In Karma411 news, the team is proud to announce the launch of our new website! The new look reflects the talent of our growing team.

With a fresh look and enhanced features, Karma411 invites nonprofit organizations to Crowdfund for their nonprofit, Energize their online events and Create customized online campaigns.

Creative Director Nick Pattison will be featured in our webinar Website Design411 May 30th to provide helpful tips for any organization looking to refresh or renew their site. Nick brings to Karma411 an invaluable, keen eye for web and graphic design. He has worked alongside several of New York’s most notable designers, including Paula Scher and Milton Glaser, and has designed for international brands such as JetBlue, Urban Outfitters and Coach.

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In order to raise funds and awareness leading up to World Autism Awareness Day, Karma411 created a site where old and new supporters alike could visit to gain knowledge about the organization and the Light It Up Blue initiative, pledge to shine a light on autism, create a personal profile, share their page on Facebook and Twitter and raise money on behalf of Autism Speaks. The site also features a gallery of images uploaded by supporters showcasing how they were able to Light It Up Blue for World Autism Awareness Day!

How did you Light It Up Blue?

The Karma411 team just attended Education Assistance Corp's Annual Spring Luncheon where our CEO John Murcott was honored.  We wanted to share these great ideas for your next fundraiser that got the crowd going and the support flowing.

1. Provide novelty items to recognize sponsors

We all know that sponsors are needed and valuable resources, what better way to say thank you than with a novelty item that promotes your mission and allows sponsors to get their information out there as well? The EAC provided branded flash drives that were pre-loaded with their business card and those of all the sponsors of the event. A great idea and useful item for guests.

2. Provide different ways to donate

Of course nonprofits need to raise money, but this can be made fun, interesting and interactive in many ways. The EAC provided wonderful items to bid on at a silent auction during a reception hour, a raffle to buy tickets for different gift baskets (including Knicks tickets a team member won), a food drive to donate canned goods, a traditional envelope on the table donation with specialized giving options  and during the luncheon a live auction put on by very entertaining professional auctioneers for a few luxury items. With so many ways to give, it made it easy for supporters.

3. Share stories

Hearing stories of those helped by an organization is a sure fire way to get the message to hit home. One young man shared his success story and recovery from drug addiction with the help of EAC's program and captivated the audience. This memorable story, and others shared will stay in donors' minds long past the event.

4. Honor Individuals

EAC honored two individuals, John Murcott being one. His involvement led to Canrock Ventures' other portfolio companies involvement and attendance like General Sentiment, AHJ, LoadnVote and CooCoo and the Karma411 team even decided to  sponsor a food drive for the EAC.

5. Keep the giving spirit going

EAC handed out recycled bags at the end telling guests to fill them up with the shopping list printed right on the bags and to drop them off at various locations for their food drive. Another great way to allow supporters to continue giving.

These are all great ways to make your fundraisers engaging and successful and Karma411 campaigns can help bring these ideas to life. Take your next fundraiser to the next level!

It's almost March 30- are you ready for Facebook Timeline? If you are weary on how to transition your page and engage new and existing donors, not to worry – you can manage your Timeline without publishing it just yet. The new format enables brands to date posts all the way back to 1800, long before Facebook’s inception, and cover photo and highlighting features are a great way for you to advance your cause and mission by telling a compelling and authentic story.

Here is a list of the new features, and how we have taken advantage of them to more effectively tell Karma411's story and engage our audience.

Stand Out with a Compelling Cover Photo

One of the stand-out features of the timeline format has to be the ability to add a cover photo. This is the first thing that anyone who visits your page will see, so it is essential to choose an inspiring image that will tell your organization’s story without words. Your Page will still feature a profile picture, which is best used for your organization’s logo. For our own Page we decided on an image that conveys the power of social fundraising and crowdfunding. Check out Live Strong and Smile Train for great examples for nonprofits.

Highlight Important News and Events

If you have already switched to the Timeline format you’ve probably noticed the new highlight feature (the star that appears in the top right-hand corner of a post when you scroll over it). Highlighting an image or post will extend the post over two columns, visually hinting to your supporters that this post is an important one.  Photos and images will pop on your page since they are now larger and more eye-catching – so don’t forget to add in as many as you can, especially when you want to call attention to a special event that your organization has coming up. We have highlighted EAC's Spring Luncheon as our CEO is the honoree for this great cause. Another way to showcase particular posts is to pin them to the top of the page using the edit tool located next to the highlight button. One of the ways to use this feature would be to remind supporters of an upcoming event; if you had posted about an event a week or two prior, pin this post to the top of your Timeline when it is a day or two away.

Keep Your Apps in Order!

Add and arrange tabs in the right hand corner of your organization’s timeline (beneath your cover photo). You can arrange them in order of importance – four tabs will be visible without clicking through to view all (you can add up to 12).  You are also able to change the photo for your app, as well as rename the app.  Choose an eye-catching image with a call to action to increase the chances of a click-through.  We decided on creating tabs for our photos, blog, twitter profile, and upcoming events, to name a few. You might consider a tabs to direct supporters to a donations page, highlight your generous donors and most successful events/campaigns. Check out Greenpeace International for a great example of how to utilize Facebook tabs to engage your audience.

