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Thursday, October 1, 2009
Competition is a powerful motivator and the Jewish Community Heroes campaign is a great example of how to harness people's competitive instincts to achieve multiple benefits. I learned about the campaign when I recently received an email encouraging me to vote for noted holocaust survivor and author Gerda Weissmann Klein to be recognized as a Jewish Hero. She is a very worthy hero in my mind, so I happily clicked the link and voted for her. After voting, I was given an opportunity to get updates on the voting and FIND OUT WHO WINS! by just providing my email address and zip code. When I did, I was invited to Spread The Word by emailing friends. Brilliant, think about how this seemingly simple website is able to achieve so many desirable goals including:
- providing recognition for many worthy individuals - not just the winner, but everyone who is nominated.
- engaging constituents in the process of nomination, voting and campaigning.
- dramatically expanding website visitors and collecting lots of email addresses using viral and social networking techniques that require very little effort (or really commitment) from participants.
Although creating a sophisticated campaign like this may be beyond your non-profit's current capacity, there are still some great lessons about using friendly competition (a common option in team-raising and sponsored event tools) and about using non-fundraising engagement tools (e.g. petitions and surveys) to build email lists that can be cultivated into active supporters. Labels: donor email addresses, fundraising basics, social networking
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Over $600 million dollars, with a record breaking $150 Million raised in September -- in the midst of a steeply declining stock market and widespread economic worries. What is the Obama campaign doing right and what can your non-profit learn from this success?
Small donations can really add-up - Consider this quote from a recent LA Times Blog post:
"The Wall Street crisis appears to have had little effect on Obama's small-time donors. He expanded his fundraising base by 632,000 individuals in September to a record total of 3.1 million -- most of whom gave in small amounts. Roughly half of the $605 million Obama has raised has come from small donors, and nearly all of them give over the Internet."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/10/barack-obama-to.html
Reduced response levels from direct mail and the allure of major gifts can cause nonprofits to focus less effort on small donors, but ignoring smaller donations is a mistake. The Internet can provide a remarkably efficient and effective tool for collecting large sums in small amounts.
But what is bringing all these donors to the Obama website to give?
Great content - Check out Obama's website. There is lots of real information for visitors to learn about the candidate's positions on important issues, but even more importantly many calls to action to get involved, not just by making a donation, but volunteering, sign-up for email, etc. Giving people a reason to visit your website and multiple options for becoming involved is certainly lesson #1.
Effective email list building - Its pretty hard to go anywhere on the Obama website without providing your email address and the campaign has collected millions of them and used them very effectively to solicit financial and organizational support.
Leveraging supporters for personalized donation requests - The Obama campaign has not only mastered the use of social networking tools like Facebook, MySpace, etc., but they've provided supporters with simple tools to solicit friends and family to get involved and make an online donation or sign up for a mailing list. These personalized donation requests have been another critical piece to the growth of Obama's email list and online fundraising success.
Creative use of technology - If you think personalization only applies to soliciting donations, read this wonderful post about someones experience after making an online donation to Obama.
http://authenticorganizations.com/harquail/2008/09/23/obamas-website-made-me-cry/
Compelling message - Certainly a critical aspect of the Obama campaigns successful use of technology wouldn't be possible without his strong and motivational message. Fundraising success always requires communication that inspires people to action and Barak Obama has proven himself a true master of this. Although you and I may not have Obama's gift for communication, we can still apply this lesson (Inspiration = Motivation) when crafting email donor solicitations and website messaging.
Doing it well takes time and energy - The Obama campaigns online fundraising success didn't just happen, they have clearly spent lots of time and money developing and refining their website, emails, and messaging. Undoubtedly each of their successful efforts was proceeded by numerous less successful ones with their ultimate success the result of continuous testing and refinement.Labels: donor email addresses, fundraising basics, online donations
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Testing and measuring the results of direct mail is one of the most basic concepts for mailing success. Small changes, like the size of the envelope and use of a stamp vs. metering actually have a dramatic impact on your results. Only by experimentation and then comparing and analyzing your results can you find the most effective direct mail piece.
Well the same principal applies to constituent email messages, as well as the design of your website, but many nonprofits don't do the same type of testing for these media. It's ironic because electronic media actually make it easier to quickly and easily measure performance.
For email, the critical measures are:
Email open % - Though not a perfect measure due to differences in email systems, this is one of the simplest way to evaluate subject lines and mailing times
Click thru % - Most emails should have a desired action such as visiting a page of your website. E-mail marketing systems like Constant Contact track the % of recipients that click each link in your email.
The main elements you can experiment with are:
Subject line - The decision to open your email depends on it. The recipient wants to know who it is from and how it is relevant to them, but it also needs to be short (less than 50 characters including spaces).
Day & time of email - Conventional wisdom suggests sending emails during the day and avoiding weekends and holidays -- so the recipients are at their desks and your message isn't among dozens of other emails. Truthfully, there is no sure rule for what will work best for your audience, so try different schedules and measure the results for yourself. Also consider varying the timing occasionally.
Text vs. Graphical emails - Although graphical emails are more attractive, simple text emails can work better at times, particularly when you want a personal feel and want a specific action (respond or click a link). Typically text-based emails don't allow you to measure open and click-through rates easily, so evaluating them might require measuring the end result (e.g. track number of donations generated within 48 hours of mailing -- if you test a text and graphical email solicitation with a link to your online donation page). If you use Constant Contact, they actually have a "text template" that looks and acts like a text email, but still includes the HTML graphic "beacon" to track open rates.
So for your next broadcast email, do a test one of these aspects first, compare the results and then send the version that works best to your broader list. Let me know if your results improve -- I bet they will.Labels: donor email addresses
Monday, July 7, 2008
Sure it's a rhetorical question. But are you really encouraging online donations in your direct mail solicitations? Not just by mentioning it as an option, but making it clear that it is the fastest, easiest and most cost effective way for the donor to give to your cause. Why not even offer an incentive for those who make their donation online?
Why push donors to give online?
It generates larger gifts - As much as 30% more according to studies I've read!
Collects email addresses - Virtually 100% of online donors will provide their current email address vs. much lower rates when you ask for the email address by other means.
Increases website visitors - Giving you an opportunity to tell them more about your programs and achievements.
Potential to promote recurring gifts - A well-designed donation page can present donors the option and encourage them to make a recurring monthly pledge, instead of one-time gift. By doing this via an online (vs. paper) form it's easier to step the donor through providing the necessary information and authorization.
Encouraging donors to make their gift online might take a little initial effort but I can assure you that the long-term benefits will make it well worthwhile.Labels: donor email addresses, online donations
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