Engaging Donors In An Online Age Sage Summit 2011

Improving Donor Engagement Online Bridget L. Brandt

About me https://about.me/bridgetlbrandt

Agenda
Do you have engaged donors?
What works to engage donors
How
Examples
Tips/Ideas to Engage
A Glimpse at the Success of Others
Q&A

What are “Engaged Donors”
Engaged Donors are those who are taking ACTIONS
Donate
Attend events
Volunteer
Recruit new donors
Engaged Donors are those who are a part of your “Community”
Interacting and communicating WITH your organization
Interacting and communicating with others ABOUT your organization (online and offline)
Building a relationship

Why do you want “Engaged Donors”?
More cost-effective to renew a donor than find a new donors

Engaged donors extend your organization’s reach into the world
Engaged donors do more:
More frequent donations, larger donations
Take more actions
Tell more people about your organization
Peer to Peer fundraising

How do you know if your donors are “Engaged Online”?
Are they taking actions?
Back to the definition of an engaged donor
Are they following/fanning you?
Increased mentions
Increased fans / followers
Are you seeing increased traffic to your website?
From social media, emails, etc.
Are you receiving donations online?

If you answered NO to any of these questions, you will be glad you came today!

Why ONLINE?
That’s where your donors are
That’s where the money is
$303 Billion $15 Billion Online $10 billion in 2007

What works

Listen / Connect
Engagement = Conversation

Don’t just listen on your site, go where the conversations are already taking place
Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Largest growth on Facebook is 35+ year olds, with the 55+ crowd growing at 922%

Join the conversations in an authentic way

Accept and respond to criticism

Identify Influencers and engage them separately
Help influencers help you--spread the word
Listen/ Learn
Make It Easy
Give Them What They Want

Learn- Online Giving
Learn from others successes and failures:

Online giving spikes during the month of large-scale disasters.
During disasters, donors are more likely to consider new giving options, while in December, they’re more likely to give based on relationships with the charities.
A third of all online giving occurs in December, and 22% of annual giving happens in the last two days of the year.
Online giving (by dollars) on December 31 is concentrated between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. in each time zone.
Online giving happens largely between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays, with a noticeable drop in giving during the lunch hour.

*Network for Good-Online Giving Study Dec 2010 http://www.fundraising123.org/files/Community/Online_Giving_Study_2010.pdf
Listen/ Learn
Make It Easy

Learn- Video
• Most active days are weekdays, peaking on Wednesdays.
• Weekends including Friday had the highest engagement per view based on average minutes watched
Online video streams from newspaper websites surged in Q2. This can be attributed to the sustained coverage of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tips:
Post on You Tube and your site
Keep it short
End with a call to action
Brightcove 2010 Quarterly Survey http://files.brightcove.com/brightcove-whitepaper-online-video-and-media-industry-q2-2010.pdf
Listen/ Learn
Make It Easy

179 Million Watch Video Online Gaining its share of some of this increased internet audience, the online video market continued to gain momentum in 2010, with an average of 179 million Americans watching video each month, according to a new white paper from comScore. Engagement levels also rose during the year, with viewers watching online videos more frequently. Americans also spent about 12% more hours viewing online video in 2010 (14.2) compared the prior year (12.7) due to increased content consumption and more video ad streams. The average American streamed a record 201 videos in December 2010, up 8% from 187 a year earlier. American watch 14 hours of online video Top 10 Video Multimedia Sites by U.S. Market Share of Visits (%), March 2011 Source: Experian Hitwise
Listen/ Learn
Make It Easy

Learn- Website
• Use video, graphics, and images
• Create interaction on your site
Communicate the value of returning
Get donors involved in decision making
Don’t have a boring donation page
Derrick Feldmann, Blog from CEO of Achieve, AFP 2011 Building Websites to Enhance Donor Engagement
Listen/ Learn
Make It Easy

Make It Easy
Make it easy to stay in touch
Capture emails, blog updates, RSS feeds
Make it easy to spread the word
Tell-A-Friend / Email this Page
Social Media Icons
Make it easy to interact
Blog commenting
Online forums
Facebook and Twitter widgets on website
Listen/ Learn
Make It Easy

