By Widad EL HANAFI, E-Mediat Morocco Country Director
On May 5th, E-Mediat Morocco organised a training session on Fundraising and Networking in Ifrane. The training session gathered 30 NGOs’ members coming from different cities and rural villages from l’Oriental and Midlle Atlas regions.
We started our training session with a Networking exercise that consists of having each two participants meet and talk about each others’ work, interests and NGO. After that each participant needed to introduce his/her partner’s NGO and define a common interest or project they can work on together in the furture.
The purpose of this networking exercise was twofold: 1) helping participants learn about each other and 2) reiterating the importance of networks in the success of a fundarising campaign and any other project.
During the fundraising session, we focused on providing NGOs with basic steps to create a fundraising plan and to integrate social media tools into that plan. The fundraising session also shared lessons learned from some fundraising stories from the Arab world, United States and Morocco. During this session, we also provided a brief overview on E-Commerce in Morocco and introduced some institutions provided online payment services and fundraising platforms. More details on the fundraising session are available on Integrating Social Media tools into your NGO Fundraising plan blogpost.
On May 5th, E-Mediat Morocco organised a training session on Fundraising and Networking in Ifrane. The training session gathered 30 NGOs’ members coming from different cities and rural villages from l’Oriental and Midlle Atlas regions.
We started our training session with a Networking exercise that consists of having each two participants meet and talk about each others’ work, interests and NGO. After that each participant needed to introduce his/her partner’s NGO and define a common interest or project they can work on together in the furture.
The purpose of this networking exercise was twofold: 1) helping participants learn about each other and 2) reiterating the importance of networks in the success of a fundarising campaign and any other project.
During the fundraising session, we focused on providing NGOs with basic steps to create a fundraising plan and to integrate social media tools into that plan. The fundraising session also shared lessons learned from some fundraising stories from the Arab world, United States and Morocco. During this session, we also provided a brief overview on E-Commerce in Morocco and introduced some institutions provided online payment services and fundraising platforms. More details on the fundraising session are available on Integrating Social Media tools into your NGO Fundraising plan blogpost.
To practice skills learnt during this session, NGOs were divied into groups to prepare a fundraising plan sample.
Previously this year, Arkhabil Association of Cultures for Development in the village of Ait Oualla in Tigrigra near the city of Azrou launched a campaign to benefit 100 families in their Village. Abdelhaq Charrou, President of this NGO explains the way their NGO has benefited from the use of social media tools to collect donations for their village and the way they’ll improve their fundraising strategy in the future.
Abdelhaq says “Our NGO is located in a very isolated rural village in the Middle Atlas region and before using Social Media tools, our NGO and even village were not known. We started using Social Media tools to promote our NGO and region. Our NGO learned Social Media tools through our participation in E-Mediat Morocco program and thanks to these tools our NGO has been able to communicate with the Youth Citizen NGO in Rabat, which got to know our activities through our Facebook page and Blog.
Through our interaction with Social Media tools, this NGO learned about our organization, activities and village as well as our needs and thus proposed to provide us with social assistance by providing donations of clothing and blankets for 100 needy families and provided us with medical assistance through free tests and medicines for more than 70 beneficiaries. This NGO has also organized an entertainment session for more than 200 kid of the region.
Abdelhaq further explains “after attending E-Mediat training session on Fundraising and Netwroking this weekend, our NGO will work on preparing more fundraising campaigns in a more affective way by defining our campaign SMART objectives, mission, and target. We will design our fundraising plan that will be implemented through a team and according to a timeline. We will also define several donation methods to reach the maximum of supporters and of course we will integrate social media tools into our plan. This way we will be able to raise more funds in structured and organised manner and in a specific time.
