Category Archives: ephilanthropy

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Among the many tips offered at Friday’s session on Facebook Tactics That Get Results offered by M&R Strategic Services and Nten was the reminder that very few Facebook fans will visit your page – they will mostly see your posts in their newsfeed.  (So why invest in expensive custom Facebook tabs?)  Surprisingly, you are penalized for posting from third party services such as Tweetdeck and HootSuite (read more on why these posts are less likely to appear in your newsfeed then if you post directly on Facebook).

How do you get more engagement – i.e. likes and comments, which will give your posts more visibility?  Use different types of content, including photos and videos, and ask constituents to take a specific action – especially those that will result in providing their email address so you can build your list.  (Did you know that you lose 18% of your list each year through unsubscribes and email addresses that no longer work?).

Idealware offers help on measuring your results on social media and Frogloop advises on how well as how you can manage data across multiple channels.  Jocelyn Harmon offers some simple advice on why constituents don’t donate.

Many nonprofits rely heavily on volunteers, yet their importance has often been overshadowed by those of lucky to have ‘paid’ work.  LinkedIn now offers a section to highlight volunteer experience and causes, which will help nonprofits to find its most loyal supporters.

Sept. 11 was a sad day, marking a decade since we lost almost three thousand people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.  What can nonprofits learn when the unthinkable happens?  Here are some lessons and another view of the effect on nonprofits as we recover from a very emotional day yesterday.  Ten years ago, I worked for Cross-Cultural Solutions, which was able to help to coordinate recovery efforts in NYC after the horrible event.

7 Tips to Implement a Successful Fall ePhilanthropy Campaign

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Sadly, Labor Day is followed by fall with shorter days and cooler weather.  But it also provides an opportunity to reconnect with your constituents, climaxed by the important year-end fundraising campaign.  Here are some ways to hit the ground running when you return to the office tomorrow:

  1. Prepare an integrated communications / fundraising calendar describing how you will engage with your supporters across channels.  Balance appeals with messages showing how your organization has helped your target audience and be specific about you’ve utilized past donations.
  2. Start planning content for email campaigns well in advance, using these 7 tips for better fundraising emails and applying these best practices for enewsletters - they apply just as much for nonprofits as for small businesses (More ideas here)
  3. Take the time to analyze data on email subscribers, website traffic, Facebook ‘likers,’ Twitter followers etc. so you better understand what platforms your constituents are engaging with you
  4. Is your website consistently providing fresh content that is in synch with your other communication media?  If not, have you provided ongoing training to staff on how to utilize your content management software?  (What?  You don’t have a CMS.  Read Idealware’s Five Tips for A Successful Open Source CMS Project on a Budget)
  5. Find a few simple ways to start thinking multi-channel, even if it means changing the way your nonprofit usually works.  Get ideas from Frogloop’s  Multichannel Magic, then read about others’ successes in this month’s upcoming nonprofit blog carnival hosted by Big Duck featuring this topic
  6. Get out of your office.  If you’re in NYC, for example, you can learn how to innovate and thrive in the digital age at this month’s 501 Tech NYC event and discuss what makes successful websites at the Not-for-Profit Webmaster Round Table.  (You can also learn from your desk by taking a webinar during you lunch hour.)
  7. Optimize your online giving forms, paying particular attention to whether they work as well on mobile and tablet platforms, where more of your constituents are seeing them.
Congratulations once again to Charity:Water, which has kicked off its September campaign as another example of how to do ephilanthropy right with stirring video and constantly providing feedback on how it uses donations towards its mission of providing clean water worldwide .

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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If you missed this week’s Social Media for Nonprofits NYC event, you can get a great summary from Big Duck’s Farra Trompeter, who presented a great step by step tutorial on implementing Multi-Channel Campaigns.  (More session slides from this and past events are available here.)  See also Kivi Leroux Miller’s post highlighting Convio’s recently released Multi-Channel Marketing Report.

