How to Thrive in a Down Economy: Tips for Improving Online Giving

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1 How to Thrive in a Down Economy: Tips for Improving Online Giving AFP Central New York Chapter December Luncheon Syracuse, NY December 8, 2008 Jono Smith Network for Good

2 About Network for Good Network for Good is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, founded in 2001 by AOL, Yahoo! & Cisco Our mission is to make it easier for nonprofits to raise money online, and for people to give online Network for Good has processed over $200 million in donations for over 30,000 nonprofits. We manage all of the online fundraising on Facebook and MySpace

3 Key Takeaways Why December is the most important month for online fundraising The basics of an effective online marketing and fundraising strategy An introduction to Web 2.0 Selecting and implementing the marketing & fundraising tools The Case Studies Marketing Best Practices How TNC engaged a new audience on Flickr To Blog? How Kevin Bacon Flipped the Funnel for Nonprofits What s the deal with Causes on Facebook? Bottom line: A few good ideas to try at the office

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5 Big Numbers $7 billion 50% 24%

6 Why Online Giving is the Great Equalizer At Network for Good, 50% the donations go to 1% of charities (excluding crisis giving) The rest 25,000 nonprofits are spread out along the long tail Small to medium-sized nonprofits account for 70% of giving via Network for Good

7 How much can a small nonprofit raise? Budget: under $250, nonprofits $9.2 million raised Monthly average: $603 Annual average: $7,200 Network for Good (2007)

8 Why December Is So Important Over 45% of annual giving via Network for Good s donation processing system is during December; this percentage of annual giving has remained consistent within 5% since In December, nearly half of the donations for the month are in the last 6 days, when nearly each day we are processing $1 million or more in donations.

9 Why December Is So Important Regardless of when the days of the week vs. weekends fall over the holidays the pattern of the spike in giving remains constant. Average donation is higher in December-in 2007 it was $189 versus during other months when we see an average donation of $135.

10 Who Is Giving Online?* Online givers are young (38-39 years old) They are generous -- ($163) Men and women give online in equal numbers Virtually all (96%) have given to charity before, but 38% haven t given online before *Network for Good Study, The Young and Generous

11 Why Are They Giving Online?* It s easier than writing a check It s a fast way to provide disaster relief It can be anonymous They like recurring donations *Network for Good Study, The Young and Generous

12 10-Point Online Check-Up 1. Is your URL guessable? 2. Do you use website design strategically? 3. Do you provide relevant content? 4. Can you collect addresses on your website? 5. Can you accept online donations on your website? 6. Do you tell your story through pictures, videos, or podcasts? 7. Do you have a blog? 8. Do you use marketing to drive traffic back to your website? 9. Can people find your website in search engines? 10. Do your publish your URL on every communication, both online and offline?

13 Rule #1: Make your Donate button obvious.

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15 Rule #2: Build your list Still sending your newsletter from Microsoft Outlook? Six reasons you need an service provider 1. Your s may look terrible. 2. You may get blacklisted 3. Say hello to your recipients spam, junk or bulk mail folder. 4. Send s to thousands of recipients, and you'll get all the bounce-backs and auto-replies from them. So much for free time! 5. You might be breaking the law. According to the CAN-SPAM law, if someone requests to be removed from your list, you must do so within 10 business days. 6. You won't know if anyone is reading your s.

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17 Grow your List with Tell-A-Friend

18 What makes a good campaign? Get serious about the subject line February Newsletter 5 Tips to Fight Global Warming Focus above the fold Most people use a preview pane when perusing their inbox, so it s important when laying out your s content to put a lot of attention on the top four inches and use that prime real estate to the best of your abilities.

19 What makes a good campaign? Personalizing beyond Dear Bob. Personalization really does boost response rates. But don t stop at a personal greeting. Try segmenting your list by gender, geography or anything else you know about your recipients, so you can personalize the content based on the people to whom you re sending. After all, showing that you know someone s first name is great; showing them you really know, respect and care about them is even better.

20 Rapid Donor Cultivation (RDC) In the online retail industry, savvy retailers noticed that online prospect affinity is typically highest for the first 30 days after the visitor opts in to the retailer s list. This honeymoon period the high-affinity phase is characterized by higher open, click, and conversion rates.

21 Rapid Donor Cultivation (RDC) It turns out that this behavior is also demonstrated by new nonprofit e-subscribers. You can capitalize on this high affinity period by sending a stream of carefully crafted s with select content and calls-to-action to the new subscriber over the first 30 days. TIP: Test a 5 or 10- stream, ending with a targeted fundraising ask.

