online fundraising for nonprofits sue polinsky convergesouth2012

ConvergeSouth Oct. 12 2012

ONLINE FUNDRAISING FOR NONPROFITS

1. Ask for money for special projects or hot items, NOT for general support. 2. Set a deadline 3. Ask LOTS of people but do not spam (frequency matters) 4. Make the “ASK” the main message in your email (“call to action”) 5. Make sure recipients KNOW and LIKE the sender of the email (not “info”) 6. Use a great subject line: why are you asking? 7. Content is king: make the copy short & punchy; GIVE A LINK TO DONATE! 8. HTML emails generally get a better response 9. Content should be interesting and useful to readers 10. Ask everywhere you can (not just email) 11. Build a good list and update it 12. TEST YOUR EMAIL before sending 13. Integrate your email with your sig line, phone & events fundraising

TIPS FOR RAISING MONEY ONLINE

People under 35 may not have checkbooks

Using online donations spreads your reach

Even old folks are donating online (well, starting to…)

They have to be able to use their own credit cards Older folks distrust PayPal

Try not to use open-ended amounts Suggest a minimum

Donate for specific things, like…

WHO DONATES ONLINE?

Run / Walk / Bike Volunteer Birthday Wedding Personal Cause Tribute College Project Helping an Individual in Need Other ideas?

Make a personal connection Tell a story, use a video Keep supporters engaged Update supporters Be compelling Tell them how their money will

be used Allow comments on FB & Twitter

FUNDRAISE FOR EVERYTHING!

crowdrise.com

razoo.com

Are donations a large or small piece of your mission? Do you want to use a vendor’s merchant account or your

own? Does it integrate with your financial software?

Know what size and volume of donations you expect to get? Be realistic

Does the donation form need to look like your website? How easy/hard will it be for you to import donations into

your donor database? What critical features do you need? Memorials, gifts, employer matching, recurring gifts, eChecks, outside

N.A.?

FIRST, YOUR DECISIONS…

Integrate into your site Click and Pledge Network for Good PayPal Google Checkout Amazon Payments Which do YOU use?

Crowdfunding Sites Kickstarter.com StartSomeGood.com Indiegogo.com Rockethub.com Pozible.com Causes.com Razoo.com Crowdrise.com www.crowdfunding-

website-reviews.com/

ONLINE DONATION SITES

Crowdfunding uses social media and an online donation page to fund a project (GoFundMe.com)

Similar to DonorsChoose.org but project specific

CROWDFUNDING

Create your site Share with friends Collect online

donations Track results Tools Widgets Sharing (FB, email, Twitter) Send updates

HOW CROWDFUNDING WORKS

They charge you for Setup fee Monthly fee for merchant account Percentage rate on credit card sales Per-transaction fee Hidden fees, like creating your

webpage

HOW DO THESE SERVICES MAKE MONEY?

SaaS Software as a Service means going to a website, using a tool, and

copying some code back to your website. We call this “integrating” or “embedding”

Cost of SaaS Some is free Some is kinda free (limits) Some costs a fee (‘rentware’)

SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE

Scenario 1 Get a payment tool PayPal or Google Checkout Get a form tool like Jotform Jotform is reasonably priced Never store credit card

numbers on your website or server! Put your donate page online!

Easy Method: PayPal: 501(c)(3) rate is 2.7% If yours is higher, call

Jotform: free for 10 donations/payments per month Make a Jotform Integrate it in your website

FUNDRAISING SAAS

BUILD A JOTFORM FORM

At Jotform.com 1. Get a Jotform account 2. Build a form 3. (Have PayPal account) 4. Put PayPal info into

Jotform 5. Save form

What You Do 1. Integrate into your site 2. Get “embed” code 3. Paste code onto your

webpage & publish 4. Later, update the form

at Jotform 5. Website automagically

updates!

HOW DOES JOTFORM WORK?

1. Copy the code 2. Go to your webpage 3. Paste the code 4. Save and publish your

page 5. View your page Issues? Fix them at Jotform and not on your webpage.

EMBED MEANS “PASTE”

http://techtriad.com/cs2012/form.php

PROS Network for Good does almost

all work for you They handle credit card

processing They build a page that looks like

your site CONSIDERATIONS Can be expensive Lowest package: $49.99/month

+ $200 setup fee 3% fee per transaction SINGLE donation page

NETWORK FOR GOOD

Recurring donations are long-term Life gifts, stock transfers, life insurance – all long-term gifts The time to encourage long-term gifts is BEFORE someone

passes away, so…

RECURRING GIFTS

Take visitors to a page before donations OR Put text above your donation People do not “just give money” People want something in return IDEAS In honor of In memory of Celebrating (occasion) Others?

Send an acknowledgement card (a nice one, please) Who do you send the card to?

LEAD INTO DONATIONS

1. Short & easy 2. Fast to complete 3. *Required fields 4. But not too many 5. Get the info you

need, avoid duplicates

COLLECT INFORMATION

What makes a good form?

Collect email addresses Make email lists UPDATE lists Get a big DONATE

NOW button

Tell your story on your website. Be clear. Be concise THANK DONORS

electronically Leverage social media

THINGS TO DO EVERY DAY

Constant Contact capture tool is a small program that lets you update your lists from your desktop.

What gets a response? Calls to action Humor or cleverness Video beats text Targeted lists Special link just for that

campaign Quality website

Biggest email mistakes I get one a week! They’re too long They’re boring No links No call to action No new information GIVE US MONEY!

A WORD ABOUT BLAST EMAILS

MailChimp.com is FREE if you have <2,000 subscribers and send <12,000 emails per month. Not as many features as Constant Contact.

FIND ME EVERYWHERE

Dr. Sue Polinsky President, TechTriad, Inc. Phone: 336-852-4321 Email: sue@techtriad.com

Twitter: @suepolinsky, techtriad Facebook:

facebook.com/suepolinsky facebook.com/techtriad

Google+: spolinsky@gmail.com LinkedIn: suepolinsky 4Square: suepolinsky