Coming up with strong content is the key behind any online strategy.  As I and many of my nonprofit colleagues around the country do, I try to find the most worthwhile posts to share with my followers.  Beth Kanter explains that Content Creation is Listening and Engaging, then followed up with this look at Scoop.It as a way to organize your content.

How can you make your website more ‘social’?  Debra Askanase explains how and gives several examples of nonprofits that are doing this well, and will follow up with a Nten webinar next month.

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen says you must focus on essential content when writing for mobile platforms.  If you’re new to email marketing, learn about Email Marketing 2.0, then learn how segmentation can help you to get better results.

Finally, if you’re trying to find a format to send to your management to summarize social media and results of other online activity, Beth offers this guest post highlighting the Smithsonian Institution’s in-house dashboard, then suggests using a small pilot project to demonstrate the effectiveness of social media.

 

Who Will Take Care of You When You’re 64?

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Although I wasn’t lucky enough to see Paul McCartney in concert this weekend at Yankee Stadium, I did see him in Citi Field two years ago.  As a lifelong Beatles fan, I found his performance amazing, especially since he was 67 at the time.  From what I’ve heard about this weekend’s shows, he hasn’t slowed down much: 35 songs for nearly three hours without a break!

Interestingly, when the Beatles were together (and much younger), they did a song entitled When I’m 64, which asked the question of who would be there to take care of us when we reach retirement age.  This seemed a long time away at the time, so I found the song amusing but didn’t give it much more thought.

It’s great that Paul continues to perform as he approaches his 70th birthday next year, but most of us won’t be as lucky to have his talent – or his financial cushion – to insure a happy retirement.  Even if we’re fortunate enough to have a loving partner, there’s no assurance that he or she will be around to take care of us – or will be able to do so – for the rest of our lives.

Through my work at Jewish Funds for Justice, I recently became aware of a new initiative, Caring Across Generations, which seeks to call attention to long-term care workers who care for the elderly and those with disabilities.  These people often work for little money, yet put in long hours and deal with very difficult work situations.   Here’s what you can do now to call attention to this very important issue:

  • Watch or attend a Care Congress in your area
  • Sign the petition to protect what we have (e.g. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security) and to create better working conditions for those who care for the elderly
  • Join the Caring Across Generations movement
  • Write to your local paper that you want to protect rights of long-term care workers
  • View presentation of this month’s kickoff conference in Washington DC

As an only child with a small family, I often cared for many elderly relatives, including my wonderful Aunt Minnie, who lived until 98 despite dementia which afflicted her in her later years.  She was able to live at home until the end thanks to the devotion of her two aides, Hazel and Lena, who worked 24×7 for many years to insure that she would continue to have a good quality of life.  I can never thank them enough for what they did.  By participating in this new Caring Across Generations initiative, you can help insure that you and your family will be cared for when you’re 64 (and beyond).

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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For best results in ephilanthropy initiatives, I’ve always advocated for an active partnership between Communications and Development.   Here’s more reasons why from Kivi Leroux Miller,  If you’re not getting the type of response you want from your nonprofit e-newsletters, Kivi also offers a free 15 day e-newsletter course at her Nonprofit Marketing Guide website. which offers many simple tips you can easily implement.

The debate continues on the new Google Plus.  Beth Kanter offers her take, as does Frogloop and TNW Social Media.  I believe there may be a benefit to adding your contacts manually, as it forces us to give some thought of who should be in each ‘circle.’  According to the Huffington Post, nonprofits are wasting no time in kicking the tires of Google’s answer to Facebook.

If your organization is undergoing a major change (as most of us do sooner or later), Peter De Jager provides many great resources on change management at Technobility.  See also Chaos is the New Normal.

Learn about fundraising and emarketing in Blackbaud’s Summer School webinar series which starts this week and, if you’re in NYC, attend next week’s 501 Tech Club meeting featuring how to get started with WordPress (which this blog uses).

