Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog

This week, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project released their latest findings on social media adoption. Even if you’re a socially savvy fundraiser, you’ll find these stats interesting. If you’re still skeptical about social media, this is a wake-up call.

Think about this: Seventy-two percent of all adults online now use social networking sites. While it’s true that younger adults are the most likely social media users, it’s important to know that social media adoption for older Internet users has skyrocketed in the last few years. Some key stats:

• 6 out of 10 Internet users ages 50 to 64 are social media users
• 43% of Internet users 65 and older are social media users
• Social media adoption rates for those 65 and older have tripled in the past 4 years
• 54% of adults age 65+ and 77% of those ages 50 to 64 years old are online (Who’s Online, via Pew)

These trends are only going to grow as generations of netizens age and as technology becomes more ubiquitous and easy to use. As platforms emerge and evolve, the core principles of social activity online will remain very familiar. The time to figure it out is now. So, what does this mean for you?

Stop pretending your older donors aren’t online. Your 60+ donors are not only online, they’re adopting social media as a means of keeping up with the people, brands, and causes they love. More than half of 60+ donors are giving online. Remember: Whether or not your donors ultimately choose to give online, they’re using search, social media, and your website to learn more about you. How are you helping them make the decision to give? Are you making it easy for them to opt to give online?

Create a social media strategy that fits your audience and your mission. It’s not important for you to become a social media expert overnight or to have profiles on every social network. It is important for your nonprofit to have a social media presence on the platforms where your audience already gathers. Pinpoint where the richest conversations about your cause take place and start there.

Find ways to reinforce your message and be part of the conversation via social media. The first rule of social media is: Be present. You can’t just “set it and forget it”; embrace the opportunity to communicate directly with people who are passionate about your cause. Be responsive, ask questions, and provide value. Social media is not just another broadcast channel, it’s a crucial way to build relationships and be top of mind.

Do you have a social media strategy in place for your organization? How are you connecting with older donors online? Chime in with your tips in the comments below or post your social media questions for discussion.

Photos and video allow you to create a more immediate, emotional connection with your supporters than just words alone. In March, we shared Guy Kawasaki’s top ten social media tips for nonprofits , one of which is, “Add Bling: On every post, include a picture or video (that is properly credited to the person who created it). Visuals matter.”

Mary Armstrong-Smith, the community partners director for Prevent Child Abuse Indiana took Guy’s advice and immediately saw a response. She writes:

Earlier this month I posted a quote on PCA Indiana’s Facebook page. It was shared directly from the author’s FB page, and was simply text:

Two likes, 83 views. No shares or comments. Typical for us.

Today I read Guy Kawasaki’s tip on your blog about using graphics or video. I created a graphic using a photo of the author and the same quote. It was posted about 4 hours ago:

42 likes, 27 shares, and over 2,700 views. One of the shares was from a national organization—Healthy Families America. Yow!

Thanks for sharing Guy’s tips. I’ve subscribed to your blog and plan to direct my volunteers there as well.

Mary

Thanks for sharing, Mary! We’re so glad that these tips are working for you and we hope that our other blog readers are experiencing the same great results! We love hearing your success stories; let us know in the comments if you’ve tried other tips we’ve shared on the blog.

In order to survive—and thrive—nonprofits need to diversify their funding sources. In addition to individual giving, grants are another piece of a well-rounded funding plan. Of course, the best way to succeed in getting grants for your organization is to have a solid plan in place for securing them. Creating a calendar, having a documented grantseeking process, and using a decision-making matrix can help you to identify the right grants for your organization.

So, what if you don’t have a solid grants strategy in place? You’re in luck.

Cynthia Adams, CEO of GrantStation, will be our special guest at 1pm EDT on Tuesday, August 6, 2013 for Network for Good’s next free webinar, Building a Powerful Grants Strategy.  Register for this free webinar on creating your grants strategy and make a plan for securing the right grants for your projects. I hope you’ll join this session—Cynthia is sharing useful worksheets and will be answering your questions to help you target and win the grants your nonprofit needs.

