SixDegrees.org and Online Fundraising - Recap of DC Net Tuesday

Last week I attended my first DC Net2 meetup. There were about 40 people who came to the meetup.

Katya Andersen of Network for Good gave a presentation about SixDegrees.org and online fundraising.

SixDegrees.org

Kevin Bacon purchased SixDegrees.org. He wanted to do something charitable with the website and he contacted Network for Good.

In January 2007, SixDegrees.org was launched. People can setup charity badges through SixDegrees.org to fundraise for causes/organizations they care about. There can be up to 5 charities listed on a badge and the organizations chosen must be listed in Guidestar.

Right now there is a contest on SixDegrees.org, which is being held through March 31st. The six badges with the most number of donations will receive a matching grant of up to $10,000.

Facts

• 15% gave to charities because of celebrities, 76% gave to charities because they were influenced by friends and family
• People stop giving to organizations because of how they were treated by the nonprofit
• 3,000 people have sixdegrees badges, 12% of badges have at least 1 donation
• 20% donate through Network for Good because they can be anonymous
  

Lessons Learned

• what attracts is celebrities, what motivates is personal
• contests are good
• give people tools to fundraise where they are online
• social networks are complex, one widget does not serve all

Other Information

• Chipin is a good fundraising widget because the destination is a thermometer and you don't have to be a nonprofit to use this
• Network for Good recently held a pilot version of the badges. Beth Kanter won that competition. Her campaign was a success and it showed that you needed to do something offline to help with online fundraising.
• It was suggested at the meetup that there should be mentors to help others with charity badges and serve as a resource.

Want more Information?

Check out Katya's blog at Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

Two others who attended the meetup wrote blog entries. Usha of Beaconfire Consulting wrote a great entry at sixdegrees.org at Net Tuesday meetup. Matt of EchoDitto wrote an entry at Useful Widgets.