Social Media Is Part of IFCJ's Multichannel Integration Strategy

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

FundRaising Success: Please explain your vision for the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, in regard to fundraising and awareness building.

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein: The IFCJ fundraising goal is to raise not just awareness, but commitment from Christians and Jews to reach out toward one another on behalf of their shared goals and values. Awareness is but the beginning, leading, hopefully, to concern, which leads to commitment, which itself leads to expression of commitment through a variety of means, including giving contributions.

In addition to the purpose of raising funds to strengthen the bonds between Christians and Jews, we raise funds to help the people of Israel and Jews in need in various parts of the world. We have been able to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars, helping hundreds of thousands of people — Jews, Muslims, Christians and others — in dozens of countries around the world. Our financial goal each year is to do better than the year before so that we can, very simply, help more people in need, especially these days when other organizations are cutting back in their help and there are none to fill the void.

I don’t look at the budget and say, “Let’s raise $100 million this year.” I look at the budget and say every day, “What can we do more or less or differently to do the best job we can?” And whatever income God blesses us with, I am happy.

FS: Tell us about your commitment to embracing new strategies/mediums.

YE: One of the keys to our fundraising strategy — in addition to my strong belief that God will bless efforts that are done with right spirit and pursuit of excellence — is building relationships with donors and servicing them just as they provide help to us and our cause. With all the marketing and fundraising techniques that we have employed over the years, it is ultimately this point — of genuinely caring for and relating to our donors — that I believe accounts for our success and growth.

We set the bar very high at the Fellowship, and I have pursued and expect excellence for myself and everyone around me. Yes, I have been open to all sorts of marketing techniques and newfangled processes of raising funds. But, ultimately, I believe it comes down to the maxim, “People give to people — not to causes.”

Anyone who believes that purely technical, systematic exploitation of data and techniques will “bring in the funds,” I believe is totally mistaken.

FS: How do you inspire your staff to inspire donors/supporters?

YE: In our case, I think it’s the reverse. Our donors are so inspired that they inspire the staff. Our donors’ sacrificial giving — tithing their meager Social Security income and other such gestures going far beyond generous to the level of sacrifices — inspires us all to do more.

Of course, at monthly staff meetings I try to remind the staff of the critical, holy role they play on every level in helping more people in need. I have them take ownership and pride, not in whether our income is up 5 percent or 4 percent, but in their realizing every moment that their good work will lead to more people who are in desperate need being helped.

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, established in 1983 to promote understanding between members of two major, often at-odds religions and build broad  support for Israel, was one of the first nonprofit organizations to devote a full-time position to social media.

FundRaising Success met Christina Johns, the person who fills that position, a few years ago when she approached us with the idea of writing a column for what was then the magazine's Giving 2.0 e-letter. We liked her drive, her youthful energy and her easy grasp of social media, which seemed at the time to be throwing most of the world of nonprofit  marketing, communications and fundraising into a tizzy.

While many nonprofits were scrambling to latch on to what the sector was lauding as the Next Big Thing, IFCJ calmly and methodically absorbed the new medium into its overall marketing, communications and fundraising strategy.

It's tempting to point to its commitment to social media as the cornerstone to IFCJ's stunning increase in contributed funds (from  $50 million to nearly $100 million since 2005). While that would bring a smile to the faces of folks who are just itching to ditch direct mail and hitch their fundraising wagons to some quick, easy and seemingly cost-free star, it would be wrong and, perhaps, a matter of wishful thinking.

Rather, Johns' position as online media manager at IFCJ is indicative of the organization's greater overall commitment to meeting donors and other supporters "where they are," embracing new strategies and ideas, and — perhaps most importantly — rolling them into a seamlessly integrated plan that focuses on consistent messaging spread across numerous media: direct mail, e-mail, Web, DRTV, social media, etc.

That commitment, Johns and her colleagues at IFCJ are quick to point out, starts at the top.