(Credit: United Way, Source: Peter Panepento/The Chronicle of Philanthropy)

Social media is a fantastic tool to make your presence known online. But are you using it correctly? Many nonprofits are using it to promote themselves, but often in the wrong ways, said Peter Panepento, assistant managing editor at The Chronicle of Philanthropy, at the Washington, DC, edition of the Social Media for Nonprofits conference. He often sees nonprofits tweeting links to press releases or posting them on their Facebook page, trying to hijack their social media pages as an “official communication channel.”

“Don’t use social media to be bureaucratic,” Peter told the conference. Social media is the perfect tool for PR, but only when the emphasis is on   personal. Nonprofits should put a human face on everything and use social media to humanize your organization.” “You don’t need a big budget or to be particularly photogenic,” Peter said, you just need to be human. Here are three rules we learned from Peter on how to humanize your social media and tell a great story:

1. Think like a reporter.

Use your social media accounts to feature someone in your community that your group engages with such as donors, beneficiaries of your work, and local businesses that support you. Seek out someone that can answer the question, “Who cares? Why should this matter to me?” Remember that stories are about people, so feature the people who matter to your cause.

2. Share your #fail.

In 2010, the organization charity: water posted on Facebook for its September Campaign Live Drill. From Central African Republic, they produced a live broadcast when they attempted to drill for clean water-and failed. Peter highlighted charity: water because instead of trying to hide that something went wrong, they made it public, even writing a blog post about it. For every success, there is failure. “Followers really responded to seeing things that don’t work, you seem more genuine to your followers.”

3. Give your supporters the megaphone.

Think about how your supporters can help tell your story over social media. Invite them to talk about your work just like the United Way did for their 160th anniversary (as seen above). You can even encourage volunteers to be reporters by rewarding them: retweet them, call them out, and thank them. If you bake it into the volunteer experience, Peter said, “you’ll get more genuine language from people than you could otherwise compose.”

For better social media engagement, follow these tips from Peter to humanize your organization. “If you can show the work that you’re doing and the people you’re serving, even if it’s not in a mud pit somewhere in Alaska but at your desk, that can be really helpful.”

The Social Media for Nonprofits conference is coming to Austin, TX on August 13, 2013. Check out the conference agenda, and follow SM4Nonprofits on Facebook for the latest updates. Heading to Austin? Use our “N4G” discount code to save $20.

 

Giving USA, an annual publication that reports the sources and uses of charitable gifts in the United States, released some good news this year: Overall, charitable giving in 2012 was up 3.5% over 2011. This is especially good news for nonprofits that have a well-rounded plan to raise funds through multiple channels. But keep in mind that donations from individuals make up the largest piece of the giving pie: 72%.

Image credit: Whitney Bond/ Little Leopard Book

How is your organization’s “giving pie” sliced? Do you have a steady stream of individual gifts coming in the door every year?

There are two keys to getting more individual gifts online:

1. You must make it easy for donors to give.

Make giving a snap online: Giving online giving is growing faster than any other method of donating. But simply having the option to donate online isn’t enough: Donors expect online giving to be easy. A donor should be able to Google the name of your organization, click on your website, and find your donation button in 2 seconds or less. Is it easy for a newbie to give through your organization’s website? Try making it even easier.

Make it easier to say yes: People are more likely to give when the request comes from someone they know, especially if it’s a trusted peer. The key here is quantity. Social fundraising works best when an enthusiastic team works together to rally their networks to raise a large sum of money. Introduce a few outgoing, social, creative volunteers to a peer-to-peer fundraising tool like Crowdrise and see how you can use the power of peer networks to introduce new donors to your cause.

2. You have to meet donors where they are.

On social media: People are talking about your cause on social media. Is your organization part of the discussion? Reach out to your advocates and encourage the conversation. Consider recruiting new donors on social media and make it easy for current donors to share your message with the world.

Via mobile: Fifty-six percent of adults in the United States own a smartphone. Do you know what your organization’s website or emails look like on a smart phone? To keep up with your donors’ habits, you absolutely have to give them a good experience via mobile. For more on mobile giving, download Network for Good’s free eGuide.

