Hey Slacker, high five!
Enclosed: A picture of me in the middle of writing an incredibly important blog post. Uh huh.
Am I a slacktivist because I sign petitions but don’t go to advocacy days at the state capitol?
What’s the point of slacker bloggers like me?
Are you bored of slacktivism?
Do you wish even half the people who signed your petition would donate?
How can you get them closer to doing that?
Thanks to Craig being an excellent Fundraising Detective, I was just reading Paul de Gregorio’s blog, and he wrote “Why we should all encourage slacktivism”
New Ladder of Engagement for Slacktivism
Paul created this new pyramid of engagement.
Look at it this way. The person who signs your petition today might give to you tomorrow.
What are some ways people are “slacktivists” that can move into being donors?
- Create a Petition on Change.org, ask them to sign.
- Give people buttons/stickers at tabling events for signing up for your e-newsletter
- Post your in-kind donation wishlist
- Ask them to follow you on Twitter
- Have a contest where people can vote for the best volunteer of the year
- Get people to retweet about your cause
- Have people like your facebook page
- Give people a free pdf on how to do advocacy for your cause for signing up for your enewsletter
- Ask people to forward your e-newsletters to their friends
- Text to give
- Invite people to your open house
You have to make the barriers to entry really low.
Micro-movements towards getting people more involved can allow them to move closer to you, when they’re ready to.
Another ladder of engagement: Getting people who find your website randomly to give
Lately I’ve been reading Convert! by Ben Hunt, a UK web designer who is pretty fantastic at helping people create more engagement and money on their websites.
One of his key concepts in his book is the ladder of engagement on websites, which can help take slacktivists to that next step.
His ladder looks like this,
Awareness Ladder from Ben Hunt's Convert! book
okay, I’ll draw you a picture too
Nonprofit Website Engagement Ladder! #NpTech!
- Step zero, they don’t know they have a problem. hard to reach those people.
- Step 1 is, they do know they have a problem, they don’t know what to do about it.
- Step 2 is they know they have a problem, they know some solutions, they don’t know about YOUR solution
- Step 3 is they know about your solution, but they don’t know the benefits.
- Step 4 is they know about your solution, know about the benefits, but don’t know why they should give NOW
- Step 5 is why they should give NOW.
What Ben posits is that when we make our nonprofit websites, we need to speak to people on level 1 and 2 of the ladder, instead of assuming levels 4 and 5.
There are far more people on level 1 and 2, and you can write blog articles for them, to show them why your nonprofit solution is the best solution to the problem.
So, write blog articles that speak to the first issues people have around your cause, when they notice that there is a problem, and they don’t know what to do about it. Some of the cancer charities do this very well. This helps people who have first been diagnosed find them, and get support.
I do think that people will be more likely to make legacy gifts than to make large one time gifts, because of the concentration of significant wealth in the hands of just a few people. at least, in America.
Let’s move those people up the ladder and get them giving!
Are you currently doing this on YOUR nonprofit website?
Do you have any tips for moving slacktivists to activists?
November 8th, 2012 at 7:48 am
Hi. I’m glad you found my work helpful. Please note my website address has now changed to benhunt.net. I’d appreciate if you could update your post, many thanks,
Ben
Ben Hunt recently posted..Hello world!
November 9th, 2012 at 1:58 am
Thanks for commenting Mr. Hunt!
I will happily change the link to reflect your new website.
Mazarine