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Women in development
The document summarizes key trends in online fundraising for nonprofits. It discusses how nonprofits can [1] leverage technology strategically by improving their websites and donation pages, [2] embrace social giving through platforms like Crowdrise and Cause, and [3] personalize the donor experience. Resources and tips are provided on growing email lists, using social media, and making the most of mobile opportunities. Questions are also posed to help nonprofits assess how they can better achieve their digital fundraising goals.
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Women in development
- 1. The Center forAnti-Violence Education The Art and Science of Online Fundraising Jocelyn Harmon Vice President of Sales, Marketing & Customer Success Network for Good
- 2. Shameless self-promotion • Networkfor Good helps over 5,000 nonprofits raise more friends and funds online through simple, affordable and effective online fundraising tools and training. Since our founding by AOL, Yahoo! and Cisco in 2001, we have processednearly $700million in donations for over 80,000 nonprofits! • Visit http://www1.networkforgood.org/for-nonprofits to learn about our fundraising solutions, including DonateNow, EmailNow and EventsNow and Fundraising Fundamentals Premium Training. • Leave your business card with me (and take mine!) at the end of this training if you’d like us to follow up with you!
- 3. Where are wenow?
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- 6. 1,280,739 # of 501c(3)sin U.S.
- 7. Welcome to fundraising2012 style!
- 8. What’s a nonprofitto do?
- 9. 3 Trends toWatch
- 10. 1. Embrace technologyand leverage it for giving – STRATEGICALLY!
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- 13. Major donors giveonline
- 14. But it’s stillonly a slice of the pie % of Total Giving
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- 16. Your website isyour home base
- 20. Yikes! • 98% percentof visitors to an organization’s donate page LEAVE before making a donation. • Remember: Offline donors are researching your organization online too!
- 21. 8 Must-haves onyour donation page 1 One-page form. 2 An “ask string.” 3 No unnecessary fields. Hint: Don’t ask for my first- born! 4 No non-giving options. Your donation form is about DONATING! 5 Intuitive layout. 6 Don’t make me create an account to donate. 7 “Secure transaction” graphic and a link to your privacy policy. 8 Contact information!
- 22. Other important elements • Branded donation page. • Recurring gift options • Impact donation labels • On behalf of/in honor of • Third-party endorsements like Charity Navigator and donor testimonials
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- 27. On behalf of/inhonor of
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- 29. Build a greatemail list
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- 31. 6 Ways togrow your email list 1 Collect email addresses on your website. 2 Leverage offline communications and events. 3 Engage in online advocacy. 4 Get found in Search. 5 “Flip the Funnel.” 6 Engage in list swaps or chaperoned emails.
- 32. 1. Collect emailaddresses on your website
- 33. 2. Leverage offline communications E-mail ask on a direct mail reply or insert Separate mailing – postcard or PURL mailings
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- 35. 3. Engage inonline advocacy
- 36. Engage in onlineadvocacy
- 37. 4. Get foundin Search Paid Ads Organic Results
- 38. 5. Do alist swap or chaperoned email
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- 43. 5,000,000,000 The number ofcell phone subscriptions in 2010
- 44. Mastering Mobile –3 Options • Text to Give • Smart phone apps • Mobile Websites
- 45. Questions for you? •What are your online/digital fundraising goals? • How can you use technology to raise more money, acquire new donors and retain the ones you have? • What is your staff capacity for managing new media? • Do you have the basics in place, i.e. is your website and email list up to snuff?
- 46. 2. Embrace socialgiving.
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- 50. Questions for you? •How are you building a network of volunteer fundraisers for your organization? • How are you enabling your best fundraisers to raise funds for you? • How are you staying connected to these new evangelists who are connected to each other but might not be connected to you?
- 51. 3. Personalize, personalizepersonalize.
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- 55. Questions for you? •How can you personalize the giving experience for your donors by giving them options for how they express their generosity? • How can you draw them closer to you by making them feel like the special, valuable and unique individuals they are?
- 56. Resources for you •Online Giving Study – Network for Good • 2010 Online Giving Report – Blackbaud • 2011 donorCentrics Internet & Multichannel Giving Benchmarking Report - Blackbaud • 2011 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study – NTEN and M+R Strategic Services • www.marketingfornonprofits.org - by Me! • www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com - Katya Andresen • Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability – Steve Krug • Flipping the Funnel – Seth Godin
- 57. Connect with me! Jocelyn.harmon@networkforgood.org @jocelynharmon www.marketingfornonprofits.org
Editor's Notes
- #4 $290 Billion dollars in giving in 2010It’s helpful to start with a baseline so that we can get a context and understand where we are going.According to Giving USA –”Giving took a worse hit during the Great Recession than in previous recessions, falling a combined 13 percent in 2008 and 2009 after adjusting for inflation. Even with a recovery of 2 percent, that’s still an 11 percent drop from the high point achieved just three years earlier.As the nonprofit sector enters the era of the “new normal,” clear, mission-based messaging and strong stewardship will be vital. Staying in touch with your donors, past and present, and letting them know how their support impacts the work they are passionate about will keep them engaged...and receptive to increasing their support as they are able. More than five decades of Giving USA data show that donors want to make a difference. You just have to show them how they can.”