 

We write a lot about how to inspire supporters with compelling stories and clear calls to action, but even the most well-crafted messages are worthless if no one sees them. In addition to your outreach via email marketing or direct mail, it’s equally important to ensure your cause is well-represented through press outreach, social media, and search. Tomorrow, Network for Good is hosting a
free webinar for nonprofits to learn more about effective publicity tactics from our friends at PR NewsChannel. This is a great opportunity to get your questions answered and pick up some practical PR tips from the pros, just in time to put them into place for your fall events and year-end fundraising campaigns.

Register now for the live webinar on Tuesday, July 30 at 1pm ET. (If you can’t attend the event at that time, go ahead and register—you’ll receive an email with the playback recording of the session, plus the slides.)

You’ve seen them all over Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and Pinterest: grumpycats,talking babies, even Ryan Gosling. Entertaining memes have exploded across the Internet. But have you also noticed an uptick in charitable memes, memes that are doing good? Many nonprofits are capitalizing on the popularity of memes to gain visibility and connect with new supporters.

Nonprofits aren’t always great at piggybacking on the work of others, but that’s the key for a meme to take off. Senior Strategist Avi Kaplan of RAD Campaign has compiled some tip-top examples of nonprofit memes that worked because they borrowed a cultural phenomena, as did tech writer Zachary Sniderman.

One of the best examples of nonprofit meme-jacking came from a 132-year-old organization, the American Red Cross. Capitalizing on Charlie Sheen’s 2011 outburst and proclamation to have drank tiger’s blood, the American Red Cross tweeted:

We may not collect #tigerblood, but we know our donors & volunteers have fierce passion for doing good! #RedCrossMonth

— American Red Cross (@RedCross)

By tapping into the #tigerblood hashtag, Zachary reported that tons of media outlets picked up on the story, resulting in a modest increase in blood donations.

So what’s in it for you? Why should you consider making a meme?

  1. Sure, memes can be just plain silly and fun, and but they can also humanize your nonprofit’s public image. Who doesn’t love an organization that embraces its humanity and sense of humor?

  2. Memes can create connections and start conversations because of their two-prong premise: A meme is based on an aspect of popular culture and spread from person to person.

  3. Memes give supporters an easy way to publicize and promote your cause. Once you create a meme, fans can quickly share it over email, social media, and their own websites.

Want to create your own nonprofit meme to help build buzz for your cause? Check out our tips on using memes to spread your nonprofit’s message.

(Image credit: National Wildlife Federation, Source: Avi Kaplan)

John Haydon, our favorite Facebook guru, has created a useful video tutorial on how to use the new Facebook Insights reports to understand how your nonprofit’s Facebook outreach is faring.

If you’re not regularly tracking your results on Facebook, you’re missing out on a real opportunity to better understand your social media audience and optimize how you interact with your supporters. Facebook Insights can tell you:

• Which posts have the highest levels of engagement
• When people liked—and “unliked”—your page
• Which sites refer the most traffic to your Facebook page

Check out John’s tutorial on the new Facebook Insights reports, then let us know if you’ve seen the new Insights options and how your Facebook outreach is doing.

 

In a recent MarketingSherpa webinar on email optimization, Director of Digital Analytics Amelia Showalter shared how President Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign generated more than $500 million in online donations. No matter which political party you root for, you have to admit that Amelia’s success is impressive!

The webinar is a great companion to our recent Fundraising123 piece, “4 Tips for Subject Lines That Work.” These lessons are incredibly useful for nonprofit fundraisers looking to inspire donors through email outreach.

Here are a few especially important tips for optimizing your nonprofit email campaigns:

 

1.   Personalize asks through segmentation.

The campaign sent personalized asks to its supporters based on their previous level of donation. They also used segmentation to send multiple versions of an email to randomized, small pieces of their list before sending it to everyone. The winning message would always be one that won across all demographic groups.

Takeaway: Incorporate segmentation in your email campaigns to personalize your asks.

