 Today we're talking about how to use online tools to boost charitable donations here on the journey. It'll just cost you five dollars. The tips are worth it. I swear. Got changed for 20? So where do we start? Where do we begin? So first off, why attract donations online? Why? I mean, it might be kind of an obvious answer. You reach a larger audience. Get more money. Get more money? Keep the going. Where's that money gone when we need it? Right. But yeah, you can reach a large audience. You could reach people all across the world to donate towards your charitable cause. So that's one very powerful reason of why you'd want to specifically do this online. Yeah, you're exactly right. Like having it online, reach that bigger audience. But it's also way more convenient because I mean, we just went through it. You didn't have cash on you. Most people don't carry cash. And having an online portal just makes it super convenient. You can pay with PayPal, there's Venmo, there's all different things. Also, manageability. That's another great thing about being online. You can see when a new donation comes in, which is really great. Whether you want to share that information or put it on your website and also just to get information on who your donations are coming from. Right. And it's with all that automation and those reports and updates, you can essentially manage all of your donations in one place and easily like export to Excel spreadsheet. There's no more counting cash. And I have that whole nonsense of a system. It's all done for you all automatically, which just makes life easy. Now, the factor longevity. I mean, we've seen it over the past 20 years. How much consumers and businesses rely about the online world, whether it's their website or how they receive a payment. And I actually have a really good example. I was looking at some different donations. Because one thing we do at GoDaddy is they give us as employees money to put towards a great cause. And some things that really have been top of mind and important to me is nature and what's going on with our oceans. How can we clean them up? So we keep getting pitted. So I have an example here of a, this is called the ocean cleanup. I've heard of them. Yeah. And look at what's right at the top of the screen. Get on board and take ocean cleaning into your own hands. Yeah. It's the first thing you see. So it's very, well, it's easy for you to donate one, but it's that call to action I love. And then they have this live video that's going on, which is super engaging. Not just a bunch of texts where you're like, look, I know there's pollution in the ocean, but do I need to read all this? It's showing you, which is a major effect. And it goes into what their mission is to clean up 90% of ocean plastic pollution. So I love the way this is designed. And then you can even have clickable links to just learn more about the cause because to get people to give you money, you know, you got to get them behind it, right? So educating them on why you're doing what you're doing, whether it's something as vast and large as cleaning up our oceans, or maybe it's a really small cause in your local community, either way. Yep. And I do love that they have at the top of their site is that support us right in their navigation. That's like likely links over to how to donate and how to buy merchandise. Yeah. Otherwise, it's like you knew that. Have you been to this site? Once or twice? Yeah. It's rad, right? And also, you'll notice here, I want to go to the bottom. Follow us, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, which we talk about all the time, the importance of having these social links on your site to help get the word out, which is going to help you in the online world to get more donations for your charitable cause. Now that we know that it's obviously super important, how do we get started? Yeah. Well, one thing I want to tell you because this is super impressive and I think will motivate the viewers at home is that on average, when it comes to consumers and looking at the activity there, we're seeing an average of 264 marketing impressions per day. That is insane. It's a lot. And that means that it's overstimulated with sites and sounds just vying for their attention. And while it's... Right? It's a lot of competition and just way too much coming at them all the times where they almost become numb to all the ads coming at them. But for that reason alone, like you need to be smart about how you're going about your charitable cause, right? Your non-profit. You got to be smart about what you're doing, how you craft, how you publish your message to potential supporters. So although the digital channels out there, whether that's blogs, websites, social media, it's made it super easy to spread the word. Absolutely. And with that, I got to say, yes, spreading the words is easier, but get your story in place first because that's what's going to get people to be passionate and get them to be moved enough to take out their wallets and support your cause. Because there's a ton of stuff that you can put your money towards out there. Sometimes it's overwhelming. Right. And now what is it about like the story that these business owners and non-profit organizations need to like really get down? Yeah. So to tell your story effectively, and I want to show you an example, think about it like what makes your story unique? Also, who's your target audience? That's going to help with the verbiage and the messaging that you have across these channels, websites, social media, and your blog as well. So what is it about my cause that matters? And I want to go back to this example of the Ocean Cleanup that we were talking about earlier. So when you click on about, I can go here and go to about us and they have a video for one which videos are really, we prefer that, right? They're engaging. They're engaging. They go into how they're founded. But this is what I love. They go into the big problems that are happening. Big problems out there. What do they need? They need big solutions. Right. And I think I would go probably a step further too and not necessarily like what's why it's passionate for you but how it impacts them in their world. Yeah, there's a ton of problems throughout all of life in all the world, right? But why does this one problem affect them? And if you can articulate that in your website, your messaging, your social and everywhere you're promoting your organization, that's where you're going to win. That's where you're going to turn them from. Oh, yeah, that's a problem to. Oh, that's my problem. And now they're more up to help. And that's actually segues beautifully to this part because they break down environment, economy and health. So one of those is going to get your attention. I know. I mean, health for me, especially plastic pollution does not impact. Well, it doesn't only just impact sea life. It impacts our food chain. So that's you and I. Yep. So that's where that's a great point. Thanks for bringing that up. And kudos to this website for doing exactly that. And one thing I'm noticing, especially on this site here, is that they make it incredibly easy to donate. Now, when I go to a website and there's no clear direction of where I'm supposed to go, I kind of floundered. I probably go places that that site owner didn't want me to go. And I end up wasting my time wasting their time. You need to make those donate buttons front and center. So I would highly recommend exactly like they did upper right have some sort of button. They have support us. You can have it donate. You can have it whatever you want it to be that called action, have it always there. So no matter where they're at on that page, there's an option for them to donate. Then they have it littered all throughout their page. A bunch of calls to action to donate or support or even sign up for their newsletter. Because even if someone doesn't donate for you now when they sign up for your newsletter, you can then let them into your world, let them into the story and give them updates and progress, things like that. And then they're more likely to donate. And then once they've donated once, their wallets are already open. They're more likely to donate again and again and again. And I know for one of the times I recently donated, it made it really easy to share on Facebook that I just donated. And so make it shareable too. And so with social media, that's a great way. And so I clicked share to Facebook because I felt really good about what I was doing. I was donating. And then my friends and family see it. It might just be what they need to be inspired to also donate towards your charitable cause. These days with most of the most popular site builders out there today, they have some sort of easy donate options for you to just add on your site with a couple clicks of button. You link it over to PayPal or Stripe or Square. That makes it easy for someone to pay with a credit card or directly on PayPal, whatever is easiest for them. Remember, it's about making it convenient to your audience. If you're using a platform like WordPress, there are tons of WordPress plugins out there that you can use. I know GiveWP is a really, really popular one out there. And they're really embedded into the WordPress community. And they do a lot with just charitable nonprofits and giving back. So if you use WordPress, I'd highly recommend checking them out. If you use a site builder, chances are they have a tool that's going to be in there for you. Just make that experience super easy for you. So consider a mix of blog posts, social media, and email marketing. Also video marketing. There's online reviews. Think about all the different tools that you can use to really boost essentially the attention of your organization to get those donations. Yeah, you want to keep your prospects and current stakeholders informed, active, and engaged. All right, that's a wrap. Comment below. Let us know who you donated to recently. Also, be sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel and ring that bell to see these episodes first. This is The Journey. We'll see you next time.