As a follow-up to last week’s post on How to Make Your Projects Successful, Ben Lichtenwalner offers his Inverted Pyramid of Project Success.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Social media expert Beth Kanter summarizes recent studies on how to increase Facebook engagement – it’s also a great way to find out what issues your constituents are most interested in.  Beth also outlines how to set SMART social media objectives.

To better understand how multichannel marketing works, read the recent DonorCentrics report and these write-ups from Frogloop, NonprofitTimes, The Agitator and Katya Andresen.  One step in the right direction – make sure your marketing/communications and fundraising are planning campaigns together.

How much resources should your nonprofit devote to a Twitter strategy?  Here’s Pew Internet‘s latest update on who’s using Twitter.  And in addition to having a Facebook like button on your website, you can add a Twitter follow button also.  Here’s also advice on the best days/times to tweet.

If you’re using integrated software like Convio, what stops you from using the tool most effectively?  Recent options like @ConvioHelp and live chat can be helpful, but my experience shows that issues with product usability often get in the way also.  My suggestion – make sure you take the time to train your staff on an ongoing basis.

Idealware also offers its own guideline on how to allocate your time between website, email and online outreach.

Attending Fundraising Day in New York this week?  If so, please look for me there.

Is your website still relevant?

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Not too long ago, the main website was the centerpiece of an nonprofit’s communications strategy.  This is where your multiple audiences (constituents – both current and prospective, partners, job seekers, other nonprofits) went first to learn about your organization.  Now most nonprofits have a Facebook page, twitter stream and blogs to maintain in addition to the website.  Since we don’t know where someone may read about us, how can we effectively utilize all these platforms?

In my view, the website still must come first.  Maintaining a current, informative web presence which truly meets the needs of your visitors is an ongoing process which requires contributions from multiple departments.  It’s useful to view your website from the perspective of someone who has never seen it before.  Can they quickly understand the mission of your organization?  Does your home page offer multiple pathways which correspond to the different parts of your constituent base?  (Having a site search function is helpful, but this shouldn’t be the main way that visitors find information.)

Most of us have been through a website redesign process during our career, and it’s usually not an easy process.  By the time we’ve finally launched our new site after many rounds of internal debate about what issues / areas should be highlighted, it’s no wonder that many organizations then ignore the website until the next major redesign, by which time it’s badly out of date.  Tip – make sure that staff understand the nonprofit’s major priorities, especially when they shift during times of change.  If the website isn’t clear, this may indicate that all staff are confused about your focus .

Why are social media tools like Facebook and Twitter often the first stop for information about a nonprofit?  Because by their nature, these channels have more current information and often contain details that haven’t yet made it on the organization’s website.   Social media posts also include links to news about your cause and other nonprofits who are doing similar work;  website pages often talk only about your organization.

It’s always been difficult to maintain an engaging website, especially now when there’s so many other online platforms.  Don’t wait for the next redesign to look for ways to improve your site, both in making sure your content is kept up to date and striving for a navigation which meets your visitors’ needs.

P.S. Don’t forget to check your website versus your social media channels for consistency, i.e. one shouldn’t conflict the other.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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When developing a Facebook strategy, remember that your constituents don’t just want to hear about your organization.  Andrea Barry explains how she adapted Idealware’s strategy to appeal to supporters’ desire to ‘be social.’

Planning a new website?  Beaconfire reminds us to pay attention to content early, and to incorporate content into the wireframes.  Techsoup also provides this overview into the redesign process. Big Duck suggests we put someone in charge of content creation.  (Here’s my recent post on developing a content strategy.)

This week, I launched a new campaign for my organization through a combination of email marketing, website and social media strategies.  It takes a lot of coordination, but you can’t just rely on one channel to get the word out.  Read more tips on integrated marketing from Convio and EMC.

How often are you sending bulk emails?  Hopefully you have some type of communications calendar.   And don’t forget to review the statistics after your email goes out.  Is your audience actually taking the action you are encouraging them to do?  See also these ideas for email marketing to seniors.