2. Use segmentation and A/B testing to help your next email.

Dividing your full list into two pieces is the easiest thing to do, but then you won’t have anyone to receive the winning email. To make your test count, perform one that will be useful for the next email you send. Rather than test subject lines, which won’t produce useful information beyond that particular email, try testing the format of your email. (The Obama campaign found that plainer, less stylized emails produced better results.)

Takeaway: When starting out, it can be easy to test a concept that will apply to your future emails, not just the current one being sent.

3.   The end goal is the metric that matters.

If you’re sending a fundraising appeal, click-through and open rates are important, but the most important metric is your ultimate goal: donations. If you’re sending emails to solicit donations, the most successful email is the one that led to the most donations. If you’re sending emails to get new volunteers, the most successful email is the one that led to the most volunteer commitments. If you’re sending a fundraising appeal, click-through and open rates are important, but the most important metric is your ultimate goal. If you’re sending emails to solicit donations, the most successful email is the one that led to the most donations. If you’re sending emails to get new volunteers, the most successful email is the one that led to the most volunteer commitments.

Takeaway: The most important metric is how many people complete your call to action.

4.   More is more.

People say that they are getting too many emails, but the worst result of excessive messages is usually just mild annoyance. Unsurprisingly, more people unsubscribed from the Obama campaign as a higher volume of emails went out. But surprisingly, the number of donations went up, too. The metrics group decided that since the unsubscribe rate increased in a linear, not exponential fashion, that this approach was ok with them.

Takeaway: More emails typically means more donations. We don’t advise overwhelming your supporters with too many messages, but experience and testing will help you determine the sweetspot for how often you should contact your donors.

5. Keep subject lines short.

To make every word count, really choose each word in a subject line for its added value. In some cases shorter, less formal, more personal subject lines tend to lead to higher open rates, higher click rates, and more donations. (Check out   Hey Girl Barack Obama Emails for a funny, comprehensive overview of the Obama campaign’s subject lines.)

Takeaway: For maximum impact, keep subject lines short and friendly.

You don’t have to be working on a major campaign or for a Fortune 500 company to achieve great results with your email outreach. Set aside time today to evaluate your email messages and think about what you can improve upon. Are your subject lines too long? Are you doing any A/B testing? By using simple email optimization tactics, you can learn more about your audience and take your digital strategy to the next level. Tell us what’s working for you or what you plan to test in the comments below.

 

The folks at Bloomerang have published a sharp new infographic that serves as a quick guide to better fundraising appeals. This handy reference, created by fundraising expert Tom Ahern, works for both email appeals and direct mail. Here are four smart tips that will improve any fundraising letter:

1. Define your audience. A letter to a prospective donor should be much different than one you’re sending to an existing donor. Treat them differently.

2. Personalize your ask. Along with segmentation, be sure to personalize the language of your appeal by including some information about your audience and using friendly, first-person language.

3. Include your ask multiple times. Burying your call to action at the bottom of your letter won’t cut it.

4. Focus on one important thing. What is the single most important thing a reader should take away from your letter? Focus on that. Period.

Check out the full infographic below and visit the post on the Bloomerang blog for more quick tips.

by Kate Olsen, VP of Strategic Projects at Network for Good @Kate4Good

Fellow cause marketers, wouldn’t you like a dollar for every time someone told you to ‘make it go viral?’ The beauty and frustration of virality is that you never know what will catch on. Context, creativity and conversation all have to align to get tens, hundreds or thousands of people to talk about your idea at the same time.

We may not be able to make things go viral by sheer force of will, but Jonah Berger has a few ideas about how to engineer messages and campaigns that are more likely to spread. Below are a few tips from his new book Contagious: Why Things Catch On.

Jonah outlines six key STEPPS that will transform your cause marketing messages into content that will entertain, inspire and incite people to spread the word.

1. Social Currency: How will talking about your campaign affect the sharer’s status in his/her community? Will it make the sharer look knowledgeable, in the know, generous?

Example: Packaging your message in a slick piece of media, such as the documentary Girl Rising, makes it easy for people to recommend – they seem intellectual, generous and pop culture savvy.


