GiveMN partners with Minnesota R&B Band Mint Condition and Shanachie Entertainment to celebrate ‘unsung heroes’ and give to the winning video producer’s favorite cause

We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Minnesota R&B band Mint Condition and their record label Shanachie Entertainment to sponsor the “Unsung” video contest. You are invited to visit www.shanachie.com to download Mint Condition’s inspirational song “Unsung” for exclusive use in creating a video to honor YOUR unsung hero—be it a mother, father, friend or mentor.

The song “Unsung” was written by Mint Condition Keyboardist Lawrence Waddell in honor of his own unsung hero—his foster mother.

“My mother shaped my life in an incredible way and I will always be grateful to her for what’s she’s done,” Lawrence said. “This song is for all the unsung heroes out there like my mom.”

“The nonprofit world is full of unsung heroes, everyday people who are making a difference against difficult odds,” GiveMN Executive Director Dana Nelson said. “We’re delighted to join forces with one of Minnesota’s most talented bands, Mint Condition, and their label, Shanachie Entertainment, to shine a light on those unsung heroes through a video contest.”

The video contest entry period opens Friday, May 11 and will close at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, June 11. The winning video will be chosen by band members Stokley Williams, Ricky Kinchen, Homer O'Dell, Lawrence Waddell, and Jeff Allen. The winner will be announced on June 25. Videos should be uploaded to a video sharing site such as YouTube.com or Vimeo.com, and then the link can be emailed to info@givemn.org no later than 11:59 p.m. on June 11.

Prizes

The producer of the winning video will receive a $1,000 Giving Card courtesy of GiveMN. The producer of the winning video will receive a $1,000 Giving Card courtesy of GiveMN which the recipient can use to direct a $1,000 donation to any one of the nearly one million U.S.-based nonprofit organizations listed on GiveMN.org and a $500 cash prize courtesy of Shanachie Entertainment.  Mint Condition is also providing an autographed guitar to the video producer who’s video receives the most online views—a “People’s Choice” award. The guitar is provided courtesy of Guitar Center.  Both winners will also receive a “grab bag” of artist merchandise from Mint Condition and Shanachie Entertainment. For complete contest details, visit www.shanachie.com.

About Shanachie Entertainment

Shanachie Entertainment is one of America’s most successful and long-lived independent labels. The label has released projects of legends, hit-makers, musical masters and cult icons in the realms of R & B, jazz, alternative music, reggae, blues, country music, singer-song-writers and more. Whether scoring radio hits and Grammy Awards or simply bringing to market critically-acclaimed recordings, Shanachie has been proud to present the work of an array of brilliant artists. 

About Mint Condition

Mint Condition is an R&B band from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Discovered and originally signed by music producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in 1989, Mint Condition recently celebrated their 20th anniversary with the release of their seventh studio album “7” on Shanachie Entertainment, on which the song “Unsung” appears. 

Minnesota’s fundraising website has helped thousands of nonprofits move more of their donations online

MINNEAPOLIS/SAINT PAUL, MINN. – May 2, 2012 – GiveMN announced today that it has surpassed $50 million in donations processed through its website, GiveMN.org. Since GiveMN was launched in November 2009, the online fundraising website has processed online donations for more than 6,200 nonprofit organizations. Those donations came from more than 154,000 individuals.

Minnesota Community Foundation and its partners launched GiveMN in 2009 and have seen online giving in the state grow at an amazing rate. GiveMN’s $50 million donation milestone places it in the same space as the national online fundraising platform Causes, which launched in 2007 and raised more than $40 million. GiveMN.org has been made possible by technology partners Razoo, the leading consumer giving platform in the country.

“We are thrilled to hit this major milestone of $50 million in such a short time. It is a reflection of Minnesotans’ generosity and we’re proud that Minnesota is a philanthropic leader in the digital age.” GiveMN Executive Director Dana Nelson said.

GiveMN’s most successful online fundraising campaign has undoubtedly been Give to the Max Day, held annually in November. During the 2011 Give to the Max Day event, a record breaking 47,534 donors logged on to GiveMN.org and donated more than $13.4 million to 3,978 Minnesota nonprofit organizations. The 2012 Give to the Max Day event is scheduled for November 15, 2012.

To celebrate GiveMN’s fundraising milestone, the organization will be sponsoring a $50 GiveMN giving card giveaway on Facebook and Twitter. A winner will be chosen randomly from among today’s posts, comments and tweets before 4 p.m. May 2, 2012.

Download a .pdf of the webniar

We can’t help but beam with pride when we look at GiveMN on our Smartphones and iPads. It just looks great.

But, enough about us. Let’s talk about what GiveMN Mobile means for you—the fundraiser.

A great looking mobile website is just the start. Putting it to use as part of a larger mobile strategy is where the critical thinking skills come in. First we need establish what type of mobile experiences we’re talking about.

Text messaging—Donors can text a code to a certain phone number, and then a set donation amount is added to the donor’s cell phone bill. Texting can also be a means for communicating messages to donors, such as a call to action (visit our website) or information about events, discounts, etc.

Mobile apps—These are custom applications built to work on proprietary mobile operating systems (i.e. iPhone apps). An app doesn’t access the web through a browser, instead it has a customized interface designed for specific uses and functions. Apps offer the highest level of functionality and features, but often cost much more than other mobile solutions to build—which makes it very hard for individual nonprofits to afford. They are also limited to a specific mobile operating system (i.e. iPhone, Android, Blackberry).

