North Shore Animal League America

Four Tips to Tackling Emergency Web Fundraising April 11, 2006 By Abny Santicola, editor, FundRaising Success Advisor Like many organizations in 2005, the North Shore Animal League America was faced with the challenge of raising funds fast to respond to Hurricane Katrina. Speaking in a session at the DMA Nonprofit Federation Conference in Washington, D.C., in February, Vice President of Development Alesia Soltanpanah said that during its Katrina-relief effort, the organization created a page much like its home page devoted to Katrina donations. This was one of four tips Soltanpanah shared for organizations faced with the challenge of emergency Web fundraising. They are:

Are you making the most of the Internet? If your organization is like many nonprofits, it might be time to rethink your online strategy.

Instead of thinking of the Internet as a sideline area rife with additional expenses and hassles, “all nonprofits should be thinking of it as a core tool,” according to Sheeraz Haji, CEO of GetActive Software in Berkeley, Calif.

Renting lists for your mailing campaigns is a necessary — but inherently risky — expense. You’re spending money for an uncertain outcome because you can’t gauge exactly how names on a given list will respond at any particular moment.

So your priority in any list-rental situation should be to maximize return on investment. Here are five strategies for getting the most value out of your list-rental dollars: