The current economic crisis has left many nonprofit organizations scrambling, trying more than ever to do too much with too little. Executive directors are spending hours inputting donor information into their database … program directors are doubling up and doing administrative work.
What’s a struggling organization to do?
Some savvy nonprofit organizations are turning to craigslist for fast, inexpensive outsourcing, hiring, in-kind donations and more.
Two summers ago Alex’s Lemonade Stand started a a national internship program to grow their social media. According to Melissa Jones, Social Media Specialist for Alex’s Lemonade, using craigslist ads, along with a bit of Facebook advertising, drew applicants from around the country. A mix of 20 high school and college students, along with a few college graduates were brought on and paid a stipend of $200. The results? 25,000 new Twitter followers in six days.
Several years ago I worked with a small community educational organization. When the Executive Director decided that we needed to go beyond our middle school programming to see our kids through high school and, eventually, college, one of the first things he implemented was an after school student drop in center. Trouble was our budget was already set for the year and we didn’t have a dime to put into it. I began to research funders but we all know that the grant process can be a lengthy one.
Zoe, one of our program directors placed a series of advertisements on craigslist seeking everything from furnishings to computers to games and books. In less than one month our new student drop in center was fully furnished, equipped with a computer lab and outfitted with a library. One generous donor sent in 20 brand new SAT prep books!
In my own burgeoning business I’ve used craiglist any number of ways including:
- Logo creation
- Creation of pdf editable forms
- eBook formatting
- 1-3 hour administrative tasks
In addition to craigslist, there are a number of sites offering high quality freelance workers, including:
oDesk
Rent-a-Coder
vWorker
Elance
Freelancer
How could your organization use craigslist to streamline your operations or fundraising?
What are other ways your nonprofit can raise more money – with less resources? Find out in Simple Development Systems: Successful fundraising for the one-person shop! Download and find out why one reviewer calls Simple Development Systems her “Bible for the one-person shop!”
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Splendid post, Pamela!
You always come up with the most interesting posts! I tend to shy away from Craigslist simply because of the somewhat sordid reputation it’s developed (unfairly or not) and that’s a shame because it sounds like I’m missing some valuable resources. I’ll have to reconsider now.
Thanks!
Pamela, very creative and interesting idea. Thanks for sharing. Very worthwhile for nonprofits and businesses. I have had some spam issues with Craigslist, but I would try it again.
Thanks Amy. I’ve used craiglist so many times personally, from advertising yard sales to ridding myself of a gargantuan Mac display that threatened to take over my house to finding new bookshelves for my office to shoveling out my drive after an accident threw out my back. In my business I’ve used it to find someone to create editable pdf forms, do short admin tasks like creating excel spreadsheets – even my logo was created by a graphic designer I found on craigslist. I’ve used Rent-a-Coder to create software and fix up my mucked up Word Press coding. The list goes on and on.
What a great way to find local resources and talent – and a first step to a future regular volunteer or donor! We know of several groups that have used Cragislist as a volunteer recruiting tool, dropping buttons to their VolunteerSpot online sign up sheet right in their posting. The volunteers click the link and quickly choose their assignment and shift on VolunteerSpot for the nonprofit’s event.
Great post, Pam! The Alex’s is a great example: they had specific goal – to build a social media following, brought on several people to work on the project (20!) and got massive results. I think it’s great they paid a stipend — many nonprofits try to get everything on volunteer or unpaid intern basis (aka free!).
As a freelancer myself, I’ve picked up several jobs on eLance. Searching through the job postings has been interesting to say the least. Many of the ads are too vague for freelancers to know how to bid the job, some contain typos or misspellings, or they obviously don’t know what they are asking for. So if you are posting a job opening, even for a contract, freelance, or intern job, be as specific as possible what you need, deadlines and expectations.
Furthermore, be upfront about what you are willing to pay. I have seen too many orgs trying to hide the salary, leaving it out of the ad or not even telling people when they are in the interview. It just makes the process more difficult for both parties.
Great examples, Pamela. I love that many organizations could take those stories and solve some of their problems right now.
I have used Craigslist for hiring, too. And I have had good results. The comments about spam are on point, but I assumed that was the cost of a free service – just a little annoyance.
Thanks Sherry!
I’ve used craigslist for many odd jobs, from cleaning my house when I was too swamped to do it myself
to basic graphic design jobs. ELance is also great. Hard to do it all in a one person shop but outsourcing is not beyond the smallest nonprofit’s means.
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