Running your own fundraising page can be difficult. Yuan-Kwan, a fundraiser for SXSWcares, describes how they leverage social media, email marketing, and their magazine’s support base to raise awareness and support for disaster relief.
Check out their website and the interview below.
Tell us a little bit about who you are.
My name is Yuan-Kwan Chan and I am the editor-in-chief of Meniscus Magazine, an online publication that features articles and multimedia from a variety of subjects, including film, fashion, sports, travel and Asian Americana. I founded Meniscus as a print ‘zine in high school, took a break for a few years after university when several of us staff members pursued careers as journalists, and later resumed it as a Web-only publication.
Why did you decide to fundraise for SXSWcares/SXSW4Japan?
The earthquake and tsunami hit Japan hours before I boarded my flight to Austin for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival. The events in Japan particularly resonated with me because I’ve been to the country three times; several friends live there; and the country’s food, fashion and film have constantly been covered and reviewed in Meniscus over the years.
Before learning about SXSWCares/SXSW4Japan, I had looked into how feasible it would be to run a fundraising campaign through the Facebook Causes app. It turned out to be doable only for non-profit organizations, which Meniscus is not. Then, by chance, I learned about SXSWCares at the first of several Japan-focused Interactive panels that I attended. The ease of setting up a SXSW4Japan fundraising page, the campaign’s affiliation with SXSW – which has been the setting for some incredible online mobilization movements, this being the latest – and the passion of the entrepreneurs behind this project inspired me to participate. Most important, Meniscus really wanted to help the people of Japan.
What methods are you using to get people to come to your page?
We’ve posted numerous times on Twitter, on our Facebook page and sent out word through e-mail marketing. We also posted a short news article on our website.
What has been the most difficult part of fundraising?
One of my editors recently described Meniscus as a “writers’ project,” and I would have to agree with this since our philosophy from the very beginning has been to maintain an outlet for our staff members to cover whatever they want, whenever they want, based on personal interests rather than become pigeonholed in beats.
What does this mean for Meniscus? For starters, as we continue to expand our partnerships, our readers are just starting to get to know us outside of our content. Therefore, that trust in our product is slowly beginning to grow, which means that any potential donor’s trust must currently lean towards the personalities behind the product rather than the product itself – which is incredibly varied and does not focus on one particular subject. This has been crucial for an individual to choose to give through our SXSW4Japan campaign versus the many Japan relief options that are currently available.
Second of all, it is easy for one-time messaging to become rapidly absorbed into the amorphous cloud of social media white noise. Even if someone happens to see your tweet or post in real time, a simple “retweet” or “like” often does not convert into a donation. Therefore, the promotional aspects of this campaign for us were endless – but worth it, as we passed both of our pre-set fundraising goals.
Any tips you’d like to share with other fundraisers?
“Social media” is one of the oft-used digital catchphrases these days, but do not underestimate the power of e-mail marketing, which resulted in some great leads for us. Tweets, posts, shared links and likes tend to be more effective in real time, but even then they can all be missed with the plethora of tools used to update Facebook, Twitter and other feeds without having to log into the website itself or check out what your audience is saying. At the end of the day, e-mails can be shelved, retained and searched for within days of receipt.
That said, social media has an advantage over e-mail in terms of potential reach to new partners. I had been thinking of a way to reward those who had contributed through the Meniscus SXSW4Japan fundraising page. I then checked our Twitter feed and it turned out that Greg Pak, the film director and Marvel comic book writer whose appearance we covered at the 2010 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, inadvertently provided the solution that I was seeking by offering his latest trade paperback to those contributing $20 or more to any Japan relief effort (for more details, go to our page). It just proves that social media can bring together like-minded individuals – many of whom have never even met – to make a powerful difference.
