“I’d give anyone $25,” I said to a group of people after the latest #ArtsTech Meetup. “No, really. Making your own art gallery? Have a really good idea for a documentary? Where do I sign up?”

The theme of the evening was online fundraising, but the star was certainly the idea of micro-giving, particularly initiatives like Kickstarter, which teems with fanciful larks that are constantly tempting me to peel those $25 contributions from my digital wallet.

I can’t help it–all around me, people are weaving utterly compelling tales that make it impossible to not want to get involved. Want to know some of their secrets? Read on…

Creativity, curation, and community-building seemed the nexus point around which the #ArtsTech presentations coalesced. 

Farra Trompeter of Big Duck sported a deck full of enticing examples of robust and creative ways of conducting energetic campaigns. Sarah Hromack and Briana Lowndes of the Whitney showed a very clever way of repackaging museum membership to capitalize of the current vogue for “curation”: essentially, you make your own membership. Cindy Au of Kickstarter unlocked some of the secrets of mastering the rapidly growing crowd-funding platform.

Getting digital fundraising right is tricky. With the proliferation of Kickstarters and Change.org and Causes tabs on Facebook, the come-ons are hitting your potential donors fast and furious.

I remembered way back when I started at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Development-wise, it was still a very print-focused enterprise, as many nonprofits and arts organizations still are.

But because my focus was in energizing digital initiatives for the Film Society, getting them up, active and growing on Twitter, starting their first blog and creating a lot of conversation and interaction among fans, I naturally wanted to apply myself to the challenge of employing digital strategies for raising funds.

At that time, I really knew nothing. I had my work cut out for me, so I set out to learn as much as I could. That’s when I stumbled upon a pretty ground-breaking study from Convio about high dollar donors [download it here]. The truth is, these members of the “wired wealthy” want to feel involved with the organizations they support and creating a digital lifeline for that kind of relationship building isn’t just a “nice to-do” is pretty much essential.

Working closely with the Film Society’s Director of Development and uber-talented Creative Director, I proposed a micro-site that did things that no print piece could do as compellingly–allowing visitors to track the progress of the new film center the society was building in a tangible way, and even offer their own contributions (in the form of Tweets and comments) about where they saw film going in the future.

If you’re working on in a nonprofit or grass-roots initiative, I urge you not to get intimidated by the options, and just start somewhere. Here are some ideas (gleaned from the ArtsTech meetup and personal experience) to get you started:

Realize money isn’t everything.

For most nonprofits, successful fundraising via social and digital channels won’t happen right off the bat. While you are building a critical mass, use your Twitter and Facebook feeds to get people to make other (non-monetary) “contributions,” such as stories of their experience with the institution. Once you’ve got that kind of baseline participation–asking for cash becomes a lot easier.

Personalize.

“Every Kickstarter is a story,” said Cindy Au of the crowdfunding platform, and if you ask me, this is the single biggest reason for their spectacular success. This Nicholas Kristof article about bringing some of the strategies of mainstream marketing has always stuck with me. People want to feel as though they are making a mark on an individual story, and Kickstarter has been phenomenal in putting that narrative front and center. Even if Kickstarter doesn’t make any sense for your fundraising goals, take a look at the way the site uses stories (and especially video) to make their campaigns seem particularly vivid.

Here’s a good example from a writing school classmate of mine:

Look within.

Lots of people in nonprofits think they need money or to line up a pro-bono ad agency to come up with a killer idea for fundraising. I like to think some of the absolute best ideas come from within, through creating a collaborative environment. Consider spearheading a “working group” of different stakeholders to bat around ideas around the theme of any of the concepts outlined here.

Steal from the best.

I found several ideas to steal, I mean, be inspired by in Farra’s deck, below:

Play a long game.

Development specialists will tell you that fundraising is a relationship-intensive business. Simply slapping up a micro-donation coin jar on your site isn’t (usually) the ticket to major cheddar. Still, digital means open up a whole new way of cultivating relationships that yield funds. Facebook can be an incredible CRM tool, or periodic updates, made creatively, can help your funding VIPs feel more invested and ready to give.

Think small, but not too small.

Micro-giving has become a little bit flavor-of-the-month, and in a sense I think there’s a little fatigue about it out there. It can work, but it will work best in conjunction with a specific initiative where people know that their micro-donations are contributing to something worthwhile. The #ArtsTech presentation proved again and again that creative thinking pays, literally.

Consider the Whitney’s “Curate Your Own Membership” campaign. It’s a creative idea that could work in many institutions. The buy-in is modest, but by asking people to do something to “belong” to your organization, you’ve created a meaningful connection, and those connections, if nurtured, can grow.

A little goes a long way.

One of my favorite takeaways from the evening came from Cindy Au of Kickstarter, who noted that their research about crowd-funding revealed that 90% of people who raised 30% of their goal made it all the way.

Them’s pretty good odds, and a great way to start drawing the connections between you and your dreams.