 |
||||||||||
If you like what you read, support us by becoming a member or giving us a donation. We promise we won't spend it on beer. INTRODUCTION This is the part of the newsletter where I try to say something entertaining and insightful, all the at the same time. I'll be honest: I don't feel very entertaining or insightful right now. In the month since we last talked to you, the world has become a lot more uncertain. How we do our work is changing rapidly, and in the coming months, we will have to serve even more of our communities, and we will likely have to do it with fewer resources. I know you're already thinking through how you're going to meet these coming challenges, and we hope this month's fundraising edition of NTEN Connect will help you in that regard. We'll share some strategies for maximizing fundraising in a down economy, and how to get those important first time gifts. We're also going to start a conversation on what it means to succeed as a fundraiser: is it more than the dollars raised? All of this will, we hope, help you navigate the upcoming months with a little more confidence and plan for the future with new ideas. Best, Holly
Many nonprofit professionals today are nervous. The economy, while showing hopeful signs, is still not in a good place. That means donors have less money in their portfolios and their pockets. As a result, giving is down across the board. This is not how we want to enter the all important year-end giving season. With up to half of all donations coming in the last quarter of the calendar year, nonprofits need to start planning now so they can end the year strong and minimize the impact of these difficult times. There are five simple things any organization can do to not only increase year-end results, but also maintain and even strengthen important long-term relationships with donors.
As nonprofits escalate their focus on the Internet for fundraising and base-building, there is, increasingly, a recognition that the online channel can be a constituent-friendly, cost-effective means of building relationships and raising money from individuals. New online fundraising programs, however, bring new challenges:
To address these questions, you should be inspired by best practices in the online retail industry.
Have you ever reached your fundraising goal, but still found your organization cash-poor? Have you found yourself surprised when donors you thought for sure would come through again, didn't? In uncertain times like we find ourselves in today, we often discover the impact of things like donor perceptions, satisfaction, and happiness. Long-term success depends in no small part on your ability to measure the intangible reasons that create customer loyalty. If you are going to exceed your donors' expectations, you need to incorporate qualitative measurements that start to illuminate the intangible reasons you are succeeding, holding your own, or perhaps, failing.
Your guide to the resources that will help you put technology to work for your cause.
Craft a Fundraising Appeal When you start to think about your next fundraising letter, you should follow the example of Marc Pitman: print out and analyze your past appeals. Who is your message targeting? Are you talking about yourself, or connecting to your potential donors? (Just, please, don't ask yourself, "What would happen if the author of The Da Vinci Code wrote your next fundraising appeal?" Other than that, Alan Sharpe's advice is pretty decent.) There are other things to consider, such as paper size (for traditional mailings). No, really: we recently saw an appeal from a major presidential campaign composed of two letters, including one from the V.P. hopeful on a shorter piece of paper, folded so the headers of both letters were immediately visible. Brilliant! As for writing the actual letter, Tom Ahern suggests appealing to 4 different sides of your donors' personalities: the amiable, the expressive, the skeptical, and the bottom-liner. About.com's fundraising site has more advice. Raise Money Online If you're tying your fundraising campaign to your website, you certainly need a way to process donations, be that Google Checkout, PayPal, Network for Good, or something a little different, like FirstGiving. But you can go beyond that. Peter Deitz writes about the "Top 5 Ways to Raise Money Online" and the Wild Apricot blog as some excellent "Tips to Manage your Year-End Fundraising Campaigns". If you have some free time, spend it browsing through Firstgiving's Online Fundraising Blog or Network for Good's Fundraising123.com. You could also take a little inspiration from Beth Kanter's 51st Birthday Challenge. Oh, and then there's this little thing called Facebook. Apparently, it's possible to raise money there. (Not) Lose Friends and Alienate People Alright, we've covered some of the good advice out there. Now let's take a look at what not to do. First, don't forget to proofread. If you're writing a top 10 list (in this case, on how to write a fundraising letter), make sure you actually have 10 items. Also, try not to overwrite. From a report on "How (Not) to Raise Money" (PDF): "Revenues are suppressed as a result and remain finite even when bidders value a dollar donated the same as a dollar kept." What? Since many of your constituents probably have their own blogs now, try not to say anything that will make them post your letter as an example of what not to do. They will hang you out to dry. Finally, it's probably not a good idea to encourage your staff to engage in physical stunts in conjunction with a campaign (PDF) : "This week six hospital staff were hurt in a sponsored charity parachute jump... They raised a few hundred pounds altogether, but including locum costs the notional expense of treating them was about £20 000."
A monthly roundup of our favorite nonprofit tech resources. Read more posts on our blog.
|
VOTE FOR NTC SESSIONSIt's the moment you've all been waiting for: time to vote for your favorite session ideas for the 2009 NTC in San Francisco. That's right: we're letting you shape the agenda! Vote yourself, then tell a friend. EXHIBIT AT THE NTCIf you'd like even more pull, consider sponsoring or exhibiting at the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference. Space is going much faster than it has in the past, which makes sense: more and more people learn every year that the NTC is the most fun you can have at a nonprofit event without getting arrested. (Our apologies if anybody actually was.) DONATE TO NTENThink you're getting too much for what you paid for membership? Unable to join because Visigoths have taken over your org? You can always kick in a little donation to support our work. Yep, that's it. That's our campaign. Feel free to use it as a model. UPCOMING WEBINARS
NTEN members save up to 50% on our topical online classes. Upcoming webinars include:
MEMBER DISCOUNTSYour NTEN Membership lets you save on a host of products and services: World Benefactor FundRaiser Software |
|||||||||
|
NTEN CONNECT is the monthly e-newsletter of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). |
||||||||||
Randy McCabe, 
Jenny L. Feinberg and Jeff Patrick, 
David M. Lawson and Jay Goulart, 