The Big Give Workshop

I’ve attended my first fundraising workshop for The Big Give SA. I was only able to attend two of the courses “e-mail marketing” and “working with the media”, which I found somewhat helpful. I didn’t obtain much new information in the “working with media” workshop, but the “e-mail marketing” workshop was particularly rewarding. The instructor went over some of the most successful email marketing campaigns such as the Obama Campaign in 2008, and the former President’s current organization “Organizing for Action”, and their use of subject lines in emails. From what I obtained in the workshop, it seems you have to strike a balance between being formal, while still conveying a sense of urgency leading the recipient of the email blast to take action. The Big Give website also provides participants with template of emails best to use for fundraising and driving engagement.

Utilizing questions and humor also seem to be an effective way of driving more engagement. I took notes on what I learned and shared them with the rest of the staff, who didn’t attend the same workshops as I.

Besides learning new methods of email marketing, I also got a true sense of just how big the non-profit community is in San Antonio. I was surprised how many people attended the workshop, and how different each of their causes were. There were even a first time attendee who asked the instructor what Twitter was during the presentation, which received laughs from the rest of the workshop attendees. This really drove home the impression, that most in the non-profit community do what they do not for attention or money, but for their each individual causes.