Today is Mother’s Day.  In addition to showing your mother how much you love her, also post her picture to support a new campaign to demonstrate that our parents want to protect Medicare benefits not only for themselves, but for their children and grandchildren.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Most of us are still figuring out what works and what doesn’t in social media.  For help in developing conversations instead of one-way communications, review John Haydon’s 16 Ways to Get Comments on Your Facebook Page and Robin Stephenson’s Twitter Community Organizing Rules for Non Profits.  Especially on Facebook, you’ll need to try different approaches before you find out what works best with your constituents.

Having engaging content to share in our multiple communication channels is a continuing challenge.  Per Kivi Leroux Miller, here’s how ASPCAPro Manages Content Creation, which reinforces why regular editorial meetings / calendars are so helpful in developing ideas and planning your outreach.

If you think you’ve heard it all about storytelling, consider M&R’s Storytelling and the Art of Email Writing.  Hint – you need to understand what motivates someone to give before you can write effective fundraising copy.  Veteran storyteller Andy Goodman provides more tips in Storytelling: The First Best Thing.

If you’re always wondering what day/time is best for emailing your constituents or posting on social media, view HubSpot’s recent presentation The Science of Timing, as well as Blue Sky Factory’s When is the Best Time to Send Email.  And don’t forget to integrate social media into your website so you use one channel to support the other in building your audience.

Finally, Jeff Brooks offers 20 Ways to Be Donor Centric which includes some familiar but useful reminders such as paying attention to the content and promptness of your gift acknowledgements.

Notes from Latest Benchmark Reports

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Two major benchmark studies were released at the recent Nonprofit Technology Conference: the e2011 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study (#11NTCbenchmarks) and the Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report (#11NTCBench).  If you haven’t yet had a chance to digest their contents, below are some major takeaways:

  • When analyzing email marketing statistics, a high unsubscribe rates will often be accompanied by a high response rate.  With overall open rates of emails declining, it’s a continuing challenge to get subscribers to open and read your email messages.   So look at all your statistics;  don’t panic if you suddenly see a rise in unsubscribes
  • Do you give an option for monthly gifts whenever you ask for one-time donations?   Other than by large nonprofits which seem to do the best in this area, many US based organizations seem to neglect this strategy – or forget to pay special attention when communicating with these donors
  • 9 of 10 nonprofits now have a presence on Facebook, but use of Twitter seems to be leveling off (my take – what’s good for other nonprofits may not be best for you.  I’ve seen Twitter often succeed better in creating a buzz and raise visibility than relying mostly on Facebook)
  • While most nonprofits aren’t raising significant funds on Facebook, many of the organizations that are doing the best in raising money are small.   So if you dedicate the budget and staff, you can get good results
  • Many nonprofits focus on commercial networks such as Facebook and Twitter; only 13% of those surveyed have private / house networks which are used mostly for program and service delivery (my take – even though they’re initially harder to create, house networks have the strong advantage of being totally under your control;  Facebook can and does change its rules often, and still makes it  difficult for you to extract email addresses of those who like your page.)
  • Few organizations have yet shown concrete hard benefits from measurements such as ROI to validate the use of social networks;  soft benefits such as increased organization visibility and non-financial supporter engagement are mentioned more frequently.

How can you use these statistics to tweak your online strategy?  With an overall email churn rate of 18%, it’s critical that we always be thinking about ways of building our supporter base.  While website and email marketing still predominates, it’s clear that the most successful nonprofits use a variety of techniques to engage current constituents and to attract new supporters.  Social media can help, but it shouldn’t be done in a vacuum.  Pick a few channels to focus your efforts, test some new approaches to see how they work, and get ideas from what other nonprofits are already doing successfully, especially others in your vertical.  As both reports show, results often very dramatically between sector, e.g. international organizations whose results are often skewed by fundraising for emergencies.

For even more statistics, review the Online Giving Study, also presented at the recent Nonprofit Technology Conference.  Many slides and recordings from the event sessions are now available at Nten’s NTC page.