Category Archives: fundraising

Top 10 Resources if You’re New to Nonprofits

Should Volunteers Be Asked to Donate Also?

Many nonprofits depend heavily on volunteers to achieve their mission, such as great organizations like God’s Love We Deliver (where I volunteered for several years) and Dorot (for whom I work currently). Clearly it is important to thank volunteers, since their role is often as important as that of paid staff. But should volunteers be asked to support these organizations financially also, as is suggested in 4 Ways to Turn Volunteers into Donors.

My take – it depends on how the ask is made. When I choose to volunteer for a nonprofit, I have already chosen causes that I feel strongly about, e.g. helping seniors. So I might not be averse to adding financial support, as long as my volunteer efforts are acknowledged and appreciated. But if I choose not to donate, I want my work to be considered as important as those who help with contributions. After all, there are many ways to help a nonprofit, and many organizations would not exist without the help of volunteers.

For more on this topic, the NY Charities NYC event on Feb. 27 will discuss Best Practices for Attracting, Managing and Retaining Volunteers with participating staff from several nonprofits such as JASA (for which I also volunteer). And if some of your volunteers decide to make donations also, consider it a bonus – not a requirement.

Open Letter to Charities I Support – Get to Know Me

Ironically, although I advised nonprofits last week to ramp up their year-end fundraising efforts, I cringe at the mass of direct mail and emails I’ll be receiving this month from the charities I support. Like many donors, I consistently give to the same organizations each year, and it’s unlikely that repeated solicitations will convince me to give more – although they might persuade me not to give at all.

Recently, I received this letter from the Southern Poverty Law Center which fights hate and promotes tolerance, but sends me more direct mail than I would like. So here’s my suggestions for how you can get to know me better and keep me as a supporter:

Look at my giving history. Most of my gifts have been smaller than the $250 you keep defaulting as the minimum suggested amount on your letter.
Update your records. You keep addressing mail to me and my wife even though we’re no longer living together.
Cut the paper volume. All of my recent gifts have been online. Don’t use my donations to keep supporting the Post Office.
I usually make my gifts near year-end. So don’t send me multiple renewal notices many months before and then follow-up with a ‘final renewal request’ in early December.
In case you’re unsure, ask me how I would like to be communicated with. Better yet, give me a way online to update my address, phone, email & communication preferences – and then respect my choices.
Please don’t sell my name to other organizations who do similar work – I’d rather find them on my own.
Keep it short and use bulleted lists (which they actually did well here). Whether on paper or online, I rarely read through the entire letter.

Yes, I’ll continue to support you as long as you do great work. But please use my gifts responsibly and take the time to get to know me.

It’s December – Quick Tips for Year-End Fundraising

It’s only one month to the charity tax deduction deadline for 2012. Hopefully, you’re well into your year-end fundraising drive by now. Here are some quick reminders.

Please don’t:

import email addresses of people who haven’t specifically agreed to get your communications
keep sending repeated messages to email addresses that have already bounced (this may result in your organization being marked as a spammer)
send repeated emails, but don’t bother to check on how well they’re doing so you can improve your response

Please do:

synchronize your content across different channels messaging is consistent and that they relate to each other, e.g. direct mails reference the emails or vice versa
segment your list so you send a different message to those who have regularly supported your nonprofit than those who have rarely shown interest
be specific in explaining how donations will be used to better achieve your mission
send prompt thank you messages to those who have already contributed
schedule your final email for morning of Mon, Dec. 31 (many constituents will wait until the last day to give)

Want more tips. Get advice from Katye Andresen and Gail Perry, listen to some Creative Ideas for Year-End Fundraising Online, then attend this webinar on Dec. 6. Wishing you a successful year-end fundraising season!

