Tag Archives: Holly Ross

Nonprofit Bridge 2012 Highlights

As we prepare for 2013, here are some 2012 blog highlights:

More 2012 highlights next week and a look forward at 2013.  Happy new year!

You Don’t Need to Recreate the Wheel

Trying to figure out how your organization can be more effective online?  There are many nonprofits that are already succeeding that you can learn from.  Probably the most publicized success story in recent years is the astounding growth of charity: water, featured in a recent post by davidconnell.net.  One particularly interesting point is how charity: water has partnered which local organizations that actually do much of their core work (the nonprofit didn’t build an infrastructure to do it themselves).

In addition, when charity: water communicates with its supporters, the focus is on the cause, not the organization.  If your organization does many different things and you’re having difficulty what to focus on, take Katya Andresen’s suggestion to make modules out of your mission.  Not all of your constituents will care about everything you do, but there is probably some program or activity that particularly interests them.

Hearing a lot about mobile?  Nten‘s Holly Ross discusses 5 Nonprofits That Are Innovating with Mobile.  Even if you decide that you don’t have the bandwidth for a mobile approach yet, don’t forget to test outgoing emails on cell phones since so many more constituents are reading emails on cell phones.

The old model of technology focused on getting support from product vendors.  While I still work closely with my vendors’ customer support staffs, I also rely on checking in with my colleagues across the country, many who are asking the same questions as I am.  (Some issues I’m currently working on are how can I increase engagement with my organization’s Facebook followers and how can I integrate online forms from my vendors in social media platforms – since this is where many of my constituents are spending time online, never reaching my nonprofit’s website).

Another way to learn from others is to follow the most frequently used nonprofit hashtags, as nicely summarized by Kerri Karvetski.  (Don’t forget to use these hashtags when you post on Twitter!)

Fortunately, the nonprofit sector is a very open, sharing community.  Instead of struggling on your own, take the time to learn from what other organizations have already done, and ask for help if you need assistance in making your nonprofit shine online.  And don’t be afraid to fail.  As I was recently reminded by social media superstar Danielle Brigida, most of us are still figuring things out, especially since online products / services are constantly changing.

Why Small Donations Matter

In addition to spending many hours online, I still do read books.  Recently I finished Wendy Smith’s Give a Little – How Small Donations Are Changing the World.  If you ever think that only large contributions make a difference, this book will change your mind, showing how small gifts make up the bulk of many nonprofits’ revenues.  In addition, I was introduced to many wonderful nonprofits that I wasn’t already familiar with – a complete list is available here.  My favorite quote – “giving changes you as well as the world.”

Your small gift can also help these very worthwhile causes:

If you missed the recent PBS Frontline presentation of Digital Nation, you can watch it (and comment) online.   It is very thought provoking, and may provide a reminder that multitasking is not always the best way to get things done.  Also see this report from Pew Internet on Social Media and Young Adults.

Wondering about whether mobile fundraising will become a major fundraising channel as it has been for Haiti?  See MobileActive’s Definitive Guide to Mobile Fundraising as well as Beth Kanter’s summary of some recent viewpoints.

Preparing for Philanthropy’s Black Friday

Most nonprofits get the bulk of their donations during December.  So what can we do to get the word out this month?

Heavyweight Salvation Army has stepped up its digital marketing efforts, switching its radio budget to online communications.  There is now an online version of the red kettle, which have already appeared at many locations I pass daily.  They’ve also embraced newer tools, such as an Iphone application and have established a strong presence on Facebook and Twitter.   After long relying on direct mail for new donor acquisition, Salvation Army is now focusing on online community building and on attracting younger donors through online strategies.

Convio estimates that more than 111 million constituents will donate over $4 billion online this holiday season.   At last month’s Convio Summit and Blackbaud Conference (oddly held during the same week in different parts of the country), the theme was the same – web giving continues to increase, even while overall donations have dropped a bit during the recession.  In his overview of online fundraising, Steve MacLaughlin suggested that we segment our audiences by generation – and communicate with them differently.  He also suggested we build relationships with constituents by asking for small actions first before asking for financial help.

