Fundraising During a Pandemic, How to Run a Remote Workshop & the Non-Designer’s Guide to Data Viz

Results are in, and the Winner is… Facebook

Guess what’s back, back again? It’s the new M&R Benchmarks nonprofit report! The published findings can be found here and, let me tell you, it’s beautifully designed and incredibly comprehensive. A major finding for nonprofits: Facebook giving accounted for 3.5% of all online revenue. Giving Tuesday was a major driver. And given that “the vast majority of all Facebook revenue (97%) was donated through the peer-to-peer Facebook Fundraisers tool,” grassroots fundraising via social media is something to focus on in 2020.

It’s a Global Pandemic, but You Can Still Ask

Nonprofit leaders are reading the room right now and it’s filled with uncertain, fearful people. That said, we nonprofits still rely on donations. What should we do? This HBR article touches on exactly this — the right way to outreach during a challenging global time. As the writer says, “In the coming weeks and months, successful requests for charitable donations will need to be embedded in a larger expression of mutual support, empathy, and solidarity.” Be transparent about the suffering your donors are experiencing, offer support, and emphasize your mutual commitment to each other.

Running a Remote Workshop the Right Way

If you’ve spent the past two months zoning out on Zoom calls, you aren’t alone. But sometimes you need everyone to PAY ATTENTION. If you’ve had to move a workshop or major meeting online, check out this article for some practical advice. It’s important to over-communicate in remote settings. Rather than taking silence as agreement, get explicit “Yeses!” from attendees to keep everyone engaged. Distractions are rampant in virtual workshops, so make sure you’re being clear and succinct.

Trending Up. Is it the COVID-19 Effect?

This is a pretty technical but worthwhile read. This article from Adswerve is all about how to figure out if your website traffic, ad results, etc. are a direct result of COVID-19 or not. It even offers insight into how to adjust your analysis. By “having the model trained on data not corrupted by the virus,” it can overlay your actual results against what you probably would have seen if there wasn’t a global pandemic. Try it for yourself (or I can help with that!).

The Non-Designer’s Guide to Data Viz

If you’ve read this newsletter before, you know how much I love data visualizations! But what if your organization doesn’t have the budget for a specialized infographic designer or the data skills to crunch all those numbers? This Business2Community article addresses that. It has tips for incorporating data into your social media and website visuals, in a way that anyone with basic design chops can manage.