Attracting New Donors to Support Your Nonprofit

Surprisingly, as highlighted in More Money for More Good, a free nonprofit fundraising guidebook developed by Guidestar and Hope Consulting, only a third of individual donors do research before choosing nonprofits to donate to. Nevertheless, there is an opportunity for your organization to attract new supporters if you can follow these steps:

Collect the right information, using tools such as Charting Impact, participating in the Guidestar Exchange program and encouraging stakeholders to describe the organization’s impact on Great Nonprofits.
Communicate in solicitations, on website and through other outreach where your organization has received recognition by sites such as Philanthropedia and Charity Navigator.
Connect with prospective contributors by selecting specific segments to target (but don’t focus only on demographics – e.g. age, sex, income, which don’t play a meaningful role in donor motivation).

More Money for More Good is worth a read, containing many interesting observations about how donors choose charities to support. Start by making sure your website demonstrates the impact of your work – its still the first place that prospective givers visit.

The Death of Common Ground

I’ve worked with Convio’s software, but its most interesting product in recent years has been Common Ground, which unlike Luminate, uses Salesforce as the back end platform. Salesforce is a terrific product, provides great connectivity to other software and can be configured with many add-ons to meet specific organization requirements.

When Blackbaud announced it was acquiring Convio earlier this year, I thought for sure they would consider Common Ground the prize, as it provides online functionality that is missing from many of Blackbaud’s core products. I also appealed to Blackbaud to be thoughtful about how it choosed to go forward with Convio’s products and staff.

But now, it turns out, Common Ground is dead, and maybe Luminate will be next.

My friend and colleague Robert Weiner has posted a very informative blog post which includes many insightful comments – make sure to read Tompkins Spann’s explanation of the history and different versions of Common Ground. Groundwire has also responded as has Cloud for Good and the Salesforce Foundation. Blackbaud is also offering a Common Ground Town Hall to discuss its upcoming retirement of this product.

I’m disappointed that Blackbaud has made this decision, especially since it has had such a good record in the past of continuing to support products that it has acquired. If your nonprofit is affected, take your time before choosing your next step. If possible, consider staying with Salesforce, which isn’t going anywhere and continues to have the support of a company which has always been a strong supporter of the nonprofit community.

Maybe not coincidentally, Gene Austin, former Convio CEO, has announced that he is leaving Blackbaud. Thanks for your great work in building Convio, Gene, and best of luck in your future endeavors.

Update 9/19/12 – Blackbaud’s Luminate and Luminate CRM products use Force.com and Salesforce respectively on back end. Blackbaud also hosted an informative town hall session last week to discuss its decision to retire Common Ground. Listen to recording here, also read updates in Robert Weiner’s blog and in Blackbaud’s Connection Cafe.

Update 9/21/12 - Had a lengthy conversation with Steve MacLaughlin at Blackbaud; he hopes to provide a diagram soon to clarify the relationship between Luminate Online (formerly Convio COM), Luminate CRM (renaming of Common Ground product released in 2008) and ‘new’ Common Ground released in 2011 (only Convio product that is being retired.)

Turn Standard EMail Donation Requests Into A Fully-Loaded Fundraising Campaign

(Guest post by Toby Leonard)

Social media offers a variety of resources for nonprofits to reach their interested consumer base and seek donations for their cause. With such an onslaught of innovative marketing trends, it’s easy to neglect established methods like email. It is important to integrate various online methods into a complete marketing strategy. There are many techniques that can be used to maximize email campaigns and turn a simple email request for donations into a full fundraising campaign.

Develop a Relationship With Constituents

People are far more likely to open and respond to emails that are from organizations they feel connected to. To develop this relationship, it can be helpful to use social media to communicate with the recipients. Conversations on Twitter, Facebook, and similar platforms can create a bond. To capitalize on these relationships, use tools like Constant Contact, MailChimp or Vertical Response can help users initiate, personalize and distribute marketing emails (don’t use Outlook for mass emails! Make sure you ask vendors for any special nonprofit rates).

Optimize Delivery Times

According to Econsultancy, recipients are most likely to respond to emails received on work days between 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm. (But check your stats – this may be different for your organization.) If your strategy involves sending periodic emails, recipients are more likely to respond to emails received at a regular time.

Get to the Point

It is also important to maximize the use of space you have in the email. People tend to pay the most attention to the first part of the email, before they are required to scroll. Therefore, it is necessary to include as much useful information in the first few lines and make it as short and to the point as possible.

