The thing about Pinterest is that :

1. it’s dominated by women
2. it is beautiful and encourages spending
3. Most pinners are on iPads – they have money to donate
4. the average order value is double that of traffic referred from Twitter and Facebook! ($176 in fact opposed to $68 and $80 respectively)

Granted it’s gives an American context but there are opportunities for other countries too.

source: Fastcodesign - read the full article here.

We thought we would round up some of the better women’s charities and social enterprise website/campaigns and apps out there  - some might be known to you, others you may never have laid eyes on before – but we think they are doing great things for women! We encourage you to support these organisations.

Women’s Day

South African non-profits and social enterprises

Ikamva Labantu

We can’t not include our client in the list and they make it to the top! Ikamva Labantu was founded in the 1970′s by the powerhouse that is Helen Lieberman. Ikamva Labantu is a leading social development charity in the Western Cape working mainly  to help uplift deprived township communities by supporting pre-school children, providing care to orphans and working with seniors. We designed and developed their website.

HeartFelt

Established in 2006 by Martha Letsoalo and Julie Hadley (the latter is the managing director), the Heartfelt Project is a social enterprise aimed at developing the community of Makapanstad in North West, through the creation and sale of a range of beautiful felt products.

It also has a vision of providing hope, employment and a sense of purpose for hundreds of women in rural communities throughout South Africa.

The Heartfelt Project offers a diverse selection of hand-made gifts and felt products, including bookmarks, brooches, key rings, fridge magnets and many others.

They also offer specialist wedding gifts, bespoke gifts for corporates as well as a new ‘bushfelt’ range of safari-inspired toys and other items. Please support them!

International non-profits

VDay

V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sex slavery.

Women for Women International

A US based organisation, Women for Women International provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies. We’re changing the world one woman at a time.

Women who enroll in their one-year program learn job skills and receive business training so they can earn a living. They come to understand their rights and how to fight for those rights in their homes, their communities and their nations. They learn how to become leaders.

Womankind Worldwide

Since 1989 Womankind has reached over 10 million women and their families

Womankind Worldwide is an international women’s human rights charity working to help women transform their lives in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  They partner with women’s rights organisations who are challenging discrimination and violence.  Womankind delivers the essential support – funding, expertise, contacts and publicity – these women’s organisations need to amplify their voice, increase their impact and bring about greater change.

They run a project in Cape Town called the Women’s Legal Centre aiming to improve women’s (particularly socially and economically disadvantaged women) access to justice by offering a free legal advice service to women.

International micro finance

Women’s World Banking

WWB designs financial products and services that fulfill women’s needs while demonstrating the sustainability and social impact of serving women. By providing innovative approaches that they can replicate and scale they generate impact and prove that investing in women directly can be profitable. By investing in women, they produce a multiplier effect on the well-being of their households and communities.

Their product focus is on providing credit for women, saving for girls and micro-insurance too.

Campaigns

The Girl Effect

This is a favourite of ours – this campaign and website was so beautifully designed you can only stare at it in awe and wonder.

Developed to spread the message that if you invest in education for girls, whole communities can have their lives changed.

Girl’s lives can be affected in one of two ways:

1. She gets educated. She stays healthy and HIV negative. Marries when she chooses. Raises a healthy family

or

2. She is illiterate. Married off. Is isolated. Is pregnant. Vulnerable to HIV.

Watch the video too. Beautifully made. Their videos have also been viewed a whopping 3,822,386 times!

To Mama with Love

A mother’s day campaign launched in the US to counteract the $14.6B is spent annually on Mother’s Day for “stuff” that could just never say what’s in our hearts. To Mama With Love is a collaborative online art project that honors moms across the globe and raises funds to invest in remarkable women who are transforming our world. Scheduled for May 3-8, 2011, the site invites participants to create socially shareable “heartspaces” that include words, videos, photos & investments in honor of mamas they love.

Demi and Ashton Foundation

Earlier this year the DNA foundation, founded by Demi and Ashton Kutcher (now divorced) to stop sex trafficking, launched a campaign targeting men with the message that Real Men Don’t Buy Girls.

The goal of the campaign was to create a cultural shift around the implicit societal acceptance of child prostitution, and thus, child sex slavery (mainly of girls). They hoped to reach millions of people with information about the issue. More than 2 million people have participated in the campaign so far.

It helps to have inside access to top male celebrities in Hollywood but the message is no less important because of that.

Applications

Odysseus Foundation

The Odysseus Foundation is the first and only UK charity to be addressing the prevention and detection of breast and cervical cancer in developing countries and socially excluded communities around the world.

They have developed a free iPad app that allows women to share stories of how other women have changed their lives, donate as well as explain how to do a breast check, what the warning signs for breast cancer are and set a reminder so you don’t forget to keep checking. Beautifully created too.

The documentary was created by US charity Invisible Children and it’s become the most viral video in history!

Its aim is to draw attention to atrocities surrounding the kidnapping of young boys (to be used as child soldiers) and girls (to be used as sex slaves) by Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) in central Africa. He has evaded arrest for over 20 years. The reality is that this is about children who are forced to kill their parents and fight in a war they have no idea about.

Well done to IC for drawing attention to the plight of these invisible children and fuelling this debate – what is happening is barbaric and it is unacceptable that we sit by and let this happen. But we do because we don’t know anything about the LRA. Ok, some of us do, especially those living on the African continent and mainly outside the USA.

If you’re going to do this, do it well

There is no argument that the campaign packs a punch.  Their great website and overall design of all materials is consistent and beautiful.

Lesson: Get a good design and marketing agency on board. You need specialists with a solid strategy.

Integrate

It’s truly integrated – from video on YouTube to a take action website, celebrity and policymaker involvement (only the creme de la creme of A list celebs here! If Bono says it’s OK then it’s OK), a poster campaign, the obligatory charity bracelet, emails, direct mailing donation kit, signing a pledge – the action list goes on…

Lesson: make sure you have these separate components integrating and supporting each other and that people know what to do – make all actions clear – let them choose what suits them. Also which celebs are you working with to help influence their fans and promote you?

Create a sexy cause

It’s an Obama campaign on steroids – so now is it sexy to support this cause? Does it give you cool credentials?

Lesson: In this instant gratification, shallow world we live in, what gives your cause its cool credentials?  Maybe you need to give your cause a possible facelift especially when appealing to new and younger supporters. Remember you need to stay relevant to an audience who is fickle and sometimes superficial and shallow – that’s just the way it is now. Sorry.

Simplicity

Its simplicity and consistent messaging is the key to its success. It’s targeted at mainly younger people who have short attention spans Kony2012 is all about 1 thing – bringing Joseph Kony to justice.

Lesson: can you distill your message down to it’s most basic? Remember the KISS principle?

Flip the myths

It’s turned the myth about the optimal video length being less than 3 minutes on its head – it’s a whopping  29 mins long and people were still riveted and sharing like crazy.

Lesson: sometimes you have to just try something to see if it works. Test test test…

Be clear about what you want to achieve

It’s achieved its objective of raising (global) awareness – and we are told that Invisible Children must be thought of not an aid organisation but as an awareness organisation (see finance issues below).

Lesson: be clear from the start who you are, what you do and where the money goes.

Know thy influencers

An examination of the spread of the Kony video suggests the success of the viral spread of the video is because Oprah Winfrey tweeted: “Have watched the film. Had them on show last year” on 6 March, after which the graph of YouTube views of the video shows it just taking off! She has 9.7 million followers on Twitter.

Lesson: who can you reach out to to help you spread your message? Who holds the clout that you need?

Be prepared to be scrutinised

The video has received significant backlash from organizations and publications questioning the authenticity of Invisible Children. Many of the negative critiques have been targeted at Invisible Children’s practices as an organisation and so the message of Joseph Kony and children in conflict is being drowned out.

Lesson: always make sure you are squeaky clean – so that your message doesn’t become distorted or people so distracted by the wrong things. Keep people focused on the issue.

Where does the money go?

Many questions have been raised around the transparency of Invisible Children’s finances - the three highest-paid employees made between $87,000 and $90,000 in 2010. The $90,000 figure is just at 1% of total expenditures – apparently this just sits within the acceptable threshold  that charity watchdogs say is appropriate for Non-profit CEO’s to be paid.

Lesson: again, can you withstand the scrutiny? And are you legit?

Have you done your research?

Only 32% of money raised gets to (the Ugandan army first … and then) the children in Uganda – some have said that aid but awareness is the main goal so if you don’t feel comfortable funding 3 movie makers then rather  donate to other organisations like UNICEF who provide more aid to the affected children and community. The LRA is no longer in Uganda. Yet the film makes out as if this is still happening in Uganda, whereas the LRA have moved onto Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

Lesson: Do your research properly and provide substantiated facts – especially if you are working with stats.

Do you know your audience?

It’s a complicated situation –  and the “slick” video sometimes dumbs down the issues and is a little condescending. There is a gap between what is portrayed on the video and what is happening on the ground.

Lesson: Know your audience – IC have done this very well – they appealed to the idealist, US college student (in most cases) “clicktivist” who wants to change the world. They also didn’t have massive attention spans but they are motivated once you hook them.

How emotionally connected are your audience to your cause?

IC have been accused of promoting “Slacktivism” or our new favourite term – “Clicktivism”— the idea that sharing, liking or retweeting will solve a problem — across the social web.

Lesson: understand the social web and how you can exploit it – IC’s objective was to create awareness – they achieved that. The challenge for other charities is how do you engage with a clicker after the sharing is over? How many people would rather push a button than get close and emotionally involved with your cause? How well are you then telling  your story?

Be prepared to be drowned out

For South Africans, there are causes closer to home that are now being drowned out. That’s not a failing of Kony2012.

Lesson - there will always be a news or PR event or natural disaster that will sometimes overshadow what you’re saying and when you’re saying it. Be prepared now for how you could possibly capitalise on this awareness explosion if it’s something that’s in line with your cause.  An example is how today UNICEF responded with a much more balanced view about global child conflict.

How are you financing your campaign?

The campaign is bold and multi-faceted – it requires a lot of effort (and money) to ensure that this now global audience mobilise themselves.

Lesson – do you have a plan to finance a big campaign like this? What is your plan to move these supporters from the “wow I must share this, it’s so cool” stage to “I have to buy the donation kit” to “I will join people for a Cover the Night event – 20 April 2012 – in my city and plaster posters all over the place”. It will be interesting to see how they keep up the momentum.

Conclusion

Will Kony2012 become a template for how charities should be using social media? Will we see a flurry of copycat campaigns? It certainly is a brave and clever campaign …and it’s gotten our attention. You now have to grab attention – cleverly and the masses are not responding to campaigns or information presented like this anymore.

It is a reality of today – there are too many causes and not enough time. So do you take what you can get? While great for creating awareness and leveraging off an audience (some of whom just follow their friends and don’t have to think too much – aka Sheeple), does it create legitimiate supporters who you can call on later for other phases of the campaign?

We think that what has been proven is that slick production, a consistent message and appealing to a younger, social media savvy audience will create a stir – it’s what kind of strategy you have in place to follow through and drive this campaign to achieve what it’s meant to that will lift you to glory.

Extras to view

For more clarity on their finances, watch this video from Ben Keesey, CEO of Invisible Children. He touches on all points raised over the last week about the way money is raised and spent.

The video that started it all:

A breakdown of their expenses:

Is the hype justified? New data released for January 2012 illuminates that Pinterest now drives more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined!  Also recent data released by comScore and Hitwise shows that  Pinterest traffic is soaring.

So how can charities use it? Some early adopter non-profits have started their own pinboards: National Wildlife Federation, Amnesty International,  SFMOMA, Water.org, and the AARP.

To get started, we found a step-by-step tutorial for nonprofits.

If you’re interested in what people are actually pinning on Pintrest – look here… it might give you some ideas.

Please be aware though – there are legal considerations you need to be aware of when you are pinning anyone else’s work. You have to credit the source and you have to refer traffic back to their site.

Why not check out our new Pintrest board too where we share infographics, good web design, charity info, a coveted lunch menu and stuff to make you laugh.

So how are you using it?

We share this infographic courtesy of KissMetrics – a website measurement and conversion product – and even our hero Avinash Kaushik gives them the thumbs up so they must be brilliant

After reading this infographic below and knowing now how colour affects behaviour, how are you going to test this to find your optimal conversion rate?

One of your key new years resolutions as a charity is to find ways to appreciate your donors more. You also need to be effective at breaking through the clutter and make them feel like they want to keep supporting you. There is nothing worse than supporting an organisation only to never hear from them again. Make this a priority resolution that you keep in 2012.

We thought we’d show you a novel and cost effective approach to thanking your supporters though. The key question is.. are you even thanking them? If not, let’s remedy that immediately!

Depending on the support you’ve received (money, time, goods) and how you received the support (online, cheque, face to face) will determine how people are thanked. But the main thing is that they need to be thanked.

If you have an automated process, that’s even better. Using digital media, it’s very simple to do this and by using the correct tools with the appropriate timing, you can increase your donor/supporter retention rate dramatically.

This simple idea, however, deserves a mention. We’re betting that at least 50% of people in your organisation have a smartphone with a camera that can shoot video or take good pics. Record snippets of video or take some thought provoking but positive photos and let us help you pull it together to make an effective Thank You message that speaks from the heart and makes your supporters feel good about supporting you.

Using the link on YouTube, include it in an email to them or ask them to view the video on your website and publish that website address in your next direct mail that you send to them.

Want to do the same thing? Chat to us about it.

Google+ is a very different social network to Facebook and Twitter. It has unique features such as hangouts and Google Circles, a deep integration with YouTube [which Google owns] and rich photos make it an attractive proposition for companies, and charities alike.

Brand pages look similar to Google+ Profiles, except for the little square icon that designates that it’s a Page rather than a Profile.

Users can add brands to their profiles, but it’s still early days with more American brands on board. When users add a brand to their circles, it increases that brand’s follower count.

Adoption of Google+

This graph shows how quickly Google+ has grown compared to Twitter and Facebook in far less time. Is this indicative of the future? We’re still waiting to see how mainstream this network becomes.  Source: GooglePlus blog

Benefits of using Google+

Find out some of the benefits of setting up Google+ brand pages for your charity here and why they could be better for your organisation than Facebook. Try typing “+” and add your favorite brands to see their Google+ pages.

But besides that, Google+ is allowing your organisation to get much closer to your supporters – through the use of Hangouts and Circles.

Circles- create circles for different types of supporters such as regular donors, once off donors, fundraisers, event attendees, friends on Facebook etc. You can manage circles by dragging & dropping people from your contacts list into the Circles you create, which could be named as follows:

• Supporters
• Donors
• Employees
• Volunteers

Using these various circles of users you can then market to them appropriately, but it relies on knowing which circles each supporter needs to be put in. But this should be part of a social segmentation strategy going forward. Pilot with a small group and monitor the results, then expand further.

Hangouts are ideal if you have celeb ambassadors or people in the field that can be interviewed live. The potential to create a great and dynamic charity brand that your supporters will want to be part of is huge. Instead of offering stories under exclusive embargoes, think about offering an exclusive Hangout to the media or interested people.

Other benefits for users are that the privacy options are easier to understand as well pages being uncluttered and easier to use than Facebook.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t choose one over the other – be on both. Unfortunately it gives you one extra place to update, but if you already use video strongly as a charity, there is some great YouTube integration.

Which charities are starting to use Google+

Save the Children UK seem to be the first charity to be promoted as using Google+. Marie Curie in the UK have also created a page. NSPCC have registered their name but have no content.

In the USA, the usual suspects like Greenpeace, Amnesty International, WWF and CharityWater, UNHCR have their pages up. USA is by far the most progressive in this space. It will be interesting to see how this space develops and what interesting content is created and shared.

South African charities are sadly lagging behind. If you know of any charity on Google+ we’d love to know. We’ll be getting our clients on soon.

How do I set up a Google+ branded charity page?

Create a Gmail account for yourself (or use your existing Gmail account) and then login to Google+ branded pages. Choose Company, Institution or Organisation and you will be asked to provide simple information about your charity as well as choose to register your page as a non-profit page.

Remember to add 5 eye catching photos that show off who you are and who you serve as well as upload your charity logo. The process is easy and simple.  Then click home at the top and you will be taken to a page where you can start updating your stream, similar to a Facebook status update. You will find that sharing information, when you create an update, is fairly simple.

This may be the time that you get in quickly and register your charity on Google+, just so no one else can do so.

Let us know how you get on!

We’ll be updating this space with news about what’s happening on the South African and International charity space, digital best practice for charities, as well as news from our clients. Pls share our page

It reflects our their strategy and, more importantly, provides clear and extensive information about the organisation, their history, their beneficiaries, and their many programmes.

The site is on a dynamic Content Management System, making it easy to update as well as for users to share content. It was designed and developed to drive donations and supporter engagement, dovetailing with their social marketing through Facebook and Twitter.

This incredible charity, in Cape Town, helps empower communities to help themselves. Read the inspirational story of their founder and if you’re looking to donate, they need all the help they can get!

Please visit their site, give your feedback below and share it on Facebook or Twitter.