22 Sample RDC Campaign Issue 1. Welcome Read article on website 2. Elephants Visit blog 3. Elephants Petition 4. Whales Quiz 5. Whales Survey 6. Eagles Photo Contest 7. Eagles Audio 8. Puppy Mills Video 9. Puppy Mills Donate 10. Puppy Mills Donate

23 RDC Results The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) was the first organization to explore this innovative concept of Rapid Donor Cultivation The time to first gift decreased by 17 days Rate of conversion of subscribers to donors increased by 83% Rate of conversion of subscribers to activists increased by 110% Average value of first gift increased by 15%

24 RDC Strategy For smaller organizations that lack robust programs and struggle with staffing constraints, RDC is a cost-effective strategy to ensure that new subscribers consistently receive effective stewardship, and a high quality, timely fundraising ask.

25 December Send your donors a fundraising the day after Christmas. Test two different versions. The growth in online giving is especially notable in the last week of December, when online giving s advantages of convenience and immediacy are crucial. Nearly 45% of annual giving via Network for Good s donation processing system is during December. Nearly half of the amount we processed last December, which was $20M, was donated in the last 5 days of the year.

26 December Strategy In addition to your core mailings your have planned in December, be sure to send out an extra appeal between the 26th and the 31st. The last week in the year is always hectic which means your message should be short and simple; reminding people how easy it is to make their year-end gift online in the last few days of the month.

27 December Strategy Network for Good s top performing mailing is the one we send on the 30th with a short and simple reminder, Still Time to Donate in 2007! This year especially, when people may have less money, remember to highlight monthly donations as a way to afford the same level of giving spread out over time.

28 What Other Fundraising Tactics Work? Multiple Appeal Series. Messages sent as part of a cohesive, multiple appeal campaign over the course of three weeks outperform one-time appeals, resulting in both a higher response rate and a higher average gift. Deadline-Driven. Appeals and series that included a deadline by which gifts must be made tended to be more effective than openended appeals without specific deadlines. Matching Gift. The idea of making a donation that will be doubled by another donor (or group of donors) is motivational to many online donors. A matching gift campaign also provides the perfect rationale to introduce a deadline and to send out multiple appeals, both good ways to boost returns. Source: Online Fundraising Tactics What Works?

29 Rule #3: Make your organization easy to find Organic Sponsored

30 Rule #3: Make your organization easy to find Sponsored Organic

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33 Do you have a call to inaction problem? Think About Your Audience Who Is Your Audience & What Do you Want Them To Do? What Is Your Call To Action?

34 Rule #4: Put yourself in your donor s shoes. Online marketing is not a monologue. You are not the target audience Marketing is about looking at the world from the point of view of our audience rather than our own. The Mission Megaphone

35 Think About Your Audience Marketing should compel action. WHO 60-year-old activist WHAT WE WANT FROM THEM (What actions do we want them to take) Volunteer time to recruit others to our cause 40-year-old long distance caregiver Give address to your organization Sign up online for monthly giving

36 Your Call to Action Must Answer 4 Questions! 1. Why Me? (Donor-centric) 2. Why Now? (Urgent) 3. What For? (Tangible) 4. Who Says? (Messenger)

37 Tools to engage a new or existing audience Online photo management & sharing application has two main goals: 1. We want to help people make their content available to the people who matter to them. 2. We want to enable new ways of organizing photos and video.

38 The Nature Conservancy Flickr Campaign Launched an annual digital photography contest on Flickr Promised winners of contest placement for their photos in the annual member calendar and nature.org web site Ran integrated campaign with cultivations, search engine ads and social networks to draw in both members and new leads Source: Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

39 The Nature Conservancy Flickr Campaign Allowed entrants to participate solely on Flickr, but also by sending photos directly (w/ opt-out registration for our list) TNC picked the finalists, but let the public vote on the winners Never asked for money, only for engagement Source: Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

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44 Outcomes Over 8,500 members of TNC s photo group on Flickr who have shared nearly 94,000 photos (~11 photos per member) One of the largest nonprofit groups on Flickr to date Great, positive feedback from members and new prospects Source: Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

45 Outcomes Coverage for (and many links to) our photo contest in numerous photography and nature picture blogs, discussion boards Over 10% click-through rate on ads promoting the contest Over 7,200 new e-members registered Over 5,000 votes for 2006 contest; over 17,000 votes for 2007 Source: Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

46 Why did this work? TNC framed their call-to-action to answer all four questions: 1. Why me? The pictures helped the audience relate to the cause. 2. Why now? The contest created urgency 3. What for? People were rewarded for participating. 4. Who says? TNC put their message in the hands of their supporters.

47 Online Marketing & Fundraising in a Web 2.0 World

48 Definition Web 2.0 is about people using technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from your nonprofit! Adapted from Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff

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50 Reality Check Social networks are not a silver bullet for online fundraising.

