Meet the Team - Kim Massey

What is your title and role within the company?

I am the Director of Giving and Community Engagement. I find suitable funders and solicit major donors for a variety of nonprofit fundraising projects.

How long have you been with HuTerra?

I have been working here for just over a year and a half.

What are some projects you have worked on in your time here?

Some of the major projects I have been a part of have been: Feeding America for Eastern Wisconsin’s Hunger Relief Campaign, 

the Cut Out Hunger campaign and the Habitat for Humanity Kindness Campaign.

What is your favorite aspect of your job?

I love matching donors’ giving and philanthropic interests with a nonprofit’s need.

If you could describe your job in one word, what would it be?

Impactful.

To learn more about HuTerra, visit http://www.huterra.com/.

Meet the Team - Katie Johnson

What is your title and role within the company?

I am the Director of Resource Development. I work on building client relationships and strengthening revenue streams for the HuTerra Foundation, as well as for the nonprofit organizations we work with. For the NPOs, this is done through providing our expertise and a free suite of tools.

How long have you been with HuTerra?

I have been with the company for a year and a half.

What are some projects you have worked on in your time here?

I have worked on Breast Cancer Family Foundation’s Titletown Bike Tour, Prevea Runway for Life, and the Suamico Volunteer Firefighter Association’s annual picnic. I have also worked towards client acquisition with Habitat for Humanity, process and training development, customer care and crowdfunding campaigns such as the Habitat for Humanity Christmas campaign.

What is your favorite aspect of your job?

I like the variety of nonprofits and social causes that I work with.

If you could describe your job in one word, what would it be?

Educational.

To learn more about HuTerra, visit http://www.huterra.com/.

Participate in #GivingTuesday with HuTerra

We’ve all heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday as days dedicated to spending following Thanksgiving. Despite the bad rap these pseudo holidays receive for encouraging greed immediately after a day of centered entirely around giving thanks, they certainly serve a purpose. The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the busiest and most profitable time of the year, but the kick off of two days dedicated to large scale spending are the most notable.

Similarly, the nonprofit realm receives the most donations of the year during this month, with a dedicated day to start off the season of spending. In 2012, Giving Tuesday was born and became the Black Friday of nonprofits.

Whether your participation in Giving Tuesday is to balance out a 4 a.m. shopping excursion, or because you want to help those in need experience a truly memorable holiday season they may not be able to otherwise have, your donation will make a difference to your favorite charity. Just last year, this dedicated day of giving helped nonprofits raise $27 million. In fact, every year since its inception, Giving Tuesday donation amounts have doubled, which is great news for nonprofits. 

On December 2^nd, the hardest part of your participation should be choosing which organization you would like to donate to. HuTerra’s unique platform makes the rest of the process a cinch with an easy and safe donation process. Simply go to HuTerra.com and either login or sign up to create a profile.

Search for your favorite cause through “Find Communities,” to find the charity or through “Find Fundraisers,” to find a specific fundraiser the nonprofit is running.

Click “Donate” to fill out your contact and donation information.

Share your activity on your social networks and encourage your friends and family to participate in Giving Tuesday.

Who will you donate to on December 2^nd, 2014? Leave your answer below in the comments!

Increase Awareness for Your Fundraiser

When there is a large fundraising goal to achieve, it can be easy to put all focus into obtaining large donations. While these large contributions are crucial to reaching your goal, smaller-scale donations deserve just as much focus. In order to get these donations, people need to be aware of the fundraiser and its purpose. The following tips will help your fundraiser gain the awareness it needs to be successful.

Partner with a well-known business

Partner your nonprofit with a well-known local business that will offer discounts, with the proceeds supporting your cause. These services could be performed either at a one-day event or long term with coupons or discounts towards specific services or products. This benefits the business with more foot traffic, and your nonprofit with greater awareness and donations.

Partnering with the local business should not stop with the event or discounts. Partner with their social media team to really pool your resources. Put your heads together to create new content to raise awareness and promote the event. Make sure to really interact with each other on different social media platforms. Share, Like, Comment and Retweet posts related to the event. Sharing an audience with your business partner allows for a much greater reach and increases potential for customer interaction.

 

Salon CTI employees and Salon Professional Academy students
pose before the Cut-A-Thon.
Image Credit: on.fb.me/1ndb3Vk 

For example, HuTerra recently partnered with SalonCTI and Salon Professionals Academy - Appleton for a Cut-A-Thon. The Cut-A-Thon offered haircuts at a discounted rate of $15, with the proceeds being donated to Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. Collaborating with both the salon and the academy on Facebook and Twitter through tagging the companies in posts and sharing, liking, and retweeting content more than doubled our audience reach and customer interaction.

Develop a specific social media campaign

Collaborating with another company’s social media team is great for the cause and the fundraiser. A higher reach equals far more awareness to the cause. However, without an action plan, this newly gained audience is irrelevant. The first thing to decide is the purpose for the social media push. Are you trying to drive traffic to an event? Are you looking to develop awareness for your cause? Do you want to increase site traffic? Or are you trying to solicit higher donations for your fundraiser?

You will also want to develop unique, shareable and easy to remember content to get recognition. Create relevant hashtags and post pictures to get your audience interested. Reach out to anyone with a large following to share your content or use your hashtag. Good ideas for this are local celebrities and public figures such as radio or TV hosts, athletes and/or their spouses, politicians and big business owners.

