BANA International United - This organization based in South Korea works together to promote B1A4, OMG, and WM Entertainment and complete projects for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and other charity projects that they inspire.

Here are the organizations that participated in our campaign. It isn’t too late to donate to these wonderful causes:

Neville Alumni and Friends Association -  NAFA to provide supplemental funding for programs and projects to enhance the quality of instructional delivery and student life, and to promote excellence in higher education at Neville High School.

United Way of Hudson County - UWHC is a community-based nonprofit organization that focuses on improving the lives of the most vulnerable residents in Hudson County, New Jersey, for 76 years. ​

Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation - This foundation supports pediatric research, education, community benefit programs, and other initiatives that improve the health of children in Michigan.
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Delta Gamma Foundation - The Delta Gamma Foundation fosters lifetime enrichment for members, promotes Service for Sight, and partners with the Fraternity to ensure the future of its sisterhood.

Zeta Phi Beta - The sorority was founded in 1920 at Howard University and continues to create a lasting impact on the community through its charitable efforts.  

Dual Sport Ride for ESA - Robert Reger is individually raising funds for Theta Eta Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha International, and completing a daring motorcycle adventure for this effort. The 3rd annual "2016 Dual Sport Ride for ESA" is a back-country adventure ride inspired to help the Colorado-based Epsilon Sigma Alpha Sorority in its efforts to raise money for the Denver Rescue Mission. This year he will be completing the 850-mile Arizona Backcountry Discovery Route (from Utah to Mexico) back-to-back for seven days. He will have no modern accommodations to signify his identification of the efforts in overcoming physical and mental challenges the homeless face every day as they overcome obstacles in life. 

Along with the organizations we worked with, many groups around the world are raising funds for #GivingTuesday. Here are some other groups making a difference in their communities. Check out these wonderful organizations and consider making a donation to their cause.

PIKE
Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity works to provide a superior collegiate and lifetime fraternal experience and a focus on making young men better leaders in their chapter, better servants in their community and better contributors to society. Donations go to leadership programming, academic and leadership scholarships, and support to undergraduates and alumni.

Pawsitive Friendships
This group works to provide animal-assisted therapy to help children with special needs build animal-human friendships and works on a child’s individual therapeutic goals.

Delta Chi LFC
Delta Chi Fraternity at Lake Forest College is raising money for The V Foundation for Cancer Research. The V Foundation has raised more than $100 million in honor of the award-winning broadcaster and basketball coach from North Carolina  State Jim Valvano who battled cancer. 100% of all new direct cash donations support cancer research.

Center for Transforming Lives
This organization provides safe housing for mothers and their children who are facing abuse at home. Along with providing shelter, the center connects women with education, job training and employment opportunities while providing affordable, high quality child care, and financial coaching.
Giving Tuesday is just the beginning of the charitable season of giving. We at memberplanet encourage you to find a cause that is close to you and we hope you’ll consider giving, whether it’s making a donation, volunteering, or spreading the word of a fundraising mission. Happy Holidays!

​Boo! Halloween is just around the corner. memberplanet has everything you need to organize and host a spooktacular event! With memberplanet’s easy-to-use features you can stress less about organizing, and focus on having a ghoulishly good time.

Creepy Crawly Travel ​

Like most associations and nonprofits, you’ve likely either been utilizing social media to grow your membership or you are about to make the transition. If you want to effectively spread the word about your group, you’ll need to do it strategically. Using social media to  blast out your organization’s name can sometimes be perceived as a walking advertisement rather than a source for interesting and relatable content.
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The following four strategies can help do it right – using social media to really grow your membership base:

​1. Connect with other industry professionals

​In order to be viewed as a credible source of information in your industry, you should connect with like-minded professionals in the same sphere. On social media, most other associations and nonprofits are not competition, but prospective followers to engage with. Developing relationships like these can be helpful for cross-promotion and expanding who sees your content.

​Social media is a very reciprocal medium – when you promote or comment on another organization’s content, they will typically do the same. Use these connections as a resource to find individuals who share your values. Look at whom other groups are following (and vice versa) to expand your prospective membership base.

​If you really want to spread the word about your organization, you’ll need to inspire your current supporters to share your posts beyond the follower base. When you make a post about something that you want to go viral, email your members to tell them about it, with sharing buttons embedded within the email that make it easy for them to promote the post in their own networks. 

​Social media channels rank high on search engines. This means that having an active Facebook or Twitter page can help new members find your organization online, even by accident, as they are conducting searches. When posting on social media, try to boost your Search Engine Optimization with SEO-friendly verbiage and news articles that improve your ranking on search engines – this makes it drastically easier for web users to encounter your organization and become new members. 

