Improve Online Fundraising and Reach with Common Ground Social

Convio Adds Social Online Fundraising Feature to Common Ground Package

In the past I have written about several online fundraising platforms that have helped thousands of organizations expand their fundraising initiatives and engage existing and new supporters, such as CovergeUS, Razoo, Give2gether, Kickstarter, Kiva City, Givmo, Broadcause, Startsomegood, Donorschoose, FirstGiving and ClickYourSupport.  This past week Convio Inc announced the launch of Common Ground Social, a fully customizable all-in-one social fundraising software solution.

Founded by Vinay Bhagat in 1999 after having volunteered for a nonprofit pledge drive and determining that the process of managing donors and the donation processes could be improved, Bhagat set out to make managing interactions with donors as efficient and effective as possible and Convio was born. Convio’s new Common Ground Social solution combines the power of social media (the three largest platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) with an online fundraising solution.

Images courtesy of convio.com

Convio’s own in-house study The Next Generation of American Giving shows that across all age groups there is a preference in being engaged through social media outlets over direct mail and email. The study shows that Americans spend 25% of their online time on social networks, with 50% having a Facebook profile and 10% sharing their lives regularly on Twitter. Plus the average internet user has 650+ social ties both online & offline. Given these figures, programs aimed at engaging supporters should include social media outlets and a solution that integrates them seamlessly had been missing in the online fundraising landscape.

Common Ground Social also supports peer-to-peer fundraising and is available to both nonprofits and individual supporters alike, is incredibly easy to register and can be customized to share the cause most passionate about. By creating and sharing personalized fundraising pages with family, friends and colleagues on different social media networks, the message of the nonprofit can be spread along with an appeal for support with just one click. Individual fundraisers can keep track of the progress of their campaigns with their own dashboard which allows them to send thank you notes to their supporters and the systems automatically processes the donations and issues receipts.

Ultimately, Common Ground Social allows nonprofits to focus on the things that matter – their mission and results – while they provide the technology to make it happen. Some other features include:

• Nonprofits have the ability to track and interact with supporters and their networks;
• Provide a seamless flow of data from donors to the nonprofits database and this information can quickly capture donor information with a click of a button;
• The nonprofit can also control the message of their mission; and
• Nonprofits can provide their fundraisers with coaching tips on launching and executing a successful campaign.

Convio has offices across the US and in the U.K and currently serves 1,500 nonprofits globally with their two main platforms:
– Luminate platform designed for larger enterprise nonprofits; and
– Common Ground CRM is specific to small and medium sized nonprofits and seamlessly integrates with Common Ground Social.

Some organization that have benefited from Convio’s online platforms include American Diabetes Association, American Red Cross, Autism Society of America, Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Easter Seals, Feeding America, BC Cancer Foundation, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, UN Foundation and the Daily Bread Food Bank.

The ever expanding reach of social media makes a platform like Common Ground Social essential to nonprofits incorporating online fundraising and other strategies into their engagement and acquisition planning.

Convio’s Common Ground Social – All In One Social Fundraising
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/31397576[/vimeo]

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.