Justgiving's blog

An ode to Justgiving

So, last Wednesday, in between talking like a pirate and arranging all sorts of exciting online training, I received an email that made me fall off my chair with laughter.

Yes, step forward Janet from Fairbridge and take a bow. In her own words:

We had an office get-together and we were charged with composing a poem in Pam Ayres style to do with an aspect of our work.

I wrote one about Justgiving – I thought it might amuse you.  It works best if you read it with a west country twang!

Well, not everyone was brave enough to attempt a dodgy accent (myself and Molly apart. And Josie is a Kiwi so no jokes there please) but we did all have a go at reading it and Kai's done a typically awesome job of splicing it all together. Enjoy!

An ode to Justgiving from Kai Chan Vong on Vimeo.

ps - the full poem in all its glory is below:

I look after Justgiving, me
There’s such a lot to do.
Each time I look at Outlook
There’s an email coming through
To tell me that another page
‘as been created on the site.
But the creator of said page
Hardly ever gets it right.
They put the wrong event name down
And then I have to guess
If they’re walking on hot coals
Or trying to eat less.
It’s a blimmin’ good website though
We’ve raised quarter of a mil
And, though they take off 5%,
It’s still not a bad deal.
I wish it ‘ad been my idea
To set up this Justgiving.
Because by now I’d be quite rich
And not be doing this for a living.

Janet - we salute you for literary genius (and much better poetry than our past efforts) :-)

Caveat 1 - apologies to Pam Ayres

Caveat 2 - Zarine said "Brilliant. I just wish the last but one line was as true as well!"

Caveat 3 - We were trying to remember the tune from this video at the end

Hitwise Report

Robin over at Hitwise has just published a super report about charities and Facebook, and particularly the impact our application has had on our userbase and traffic. Email is soooo 2006 (but obviously still really important).

There are some really cool graphs on there too, so go check it out stats-fans.

The Great Moo Sticker Project pt.1

We like charities. We like stickers.

After a brainstorm, we wanted to combine our love of charities and stickers into one almighty project.

And the JG Moo Sticker project was born.

Here's a preview:

It's going to be awesome.

Spons-arrrr me now

Ahoy there me hearties, as ye all know by now, it be "International Talk like a Pirate Day".

And what a grand excuse to fundraise for those pieces of eight, with your doubloons going to charities like Marie Curie Cancer Care.

They be jolly enough to create a scroll of pirate lingo to help ye out, and be showing paintings in their rogue's gallery of pirate fundraisers. A cat o'nine tails to all you land lubbers who don't sponsor them!

A yo ho ho and a bottle of rum to Cap'n Suzie, and her fundraising page! The good ship Justgiving salutes your plunder...

Here be Justgiving's own "Jolly Roger" (ahoy, Business Analyst) to fly on yer boats:

And if ye ever run out of pirate (or parrot) paraphernalia, port yer vessel at San Francisco's only pirate supply store: 826 Valencia.
I sailed there this summer and bought me back a glass eye.

As they quote: "Definitely one of the top five pirate stores I've been to recently" - David Byrne.

ReadWriteWeb get giving

There's a really nice piece about our US cohorts Firstgiving, over on the very popular ReadWriteWeb blog.

"Who would you feel more comfortable giving to, a stranger knocking on your door asking for money for some organization, or a web site set up by that same stranger, working with an accredited non-profit and soliciting donations through an 8 year old company that has a track record of raising millions for non-profit groups?"

Well, quite.

There's been lots of great posts on fundraising and donating online over the course of this week, including posts about the potential of online, non-profits on Facebook and MySpace and many more.

Incidentally we are still rocking it on Facebook:

The Next Big Thing is only just around the corner...

Management 2.0

If you've ever wondered what CEOs and MDs actually do:

Yes. They play snap.

Email 101

Back in the springy haze of March, I wrote a little post about email.

Emailing your friends is still the bread and butter of winning at online fundraising. Sure, there are lots of other ways you can alert people to a Justgiving page, what with the emergence of Facebook apps and widgets and so on and so forth. Email is still kicking referral posterior though, and here's why:

It's important to recognise the concept of direct and indirect asks, and the differences they can make towards smashing your target. As I mentioned in the previous post about email, it's super-important to break people up into groups and change the message content accordingly.

You can even use different methods for different groups. Many JG'ers call close friends and family about sponsorship first, or speak face-to-face, and then follow it up with an email reminder in case they forget the url.

You can then follow it up with group emails to everyone at work and your other friends and family you might not see as often (that guy from uni whose name you've forgotten, and Uncle Bob, for example).

Once everyone's been directly asked, that's when all the Facebook / MySpace / blog widget action can start kicking into gear.

I've got loads of Facebook friends whose email addresses I don't have to hand, but I can send them all a nice link to a JG page by building a new group, or adding the Facebook app to my profile.

Purely adding the app on its own without an ask can spur curiosity from folk you don't speak to that often, or Facebook 'friends' who you'd have difficulty classifying as a proper friend. You never know, if your personal message is good enough and they've forgiven you for that time you broke their xbox/kissed their sister/appeared as an extra on Eastenders, then they might sponsor you.

It's their choice, and that's the whole point. If it's a great cause, and it's visible to enough people who have at least a passing recollection of who you are, it can all help towards raising those vitals funds. There's plenty of time too, you can keep updating things on networks and help build a story around what you're doing. It not only provides a nice history of what you did, but it's something to follow for everyone that knows you.

Have you got any tips on how you've managed asking everyone for sponsorship? Share it in the comments or email me.