- #5 This will not be news to you! Almost 75% of charitable giving is done by individuals not corporations or foundations.
- #6 So how much money was given online last year? Don’t look at the slide!
- #7 Here is the rub, the nonprofit marketplace is BIG. According to Giving USA there were 1,280,739 in 2011.
- #8 Welcome to the fundraising smack-down. With giving down and 1M+ nonprofits, we’re all competing for funds, for the attention of donors. It’s not a great way to live.
- #9 They only way we can succeed is by understanding and embracing the changes before us. AND, instead of fighting over the scraps, we need to ENLARGE the pie of potential donors AND help to UNLEASH GENEROSITY in ourselves and others.We also need to make the structural and cultural changes necessary to embrace our “new normal.”
- #10 So today, I want to dig in a little to 3 key trends that are changing the face of fundraising. I also want to leave you with some key questions that you can take back to your organization and you grapple with the “New Normal.”Embrace technology and leverage it for giving – STRATEGICALLY!Embrace social giving.Personalizegiving options for your donors and make them feel like the unique, special and amazing people that they are!
- #11 Trend #1 that is changing the face of fundraising is TECHNOLOGY.Raise your hand if you have a cell phone in your pocket or purse?Raise your hand is you’ve made a donation online?Raise your hand if you’ve made a donation via text?Raise your hand if you’ve dated online? Gotcha!The best fundraisers going forward will leverage technology to extend their work and bolster their success.But they will do it STRATEGICALLY instead of getting caught in “shiny object syndrome.”
- #12 Again, we think that about 10% of giving has gone online.
- #13 20 billion dollars and online giving grows incrementally every year.Source: 2010 Online Giving Report, Blackbaudhttp://www.blackbaud.com/onlinefundraising
- #14 It’s also important to note that according to new reports and this research from Blackbaud, 88% of nonprofits had at least one online gift of $1,000 or more.So if you’re thinking that major gifts still only happen face to face, it’s just not true.Source: 2010 Online Giving Report, Blackbaudhttp://www.blackbaud.com/onlinefundraising
- #15 Still, online giving has NOT trended as fast as online banking and online shopping,And this is why you need to be VERY STRATEGIC in your approach to raising money online!Source: 2010 Online Giving Report, Blackbaudhttp://www.blackbaud.com/onlinefundraising
- #16 Which is why you NEED to be strategic in how you approach online/digital giving.Also, there is an order you should follow if you want to raise money online.
- #17 Website first!Your website should still be the hub of all your online communication activities. Make it EAY for people to understand in 1 minute or less what you do.Next make it easy for people to donate.Also, make it easy for people to repurpose your content, i.e. if they seem something that they like on your site, make it easy for them to SHARE it with others.Finally, learn to write for the web! People don’t READ websites like they read text. When in doubt, remember that LESS is MORE!
- #21 98% percent of visitors to an organization’s donate page LEAVE before making a donation. Remember: Offline donors are researching your organization online too!
- #30 Next, if your want to raise money online, you have to have someone to solicit.So build an email list.Also, buy a commercial email services platform. Do not use Outlook for blast emails.And, make it easy for people to subscribe. Put an email sign up on every page of your website.
- #35 This is true of events too. Always give folks a way to connect with you online!
- #36 One of the best tactics for both ACHIEVING YOUR MISSION and growing your email list is to engage in online advocacy. Here is an example of a current campaign being run by Emily’s List and MoveON. Again, the “ask” is very clear and they only ask for 4 pieces of information. I also like how they provide a brief video if you want to learn more about the War on Women. You can test whether adding video to your advocacy campaigns detracts or enhancing the sign-up process for users.
- #37 I know that some of you are probably thinking – my organization doesn’t DO POLITICAL advocacy. That’s ok. Here is a great example from America Cancer Society of an “advocacy” campaign called Join the Movement for More Birthdays. The KEY point here is that you can think of advocacy more broadly as a way to ENGAGE people in your work. (add definition)
- #40 Once you’ve mastered the basics, it’s time to wade into social media. There are SO many social networks out there that it is totally paralyzing. How should you choose which social networks to embrace?Go where your donors already are?Here is the trick about social networking. It’s a way to grow a community.However, and this is a big however, you don’t really own people who “like” you on Facebook until they join your list. So as you develop deeper relationships with people, try to bring them over to your list.
- #41 Twitter is a great tool but you won’t make much money with it.Use it if you have the capacity to use it.Twitter is great for seeing who is talking about your issue right now. It’s also good for reaching new audiences. When I first joined Twitter I found that it enabled me to connect with people – like journalists and key bloggers – who wouldn’t return my email. I’m not sure if that is true now that the medium is more mainstream. But you can try.
- #42 Here is one thing that I wish for every nonprofit. I wish that every nonprofit had a video to tell me what they do in 2 minutes or less. Here is an example of a great video from a nonprofit called Charity: Water – a nonprofit that brings water to people in the developing world - that makes a very strong and compellng case about what water really means and why it’s SO important for people to support this cause.
