What Donors Want: End of Year Online Fundraising

What Donors Want This End-of-Year Holiday Season

Shirley Sexton

Director, Interactive

Marketing and Fundraising

Training by

Shirley Sexton

See3 CommunicationsWeb Design & Development

Video Production

Interactive Marketing

www.see3.net

2Shirley Sexton See3 Communications

AgendaOnline Fundraising GrowthEnd-of-Year Planning ChecklistWebsite UsabilityWriting for the WebUsing Images and VideoEmail MarketingDriving TrafficMeasuring ProgressResources


Online Fundraising Growth

4

Online giving bucks overall trend

Online fundraising grew in 2008 (compared

to 2007) in the range of 14-26% (dependent

upon source *)*The Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study

*2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study

December accounted for 48% of the total

dollars raised online in 2008.*2008 Online Giving Trends, Blackbaud


Why?

Overall giving fell with the economy,

specificallyConsumer Confidence Index at

lowest in Feb. ‘09 since '67 inception.

Online giving on the rise due to:

Multi-generational eCommerce adoption

Mega-trend to “go green”

Advent of social networking


Creating Your End-of-Year Strategy

10/2109 7

End-of-Year Fundraising Checklist

Inventory your online assets and past trends

Find your great story of the year

Get commitment from internal stakeholders

to make fundraisers priority in Dec

Evaluate your website for donation usability

Create online communications plan

Invest in resources


Website Usability for Donors Website Usability for Donors

Stop focusing on home page

Treat every page like your front door.

Only 25% of Web visitors enter sites via the home page.

--Nielsen Norman Group, 2008


What Donors Want Online

Donors want to quickly and easily find: Mission (simply explained)GoalsObjectivesExamples of work and first person stories, especially videoHow donations are used, specifics


What Donors Look For

•Text field to search•Links (make them obvious)•Next steps/Instructions•Answers


What Kills Donations

•Users can’t figure out how or where to donate!•Cluttered pages•Mistrust of 3rd-party payment pages

Nielsen Norman Group Report: Donation Usability:

Design Guidelines for Improving the Donation

Process and the Usability of Essential Information

on Charity and Non-Profit Websites

13Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications

Writing for the Web

14

Writing for the Web

Why is the web different?

Most web pages are viewed as the result

of a search, the reader is after something

The reader scans quickly is his search

Headlines, subheads, and links are critical

to indicate they are on the right path!


Writing for the Web

What makes a good web article?

Search friendly title

Short(er) than print

Relevancy

Quotes, testimonials

Lists

Links! Links! Links!


Writing for the Web

What makes great NPO web content?

Mission-related AND connected to national or

world events

Primary research

Easily searchable resources

Stories of/by people helped by org

Make the connection to support/giving


Using Images

4/26/09 18Bernat Casero bernatcasero.com

Using Images and Videos

Less is more (per page)!Use images in your “page wrapper” to bring your mission to life and reflect the community you serve.Use one photo, video, graph, or pull quote per page of content to summarize the benefit, draw the user in.Too many graphics create user confusion and long page download time.


Using Images and Videos

Where to get images and videos

Take your own (and ask volunteers!)

Purchase stock such as istockphoto.com

Flickr.com Creative CommonsWhat is Creative Commons license

Be sure to tag for search engines and

screen readers!

10/21/09 21Shirley Sexton | See3 Communications

Email Marketing

4/26/09 22

Email Marketing: Building Your ListCommunicate with permission to retain

trust and respect privacyRequest email registration on every

pageCollect email addresses (with

permission) at events, offices


Email Marketing: EOY Schedule

Create calendar of email communications Incorporate end of year ask in monthly

email newsletter Include stewardship email (report to

donors on how funds have been managed)

Send 3-6 campaign themed messages in December, last days of the month generally yield best results!


Email Marketing: Deliverability

How to get your email through Authenticate your email domain* Use a third-party email marketing vendor

with baked-in CAN-SPAM compliance**

*http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/EmailAuthentication

**http://www.ftc.gov/spam

10/21/09 25Shirley Sexton See3 Communications

http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/EmailAuthentication

http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/EmailAuthentication

Email Marketing: Design

Key elements for response Subject line From field Call to action (link) Signature (a name) Light on graphics and formatting


Driving Traffic to Donations

Don’t be shy! Help people give!

Utilize search engine optimization, keyword

ads, offline (print, radio) calls to give online

Utilize social networks (Facebook, Twitter)

Ask your champions to share your message!

Tear down barriers for donors to donate!


Measuring Progress

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Measuring Progress


1. Measure your key metrics before undergoing major changes.

2. Determine realistic intervals to measure (monthly, quarterly, annually)

3. Compare against industry benchmarks:

eNonprofits Benchmark Study

www.e-benchmarksstudy.com/

http://www.e-benchmarksstudy.com/

Measuring Progress: Web giving


Online giving totals

Average gift size

# of gifts

“Offline giving” impacts (major and planned

gifts)

The Wired Wealthy: Using the Internet to

Connect with Your Middle and Major Donors

http://nonprofit.about.com/od/onlinefundraising/

a/wealthywired.htm

http://nonprofit.about.com/od/onlinefundraising/a/wealthywired.htm

http://nonprofit.about.com/od/onlinefundraising/a/wealthywired.htm

Measuring Progress: Email


•Metric (2008 industry benchmark)•open rate (14%)•click through rate (.6%)•response rate (.12%)•registration rate (3%)•list growth (17%)•list churn (19%)

See eNonprofits Benchmark Study

www.e-benchmarksstudy.com/

http://www.e-benchmarksstudy.com/

Web ResourcesWeb Resources

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WebMarketing Resources

Jakob Nielsen’s Web usability research: www.useit.com

Network for Good: A Fundraising Guide for the Overworked Nonprofit: www.fundraising123.org

Search engine marketing tips: www.searchenginewatch.com


http://www.useit.com/

http://www.fundraising123.org/

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/

Technology Resources

Idealware: Candid reviews and information about nonprofit software: www.idealware.org

TechSoup: The technology place for nonprofits www.techsoup.com

NTEN: Your Nonprofit technology community: www.nten.org


http://www.idealware.org/

http://www.techsoup.com/

http://www.nten.org/

Contact Me

Email: [email protected]

See3 blog: http://blog.see3.net

LinkedIn: http://shirleysexton.com

Facebook: http://profile.to/shirleysexton

Twitter: http://twitter.com/webbarbie

Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/webbarbie4/26/09 35Shirley Sexton See3 Communications

mailto:[email protected]

http://blog.see3.net/

http://shirleysexton.com/

http://profile.to/shirleysexton

http://twitter.com/webbarbie

http://flickr.com/photos/webbarbie

What Donors Want: End of Year Online Fundraising

Government & Nonprofit

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