City Harvest, the New York-based food rescue organization — and beneficiary of the Social Media for Social Change NYC fund raiser this past spring– has a Facebook Cause. With just over 1,000 members and $1,669 raised, it’s not the worst-performing Cause around, nor is it the best.
When Facebook recently made changes to the Fan Pages, giving brands (including nonprofits) the ability to better interact with their supporters, City Harvest knew this is where they needed to focus their energy. But how were they going to people — both current and new supporters — to sign up for this new profile?
An anonymous donor challenged City Harvest: For 30 days, from June 15 and July 15, City Harvest will receive $5 for every new fan, up to $20,000.
City Harvest responded, reaching out to their existing community and empowering them to recruit fans for City Harvest. The community reacted enthusiastically: Within three weeks, 4,000 people signed up as fans of City Harvest, hitting the $20,000 limit.
Impressed at the results, City Harvest looked for ways to capitalize on the momentum.
On July 8, Dan, City Harvest’s community manager, posted a video to Facebook announcing a second donor offered $5 per new fan, up to $20,000, added by July 15 – just like the first campaign. This time, time was of the essence: There was only a week to go to achieve the goal.
Within six days, the goal was reached. On July 14, Dan posted the following:
The momentum was impressive. City Harvest gained 1,758 new fans from July 13th to 14th. They hit 10,000 fans on July 17th. Today, eight days later, they have 11,269 fans.
It was an impressive demonstration of the power of community promotion — friends asking friends to join them in supporting a good cause — and a win-win for City Harvest and its community. Fans were able to donate to City Harvest without touching their wallet, and City Harvest was able to increase their social media outreach exponentially.
Congratulations to City Harvest on a successful fundraising campaign, and in gaining so many new fans!
