Nonprofit Bridge

As a regular user of the New York Public Library, I’ve usually had to time my visits to when the branches are open.  In the past, there have been at least one day weekly when the library was completely closed (in addition to Sunday), and ‘late’ hours would only be provided one or two days / week.  Recently at the Mid Manhattan Library, I was amazed to learn that this location was now open extended hours, not only daily but with hours to 11 PM several days / week.  How was the library able to do this, especially in these times of recession?

Over the years I’ve developed relationships with many consultants / vendors who serve nonprofits, only some which I’ve worked with directly.  In preparation for our regular update call, I listened to a presentation that Michael Johnston of HJC New Media which is available for listening from his web site.  During an hour of many examples of how he’s implemented cross-channel strategies at many nonprofit clients, he mentioned his work at the New York Public Library.  In addition to raising funds which allowed the library to avoid further cutbacks in hours, Michael’s work succeeded also in breaking down silos between departments, a problem which I’ve seen at many organizations when developing and implementing online strategies.

Other interesting takeaways included:

1. when combining direct mail and email, it’s usually better to send the direct mail first, then follow up with a corresponding email appeal.
2. since many recipients of direct mail will visit the nonprofit’s web page before donating, integrate the home page with the latest direct mail content / graphics
3. send direct mail to supporters who are already raising money online;  ask that they encourage others to do the same
4. to stimulate monthly giving, follow up with web donors with a phone call, thanking them for their support and asking that they deepen their commitment
5. put videos online, immediately followed by an ask – an effective alternative to always providing a static donation form
6. if using a radio campaign, direct listeners to visit a microsite / unique URL where they can show their support
7. if using social media, make sure you can track donations coming from this source;  make sure your social media pages include a call to action (not necessarily to donate)

Using a multichannel approach not only can result in higher donations, but can help your organization to work more effectively and provide a consistent message to constituents, no matter how they hear about you.  Which of the above techniques can you implement today?

The NYC 501 Tech Club returned this week with a new format – presentation + networking.  Big Duck’s Farra Trompeter moderated a discussion on multi-channel fundraising – a topic I often discuss, joined by Simon Moloney of Npower NY and Rebecca Willett of Planned Parenthood.   Also this week, Convio held its annual Summit in Austin, TX.

For those in the NYC audience who don’t yet integrate multiple channels in fundraising efforts, Farra asked that we strive to break down silos within our organizations because “donors see us as one nonprofit.’  So there shouldn’t be a competition between money raised by direct mail versus email marketing or other online fundraising tools.  Multichannel appeals are most effective, especially this time of year (make sure you plan to email your donors on Dec. 30 / 31).  Farra also asked the attendees who we blend personal and organizational priorities in social networking content;  this may be addressed further in a future meeting.  (My take – a personal touch breathes life into a blog posting or tweet, as long as the focus isn’t removed from the nonprofit’s mission.)

Rebecca reviewed Planned Parenthood’s multi-channel strategy which she described as a ‘collaborative effort of the national office and affiliates.’  In response to my question on what content to put on each channel, Rebecca suggested first finding out which audience(s) are on each channel, then asking ‘what are they looking for’?  Planned Parenthood has some interesting enhancements planned, such as a 24×7 chat / text hotline, as well as a mobile phone application.

Slides from the NYC 501 Tech Club gathering on Multi-Channel Fundraising are available on SlideShare.  (Thanks Farra)

While I missed seeing other Convio users at the Summit, I was pleased to see Convio’s Nonprofit Live TV – an attempt to bring the event to me.  Congratulations to those nonprofits that were honored for innovation in in Online Marketing, Fundraising, Advocacy and Email Marketing.

Online tools make it easy for us to keep in touch with colleagues and friends, but it’s still nice to connect in person.  At the 501 Tech Club gathering, I met someone from Catholic Medical Mission Board, an organization I worked at while I was in college – long before I joined the nonprofit community full time.  Although many people I worked with have moved on, it was still nice to make a new connection.  Thanks to Nten and to organizers Charles Charles Lenchner and Thomas Negron for getting our group back in gear.

Addendum 11/24/09 – Here is Farra’s write-up of the 501 Tech Club event.

