Doggy Snaps: The future of fundraising.

8th January 2008

Yahoo’s “Finds of the Year” have been published - the winners are here.

The winners include Doggy Snaps, a social networking site for dogs run by the Dogs Trust. The great thing about it this is that it won in the “Social” category. (The “Charity” category was won by Freerice.com).

The great thing here is that Doggysnaps isn’t seen as a ‘charity website’. It’s a genuinely good social network that provides a useful service for dog lovers - the obvious constituency for future Dogs Trust supporters.

In this interview with one of the people behind DoggySnaps, they share some of the thinking behind the site. This quote is really telling:

What has the charity learned about engaging with dog lovers in this entertaining way, compared to more traditional forms of supporter communications?

The most important thing - I think - is that the charity gets better results when it engages supporters on their terms, instead of trying to â€˜interruptâ€™ them in order to ask for donations.

DoggySnaps is now a part of their lives, not an interruption. I think weâ€™ve only just started to explore ways to translate this into donations.

Have you identified how the user-generated photo library might generate donations to support the work of the Dogâ€™s Trust?

The Dogs Trust developed the website for the primary purpose of raising money and awareness of the charity, its dogs and the message. It can monetise the user-generated content by creating a rights-managed photo-libraryâ€¦ selling images to advertisers, brands and publishers. If you think about it, dogs are one of the most popular themes in advertising and marketing.

There are lots of other ways, too - e.g. premium â€˜treatsâ€™ and on-demand printing may turn out to be the most effective, but there are others: an online dog showâ€¦ pulling in some of the Dogs Trust websiteâ€¦ Who knows? Thereâ€™s so much to try. Weâ€™re also experimenting with advertising.

They’ve thought about their supporters and worked backwards, building a service based on insight. Often, charities think about the mechanism (like Â£2 per month) and look for an audience that it will work for. That sort of thinking would never have come up with Doggy Snaps. But now they have an asset, a community and useful service. They’ve recognised that there are lots of different ways of turning that into a substantial income stream for the charity. Great stuff.