And you want to watch this. Why?

Because you’ll learn something important about the next Give to the Max Day in DC.

Photo by Geoff Livingston

We’re excited to be hosting a panel discussion (during a yummy breakfast) next Thursday (February 16th @ 7:30AM) during Social Media Week in DC! Here are the event details.

As you know, Give to the Max Day: Greater Washington raised $2,017,196 with 17,838 donations for over 1,000 nonprofits in the DC, suburban Maryland, and northern Virginia areas.

But you may not know that in social media, this event generated over 8,000 tweets using the #give2max hashtag and daylong trending in the Washington region. The Give to the Max Day Facebook page had a 99.4% talking about rate (1,716 of the total 1,726) rolling into days after the event.

So what’s the secret to this event’s success?

The fantastic word of mouth, structured training workshops, and resources that fueled regional nonprofits to sign up and fundraising, proved social media can in fact produce donations.

Join us for the discussion with players of last November’s giving day to see how they were able to leverage social media for fundraising and doing good.

Moderated by Geoff Livingston (@geoffliving), the panel includes:

• Reese Butler (@hreese from Kristin Brooks Center (@Hopeline)
• Jessica Hazlett (from Corcoran Gallery (@CorcoranDC)
• Jen Martin (@iheartrocknroll) from AARP (@AARP)
• Ifdy Perez (@ifdyperez) from Razoo (@Razoo)

To register, click here.

If you can’t make it to the event, you can watch the LiveStream below, starting at 8AM (EST) on Thursday, Feb. 16.

You probably have heard by now that Little Lights Urban Ministries, a small nonprofit based out of southeast DC, and For Love of Children (FLOC) rocked the Grand Awards categories on Give to the Max Day.

And just like you, we were curious as to how they did it. Well, we stopped by their office yesterday, presented them with their $25,000 check, and asked them that very question.

Little Lights Urban Ministries

LLUM won the Grand Award for Most Donors ($25,000) along with the Entrepreneurial award ($10,000) and six Golden Ticket hours (at $1,000 each) raising almost $80,000 in just 24 hours! Impressive is the word to describe what they did, so we had to ask how the heck they managed to do it.

Here’s what Steve Park (executive director) and Jonny Moy (fellow) had to say:

Summary:

• Social media outreach was biggest factor in winning the awards
• Focused mostly on Facebook (over Twitter) for donor outreach because had higher return
• Friends shared, and this helped flood news feeds across different networks with links to their fundraiser
• Had a good email list beforehand and had already been communicating with their supporters this way
• Emailed their supporters 2 weeks before the event

For Love of Children

FLOC took the lead in the Grand Award for Most Donations ($25,000) on Give to the Max Day. We also stopped by their office yesterday with the check and asked the same question.

Tim Payne (executive director) and Andrea Messina (development director) told us how they reached out to their supporters:

Summary:

• Continuous communications through all networks (e.g. social, e-newsletter, etc.)
• People they reached out to were already familiar with FLOC
• Mixed between personal outreach (to inspired donors that could help with big donations) along with a general outreach to their supporters for smaller donations

Thanks again to everyone that participated! You are all Give to the Max Day winners!

A little late, but worth the wait!

Before Wednesday’s Give to the Max Day, we were able to speak with CentroNia, a multicultural learning community based in DC that educates and strengthens families in a bilingual environment.

Cesar Watts, the family director of CentroNia, participated in the giving day as a way to raise funds for families in need as they head into the holiday season. CentroNia works with over 800 children and their families to provide a range of support and resources.

Thank you for participating, CentroNia – and we hope to see you again next year!

Enjoy.

More than 17,000 people like you donated to the 1,200 nonprofits that make this area great. We hope you found it rewarding to be a part of this great moment!

Below find a list of all the prize winners for Give to the Max Day. But first we need to thank a few friends. Special thanks to Social Innovation Partner Case Foundation for funding our research, which should provide insights and a strong conversation about the giving day as a philanthropic model for cities and regions.

And special thanks to our media sponsors who kindly donated at least $25,000 of advertising/promotion inventory each to get the word out: NBC 4, the Washington Post, ClearChannel stations in the Washington metro region (DC 101, 98.7 WMZQ, 97.1 WASH FM, Hot 99.5, Big 100.3), Hubbard Radio (WTOP and Federal News Radio), Care2, the AARP, the Washington Times, the Washington Informer, and Metromix.

Also, another round of thanks to our community partners who activated their substantial networks on our behalf: The Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Center for Nonprofit Advancement, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Leadership Greater Washington, VolunteerMatch.org, YNPNdc, Women in Technology, TEDx MidAtlantic, CA, op3, Social Media Club DC, DC United and the Washington Nationals.

With no further ado, here are your final awards winners.

Most Dollars Raised

Grand Award – $25,000

For Love of Children (FLOC), raised $86,948

Second Place Award – $10,000

Spanish Education Development Center, raised $55,672

Third Place Award – $5,000

Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, raised $55,189

Fourth Place Award – $2,500

L’Arche, raised $50,560

New Year Award (12th place for 2012) – $2,500

District of Columbia Children’s Advocacy Center, raised $18,488

Obama Award (44th place for the 44th president) – $2,500

Mercy for Me, raised $7,470

Most Donors

Grand Award – $25,000

Little Lights Urban Ministries, with 729 donors

Second Place Award – $10,000

Homeward Trails Animal Rescue, with 547 donors

Third Place Award – $5,000

Kristin Brooks Hope Center, with 462 donors

Fourth Place Award – $2,500

Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, with 438 donors

New Year Award (12th place for 2012) – $2,500

ProInspire, with 207 donors

Obama Award (44th place for the 44th president) – $2,500

Arts on the Horizon, with 91 donors

Entrepreneurial Awards

Awards for nonprofits under $1 million in revenue for the most individual donors:

Grand Award – $10,000

Little Lights Urban Ministries, with 729 donors

Second Place – $5,000

Homeward Trails Animal Rescue, with 547 donors

Third Place – $3,000

Kristin Brooks Hope Center, with 462 donors

Fourth Place – $2,000

DC Lawyers for Youth, with 339 donors

Fifth Place – $1,000

Homeless Animals Rescue Team, with 303 donors

Care2 Individual Fundraiser Challenge

Every cause has individual champions, people who love their nonprofit and fundraise for them. Whether it’s a board member or a free agent, these individuals can compete to win awards for their favorite nonprofits, too, by garnering the most individual donors.

Grand Prize – $10,000

Frank Warren for IMAlive, with 457 donors

Second Place – $5,000

Brandi’s Run to the Max Team, with 153 donors

Third Place – $1,000

United Soccer Club, with 151 donors

On behalf of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, Razoo, and the United Way of the National Capital Area, again, thank you for your participation.

Kristin Brooks Hope Center

They got 54 donors to give $785 between 11PM-12AM.

Nice job everyone!

THANKS for supporting us in this endeavor! You made it DC, you MADE IT! Can you believe you raised over $2 million in 24 hours?? You fought for it and WON! You earned it! We are happy to have been by your side along the way.

And with that, we bid you a good night. Talk to you tomorrow.

You probably guessed it. They’ve surprised us over and over again. Little Lights Urban Ministries, you earned the 10PM Golden Ticket hour with 52 donors bringing in $2,540 this hour.

It’s the last hour, your last chance to rally your supporters or to donate to your favorite cause. Take a chance and GIVE! GIVE! GIVE!

• 51 donors
• $1,930 raised