Mobile optimized websites – The screens on mobile phones are obviously smaller, but websites can be customized to look and act differently on mobile web browsers (i.e. Safari on an iPhone). This does not require an app, but can often offer the level of functionality and features of an app. It’s also much more affordable and often works independent of the type of mobile operating system. This is how GiveMN Mobile works.

Growth of mobile

We’re especially pleased to be able to offer GiveMN Mobile as a service for thousands of Minnesota nonprofits which might not otherwise have a means for accepting mobile donations. And, it couldn’t have come soon enough. Just look at how fast mobile usage is growing!

• Research by Canalys shows that 2011 global Smartphone shipments topped those of client PCs -- including desktops, laptops, netbooks, and tablets -- for the first time.

• 77% use mobile phones for search, according to a Google study

• More than 60% of mobile Web pageviews are to social networking sites, according to mobile metrics startup GroundTruth

• According to Facebook, they had 425 million mobile monthly active users in December 2011.

• According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt there are 200 million mobile video playbacks from YouTube every day

• According to the International Telecommunication Union, there are 1.2 billion active mobile-broadband subscriptions in the world

• Online fundraising grew 20% in 2011. 35% of online fundraising came from emails and 65% came from other online sources like nonprofit’s own websites, social fundraising, etc.* 

• For everyone 1000 email subscribers, nonprofits only have 12 mobile subscribers. Some maybe surprised by this stat given how prevalent mobile is today. However, many nonprofits still don’t even have a basic mobile strategy or a mobile friendly website.*

*SOURCE: 2011 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study

Features of GiveMN Mobile

It’s your mobile website with the call to action—DONATE—front and center.  Below the donation section, visitors to GiveMN Mobile will see “About this nonprofit,” “Images & Videos,” “Comments,” and “Projects and Fundraisers.” You’ll want to make sure these sections of your GiveMN page are up-to-date and concise.

We’ve solved the mobile question for nonprofits! With GiveMN’s same low 2.9% transaction fee, GiveMN Mobile is the mobile platform solution for Minnesota nonprofits—and it’s all FREE!

Here’s what donors can do on GiveMN Mobile:

Search – Easy search interface with the option to explore by category.

Pledge – Don’t want to whip out your credit card? Pledge an amount to donate, enter your email address and you’ll be sent a reminder to make the donation.

Donate – Simple interface: enter your donation amount, email, credit card information and click “donate!” You can also log in to your account and if you’ve already got your credit card information stored there, mobile donating is even easier!

Location based online fundraising –Mobile site features the ability to use a phone location data to match up with fundraising events by date and location. The feature, called a “Meetup,” appears on the GiveMN mobile web page on any phone that is at the given location on the given date. This makes it easy for attendees of a fundraising event to look up the donation page for that event on their mobile phone.

Let's talk mobile strategy

GiveMN Mobile is has simplified the donation process for mobile devices. It is not an “app” with lots of bells and whistles. It’s not for social networking or photo sharing or status updates. Its bells and whistles all focus on the mobile donation process. So, the call to action that GiveMN Mobile provides is “Donate Now.”

Here are some tactics to consider as you assess your mobile strategy:

QR Codes—Using QR codes to link to your GiveMN page is a great way to access donors through their mobile devices. Print newsletters, flyers, brochures, business cards, stickers, etc. become your call to action to make a donation. Since GiveMN looks so clean and simple to use on any mobile device, you can use the QR code for your GiveMN page to turn a potential donor’s phone into a donation terminal!

Promote GiveMN Mobile’s ‘meetup’ and ‘pledge’ features – Besides QR codes, there are other ways to use GiveMN Mobile at your next fundraising event. You can add “Meetups” to any project or fundraiser page. When you add a “meetup” date and location to your project or fundraiser page, the page appears on the main page of the mobile version of GiveMN on the day of the event when the phone is in the vicinity of the given event address. During the event, you can make an announcement for everyone to take out their phones and go to GiveMN.org. There they’ll find your fundraiser page where they can make a pledge!

If you are going to launch a text campaign, you’ll need to be able to direct donors to mobile Web pages designed to be read quickly and efficiently on 3-inch or less smartphone screens. Your GiveMN donation page will be optimized for mobile browsers.

If you already have a Smartphone app, be sure to link to your GiveMN page. Since GiveMN Mobile looks great on a phone, linking your GiveMN “Donate Now” page through a smartphone app will be a mobile-friendly experience for donors.

If you’re using location-based social networks like Foursquare, then you’ll be glad that your GiveMN Mobile page looks great whether viewing on a desktop or mobile device. You can mention and promote your GiveMN page in check-ins and list on places, venue, or spot pages.

Tell people about your GiveMN mobile page! – People won’t assume they can donate on the phone to your nonprofit unless you let them know. There’s nothing special about searching for your page on a mobile device, so all hyperlinks stay the same. The site is set up to recognize when someone is viewing it on a mobile device and displays the mobile version. Below are some suggested messages:

• “Find us and donate on the mobile web at: [Insert your GiveMN page link]”

• “Donate on your phone! [Insert your GiveMN link]”

• “Give on the go. Donate on your mobile device here: [Insert your GiveMN link]”

• “Mobile giving is easy! Support us today using your mobile phone at: [Insert your GiveMN link]”

• “Give when ever, where ever you are with GiveMN Mobile: [Insert your GiveMN link]”

• “Do your charitable giving on your smartphone. Find us and donate at: [Insert your GiveMN link]”

Want to learn more about tactics and strategy using GiveMN Mobile? Register for our April 12 webinar:

Register now!