3 Interactive Nonprofit Web Campaigns

Interactive websites are a rare breed in the nonprofit world. Not only do sites themselves usually cost a lot of money, but the campaigns behind them often take a lot of time and effort to implement. However, when designed well they can be an effective way to engage supporters. Here are three interactive web campaigns that have recently caught my attention:

Greenpeace

Yesterday, on August 16, Greenpeace retired the Rainbow Warrior II. For over 50 years (21 of them with Greenpeace) the Rainbow Warrior II has been involved in environmental activism on the front lines. From blocking coal shipments to tracking illegal foresting shipments to identifying and bringing to justice illegal fishing operations the Rainbow Warrior II has been at the forefront of Greenpeace's mission to protect and conserve the environment.

Greenpeace is now building a new and better equipped ship and is enlisting the help of its network of supporters. But rather than just asking for donations, Greenpeace has designed an interactive site to let donors actually buy a piece of the ship. It's a transparent and creative way to raise both awareness and support for the creation of a new vessel.

Conservation International

Conservation International's mission is to encourage societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, global biodiversity and the well-being of humanity. In combination with the launch of their movie "Turning the Tide", Conservation International has created an interactive campaign that allows supporters to donate $75 to save one mile of ocean. The campaign is transparent about how the donation is spent, promotes an effective call to action and offers easy ways for supporters to join the Save a Mile of Ocean movement.

Oxfam

Oxfam Canada's GROW campaign appears well timed given the recent food crisis events in Somalia. According to Oxfam Canada, almost one billion are going hungry each day - many of them women and girls. While there is common consensus that the world currently produces enough food to feed everyone, the access to and distribution of food remains a significant challenges in parts of the globe. 

Using an interactive map, Oxfam Canada's GROW campaign helps to teach supporters how food prices impact many of the most vulnerable countries in the world. It also provides stats and photos about food crisis numbers.

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5 Nonprofit Facebook Campaigns for Social Change (or not)

Nothing But Nets: Combat Malaria

• Nothing But Nets is a global, grassroots campaign to raise awareness and funding to combat malaria - one of the largest killers of children in Africa.
• In mid 2010, an innovative promotion allowed Facebook users to use Facebook credits to make donations of $10, $25 or $100 to the Nothing But Nets campaign
• Facebook credits can be bought or earned through special promotions.
• A small donation of $10 can cover the cost of purchasing a insecticide-treated bed net, distributing it and educating people about its use
• The campaign was supported by videos and educational materials about malaria on the Nothing But Nets website
• Celebrity endorsements from such figures as Mandy Moore and live webisodes were also a part of the campaign

Take Away:

• Success: The campaign was an innovative partnership between Populations Services International, Nothing But Nets and Facebook and the Nothing But Nets Facebook application made it easy for users to donate credits. The campaign was also complemented by extensive resources raising both awareness and funds.  

Greenpeace: Unfriend Coal

• Greenpeace recently launched a photo petition/competition to get Facebook to go green by Earth Day – April 12, 2011.
• The campaign goals were to: Increase the use of clean energy to make Facebook coal free; Develop a plan to make Facebook coal free by 2021; Educate your users about how Facebook powers its services and its carbon footprint; Advocate for clean energy at a local, national and international level
• The Unfriend Coal campaign asked users to ‘like’ the campaign, share it with friends, and spread the ‘go green by Earth Day’ image through their profile picture
• The Greenpeace campaign has caught the attention of Facebook CEOs but no action has been taken yet
• To date over 175,000 people have liked the campaign and over 700 photos have been shared reaching hundreds of thousands of supporters

Take Away:

• Success: The campaign was grassroots driven, simple to follow and supported by a call to action and clear timeline   

Nature Conservancy: Causes

• The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.
• To date the Nature Conservancy is one of the top grossing nonprofits using the Facebook causes platform with nearly half a million members and over $440,000 donated from 2,000+ donors
• The platform integrates with the Nature Conservancy’s Facebook page and breaks down where the money donated is allocated.
• The Causes platform also allows individuals to raise money through birthday wishes for causes of their choice

Take Away:

• Success: With little investment the causes platform be integrated into an existing Facebook page and start to generate small donations from supporters or on behalf of birthday wishes from celebrity partners

Breast Cancer Awareness

• In January 2010, female Facebook users began posting colors as their status updates.
• A woman in Detroit trying to raise awareness for breast cancer reportedly started the campaign entitled ‘what colour is your bra?’.
• An email circulated behind the scenes among women telling them: “Some fun is going on…. just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of breast cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before people wonder why all the girls have a color in their status… Haha”
• Though the campaign created a huge buzz across social networks the purpose and outcomes behind the movement were unclear and many questioned the effectiveness of raising awareness in this manner
• A similar campaign emerged during Breast Cancer awareness month in October 2010 asking women to update their status with where they like to set their purse.
• Answers included “I like it on the kitchen counter" or "I like it on the floor"

Take Aways:

• Success: The campaign spread widely on social networks because of its secrecy and intrigue
• Failures: No clear tangible outcomes or direction

Campaign Against Child Violence

• In December 2010 a campaign started to end violence against children
• The campaign asked Facebook users to change their profile to their favourite childhood cartoon character
• The Facebook page read: “Until Monday (Dec. 6), there should be no human faces on Facebook but an invasion of memories. This is for eliminating violence against children,” the page says. The undisclosed campaign creator asks Facebook users to change their profile pic and share the above statement in their status
• The campaign was not affiliated with any organization and did not have any tangible outcomes
• The campaign generated widespread attention and has over 27,000 ‘likes’

Take Away:

• Success: Like the breast cancer campaign, the campaign against child violence spread widely on social networks
• Failures: No clear tangible outcomes or direction

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Takeaways from Four Successful Nonprofit Twitter Campaigns

Charity: Water

Highlights:

• Following a trip to Liberia Scott Harrison, founder of charity: water, used his network as a New York club promoter to raise nearly 1,000,000 for clean water efforts on his birthday
• A clever marketing campaign helped increase the organization’s public awareness and charity: water used Twitter to promote their work
• In 2009 charity: water was selected as the recipient of the first Global Twestival which helped raise over $250,000 from Twitter users
• Regular videos and photos of the day complement their Twitter communications – while fun and personalized marketing has helped charity: water become one of the largest Twitter accounts with over 1.3 million followers

Takeaway:

• A vibrant, innovative leader combined with a multifaceted and integrated communications strategy can help your organization gain social support very quickly

Room to Read

Highlights:

• Room to Read enables and promotes education and literacy in nine developing countries
• With nearly half a million followers Room to Read built its Twitter strategy upon the following six pillars:

1. Sharing quality information about educational issues facing children worldwide.
2. Personalized Twitter accounts for executive members showing organizational transparency
3. Support partner organizations by retweeting and participating in trending topics and weekly events
4. Build a network of key players – follow them and engage in conversation
5. Follow new followers
6. Be highly active during major events

Takeaway:

• A transparent strategy focused on sharing information about your cause, while supporting others and participating in conversation can lead to increased attention and awareness

Global Citizen Year

Highlights:

• Global Citizen Year (GCY) is a dynamic new organization focused on training and supporting high school seniors on international apprenticeships with social enterprises in Asia, Africa and Latin America
• Through their blog GCY began sharing videos, photos, stories, lessons and insights from fellows in the field
• GCY expanded their communications to Twitter and began tweeting content from the blog posts. The tweets aimed to engage their community in their programs and attract new fellows
• Several key Twitter endorsements helped spread their cause, generate media attention and create new partnerships with the private sector
• GCY now has over 40,000 Twitter followers and an expanding network of fellows and partners sharing their work

Takeaway:

• A Twitter campaign supported by additional online communications mediums and focused on sharing stories rather than just gaining a following is a positive way to develop a foundation of support

Abolish Cancer

Highlights:

