Don’t worry: you are not alone in having questions about this new service in the social media landscape! To help you figure out what to do about Google Buzz, make sure to read this great post about the role of Google Buzz for nonprofits by John Haydon.

These highlights stand out:

• 400,000 people have made at least one donation
• $25 median donation amount
• 35,000 causes have received at least one donation
• $2.1 million raised by 2009 America’s Giving Challenge participants
• $4.5 million raised through the Birthday Wish feature

Read more about how Facebook Causes helps nonprofits with fundraising.

I agree with Gina’s statement to a certain extent. Quote:

“Facebook… is actually going more in the direction of connecting you with the people you have strong relationships with your real identity, with status messages, and with photo sharing… Twitter’s about news and real time events.”

Ning instead is about building (strong) relationships with people you may not know in real life. So they overlap nicely to a certain degree, in terms of what they allow you as an individual or as a business to do.

But I still feel they are in direct competition, not only against each other but with all other things that pull us in different directions in our lives. We each may belong to dozens of social networks (online), be a part of multiple networks (offline -think your children’s PTA, homehowner’s associations, trade groups, etc.) and each of these expect a chunk of our time. No matter how effective we are, days are still 24 hours long and we have a few hours we need to sleep every day. So in the end Ning, Facebook, Twitter and all manifestations of social media in our lives are in direct competition for our most valuable asset: time.

How do you manage your time in social media?

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.

• Online revenue grew by 46% in 2009 compared to 2008.
• The two largest months for online giving were December and May.
• The final three months of the year represent the largest amount of online giving to nonprofit organizations.
• In 2009, 46% of online revenue was processed during October, November, and December.
• The month of December accounted for 30% of revenue and 18% of the transaction volume.
• The average online gift in December 2009 was $244.17.
• The average online gift in 2009 was $144.72. This represents a 5% decline from 2008, but remains significantly higher than other fundraising channels.

Read the full article

• You may see a greater number of donations with a smaller average gift size.
• As much as the media talks of a possible economic rebound, prospective supporters will still be wary of donating to new causes.
• Email outreach will continue its upward trend, meaning more email in subscribers’ in-boxes.
• Recurring gifts will be a huge portion of online giving.
• As in the past, year-end gifts will account for a substantial percentage of total annual contributions.

Read the complete post

The event also served as a “send-off” for Assemblywoman Skinner as she heads to Copenhagen, Denmark this week for the 2009 United Nations Convention on Climate Change. This conference brings together 192 countries and 100 heads of state or government in negotiations to deal with the growing threats posed by global warming. Assemblywoman Skinner will represent California alongside State Senator Fran Pavely and other state leaders, and will speak about her energy efficiency legislation and California policies. She will also interact with the University of California delegation that is attending the conference to provide expert testimony through panel discussions.

Recognized as the California Assembly’s 2009 Rookie of the Year, Nancy authored landmark legislation this past year, including bills that will give foster youth better access to college housing, (AB 1393), make AC Transit buses more bike friendly (AB 652), and bring thousands of energy efficient jobs to California (AB758).

The Madera Group congratulates Assemblywoman Skinner for all of her achievements in 2009, and wishes her a victorious 2010!

Photo: CPUC Commissioner Dian Gruenich, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, and Janice Lin from Stratgen Consulting
Photo Credit: Erik Johnson

The Opportunity

After leaving the White House in 2001, President Bill Clinton founded the William J. Clinton Foundation. In the fall of 2007, recognizing the growing importance of online fundraising and social media, the Foundation sought outside expertise to expand its fundraising capacity. The challenge was to reach a broad cross section of donors to support the Clinton Foundation’s programs to fight HIV/AIDS, eliminate childhood obesity, and address climate change. The Foundation needed to build deeper relationships with their supporters and to tap new audiences committed to its mission.

The Madera Group Solution

Between October 2007 and October 2009, The Madera Group worked with the Clinton Foundation to build fundraising campaigns, message about programmatic initiatives, and grow the email list.  Madera also helped retool the back-end and CRM technology, developed forecasting revenue scenarios, produced videos, generated e-cards, and advised staff while internal capacity was being developed. On a day-to-day level, the Madera team worked closely with Foundation staff to develop strategy and content, design dynamic messages, and manage the online donor database. On a monthly basis, Madera provided analytical reports and spreadsheets on fundraising results and list growth. Madera also advocated for the strategic use of social media including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Throughout the engagement, The Madera Group deployed innovative online fundraising strategies in an integrated way to:

• Recruit new subscribers through Care2.com,
• Integrate media opportunities with real-time messaging,
• Produce interactive, media-rich content that encourages viewers to forward the messages to their friends, and
• Raise public awareness about the Foundation through campaigns combining traditional media, online messaging, and high-visibility events.

