Crisis Overnight: How we raised $160K + in three weeks with social media
- 25 Comment
Note: This is a portion of the Crisis Overnight story. It is meant to give you an overview of what components made up our success. If you have specific questions, feel free to contact me directly (prsarahevans at gmail dot com).
What happened?
A beloved and trusted community crisis center tapped out and maxed out their monetary resources. At this point in time the state lawmakers had not approved a budget (which cut the necessary funding for the institution).
Approximately three weeks before their funding and cash-on-hand was officially drained, the center leadership decided to ask for help. Why? They acknowledged a brutal fact, they might have to close their doors on July 1.
The right people connected at the right time.
The idea for Crisis Overnight was born. In addition to traditional fundraising efforts, an overnight awareness campaign would be held at the center, documented through social media with the call-to-action to encourage people to donate.
There were four days to develop the plan, create the donor Web site, craft the messaging and implement.
For all intents and purposes, a true crisis.
The campaign began as a one-night event and grew into a three-week campaign, securing continuous donations both in person and online.
Because of the funds raised by the deadline of July 1, the Community Crisis Center board decided that the center would not close.
As of July 30, all efforts related to Crisis Overnight raised $161,000.
That ‘bought’ the center one month of payroll and the ability to pay some end-of-the-year bills. At the time of publication, the state has not approved a FY10 budget nor informed the center if they can expect to receive the more than $100,000 they owe from 2009 contracts. Because of this, the center will implement staff furloughs, but will maintain services.
The team
Albeit impromptu, the right people came together at the right time. Enough can’t be said on the importance of having the right people at the table. Most important, the Crisis Center board and executive director trusted someone to try something new.
The decision to integrate social media and share their story publicly was agreed to unanimously.
The Crisis Overnight team was comprised of:
- Crisis Center Board of Trustees, Executive Director, staff and IT team
- Crisis Center residents
- SamataMason Web team
- Social Media Spokesperson and Fundraiser
The approach
Every social service agency across the state was reaching out to lawmakers asking for help. From community-driven rallies to letter writing campaigns to legislators–many of the same tactics. The Crisis Overnight team knew that help was not going to be available from the state in the time needed. The brutal fact was that without $150,000 by July 1, the center was going to close.
The key message
The truth of the situation became the primary messaging of the campaign.
“The goal is simple. We raise $150K by July 1 and the Community Crisis Center stays open. We don’t and they close.”
The outreach
A three-prong communication approach was used to reach out and ask for support.
- Email (Audience: donors and friends of the Crisis Center)
- Appeal letter (Audience: donors and friends of the Crisis Center)
- Social media (Audience: local community and the world!)
More about the audiences
Because social media was an integrated part of the outreach, it meant the possibility of reaching more than just a local constituency. We developed separate messaging and tactics for the local community. A broader message was used to appeal to a national audience who could relate to the causes of domestic violence, economic issues and sexual assault.
Social media platforms
It takes time to build up a community and credibility via social media platforms. And time was something that wasn’t available. The online visibility came from the donation of my entire online presence.
(I did post a notice/disclaimer to all networks prior to my overnight efforts.)
Because time was short, we didn’t have the luxury of creating accounts for the center. The online communities we used during the campaign, included:
- Seesmic
- PRsarahevans.com
- YouTube
- CrisisOvernight.org
Recognition
All online donors were populated on the Crisis Overnight Web site, along with their city and state. The reason we also highlighted the city and state was to visually convey that people from across the United States were fighting for one community’s crisis center.
In addition, we hosted a community gather two weeks after the campaign ended. We did not incur any out of pocket costs for this as a local bar donated the space and the appetizers. This was important to publicly acknowledge the many local donors.
What would I have done differently?
- Build coalition of other people to talk about the initiative online along with me
- Additional volunteer staff to take photos, video and document the experience
- Real-time recognition of drop off donations
25 Comments on this post
Trackbacks
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Tylor said:
search the google then find your site.
that is a really excellent post.Thanks for the post.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:04 am -
Koncerty 2009 said:
Cool project.
July 31st, 2009 at 6:13 am -
Leather Living Room Furniture said:
Thanks for taking the time to write this post. Social media marketing is one of the best nowadays.
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:15 pm -
used tires said:
Wow, that’s awesome that yall were able to raise that much money! It must have been very rewarding =D
Till then,
Jean
August 10th, 2009 at 11:14 am -
Buy PSP Go said:
Awesome story – I’m amazed at how successful you were in such a short period of time. Usually you get more warning for jobs.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:18 pm -
mp3 darmowe said:
“Albeit impromptu, the right people came together at the right time.” – it’s the best think
August 12th, 2009 at 2:12 am -
NJ Work Injury Lawyer said:
What a fantastic idea to promote a good cause over social media. I was actually quite surprised at much you guys were able to raise… in such little time.
I think social media tools as part of an overall marketing strategy, not as a means to an end. Each link or “tweet” that I post to our Twitter account is to inform, and more importantly – inspire action or thought on the part of the reader. Action-oriented informational tweets and facebook messages can create conversations and relationships where none previously existed — which is the point of social media.
August 13th, 2009 at 10:35 am -
Cartoon Bears said:
It seems like money (also education, social status, etc) is the main cause of racism, what people judge you by, etc. If you’re rich or wealthy, you’re hated on because there are others who don’t have that but want it, so they in turn spew hatred towards you because you’re what they wish they can be.
August 19th, 2009 at 9:55 am -
Love Graphics said:
That is some really impressive numbers Sarah, keep up the great work.
August 21st, 2009 at 1:57 am -
Real Estate Syndication Summit said:
I think social media tools as part of an overall marketing strategy, not as a means to an end. Each link or “tweet” that I post to our Twitter account is to inform, and more importantly – inspire action or thought on the part of the reader. Action-oriented informational tweets and facebook messages can create conversations and relationships where none previously existed — which is the point of social media.
August 26th, 2009 at 2:49 pm -
Newsguy said:
Great achievement.. I think social media tools as part of an overall marketing strategy, not as a means to an end.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:44 pm -
Generic said:
What an awesome story – I’m amazed at how successful you were in such a short period of time. Usually you get more warning for jobs.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:28 pm -
video map said:
woow
cool projectNovember 26th, 2009 at 12:56 am -
Net Age Web Design said:
Great story, and the happy ending is what really does it for me. The power of social media if applied to fundraising is something else. There are no advertising costs, and the returns can be huge, as this example clearly shows. The telling of the story is important imo though.
January 6th, 2010 at 12:16 am -
Generic online said:
That is some really most impressive numbers Sarah, keep up the great work.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:26 pm -
kelowna mortgages said:
Much Thanks for taking the time to write this post. Social media marketing is one of the best nowadays.
February 5th, 2010 at 3:55 pm -
printing said:
How can I incorporate social media into my small business marketing effort?
February 11th, 2010 at 11:11 am -
printing said:
Newer companies within the last 10 years such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon have used Inbound Marketing. Using Social Media will give you leverage to compete with bigger brands and with bigger budgets.
February 11th, 2010 at 11:11 am -
printing said:
You have 140 characters. Be short and link back to more information on your website or blog. By linking back to your website you create traffic and allow your site to be indexed by search engines.
February 11th, 2010 at 11:12 am -
Selçuk Üniversitesi said:
How can I incorporate social media into my small business marketing effort?
March 13th, 2010 at 8:33 am -
Laptop Carrying Cases said:
Congrats on this great achievement. Fundraising efforts like this showcase the true power of social media. In my opinion, this is where people can benefit the most from social media. News about this kind of fundraising effort is going to spread a lot quicker compared to some random company’s marketing message.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
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