At the end of the training session, NGOs were gathered in one final Networking exercise to encourage participating NGOs to consitute a network to support each other. NGOs were gathered in circle and needed to select the best topics they defined on the first networking exercise.
 |
- “Training session on Financial and Administartive managment for NGOs'” to be delivered by Namaa NGO and hosted by AGEF to benefit 20 NGOs in Oujda in June 2012,
- “ Training session on Human Development” to be delivered by the Association Lights of Theatre for Development and Culture in Azrou and hosted by Namaa NGO to benefit 25 NGOs in Meknes in June 2012,
- “Training session on Small Business Development” to be delivered by AMADEP and hosted by Omi NGO to benefit 20 NGOs in Berkane at l’Oriental in June/ July 2012
- “Training session on Small Business Development” to be delivered by AMADEP and hosted by Namaa NGO to benefit 20 NGOs in Meknes in June/ July 2012
By Widad EL HANAFI, E-Mediat Morocco Country Director
To develop a fundraising plan for your NGO requires that you follow some basic steps. As you finish preparing your plan and get into the implementation phase, you need to integrate some social media tools to boost your plan and adopt an ongoing evaluation process.
Below are some basic steps that shape the preparation of a fundraising plan:
Objectives & Mission
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Timely
|
Target
|
Research
|
Design your implementation plan & structrure
|
Donation Methods:
When you work on your fundraising plan, think about diversifying donation methods and channels. If your supporters cannot use one method, they can use another one. Your donation methods may include: - Mailing, print, phone - Online & E-giving - Add a Donate widget into your blog or insert a donation form into your blogpost - Direct donation - Wire transfers - Credit card donations - Fundraising during an event | |
Implementation phase:
When you finalise your plan, you’ll need to start implementing your action plan according to your fundraising calendar. Bear in mind that on this phase, you need to keep your fundraising objective in front of you. During this phase, you can adjust and improve your plan according to the actual context and this is importance of follow up and evaluation. Evaluation need to be an on going process within your plan.
Integrating social media tools into your plan:
Now that we have briefly overviewed some basic steps to develop a fundraising plan, we will move to focus on integrating social media tools into your NGO fundraising plan. There are several social media tools that allow and help NGOs achieve their fundraising purposes. Some are simple and for free, others are more advanced and requires payment. Bear in mind that integrating social media tools into your plan will not be doing the whole job for you. It will help spread the word and promote your campaign but you still need to work into implementing your action plan and fundraising calendar, engaging your network, and evaluating your work.
I always recommend to NGOs to start with the basic tools and once they get some practice, they can them move to more advance tools if they can afford that.
I will be focusing on simple fundraising methods that NGOs can adopt to support their organisations and communities.
Fundraising through your blog:
When you decide to launch a fundrasing campaign, write a blog post to explain your fundraising objective and mission and insert a form within your blog post to help your audience reach out with you. Google Docs allow the possibility to insert a form into your blog just by embedding the form code into your text message.
The steps are as follow:
1- Draft your fundraising campaign article. Think about adding and inserting photos and videos that are related to your article.
2- create a online form using google Docs for example
3- Embed your form code into your article and publish your post.
A good example of this is illustrated through an initiative by Nermeen Obeidat, a friend and colleague from Jordan who launched the 20JD= Taxi campaign on April 21 to support a family in Amman.
Nermeen Obeidat explains “when I started this campaign, I was targeting my network of 750 friends on facebook. On the first day, I only got the attention of 31 of my friends and by day 6 of the campaign, many networks got involved, free agents, social and communication professionals and the level of engagement got increased. Today (April 26) we reached 3500 JD and the campaign will continue to reach its objective.
Nermeen describes the campaign’s achievements and challenges in the following way:
Integrating social media tools into your plan:
Now that we have briefly overviewed some basic steps to develop a fundraising plan, we will move to focus on integrating social media tools into your NGO fundraising plan. There are several social media tools that allow and help NGOs achieve their fundraising purposes. Some are simple and for free, others are more advanced and requires payment. Bear in mind that integrating social media tools into your plan will not be doing the whole job for you. It will help spread the word and promote your campaign but you still need to work into implementing your action plan and fundraising calendar, engaging your network, and evaluating your work.