2. Triggers: Can you relate your message to a context or habit that is already part of the sharer’s daily life?

Examples: Workplace giving and volunteering as a social norm, giving a $1 at checkout, or this NYC Department of Health anti-soda campaign


3. Emotion: Does sharing your message move people emotionally? Can you touch the heart?

Examples: Charity: Water puts the supporter as the hero of the campaign, showcasing the personal connection to the cause to share with social networks. This RedSnappa video epitomizes making an emotional connection with your message.


4. Public: Can you add a social proof element to your message so people can see that others support your cause?

Examples: Movember mustaches, breast cancer pink ribbons, Livestrong yellow bracelets, ‘I Voted’ stickers


5. Practical Value: Does spreading your message help people help others? What is the impact you are driving?

Example: Causes that make the supporter experience tangible include Dress for Success and Adopt A Classroom. Consumer campaigns that make a tangible donation alongside a useful product include One Pack = One Vaccine and FEED Projects.


6. Stories: Is your message or campaign related to a larger narrative people want to share?

Examples: Ben & Jerry’s went to congress with a 900 Pound Baked Alaska to protest drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Ben & Jerry’s made a social statement but used their product to illustrate their point, that makes the story sticky relevant and memorable.)

Want to know how to craft a powerful story? Download this archived webinar presentation from Jonah Sachs on ‘Winning the Story Wars’.


P.S. Thank you to PointWorthy for recommending this fabulous read.

posted by Caryn Stein, Director of Content Strategy at Network for Good

The team here at Network for Good recently released two updated resources on social media: a Social Media Mini Guide for Nonprofits and the Nonprofit Social Media Checklist. You can download both of these resources for free (registration required), and they’re focused on practical tips coupled with real examples to help you think about the best way to incorporate social media in your outreach.

Here’s an excerpt from the guide:

How can you stand out on social media? Think outside the box when presenting your stories via social channels. Here are a few creative ways to frame your content:

•  Invite your supporters on a journey. Take readers on a journey to your field sites, local outreach events and through video, photos and up-to-the-minute updates. Use a combination of formats to really capture the full experience.

•  Curate an exclusive exhibit. Have a collection of artifacts, illustrations or thank you notes from constituents? Show them off and let them speak for you.

•  Make your fans part of the action. Share a play-by-play of live events or behind the scenes activities with a virtual “back stage pass”.

•  Create a serial drama. Never underestimate the power of a cliffhanger—tell your story in installments over several days or weeks. Use hashtags, photo albums and landing pages to link the pieces together.

Nonprofit friends in the DC area: don’t miss out on a great opportunity to learn how to effectively use social media for social good (and network with your colleagues) at the Social Media for Nonprofits conference DC on Monday July 15, 2013. There are still scholarships available and you can also get $20 off registration with the code “N4G”.

Posted by Melissa Raimondi, Content Producer at Network for Good

10 Artists, 10 Years: Color Palettes infographic by ArthurBuxton.

Infographics are a hot topic in the world of marketing. They are a popular way to make potentially boring data visually appealing and fun. I love the creativity and inventiveness designers are able to inject into statistics. The folks at visual.ly highlighted this infographic that shows how the color palettes of 10 famous artists changed over the course of 10 years. As someone who has a minor obsession with impressionist artists, I loved instantly seeing how Monet’s use of color changed over time and how his art chromatically compares with his contemporaries.

In an efficient, unobtrusive manner, infographics can communicate a wealth of information in a glance. Data visualization is giving nonprofits the opportunity to make statistics about potentially scary topics such as child mortality and domestic violence understandable for a large donor base. The Agitator’s Tom Belford recently aggregated his favorite fundraising infographics, saying, “You probably don’t need convincing that infographics are a powerful way to communicate facts and figures (but just in case).”

But what if that isn’t the whole story? What if infographics, with their clean lines and minimalist feel, are creating a dearth of repeat donors?

Anna Sternoff, the head of strategy at the content marketing studio Captains of Industry, thinks just that. While she admits to having achieved success through an infographic campaign of her own, she worries that although they’re a great way to capture data in a manageable way, infographics are missing out on a key building block: emotion.