Many readers also tend to skim emails. To keep the attention of these readers, make use of easy to read text with formats such as bullet point lists, bolding, and italics. This will help readers easily scan the email for important information and determine why they should pay attention to the content.

Keep Their Attention

Graphics can also add wonderful variety to emails. They help to personalize the content and can even help make the note appear to be like a handwritten note. Pictures and animation will attract attention to the message and encourage the recipient to read further.

Pick an Inviting Subject Line

The subject line of the email helps persuade people to either read or disregard the email. Titles that sound similar to spam, such as “Follow-up” or “Discount” are more likely to be ignored. Develop a title that helps the recipients feel special but also appears genuine. Making a personalized subject line and offering the recipient something in return also helps to entice readers. It is also a good idea to make sure that the email comes from an email address connected to the organization. Using a personal email address is more likely to be marked as spam or ignored.

Don’t Overdo It

Finally, do not send out email messages too often. When people receive constant updates and requests for money, they are more likely to ignore them. There is a fine line between sending out regular emails to promote your brand and overloading your recipients with too many messages. Consider polling recipients to determine an optimal schedule. Typically, emailing twice a month is considered reasonable.

Email campaigns have the potential to bring in a great deal of revenue for organizations. Though many overlook the technique in favor of the more modern methods of social media, email marketing campaigns usually result in a very high ROI.

How Does Your Nonprofit Use Your Database?

Heller Consulting recently surveyed over 30 nonprofits to ask how they’re using their CRMs (constituent relationship management systems). You can download the report free, but here are some interesting takeaways:

Fragmented, non-integrated data in many places is a problem everywhere
CRM can be viewed as a system, a way to provide customer service or a strategy for engaging with constituents (the most progressive nonprofits do all three).
Having a central database helps in being able to segment your audience and in managing major donor relationships
Silos between data, people and departments get in the way of connecting with constituents
Most nonprofits now use social media to connect with supporters, but these conversations need to be included in your database.
When bringing in a new CRM, bring in stakeholders from many areas, engage them early and involve them throughout the project.
Documentation, help screens and training is essential, no matter how ‘user friendly’ the database may seem.

My take – your success also depends on your organization culture. The best CRM software won’t help if staff don’t consistently enter information about interactions with constituents because they prefer to keep it ‘in their head’ or in personal files that only they can access.

This is a thoughtful report and is well worth a read, whether you’re in the process of selecting a new database or if you want to get more of the CRM you already have.

Charity:Water Talks Digital Strategy at 501TechNYC Meeting

As presenter Paull Young mentioned during his opening remarks, it seemed only fitting yesterday to discuss Charity:Water on a day when heavy rains soaked the NYC area. Despite the harsh weather and the scheduling of the event in mid-July, a capacity crowd attended our monthly 501 Tech NYC meeting held at the NYC Foundation Center.

Even though the organization has only existed for six years, Charity:Water has had amazing results in fundraising, and consistently raises the bar in how nonprofits should communicate with supporters. How do they do so well?

blending traditional fundraising and communications functions, which many nonprofits struggle with. Their focus isn’t only on raising money, it’s on maintaining an ongoing dialogue with constituents to demonstrate the impact of their donations
consistently strong videos and photography to show their work
an open, collaborative culture, similar to what Beth Kanter describes in the Networked Nonprofit
focus on positive messages, not doom and gloom about the difficulties that many people around the world have in obtaining clean water
ability to learn from mistakes – as Paul said, we ‘do it wrong quickly’
website focuses on story telling, not only on getting donations (although the money comes in anyway)

These are great ideas to take back to your organization. As demonstrated by Paull’s enthusiasm, Charity:Water also thrives by hiring a great staff who are truly engaged in their cause, and who thrive in a flat, team-oriented culture. We can all learn from their success. (See also my post from last year when Paull spoke at Fundraising Day in NYC.)

Nonprofit Bridge

Bridging Technology, Communications & Development to Implement ePhilanthropy for Nonprofit Organizations