​Use tools such as SocialMention to monitor mentions on industry or community topics that relate to your group and highlight those that you can participate in. When you come across an interesting exchange, join the discussion. Don’t use these interactions as a way to pitch membership – instead bring value to the conversation. Share helpful information, like links to related data. 

​Remember, you are not trying to sell memberships, you are trying to develop relationships, provide value, and create awareness about your organization. As you do so, the memberships will come naturally. 

​Social media is about just that – being social. While you may have hopes of quickly growing your base through being active on social platforms, you will not get there by simply advertising your membership. Instead, give people a reason to want to learn more. Provide valuable, credible, and entertaining content and feedback. Highlight your members and your events. Show prospects who you are without asking for anything in return. And most importantly, make it easy for your current members to support your efforts.

memberplanet’s purpose is to make life simplified for you and your group. Our platform eases the job of adding social media channels and gives you sharing capabilities on all pieces of marketing in order to expand your networks. For more optimization tips, read our blog on how to make this powerful tool work for your organization.

​Three common problem areas and what you can do to overcome them

​We live in an interesting time. It’s never been easier to access information. Most people walk around with a device in their pocket that lets them know about pretty much everything happening anywhere on the planet. For the most part, this is an excellent development, especially for nonprofits. 

​Nowadays, people are much more aware of social issues, as well as the organizations advocating for them. This is obviously positive news; however, it is also a bit of a double-edged sword. With so many nonprofits looking to raise money, it can be easy to get lost in the shuffle. 

On top of the crowded landscape, a person may get an alert on their phone about a current news event and a moment later, one about their favorite pair of pants going on sale. On which item do you think they’ll prioritize their money? This leads into one of the biggest fundraising challenges:

Some folks just aren’t willing to donate ​

The key to getting anyone to donate to your nonprofit is by building a relationship with them. You have to get to know them – and vice versa – before even thinking about asking them for money. Instead, first ask them to sign up for your newsletter or download a pamphlet. See if they would be interested in signing a petition. Figure out ways for potential donors to create an emotional connection with your work before trying to get them to open their wallets. 

​You definitely do not want to overextend yourself. You may think your nonprofit should have a profile on every social network, but if you can’t keep up with the posting, don’t do it. Nothing looks worse than a page that’s collecting cobwebs. 

The first thing you want to do is determine who your target audience is. Then you can figure out which social networks they use and focus on those. Social media is a great place to tell stories about your organization, mission, and events, and it also gives you a fantastic opportunity to engage with people to build those precious relationships.

Mobile, mobile, everywhere​

​When’s the last time you checked your website on your phone? If it looks exactly like it does on your computer, chances are people won’t stay there for long, which means you could be losing precious funding. One way to improve the mobile user experience is by simplifying the donation process, and you can do this by utilizing the auto-fill information stored on devices.

Want to make it easier to raise funds for your nonprofit? Get in touch with memberplanet. Our all-in-one platform will help spread the word about you, make it easy to manage your online presence, and turn your donation process into a snap. Learn more about what we can do for you and sign up here.

​However, like most news, only the most noteworthy get’s attention and clicks. Be sure to include a catchy title and banner image to entice your group member’s friends to check out the post. Keep in mind, the banner image, title, and first line of text will appear in the news story to Facebook viewers. The catchier you make them, the more clicks and awareness you will get.

1. Create a custom event page

​In today’s world, what’s an event if it doesn’t exist online? Having an engaging and user-friendly event page will increase exposure and word-of-mouth. Promote the date through the dedicated page, send invitations, and sell tickets online to make it simple and easy for attendees to find all the information they need.

2. Branded payments

​Within your event page, it is essential to include a branded form where attendees can register and provide payment. To make things even easier, you’ll want to accept as many forms of payment as possible. For example, with memberplanet, you are able to accept credit cards, PayPal, and e-checks.  Customize these branded payment forms with your event name, logo, and fields for participant information to collect as much data as you can about your attendees. And be sure that your payment page is mobile friendly, so registrants can submit fees while on the go. 

3. Use a donation site

If your event is paired with a fundraising component, let the fundraising occur for weeks leading up to the big day with a donation page. Engage with donors through your page’s interactive features and enable social sharing after they donate. The capability for donors to broadcast their fundraising efforts to their social networks can encourage other people to share in the fun! And with memberplanet’s membership management system, you can scan payments directly to your donation page through its mobile app. This ensures you’ll never have to turn down a donation, whether online or in-person.