I always recommend to NGOs to start with the basic tools and once they get some practice, they can them move to more advance tools if they can afford that.
I will be focusing on simple fundraising methods that NGOs can adopt to support their organisations and communities.
Fundraising through your blog: When you decide to launch a fundrasing campaign, write a blog post to explain your fundraising objective and mission and insert a form within your blog post to help your audience reach out with you. Google Docs allow the possibility to insert a form into your blog just by embedding the form code into your text message.
The steps are as follow:
1- Draft your fundraising campaign article. Think about adding and inserting photos and videos that are related to your article.
2- create a online form using google Docs for example
3- Embed your form code into your article and publish your post.
A good example of this is illustrated through an initiative by Nermeen Obeidat, a friend and colleague from Jordan who launched the 20JD= Taxi campaign on April 21 to support a family in Amman.
Nermeen Obeidat explains “when I started this campaign, I was targeting my network of 750 friends on facebook. On the first day, I only got the attention of 31 of my friends and by day 6 of the campaign, many networks got involved, free agents, social and communication professionals and the level of engagement got increased. Today (April 26) we reached 3500 JD and the campaign will continue to reach its objective.
Nermeen describes the campaign’s achievements and challenges in the following way:
- Some of those who donated extended the effort into their networks,
- The campaign was creative in drawing attention to a humanitarian issue but in a simple, modern and positive manner,
- The objective is SMART as everyone can skip 20 JD which = shisha and a drink in Jordan,
- Not mentioning how people can donate created some confusion but at the same time offered some flexibility for people to chip in in different ways,
The first thing that draw my attention to this initiative was the name of the campaign. I saw 20JD=Taxi on a flyer on Nermeen’s facebook profile and I was eager to know what was this about. The name of the campaign was inspired from its mission and objective. Also, Nermeen has also sent a clear call to action to her network which has helped encourage influencers within her network to contribute to the success of the campaign. She also kept updating her network until the end of the campaign:
Another tool that you need to make sure to add to your blog is the ShareThis button. This will help your followers to share your blogposts with their network.
Fundraising through Facebook: - Use Facebook to tell your friends that you’re raising money for a good cause. Create a page for your cause and invite your friends to join and keep them updated on your progress and ask their ideas and insights and ask them to contribute to your goal.
- Share your blogposts about your fundraising campaign in your Facebook page,
- Create a flyer/ logo for your campaign and use it as your Facebook cover page and photo ID,
- Mention your fundraising drive on your Facebook status so that your closest friends and family can chip in and assist,
- Encourage Dialogue in your Facebook page,
- Keep updating your audience and sharing your fundraising campaign updates, challenges, and achievements.
Fundraising through twitter:
Twitter is an effective tool for your fundraising campaign. Use your NGO Twitter account to promote your campaign and gain your followers’ support. Select the right # hashtags based on your campaign’s name and mission and send regular tweets to update your audience and gain more support by requesting your followers to retweet. In case you start having many updates, start using Buffer to schedule your tweets.Fundraising through Pinterest:
- Pin your cause: create a board for your fundraising campaign and pin your blogposts, fundraising events photos, logo, flyer,…
- Encourage your supporters to pin for you and add the Pin it Button to your blog to help your network support your cause when you publish updates on your campain on you blog
Fundraising through Youtube: - Create videos to promote your campaign, inform your audience and convey your message,
- Create videos to update your audience, followers and donors,
- Create your videos about the impact and results of your fundraising campaign and the way funds have served your cause and community. This will help make you NGO accountable for its work and build trust with your network and encourage them to support you again.
Join E-Mediat Morocco on Facebook and Twitter via @emediatmorocco
Prepared by Widad EL HANAFI, E-Mediat Morocco Country Director
During the Month of February 2012, E-Mediat Morocco organized its 5th workshop in Oujda, Azrou, and Meknes to review the Implementation of NGOs’ Social Media strategies. After designing their Social Media strategies, NGOs needed to select the appropriate tools to achieve their Social Media strategy objectives and reach their NGO web presence.
