Appealing to Mom

For the past two weeks, my inbox has been flooded with appeals built on Mother's Day. I confess, for my clients and for my own personal life, Mother's Day came way too early this year and left me a bit unprepared. This is why I should look at my Google Calendar every day!

So, I sat down on Sunday night and began wading through the plethora of appeals and newsletters with a Mother's Day theme. I finished up last night. I had a lot of clicking around to do.

Here are some highly unofficial statistics and notes from my inbox:

• 29 straight appeals, 21 of them with links to honor or memorial giving

• 6 of them featured gift memberships

• 18 of the appeals offered an eCard option

• 13 newsletters with mentions about Mother's Day

• Two appeals with links to video

• Moms are "choosy", "picky", "stubborn", and "hard to please"

• Donors need to "honor", "celebrate" and "surprise" Mom

• Most donors have no idea what to get their mothers for Mother’s Day

• Mom loves organic flowers, chocolates, and shirts

• But, don’t just get Mom those things--she likes eCards, too.

• Mom understands the importance of feeding the homeless and feeding children, giving water to children, helping the blind, helping the deaf, and helping fight diseases ranging from cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, etc.

• She also understands the importance of emergency relief efforts in places like Myanmar, Darfur, and Haiti, education reform, preventing animal cruelty, adopting an animal, sponsoring a child, testing for disabilities, fighting climate change, conservation of trees and nature, supporting our troops, helping people with physical disabilities, meeting people just like herself, and the current crop of political candidates running for president

• Mom is waiting for your eCard today (hopefully, she’s not just sitting by her computer literally waiting).

These messages all show the diversity of Mother’s Day as an occasion for nonprofits to build their brands and give a nice spike to their online fundraising for May. I like the idea of virtual gifts over real gifts. Gift memberships and eCards can say a lot to honor Mom. They also show moms how well she raised her children. Plus, they are easier and simpler to deliver as last-minute gift ideas.

If your organization doesn’t feel like your message or mission is directly related to Mother’s Day, you might think again. Mom apparently has a lot of interests and knows a lot of things. But, we always knew that, right?

So, with five days to go before Mother’s Day, I’ll see how many last-minute appeals arrive in my inbox. However, as a dad, I wonder how many of these same organizations will feature appeals for Dad?

Working the Numbers: The latest benchmark study

The 2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study-- a newly-released update from the original 2006 study released by M+R and NTEN. I've spent a week reading and re-reading, looking at the sites of the organizations who participated in the study, and trying to see how these apply to the entire sector. A few CEOs and development officers have asked me for a brief about it... one asked me for a five-second breakdown of the study. Wow, five seconds. OK, here goes (each bullet is one second):

• eMail open rates and click-through rates are down


• Online gifts increased and $1,000 gifts are more frequent online


• Monthly giving is up


• Nonprofits send an average of four e-mails per month


• Go download a copy and soak up the numbers yourself

The recent wave of benchmark studies should keep your organization busy reading for awhile. These studies confirm that online fundraising numbers continue to rise, even as e-mail rates drop. Segmenting and communicating through social networks and specific channels can keep your organization on the rise. And, these kinds of studies will help you make your case to invest in your online future. So, go read it, memorize it, and hopefully you can make your five-second pitch to expand your online efforts.

Don't Abandon Your Blog

A recent Harris Interactive/Verilion survey showed that a small percentage of charity supporters use social media to engage with organizations. The headline from The Chronicle of Philanthropy (Few Charity Supporters Read Nonprofit Blogs; subscription req'd) probably scared a few good organizations off blogging or even engaging with Facebook or some other social network site. However, the article does point out that 43 percent of those surveyed indicated they were interested in receiving information from these organizations through these media. So, don't abandon your comment tools or social bookmarking links just yet.

OK, so 36 percent say they wouldn't be interested in receiving updates through a blog... have they read your .org's blog? Have they discovered that your organization has an engaging voice and tons of information about the programs and resources you offer? Have they even noticed that they already read your blog because your blog is so seamless with your website? Ah, well, don't abandon your blog just yet.

