Online Fundraising 101

Richard Dietz, Nonprofit R+D

www.twitter.com/nonprofit_rd

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Agenda

1. Why Online Fundraising

2. Tools of the Trade

3. Online Fundraising Strategies

4. Next Steps

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Don’t Panic…

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Always look for what’s working

• Other Nonprofits

• The business world

• Internet Marketing

• ShamWow!

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Consultants have all the answers…

• No, not really

• There are “best practices”, but you must test in your

organization

• Testing is the key, much easier to do online

• If it works do more, if not try something else

• We are also the worst at following our own advice

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What you talkin’ about Willis?

• SaaS, CRM, CMS

• ROI, API,

• wysiwyg

• Open-Source

• Fundraising Platform

• Tweet, ReTweet, Twit?

• Blah, Blah, Blah

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Why Online Fundraising?

• 75%+ of donations are still coming from individuals

• 50% growth year over year

• 2011 Cygnus Donor Survey (http://www.cygresearch.com/cds2011/)

– 65% said they will make an online gift this year

– Young donors (86%)

– 35 – 64 year old (68%)

– Over 65 year old (53%) **

– Direct mail donors – 29% made their gift online

– 69% prefer electronic over print communication

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Online Fundraising Tools

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Tools of the Trade

You only need four tools to run a good online fundraising

campaign:

• Place to make your case – website

• Way to take money – donation form

• Way to connect with potential donors – Email marketing

• Way to track results – online analytics

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Tools of the Trade

• Website

– Use what you already have

– Wordpress - http://www.wordpress.org

– Joomla - http://www.joomla.org

• Online Donations

– Many, many choices out there… overwhelming really

– http://www.capterra.com/fundraising-software (searchable)

– Sage Fundraising Online (http://www.sagefundraisingonline.com/)

• Online donations AND event registration

• Flexible, powerful and can do things the others can’t

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Tools of the Trade

• Email Marketing

– Again, many choices and you may already have this in place

– Sage e-Marketing launching in August

• Analytics

– Google Analytics – free and very powerful

– Need to track what is working and what is not

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Online Fundraising Strategy

Ideas, Tactics and Lessons

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Fundraising Campaign

Traffic(Email, Direct Mail, Social

Media, etc.)

Landing Page

Action(Donate, Sign up, etc.)

Thanks / Follow Up

Engagement(Funnel)

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1 – Sound Fundamentals

• Clean, attractive website

• Simple and easy donation process

– Where’s the Checkout?

• Prominent Donate button

• Capture Emails

– Most Wanted Response (MWR)

• The Funnel

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2 – Fundraising Campaigns

• A coordinated effort that includes:

– Specific Goal

– Clear call to action

– Timeline - create urgency

• Campaigns are compelling, donation pages are not

• People give to People

– Childhood Hunger v. Mary

– Individual stories are much more powerful

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2 – Fundraising Campaigns

• Emotion first >> Then Rationality

– Dan Ariely – Predictably Irrational

– What donors want to hear about:

– Organizational Impact (80%)

– Success Stories (74%)

– More details about the organization (71%)

– Info on financial accountability (43%)

» Community Philanthropy 2.0 survey (age 30-49)

• Contextual Giving

– See 5 – Contextual landing pages

• Again, works best with the Funnel

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3 – Email Marketing

• Email is still the most effective method

– 69% prefer electronic over print communication» 2011 Cygnus Donor Survey

• One to One messaging

• Relevant and enticing subject lines– Literacy eNews – January 2011, OR 5 tips to create a life long reader

• Single Call to Action in every email

• If an issue converted a donor, then it’s important to them

– Note this for later use (Segmentation / Contextual Landing Pages)

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4 – Text Focused Emails

• Generic emails or “Newsletters” no longer work

– HTML is pretty, but does it convert?

– Processing your inbox

– Relevant to reader, short, conversational

• Most email clients now block images

• Test, Test, Test

• Obama Campaign used mostly text based emails with

links to video and their site – very effective

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Example Email

• Short

• Simple call to action

• Video

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Example Results

• Landing page #4 most visited for Dec

• Much higher “avg. time on page”

• Video link most popular click-through by far

• Click-through % higher in 2010 for the final Year End

• 37% click-through from landing page to donation form

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5 – Contextual Landing Page

• Targeted for each appeal

• Keep the “conversation” going

• Email >> Landing Page >> Donation

• Segmentation and personalization

– Geography, interest, etc.

– The Environment

• Video can increase the context and the emotional

connection

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Example – Contextual Landing Page

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6 – Thank You, Thank You

• Say “Thanks” right away (auto-generated email)

• Thank them throughout the year

– Part of the Engagement / Funnel

• Provide program updates

– Let them know it could not have happened without them

– Highlight individual stories if possible

• Some can even include a soft ask

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7 – Donor Engagement

• Its not just about the donation anymore

– Donor Funnel – 7 touches

• More actions = more “invested”

• More cost effective to renew a donor

• Engaged donors extend your reach

– Social media, peer-to-peer fundraising, blogs

• Empower them to take actions

– Ask them / Events / Connect / Make it easy

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Fundraising Campaign

Traffic(Email, Direct Mail, Social

Media, etc.)

Landing Page

Action(Donate, Sign up, etc.)

Thanks / Follow Up

Engagement(Funnel)

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Action Steps

• Identify and set up a fundraising campaign

– Email > Landing page > Form > Follow up

– End of Year Campaign Webcast in September

• Select a few strategies or ideas and test

• Take action, collect results, evaluate results

• Take another action

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Q & ADownload the slides from today’s presentation:

http://www.slideshare.net/sagenonprofit

Learn about new Sage Fundraising Online

http://www.sagefundraisingonline.com/

Learn about Sage e-Marketing

http://www.sagefundraisingonline.com/

Contact Richard Dietz:

Richard<at>nonprofitrd<dot>com

www.twitter.com/nonprofit_rd

512-850-6501

Contact Sage:

www.sagenonprofit.com

www.twitter.com/sagenonprofit

800-811-0961