Go Back to the Beginning with Milestones

Timeline also enables you to go back in and add milestones that you may have forgotten to post about. Milestones help to tell your organization’s story, especially since posts from your supporters will be moved to a separate area. Because of this new format, fans and supporters could end up returning to your page to read through your Timeline rather than to make a comment or question, so it is important to make your Timeline as visually appealing as possible. Do you want to let your supporters know when your organization was founded, or when your org opened a local chapter? No problem! Simply click “Milestone” when adding a new post, name the event, location, and even include a story about the event or upload a photo. Employing the Milestone feature we added the date Karma411 was founded, as well as landmarked the day we processed our 5000^th donation.

Timeline gives you and your organization an opportunity to rediscover what you have learned from supporters over the past years. Take a walk down memory lane and look at what worked – what was the best way to engage your audience on Facebook?

Karma411 built a customized site for MLB to make it easy for supporters to take action, get involved by supporting a great cause and, of course, get in the game! Listen to CEO John Murcott as he talks about the MLB project with Ted Hart on his radio show The Nonprofit Coach BlogTalkRadio during his Second Anniversary show.

To sign up visit the site and click on the grey Register blimp button, fill out a short form and you are up and running! You will be given your own personal fundraising page where you can upload an image, describe why this cause is important to you and set your fundraising goal. Make sure to share your page with your friends and family with a customized email using the mail tool, as well as via Facebook and Twitter. The top 20 fundraisers will be featured on the website under All-Star Rosters, you can even become an MVP! The site has already raised over $27,000 with over 950 participants- get in the game!

JustCoz is a truly impactful, free and simple way for causes to increase the reach of their message on social media. JustCoz was founded by those behind Mikamoni ltd and was created after a frank discussion of wanting to help causes be heard in the social media universe. It is solely for the purpose to help charities, nonprofits and NGO’s  to reach more people with no middle man. This is a great and easy to do compliment to larger platforms like Karma411 Campaigns that utilize similar social media philosophy and tools. The platform allows supporters to donate a tweet a day to causes they are passionate about, essentially exponentially expanding  your cause’s presence in the Twittersphere. They have over 200 causes reaching almost 2 million people daily and counting.
How easy is it?

1. Your organization signs up on JustCoz.org to be a recognized cause
2. Visitors to JustCoz.org can choose to donate a tweet a day for as many causes as they wish through their twitter account by  pressing a button
3. You have predetermined and controlled tweets that are sent out through supporters’ twitter accounts- one message per cause per day
   

It’s as easy as one two tweet!

Joe Waters, blogger from selfishgiving.com, recently wrote an interesting piece in the Huffington Post titled “Why and How Causes Should Use Pinterest.”

“The heavy presence of women 25-44 on Pinterest is what distinguishes it from other new social media platforms, which are generally populated by men 18-24. Here’s a site that already has the audience everyone wants: women and moms who make most of the household buying decisions.”

Is your nonprofit right for Pinterest? Joe poses these questions to find out if your organization is ready to begin building a presence on the site:

• Do you have an interesting or compelling story to tell with images?
• Is your cause considered hip, trendy, or do you just want to be?
• Are you engaged on other social media platforms?
• Are you looking to reap the rewards of local SEO?

After you answer these questions, look to other nonprofits that are using Pinterest successfully. Nonprofit Tech 2.0 (Nonprofitorgs) suggests these 11 nonprofits to follow on Pinterest. For example, AARP has several boards related to the organization’s content, including “Over 50 Making a Difference.” UNICEF has created boards broken down by categories such as posters, stamps, children, and emergencies.

To create an online fundraising catalog, add the "$" symbol and the amount an item costs in the description; these pins will automatically go into the gifts tab located on your homepage. Check out Amnesty International USA on Pinterest for a perfect example of how nonprofits can leverage the site's tools to fundraise.

So get started and don’t be intimidated. Begin by making your page (you still need to ask for membership, a very simple and quick process but you may wait a day or two for response), following people or companies relevant to your nonprofit and pinning items that inspire you and tell your story.  Also remember to engage by liking, commenting and re-pinning often.

Happy pinning!

In addition to being a great way to meet your organization’s goals, walkathons also help build the community letting many groups and families come together to participate and they get people active.

Running a walkathon is easier than you think.  It just takes planning and some good tools in your box.  Here are some tips:

1 – Create teams. Many hands make light work.  Share the load by recruiting motivated volunteers and form teams for the work and for friendly competition during the event.  Be sure to designate a leader that can power through the details and planning.

2 – Get permits needed.  Yes the admin is important.  Consider insurance (often this is covered by your existing policy but check it first).

3 – Make it fun.  Think of running a party.  What do people like?  Likely the same things will help make a walkathon fun.  Balloons, good food, drink, music and to be super special add a clown, mascot or a contest honoring participants.

4 – Plan Ahead.  Any event goes better with planning.  Karma411 has great online communication and software tools that can be a great help for planning, getting people involved, tracking and showing off success.  A big part of success is setting goals.  With goals, you are more likely to hit your target and inspire others to meet the challenge.

5 – Publicize.  Publicity will help not only with turn out but it will help your cause.  Think of all avenues – radio, newspaper, TV (often they will be a sponsor), flyers, emails and of course online. Have a local singing or dancing group there to cheer your marathoners on and get more media attention.

6 – Network. Use your contacts and social media. Karma411 software provides great tools tapping  into the Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc for you and any people who sihn up. It also allows you to set up email campaigns and have virtual participants.

7 – Figure out the finances.  How much are you going to charge and how are you going to charge.  The easier you make it for people, the more likely they are to donate.  Karma411 has built in secure credit card processing , donation options and allows checks (even cash) that can be customized to any amount.

Walkathons (or any athons) tend to be more and more successful over time so plan on growing over years, and remember to make it fun!