Madera Group

If you have heard the buzz, so have million 

2009 may have been a tough year for the US economy, but Facebook Causes helped nonprofits raise $14 million (a 4-time increase vs. 2008 giving on the platform).

This weekend, I was reading the interview of Techcrunch with Gina Bianchini (CEO of Ning) in Davos. In it, Gina argues that that she doesn’t see Nign as a competitor of Facebook or Twitter.

Recently, I had the great opportunity to deliver a couple of sessions of a workshop titled Social Media for Nonprofits to approximately 20 small nonprofit groups in the Bay Area.

These are the slides from the presentation (with a few enhancements I made to them thanks to the feedback I got from participants). You can download the presentation if you prefer watching it offline.

Steve MacLaughlin from Blackbaud offers us an interesting review of online giving trends in 2009, writing for NTEN.  Here are some highlights that jumped out at me:

Our good friends at Network for Good offers us their view into the crystal ball of online fundraising in 2010 in this good article about upcoming trends for the year.  Here’s the high level summary:

The Madera Group partnered with Strategen Consulting to co-host a special fundraiser celebrating Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner’s first year in the California State Assembly and to support her re-election in 2010.  More than 100 friends and supporters gathered at the David Brower Center last Friday evening to honor Nancy’s hard work and success in passing several key bills through the legislature.

Gilbert Bendix, a friend and neighbor of the Madera Group, truly embodies the spirit of giving.  Gil, a soft-spoken 85-year-old, has been giving to charitable organizations for years, including Amnesty International, Doctors without Borders, Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano and MBIRA, a non-profit organization that preserves and promotes Zimbabwean music.

Mobile Commons reported in mid-August on an article in Mobile Marketer that looked at how mobile technology was being used to help pass health care reform legislation. Labor unions, large national advocacy groups, small local non-profits, and faith-based community organizations are using mobile to reach out to their supporters around the issue of health care reform.

This time of year is my favorite. I love watching the children in my life begin a new year at school, seeing the apples start to fall from the trees on our street, and getting busy at The Madera Group!

The majority of our clients have begun year-end fundraising campaigns — the last and most important financial push of the year.