21 posts tagged “online fundraising”

Guidestar summarizes recent Giving USA online fundraising survey:

• while Internet giving is widely used, it still represents a small portion (under 5%) of overall fundraising
• most common way organizations raise money over the web is through an online donation page
• best results come from organizations that combine an online donation page with email appeals

Overall, social networking tools aren't contributing much - yet, but an organization that utilizes online 'communities' is likely to improve results.

Care2's FrogLoop blog interviews Phillip Artez, President of Artez on how to choose an eCRM.  Phillip says that successful nonprofit fundraisers "aren't afraid to share brand, content and promotion with their supporters" and reminds us that a large portion of funds will come from a small group of fundraisers so we should "treat them differently."  He mentions three areas where nonprofits should especially pay attention to: potential of social networking sites such as Facebook, donations originating from mobile devices and more organizations utilizing SalesForce (which has excellent connectivity to other systems and provides up to 10 free licenses to nonprofits).

Finally, the Nonprofit Times explains the importance of using multiple channels since many donors will visit the web before making a donation - even if it's offline and, surprisingly, even more so for constituents 65 and older.  Per Donordigital's Nick Allen, "more people are online, more people are doing research online, checking out charities they support or are thinking about supporting."   But NPAdvisor's expert Rick Christ warns that "nonprofit's Web site should try to support direct mail, but not replace it." and that direct mail is still how many first hear about a nonprofit.  Convio's Vinay Bhagat adds that while blogs and social networking are getting more attention, the core web site is still the main way constituents will evaluate a nonprofit.

Many contributors to the Nonprofit Times article, including Nten's Holly Ross stressed the importance of integrating the web site with email appeals.

Ted Hart provides a look at how online fundraising has grown from $0 in 1999 to $10.44 billion in 2007.  A graph and brief write-up is available at Slideshare.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently pointed out that while online giving still represents a small part of most nonprofits' fundraising, for some charities they have become a major source of revenue,  These five organizations have done especially well, raising at least 10% of their donations online: Heifer International (28%), Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (27%), Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund (21%), National Multiple Sclerosis Society (15%) and Make-A-Wish Foundation (10%).

Are you waiting for ephilanthropy tools to work perfectly before taking the plunge?  If so, read Vin Crosbie's take on Ted's People to People Fundraising site on why tools are 'good enough' to use now.

Probably the best book explaining the benefits of ephilanthropy I've seen to date is Ted Hart's People to People Fundraising.  Multiple experts from nonprofit organizations and vendors / consultants who service nonprofits offer detailed strategies on why nonprofits must begin to embrace integrated fundraising techniques.  Some memorable takeaways:

• Traditionally an organization's web site has been under the control of either IT or marketing.  Whereas their goals and objectives may be well intended, it is fair to say that their core focus is not development  oriented.  Development is often shut out from many of the Web conversations...Nonprofit organizations need to take a much more holistic focus of who controls and contributes to the overall online presence;  marketing, IT and development are just three of the contributors.
• Many organizations hae been quick to jump on the online bandwagon without creating an effective strategic plan.  For example, it's easy to ask people to visit your web site or leave an email address.  But without an effective plan for how you wil use email addresses and how your online activities will integrate with your offline activities, you may be creating more problems than solutions.
• To develop integrated campaigns, an organization may not need to restructure, but it will have to to rethink how the departments within the organization interact with each other.

Some of the book's contributors, many which I've heard speak at conferences and other industry events, include Blackbaud's Steven MacLaughlin, Convio's Sheeraz Haji, Network for Good's Katya Andresen as well as Ted Hart, who has long been an expert on this topic since founding the ePhilanthropy Foundation.  Many case studies from nonprofits that have successfully utilized integrated fundraising strategies are profiled, as well as many ways to take advantage of social networking sites.

If you still think that collaborative campaigns won't work in your organization, take a look at this book and find out why it's so important.

1. After sending out email blasts, are you reviewing reports to learn how many of them were actually opened and what links were clicked?  See the recently released eNonprofit Benchmarks Study
   
2. Have you tried 'microsites' - a separate page focused on a specific event or campaign with an strong call to action - see NothingButNets.
3. Have you created an organization presence on social networking sites such as FaceBook and MySpace?   See this blog posting on Best Practices for Non-Profits Using Web 2.0 and Idealware's Should Your Organization Use Social Networking Sites.
   
4. Have you looked at Barack Obama's web site, which has changed the landscape for online fundraising and engagement?
5. Do you get ideas from other nonprofit organizations that have done especially well in raising money online?  According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy (June 12 issue), these five organizations have raised more than 10% of their revenues online: Heifer International (28 percent), Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (27 percent), Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund (21 percent), National Multiple Sclerosis Society (15 percent), and Make-a-Wish Foundation (10 percent).
6. Do you participate in groups, both online and off, to share success (and failure) stories?  People in Nten are always willing to help.  Don't forget about for profit groups - I recently discovered the Internet Strategy Forum, which discusses many of the online strategy challenges that we also deal with in nonprofit.
7. Are you too busy to leave the office occasionally for a conference, such as this week's Fundraising Day and Social Networking Symposium in New York?  If so, you're missing the opportunity to learn from our colleagues.
   

The SPIN Project provides a online communications tutorial that offers many suggestions how nonprofits can develop online communications strategies.  Most organizations begin by focusing on their web site, email newsletter, and creating donation forms to provide online fundraising.  But many additional tools are suggested:

• blogs.- can you provide useful content while keeping it current?
• surveys - find out what your constituents are concerned about with a low cost tool such as Survey Monkey
  
• podcasts - audio or video - can require a "significant investment" of time to create and maintain
• message boards - can be moderated so that content submissions are reviewed before posting
• photography - use a service like Flickr to share images of organization events / activities
• commerce - but how will you handle order fulfillment and deciding what merchandise to sell?