Most charity supporters may not know if you have a blog or a Facebook page. You have to let your constituents know where your organization has a social network presence. Try promoting your social media with a homepage link, a webpage with links to all your social media (and don't bury it), a newsletter link, a donor newsletter article, or even as an action item on a donation acknowledgment page. Engage your existing social network constituents and donors to also help spread the word with their friends and colleagues.

Also, it's important to engage within these media once you establish them. Send newsletters, updates, and even appeals through them. Make sure friend requests or group access is granted on a rotuine basis. Update media files and build links back to your website. Ultimately, see if your CMS or CRM tools can help you capture constituent data and update content more frequently through these social media interfaces.

The cost? Well, it depends on how deep you go with your development and how much you want to market your social media presence. However, even the simplest blog, the one or two YouTube or DoGooder videos, or a Facebook Cause could catch fire with the right amount of patience attentiveness. Your 43 percent could be waiting for you online right now.

Wired Wealthy: The Rich Like YouTube?

Convio, SeaChange Strategies, and Edge Research recently released "The Wired Wealthy: Using the Internet to Connect with Your Middle and Major Donors", a fascinating look at how middle and major donors use the Web and donate online. The study surveyed donors with with email addresses who had given more than $1,000 online during an 18-month period.  The report breaks the surveyed population into three smaller groups: the "all business" donors, the "casual connectors", and the "relationship seekers", or folks who really want to build affinity with an organization online. This "emotionally connected" group made up 29% of the surveyed population, a big target for your organization to reach out to online.

Other interesting demographic notes about these high net-worth individuals (HNWI):

• 84% earn more than $100,000 annually
• 87% have a college education
• The average age is 51 years old
• 18 hours per week spent online
• 90% make purchases online
• 52% use YouTube; 16% use LinkedIn, 9% use Facebook

Your organization should download this report and decide how these HNWI survey results and figures will change your strategy. A few things can immediately change:

• Your Major Gifts group needs to communicate with these donors online, not just through dead-tree media and phone calls
• Use video on your site, preferably your homepage
• Site logins, segmented newsletters and appeals, and personalized messages should be standard issue for your website and messages with anyone who gives over $1,000
• Set your site giving levels with $1,000 or higher tiers (57% of those organizations who participated in the survey said they have received gifts at this level and above).

Ultimately, you should treat all your donors with respect and try to personalize communications. However, if you've often just siphoned off big donors from your CRM and separated them from the online world, then think again. The wealthy are wired, indeed. 

A Flitter over Twitter

OK, one week away from NTEN's Conference and I'm hooked on Twitter again. Granted, I don't have as much time to update my status as I'd like, but I love following organizations like Global Giving and TechSoup. I've been on the fence about Twitter for awhile. I even remember reading its obituary last year. I still meet people who are very enthused about it and some who are over it. And, I've met those who think it's a great channel for organizations to communicate to active online constituents.

However, you might ask: What is the real ROI of Twitter? Yes, it's fun to network and meet people and keep in touch almost instantly but does it work? Well, that depends on what your organization is trying to acomplish.

Twitter can fulfill one of the big buzz words being tossed around right now: groundswell. If your organization is a 501(c)(4) that heavily relies on social networks to get the word out, then you should start an account immediately and start encouraging your constituents to do the same. It may take some time to build a network, but you can build a very responsive network in cities and towns just by pulling in a few dedicated followers. So, when you need a groundswell for hitting the phones or attending a rally, it can really work for your org.

Can you raise money online with Twitter? Perhaps. You could create a following and then create a sense of urgency with a specific campaign. If your .org have to raise $25,000 in a week, then mobilize your Twitter devotees to hit their networks for you. Your organization can create a single login and keep it updates with event and campaign information. You might be surprised by the results.

However, that said, if your staff is already pushed to the limits and you can barely make site updates without hassle, then keep Twitter in your back pocket for now. The key part of social networking is being social; some .orgs have discovered that it's hard work to keep up with all the networks, posts, and feeds, even with updates from your devices. Perhaps you have a verby volunteer who would love to keep our .org's Twitter page a-titterin'. If you can make the most of social networks, then try to fold them into your overall ephilanthropy plans. Who knows, your .org may become Twitter-aholics.

www.twitter.com/garthmoore