Today’s post is the second of a two-part series courtesy of Isabelle Jetté, a fellow in Fenton’s NYC office.

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In this two-part series, we explore how nonprofits can leverage Groupon and other daily coupon sites for visibility, lead generation and fundraising purposes. While the first post discussed the opportunities that such sites offer nonprofits, since many of these opportunities are dependent upon a business partnership, we also wanted to outline the benefits available to businesses (the focus of this post), so that in turn you could develop a compelling ask to a prospective partner that also shows “what’s in it for them.”

For one, businesses stand to benefit from a nonprofit partnership via Groupon (or other coupon site) because they can capitalize on latent cause marketing synergies that wouldn’t otherwise be available to them if they simply wrote a check and handed it over to their cause of choice. By publicly supporting a charity via a matching gift on Groupon for instance, it allows the business partner to generate goodwill among their existing constituencies, the charity’s, as well as the coupon site’ users due to the halo effect created by their association with the said nonprofit. Groupon also publicizes its deals via a comprehensive social media network, which affords the business partner enhanced visibility and the potential for their deal to be picked up by the media (which happened in the case of DonorsChoose.org and partner Pershing Square Foundation, discussed in last week’s post). Plus, through Groupon’s crowdsourcing ability, they enjoy the potential to secure new customers, which can more than offset the costs of their donation over the long-term.

Other ways for nonprofits and partners to collaborate can also involve the partner offering a discounted offer via Groupon (or other coupon site), outlining in the deal editorial that for every purchase, a donation will be made to the charity. When users subsequently come to redeem their coupons at the partner’s business location, both the partner and nonprofit can look for ways to upsell onsite and capture data for future cultivation.

While not a substitute to traditional fundraising tactics, Groupon and other daily coupon sites do offer some exciting advertising, fundraising/gift matching and selling opportunities to the savvy, enterprising nonprofit and its business partners. Taking the time to evaluate and identify the business partners and daily coupon site(s) that align most closely with your objectives, while conducting an assessment of all potential opportunities, costs and anticipated returns, will be the key to ensuring the best possible outcome for your foray into the online couponing world.

Today’s post is the first of a two-part series courtesy of Isabelle Jetté, a fellow in Fenton’s NYC office.

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While online coupon service powerhouse Groupon has recently been the subject of scrutiny for its ad spot during the Super Bowl, business has hardly skipped a beat. Groupon’s revenues have been going gangbusters (rumored to be at the lofty tune of $800 million to $2 billion for 2010) and most of its 26.5 million users and featured businesses would agree that it’s been a win-win for all parties involved. Several similar sites have also emerged, including LivingSocial and BuyWithMe, which certainly attests to Groupon’s successful business model.

So, the big question for nonprofits is: Can we leverage this new channel to support fundraising efforts and initiatives? And if so, how?

The answer is yes, opportunities do exist that can fulfill the interests of the nonprofit sector, its business partners (the focus of the second part of this two-part series), the daily coupon site and its users. For nonprofits, Groupon and other sites boast an attractive audience largely comprised of college-educated women aged 18-34 with moderate to significant disposable income. While on the younger side of the traditional “ideal” donor, tapping this discerning, cause-conscious yet difficult-to-reach segment can afford charities an opportunity to cultivate the next generation of philanthropists and get them onto the “gift ladder.”

In addition, some sites like Groupon allow nonprofits to advertise on their site for free. Charities can also actively benefit from a “Groupon” deal, whereby each coupon sold is matched by an underwriting partner and 100% of the monies raised go towards the cause. This makes the ask that much more compelling for site users, as not only are they supporting a great cause, but they also have the satisfaction of knowing that every dollar they donate is effectively doubled. The only real “catch” for nonprofits in this instance is that Groupon will place the onus on them to find a partner. The Chronicle of Philanthropy summarizes a great example of how matched giving can work on Groupon: DonorChoose.org partnered with the Pershing Square Foundation last May and was able to raise $162,000 on Groupon to support public education projects.

Moreover, in the world of hyper-segmentation, a myriad of daily coupon sites are emerging to meet the needs of the many market segments out there. Moms have notably and appreciably been the sweet spot of several such sites, including Plum District and DoodleDeals – depending on your cause, these may well be worthwhile investigating. New York’s best established mom daily coupon site, PoppinsPerks, also donates 10% of all its sales to DonorsChoose.org (yet another great coup for this early adopting NGO of the daily coupon cyberspace). Other sites (CauseOn, GivShop, Philanthroper) seek to do well by doing good while appealing to a cause-conscious audience and donating a portion of their revenues to local charities. Groupon, which originally evolved from The Point, an online platform that allows individuals and groups to galvanize action for causes they care deeply about, is now looking to go back to its roots by introducing G-Team, an added layer to a Groupon deal that will allow a social good to take place if a pre-determined tipping point is reached (e.g., if X number of Groupons are sold for a given deal, then a local book shop will donate Y number of books to a public library).