How do you keep up with the many communication channels now available, e.g. email, RSS, Facebook, Twitter etc.   In her recent presentation at the Blackbaud event, Nten’s Holly Ross suggested we use filters to find what’s most relevant and not try to “keep up with everything.”  The volume of information available through social media can be overwhelming, but we have to find a way to keep abreast of conversations that are already taking place about our organizations and our causes.   Looking for a tool to integrate email with social media?  Take a look at Threadsy.

What’s the fundraising outlook for 2010?  According to Mal Warwick Associates, we should try to get donors to give more frequently, even if they can’t make the large contributions they’ve given us in the past.   In addition, we should continue to use a multichannel approach because “the number of donors who choose to respond by writing a check will only continue to dwindle.”

Wishing everyone a prosperous end of year fundraising season.

Report from Online Nonprofit Technology Conference

This week I had the pleasure of participating in Nten‘s first Online Nonprofit Technology Conference.  While on a much smaller scale than the annual spring event, the two days of online webinars featured some of our sector’s brightest stars and allowed an opportunity for much more interaction with the presenters than is normally possible at the live event.  Some highlights:

  • Network for Good‘s Katya Andresen reminded us that raising awareness of our organizations isn’t enough, it’s to ‘get someone to take an action.’    She also recommended we let the constituent be the messenger for our cause (much more effective than if message comes directly from organization).   She implored us to focus on the donor when designing our web sites, not on the organization structure, mentioning Kiva and DonorsChoose as examples of how to do this right.
  • ConmmonGood Career’s James Weinberg described how social networking sites are replacing online job boards.  As a way to encourage staff longevity, he suggested finding ways to change job responsibilities even if the position doesn’t change.   If nonprofits can’t create opportunities for staff to advance, it is their responsibility to help them move elsewhere (not sure how many nonprofits would agree)
  • Idealware‘s Laura Quinn offered a sneak peak at her Field Guide to Software, to be released later this year.  She added that the choice of donor database is probably the most critical decision (and to make sure everyone in organization is comfortable using it)
  • Beaconfire‘s Michael Cervino discussed using benchmarks from sites such as PewInternet and  e-Benchmarks-Study to measure how well our organizations are performing, also showing how Google Analytics funnels can be used effectively.  He also described how online surveys are best used frequently with few questions.  (I added this is a great way to add data to help segment your database)
  • Philantech‘s Dahna Goldstein discussed how to help staff deal with change, e.g. making sure that staff are fully involved and kept informed
  • Consultant John Kenyon and American Lung’s Rusty Burwell discussed online communications and the importance of inter-department collaboration.  See my previous post on this topic.  In response to my question, John stated emphatically that social media will never replace email as the main communications medium.

Thanks to Holly and the NTen staff for putting on another great program, and congrats also to Holly for being recognized by Nonprofit Times in the Top 50 Power and Influence!

Help Holly Reach Her Goal for the NTC

Due to the financial challenges that many of our nonprofit organizations are facing this year, many of us (incuding myself) may not be able to attend the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference in April.  To respond, Nten Executive Director has setup a scholarship fund to help send nonprofit staff who otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate.  This event is always wonderful and provides an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with colleagues from across the US and beyond.   There are two days left for Holly to reach he goal of $10,000, of which Convio has agreed to match.  I’ve already donated – can you help?