Give Them the Content They Want
Donors want to hear:
Organizational Impact (80%)
Success Stories (74%)
More details about the organization (71%)
Info on financial accountability (43%)

How they can pass it on:
Tell-A-Friend / Forward This Page

Info. specific to them
Segment and tailor your content
Listen/ Learn
Make It Easy
Community Philanthropy 2.0 survey, donors (30-49)

www.charitywater.org
Does it deliver?
Impact
Success
Details on org
Accountability

Tips to Engage Donors Online

ASK!
Them to do small favors
Tell a friend
Forward email
Sign a petition
Comment on blog
Volunteer/Attend an event
Take a survey/Share feedback
Every simple action will deepen the engagement and bond
Them what they want / need / care about
Easy way to engage
The results will allow you to tailor content to what they care about

Events
Online events
Webinars
Online chats w/ the ED
Tweets during events
Photos preparing, before, and after an event

Get to know them on a personal level
Friend similar organizations
Share photos, comment on photos (if welcomed)

Nurturing New Donors
Welcome Email(s)
1st 30 days is key (test)
Higher open rates, click-throughs, and actions (test)

Special invitations to events / opportunities
“ Since you are a new donor…..”

Give updates on how their donations are helping
Give specific examples / Use emotion

Ask them to tell others
Tell-A-Friend, social media, etc.

Nurturing Established Donors
Identify your most passionate donors and give them additional support
Need to identify them (CRM, Sage Fundraising Online, etc.)
Help them to spread the word

Segment and speak directly to them
Online tools make this much easier
Separate emails for your top supporters

Special Recognition
Events for repeat donors only (VIP’s)
Recognize at live events and in print
Name tags / Badges in community / Photos on facebook/flicker

Tools to Engage Donors
Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)
Google alerts
Hootsuite
Social media icons
Sage Fundraising Online-
Examples –
Upstate NY Transplant Services– www.unyts.org
Jazz Foundation of American-- http://www.jazzfoundation.org/
What could you do? www.sagefundraisingonline.org

Best Practices—Give, Not Donate

Best Practices—Progress Bar, Interesting Donation Page

Best Practices—Targeted Video, Interesting Donation Page Video

Support Us is on every page Donation page needs to be more interesting and scanable.

Donation page needs to be more interesting and scanable. Excellent add in

Video, Facebook, images…all great! Add a chance for people to discuss how excited about camp they are, or past stories…Blog

Conclusion
"Throw away the rulebook. Experiment, learn, try, fall, get up, discover, have fun, be puzzled, find your way out again, thrive, and be humbled by the whole, miraculous vantage point.“
Kraft Foods marketing executive, Dana Anderson

Questions:
Q- Is online giving more popular with younger demographics?
A- Yes, today,
but tomorrow no.
1/3 of all donors have
given online
Fundraising Success, October 2010 Getting to the Heart of the Donor

Questions:
Q- Is online giving more popular with younger demographics?
A- No, today, but tomorrow no.
Cygnus Applied Research, in Chicago, found that more than half of donors who are 65 or older now prefer to make donations online, and this is the first time a study has shown that.
Fundraising Success, October 2010 Getting to the Heart of the Donor

Questions:
Q- What is the best way to capture individuals and drive them to our site?
A- Besides the things we have already discussed, integrate.

Questions:
Q- How many times should we ask to increase loyalty?
A- “Over-solicitation” was the second most-reported reason why donors stop giving (32%) in a study done May 2011.
8 times per year is my recommendation, but watch opt outs and response rates.
http://www.cygresearch.com/files/free/US-2011-Cygnus-Donor-Survey_Report-Executive_Summary.pdf

Question and Answer Contact Me: Bridget <dot> Brandt <at>sage <dot>com Contact Sage: www.sagenonprofit.com 800-811-0961 Follow us on Twitter: SageNonprofit Find us on Facebook.com/SageNonprofitSolutions

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Engaging Donors In An Online Age Sage Summit 2011

by Sage Nonprofit Solutions on Jul 14, 2011

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Engaging Donors In An Online Age Sage Summit 2011 — Presentation Transcript