Convio’s report The Secret of Online Success: Why Structure Matters examines how nonprofits staff for ephilanthropy.  Major themes:

1. Nonprofit organizations are resource constrained – no kidding :>).  “Insufficient staff resources” (mentioned by 90% of 60 nonprofits surveyed) is the major barrier to succeeding online, followed by “budget constraints” (64%) and “senior management not understanding the value of online marketing” (48%).  But having the right people is more important than simply having more staff.   Especially if a nonprofit only has a few people devoted to online efforts, it’s unlikely they’ll have the many skills (see below) required to manage ephilanthropy.
2. Organizational structure matters – will make a big difference on how well online strategy is implemented.  Usual options are: centralized (20% of nonprofits surveyed – all online staff in one department), decentralized (39% – spread across organization – this is model at my organization) and hybrid (41% – somewhere in middle).  While there is no one “best” model, my take is that there has to be multi-department involvement, due to the many types of expertise required for ephilanthropy implementation: strategy, web administration, creative, campaign/project management, analysis and usability.  (Usability is the skill that’s often overlooked but which can have a major impact on how effective a web site is.)
3. Not having a (Internet marketing) plan is planning to fail – Yes, but to be most effective, the online ‘plan’ needs to be integrated with offline campaigns to derive the full benefits of a multichannel strategy.
4. Structure impacts performance – A centralized group may perform best in maximizing online revenue, but a hybrid group may do better in building an email file.  I’m not sure structure matters as much as the level of collaboration that exists within an organization.  Some nonprofits have too many silos where staff prefer to work within their own department and actually avoid contact with other areas.

Convio’s report suggests we take the time to think out what type of structure makes sense in our organizations, and what types of skills may need to be brought in from outside.   It’s also valuable to think about career paths, especially where there isn’t a centralized department (traditional promotion paths may not make sense).  Sometimes in a decentralized setup, online goals may actually conflict with those of the department you’re in.   While we often fear internal reorganizations, in this case in may make sense to consider whether changes are needed so that staff can effectively work together to achieve online goals.

Convio also provides a summary of this report and will offer a webinar to discuss it later this month (I don’t see it on their web site yet but received an email invitation – please contact me if you can’t find it.)

Yesterday I had the pleasure of participating in the New York Fundraising Summit.  I joined Paul Habig of SankyNet and Luke Vander Linden of Carl Bloom Associates to discuss Online Fundraising: Harnessing Technology to Build and Maintain Relationships.  I also attended sessions on Special Events Fundraising and Direct Mail Fundraising.

Some takeaways:

• The benefits of multichannel fundraising and marketing was a major theme at multiple sessions.  While I expected my colleagues at the online fundraising presentation to present these ideas, I was pleasantly surprised to hear this mentioned prominently during the direct mail session.  When I asked why so many organizations still insist on using different staff / departments to handle different channels, it’s because direct mail has long been a dependable income stream.  But now it’s definitely best to not plan and report results from direct mail and email appeals separately
• How to introduce multichannel approaches in your organization?  Get an internal ‘champion’ or work together with a consultant / vendor that your nonprofit already trusts
• How often do you email consituents – when you have relevant content that will be of interest
• Make email appeals part of a planned campaign, not as a series of unrelated messages.
• Use an integrated calendar to plan all constituent communications in advance, not just email.
• Easiest way to secure ticket sales for a special event – include an honoree
• How much will special event attendees participate in other organization activities?  It depends on how much to cultivate them afterwards and get to know what will most attract them to participate.
• Raising money is only one goal of a special event.  Other considerations are meeting constituents, finding board members, generating publicity.  Are you willing to break even on an event to achieve other objectives?
• Segment your list!   Communicate with prospects and past donors differently.
• Looking for ways to supplement your ‘traditional’ events?   Are constituents already engaged in activity with group of devotees who might be willing to make a donation as part of that activity?

I also met Tom & Candy Zackey from Amazing Grace Africa, who described at lunch how they have 17 children, many which they’ve adopted from Liberia, a country in Africa that has been ravaged by civil war for many years.  View more details about their work.

Thanks to the Center for Nonprofit Success for sponsoring this event.

