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For Giving Hearts Day on February 8th, I decided to focus on two nonprofits that I’ve had exposure to and familiarity with personally in the past year. These were the Plains Art Museum and Bonanzaville. I visited Plains Art Museum last September for the first time as part of classroom assignment for Dr. Sassi’s English 435: Young Adult Literature in a Multicultural World. I went there for a book reading by Native American writer Marcie Rendon, author of Murder on the Red River. I’ve visited Bonanzaville numerous times, as my girlfriend used to work there. I’ve accompanied her locking up the place after closing time at night, so I’ve even had my own personal guided tour. There is a ridiculous amount of doors to be locked there, by the way. Last August my mother visited Fargo, and I took her to the museum.
It’s fair to say I’ve established a connection with both of these Fargo-centered nonprofits. But how did they fare when it came to social media usage during Giving Hearts Day?
The Plains Art Museum has a strong promotional scheme for GHD. It offers a “Chili Bowl and Concert” at the museum itself on February 8th.
Patrons and visitors can enjoy all-you-can-eat chili for $15 from 11am to 2 pm, a free custom made ceramic bowl, and music by the band The Cropdusters. Plains Art made six posts about their “Chili Bowl and Concert” on Facebook, with the first appearing on February 5th (that Monday prior). The Museum used promotional photos that looked professionally designed, and were consistent with its bold font style that shows up on other promotional posts (such as ones for “Artist Talk”). According to a post on February 8th, Plains Art received over 250 contributions during Giving Hearts Day. The Museum made the same posts on Twitter and Instagram, which amounted to some obvious repetition.
I was disappointed that Instagram wasn’t used more specifically. For instance, someone could have posted photos from the Museum during the concert itself, and shown patrons and others enjoying the festivities. This would have enabled others on Facebook to tag themselves in photos, and helped to spread the word about the Museum and Giving Hearts Day itself. The promotional posters were nice and well-designed, but also rather impersonal. Using the Red Cross as an example, their social media is usually filled with pictures of members and volunteers being active, which contributes to the feel of the organization as a living organism. Plains Art Museum does a great job of creating an attractive (and artistic) social media presence, but needs to go further in terms of personalizing events like Giving Hearts Day.
Bonanzaville is somewhat of a mixed bag when it comes to its social media presence. On the one hand, it uses Facebook pretty extensively. There were eight posts about Giving Hearts Day. The first appeared on January 21, features a GHD promotional video, and a request to vote for the Cass County Historical Society for a chance to win $2,500 for the charity from Gate City Bank.
More reminder posts follow. Then on February 6th a post appears announcing the Society’s intention to raise money to “restore Fargo’s First House and restore the Pioneer Fire Company.” More posts followed on February 8th announcing what percentage of their fundraising goal they had reached. As of 6:10 PM on Feb. 8th they had reached 91%, with the deadline after 11:59 PM that night. I think Bonanzaville did two things very right there. They provided two specific, tangible fundraising goals—restoring the First House and the Pioneer Fire Company. They also gave an update on their progress with the percentage markers. This is something Plains Art Museum did not do well. Obviously donations are going toward things like administrative costs, staff salaries, and other things associated with the nonprofits. But it’s helpful and motivational to have specifics. Donors like to know exactly where and how their money is going to be used. Going back to the Red Cross, this is why I like how they send out an email letting me know where my blood donation when to help. It’s little things like that that can make all the difference.
Interestingly, Bonanzaville does not use Twitter that much. There are only three posts about this year’s Giving Hearts Day. But if you go back to last year’s GHD, you’ll find several more posts, including one that features some of the staff, and two that show a donation “progress bar.” Why the Twitter drop off from last year to this year? My guess is Facebook has become the Society’s social media site of choice. On Twitter it currently has 757 follows, whereas on Facebook it has 2,717 followers. That’s almost a four to one advantage. Flickr features a large collection of photos, though its last post is dated July 5, 2017. It also does not show any images related to Giving Hearts Day.
Overall, both of these nonprofits did a good job of getting the word out about Giving Hearts Day, though there were definite areas of improvement. Plains Art Museum should include more photos from its “Chili Bowl and Concert” while trying to utilize the different SM channels in their own ways rather than posting the same content across all of them. Bonanzaville did well giving donors specific goals for its fundraising, but should try to make better use of Twitter. They should also ditch Flickr and go to Instagram instead.
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