Anna raises the concern that if nonprofits rely on infographics to tell their stories, they may be missing out on a key way to convert people into “active, repeat donors.” When people tell stories, they expect a reaction from their listener. While that desired reaction for nonprofits is usually a donation, all storytellers need that action to stem from a more conspicuous initial reaction—they want their audience to feel something. Anna points out that infographics can be emotionally whitewashing: “When you’re banking on people feeling something … you’re betting an awful lot on your audience’s ability to have a reaction more significant than ‘gee, that’s a lot of hungry people in the world.’ ”

What role should infographics play in nonprofit outreach? Is there a way to capture an emotionally compelling story in an infographic? Chime in below with your thoughts on effectively using infographics in nonprofit communication.

 

by Kate Olsen, VP of Strategic Projects at Network for Good @Kate4Good

The following post is a summary of Adam Grant’s presentation on his book Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success at the Conference on Volunteering and Service.

In Give and Take, Adam Grant’s premise is that there is more to the secret of success than hard work, talent and luck – especially as the world continues to become more hyper-connected. What’s missing is generosity. Givers excel in a collaborative work environment, but can burn out easily if they don’t see the impact of their contributions or don’t learn how to set boundaries. This is especially true for people in helping professions such as nonprofit leadership, cause marketing and social responsibility.

Here are Adam’s 4 tips for creating a cultures of successful givers at your organization.

1. Get the right people on the bus (a nod to Jim Collins)

Weed out the takers and encourage matches to take their cues from the givers. Rewarding giver behavior and helping matchers see the value in reciprocity with a net positive benefit will nudge your culture towards a collaborative, generous workplace.

2. Reduce costs

Think about the power of 5-minute favors. You don’t have to be Mother Theresa or Gandhi to call yourself a giver. Giver mentality is more about finding efficient ways to make low-cost gestures with high value to the receiver. You’ve heard of micro-volunteering? Think of it as micro-favors. If someone asks you for help and you know you are the best equipped to help and the act will only take you 5 minutes, say yes. Always. If you are not the best equipped to respond, point the person in a new direction to find the help they need.

3. Show impact

Some givers burn out others are energized by doing favors – why? Givers burn out when they can’t see the value of their impact. Think of ways to have authentic messengers demonstrate the value your staff creates every day. A message from the CEO is nice, but givers are more motivated by a thank you from a program beneficiary or an employee who gave in a personally meaningful way. Showing impact in a tangible way relates to the concept of the ‘identifiable victim’ or ‘singularity effect’ – people are more compassionate when they can relate to one person’s story.

4. Encourage help-seeking

A whopping 75-90% of helping starts with a request, yet people hesitate to ask for help – especially givers. Givers don’t want to be a burden and often confuse taking and receiving. We need to create work cultures that reward asking for help and make it ok for people to take it. Also, givers to ask for help so other people (namely matchers) have the opportunity to give and so givers know who can benefit from their help and how in the future.

Here’s an example of how help-seeking improves results. Appletree Answers, a call center solutions provider, was experiencing 98% staff turnover each year. That’s a huge HR hiring burden to replace your staff every year. The company started internal employee wish program where employees could ask for help fulfilling their dreams and other employees could offer assistance to making those wishes come true. As a result of creating this culture of giving and receiving, staff turnover dropped to 33%.

Your organization can create its own Reciprocity Ring. Here’s how.

· Invite employees to join the program.

· Have everyone participating make a request.

· Everyone in the program then tries to help make those requests happen.

· Everyone is both a giver and a receiver, so there is no stigma about asking for help.

· Everyone gets better understanding of the resources in their network for future giving and receiving.

Recently we asked some of our favorite fundraisers and social do-gooders to share their summer reading lists. If you’re looking for inspiration, here’s a good starting point.

The top pick for the summer appears to be Give and Take by Adam Grant. Sasha Dichter, Chief Innovation Officer of Acumen, along with Network for Good’s Kate Olsen and Dan Cohen, put this hot read at the top of the list. Give and Take was also Beth Kanter’s pick (she recently shared in-depth thoughts on this book on her blog).

