i on Fundraising Technology: Your Online Presence — Is a Web Site Enough?

Although it hasn’t reached the ubiquity of Facebook, an increasing number of people are relying on Twitter to receive information from their chosen sources — be they celebrities, friends or the charities they support. So, a Twitter feed from your organization with regular campaign updates will help reach those who choose to get their information this way. It’s, of course, important to link those tweets back to the Web site.

So, where does this leave our old friend e-mail? E-mail is still a powerful way to reach existing friends, if not for donor acquisition. Yes, the wastage is high, but the cost is still relatively low, and you can track how many people opened the message, clicked on the links or forwarded it to friends. But, fundraisers should bear in mind the fact that, globally, more mobile devices have Internet access than PCs, and the primary Internet usage on smart phones is e-mail. Therefore, long messages with large images may not be appropriate.

Robin Fisk is senior charity technology specialist at ASI.