How can you enhance your online fundraising strategies?  Fundraising Success provides many tips.

Whether or not you're a customer of Convio, you can access resources covering online fundraising, integrated marketing, email marketing and online advocacy.

Finally, for a one page summary of many prominent nonprofit web sites, try Alltop's Nonprofit page.  You can preview the content by just mousing over the title to decide if it's worth clicking through to read the full story.

mStoner provides an interesting look at How Donors Use the Internet.  Interestingly, success of a nonprofit's web site can't only be judged by the level of online donations, since many visitors will check out an organization online but continue to give offline.

Nonprofit Times reviews a study which discusses the value of email addresses: Get an Email Address, Generate Income, as well as other trends in online giving.

Association of Fundraising Professionals discusses a survey that suggests that Integrated Fundraising Activities (are a) Key to Success and that using a variety of approaches is best, although reminds us that developing relationships and major gifts are still critical components.. 

Finally, the blog A Small Change suggests that fundraising no longer needs to be restricted by geography in Fundraising Without Borders.
  

Nten and M&R Strategic Services have released a fascinating study which provides metrics for online messaging, fundraising and advocacy.  Some highlights and observations:

• open rates (compared to a study in 2006) declined from 21.3% to 17.6%;  click-through rates dropped from 4.9% to 3.6%.  I've found that many NPO staff don't take the time to analyze reports which clearly demonstrate that most constituents who get email are not bothering to open them, fewer are clicking on any included links.
• on the average, constituents are emailed 4 times / month.  Seems like once a week is still too often, making more of a case to use segmentation to target content to selected constituents.
• About 20% of an email list 'goes bad' each year due to unsubscribes and other changes in email addresses.  So a nonprofit that wants to grow its list needs to first make up for this loss in numbers first.
• Advocacy mailings consistently show higher response rates than other types of mailings.  How many of these constituents can be effectively converted to other types of engagement?
• $1000+ gifts were only 1% of the total number of donations, yet represented over 20% of online giving revenues.  Major gifts still deserves consistent attention.

Thanks to Holly Ross at Nten, and Sarah Dijulio at M&R  for collaborating on this report and the 21 nonprofit organizations that participated in this analysis; a webinar discussing the study is available.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals recently provided a stimulating appraisal on the state of Online Fundraising in 2008.  For nonprofits that still think this area isn't as important as the more traditional forms of fundraising, the article points out:

• While online monies are still under 4% of the $300 billion donated annually, the online portion has increased 50% over the last decade.
• More older constituents (those with the resources to give) are getting comfortable online
• Many like to combine offline and online giving - nonprofits will get better results by integrating both types of campaigns
• Social networking is worth looking at, but it's important to first focus on the basics: an effective website, getting potential and current consitutents to visit (and keep coming back to) your website and using email effectively.

To my surprise, slightly more than half of Americans were still on dial-up Internet access in 2007, so it's still important to build your web site so a high speed connection is not a must.

For those organizations that are still trying to figure out how to optimize online fundraising - start by realizing that it's no longer an option and it must be planned together with other development activities.  Give constituents many ways to help your organization (and tell them how their contributions make a difference in supporting your mission).

Tonight I attended the kick off event for a new ePhilanthropy book by Ted Hart, James Greenfield and Sheeraz Haji People to People Fundraising as well as an accompanying web site which describes itself as the next generation of ephilanthropy.  Through his previous role as founder of the ePhilanthropy Foundation, Ted has much to offer, especially to nonprofits that are still 'testing the waters.'  Tonight's event was sponsored by Craigslist Foundation, which clearly plans to become a major resource for nonprofits through an web site makeover planned in late spring 2008,

Some worthwhile tips from Ted:

• Donors often go to a nonprofit web site first to evaluate charity, even if they eventually decide to donate offline
• Social networking is worth doing, but not until a nonprofit has first done the basics: developed a content rich web site and a strategic email marketing plan (after collecting consituents' email addresses wherever possible)
• Asking is the key to receiving;  Thanking is the key to receiving again.
• Inspiring your strongest supporters to encourage others to get involved with your organization is the essence of 'person to person fundraising'
• If your organization is a 501(c)3 and you don't yet offer online donation, you can easily do so through services such as JustGive or NYCharities, both which offer rock bottom credit card processing fees (3%)

Also came across this recent blog posting which highlights best practices for nonprofits using web 2.0 strategies.

Does online fundraising offer a huge opportunity for most nonprofits?  Yes.  Does this mean that the more traditional direct mail methods should no longer be used?  No!  Many other bloggers recently discussed this issue:

Chronicle of Philanthropy  - Direct-Mail Appeals Suffer, New Survey Finds

Sea Change Strategies - Mark Rovner - A Little Fundraising Rant

Seth Godin - I Gave at the Office, as well as his latest book, Meatball Sundae

A useful summary of the issue is provided in The Agitator's Baby and the Bathwater.

I agree with Seth's point that online fundraising clearly is not meant to replace direct mail fundraising.  Some people may always respond best to direct mail, while others enjoy doing everything online.  The real challenge, as Seth points out, is to convert the donor to an active supporter of an organization's cause, or who encourages others to get involved.  Whether a donor gives offline or online, getting someone to get and stay engaged has the biggest benefit for our organizations.