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If you like what you read, support us by becoming a member. INTRODUCTION Fall. The leaves are changing colors, the air is crisp, and every nonprofit in the land is planning its end-of-the-year fundraising appeal. This time last year, that meant that many of you were struggling with how to write that perfect email appeal. This year, many of you are grappling with how to let your donors write and disseminate those appeals for you. The launch of Google Checkout for Non-profits will certainly appeal. In this issue, we'll also cover what the explosion of mobile technology, along with social networking sites and widgets, means for your online fundraising, and provide an insider's guide to the successful email campaign while we're at it. And if you find this issue particularly helpful, don't forget that you can give a little end of the year donation to NTEN as well! Finally, a warm thank you to all of you who have welcomed me to my new role as NTEN's Executive Director. Many thanks especially to Katrin for her support and encouragement, as well as her wealth of Best, Holly
You heard it from NTEN first: Google announced today the launch of Google Checkout for Non-Profits. Qualified nonprofit organizations can now sign up to accept charitable donations through Google Checkout -- for free -- through at least the end of 2008. That’s right: no monthly, set-up, transaction, or gateway fees. This time, "free" actually means, well, free. Google Checkout has already become a popular way for merchants to process credit card transactions over the Internet because of its low transaction fees, the typically straight-forward interface, and the reliability of the Google brand. Now, donors will be able to contribute to their favorite charitable organizations using a single login across the web, increasing the potential that they will donate over and over again. Indeed, many of your potential donors may already have a Google Checkout account. It's like a Development Director's fantasy.
Online fundraising -- specifically the email appeal -- is successful when you manage to bundle the long list of fundraising best practices into one package and send it on to your e-supporters. The Breast Cancer Fund ran a successful campaign, achieving their goal of $10,000 -- with just two emails sent four days apart -- by doing many things right. They got the online fundraising fundamentals correct, and two of them in particular: the email envelope and the email body. Using this real campaign, I'll unravel these two important best practice components and highlight key tactics and benchmarks to give you a bucket of new tricks for your next email fundraising campaign.
Michael Stein, Internet Strategist
Mobile phones have become an emerging tool for nonprofits that are seeking to engage with supporters, recruit volunteers, and raise money. MobileActive.org has published its third guide on mobile activism, entitled "Using Mobile Phones in Fundraising Campaigns", written by Michael Stein, an Internet strategist based in Berkeley, California. The Guide features case studies from around the world, strategies for using mobile phones in fundraising, and a how-to section for organizations considering using mobile phones to support their causes. The Guide includes the following sections:
Peter Deitz, Micro-Philanthropy Consultant
When it comes to online fundraising, an obvious tip is to meet your current and potential donors where they are. Today, millions of prospective donors between the ages of 18 and 35 find themselves on Facebook. In June 2007, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the release of FBML, a scripting language that assists developers in creating custom "applications" for the popular social network and its 40 million active users. Each application enhances the functionality of Facebook in one way or another. Some build bridges to external web sites. Others help friends on Facebook interact in new ways. To help tech-savvy nonprofits sort through the fundraising options, this brief guide includes:
HOW TO: PUT TECHNOLOGY TO USE
Your guide to resources that will help you put technology to work for your cause.
Make Money with Facebook (provided by Peter Deitz) > Are Nonprofits actually raising money through Facebook? Read "The Long, Long Tail of Facebook Causes" and "Facebook changes the numbers!", then check out the metrics on Causes, Change.org, ChipIn, and Fundraising. > The emergence of Facebook as a fundraising force has certainly caught people's attention:
> And if you're not totally Facebooked out (Facebookered?), you can learn more at:
Map Your Presence > The American Institute of Architects has put GoogleEarth to great use with Blueprint for America. Their template for adding information to the project is also a model of clear documentation. Another project of note: Google is helping the Surui tribe map their territory along the Amazon to monitor illegal logging. > GoogleEarth makes it relatively straightforward to map your organization's data via the KML file format. Read Google's own documentation or quickly learn to overlay KML on Google's MyMaps. > You can learn more about Geographical Information Systems (GIS) at our upcoming webinar.
THINGS WE LIKE
A monthly roundup of our favorite nonprofit tech resources. Read more posts on our blog.
COMMUNITY BUZZ
News and buzz from people and organizations in the nonprofit tech sector. Read our posts on the NTEN blog.
Whither Web 2.0? > A recent report by the Overbrook Foundation calls into question the adoption rate of web 2.0 technologies among its nonprofit grantees. Key among the findings is the frustration respondents experienced about which tools to use and where to turn for help. > On the flip side, a report by GEO finds that grantmakers are finding innovative ways to use web 2.0 to connect to grantees and others. One wonders where the communication gap might be, but if the money is there, you have to think that grantees will move toward collaborative technologies in increasing numbers. Girl Geeks Don't Just Wanna Have Fun, But It Helps > She's Geeky, an (un)conference, aims to provide a friendly environment for women who not only work in technology, but want to encourage others to get involved. The event will take place in Mountain View, CA, October 22-23. Beacuse it's an (un)conference, attendees are encouraged to propose topics. Money, So They Say > Pink Floyd were wrong: sometimes, they do give it away. The Knight News Challege is offering up to $5 million in grants for "big ideas", while the MacArthur Foundation/Hastac Digital Media and Learning Competition is offering $2 million in awards. Both of these have deadlines of October 15th. > Keep up with all the latest nonprofit technology grant news with the aptly named Technology Grant News. NTEN members are eligible for a subscription discount, so why not join today? |
JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!Visit the NTEN Jobs Forum, a new feature for you, the NTEN community.
And check out the new Jobs Board, where we aggregate these jobs with feeds from Idealist, craigslist, and more. CRM SURVEY
NTEN has launched a new series of Vendor Satisfaction Surveys, designed to tell us what you think about the tools and services you're using and considering for purchase.
Our first survey will focus on Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) tools. This survey will only be as good as the feedback we receive, so please, take the CRM Survey today! CALLING ALL VENDORS! NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT WEBINARSReach the NTEN community directly and interactively by presenting a Product Spotlight Webinar. Present a product demo, conduct a focus group, or show off your research. We'll provide you with the platform, run the logistics, and market the webinar to our community. MEMBER DISCOUNTS
Telosa UPCOMING WEBINARSNTEN's webinar series on Technology Leadership may have sold out, but we have a whole host of online events on tap for you this Fall: |
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NTEN CONNECT is the monthly e-newsletter of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). |
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Jeff Patrick, President, 
