npENGAGEIssue 2 | Fall 2012 | npENGAGE.com

Catapult Your Cause

A look at the strategy behind high-impact donors and nonprofits

Peace, Love and Donations Your last minute year-end guide

The Latest Numbers on Charitable Giving

Plus

Innovate. Advocate. Elevate.

When you think of The Salvation Army, you

immediately picture a bell ringer with their red

kettle in front of your favorite store during the

holiday season. While the Red Kettle is The Salvation

Army’s most successful fundraising campaign, they

knew donors were turning to the Internet to make

philanthropic choices. So, the head of The Salvation

Army, Linda Bond, issued a challenge to her

organization to embrace new technologies, making

it easier for donors to contribute.

Traditionally, gifts were given anonymously

through handfuls of change placed in the kettles.

A new online approach would ensure that the

organization could track their donors, obtain vital

information and reach the next generation of

supporters. “We need to see all the people who

engage with us in a new way. This person responds

to direct mail; this one drops off clothing at one

of our addiction centers; this one volunteers. We

used to put them all into separate silos. We now

realize that people interact with us in so many

different ways, and we’re preparing for a future

where they will interact even more with us,” says

Dean Feener, The Salvation Army USA Southern

Territory’s Director of Mission Information Systems.

The organization began with the knowledge that

a major part of online success was integrating

multiple tactics, such as website, social media,

mobile outreach and peer-to-peer fundraising.

It decided to enlist Blackbaud’s online and

fundraising solutions for support, and found that

embracing new technologies was invaluable. As

a result, The Salvation Army’s presence online is

now even superior to many organizations in the

for-profit sector, spelling a significant paradigm

shift in the way charities reach out to and

communicate with supporters.

by Tiffany Crumpton

Bringing in the Season

We now realize that people interact with us in so many different ways,

and we’re preparing for a future where they will interact even

more with us...

“

”— Dean Feener, The Salvation Army USA

Southern Territory

10 Fall 2012, Bringing in the Season

Website. The Salvation Army created a website

with the visitor experience in mind, addressing

some of the most difficult challenges for nonprofit

sites. They updated their website to reflect the

organization’s mission, to effectively engage their

audience, and to present content in a way that

allowed visitors to intuitively navigate.

Social Media. As a key part of their strategy,

The Salvation Army focused on connecting with

people and educating younger generations about

the cause. They concentrated on greater social

coverage and have now reached more than 15,000

followers on Twitter alone, establishing a great

resource to expand its base of supporters.

Charge! Not having spare change can no longer

be an excuse. The Salvation Army placed “plastic

kettles” accepting credit cards in 120 cities

throughout the U.S. They were also now able to

immediately distribute donations to one of their

1,400 units across the country.

Peer-to-Peer. A “virtual bell ringers” program

allowed supporters to solicit family and friends.

This gave The Salvation Army a better way to

support local campaigns and provide real-time

donation data to its constituents.

Data Place. The Salvation Army brings in roughly

$2.6 billion a year in donations and has more than

7 million donors in its databases.

“It’s incumbent on organizations like ours to be

open to all modes of interaction with people and

be able to effectively monitor, track and utilize

all those channels,” agrees Feener. The Salvation

Army is looking forward to many more holiday

campaigns. By being open to new campaign

approaches, mixed with traditional fundraising

efforts, they can achieve greater results while

continuously serving their mission.

11npENGAGE.com

The Red Kettle campaign raised 16 percent more online than the previous year.

Participants each collected approximately seven donations from their peers.

The Salvation Army processed more than $14 million in online donations in November and December alone.

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The impact that we’re trying to make is to take this Victorian-era organization that is absolutely beloved by the American public and make it just as effective for the emerging generations and to be able to connect with the generation who doesn’t have firsthand experience with The Salvation Army.

— Major George Hood, The Salvation Army National Community Relations and Development Secretary

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Of the 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the United States...

89%Facebook

57%Twitter

30%are on LinkedIn

4%use FourSquare

— 2011 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report