E-Philanthropy

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.

“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

[Author’s Note: 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] “Social networking is great, but we just don’t have the time or staff for that kind of thing.” Does this sound familiar to you? It probably does, because it’s become the motto of many an overworked, understaffed nonprofit organization.

Over the past year, constituent relationship management software vendors for nonprofits have been parading around the concept of “open” to the marketplace like presidential candidates touting “change.” Like “change,” “open” is something everyone wants, but few people define it the same way. This creates confusion and, inevitably, disappointment for customers who expect their concept of “open,” but get the vendor’s version instead. Even worse, all the marketing buzz around the “open revolution” is obscuring the real question: How does your organization truly get the unique CRM features and functionality its business processes require to execute your mission and change lives? CRM today is the

Widgets are dynamic and interactive online tools that can help nonprofits reach supporters and donors where they are — online. And now, thanks to online widget builder Sprout, nonprofits don’t need computer geniuses on staff to create them. Sprout is an easy way for anyone to build, publish and manage widgets, said Peter Deitz, a microphilanthropy consultant and founder of Social Actions, which helps individuals, nonprofits and foundations use social media to plan, implement and support peer-to-peer, social-change campaigns. It’s simple because once widgets are launched, a nonprofit can update all of them from a single control panel and track where they appear

Most nonprofit newsletters are boring. I subscribe to about 20 of them, and only one or two are interesting enough to regularly skim. Most are full of cookie-cutter human-interest stories that elicit little more than a yawn. This got me thinking, is this sample representative? If so, yikes! Newsletters are an important way that we cultivate relationships with donors. If we’re generally dull and needy in those communications, our audience will lose interest. And that ultimately spells financial heartbreak for us. So what’s a nonprofit to do? How do we take our newsletters from snoring to soaring? Looking for an easy answer

In 2001, I launched a small, Web-based nonprofit organization called eActivist.org. Like most other small nonprofits, we were strapped for cash. At the time, “Donate Now” buttons were the latest and greatest in nonprofit fundraising, and I had the highest of hopes and expectations for this new and cutting-edge technology.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the May issue of FS sister publication eM+C. It’s written for for-profit e-marketers, but the information is equally applicable to nonprofits looking to increase their presence and fundraising power online.

[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.

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