2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study

Nten and M&R Strategic Services have released a fascinating study which provides metrics for online messaging, fundraising and advocacy.  Some highlights and observations:

  • open rates (compared to a study in 2006) declined from 21.3% to 17.6%;  click-through rates dropped from 4.9% to 3.6%.  I’ve found that many NPO staff don’t take the time to analyze reports which clearly demonstrate that most constituents who get email are not bothering to open them, fewer are clicking on any included links.
  • on the average, constituents are emailed 4 times / month.  Seems like once a week is still too often, making more of a case to use segmentation to target content to selected constituents.
  • About 20% of an email list ‘goes bad’ each year due to unsubscribes and other changes in email addresses.  So a nonprofit that wants to grow its list needs to first make up for this loss in numbers first.
  • Advocacy mailings consistently show higher response rates than other types of mailings.  How many of these constituents can be effectively converted to other types of engagement?
  • $1000+ gifts were only 1% of the total number of donations, yet represented over 20% of online giving revenues.  Major gifts still deserves consistent attention.

Thanks to Holly Ross at Nten, and Sarah Dijulio at M&R  for collaborating on this report and the 21 nonprofit organizations that participated in this analysis; a webinar discussing the study is available.

Report from 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference

Thanks to Holly Ross and the entire Nten staff for last week’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference, held in New Orleans.  With so many worthwhile sessions taking place during the three days, the hardest part was choosing which sections to attend.  I was also fortunate to receive what was clearly the most valuable prize at the Sponsor Fair, a $1000 donation to any nonprofit of my choice, generously contributed by Jay Frank of Nice Touch Communications and Telecom for Charity.

Kudos also to Beth Kanter who organized the Day of Service to assist local nonprofits in New Orleans on the first day of the conference.  Working with Nancy Schwartz, (who writes Getting Attention to help nonprofits with marketing tips), I gave a quick ephilanthropy tutorial to Casa New Orleans.

I also participated in two conference sessions:

Tug of War or Pulling Together? Building Teamwork for Better Online Campaigns, David Hollender, Jed Cohen and I reviewed strategies for how an organization can work collaboratively instead of in silos.  Sharing information regularly can help, as well as a current intranet site and ‘lunch and learn’ where departments are invited to learn about each other’s projects.  While it is helpful to build relationships with those in other departments before you are assigned to work on a project with them, it’s also important to make sure that your own department’s goals are met.

The Joy of CMS: Implementing Sustainable Content Management Systems (The Painless Way to Keep Your Web Site Current): I moderated a panel of three CMS experts: Andrew Cohen, Nathan Gasser and Jeff Herron.  Instead of focusing on available products (of which there are many), we discussed how the idea of content management can be successfully deployed.  Having a current web site is easier when the responsibilities are shared throughout the organization, and when management accepts this as part of everyone’s job.  We also discussed work flow – how web pages are reviewed and released, and how to insure that web content is consistent with other communication vehicles.

I also want to commend Laura Quinn and Dahna Goldstein who moderated two sessions on data integration which I attended.  Since most of us have data in many locations, it is always challenging to share information between multiple products.  Memorable takeaways: when evaluating products, data integration must be on the list of requirements, and it may be best to consider vendors who have been ‘open’ from the start rather than those who have changed mostly due to market demands  Let’s keep this discussion going on Nten’s Data Standards & Integration affinity group!

It was also wonderful to return to New Orleans, which clearly is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.  My wife and I were serenaded one night by a couple who lost their home and were struggling to make ends meet.

Project Management for Nonprofits Webinar

Thanks to everyone who attended my Feb. 12 Nten webinar on Project Management for Nonprofits, discussing how
nonprofits can make better use of project management techniques to achieve organizational goals.  Some major points on how to establish project management within your nonprofit organization:

  1. use a variety of communication techniques
  2. don’t use IT terms with non-IT staff
  3. find a supporter on business side
  4. use agile techniques to split projects into smaller phases
  5. educate your organization on how project management techniques will allow it to better meet its goals.

We also discussed Idealware & Aspiration’s recent conference on Managing Nonprofit Technology Projects – see wiki.However, project management is useful for all types of initiatives, not just those involving technology..

Please let me know if you’d like a copy of my presentation.  Thanks to Holly and Anna at NTen for giving me this opportunity to speak.