Digital Marketing and Fundraising

Before launching into my any discussion about digital marketing, I must emphasize that the more traditional fundraising channels (i.e., direct mail) must be complemented and enhanced by all emerging fundraising channels (i.e., e-appeals). When there is strategic integration of all fundraising channels, you achieve the best possible results. This article touches on five main digital strategies: mobile, websites, e-mail, using digital media to thank donors and social media.

Go mobile
Check out these statistics: 98 percent of anyone who’s online uses e-mail, and more than 44 percent have mobile smartphones. It is projected that by 2014 mobile Internet usage will overtake desktop computer Internet usage … that means your donors will expect your websites to be mobile-optimized. One interesting study reported the average mobile user only waits five seconds for a Web page to properly load on her mobile device before abandoning the effort. Another study reports that adults spend more media time on mobile devices/smartphones than with newspapers and magazines combined, which is why magazines and newspapers without digital elements are in trouble. Your mobile smartphone is now your wallet, your checkbook, your telephone … it’s everything. Your credit cards are going away, your checkbook is going away and soon we will be processing all our purchasing transactions on our smartphones.

That is why it’s so important that your website and donation pages are mobile-friendly, and convenient and easy to access and navigate.

Let’s stop here and do a little test: Take out your smartphone, and log on to your nonprofit website. Does it quickly load? Is it sized correctly? Are you able to easily navigate, and most importantly can you process a donation?

Speaking of websites …
I have audited many nonprofit websites, and generally they do tend to be content-rich, if not a little wordy (something you can easily address).