51 Finding Your Wired Supporters 1. Who are your potential wired activists, volunteers or fundraisers? 2. How do they use social networks? 3. Where can you find them? 4. What should you ask them to do? 5. What tools do they need?

52 The 3-step approach to Web 2.0 People Focus on where people are Objectives Decide what you want to accomplish (hint: community first, fundraising second) Strategy, Tactics, & Technology Avoid random acts of marketing. Don t be just another fool with a tool Adapted from Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff

53 Tools to find supporters and monitor them

54 To blog? 1. Are you listening to your online community? 2. Do you have something unique to say? 3. Are you willing and able to say it? 4. Are you willing to be challenged and criticized? 5. Are you willing and able to dedicate the resources to succeed? Source: Matt Dickman, Techno//Marketer blog:

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57 Where is your traffic coming from?

58 Strategy: Person-to-Person Fundraising The process of gathering money and other gifts in kind, by empowering individuals to solicit from and communicate with prospective donors of their own choosing through the use of Web 2.0 (i.e., blogs, widgets, images, video, face-to-face interactions and other social media). Synonyms: group fundraising, personal fundraising, viral fundraising, grassroots fundraising, peer-to-peer fundraising. Source: Peter Deitz, Social Actions, Founder

59 Fundraising Widgets A person-to-person fundraising widget is an online tool that permits a portion of one webpage to appear on other webpages. These multiple appearances look exactly the same and can be updated from a single source.

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61 Meet the Wired Fundraiser A wired fundraiser is a word-ofmouth maven who is highly effective at fundraising for a cause in an ever-widening personal sphere of influence online. They are naturals at connecting to others. They are very good at what they do for a simple reason: people are most likely to give when someone they know asks them (2006 Cone Nonprofit Research).

62 Personal Motivation: Robin Maxwell I m a runner and a tri-athlete, and the mother of two small children, and girl scout leader. I went from being totally normal and healthy to facing a life of paralysis and future disability, and those were really, really dark days, those first two weeks. --Robin, MS Society Blue Ridge Chapter

63 Robin s Story

64 Causes on Facebook The 30+ audience is the fastest growing segment of Facebook.

65 Causes on Facebook The Causes application for Facebook adds the ability to solicit and make donations from within Facebook.

66 Causes on Facebook Allows American and Canadian 501(c)(3)s to recruit supporters and fundraise directly on Facebook Raised $3.2MM for 25,000 charities since June MM total installs, 5MM monthly active users

67 Facebook Cause: Love Without Boundaries Has raised over $150,000 from 4,115 donors. A small nonprofit with just 3% overhead and an all-volunteer staff, Love Without Boundaries seeks to give medical care to orphans in China in hopes of readying them for adoption. Their staff, who are older, nontraditional Facebook users, were able to spread the cause through their social network, bringing in thousands of Facebook users who had never before heard of their small nonprofit.

68 Love Without Boundaries every bit of the fundraising was done by people like me, recruiting friends and sending s. The old model--wooing big donors--requires considerable time and expense, albeit with bigger payoffs.

69 Lessons Learned 1. Focus on audience values not your own 2. Choose the right messenger Think like the Marine Corps: the few, the proud 3. Have faith in your audience 4. Provide a sense of urgency 5. Plug your wired fundraisers into great tools & resources 6. Trust leads to results

70 Facebook Resources For tips and resources, visit: Including: Starting a Cause on Facebook Everything You Need to Know About Using Facebook as a Nonprofit Marketing Tool

71 Measurement Ingredients Engagement & Reach Page Impressions, Visits, Unique Visitors Time Spent, Pages per visitor s opened, click-throughs Videos viewed, audio plays Word of Mouth Number of Mentions, Posts, Comments Recommendations Mentions-per-user Send This To A Friend Inbound links Earned Media Offline media mentions Online media mentions Search Visibility Higher search results Greater search results share 3 rd party results Research Customer/stakeholder feedback Product sampling Source: Qui Diaz, Livingston Communications:

72 4 Rules for Fundraising & Marketing in a Web 2.0 World Don t let your online presence be just a brochure website Go to where people are, using the infinite variety of the Internet Flip the funnel: Tap into user participation (personto-person fundraising, wired fundraisers, social media) Don t get carried away by the hype; you still need all the offline stuff

73 Closing Thought Inspiration + Know how + Tools = Change the World

74 Contact Jono Smith, Director of Marketing Network for Good Website: Learning Center: LinkedIn:

75 References Beth Kanter s Blog: beth.typepad.com Nonprofit Marketing Blog: The Nature Conservancy: Peter Dietz/Social Actions: blog.socialactions.com

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