M+R and the Advocacy Institute have released the eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, which
is the first of its kind to look at the overall effectiveness of nonprofits using the Internet to raise money, build e-mail lists, and influence political causes. The study provides an across-the-board look at how well leading American nonprofits are performing online.

"These days, for dot-coms, success on the Internet is based on sales and revenue," says Benjamin Smith, vice president at M+R Strategic Services and a study co-author. "For nonprofits, success online is more difficult to measure. Is it the quality of information provided, donations collected, or impact on policy? This study helps nonprofits identify key success metrics to evaluate their programs."

"Nonprofits have only recently begun using the Internet for marketing and fundraising purposes, so they have little history from which to benchmark success," says the Advocacy Institute's Jennifer Milewski, also a study co-author. "The ENonprofit Benchmarks Study finally gives nonprofits a tool they can use to measure their own online success and compare their success with that of other nonprofits active online."

"Industry benchmarks for online outreach are critical so nonprofits can measure their success objectively," says Kira Marchenese, Director of Internet Strategy for Environmental Defense. "Without anything to compare our results to, it's hard to tell whether we could do a better job."

Some key findings:

• More Donations Online: Nonprofits raised 40% more money online in 2005 than the year before, likely driven in part by the surge in online giving after the cataclysmic Asian tsunami.
• E-Mail Overload: The rates at which online constituents open their e-mails declined from 30% in 2003-2004 to 26% in 2004-2005 as supporters became overwhelmed with e-mail.
• Budgets Matter: Nonprofits with larger online budgets had better online programs, building larger e-mail lists, generating more online activism, and raising more money online.
• E-Mail Lists Growing: On average, the nonprofits studied more than doubled their existing e-mail lists over a 12-month period.
• Bad E-Mail Addresses: Yet, for most nonprofits, over a quarter of e-mail addresses on their list go bad each year, posing a challenge for organizations trying to grow e-mail lists quickly.
• Activism More Popular Than Donations: Not surprisingly, more e-mail subscribers took online political action than made an online donation - 47% vs. 6%.