Using Web Conferencing as a Fundraising Tool for Nonprofits

  

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Fundraising is the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization.  In a recession, donors give less money less often, making fundraising even more critical during economic hard times.  According to an article in ComputerWorld, online giving by individuals in the U.S. was estimated at $10.4 billion in 2007.  So how can nonprofits extend their reach and tap into the generous online giving pool?

Like any good business model, nonprofit organizations must employ an effective communications plan to get the word out about their mission.  The problem is that nonprofit organizations simply don’t have a fraction of the budget their for-profit counterparts enjoy.  As such, every penny that goes toward communications counts.  Online tools like video conferencing can help nonprofits improve outreach to their donor bases more often for less cost, weather the financial storm and perhaps even pull in significant revenue.

Using a professional video conferencing service to offer free webinars and seminars can help nonprofits promote their organization’s cause and drive traffic back to their main website.  There are many low cost conferencing service providers online.  The trick is to locate a provider that understands the unique needs of the nonprofit sector and offers a robust suite of affordable solutions to effectively meet those needs.

Sourcing a provider that offers the right combination of features and enhancements, allows nonprofits to:

•   Invite active audio and visual participation

•    Present visual and text concepts from any file type

•    Use meeting controls to navigate the conference flow

•    Emphasize the points you want to make

•    Create a “parking lot” of ideas

•    Replay the event to make information accessible to a wider audience

Whether presenting information to an audience of one or one thousand, web conferencing can be a powerful and effective tool for reaching out to a donor base or generating interest for an
organization.  For example, C3Conferencing.com offers nonprofits the opportunity to impact their audiences visually with Web Plus, a fully-integrated web conferencing service.  C3 Conferencing also offers audio and video webcasting services that allows nonprofits to reach a wide audience in the most economical way.