• 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.

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

For many non-profits, especially front-line social service organizations, a successful year-end fundraising season can mean the difference between continuing to serve their communities or closing their doors.  

In this tough economic climate, how do you decide to give, much less which organizations to give to? The choice is never easy, especially when you, too, might be watching your finances.

My advice remains the same:  Give! Give to the causes that you’re passionate about, and that inspire you to make a difference. Give to start-up organizations like the Diabetes Hands Foundation, a group that builds community among people touched by diabetes (those with diabetes and their families) and raises diabetes awareness. Give to food banks and low-income health clinics whose funding and charitable gifts have dropped in the last year. Making a charitable donation of any size matters, and your contribution will help attract more attention to these causes in the future.

If you haven’t read President Bill Clinton’s book, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, get a copy for yourself, or give it to a family member or friend. The President’s compelling description of the power of giving has transformed many of my friends from occasional donors to committed supporters of their communities.

And if you’re already involved with a non-profit, talk to us about how The Madera Group can help you cultivate and build your donor network, so your own year-end campaign can meet the needs you’re so committed to serving.

Thank you for all that you are doing and please enjoy this season of giving!

All my best,

Kath Delaney, CEO

P.S. Whether it’s giving, fundraising, or even starting a giving circle in your own community, I’m always happy and excited to discuss ways that The Madera Group can provide guidance and support. To learn more, please email me at kdelaney@maderagroup.net.

DHF fosters a supportive environment where people touched by diabetes can connect with each other, hold informed discussions and share their experiences. As a result, their members find comfort in not feeling alone and together they promote a better understanding of life with diabetes. Since 2007, they have launched two social networks: TuDiabetes.com (in English) and EsTuDiabetes.com (in Spanish). Through their online communities, they’ve developed diabetes awareness initiatives such as Word In Your Hand, Drawing Diabetes, Diabetes Supplies Art, No-Sugar Added Poetry and the 14,000 People With Diabetes Test-in.

Click here to learn more about The Diabetes Hands Foundation and to make a donation to support this important initiative.

Last month, Center for Ecoliteracy hosted an evening talk with Daniel Goleman, the father of emotional intelligence , who spoke about ecological literacy. Goleman is an internationally known psychologist and science  journalist, whose reporting and books have appeared on The New York Times bestseller list for many years. His latest work, Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything, explores how new information technologies can teach us about the environmental, health and social consequences of what we buy.

Click here to learn more about the author and his impressive work.

In addition to office space, the David Brower Center houses seminars, lectures, films, workshops and other events each month, allowing a multitude of nonprofits and community organizations to engage in advocacy, while at the same time facilitating cross-sector communication and partnerships.

To learn about more upcoming events at The Brower Center, please visit at www.browercenter.org, and be sure to stop by and see us in suite 250.  The building offers free public tours of the building, Fridays at 11 a.m.

Here’s her list of ten tools and strategies:

1. RSS Feeds
2. Use the Add This widget
3. Pick Two Social Networks
4. URL Shorteners
5. Care2’s Petition Site
6. Google Grants
7. YouTube Nonprofit Program
8. Listservs
9. Create widgets to share content or actions
10. FreeCause Toolbar

Read the detailed article after the jump

Matt mentions several nonprofits that are seeing good results with mobile advocacy, such as American Federation of Teachers, The Humane Society of the United States, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. For example, “NCLR had a lot of success tweeting out messages asking people to text “nclr to 69866” to sign up to get the California Supreme Court’s ruling on Prop 8 via SMS the moment it was ruled upon. The advantage of the SMS is that, like your email list, you can then own the data on your list, you can segment your list, and you can start building a relationship with individuals who have opted-in to your list.”

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Success in social marketing and fundraising means making our clients visible in a crowded online marketplace. Our agency works with clients to develop a strategy that not only uses social networks, but also persuades others to pass the word on. That means creating inspiring and thoughtful messages that work for both email inboxes and social networking sites. It means telling a story that communicates the meaning of the work we are describing, and showing the results that come from it.

The desired goal is to have the public, or the media, pick up a story and carry it even further — a bonus that is the reward for hard work and creative thinking.

Even better, is when an agency partners with a once-in-a-lifetime client who needs no introduction to the social marketplace — in our case, President Bill Clinton and his foundation, the William J. Clinton Foundation. On August 19th, President Clinton celebrated his 63rd birthday. To celebrate, The Madera Group collaborated with his foundation staff to launch an online birthday card fundraising campaign with the culminating message sent by his beloved friend Nelson Mandela.

By the way, it is not too late to send President Clinton a birthday wish and make a donation.