• In November of 2009 an independent change maker (Darah Bonham) started a organization consisting of a Twitter account and a blog with one purpose – to fight cancer.
• She arranged for sponsors to donate $1 for every follower she was able to gain on Twitter during a one day period.
• The campaign generated funds for the organization, enhanced PR opportunities for the campaign sponsors and increased public awareness for a worthy cause
• The campaign grew slowly over time, then tipped when it received support from a celbrity endorsement in Kim Kardashian
• The campaign now has over 50,000 Twitter followers and has raised thousands of dollars for cancer charities

Takeaway:

• A campaign that starts small and grows organically can be an effective way to provide value to a cause, its sponsors and external charities

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6 Creative and Controversial Social Advertising Campaigns

Medici Senza Frontiere

Looking Glass Foundation

AIDES

Aggression Awareness Campaign

Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia

Sussex Safer Roads Partnership

For more examples of great social advertising campaigns check out the blogs Osocio and I Believe in Advertising.

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Real (Wo)Men Don't Buy Into Celebrity Cause Marketing

Two weeks ago Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher launched a series of high-profile celebrity videos as part of their ongoing 'Real Men Don't Buy Girls' campaign.

The good news: more awareness about the critical issue of child sex trafficking is being raised.

The bad news: once again the responsibility to elevate conversations about issues of social justice has fallen to celebrities.

Real Men Don't Buy Girls Campaign

As campaign launches go the 'Real Men Don't Buy Girls' interactive video initiative was pretty darn successful. In fact they were so successful that I couldn't avoid the story. Demi and Ashton's campaign turned up on CNN's Pier Morgan, The Huffington Post, Social Times, even ESPN of all places.

But perhaps more than all the celebrity hype what caught my attention most was the campaign's call to action. A call to action should several key characteristics: it should be clear, concise, actionable, and most importantly it should directly address the relevant issue.

I don't mean to undermine the DNA Foundation's work - I'm sure their intentions for starting a campaign to end child sex slavery is well intentioned. Nor am I against charity-celebrity partnerships, there are some great examples of stars who have helped raise much-needed attention and money for important causes. But by creating a campaign with such lofty expectations - to END child sex trafficking - the DNA Foundation has opened itself up to public scrutiny and criticism.

Here's the 'Real Men Don't Buy Girls' three-step call to action as seen on the DNA website and their Facebook page:

The campaign does hit some of the key components of a successful call to action, it is clear, concise and actionable. But do the campaign calls to action effectively meet the end goal of ending child sex slavery?

According to Ashton:

 "At the end of the day anyone and everyone can be involved in this campaign. The minute you like our Facebook page, you're already one step closer to this three-step-process, you've made an advocacy video that you can share. One minute of your time might be all a girl needs to save her from sex trafficking."

I'm no expert on the issue, but I hardly think that making and sharing a viral video, donating money or buying a t-shirt is an effective way to END child sex slavery. Certainly reporting suspicious online activity or any other form of child sexual exploitation begins to address the root of the problem - but ending it completely?! Please!

If this were an isolated incident I might be able to let it go, but such a high-profile campaign is easily picked up by media outlets and perpetuates the idea that complex problems (such as child sex trafficking) have simple solutions. While headlines like 'Celebrities Use Interactive Videso to Help Stop Child Sex Slavery' (as seen on Mashable) are certainly catchy and retweetable, they do little to addess what truely needs to be done on at the government, legal and policy levels to stop child sex trafficking. 

Campaign Calls to Action

Calls to action should not be taken lightly. When you ask your supporters to get involved they need to know that their action has real results. If they don't they will be more reluctant to participate in the future. Here's a few quick tips in creating a campaign call to action.

• Make it clear and concise: the shorter the better. Any more than three action points and you have probably lost the support.
• Make it measurable: be sure to create calls to action that you can evaluate later. If you can't measure you call to action in some way, it's difficult to assess waht impact your action has had.
• Make it actionable: a call to action requires ACTION! Petitions, demonstrations and fundraising are strong calls to actions. Liking a Facebook page - not so much.
• Make it realistic: your call to action does not have to be revolutionary. Very few campaigns can claim to have ended or stopped their issue (the campaign to end smallpox is a notable exception). Honesty and integrity are appreciated. Be realistic in what you think you campaign can achieve.

What are your thoughts about the 'Real Men Don't Buy Girls' campaign calls to action?

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