The Web offers ever-increasing ways for nonprofit organizations to educate, engage and raise funds from prospects and constituents. But just because it might seem easier to connect with people online than, say, via direct mail or the telephone, that doesn't mean that it's easy or that you don't need a strategy.
uContribute.net allows consumers to make everyday online purchases through its Internet website and donate to their favorite charity at the same time, without spending any additional money. "It's a win-win situation," says Vice President of Client Relations Troy Wilson. "Consumers just make their regular purchases through our site, and the Charity of their choice makes a percentage of that purchase. Having affiliated with every major retailer on the Internet, and with many retailers providing exclusive discounts to consumers who shop through their site, uContribute.net has had an overwhelming response from non-profits seeking a share of the 200 Billion dollars in annual online sales."
Today saw the global launch of bettertheworld.com, the world's first, effortless fundraising platform that provides tools to empower millions of people to raise money for charity simply by surfing the web. The platform targets internet users who have no money to give to charity and charity supporters who want to do more.
Most organizations fail to use Internet communications to cultivate and engage middle and major donors — an expensive omission. That’s the key finding from a landmark study of the “wired wealthy” released last year by Sea Change Strategies, Edge Research and Convio.
If fundraising is the communication of a need in order to elicit a philanthropic response, then it’s obvious that in order to raise funds, you need to get the communication part right. The digital age was supposed to make things easier, but are we taking full advantage of electronic communications?
The fact that you can process a donation electronically makes it more convenient, but it doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in donation revenue. This was the first mistake by the sector — we thought that opening up donation pages on our Web sites would attract large numbers of new donors. But apart from isolated cases, that didn’t happen. And while e-mail also has become part of our communication strategy to existing supporters, we’re still struggling to see the digital age improve donor acquisition.
At the end of this month, we will witness one of the biggest transformations in our country’s history when Barack Obama steps in as the first black president of the United States. Obama’s election represents a sea change for our country in race relations. It also represents a sea change in marketing, communications and fundraising for success.
Nonprofit organizations inherently champion “community” in their work -- communities organized around fighting diseases, regional issues, oppressed groups, third-world needs, politics, education, faith and more. Yet, community is conspicuously absent in one critical area: operations. To date, nonprofits have not been able to leverage, in any significant way, their collective wealth of knowledge, experience and technology pertaining to fundraising, IT and internal processes Granted, groups such as the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation, Association of Fundraising Professionals, Nonprofit Technology Network and others facilitate community through publications, conferences, Web sites and other vehicles for education, networking and knowledge share. But the ability to do this
Nonprofit organizations inherently champion “community” in their work -- communities organized around fighting diseases, regional issues, oppressed groups, third-world needs, politics, education, faith and more. Yet, community is conspicuously absent in one critical area: operations. To date, nonprofits have not been able to leverage, in any significant way, their collective wealth of knowledge, experience and technology pertaining to fundraising, IT and internal processes Granted, groups such as the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation, Association of Fundraising Professionals, Nonprofit Technology Network and others facilitate community through publications, conferences, Web sites and other vehicles for education, networking and knowledge share. But the ability to do this
Ed Note: This article, which originally appeared Sept. 9 at TechSoup, is courtesy of Idealware. Idealware provides candid information to help nonprofits choose effective software. For more articles and reviews, go to www.idealware.org. Do you want to create letterhead for your nonprofit, or lay out a monthly newsletter or report? Send thank-you cards to donors? Create an invite for your next event? All these tasks fall under the umbrella of page layout. If you have a complicated project or need a polished result, it probably makes sense to hire a freelance designer. Professionals in that field have an eye for design and a broad
[Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the debut issue of “All About E-Mail,” the new, free, weekly e-letter from the Target Marketing Group. To subscribe, click here. Look for Part 2 of this two-part series in the Sept. 10 edition of Giving 2.0, when the authors will explain the importance of designing for preview panes and testing your e-mail messages before they are deployed.] HTML e-mail designers face a number of challenges when it comes to renderability across multiple e-mail programs. The lack of standards creates an environment where each ISP has its own rules. This means the same HTML code is assembled
