The effects of the Oklahoma tornado are devastating. Our hearts go out to all of those impacted. At times like this, we’re especially grateful for the nonprofits that lend a helping hand to those in need — and for all the donors who make that possible.

If you’re looking for ways to help, here’s a list of organizations raising money for relief and recovery efforts.

• Humane Society of the United States
• Oklahoma City Community Foundation’s Oklahoma City Tornado Relief Fund
• Red Cross
• Salvation Army

If you are a Kimbia customer and need assistance setting up an emergency relief donation page, please contact us at 877.214.5911.

The first thing to know about match days and giving events is that a little friendly competition drums up a lot of excitement. While no two communities use the same approach — and Kimbia can handle them all! — a few tried-and-true methods deliver the best results.

Whether you’ve held one in the past or are planning your first, we’ve found these five tips and tricks ensure a successful match day.

1. Build Partnerships with Nonprofits and Local Funders
Having engaged partners is crucial to the success of your event. If nonprofits are revved up, they’ll spread the word throughout their networks, driving participation and generating support for your event. Your local funders are just as important; collaboration of funders creates buzz and is a win-win for all involved.

2. Engage Local Media
Match days create awareness for both local organizations and your foundation. Let your local media partners in on the action to help generate buzz. Encourage people to give all day long by catching them via radio as they drive to work, while they are reading the newspaper and as they check the local news throughout the day.

3. Set Goals and Share Them
Don’t be afraid to set and reset goals throughout the day. The number of unique donors, first-time donors and dollars raised are great measurements of philanthropic engagement in your community. By sharing your goals, you generate a sense of competitive excitement.

4. Leverage Your Entire Community
Allow your donors to participate via their donor-advised funds. Make it an organization-wide effort so that everyone can share in the success.

5. Pick the Right Technology Partner For You
Choosing the right partner to help design and build your event is important. We encourage you to ask questions and choose the partner that is right for you. Kimbia’s philosophy is that we are here to help you shine. Your match day is an opportunity to highlight your brand, your mission and your work – not ours. We’ll create a great donor experience and make it simple for nonprofits to participate, letting you focus on engaging the media and allowing you to have fun.

Kimbia is proud to partner with many generous communities across the country, helping them raise millions of dollars collectively to support local causes. Kimbia provides the proven platform, and you provide the community expertise. Combined, we design and deliver match days that exceed expectations.

Want to know more? Contact Lori Finch at (619) 807-2708 or lori@kimbia.com.

As I struggle to write a blog about what my family and I do to give back through the holidays, I can’t help but begin by sending our deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of those affected by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Certainly anything we do in our local community seems small and unimportant in light of such a tragedy. Our prayers for all the families affected by this tragedy.

 We’re a mixed family when it comes to giving back in our local community. My wife is the super volunteer, always ready and willing to donate her time to work with local organizations. Truly more than half the friends in my life come from some form of volunteer work my wife is involved with in the local community. I on the other hand am a financial supporter of local organizations. While I know that having a giving strategy and focusing my resources for a few organizations is the best philanthropic model, I just can’t do it! Kimbia exposes me to so many worthy causes that I find myself giving gifts to organizations that I have no personal connection with, or possibly just learned about their mission.

However, the holidays present a unique opportunity for parents to get the whole family involved in giving back. There are great seasonal opportunities to get your children involved with organizations like Operation Turkey or Blue Santa where the entire family, or maybe even neighbors or soccer team families can be involved together.

In 2013, my family’s philanthropic efforts and I will be focused on two organizations – the American Heart Association and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. As our mothers get older their qualities of lives have been affected by heart disease and ovarian cancer.

The American Heart Association has incredible resources for the patients and family of those affected by heart disease that are invaluable when you first are learning about the disease. But more important are the preventative resources they have for all of us to take advantage of to reduce the risk of heart disease in our lifetime. (Yes, my friends can expect the annual Wear Red Day donation request.)

