Web Bonus: The Art and Science of e-Cultivation

5. Extend your organization’s online presence to social networking sites. Use personal outreach tools to empower supporters to extend your fundraising campaigns to their online social networks. For example, Oxfam’s official MySpace page added more than 7,000 friends, and the MySpace-Oxfam America “Rock for Darfur” campaign raised more than $13,000 and added 200 new donors to Oxfam’s list, with donations larger than the organization’s average. The ASPCA’s official MySpace page added more than 4,000 friends, providing visitors an engaging user experience that included the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” audio; a survey with results going directly to the ASPCA database; a video encouraging monthly giving; and a Flash movie.

While every nonprofit organization needs to find its own recipe for online success, those achieving the most online share a number of common attributes, including driving traffic to their Web site, converting Web traffic into registered users who then can be cultivated into donors, growing their e-mail files and generating a high response rate for online appeals.

While technology is not a “silver bullet,” advances in online fundraising technology empower nonprofits to utilize these best practices and generate stronger results.

Sheeraz Haji is president of Convio Inc.