What Donors Want This End of Year Season

What Donors Want This End-of-Year Holiday Season
Shirley Sexton
Director, Interactive
Marketing and Fundraising

Training by
Shirley Sexton
See3 Communications
Web Design & Development
Video Production
Interactive Marketing
www.see3.net
2
Shirley Sexton See3 Communications

Agenda
Online Fundraising Growth
End-of-Year Planning Checklist
Website Usability
Writing for the Web
Using Images and Video
Email Marketing
Driving Traffic
Measuring Progress
Resources
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Online Fundraising Growth
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Online giving bucks overall trend
Online fundraising grew in 2008 (compared to 2007) in the range of 14-26% (dependent upon source *)
*The Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study
*2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study
December accounted for 48% of the total dollars raised online in 2008.
*2008 Online Giving Trends, Blackbaud

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Why?
Overall giving fell with the economy, specificallyConsumer Confidence Index at lowest in Feb. ‘09 since '67 inception.
Online giving on the rise due to:
Multi-generational eCommerce adoption
Mega-trend to “go green”
Advent of social networking

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Creating Your End-of-Year Strategy
10/2109
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End-of-Year Fundraising Checklist
Inventory your online assets and past trends
Find your great story of the year
Get commitment from internal stakeholders to make fundraisers priority in Dec
Evaluate your website for donation usability
Create online communications plan
Invest in resources
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Website Usability for Donors

Stop focusing on home page
Treat every page like your front door.
Only 25% of Web visitors enter sites via the home page.--Nielsen Norman Group, 2008
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What Donors Want Online
Donors want to quickly and easily find:
Mission (simply explained)
Goals
Objectives
Examples of work and first person stories, especially video
How donations are used, specifics
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What Donors Look For
Text field to search
Links (make them obvious)
Next steps/Instructions
Answers
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What Kills Donations
Users can’t figure out how or where to donate!
Cluttered pages
Mistrust of 3rd-party payment pages
Nielsen Norman Group Report: Donation Usability: Design Guidelines for Improving the Donation Process and the Usability of Essential Information on Charity and Non-Profit Websites
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Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications

Writing for the Web
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Writing for the Web
Why is the web different?
Most web pages are viewed as the result of a search, the reader is after something
The reader scans quickly is his search
Headlines, subheads, and links are critical to indicate they are on the right path!
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Writing for the Web
What makes a good web article?
Search friendly title
Short(er) than print
Relevancy
Quotes, testimonials
Lists
Links! Links! Links!
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Writing for the Web
What makes great NPO web content?
Mission-related AND connected to national or world events
Primary research
Easily searchable resources
Stories of/by people helped by org
Make the connection to support/giving
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Using Images
4/26/09
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Bernat Casero bernatcasero.com

Using Images and Videos
Less is more (per page)!
Use images in your “page wrapper” to bring your mission to life and reflect the community you serve.
Use one photo, video, graph, or pull quote per page of content to summarize the benefit, draw the user in.
Too many graphics create user confusion and long page download time.
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Using Images and Videos
Where to get images and videos
Take your own (and ask volunteers!)
Purchase stock such as istockphoto.com
Flickr.com Creative Commons
What is Creative Commons license
Be sure to tag for search engines and screen readers!
10/21/09
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Email Marketing
4/26/09
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Email Marketing: Building Your List
Communicate with permission to retain trust and respect privacy
Request email registration on every page
Collect email addresses (with permission) at events, offices
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Email Marketing: EOY Schedule
Create calendar of email communications
Incorporate end of year ask in monthly email newsletter
Include stewardship email (report to donors on how funds have been managed)
Send 3-6 campaign themed messages in December, last days of the month generally yield best results!
4/26/09
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Email Marketing: Deliverability
How to get your email through
Authenticate your email domain*
Use a third-party email marketing vendor with baked-in CAN-SPAM compliance**
*http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/EmailAuthentication
**http://www.ftc.gov/spam
10/21/09
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Email Marketing: Design
Key elements for response
Subject line
From field
Call to action (link)
Signature (a name)
Light on graphics and formatting
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Driving Traffic to Donations
Don’t be shy! Help people give!
Utilize search engine optimization, keyword ads, offline (print, radio) calls to give online
Utilize social networks (Facebook, Twitter)
Ask your champions to share your message!
Tear down barriers for donors to donate!
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Measuring Progress
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Measuring Progress
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Measure your key metrics before undergoing major changes.
2. Determine realistic intervals to measure (monthly, quarterly, annually)
3. Compare against industry benchmarks:
eNonprofits Benchmark Study www.e-benchmarksstudy.com/

Measuring Progress: Web giving
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Online giving totals
Average gift size
# of gifts
“Offline giving” impacts (major and planned gifts)
The Wired Wealthy: Using the Internet to Connect with Your Middle and Major Donors http://nonprofit.about.com/od/onlinefundraising/a/wealthywired.htm

Measuring Progress: Email
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Metric (2008 industry benchmark)
open rate (14%)
click through rate (.6%)
response rate (.12%)
registration rate (3%)
list growth (17%)
list churn (19%)
See eNonprofits Benchmark Study www.e-benchmarksstudy.com/

Web Resources
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WebMarketing Resources
Jakob Nielsen’s Web usability research: www.useit.com
Network for Good: A Fundraising Guide for the Overworked Nonprofit: www.fundraising123.org
Search engine marketing tips: www.searchenginewatch.com
4/26/09
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Technology Resources
Idealware: Candid reviews and information about nonprofit software: www.idealware.org
TechSoup: The technology place for nonprofits www.techsoup.com
NTEN: Your Nonprofit technology community: www.nten.org
4/26/09
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Contact Me
Email: shirley@see3.net
See3 blog: http://blog.see3.net
LinkedIn: http://shirleysexton.com
Facebook: http://profile.to/shirleysexton
Twitter: http://twitter.com/webbarbie
Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/webbarbie
4/26/09
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What Donors Want This End of Year Season

by See3 Communications on Oct 21, 2009

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What Donors Want This End of Year Season — Presentation Transcript