Social Ch@nge

Capital campaigns are a big deal, because, well, you’re trying to raise a building here. You need a campaign that will catch people’s imaginations, make them want to stick with you for the long haul and hopefully, donate more than once. This sounds like a job for…social media! If you’re looking for inspiration on how to work small to get something big happening for your fundraising, Social Signal has just helped The BC Children’s Hospital Foundation to launch their Be A Superhero campaign. Aimed at finding the secret heroes who will donate to help the kid’s hospital, the campaign’s based around personal fundraising on Facebook via a video widget. It encourages donors by telling them a great story about themselves through a personalized video donated by Global News. Yep, your name shows up in a Global newscast. You can grab the video widget and use this to kick off your own fundraising campaign, or you can create personalised videos for your friends. It’s easy, it lets you fundraise towards a goal and hey, it makes you a superhero!

Now, I have two reasons for wanting to get you interested in this. The first reason is: I’m animating this campaign, and I’m excited to take you on the journey with me for an inside look at social media and fundraising. I’m going to post updates so you can see that it’s not a magic trick that only charismatic American presidents can pull off – this is a strategic way to fundraise by building a story with your donors. My second reason is simple: I know a 4 year old who had heart surgery at the Children’s recently. (He’s fine now.) So I have a very keen sense that these are the people who heal our kids, and they need our help.

As time goes by on the campaign I’ll talk a bit about how we came up with the concepts behind it, how the pick-up is going, and what we’re learning. To watch us in action, Fan the Facebook Page I’m animating, or follow @bcchf on Twitter. While this widget is the way Social Signal found to do online micro-fundraising, we know it’s going to take a real community posting photos, stories and videos about their heroes to make this campaign fly. I would love to work with you, gentle reader, so please participate by tagging your mentions of this campaign (by which I mean pictures of yourself in a blanket cape a la my example) with bcchf (or on Twitter you can use the hashtag #bcchf)

How You Can Help:

-  Put the widget on your Facebook profile or donate (do! I designed this special thank you video that will knock your socks off…)

- If you aren’t in British Columbia, spread the word to the people you know in BC by sending them the video. If you’re a blogger, grab the widget and/or write about it. Gillian Shaw from the Vancouver Sun broke the story and posted her widget here.

- And finally, cheer us on! Please fan BCCHF on Facebook, Twitter to us @bcchf, post to our wall or… …take a photo of yourself jumping  with that red blanket cape and tag it bcchf (I’m starting a League of Extraordinary Blanket Capes) or with the hashtag #bcchf if you mention it on Twitter. By donating, you’re  a hero to the children who are patients at BC Kids. So tie on that red blanket cape! Up up and awaaay!

don't forget to tag your blanket cape photo with bcchf or #bcchf so that i can show the children's hospital what upstanding heroes support them. Excelsior!