We have been reiterating to our NGO since the 1st workshop that success in Social Media is not about using as many tools as possible but rather selecting the right tools for their NGOs’ objectives and audience and find the right process to link between these tools. For example, you need to support your NGO’s twitter strategy with the right tools that can help you save time and organise your daily tweets even when you are away from your desktop and then you can link your Twitter strategy to your Facebook page.
NGOs’ Twitter strategy was one of the sections covered during this workshop. To help NGOs improve their presence on Twitter and plan their twitter strategy, we recommend the following tools:
1- Ifttt :
· Create your NGO account on Ifttt
· Create tasks like Google Reader to Twitter
· Subscribe to website & blogs via RSS: define keywords that fit in your NGO’s objectives & interests and search websites & blogs that post on those topics. Go to your Google Reader daily and read and share relevant articles with your audience. All starred articles will be shared automatically to your twitter via Ifttt
2- Buffer:
· Create account: NGOs can use free option that allows 10 tweets a day or paid options that allow more posting if the NGO can afford that
· Link buffer to your NGO twitter account
· Define settings and your NGO posting schedule
· Go to Goodies and Install Buffer depending on your web browser (Chrome, Safari, …)
· Start buffering relevant articles/ posts from websites, blogs, twitter with your audience from 
icon.
icon.
3- Organise your NGO’s weekly Twitter Strategy:
Tweet category
|
Frequency
|
Total per week
|
NGO updates
|
1 per day
(NGO blogpost, video, meeting, region update or news,…)
|
7
|
Updates via buffer
(websites, blogs,…)
|
10 per day
|
70
|
Tweets via Ifttt
(google reader to twitter)
|
1 per day
|
7
|
Retweet your followers via directly or via buffer
|
2 per day
|
14
|
98 tweets per week
| ||
This table is just a model that your NGO can use and adapt according to your interests and objectives
1- Important Tips:
· Add your NGO Description and Blog URL on the profile section,
· Start Following and encourage others to follow you:
- Check regularly the Who To Follow section,
- Check your followers’ followers
· Define your weekly twitter strategy
· Update your twitter strategy every week
Bottom line, remember that it is not a matter of using several tools. It is a rather matter of selecting and linking the right tools for your NGO and audience. Enjoy your Tweeting and let us know if you have further questions. Join E-Mediat Morocco on Facebook and Twitter via @emediatmorocco
Prepared by El Mehdi Zeroual, E-Mediat Morocco Training Coordinator
YouTube is one of the best tools for marketing since it is ranked second (right after Google) as a search engine. Also YouTube is the first website for diffusion, broadcasting and sharing videos online. And the best of it is that it is free for both viewing and sharing.
In addition
to Gmail and Blogger, YouTube is another Google product that was updated. The
new interface includes changes on the home page, channel page and the overall
design. This new YouTube interface shares a number of aspects with other
updated Google products.
Since the
homepage is the first page that users see and because it is the gateway to
millions of videos, Google made in-depth changes on it such
as bigger video thumbnails. In addition, YouTube is getting more social by
adding a number of functionalities including:
-
Integration of a sidebar for easier
access to content
-
Highlighting recent Channel activity.
-
Simplified subscription system to channels.
-
Link YouTube account to Google+ and Facebook
-
New customizable homepage feed
Since Google gives more focus to channels on the new homepage, it wouldn’t be complete if they didn’t update channels as well. Channels now are simpler and customizable. New templates are added to respond to all users’ needs. Channels administrators can organize and present their content in a more simplified way. Other than updates on design, Google’s goal is to help users find videos they are looking for easily.
To bring
Homepage and Channels designs together, Google used the same paint for the
whole site. The new design is called Cosmic Panda which is cleaner and simpler
as all other Google products new designs.
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