Another popular recommendation was The Impact Equation by Chris Brogan and Julian Smith. John Haydon has this on his reading list, which is a pretty impressive endorsement!

Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN, shared her summer reading strategy: “Summer is a great time to read something totally different. Get away from all of those work-related, business books and pick up something that is purely for fun. I find that when I let my mind truly wander and dive into a story, that I get refreshed in the light-hearted and people-centric side of our work and that refreshed perspective comes through as I draft appeals and think about calls to action. On my list: Let the Great World Spin, The History of Love, and Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls.”

Some more summer reading ideas:

Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are by Carlin Flora
“How does this relate to nonprofit marketing and fundraising? Understanding how to foster better relationships in our personal lives is key to fundraisers understanding how to foster meaningful relationships with our donors. There are many parallels that we can draw between our pursuit of being better friends and being better relationship builders with our constituencies.” 
—Alia McKee, principal at Sea Change Strategies and founder of Lifeboat

The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
“A must-read, although it will be slow-going for some. Most fundraising programs are dependent upon a very small group of people, and this book explains why.”
—Jeff Shuck, CEO of Event 360

Inspired - How to create Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan
—Scott Harrison, Founder and CEO of charity: water

Joe Waters offers up a change of pace with his choice:Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick. Joe tells us, “This book on the first major engagement of the American Revolution had colonists seriously outnumbered by redcoats. Nevertheless, the colonists stood their ground, inflicted heavy casualties and almost won. What fundraisers can learn: Holding your ground when you want to run can lead to victory ... or at least a failure you’re sure to learn a lot from!”

Are any of these books on your summer reading list? What would you add? Chime in by adding a comment below and tell us your reading picks for the summer—whether you’re focusing on reading for business or pleasure!

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that online donations rose 14 percent from 2011, reaching $2.1-billion in 2012. The study was based on data provided by Blackbaud, Network for Good, and PayPal, and examined online giving totals from 115,000 nonprofits. This latest analysis underscores just how online giving is growing at a more rapid pace than overall giving, which had a growth rate of only 3.5% in 2012, according to Giving USA. Going beyond numbers, the Chronicle also highlights quotes and examples from several nonprofits—tons of good food for thought! (For more details on this online giving data, you can browse the information from the Chronicle’s annual survey of online fundraising or view the interactive State of Online Giving report.)

So, how can your cause experience its own online giving growth spurt? Here are five recommendations:

1. Get online and make it easy.  You absolutely must have an easy way for donors to give online—a PDF download of your paper giving form doesn’t count. Get an online donation page that allows donors to quickly give and be sure you have the ability to track gifts and send thank yous. (Of course, we’re partial to Network for Good’s DonateNow service.)  For more ideas on improving your online fundraising, read 6 Steps to Maximize Online Giving via fundraising123.org.

2. Make it easy.  This is so important, it bears repeating. Do everything you can to make it dead simple for your donors every step of the way. Remove anything that is a barrier or distraction. Remove unnecessary options or anything that may cause confusion—or it will cost you donations. When you think you’ve made your donation process easy, try simplifying it even further. Then ask yourself, is it easy enough?

3. Foster the relationship.  Online fundraising offers a unique opportunity to customize the giving experience and to forge ongoing relationships with your donors through your website, emails and social media. Use these channels as donor retention tools to keep your supporters updated on your success. Create a personal connection with a multichannel experience for happy and loyal donors.

4. Encourage recurring gifts.  Online giving makes this simple to do—make this a standard part of your fundraising appeals and donation forms. Again, make it easy for your donors to give a recurring donation and clearly show them the impact their ongoing support will have. Need some inspiration? Read 3 Ways to Encourage Monthly Giving.

5. Go mobile. Your cause is already mobile, whether you’re ready or not. A good chunk of your email appeals will be opened on a mobile device this year. Make sure that your donors can give whenever—and wherever—the generous feeling hits.

Do the latest trends in online giving match your experience? How do you plan to invest in online fundraising this year?

posted by: Caryn Stein

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This week, HubSpot (the popular marketing software company) announced a partnership with charity:water. This team effort will be one to watch for innovative ideas on applying inbound marketing tactics to the world of fundraising.