Happy Birthday President Clinton! We thank you and your foundation for all that you are doing around the world to fight climate change, eliminate childhood obesity, and give access to HIV/AIDS medicines to millions of people. Your work is an inspiration to us all.

Last month, President Barack Obama spoke to people of Ghana about opportunity, responsibility, and the important role each of them has in determining their country’s future. His message was clear: “The world will be what you make of it.” Obama’s words challenged and encouraged the people of Ghana to take control of their own destiny – Africans have already shown their capacity and commitment to making change, and now is the time for them to use those tools to create new opportunities for themselves, he said.

Since 2003, Dana Dakin has been helping to bring opportunities to life for Ghanaian women. Dakin is the founder of Womens Trust, a nonprofit group that works to empower women and girls in Africa through microenterprise, education and healthcare, and that has helped over 1,000 underprivileged women secure microloans and rise above unstable living wages. The organization’s U.S. team works closely with an on-the-ground staff in Pokuase, Ghana. The staff is responsible for loan administration and management of Womens Trust’s education and healthcare programs.

Madera Group is working with Women Trust to increase their online presence and visibility in the social media world. We recently helped launch a new Womens Trust Facebook page to promote future fundraising and social events this fall. Please visit the Women’s Trust fan page to learn more about their work and ways to get involved with the organization.

Photo: Founder Dana Dakin with Gertrude Ankrah, Program Development Director of WomensTrust in Pokuase, Ghana (photo by Suki Hill)

During the month of July, The Madera Group has collaborated with the William J. Clinton Foundation to launch an online matching gift campaign.  For every donation received, President Clinton will match each dollar through a personal gift of up to $150,000 until July 31st at midnight. The campaign has been promoted through a series of special messages sent from President Clinton, staff member Charmaine Pattinson in Zambia, and long-time Clinton Foundation supporter Barbara Streisand.

President Clinton has personally donated nearly $2 million over the years to support his foundation. As CEO Bruce Lindsey noted today, “This is an exciting fundraising opportunity for the Clinton Foundation. Our need is great, and our efforts are more important than ever as we work to combat climate change, health pandemics like HIV/AIDS and malaria, and extreme poverty.”

The campaign has already raised a significant portion of its goal, and there’s still time to donate and have your gift make double the impact! Please support the Clinton Foundation’s Matching Gift Campaign today and help make a difference in the lives of people around the globe.

The Madera Group is excited to announce that its client, California Attorney Joyce Tischler of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), will be honored with the Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award by the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) Animal Law Committee in Chicago next month.

Tischler, long recognized as a leader in the advancement of animal rights, is the co-founder of ALDF, the first national non-profit legal organization focused on issues related to animals, and works to protect and advance the lives of animals through the legal system. Tischler was the agency’s Executive Director for 25 years and now serves as the organization’s general counsel, writing, lecturing and promoting animal law. Tischler is also an active member of the TIPS Animal Law Committee, which develops policies, examines and addresses animal law trends and directs national attention to animal law. Since 2007, the Madera Group has worked with ALDF in strategic planning, organizational development, and fund development.

Tischler will receive the annual award at the TIPS Animal Law Committee Awards Reception, Saturday, August 1st at the Chicago Marriott Hotel.

A long-time advocate for pets and animals, as a young girl Tischler used to bring home abandoned kittens and birds. Later, during her undergraduate years at Queens College of the City University of New York, she ran an on-campus shelter for cats. After graduating from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1977, Tischler had dreams of working outside of traditional forms of law, but had trouble finding a legal position in animal affairs at the time. Still, she never lost sight of her goal, and in 1978, got the chance to put her idea into action by forming ALDF.

Since then, she has championed several of ALDF’s biggest cases, including a 1981 lawsuit that stopped the U.S. Navy’s plan to kill 5,000 ferral burros, as well as a 1988 challenge to the U.S. Patent Office’s rule allowing the patenting of genetically altered animals.  Tischler has also handled cases for the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and Animal Welfare Act.

ALDF employs 20 and has 110,000 supporting members from around the country who provide donations through web site contributions, mail and e-mail.  Thanks to the work and example set by people like Tischler and other animal rights activists, the number of students attending law school to practice animal law continues to increase, and more graduates are choosing to do pro-bono work in animal law.  In addition, Tischler says many law schools and graduate programs have begun introducing more animal law courses into their curriculums, improving the education, preparation and development of future animal rights lawyers and legal experts.

Listen to an interview with Joyce Tischler on Women’s Radio about the evolution of animal law, ALDF and what you can do to help promote animal rights!