Blackbaud

With the onset of new and emerging technologies in the fundraising arena, today’s fundraisers have many channels by which to acquire new donors. The question is: Which are the best?

I recently listened in on an interview between Gail Perry and Jay Love of Bloomerang. Do you know even know what percentage of donors you’re retaining? According to Love, less than 5 percent of fundraising offices know this answer! So you’re not alone. But you can do better.

Knowing your retention rate enables you to move it to something better. Did you know that a 10 percent increase in donor retention can increase the lifetime value (in dollars) of your donors by as much as 200 percent?

Charities are creating significant barriers to potential donors making online contributions, according to the first Online Fundraising Scorecard, a study by Dunham+Co. and Next After. The study focuses on the online donor experience, giving most nonprofits a failing or mediocre grade when scored against the tested and proven online best practices. Of the 151 organizations who were part of the study, 127 scored 75 percent or below.

In 2014, tremendous opportunities exist for nonprofit organizations to use technology to deliver on their missions in very effective and scalable ways. Here are the technology trends that will have the biggest impact on the nonprofit sector this year.

Recent tweets from folks you should be following.

Social media can complement other fundraising strategies and help keep your fundraising goals at top-of-mind awareness. Here are five ways to integrate your fundraising campaign with your social media.

Blackbaud, provider of software and services for nonprofits, announced key technology trends that will have the biggest impact on the nonprofit sector in 2014. Top technology trends to watch include: Mobile will continue to play more and more of a key role, analytics will provide greater insight for nonprofit organizations, software will become smaller and more focused, the cloud will provide cheaper and more secure alternatives for nonprofits, and social media will become more integrated.

There’s no time like the present to improving your donor-retention rates. This post brings together fundraising experts from across the industry to share 12 super-simple (but effective) fundraising ideas for boosting donor engagement, loyalty and retention based on answering one simple question, "What’s the key to an effective donor retention strategy?" We hope you find their advice useful as you navigate 2014!

The Blackbaud Index reported that overall charitable giving to nonprofits increased 4.6 percent and online giving increased 9.4 percent for the three months ending November 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012. The full-year results for 2013 will be reported in February.

How do you break through the clutter? It matters all year but becomes more urgent during end-of-year giving campaigns when inboxes and mailboxes are full to the brim. I took the question to our in-house experts here at Blackbaud: the client success managers who work closely with our customers day in, day out.

Their advice? Tell a great story. Make it relevant. Make it easy to give. Be mindful of how your audience likes to receive information and how donors like to interact with you.