Of course, charity:water has long been a source of inspiration for fundraisers seeking to transform the way they raise money. This post from HubSpot features just some of the ways that charity:water puts their donors at the center of their success stories.

Here are three important takeaways for you to apply to your work:

Show where the money goes. Going beyond a simple chart, charity:water’s Dollars to Projects feature shows donors exactly how their donation will be used, how the projects work, and then allows donors to follow their donation to the completed project.
To do: Create a map of how you get from point A to point B in your work. Don’t forget to add the proverbial “You Are Here” label so donors can see how they fit into the success of your mission.

Share your progress. charity:water uses a personalized project report to keep donors up to date on what has been accomplished, complete with photos and quantifiable results. 
To do: Let your donors be part of the journey. Interview some of your donors to find out what they’d like to know about the impact of their donation. Use this insight to create a template to regularly report back on your progress.

Illustrate your impact—in human terms. Through video and photo-sharing platforms, like Instagram, charity:water keeps supporters engaged with inspiring stories of the individuals they help through their work.
To do: Go beyond dry facts and mass statistics, follow your impact to one individual and bring that story to life for your supporters.

No matter your issue area or organization size, make it a priority this year to be creative and personalize your cause through story and imaginative outreach. The ability to stand out and truly connect with supporters will continue to be the defining factor of successful nonprofits.

posted by: Caryn Stein

Next week, the team at Network for Good will be hosting an important webinar for fundraisers—all about nonprofit storytelling. Regular readers of this blog know the best way to get people to remember, relate and react to your cause is through story. Now we’re going to help you get started on your own stories and teach you how to make them better. Nicole Lampe of Resource Media and Mark Rovner of Sea Change Strategies are two champions of storytelling and will be on hand to share their best tips, plenty of examples, and are ready to answer your questions. Here’s the session description:

Compelling stories help people remember and connect with your mission. If we want to change the world for the better and further our good causes, we must embrace the power of storytelling. Wondering how your nonprofit can move people to action through story?

Join our panel discussion to learn how to tell an effective story that gains supporters and raises more money for your organization.

      Learn how to craft an amazing story for your cause
      Avoid common mistakes when telling your story
      Find, create and use compelling images for nonprofit storytelling

The webinar will be on Tuesday June 18 at 1pm EDT. It’s free, with registration required. Even if you can’t make the live session, sign up and you’ll get the slides and recording to view on demand. We look forward to seeing your stories in action!

posted by: Caryn Stein

In a recent commencement speech, novelist Jonathan Safran Foer lamented the risk of isolation in our wired culture. As technology becomes more ingrained in our daily lives, simple actions that have traditionally involved face-to-face communication have been transformed by apps and interfaces. As we’ve become more connected than ever, it’s become easy to avoid true connection.

For nonprofits, it’s ironic that just as we have the ability to reach so many more people in the world, it’s increasingly tempting to opt for generic messages and efficiency. Resist this urge! If we want to inspire action and support for our causes, we must continue to appeal to the emotions of our fellow man. Passion. Hope. Empathy.

So how do you ensure your digital outreach has a heartbeat? Keep these tips in mind:

Tap into emotion by featuring a human face in your communications.

Avoid jargon. Talk like a real person to connect with real people.

Make it clear that your emails, social media channels and website have a living, breathing person behind them.

Stir passion through story. Focus on an individual’s struggle and illustrate how your work has helped.

Don’t neglect the interactive part of online interaction.

There are so many ways to get it wrong, yet as agents for social change, we have the best opportunity to get it right. Use the tools of technology to amplify the heart, soul and emotion of your cause, not avoid it. Your message and mission depend on it.

(Thanks to Allison McGuire for the inspiration for this post.)

posted by: Caryn Stein

Editor’s note: While nonprofitmarketingblog.com will get an updated look in the next few weeks, the team at Network for Good will continue to bring you the latest trends, tips and inspiration. Don’t worry—all of Katya Andresen’s posts will remain online and accessible just as before. Thanks for reading!