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Back in November 2006, we announced our first big survey of charity clients and we then reported back the findings in December 2006.

This year we held the same survey in February and are only now getting round to telling you what you told us (it's been a very busy last couple of months and we missed the initial deadline for a pre-Christmas survey - oops!).

If you want to see how we compared on 14 KPIs (key point indicators) compared to last time, you can see the presentation slides below. The things to know beforehand are:

• We used an outside agency to do in-depth interviews with a variety of charity clients in November 2006 to identify 14 KPIs that we should measure ourselves against
• All the answers (213) are from charities who had 10 or less fundraising pages at the time of asking (February 2008)
• There were not enough responses from charities with more than 10 fundraising pages to draw any conclusions or provide unbiased results.

Overall, there are a number of things we're doing well, and other things that can still improve. In fact, we're  on average scoring 9% higher over all questions than last time.

But according to the Harvard Business Review, we're doing best on The One Number You Need to Grow, which is whether your customers would recommend your service  -

That's great, but that doesn't tell the whole story, nor would it if I listed the quotes like below:

I've been so pleased with Justgiving, that I now pay a donation to a small charity I support on the basis that they use the donation to subscribe to Justgiving.

Justgiving makes life so much easier for our supporters and for us which allows us to spend time on what matters.

We try to keep on doing the things well that we undoubtedly do, but we're more interested in areas where we can improve. And the main theme was reporting, with others on getting back to people sooner when they ask us questions:

Help with reconciling gross and net amounts raised per fundraiser in order to simplify record keeping and book keeping!

I am more than satisfied with your service. The only comment I would make is that your accounting reports are very complicated.

So what have we done about all this then?

To try and address these issues, we made the payment report generation easier and more intuitive,  hired another member of staff to work on our helpdesk (the lovely Natalie) and added an estimated costs feature to the charity account.

We're also in the midst of a project to re-write a lot of the instructions in the account to make it easier to find out how it works, and working on implementing a new helpdesk service that will help us manage your questions better.

But although we've addressed these issues, we didn't plan for the interruption to reports that happened last month - that was not good. And there will be more changes coming to reporting soon too that will help speed up their generation, albeit with less flexibility.

What's the point of telling you this?

What we mean to show by telling you all of this is that we're aim to be open - we're not perfect, but we're trying to address (and already have, in some cases) those imperfections to help us serve charities as best we can.

Also, well done to Jo, Neil, John, Pam and Natalie who all won Amazon vouchers for taking the time to fill out our survey - OK, it was a while in coming, but it did come in the end, so thanks!

The Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants for this week is up, at The Bamboo Project Blog.

What’s your image of a charity shop? Scruffy? Tatty? Musty? Full of old ladies? If this is your image, when did you last visit a charity shop? You might find things have changed generally…

Charity shops provide a very valuable resource to local communities at several levels:

• They raise money for good causes. Whether this is a local hospice or a national charity for the old, homeless or starving, all charity shops raise much needed funds to enable charities to fulfil their work.
• They are very green places. Charity shops are at the forefront of green recycling. They not only recycle clothes, but also household goods, books, CDs, DVDs, computer games, toys. Things that would otherwise have found their way into landfills. Some even sell furniture, which enables homeless people who have been offered a flat or house the chance to furnish it at a price they can afford.
• They provide for people on low or no incomes. Parents can dress their children and themselves with good quality clothes at a fraction of the High Street Stores prices. OK, they’re used and possibly a little dated, but if you shop around, you’d be amazed what you find. I use them to buy shirts. I like the “Oxford” style shirts and have no trouble picking up M&S, Ben Sherman, Polo and other leading brands at a fraction of the “new” price. A good machine wash and no one would have a clue where it came from!
• They offer a social service. Many charity shop managers I know talk about the customers, especially elderly widows, who pop in 2 or 3 times a day, not so much to buy, but for a bit of company and a chat. Because it’s a charity running it, they feel like they can trust the staff and volunteers and they often become friends, rather than customers.
• The times, they are a changing. If you thought charity shops were about old clothes, think again! Oxfam piloted specialist music stores and bookshops. Several charities now have specialist shops. Did you know that Oxfam has launched fashion boutiques? They will provide shoppers with high-quality, desirable clothing and look to turn the traditional concept of a charity shop on its head. The boutiques were launched in response to shoppers’ views that they wanted a more contemporary shopping experience.
• Move over High Street charity shops, the virtual ones have arrived! Many charities now have charity shops on Ebay. This offers them the chance to auction high demand brand names and achieve much higher prices than they’s get in one of their High Street shops. A good example is St. Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds. Check out their Ebay shop at: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/stgemmasshop

So next time you pass a charity shop, don’t look down your nose at it, go inside and make the most of this unique place - you might just come out with a real bargain too!

So I’m back from Mexico, where I went on vacation and hung out with Jimmy Buffett’s brand for several days.  We’ve grown tight, because we got a lot of quality time together.  Jimmy is in the airport, where you can buy Margaritaville t-shirts or the Perfect Margarita at the Jimmy Buffett restaurant.  (I chose the drink over the t-shirt.) He’s singing about his lost shaker of salt on the TV screens in this photo I took in the restaurant in the airport.  He’s on the beach, where airborne Cessna’s pull advertisements for a bar called Margaritaville.  He’s in hotel bookstore, having apparently penned a bestseller about a pig ("Swine Not?").  In short, he’s ubiquitous, prolific and possessing of serious marketing genius.

He has parlayed a hit song - and its drinking-on-the-beach kind of aesthetic - into a brand empire.

How do I get me some of that?

While sipping on my airport margarita awaiting my flight home, I snapped this photo and contemplated this question.  And here’s what I concluded are the three cornerstones of Jimmy’s brilliance.

1. Simplicity: He stands for one thing.  To me, that thing is life as a margarita - carefree, hammock-lying, drink-sipping relaxed happiness with a little salt around the edges.  From his music (Cheeseburgers in Paradise, anyone?) to his restaurants to his books.  Which brings me to his…

2. Consistency: It’s about the margaritas as life, folks.  Always.  Visit his website.  The name? Of course it’s margaritaville.com.  Note: excellent lead generation on the page with the email sign-up.  Nice touch.

3. Hopeful: The allure of something happy is strong.  Remember that when you tell stories.  If you go dire in the telling, remember that people want hope and happiness as the punchline.

I can hear you now.  You’re thinking, that girl had one too many margaritas in Mexico.  I’m saving the world, not slinging drinks.  Yes.  I know.  I am too.  But while I know it’s easier to sell margaritas or pigs than it is to promote the end of poverty, the principles remain the same.  Stand for something compelling and hopeful.  And stand for it over and over, over time.  It works. 

A new study, the 2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, (done by NTEN and M+R Strategic Services has some useful facts, culled from the experiences of a number of nonprofits online:

• The total amount raised online increased by 19% from 2006 to 2007.
  
• Open rates have fallen from 21.3% to 17.6%.
  
• Click-through rates have dropped from 4.9% to 3.8%.
  

My experience is similar. Revenue coming to nonprofits through the web is growing by double digits every year. We no doubt have a few more years of that to look forward to before it slows down.

On the other hand, raising funds by means of e-appeals is getting tougher -- no doubt because our donors' inboxes are getting fuller. Growth of online files tends to more than make up for lower response numbers.

Lesson: If you aren't actively at work online, you are losing money. And if you aren't experimenting with tactics and strategies for online fundraising, you are painting yourself into a corner.

Press release here, full study available for download here (registration required).

Technorati Tags: fundraising, nptech

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