Please tune in next week for the second part of this two-part series, where we will explore how running a cause-related campaign on daily coupon sites can be advantageous to businesses, and how nonprofits can attract business partners to align with them.

A new national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project throws some light on how technology is being used to build and activate civic and social groups.

I agree with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone that technology alone can’t be an agent of change…“it’s going to be people, it’s going to be humanity.”

That said, the Pew report found that the slice of humanity that is online is more likely to be part of a group than non-Internet users (80% compared to 56%). No big surprise there.

Dig deeper in the report and you’ll find these insights into the gender split is when it comes to what kind of groups men and women are self-selecting for online. A snapshot:

Groups where women were more involved than men:

• Religious or spiritual groups (43% women vs 37% men)
• Consumer groups (26% vs 21%)
• Support groups for people with illness or personal situation (21% vs 16%)
• Organizations for older adults like AARP (17% vs 13%)
• Partner groups like the PTA (16% vs 9%)
• Literary groups, ie book clubs (15% vs 7%) and
• Performance or arts groups (12% vs. 7%)

Men were more likely to belong to sports-related groups like fan groups for teams, recreation leagues for themselves or their children, and gaming communities.

The genders balanced out when it came to groups like political organizations; labor unions; environmental groups, ethnic or cultural groups; and charitable or volunteer groups like Habitat for Humanity.

One factoid I found interesting is that low-income adults (earning less than $30K) and African Americans are slightly more likely than others to cite “meeting meeting people who share my interests” as a major reason to participate in social and civic groups. Something to keep in mind if you’re reaching out to these groups.

Last week I went to an NTEN event about how nonprofits can take advantage of Foursquare, a mobile app that is gaining about 100,000 new users a week.

At the event, Naveen Selvadurai, one of the founders of Foursquare explained how their invention was driven by a series of questions: “How can we get better at living in our cities?” And, “How can we turn life into a game?”

For uninitiated, here’s how Foursquare works: get to a location and “check in.” Once the app registers where you are, businesses and nonprofits nearby can alert you to special offers — like a discount for frozen yogurt. Like Meetup, it’s also a way to connect with friends in real time. Depending on the number of times you check in, you can earn “badges” or be anointed “Mayor” of that place – which can come with special privileges and prizes. The app is expected to exceed the 2 million mark this month.

Foursquare makes intuitive sense for a nonprofit that is site-specific – like a community center or a museum. But what happens if your nonprofit isn’t grounded in that way? Is Foursquare still useful?
The answer is yes.

I talked with Fenton’s VP of digital, John Gordon, who has been working on Foursquare to create a “nonprofit” category for check-in spots along with a “do gooder” badge that can be earned by donating or taking action for good causes. He had some good ideas for how nonprofits can make Foursquare work for them:

1. Think “action” not discount. Instead of offering freebies and coupons, partner with a local business or mark a symbolically relevant site (for example, the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, or the statue of Gandhi in New York’s Union Square) by encouraging people to take action, whether it’s to support union workers or make a donation to a water rights campaign in India.

2. Stake a place as your own: Fenton is currently working with Heal the Bay to revamp its web site and digital strategy so PLACE is at the forefront. We’re integrating Foursquare by making it possible for people who check in at their favorite beach to receive an alert from Heal the Bay on actions they can take to protect the places they love

3. Partner with a local business: We mentioned this above, but it’s worth emphasizing. In New York, many owners of popular food trucks that sell everything from crepes to tacos, not to mention celebrity chefs at hot spot restaurants, are all using Twitter and social media to attract customers. Nonprofits can turn this into a win-win by encouraging their supporters to frequent their partner business, while using the business spot as a brick-and-mortar place for like-minded people to congregate around a cause.

“Foursquare gives you access to a shared community of people who share an affinity for the same beach or other favorite spot that you do,” says John. “Nonprofits need to develop an identity around these places to take advantage of people’s natural behaviors and lead them take action.”

Is your nonprofit using Foursquare or thinking about it? We’d love to hear about it!

Have you heard of Shoes of Prey?  The custom shoe design site had an explosive experience last week – thanks to a 16-year-old’s YouTube site.  Juicysatr07’s had 450,000 viewers, and combined with a giveaway prize from the company, lured 200,000 to Shoes of Prey’s site, according to PSFK.

