It all started (for me, at least) with a brief email late last Friday night. A week or so prior, I’d received the very sad news that WEAVE (Women Empowered Against Violence)—one of my dearest clients and a very special organization—was being forced to close due to lack of funding.

The email came from Lydia Watts, co-founder of WEAVE and friend since I first started working with WEAVE nearly 8 years ago. She asked if I could please create a simple micro-website for saveWEAVE.org—the last-ditch fundraising effort she wanted to launch the next day. Her challenge: raise $85,000 in 10 days which, if successful, could help WEAVE stay open and continue its vital, lifesaving services to DC-area survivors of relationship violence.

I quickly set up a simple Wordpress-based website Lydia could update herself. I also included a Chip-In widget, a neat little tool for accepting donations and displaying progress toward a specific fundraising goal. Another volunteer generously created a Facebook group and Twitter account, which we integrated with the website. He actively updated saveWEAVE’s presence on Facebook and Twitter day and night throughout the week while I fielded questions about donation processing and helped keep the website updated. Lydia, along with other volunteers, board members and friends, worked tirelessly to promote saveWEAVE and reach out to their contacts with requests for donations.

What followed was an intense yet fascinating week during which saveWEAVE.org supporters leveraged social media, networking, blog exposure and traditional media to raise over $85k in FIVE days, not ten. Over 700 supporters came forward, many of whom had never heard of WEAVE before. While there were several donations over $1,000, the vast majority of this total was achieved with donations of $100 or less.

Beyond the obvious joy of (hopefully) helping WEAVE continue, the incredible outpouring of support is groundbreaking in terms of WEAVE’s fundraising strategy. Like many other non-profits, WEAVE’s fundraising until now has mostly relied on traditional methods—e.g., board member fundraising, development department outreach, an annual fundraising event, direct mail appeals and e-mail outreach. In an emergency push over just one short week, WEAVE saw for itself the dramatic results a great organization can achieve when they redefine their approach and jump into Web 2.0 and social media fundraising with both feet.

What are some take-away nuggets from WEAVE’s experience? Here’s a start:

1. It’s a fact: your supporters are Web 2.0 and media-savvy. They read blogs, news articles, share information on Facebook, and yes — they tweet, too. You need get very active in that world, reach supporters online where they are and find creative ways to stay in front of them — both directly via social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, and through media channels such as community blogs and local news outlets. This is a basic “fundraising in a Web 2.0 world” concept, but a very significant starting point.
2. If your website doesn’t already have a content management system (CMS), you need one. Developing and maintaining relationships with supporters requires dialog and fresh content on your website to keep them coming back to continue the conversation. A CMS makes it so much easier to update your site frequently and bring in other interactive features to engage your visitors. Creating CMS-based websites like this and planning social media outreach is my specialty, so please drop me a line if you’d like help making it happen for your website.
3. If you’re going to invest the resources into this kind of relationship-building as an ongoing effort, you need a plan. For many organizations, “our intern created a Facebook page” is the extent of their social media outreach plan. (Really, I hear this all the time.) Although WEAVE’s initial push took place without the luxury of time or formal planning, start by thinking about what social media tools will be most effective for you (not all of them! pick a few), what your goals are, how you’ll measure those goals, and what staff support you’ll need to maintain these tools. Remember, this is about building relationships with supporters over time — not “fix it and forget it.”
4. If your staff is already overwhelmed (more than likely), consider asking a dedicated volunteer or three to keep up with posting new content and responding to comments on your website and social media properties. Appoint a staff person to oversee and coordinate these efforts so you can make sure you’re projecting a consistent message.
5. Give supporters multiple ways to engage with your cause by mixing together different conversational threads. This can include daily / weekly postings to Twitter and Facebook, monthly emails, regular online / offline fundraising events (e.g., informal happy hours, Tweetups) and frequent posts on your website with news updates, stories, links to external media articles about your org, etc.
6. Build relationships with bloggers and reporters and encourage them to write about your organization. Monitor, publicize and respond to news articles and blog posts about your organization. Show that you’re listening and want to hear more!
7. Think about how your internal processes will support direct relationships with the donors that come to you via your new fundraising techniques. Prepare your workflow and line up (wo)manpower so you’re ready to manage the these new relationships–not just as names and addresses, but real people who want to engage with your mission.

Whether WEAVE manages to continue or not, I’m truly in awe of the hard work and determination of everyone associated with WEAVE, from friends and supporters to the staff and clients who have made WEAVE the gem that it is. Even with this heroic effort, they’ve only just scratched the surface of bringing WEAVE’s fundraising into the Web 2.0 world. I’m looking forward to helping them build a new plan to leverage this momentum moving forward.

Has your organization had a similar experience? What would you add to this conversation?