4. Start a blog

​Take engagement one-step further by blogging consistently – not just right before your event.In order to stay relevant in the minds of your attendees and donors, you should start a blog and create valuable content for your networks. Discuss the event after it happens, encourage your speakers or sponsors to write a blog post, and even use it as a way to collect testimonials from your event. A blog has the capability to improve your relationships and expand your network. 

5. Utilize email marketing

Email marketing is the easiest way to get in front of your attendees and donors. It is also, arguably, the most profitable means of marketing. With email, you can create deeper relationships with a wider audience at a fraction of the cost of traditional media. Best of all, it doesn’t take a programmer to build compelling HTML emails.
memberplanet allows you to create unique and branded emails in minutes. Write the text and then choose a template and a color palette (and don’t forget your logo!), and your email is ready to be sent. Our service also provides you with live reporting capabilities that show you how many people have opened your email and who has clicked on your links. This is the information you need to better reach your audience.
With so many avenues available online to get your event out to the right people, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. That’s why memberplanet’s motto is “Life simplified.” Our goal is to provide you with all the tools you need to promote your event online, all in one spot. Create a free account today and explore the opportunities available to take your group to the next level. 

As of November 2015, there were more than one billion people using Facebook on a daily basis. Imagine how much impact your fundraising campaign could have! And that’s just one platform. Millions of people are also engaging on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other sites.
 
A big benefit of using social media for your fundraising efforts (aside from the fact that these platforms and many relevant tools are free to use) is the sheer number of people you can reach all at one time. And if you plan out your campaign to include consistent posts on a regular basis, you’ll be sure to get the attention and support of your audience.

A picture’s worth a thousand words, right? Imagine how much support you’ll gain when you share your fundraising story in bold, living color using photographs and videos. Just look at the overwhelming success Humans of New York has seen.
 
When using social media to fundraise, you have the opportunity to illicit emotion from your viewers by showing them who’s being helped by their support or what their donation will actually be helping to accomplish.
 
It also allows you to provide valuable information in your content about your cause. And the best part? You can post messaging on all your social media channels simultaneously (tools like Buffer make it especially easy), so no matter which site your followers are active on, they’ll be sure to see what’s happening with your campaign.

There’s no time like the present and when you use social media to fundraise, you’ll have the ability to post real-time updates, requests for volunteers, progress reports and more. When your supporters can see that you’re only a few thousand dollars away from reaching your goal, for example, anyone who hasn’t given yet will be inspired to be a part of the reason you hit your fundraising mark.

Because of its ability to make a massive impact on so many people at one time, social media affords you the opportunity to thank your supporters and volunteers all at once. And because everyone can see your messages, they’ll be proud when they’re recognized for their efforts. Staying engaged throughout the campaign is also easy to do with daily updates and posts, pictures showing different events and activities and anything else noteworthy that’s happening during your campaign.
 
When you combine your social media campaign with our online member management tools, you’ll be able to direct your supporters to your customized memberplanet fundraising site where they can make secure, one-time or recurring donations.
 
You’ll also have all the tools you need to send out email and text blasts to your group, allow them to register and RSVP for events, easily create great-looking newsletters and gather and keep track of all your members information and much more.

We provide everything necessary to help you meet and beat your fundraising goal. Find out more about all the benefits memberplanet offers. Sign up for a free account today!

The app streamlines everything from your MP account on one simple mobile interface. When your members download the app they will have a simple place to check for all the updates, reminders and action items you send.

Leaders have the ability to send SMS and email announcements your entire group right from the app. Broadcasts are a simple and convenient way to reach everyone in just a few clicks. 

The feed is your source for all updates. It populates with new Surveys, Events, Donation Sites and Emails in real time. Each item can be opened, viewed and shared socially right from the app. You can even make payments on-the-go with your credit card! Feed filters let members instantly view upcoming Events on the group Calendar and photo albums.

Administrators can scan cards using the phone’s camera to allow both members and non-members to make payments. Accept donations or sign-ups at your next meeting and events! Members can even scan their own cards on the app to register for upcoming events or make donations.

Notifications let you know that you have news or an outstanding action item, like a required payment. When you respond to an item, it will disappear from your notifications.

The history feature keeps track of all of your past actions on memberplanet. You can always check here to see where you've donated, registered for an Event or submitted a survey response.

If you are a member of multiple groups on memberplanet, you can view group feeds independently or as a combined feed. This is a great way to keep scheduling straight with a synthesized Calendar.

​Simply send a Broadcast announcement notifying members about the  app - all Broadcasts automatically include download links on both email and SMS platforms.

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