2011 overview: Ranking the best fundraising blogs!

101fundraising is a crowdblog on fundraising. A free resource. A volunteer initiative. By fundraisers, for fundraisers. And we’ve done it. We’ve reached the end of our inaugural blog season!

This is the last post of the 2011 season, before we take a well deserved break. We will see you back in 2012 with renewed energy and high hopes for another streak of great fundraising blog posts. But before we leave you with your holiday spirit we want to share the 101fundraising highlights of 2011…

We launched on 8 February 2011. We had 37 blogging fundraisers. We’ve published 97 posts, 75 in English and 22 in Dutch. More than 26,000 unique fundraisers from 157 countries visited our crowdblog and have read 72,000 pages… The key word here is WE, because this is a crowdblog, and there is no successful crowdblog without our bloggers. Thank you bloggers!

A special thanks goes out to our Bronze Bloggers Sarah Clifton, Rebecca Davies, Peter Goudkamp, Lucy Gower and Alison McCants!

But there is more… Which social media platform spreads fundraising blogs the best? And off course: what are the most popular blog posts in 2011?

Approximately 9,400 visits were referred through one of the social media platforms where 101fundraising is represented through our Tweets, LinkedIn Group and Facebook Page.

As you can see we receive a disproportionately share of visits. Although we have much more Twitter followers, it is Facebook that gives 4 times more visits per contact than Twitter. The quality of the visits (pages/visit, time on site, etc.) was about the same for all three. We don’t know about you, but we think this is very interesting…

Let’s also use this opportunity to thank some of the other big referring blogs. Thank you The Agitator, SOFII, FundRaising Success, Osocio, Fundraising Detective and Fundraiser Online! In 2012 we’ll give you a special spot on our Blogroll!

At the end of the year everybody likes rankings. So what are the most popular blog posts in 2011? Below you can find the 45 best fundraising blog posts published on 101fundraising! How do we know? One simple statistic: pageviews. So, actually our readers have decided! We’ve categorized them slightly, with overall ranking in brackets. Enjoy them one more time!

Finally, we would like to thank you. Yes, you. Our readers. Because we do this for you. We hope you have picked up a few ideas that have made your fundraising better. Thank you for visiting 101fundraising! And we hope to see you back in 2012!

Reinier Spruit & Jeroen Beelen

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Improve your fundraising strategy? Read these posts!
(3)   FREE: 10 years of fundraising experience!
(4)   The donor pyramid is dead… Long live the donor pyramid!
(8)   Shifting towards marketing in nonprofit, an opportunity or a threat?
(12) Testing in fundraising is not for the faint-hearted
(14) The importance of annual plans in fundraising
(18) What can fundraisers learn from product marketing?
(29) Give that gift back!
(31) Is Asian charity different than Western charity?
(33) The real art of Karate Fundraising!
(35) Have I told you lately that I love you? (part 1)
(43) Contenders for the two ‘i’s in fundraising?
(44) Staff like donors? Recruit, develop, retain them…

We love our donors!
(1)   One-night stands ruin your fundraising
(6)   I Am The Comms Devil
(10) Top 9 donor loyalty tweets!
(20) The 90-degree shift 800 years ago
(25) The WOW moment (part 1)
(27) Verprutst u ook wel eens iets?
(41) The WOW moment (part 2)

For expert advice on a specific channel…
(5)   The seven deadly sins of fundraising appeals – and how to avoid them
(7)   Major gifts: Fundraising from the frontlines
(9)   Alphonse move over! Here’s the donation button!
(11) Dutch Cancer Society recruits 50,000 donors via telethon
(13) Corporate fundraising is less and less about funds
(17) Phone first!
(21) Love is in the air: corporate fundraising
(26) Sociale media – interessant voor fondsenwervers?
(28) Hosting my first webinar: lessons learned
(30) 8 lessons for online fundraising
(32) Face-to-Face: In or Out?
(38) Donating with a Tweet
(39) From corporate fundraiser to service-provider
(45) Legacy Fundraising 101… Fresh from the IFC!

Innovate your fundraising program and yourself
(16) Communication and Fundraising, the never ending story…
(23) Adventures in innovation – The challenge of time
(24) The next big thing in fundraising is closer than you think
(34) What would Grandma say?
(37) Adventures in innovation – The Prequel
(40) Campaigning and fundraising integration (video!)
(42) AFP Convention 2011: worth the visit?

Uncategorizable, but still great posts!
(2)   Who are the best fundraisers in The Netherlands?
(15) Crystal ball fundraising: Lifetime Value
(19) The (almost) magic formula of Lifetime Value estimation
(22) How much can I expect from my fundraising event?
(36) Fundraising is bad for your image

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