 

Salon and Academy owner Josif Wittnik promoting the Cut-A-Thon with
his #OrangeThumbie

In a joint effort with the Cut-A-Thon, we also launched the #OrangeThumbie social media campaign.We challenged people to paint their thumb nail orange (the color for hunger awareness), upload a “thumbie,” a selfie showing off their painted nail, with the hashtag #OrangeThumbie and encouraged them to donate to the Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin fundraiser. The campaign started with HuTerra employees and the owner of Salon CTI. The salon employees and academy’s students posted their “thumbies” to their pages as an event kick-off and our team also had a connection with a local news anchor who joined in on the thumbie fun as traction started growing. 

What kind of awareness have you raised for your cause through partnering with a local business or through a large social media campaign? Share your experience below in the comments!

Keep Your Students Safe with Online Fundraising

Online fundraising offers schools and students alike numerous benefits, with safety at the forefront. At HuTerra, we understand just how important student safety is. Our online fundraising exhibits this in four meaningful ways.

1. No more door-to-door fundraising
2. Sharing information via social media
3. Easier for parents to stay involved
4. Option to have products delivered individually

Online stores mean that students no longer need to walk up and down their street knocking on neighbors’ doors or entering busy companies asking people to purchase from their fundraiser. This aspect is particularly significant to students who are actively involved with extra-curriculars and don’t have time to fundraise until later in the evening, when it’s often already dark outside.

Eliminating the need for door to door fundraising does not mean that students no longer need to ask for purchases. We provide easy-to-share links and templates for both email and social media platforms. Sharing their fundraiser via social media means students are only asking people they already know, mainly family and friends they and their parents trust.

The times parents feel most uneasy are those when they are not given all of the relevant or essential information. With post templates and easily shareable buttons, parents can see exactly what information their student will be sharing. This also allows the parents to be more actively involved with the opportunity to share the fundraiser on their own pages as well.

An online MarketPlace exhibits safety even through delivery of the products. Some of our stores offer the option to have the products delivered right to the individual purchaser, which eliminates the need for students to drop off the products throughout the neighborhood or city.

To learn more about our online fundraising for schools, or to check out the available stores, visit http://marketplace.huterra.com/

Use Community Resources to Improve Your Nonprofit

There are so many valuable resources available for nonprofits and small businesses, but they are

often under-utilized. Being aware of and using community resources can not only offer needed solutions to existing concerns, but can also broaden the organization’s reach and build their network. When your nonprofit collaborates with these programs, the consulting organization may give you a shout-out or share your posts on social media. These mentions can easily grow your following or educate people about your cause. To learn what resources are available to you, try searching “Main Street Communities” in your area, or “small business resources” in your city. This may take some digging, but will be worth the effort. Another good place to start is to look through your city or county’s official website. The following organizations offer a glimpse of what is available in the Green Bay area.

Collaborations offer many benefits to small nonprofits

• Definitely De Pere offers several committees, which focus on economic development and business services, community beautification, design review and enhancement projects and community events, among others. 

• On Broadway, Inc. brings together businesses in the Broadway District through events and promotions. 

• Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce caters to both individuals and small businesses. Current for Young Professionals connects young professionals to the business world through education, leadership programs and networking events. Their business programs offer consulting services and assistance in addition to finding ideal locations for businesses. 

• Green Bay Community Foundation supports local nonprofits through monetary grants. 

• UWGB Small Business Development Center offers consulting services and education for local small businesses. 

• Green Bay SCORE offers Northeastern Wisconsin entrepreneurs guidance and mentoring and provides workshops and tools for entrepreneurs to succeed.

What community resources have you utilized to improve your small business or nonprofit? Share your experiences below in the comments!

How to use social media for your school fundraiser

We all know that social media is easiest and quickest way to access information. But have you considered using social media to support your school’s fundraiser? Using social media for a fundraiser is beneficial to both the organizers and the supporters. By using these tips, you are sure to get the most out of your fundraiser.

Greater Reach

Sharing the fundraiser page on various social media platforms allows both students and the school to expand their reach. When the students share the fundraising page on their social media accounts, they are reaching far more people than they would going door to door or calling extended family members. Anyone who follows their page will have the opportunity to see what the student is selling. Likewise, by the school sharing the fundraiser on its accounts, the school is able to reach and involve more of the community. People often purchase from fundraisers in their school district, even if they don’t have children enrolled, because they want to support the students in their community. Seeing a social media post on their own time also allows supporters flexibility. If they see the fundraiser when they are busy, they can always come back to it, instead of needing to order immediately when a student calls or is at the door.

Using social media allows your fundraiser to reach more people
with far less effort.

Accessibility

Sharing a fundraiser on social media is easy, especially for students who are constantly on their accounts anyway. As long as they have a Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus account, they are able to share the information. It only takes a quick share of a link and a brief description written for all of their followers to see the information they need. As long as the supporters have an account on these sites, it doesn't take them any extra effort to purchase from a fundraiser while they are already scrolling through their newsfeeds.

Higher Engagement

Using social media to promote a school fundraiser allows for much more personalization. Students can make the posts be as fun and creative as they want. If they choose, they can add relevant hashtags or upload pictures to get the post more visibility. This is a chance for them to have a lot of fun with the selling. The more interesting and unique a fundraiser appears to be, the more supporters will interact with them, and ultimately, the more they are likely to purchase.

What success have you had using social media for your school fundraiser? Share your experience in the comments below!