Many of us in the nonprofit sector aren’t as effective as we could be in interacting with our constituents because departments of our organizations aren’t working together.  Often each department will have its own agenda, and offline and online strategies are handled by different areas.

In No Constituent is an Island, Steve MacLaughlin suggests that we stop thinking about offline and online and simply treat them as different channels.  Steve offers some interesting analogies, such as how we would react if we deposited a check at our bank but its online system had no record of it, or if you bought tickets online but when you arrived at the event, the box office could not access your purchase information.

Social media guru Beth Kanter offers a similar perspective in Silos Culture Inside the Walls of Nonprofits Prevent Effective Social Media Use.  She describes the experience of a nonprofit staff member who tried to promote a social media policy within their organization, but encountered departmental turf battles.  The volunteers who had asked to start using Facebook to promote the nonprofit eventually started on their own;  the organization only became involved later.   Social media brings up even more challenges since some of us still think it deserves a place with other tools we use to interact with our supporters.

With the increasing popularity of social media, some are asking if email is on the way out, e.g. Will eMail Fundraising Die.  But just as direct mail is still effective, so is email.   These tools work best when part of an integrated strategy.  To accomplish this, our nonprofits have to change how we’ve traditionally worked.  One way to do this is to have frequent cross-deparatment projects and meetings – not long, drawn out lectures but quick updates so each area is aware of what other parts of the organization are working on.   This is why project management is so important at nonprofits to help staff across departments and locations to learn to work collaboratively.

Constituents don’t view us as different departments but as one organization.  It’s time we started to treat ourselves the same way.

Thanks to Allan Pressel of CharityFinders and Cristine Cronin of NY Charities for joining me at this week’s event at the NYC Foundation Center, Online Fundraising Strategies for Tough Times.  Over 120 attendees joined us for a two hour session on how to help our nonprofit organizations prosper, even in this difficult economic climate.  Thanks also to Charlotte Dion of the Foundation Center for hosting the event and allowing me to present.  If you could not attend, please view my slides, Ten ePhilanthropy Tips for Tough Times

As a follow up, I’d like to offer an one hour webinar, Getting Started with ePhilanthropy on Wed, Jan. 21, 2009 at 7 PM EST.  This will be the first of what I hope to be monthly online classes on how you can use online strategies at your small or medium sized nonprofit organization.  This month’s session will focus on inexpensive and easy ways you can improve your web site, utilize email marketing techniques and promote multichannel strategies.  Best of all, you can attend from any place where you have a phone and an Internet connected computer.  Register Now.

With 2008 ending soon, I realized this week that it was time to finish charitable donations to maximize our tax deduction.  Although my wife and I give to many of the same organizations each year, we usually make many contributions at year-end.  Since I so often talk about the advantages of online giving, I decided to make most of our donations on the web.

Interestingly, some of the nonprofits I support haven’t learned the lessons of integrating offline and online campaigns.  Many of the direct mail pieces we received came with increasing frequency, but offered no dedicated web address to use other than the organization home page.  When I went online on one nonprofit’s site, I couldn’t find a way to join or renew my membership, nor could I find a phone number to call.  With the help of Google, I found a phone number and asked that they please not keep wasting my money on constant direct mail requests when I 1) prefer to donate online and 2) want our donations used for the nonprofit’s mission, not for mailing costs.

I’ve also found that even for nonprofits who we support, I am still a bit reluctant to receive email updates throughout the year, possibly because they also come a bit too often and don’t offer enough incentive for me to open them.

Maybe some people take the time to read long direct mail pieces, but I’m not one of them.  Nor do I want to navigate lengthy email messages.  Interestingly, none of the organizations we support asked how often we wanted to be contacted and whether we preferred online or offline communications.  Perhaps these would be good questions to add to your donation form.

There’s one day left – make sure you donate to your favorite causes (even if it’s not as easy as it should be).

