5 Ways Every Non-profit Should Use the Internet

5 Ways Every Non-profit Should Use the Internet Mike Dean Tipping Point Strategies Steven Clift E-democracy.Org Chris Dunkin Convio

Agenda for Today • The Power of the Internet • 5 Ways you should use the Internet • Case Studies • Engagement • Advocacy • Fundraising • Tie it Together • Q&A

Growing Power of the Internet

The Future is Now • Americans spend more time on the Internet than any other activity Number of hours Americans spend on these media activities: 3.6 – Internet, 2.5 - TV, 1.3 – Radio, 1.3 - Telephone OMD, a New York based media services company, November 2006 • An increasing number of people now believe that the web can give them more political power; USC Annenberg School, December 2005

Evolution of the Internet • From one-way communication to a conversation • The 3 C’s • Conversation • Collaborations • Community

How Technology Makes it Easy • Improves the speed and efficiency that you can get information out • Your messages can spread to a wider audience • Save time and money • Advocates expect it • Can evaluate and target impact

5 Ways Your Non-profit Should Use the Internet 1. E-mail 2. Video 3. Micro-Organizing 4. Search 5. Social Networks

Key Principles of Success 1. Be Interactive and Empowering 2. Create Engagement Pathways 3. Develop and Nurture Evangelists 4. Integrate! Integrate! Integrate! 5. Create Community 6. Provide a Service

Things to Think About • What sort of an impression are you making on the Internet? • How well are you leveraging your web site to engage visitors vs simply giving information about you? • How can you create and empower your evangelists?

Online Engagement– Steven Clift E-Democracy.Org

Online Engagement Lessons from E-Democracy.Org and similar initiatives e-democracy.org

Function Over Form e-democracy.org

Issues Forums e-democracy.org

City Hall Visualizing Neighbor #1 Local Media Cit oup neighborhood Coverage yC Arts Gr r ou e forums ap nci P Re d lor o nte Ho r N New r #2 R bo esid Neigh ent NHood Forum N e GroupServer Personal Local Biz i Subscribe once e-mails posts Networks g Commitment web view Libra h secured rian 00 b Post via e-mail/web #2 Ne or Ci o hb ty igh ig St Forum Manager bo Ne af r “Secondary f rho Networks” ice od s e-mail forwards NHood Org Pol Lea e-democracy.org der

Issues Forums e-democracy.org

Project Blog e-democracy.org

Participant Survey e-democracy.org

Wiki e-democracy.org

E-Debates e-democracy.org

More Examples • Choose your tools and techniques based on your goals. • Don’t allow technology to determine your course. Only works if you have a clear course. e-democracy.org

Online Surveys - Queensland e-democracy.org

Online Communities of Practice e-democracy.org

Online Events and Conferences e-democracy.org

More Examples • Presentations: – http://publicus.net/speaker.html • Articles, Best Practices: – http://publicus.net/articles.html e-democracy.org

Building a Successful Advocacy Program – Mike Dean Tipping Point Strategies

Effective Advocacy Revolves Around the Web • It is where people go to get information • Easy to participate • More engaging • Improves loyalty • Proven that it works

Gopher Football Stadium – Challenge • Gopher Stadium last on priority list at the Legislature • Strong opposition to public funding of stadiums • Concern that the request would pull money from academic requests • Frustration from Memorial Stadium decision

Gopher Football Stadium – Strategy • Build grassroots organization to educate legislators about U’s proposal – Use passion of alumni and boosters to build support. – Created contests to encourage people to spread the message – free things. • Spoke to them in their language • Empowered them to become political

Gopher Football Stadium Step 1 • Recruitment Campaign • Develop a theme • Make it fun • Give away free things

Gopher Football Stadium Step 2 • Contact Legislators • Create Urgency • Make it easy • Give them the tools

Gopher Football Stadium • Victory • After 2 ½ years • We sent out over 40 e-mails to supporters

Gopher Football Stadium – Results • Quickly built a list of 15,000 advocates in six months • Sent thousands of letters to legislators • Moved from last to first in legislators and the publics mind • Passed the stadium legislation • Excited big and small donors

Gopher Football Stadium – Results • quot;I guess grass-roots advocacy really works. This is something so close to our hearts, bringing Gopher football back to campus.quot; - Margaret Sughrue Carlson, Chief Executive Officer University of Minnesota Alumni Association Star Tribune Newspaper

The Building Blocks for Successful Use of Technology 1. Develop a plan 2. Collect email addresses 3. Establish regular interactions 4. Personalize and customize messages 5. Create a theme 6. Make people act, participate 7. Integrate online and offline activities 8. Test and follow what works

Email Marketing Schedule JAN. FEB. MAR. APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. 2 2 2 0 1 1 2 3 3 1 0 0 Appeals 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 e-News Renewal 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Upgrade

Collect Email Addresses

Pyramid of Engagement Supporter Organization eNewsletters Receiving eNews Action Alerts Visiting Advocacy website Interactive/Informative Learning about issues Advocacy website Petitions Tier 4 Tier 3 Tier 2 Tier 1

Pyramid of Engagement Organization Supporter Targeted and Visiting advocacy website personalized emails with purpose based on Writing letter to legislator participation, Letting their voice be legislative district, heard etc. Additional Tier 4 information about possible events for advocates to Tier 3 participate in Tier 2 Tier 1

Pyramid of Engagement Organization Supporter Continued targeted Continued Advocacy on and personalized University’s behalf emails based on Event participation participation, Calling a legislator legislative district, Very engaged advocate at etc. this point Asking advocates to Tier 4 join you for a legislative event Asking them to place Tier 3 a call on the organizations’s behalf Tier 2 Tier 1