The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund is dedicated exclusively to funding ovarian cancer research – and to finding a cure. Ovarian Cancer is difficult to diagnose and often isn’t detected early enough. The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund invests in early detection, better treatments and how to stop it!

Wishing you and your families a joyous and happy holiday season. Don’t forget to get out there and help a local organization in your community. It truly is the best gift you’ll get for the holidays!

John Kinny
Vice President

While many bemoan the “commercialization” of the season, it is nonetheless a time when national attention around giving of all kinds increases. But giving can come in many forms – gifts, financial assistance, or volunteering our time.

In a society where most of us are fortunate enough to have our basic needs met, I am sure we would all agree it is important we do something for those less fortunate. Admittedly, this is not always our first thought. And yet we all realize that we probably could and should do more.

Years ago, I heard someone speak on the topic of charitable activities and they stressed the importance of making sure we are connecting with the organizations and activities we are personally interested in, as we are more likely to be a consistent contributor than someone less concerned about the topic at hand.

For my family and I, this has proved to be an important principle. My wife and I have always had an interest in international students, going back even to our high school years. As a result, we have connected with an international student mentoring program at The University of Texas at Austin. We try to frequently spend time with these students and have them into our home for dinner, whether it be for a holiday dinner or just anytime we can work it out.

We also are committed as a family to caring for children in the foster care. This led to my involvement with a local organization, Kids in a New Groove, which utilizes volunteer music teachers to provide music lessons at no cost to children in foster care. There, I am able to provide help and time in a unique way that not only uses my experience, but is also impacting an organization whose mission I am personally excited about.

We have tried doing other things we were less excited about but later experienced some guilt when our commitment to the activities waned a few weeks later. The solution was making sure that we were passionate about the things we signed up for!

So maybe this season, if nothing else, you can take some time to learn about local nonprofits or other informal groups that are involved in areas you can get excited about, and contribute your time, expertise, and even money to in the coming months and years. Connecting with your local community foundation and learning about the nonprofit organizations within their sphere is a great way to increase your exposure to these kinds of organizations.

We at Kimbia wish you the happiest of holidays as you celebrate with family and friends!

Phil Murray
VP of Finance & Administration

by Simon Essl

Turkey Trots are rapidly becoming a holiday tradition and what better way to prepare for the feasts that Thanksgiving throws our way. In our home state of Texas, Kimbia Racing provided registration and fundraising for three of the states largest Trots, serving nearly 65,000 participants.

• Houston – TXU Energy 2012 Turkey Trot benefiting Sheltering Arms Senior Services
• Dallas – Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot
• Austin – ThunderCloud Subs 2012 Turkey Trot benefiting Caritas of Austin

These events not only use Kimbia for registration and fundraising but also facilitated the packet pickup process with Kimbia’s Check In. This allowed the events to operate packet pickup in multiple locations simultaneously. Quite a necessity when trying to serve various partners – and in the case of Dallas, running 30,000 participants through the process in a streamlined and efficient fashion.

With these charity-based events, everyone feels like a winner while generating a caloric deficit and supporting the associated cause. Turkey Trots are becoming a tradition for many families and Kimbia aims to provide a seamless experience for all.

Kimbians love fitness and supporting causes close to our hearts – so anytime we can combine the two it’s even better! In support of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, an inspiring organization, Back on My Feet, is encouraging businesses to participate in their Sneaker Week campaign. Companies set up online donation pages, and employees can donate to the homelessness-focused organization for an opportunity to wear sneakers to work all week long. BoMF reports that more than 300 companies and offices participated in 2011, but we bet this year will be even bigger.