How are you adapting to and including new voices in your online marketing?  How do you find the right influencers?

You can learn how to apply every kind of makeup, reorganize your closet, sketch a portrait, and a million other things thanks to the force of young women on YouTube. The tone of the video, the number of YouTube subscribers, and their comments can help you figure out which YouTube lady is the best to help your product, company or organization.  If you have an evening, watch their videos!

Women research their purchases and the young woman on YouTube — with hundred of thousands of followers — can help you whether you have a product or a non-profit to market.  They have built a reputation sharing the good, bad, and ugly about the products, and you need to be ready for their frankness.  Be frank yourself, and built trust with them. They are game-changers if you do it right.

The campaign, which invited the public to nominate and vote for the “small business story that most inspires them,” wrapped today with the announcement of the winner: Sacred Wind Communications, a telecommunications outfit based in Albuquerque that is working to wire Navajo lands with telephone and Internet access. The company will receive with $100,000 in grant and marketing support.

“Shine the Light” is a great example of a campaign that was not overtly marketed to women as the target audience, but nonetheless capitalized on a number of marketing principles and tactics that appeal to them:

1. You decide: The entire contest was driven by public input, from nominations to voting for the winner – the principle of putting women in CONTROL in action.

2. iVillage: This women-oriented online entity, which NBC acquired in 2006, was responsible for creating the online community platform; it also hosted the campaign web site (http://shinealight.ivillage.com) and promoted the campaign heavily.

3. All-female judging panel: Coincidence or not, all three judges were women: Talk Show Host and Entrepreneur Ellen DeGeneres, Fashion Designer and Entrepreneur Diane von Furstenberg, and MSNBC’s Small Business Expert JJ Ramberg. They winnowed the nominees to three finalists.

4. Social media: The corporate sponsors of the contest offered promotional tools like widgets and badges on the campaign web site that people could easily use them to CONNECT and spread word of mouth through their networks on Facebook and MySpace.

The campaign smartly tapped into the growing trend among women entrepreneurs, who make up the fastest-growing segment of U.S. small businesses. What’s more, businesses owned by women of color are growing three times faster than all U.S. firms, according Center for Women’s Business Research.

When Lisa and I were promoting The She Spot, one perceptual hurdles we had to overcome was the notion that, if a campaign doesn’t hang out a big banner marked “women”, it somehow doesn’t “count.”

Shine a Light proves that you don’t need to call out your target audience in boldface to hit the mark. In fact, there are many instances when doing so isn’t the strategic thing to do. The winner of the contest, for example, wasn’t a woman. That wasn’t the point. It was about getting brand exposure among the audiences that mattered most.

Some highlights include:
- 59% are are visiting sites multiple times per day.
- Facebook was the most popular social network among these users, with 83% belonging to the site.
- 55% were on Twitter.
- 93% said that control over their own privacy settings were very important.
- 71% said using social networks to network professional was very important and 62% said to stay up-to-date with friends.

More women use social networking than men and if your organization doesn’t understand the trends and strategies on how to maximize them you’re missing out on a key audience.

In a new post today on Media Post’s Engage Mom blog Tiffany Jonas suggest that affluent women expect more online. According to Jonas wealth women are turned off by Web sites that are sloppy and disorganized. She suggest design with a clean “high-end” design. She sites Vera Wangs Web site as a good “art level” example.

Not all NGOs want or can afford “high art” but they can take Jonas’ advice and make beautiful, yet functional sites. Chen and I argue in the She Spot that women, in particular, are looking for Web sites that reflect real people and excude authenticity. Here are some good examples in the NGO space:

Women for Women International

American Red Cross

Innocence Project

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Vittana

Action for Children

Do you have others to add?

Libby Chivers of SEO Optimise gives the following tips  to marketing to women online:

1. Women enjoy socializing online more than men. Chivers suggests that  confrontational forum debates are out and supportive social networking is in. She suggests allowing users to personalize their platforms, encourage the sharing of ideas and support and create a space for off-topic chat.

Don’t be afraid to have your site not be 100% about your mission. The goal is to foster community. Remember, when you connect women to each other you deepen your own brand.

2. Attract women with attractive Web design. Men tend to appreciate functionality in websites. Women want that too but they also want colorful, attractive and textured sites.

3. Grow your user generation content. Women trust each other more than they do organizations/corporations. Some of the most successful Web site are ones that let the users generate their own content and share it with others.  “A female reader will prefer to trust their fellow consumers rather than the company message, no matter how many statistics, blueprints and facts the firm has provided.”