initiatives she has seen often focus on blending traditional means of fundraising with creative new ideas.
For example, she said, the Fort Wayne Center for Learning for the past several years has conducted “The Brain Game.” It’s a traditional fund- raising event that includes selling sponsorships, but the trivia-style game at the center, based on a television quiz show, is an unusual twist, Haver said.
Local non-profits often have been relying on low-cost social media strategies for self-promotion. They encourage attendees at events to post photos to Facebook and Twitter, and they maintain an active presence on those types of websites themselves, posting behind-the-scenes videos and encouraging feedback about events.
“It’s clicking that it’s not about this year-end check,” Haver said. “They’re looking to the future, and they’re cultivating the next generation of volunteers.”
Science Central, the non-profit science resource center, shook up its fundraising strategy this year with its Mixology 101 event. This month’s gala marked the fourth time Science Central held the evening fundraiser, and this year it included presentations on the physics, chemistry and biology behind spirits and cocktails. But the organization did more than adopt a hip new theme for its gala. Julie Tutwiler, marketing and development director, took a gamble, eschewing traditional printed save-the-date cards and invitations.
While Science Central doesn’t have a completely formed social-media strategy, it had already built up a base of support online. Tutwiler had promoted past events through Facebook and Twitter, but she had never relied completely on those avenues for promotion.
She did buy a couple of ads on Facebook, but mostly the gala was promoted through non-traditional means.
Not only did Science Central see increased attendance at the event, Tutwiler said, but it also saw a broader and younger audience than in the past.
As for those Salvation Army kettles, local spokeswoman Kristen Guthrie said northeast Indiana locations won’t include the portable credit-card swipe machines being used elsewhere in the country to entice donors who are short on cash. Guthrie said the machines cost too much to make them a valuable investment everywhere, at least for now.
But for the third year, donors can put “money” in the local buckets online and share their donations on social networking sites to encourage others to give.
“That’s a step in the right direction,” Guthrie said.
