Convio Report: Four Trends You Must Know

In its whitepaper "How Do You Measure Up?," Convio shares four online trends every fundraiser should know to make the most of his or her organization's online presence and to stay engaged and foster relationships with constituents.

The trends, along with tips for how to capitalize on them, are:
1. Online fundraising continues to generate positive growth year over year while direct-mail results continue to decline. The key to success with online fundraising is growing your e-mail file and Web site traffic and giving constituents reasons to engage and take action.

Ways to grow your e-mail file and online traffic suggested in the whitepaper are:

• Gather e-mail addresses offline through renewal appeals, membership drives, event invitations and at events where you interact with a large number of constituents. Promote the benefits of e-mail communication when asking constituents for e-mail addresses, namely that communications are more timely and will save your organization money and administrative work, allowing you to better serve your mission.
• Gather e-mail addresses online, via your Web site.
• Harness Web site traffic by constantly featuring new content, helpful reports, special campaigns and appeals.
• Include your URL wherever you list phone numbers, mailing addresses and other contact information (in brochures, ads, staff e-mail signatures, voice messages, phone hold or intro messages, and business cards).
• Feature specific calls to action only available online.
• Put online-generated content into offline communications (publish poll and survey results or choose reader responses or quotes to feature in a newsletter or direct-mail package).
• Use story continuations to drive cross-over traffic.
• Encourage Web visitors to register at your site when they arrive.
• Run a welcome series for new Web site registrants to get them to convert to donors within the first 45 to 60 days.

2. Nonprofit online revenue grew during the fourth quarter of 2008, despite economic challenges.

To continue growing revenue despite the floundering economy, Convio suggests continuing to reach out to donors, show your appreciation for them and communicate their value to your organization.

• Coordinate outreach efforts. Use a constituent relationship management system to integrate each point of contact with constituents into a coordinated effort.
• Offer alternatives to monetary gifts, such as volunteering, advocacy, donating supplies or forwarding your communications on to their family and friends.
• Show your appreciation. Send handwritten notes, make thank-you calls, send personalized communications to select donors, and/or add a members-only section to your Web site that offers previews of upcoming content or reports. The paper also suggests offering major donors VIP status for events and inviting them to conference calls with your organization's leadership.
• Give constituents a voice through online surveys, polls and petitions.

3. Nonprofits received a larger number of gifts in the fourth quarter of 2008, which increased online fundraising revenue. Adding new donors and increasing giving frequency is key to offsetting lower gift amounts.

Suggestions:

• Seek out new donors. Start by asking individuals to take a specific action or use social media to build awareness (e.g., invite them to download your widget) or host a video or photo contest.
• Increase gift frequency by promoting monthly sustainer giving.
• Send a holiday e-appeal, as almost half of online giving happens in November and December. Test subject lines and content before sending the appeal.

4. E-mail open and clickthrough rates are holding steady for nonprofit organizations of all kinds.

To keep it this way, the whitepaper suggests organizations use e-mail appeals to make constituent communications more personal and engaging and drive visitors to their sites.

• Know the value of your e-mail file. What percentage of your e-mail file actually donates to your organization? Knowing this will help you predict the total value of your e-mail file and the incremental value of adding an online constituent. The report suggests measuring this throughout the course of a campaign and throughout the year.*Create multiphased e-mail appeals. After sending the first message, send a second message to those who didn't respond to the first reminding them about the campaign and encouraging them to respond, and then a third message to those who still haven't replied updating them on the progression of the campaign and encouraging them again to support you. These repeat e-mails are a good way to reach donors who may never have opened the original e-mail due to busy schedules or travel.
• Have dedicated landing pages/Web pages for each campaign. The whitepaper recommends "creating a dynamic personal campaign page where each existing donor is individually recognized, thanked for his last donation, shown the results of all of his past donations and offered the opportunity to donate again."
• Create successful e-appeals. Personalize the "from" field in e-mails (e.g., using the name of an organizational executive or well-known spokesperson), followed by the organization's name; personalizing the subject line to something that interests the recipient; keeping the voice of communications consistent and trying humor or controversy to grab attention in the subject line; keeping body copy shorter than a direct-mail letter (only three to four paragraphs, with bulleted, short sentences); linking only a few, very meaningful phrases, avoiding use of "click here"; having a prominent "donate now" button above the fold; and, when possible, aligning gift levels with donor history.

To download the report in full, click here.