E-mail

Getting Schooled in Online Giving
August 20, 2008

Nonprofits have a new tool to better understand online giving thanks to Donation University. The free, Web-based guide was created by online-donation gateway Qgiv to help people understand how payments make their way from donors to organizations. “Everything in Donation University was built on the idea that people were genuinely confused about the world of online giving,” says Peter Rudden, Qgiv’s director of marketing. “We felt the best way to address these concerns and provide the necessary guidance to those seeking to accept donations via the Web, including recurring donations, event registrations and other payment options, was to create an educational Web site.

E-Mail No-Nos to Avoid
August 6, 2008

“If you don’t subscribe to Media Post or Uncle Roger’s Agitator blog, then perhaps you haven’t read the latest from Silverpop’s Loren McDonald. Read on and find out what Loren says are the biggest email design & marketing mistakes to avoid! 1. Making it difficult to unsubscribe. 2. No ‘welcome’ message and/or waiting weeks to send the first message. 3. Over mailing. 4. Using a large single image as the core of your email. 5. Not using alt tags. 6. Relying on graphical links. 7. Not having a preference center. 8. Not designing for the preview pane. 9. Using a person’s name in

E-mail Appends: The Good, the Bad and the Realistic
August 1, 2008

As with any new industry, the early days of online fundraising were filled with both success and failure. Some organizations quickly found a new stream of revenue … while others found themselves struggling to get out of that black hole known as the spam filter.

10 Tips for Fundraising in Tough Times
May 14, 2008

[This is] a challenging year. In addition to the recession, we are also seeing some other troubling indicators. Direct mail-based donor acquisition is getting harder and more expensive due to postage rate increases, mailing list fatigue and postal mail delivery challenges. Many nonprofits have cut back on direct mail-based acquisition efforts as donor files shrink and current communication approaches fail to align with a more empowered “new breed of donor” — constituents who value transparency about how their funds are being applied, are increasingly taking an active role in their philanthropy and have high expectations as to how they should be communicated to online.

eView: Political Marketers Have Embraced Web 2.0, But What About Online Advertising?
May 14, 2008

There is no question political and advocacy campaigns have embraced the Internet as part of the 2008 campaign cycle. Blogs, social networks and the YouTube phenomenon all are prevalent aspects of the marketing mix, and most campaigns have perfected fundraising and e-mail marketing online. However, to date, the presidential campaigns have overlooked an opportunity to capitalize on what non-political marketers have known for years: online advertising works. Otherwise, it would not be a $20 billion industry, surpassing radio advertising revenue and continuing to grow at 20 percent each year. Today, online represents about 7 percent of all commercial advertising spending in the U.S., versus

Books: Using Technology to Mobilize Young People
April 30, 2008

The question isn’t whether or not nonprofits should use new media and technologies to engage new members — but how. Ben Rigby’s new book, “Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web 2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth,” provides organizations and campaigns with a how-to on finding and targeting young supporters, volunteers, members and donors. The book, presented by Rock the Vote, briefly touches on fundraising, but primarily focuses on friendraising — using new media to engage young people now in the hopes of making them donors later. Throughout the book, Rigby reviews the most popular Web 2.0

You Too Can 2.0!
April 16, 2008

Facebook and MySpace and Twitter, oh my! While I’m not the yellow brick road to lead you to the Emerald City of social-networking Utopia, I am a real, living, breathing, Facebook-surfing, Gen Y, nonprofit professional. My goal for this column, which will appear bimonthly in FundRaising Success’ Giving 2.0 e-letter, is to help nonprofits understand the who, what and why of Web 2.0. This medium shouldn’t be viewed as a frightening, unknown forest filled with predators, but a world of opportunity to share your message with new demographics in a plethora of innovative, creative ways. By breaking down the world of Web 2.0, I

Blogging the NTEN Conference
April 2, 2008

There was no shortage of cyber chatter surrounding last month’s Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans. Here’s a sampling of some observations from bloggers around the country. For a more comprehensive list of blog entries about the conference, click here. “Observations on the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference,” posted March 26 by Kurt Voelker and Andrew Cohen, chief technology officer and project director, respectively, at Forum One Communications’ INfluence blog: Kurt Voelker and I (Andrew Cohen), traveled to New Orleans to participate in the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference. This was my fourth conference and the most useful and fulfilling. In addition our volunteering and presenting,

Getting Customers to Opt Out of Opting Out
March 19, 2008

While a recent study by the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Experience Council found online retailers do a great job of honoring unsubscribe requests quickly, it also found they could improve their opt-out processes, such as by providing subscribers with alternatives to opting out or at least lowering the barriers to doing so. The study — EEC’s first Retail Email Unsubscribe Benchmark Study — examines the opt-out practices of 94 of the largest online retailers tracked via RetailEmail.Blogspot, EEC’s blog that tracks the e-mail marketing campaigns of e-tailers. Chad White, the author of the study and EEC’s director of retail insights, and editor-at-large and

E-mail on Steroids
November 20, 2007

[Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the October 2007 issue of FundRaising Success sister publication Target Marketing, and is written from a for-profit point of view. The solid tips hold equally true for nonprofit mailers.] Do you monitor your competitors’ e-mail programs? If so, you may note some appear to be addicted to frequency and often send several messages a week. Under most circumstances, this is a misguided attempt to keep in front of their e-mail list. Relevance always trumps frequency. Quantity does not equal quality. Successful marketers don’t push their messages. Instead, they strive to understand their subscribers’ needs, preferences and