Madera helped lay the groundwork for the Foundation to build its own internal capacity to design, execute, and analyze ongoing online fundraising and messaging campaigns.

RESULT: Increased online revenue

For the 2008 year-end campaign, Madera developed interactive multimedia promoting the Foundation’s activities throughout the world. The final appeal in the 2008 year-end fundraising campaign featured President Clinton in an online video, Why I Give. Madera integrated rich video footage and photographs with a message from President Clinton about the rewards of charitable giving. The dynamic content spurred viewers to donate and forward the messages to their social networks, expanding the reach of the Foundation’s mission. The Foundation’s year-end campaigns yielded strong open and click-through rates, leading to positive fundraising results during one of the most significant financial downturns in history.

RESULT: Increased email list growth

A critical component of the email messaging and online fundraising strategy was to grow the size of the email list to ensure a growing constituency of supporters and prospective donors. Our efforts to link online messaging to President Clinton’s ongoing media activities and high-visibility events required fast turnaround and yielded positive results for fundraising and list building. Appearances and events included: the Rachael Ray Show, Larry King Live, trips to Africa and Haiti, and the celebrated North Korea diplomatic mission.

RESULT: Developed creative multimedia content

As an example of creative and engaging content, at a special reception that featured Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas for 600 young professionals, Madera’s multimedia team produced a video about the work of the Foundation’s Millennium Network. The network seeks to inspire young people to become the “How Generation” — How can we make individual changes in our lives to make a large difference in the world? Actors Jessica Alba and Adrian Grenier, hosts of the event, shared their goals on video that was produced at the event. As a follow-up to the reception, an email message shared the video with the network’s supporters. If you are interested in learning more about The Madera Group, please contact Kath Delaney, Chief Executive Officer, at (510) 705-1861 or kdelaney@maderagroup.net.

Sitting down to read the San Francisco Chronicle one April morning, an article caught his attention.  According to an international commission base in the Netherlands, after years of delay and obfuscation, German insurance companies would be releasing the names of 363,232 German Jews who had bought insurance policies before or during the Hitler era.

Although Gil and his immediate family left Germany for the United States in 1936, the wider family, those that escaped the Holocaust, were scattered all over the globe.  Now, 67 years later, Gil decided to check for family members on the commission’s web site.  Discovering the names of three of his four grandparents, he unloaded the lengthy claims application forms. Before filing the forms, however, Gil spent weeks drawing family trees and researching the names and addresses of his still-living his relatives, many of whom he had never met but were potential heirs.

Still, Gil had some hesitation about pursuing the matter.  “I had put Germany behind me long ago,” he says.  “I didn’t want to have anything to do with them.  I didn’t want their money, but I didn’t want the thieves to get away with robbing the corpses of my relatives.”

Several months later, a German insurance firm informed him that his father had taken out a life insurance policy in 1930 and, in due time, thousands of dollars arrived for Gil to share with his sister.  Then, the commission sent Gil $1,000 to thank him for his efforts.  It didn’t stop there.  By 2005, thousands more arrived after another insurance company discovered a policy his father had taken out in 1927.

Yet, something didn’t feel right.  Gil realized that he’d started on this path because the process seemed like a chance to find closure.  “There are at least two new generations of Germans,” he says, “and most of them have made a sincere effort to deal with the sins of their fathers.”  Despite this understanding, he couldn’t ignore knowing that extreme suffering still exists throughout the world.  “Maybe I could have found closure if it hadn’t been for Cambodia…and Rwanda, Bosnia and now Darfur…Purgatory will not end in the near future.  We’re a flawed species.”

Rather than keep the German money, Gil gave it to the American Civil Liberties Foundation, an organization protecting human rights. In addition, he added the tax benefit he would have received in income tax reductions to his donation as well.

Gil says that his motivation to give comes from the realization that, long after his personal experience of the Nazi era, genocide and war still plague the world, not to mention hunger and pandemics.  It is that understanding that compels Gil to keep giving each year.  Last year, he made donations to over 20 charitable organizations and political campaigns.  Gil’s actions remind us that, whether large or small, there’s value in all of our giving this season.