- #43 Finally, I know you’re hearing a lot about mobile these days. The speed of mobile adoption is really a fascinating phenomenon in our time.According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), we are likely to see the number of cell phone subscriptions across the globe hit 5 billion sometime in 2010!And of course, afficianados of mobile say that our phones will enable us to do EVERYTHING some day. I paid my first parking meter fee with my iPhone last week!In the last few years, mobile donations have been growing at a much faster pace than other donations channels when they were first introduced. For example, in 1998, the year after online donations first became a viable fundraising channel, $350,000 was raised via online donations. Compare that to this number: In 2009, the year after mobile donations were first introduced, more than $1.5 million in funds were raised via text-based giving. In 1999, after people had been donating funds online for three years, $1.1 million was raised via the online giving channel. In contrast, in 2010, the third year that donations could be made via mobile phones, a whopping $42 million was raised. So three years after text-based giving first became available, the mobile donation fundraising channel has already raised more than 30 times as many dollars as the online donation channel did when it was in its infancy.This is a testament to how quickly text-based donations are growing.
- #44 Here is a quick quiz, how many cell phone subscriptions were there in the world in 2010?Don’t look at the screen.5 billion!
- #45 When people talk about mobile marketing and fundraising they are really talking about 3 different things. And, we can’t get into it all here but I want to give you a taste.You have 3 options when approaching mobile for fundraising. You can do a text to give campaign. However, it’s only an option if your charity has annual revenues greater than $500,000. And, the carriers limit the amount of the donations you ask for.Smart phone apps are another option but think about it. What would make your app so compelling that people would download it and use it regularly. You have to create something that has great utility for consumers, like google maps for driving directions or those all important games that my husband LOVES to play.If you’re dying to get into mobile now, a mobile website is probably the way to go because it will enable people to properly and effectively view your website via their phone. And, as you remember, your website is your home base on the web.With a mobile website, you can control the donation options and you can also share your content with people right when they want it.
- #47 The 3rd and 4th trends which I want to talk about are social giving and personalization.Social giving is NOT new. Right?We have always raised money for family, friends, colleagues in need. However, technology has significantly enhanced our ability to reach many more people than ever before and it has significantly lowered the cost of peer-to-peer fundraising. It seems like every day I see a new social fundraising site. They all have funny names. Six Degrees, Crowdrise, pictured here, First Giving, Razoo, Fundly, and Rally and, of course, Causes on Facebook are just a few of the sites out there.Here is what is so cool about these sites, they enable anyone to become a fundraiser on their own. ---Social giving can be so powerful because, as you and I both know sometimes that MESSENGER is more important than the MESSAGE.There are 2 tricks with social fundraising.Finding the influencers in your network who are willing to help you spread the word. Finding a way to stay connected to people who give through friends and family – because they are not necessarily connected to your organization or even your cause. They are connected to their friends. Nonprofits, even those that don’t have missions that lend themselves easily to social engagement, need to find ways to enable social giving.In the future, in addition to being fundraisers, we are going to have to become FACILITATORS of others’ giving by encouraging them to spread the word and help move our causes forward.
- #48 Causes on Facebook is another example of a social fundraising site.
- #49 Charity: Water has been smart to enable peer-to-peer fundraising functionality via their site and to encourage people to use special events in their lives, like birthdays, anniversaries and such to raise money to bring clean drinking water to more people.
- #50 Your Cause is another site that lets anyone, anywhere become a fundraiser.
- #52 Finally, and I have to admit, I’m not sure if this is a welcome trend or not, but charitable giving is becoming much more personal experience and I think this trend is likely to continue into the future. My daughter’s best friend Olivia showed up at camp this year with custom Nikes. I’m so out of it that I didn’t even know that you could customize Nikes.So my thinking is that If I can personalize my sneakers, why can’t I personalize my giving experience?Personalization or restricted giving is something we hate as fundraisers but I’m not sure that there is anything we can do about it.Find ways to MERCHANDISE what you do. Here is what I mean.Personalization can be abetted by technology. For example, my daughter’s friend Olivia showed up at camp this year with custom Nikes. I love Amazon. I feel like I have a personal relationship with them. EVEN though. I’ve never spoken to an Amazon.com rep. They use the power of segmentaiton and personalization to “speak” to me directly. They recommend books that are similar to ones I’ve already read.They ask for my recommendations on books I’ve purchased.Of course, this benefits them to because the create a virtuous cycle. I purchase more books, I enhance their referral engine.Donor’s choose does this too. As soon as I donate on their site. They feature a testimonial from me about why?
- #53 Donor’s choose is the gold standard for offering concrete giving opportunities to donors. Donors, especially younger donors, want more choice. They want to really understand what their giving does and how it can be spent. It’s up to us to show them where there dollars go.
- #54 Global Giving gives you’re an opportunity to give to really discrete projects and needs in the developing world.
- #55 Oxfam will even let you give the gift of poop!
- #56 And of course it goes without saying that sometimes the most personal thing that you can do for your donors is to simply say a genuine, heartfelt thanks!