This week I attended my first Convio Summit in Austin, Texas.  Probably the most valuable part was the first day, where I joined many other national accounts for an unusual opportunity to work directly with Convio’s senior management in critiquing the product and discussing future plans.  I was most gratified to hear about the firm’s commitment to improving product usability, both on the back and front end.  Since I train and support staff nationwide for my nonprofit organization, I often get questions about what modules to use for what and why the screens are sometimes difficult to understand.  A good definition for usability was provided by Jim Killion of is7: “make it easier for people to do what you want them to do.”

More highlights:

Convio’s new Common Ground is designed to ease the pain of integration by providing a platform that will support both online and offline transactions.  Although a new offering, Common Ground uses the well established SalesForce platform and is built to interface well with Convio’s online product.  However, the availability of this product does not mean that Convio will stop building integrations for other fundraising software solutions.  I also spoke with Convio’s data integration director – connecting with other systems is clearly something that Convio has devoted substantial resources to.

I also spoke at length with Convio’s new Director of Client Support, who plans major changes in how calls are tracked and handled as well as eliminating the current need for multiple login into multiple systems.

Multichannel fundraising / marketing was a major theme. CARE and Defenders of Wildlife (which won an award for their use of integrated strategies) both spoke about how they’ve seen optimal results from campaigns that span offline and online channels.  While changing your organization to operate across channels may not be easy to implement, the payout clearly seems worth the effort.

Several speakers agreed that social media may not currently result in a large fundraising impact, but that it’s still important to participate because it’s where constituents are spending time and finding a sense of community and like-mindedness.  Beth Kanter is the expert on this topic, leading Nten’s WeAreMedia.

A fascinating session on how to structure your organization for online success reviewed results from a recent survey responded to by over 60 nonprofit organizations to date.  Not surprisingly, ‘insufficient staff’ and ‘budget constraints’ were viewed as the largest barriers, followed by ’senior management doesn’t understand value of integrated / online marketing.’  Organization structure for online strategy was mixed: 20% centralized, 39% decentralized and 41% hybrid (combination of both).  However, Marketing & Communications was named as the department which most often handles this function, followed by Development and Information Technology (agreeing with what I’ve said previously in this blog).

Many nonprofits were recognized for their innovative use of online strategies.  Particularly noteworthy was the Trisomy 18 Foundation which received an award for best overall use of Convio.

Convio’s Misty McLaughlin discussed building a ‘top notch user experience,’ offering Three Things You Can Do Today:

Michael Hoffman, CEO of See3 asked this question on the Nten elist this week: how [do] other organizations create a balance between the Communications and the Fundraising departments when it comes to online initiatives. How should Communications and Fundraising interact without having turf battles?

A fascinating discussion has resulted, which is nicely summarized by Nten.

What ideas do you have for improving collaboration between departments that have traditionally operated separately?

Probably the best book explaining the benefits of ephilanthropy I’ve seen to date is Ted Hart’s People to People Fundraising.  Multiple experts from nonprofit organizations and vendors / consultants who service nonprofits offer detailed strategies on why nonprofits must begin to embrace integrated fundraising techniques.  Some memorable takeaways:

• Traditionally an organization’s web site has been under the control of either IT or marketing.  Whereas their goals and objectives may be well intended, it is fair to say that their core focus is not development  oriented. Development is often shut out from many of the Web conversations…Nonprofit organizations need to take a much more holistic focus of who controls and contributes to the overall online presence;  marketing, IT and development are just three of the contributors.
• Many organizations hae been quick to jump on the online bandwagon without creating an effective strategic plan.  For example, it’s easy to ask people to visit your web site or leave an email address.  But without an effective plan for how you wil use email addresses and how your online activities will integrate with your offline activities, you may be creating more problems than solutions.
• To develop integrated campaigns, an organization may not need to restructure, but it will have to to rethink how the departments within the organization interact with each other.

Some of the book’s contributors, many which I’ve heard speak at conferences and other industry events, include Blackbaud’s Steven MacLaughlin, Convio’s Sheeraz Haji, Network for Good’s Katya Andresen as well as Ted Hart, who has long been an expert on this topic since founding the ePhilanthropy Foundation.  Many case studies from nonprofits that have successfully utilized integrated fundraising strategies are profiled, as well as many ways to take advantage of social networking sites.

If you still think that collaborative campaigns won’t work in your organization, take a look at this book and find out why it’s so important.