Electronic Communications Pays Off: How to Get Returns

If fundraising is the communication of a need in order to elicit a philanthropic response, then it’s obvious that in order to raise funds, you need to get the communication part right. The digital age was supposed to make things easier, but are we taking full advantage of electronic communications?

The fact that you can process a donation electronically makes it more convenient, but it doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in donation revenue. This was the first mistake by the sector — we thought that opening up donation pages on our Web sites would attract large numbers of new donors. But apart from isolated cases, that didn’t happen. And while e-mail also has become part of our communication strategy to existing supporters, we’re still struggling to see the digital age improve donor acquisition.

Maybe what we failed to realize is that the greater benefit of the digital age comes from how it can improve communication. Whether on the Web, via mobile devices or through other means, communication tells our stories; it helps to garner support for the cause, which only then can stimulate the flow of new income.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Whatever the medium, it’s communicating the need that matters. The ask comes later.

Nonprofits have invested a lot in electronic communications and so-called new media in the hope of future returns, but the truth is that many organizations have yet to see the full benefit of the digital age. Of course, technology is constantly evolving, and what was difficult and expensive yesterday is easier today — and may be redundant tomorrow. But surely now is the time when that technology has to pay off. Here are some tips that will help you get those returns:

1. Explore Friendraising. Your donors are potentially your best fundraisers; they’ve got friends you don’t know about yet — and built-in credibility. Why not give them the online tools to create their own fundraising microsites to which they can attract their friends to give to your cause or sponsor them in a fundraising event for your organization?

2. Add social-networking capabilities to your Web site. If supporters can log in, organize their own events, blog, communicate in forums and more, it can increase a sense of connection to your cause. But don’t forget the 1-9-90 rule: 1 percent contribute a lot and 9 percent contribute a little, while 90 percent just read. Be ready to participate yourself. You’ll need to encourage and moderate community input. Even get your CEO to post a personally oriented blog to which supporters and staff can relate.

3. Use Facebook as a place for potential donor research. Don’t just set up a Facebook group and get a few friends to join — it won’t achieve much on its own. Instead, use Facebook strategically. For example, if you’re an environmental organization planning an event in London, you can research environmental interest groups on Facebook, find members in the London area and start communicating with them about the event you’re hosting. It’s a list that, for the want of a little research, is there for you to build.

4. Personalize your Web site. Make your homepage capable of remembering a returning visitor and offer content based on his or her interests. Amazon.com is great at this. Highlight updates on projects previously supported by that donor or events in his or her area, etc.

5. Offer Web 2.0 features on your site. Open up parts of your site so that content, such as videos, blogs and photos, can be created and shared by visitors. Web 2.0 sites can rapidly increase traffic, buy-in and presence on search engines.

6. Get your supporters to wear fundraising badges. This can be on their Facebook or MySpace pages, where friends will see it and possibly click through to either your main Web site or to that donor’s personalized fundraising microsite.

7. Offer an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) subscription to the news service on your Web site. If you aren’t offering regularly updated news via RSS, then you’re probably not reaching the increasing number of people who choose to keep up-to-date with all their news this way — whether via a browser or on their mobile devices.

8. Provide a daily update about your organization on Twitter. This is another way in which people who might never visit your site can be kept aware of your cause, and it allows you to link back to your giving page.

9. Bring it all together in one CRM or database system. The database is the engine room behind all of your supporter communications. If you don’t track the history of your communications in a central place, along with the history of support from each donor, you will rapidly create huge problems for yourself in managing future communications. This could potentially offend loyal supporters with inappropriate information and make it impossible for you to find useful constituent information.

10. Make it easy to respond. Ensure your Web site and news stories make it easy to click through to give money and pledge support.

Robin Fisk is the fundraising technology expert at Alexandria, Va.-based Advanced Solutions International.