downturn guide to online fundraising & marketing · 3. do you provide relevant content?...

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A Beginner's Guide to Online Fundraising & Marketing

Nonprofit 911 TeleconferenceJuly 7, 2009

Jono SmithVP, Marketing

Network for Good

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Key Takeaways

• Why online fundraising is the great equalizer

• The basics of an effective online marketing and fundraising strategy

• Selecting and implementing online marketing & fundraising tools

• Bottom line: A few good ideas to test right away!

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Why Online Giving is the Great Equalizer

• At Network for Good, 50% the donations go to 1% of charities (excluding crisis giving)

• The rest – 25,000 nonprofits – are spread out along the long tail

• Small to medium-sized nonprofits account for 70% of giving via Network for Good

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How much can a small nonprofit raise?

• Budget: under $250,000• 910 nonprofits• $9.3 million raised• Monthly average: $858• Annual average: $10,296

– Network for Good’s Custom DonateNow (April 2008-April 2009)

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Who is Giving Online?

• Greatest + Silent Generations (1901- 1945)

• Direct mail & telemarketing donors

• Account for less than 15% of online giving*

• Occasionally visiting your website and reading your emails

• Baby Boomers (1946-1962)

• Multi-channel donors• Account for 52% of

online giving*• Active web users at

home and at work

• Generation X (1963-1980)

• The web generation• Generally not

responsive to direct mail or telemarketing

• Account for about 30% of online giving*

** 2006 donorCentrics™ Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis

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Why Are They Giving Online?*

• It’s easier than writing a check

• It’s a fast way to provide disaster relief

• It can be anonymous

• They like recurring donations

*Network for Good Study, “The Young and Generous”

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Key Takeaways

• Why online fundraising is the great equalizer

• The basics of an effective online marketing and fundraising strategy

• Selecting and implementing online marketing & fundraising tactics and tools

• Bottom line: A few good ideas to try at the office

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First Things First!

1. Is your URL guessable?

2. Do you use website design strategically?

3. Do you provide relevant content? (Marketing + Journalism!)

4. Do you tell your story through pictures, videos, or podcasts?

5. Can you accept online donations on your website?

6. Can you collect email addresses on your website?

7. Do you use email marketing to drive traffic back to your website?

8. Can people find your website in search engines?

9. Do your publish your URL on every communication,

both online and offline?

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Rule #1: Online Strategies vs. Tactics

• An online strategy is a plan of

action for using the internet and other digital mediums to achieve a goal or set of goals.

• Your website, Email Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Facebook, etc. are all tactics that can be used to accomplish that end.

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Sample Online Strategic Plan

• Strategies:– Expand online giving opportunities– Grow our database of emails

• Tactics:– Optimize our website & donation page for success– Monitor our online reputation– Increase our ‘findability’ on search engines– Use email marketing to build relationships and drive

traffic back to our website– Analyze & measure, revise tactics, and optimize

strategies

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Rule #2: Focus on the Donor Experience

What kills online donations?

• Usability is the ‘donation killer’

• Turn-off factors:

– 2 in 10 people can’t find where to donate

– 4 in 10 people don’t donate because of poor design,

cluttered pages and unintuitive layouts.

– 4 in 10 people can’t find the information they need or

find the website content unclear.Source: Donation Usability: Increasing Online Giving to Non-Profits and Charities

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Rate the Donor Experience

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Custom DonateNow from Network for Good

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1. Does your donation page look like your website?

2. Do you offer support for one time & recurring gifts?

3. Can donors make anonymous donations?

4. Do you provide both online & email tax receipts?

5. Do you offer tell-a-friend?

6. Can you ask custom questions?

7. Do you offer an email opt-in?

8. Can supporters make tributes or memorial gifts?

9. Can your supporters designate specific programs?

10. Can you offer thank you gifts & premiums?

Rule #3: Optimize Your Donation Page in 10 Steps

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Rule #4: Make your Donate button obvious

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Rule #5: Listen to Understand Tools to find supporters & monitor them

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Rule #6: Break the Outlook Habit

Still sending your newsletter from Microsoft Outlook? Six reasons you need an email service provider

1. Your emails may look terrible.

2. You may get blacklisted

3. Say hello to your recipients spam, junk or bulk mail folder.

4. Send emails to thousands of recipients, and you'll get all the bounce-backs and auto-replies from them. So much for free time!