Pyramid of Engagement Organization Supporter Continued targeted Continued Advocacy on and personalized organization’s behalf emails based on Further Event participation, participation legislative district, etc. Calling a legislator Hosting events and Visiting with a legislator going on trips to the Advocate feels that they Tier 4 Capitol are making a difference in Sending advocates on the organization’s efforts missions; e.g., meet Tier 3 with Senator Anderson and discuss this issue Tier 2 Tier 1

Establish Regular, Personal Interactions 8,000 140,000 120,000 6,000 100,000 New Members by Day Total New Members 80,000 4,000 60,000 40,000 2,000 20,000 0 0 6/1/2003 6/15/2003 6/29/2003 7/13/2003 7/27/2003 8/10/2003 8/24/2003 9/7/2003 9/21/2003 New Members by Day Email message sent Total New Members

Personalize and Customize • Send your message from an individual, not from an organization • Address the person by name • Include personal data and legislator contact information in the body of the email • Sign the message with your name and organization

Create a Theme UMN’s Successful “Bring Gopher Football Back to Campus” Victory!! Campaign Sample emails from their 3 year campaign

Integrate Online and Offline

Fundraising– Chris Dunkin Convio

The New Internet Requirement • • Growing impact of Social Media – Intensifying Nonprofit internet strategy & sites competition – > 60M users on Facebook* – 87K US NPOs, > $1M – 44% of users return daily revenue – 34% are professionals – Increasing online spending 4X faster than traditional Your website Constituents Nonprofits are recognizing that their website is only part of their mission’s online strategy *Source: Forrester Research & Facebook

The Impact • Online Results: – > 40% increase in # of online gifts – > 10% increase in average gift amount • Lifetime Value Results: – Nearly a 3X increase $877 Lifetime Donor Value $1,000 $800 $694 $600 $314 $400 $200 $0 Offline Donations Offline Donations Offline and Online Only No Convio Only W/ eNews Donations Offline revenue Online revenue Source: Strategic One Study / Benchmark / Convio CSS customers

Online Advocacy Can Drive Online Fundraising Success Orgs with Online No Online Advocacy Program Advocacy Program Average Annual Online Fundraising Total $343,000 $113,000 • On average, orgs with an online advocacy program and an online fundraising program raise 303% more money online than orgs that are only doing online fundraising • Results from an online survey of the broader nonprofit community (to which 85 organizations responded)

Activists are also Donors • 42.4% of activists were also donors Activists Donors • And donors make more engaged activists: – The average lifetime response count for the donors is 2.86 advocacy actions. – The average lifetime response count for the non-donors is 1.87 advocacy actions.

The Approach • Understand Internet’s strategic value – Fundamentally advance organization’s mission • Follow the ARC – Acquisition Outreach – Relationship Pathways – Constituent Empowerment

Acquisition: Email Capture Techniques • The overlooked step after generating website traffic… • Homepage optimization • Capture techniques – Petitions – Pledges – eCards – Surveys – News letters – Downloads Organizations embrasing ECRM see > 50% increase in email file size, with smaller organizations growing even faster!

Acquisition: Leverage Your Current Base • Viral campaigns vs. passive tell-a-friend link 1) Promote campaign in 2) Call to action - forward 3) Landing page: call to action stand alone email to to a friend pledge / petition / gift / current constituents survey / eCard / etc “Viral marketing strategies have given us the opportunity to expand our donor base. We’re seeing that in terms of growth in contributions and the amount of involvement in JNF.”

Relationship Pathways: On-Boarding No No Email Email $ $ #1 #3 Yes Yes Yes Reg+1 Day Reg+14 Days Reg+28 Days Reg+56 Days Removed from conversion flow, suppressed from remaining prospect conversion emails • Constituents automatically identified, moved through • Focused relationship effort increases conversion – Basis for future relationship campaigns • Supports many pathways to many ends or actions

Relationship Pathways: Content Relevance “More than 10% of our page views are generated by related links on the site” – Join Together • Site “stickiness” allows visitors to remain engaged Links are dynamic based on what the visitor selects • Connecting actions to content increases Each item appears based on conversions its relationship to other content

Constituent Empowerment ■ Empower constituents to market for your cause Friends and Family NPO Personal pages Social networks Tributes Constituent Personal events enablement Widgets Social Network plug-ins Social Media campaigns • Marketers are realizing great success by: – Empowering constituents with online tools on your site – Attracting empowerment-minded influencers off your site

Constituent Empowerment: On Your Site • Create an online toolkit – Constituents create personal Help Me go to Israel… Web pages • Tell a story • Share images • Give online • Host an event • All money raised tracked to individual fundraisers – Individual donors becomes online constituents “We gave them tools where they can • Increase house file ask on our behalf in an easy, non- threatening way, making it as personal • Empowerment includes Tributes, of an experience as possible” JNF Personal Pages, Personal Events

Constituent Empowerment: Off your Site • Maximize the growing opportunity through an open approach and deep experience Enable Constituent’s social sites via real-time content and portable progress widgets Encourage Constituent creativity, driving traffic to you Inform Keep constituents current with RSS “…enable a group's most passionate supporters to become even more connected with an organization and conduct proactive outreach.“ Defenders of Wildlife

Widgets • Enable constituents to display widgets promoting the event • Help supporters solicit more donations and personal fundraising goals/progress • Generate grass roots advocacy support using widgets to promote advocacy campaigns

Wrapping It Up • Integrate Engagement, Advocacy, and Fundraising • A Preview of what’s next

Integration is Key Integrate Engagement, Advocacy, and Fundraising – Supporters only see one organization – Have a consistent brand – Messages should be coordinated – Develop a complete relationship

The Future of Online Engagement • Mobile • Widgets

More Information Visit – www.TippingPointStrategies.org Mike@TippingPointStrategies.org

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