Here’s a little about the amazing things this organization does:
Founded by Anne Mahlum in 2007, Back on My Feet (BoMF) is a national nonprofit organization that is dedicated to creating independence and self-sufficiency within the homeless and other underserved populations by first engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem. The organization does not provide food nor shelter, but instead provides a community that embraces equality, respect, discipline, teamwork and leadership. Back on My Feet’s approach focuses on the very profound and innate desire for all of us – regardless of age, race, socio-economic status – to feel recognized, appreciated, valued and important. Through dedication and hard work, Members earn the opportunity to create a new road for themselves by advancing to the “Next Steps” phase of the program where they gain access to educational, job training and employment opportunities, as well as financial aid. In short, BoMF focuses on changing the direction of people’s lives by changing the way they see themselves.

A few of us posing in our sneakers

by Lori Finch, VP of Community Foundations

Match days, giving events and community challenges are rapidly growing in popularity these days and no two events are exactly alike. Part of what makes each event so unique and successful is the ability to craft the Match Day to meet the fundraising needs of your community. Kimbia is working with 11 communities across the country to collectively help them deliver millions of dollars to support local organizations. Below are a few tips and tricks to hosting a successful event:

• Create Excitement. Match days are a great way to engage all of your staff, board and volunteers in an event that generates excitement for your community. Successful match days create excitement through the use of social media, gaming techniques and prizes.
• Spread the Word. Leverage local media (newspaper, television and radio) to help you communicate your message. Utilize Facebook and Twitter to share what nonprofits are doing to get the word out. Inspiring videos, photos or activities can help your giving event go viral.
• Engage Your Community. Across our partners, 25% of donors said their gift was a first time gift to that organization. Consider featuring one nonprofit a day (or more) to educate your community on the organizations that work in and impact your community.

Most importantly … have fun!

For more information on hosting a Match Day or giving event, contact Lori Finch at 512.961.5615 or lori@kimbia.com.

According to social media mogul, Mark Zuckerberg, people share more than 40 billion things a day on Facebook alone. That staggering statistic highlights the importance of making your message heard on various social media outlets. While, according to The Drum, those engaged with a Facebook campaign tend to spend 24% more than those who don’t, the immediate focus of social media doesn’t always have to be about producing more donations. Many sources site the importance of building your brand and sharing your cause simply by creating “shareworthy content.”

Some of the most shareable content on the web today consists of infographics, videos and photos. By creating content that connects with a donor’s emotions, makes someone smile or is simply creative enough to warrant a “share,” you’ll ensure that your brand will receive more likes and more views, which optimally will result in more donations in the long run. We all know pictures are worth a hundred words, but video is worth a thousand – try incorporating these elements into your message for increased donor engagement.

To learn more about using Social Media in online fundraising, join our free webinar or read about Kimbia’s Social Giving solution.

Social Media Webinar – Register here:
http://www.kimbia.com/learn/webinars/ignite-social-giving-webinar/

It’s been a tough season for Kimbia’s brand new kickball team – appropriately named The New Kicks on the Block. But we’re happy to report the New Kicks recorded their very first victory in the books this Wednesday night! It was a hard-fought battle, but ultimately we came out on top by one run, winning 6-5.

We had a lot of fun along the way, so here’s to a successful first season! Go New Kicks!

It’s consistently reported that year-end fundraising makes up about 45%-50% of an organization’s online donations for the year. Though we’ve entered the final quarter of the year, it’s not too late to make some strategic last-minute moves within your fundraising plan. The Nonprofit Marketing Guide suggests picking a single project with a clear concept, so donors feel comfortable knowing exactly where their money is going. And don’t forget to explain exactly how their donation was used in your thank you followup.

While planning your year-end campaigns, take note of the following guidelines for making the most of your fundraising:

• Attach a personal or touching story to your project to appeal to a donor’s emotional side
• Utilize social media – at 28%, Facebook is the largest channel for sharing information across the web
• Optimize your site for easy donating – if donors can’t find your donate button within 5 seconds, your chances of receiving the donation decrease significantly

For a step-by-step look at putting together a successful year-end campaign, check out The Nonprofit Marketing Guide’s Quick End-of-Year Fundraising Plan.