5. You might be breaking the law. According to the CAN-SPAM law, if someone requests to be removed from your list, you must do so within 10 business days.

6. You won't know if anyone is reading your emails.

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Rule #7: Grow your Email List with Tell-A-Friend

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Rule #8: Get serious about email outreach

What makes a good email campaign?

• Get serious about the subject line– June Newsletter

– 5 Tips to Fight Global Warming

• Focus “above the fold”– Most people use a preview pane when perusing their

inbox, so it’s important when laying out your email’s content to put a lot of attention on the top four inches and use that prime real estate to the best of your abilities.

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Rule #9: Make your organization easy to find

Sponsored

Organic

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Rule #9: Make your organization easy to findS

ponsored

Organic

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Rule #10: Put yourself in your donor’s shoes.

• The biggest mistake you can make is making it about you. It’s about the audience.

• Online marketing is not a monologue.

• You are not the target audience

• Marketing is about looking at the world from the point of view of our audience rather than our own.

The Mission Megaphone

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Rule #10: Put yourself in your donor’s shoes.

Make Your Messaging Sing

“Alopecia Areata Society”• Disease: makes your hair fall out• Support group: makes you feel ok about it• Benefit: Self-esteem• Awareness: Bald + women does not

always equal cancer.

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10 Rules for Online Fundraising & Marketing

1. Understand Online Strategies vs. Tactics2. Focus on the Donor Experience3. Optimize Your Donation Page in 10 Steps4. Make your Donate button obvious5. Listen to Understand6. Break the Outlook Habit7. Grow your Email List with Tell-A-Friend8. Get serious about email outreach9. Make your organization easy to find10. Put yourself in your donor’s shoes.

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Next Steps

• Subscribe to Network for Good:– Get donations on your website with DonateNow– Send email appeals & newsletters with EmailNow– Apply online at www.networkforgood.org/apply

• Contact Us:– Tel: 1.888.284.7978 x1– Email: fundraising123@networkforgood.org– Web: www.networkforgood.org/npo

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Bonus Tip: Inspire Your Supporters

• Next time you find yourself agonizing over how to inspire

someone to care about your issue — whether its frogs or

children, hunger or unspayed pets — back up a step.

• Put aside your faceless statistics of catastrophe, step

away from the “Canaries,” and think about telling us

something personal and true.

• Don’t tell us why we should care, tell us why you care.

We really want to know.

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Bonus Tip: Inspire Your Supporters

• Tell your organization's founding story

once a year. Communications guru Andy

Goodman calls this one of the "sacred

bundle" of stories - a profound reminder of

the deep values and moral struggle that

gave rise to your organization's existence.

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Bonus Tip: Inspire Your Supporters

• Have a genuine cultivation strategy and

calendar. Send emails to donors that thank

them, that report back on how you've spent their

money and then offer an inspiring anecdote or

factoid. You can't thank donors enough, and

chances are, you don't. Make it a point not to

ask for donations in these communications.

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Bonus Tip: Inspire Your Supporters

• Ask your donors for their feedback and

opinions on a regular basis.

• Remind them that you know there are

people behind those email addresses.

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Bonus Tip: Inspire Your Supporters

• Offer periodic live chats or phone-in

briefings with your CEO.

• This is a staple of major donor fundraising,

inexplicably absent from the online giving

scene.

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Bonus Tip: Inspire Your Supporters

• Offer real-life glimpses into the life of your

organization.

• We are entering an era when authenticity is

arguably the paramount value in marketing

communications - a potentially massive shift

from the fakey-fake formula that still guides most

direct mail.

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