Nonprofit Bridge

This week I received an especially interesting enewsletter from Nten, the nonprofit technology organization that I’ve been involved with for many years.  There was a lot of great content, such as:

1. project management on web redesigns
2. optimizing web sites for social media
3. asking the right questions to appeal to the right audience
4. getting help with web analytics with the Analysis Exchange
5. tips on creating website content
6. taking advantage of the mobile web
7. a roundup of other useful links, also featured in Nten’s blog

Many nonprofits have started to phase out paper newsletters in favor of enewsletters, but I wonder whether even this medium is still an effective way to reach constituents.  The average open rate for email newsletters is usually around 20% (see e2010 Nonprofit Benchmarks Study), and even those who do open them probably only scan them quickly.  When I realized the value of Nten’s content, my first inclination was to share the articles individually through my Twitter stream.  While many sites now have an easy way to do this, I often use Add This, which I’ve installed on my computer for easy sharing to multiple social networking sites.

No, I’m not advocating that you ditch the enewsletter.  But I am suggesting that wherever possible, you make information available to your constituents in small bites, and make sure there is an easy way to share content through social media and by emailing to friends.  And if you want to make sure your great content is noticed, make it available in multiple channels, but make sure to tweak to take advantage of strengths of each medium.

This week I had the pleasure to be featured on Nten’s Facebook page (Thanks, Holly) of responding to some questions on implementing ephilanthropy strategies.  One commenter mentioned the difficulty of working in an environment with extremely limited financial and staff resources.  Most of us who have worked in nonprofit can relate, but this doesn’t mean that nothing can be done.  Using the Web, especially social media, is available to all, and often the smallest organizations have the most dramatic success.  Here’s a few simple tips that any nonprofit can take advantage of:

1. Hire people that are enthusiastic about your mission, and who can spread the word to their networks.  As Beth Kanter points out in her recently released The Networked Nonprofit, this also means recruiting those outside of your organization who are also willing to help.
2. Keep building your email list.  While it’s nice to have followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook, it’s still important to be able to directly communicate with supporters by email, and not only when you want to ask for donations.
3. Learn from what other nonprofits have done, such as the wildly successful Charity:Water, and don’t be afraid to ask others for help (try Progressive Exchange);  nonprofit professionals are usually very generous with their knowledge.
4. Read publications such as Convio’s Nonprofit Online Fundraising Guide and Blackbaud’s Index of Online Giving, as well as this recent publication focusing on grassroots environmental organizations, but which has ideas which can be helpful to all nonprofits.
5. If you’re not already a member, join organizations such as Nten, where you will be able to share ideas with colleagues, attend online trainings and keep yourself motivated.

In addition to having long maintained this blog as a way to share my ideas with the nonprofit community, I’ve also used LinkedIn to keep in touch with my professional network and my Twitter feed as a way to share thoughts and resources that I learn about in between by (usually) weekly blog posts.  But I haven’t paid as much attention to my Facebook page, figuring that this is more of a ‘personal’ site and doesn’t specifically relate to my ephilanthropy work.  (I’ve also been concerned about the occasional privacy issues that have come up with sites such as Facebook, addressed in a recent Nten webinar.)

But in ignoring Facebook, I’ve made the same mistake as many nonprofits that are beginning to use social networking tools – not going where the constituents are.  Facebook is approaching the 500 million user mark, and is expected to go much higher.  Clearly, it is fulfilling the need that our supporters have to be connected to each other.  I’ve also noticed more of an overlap between personal and professional posts, an issue that my friend Farra Trompeter of Big Duck has often spoken about.  While I’m not suggesting that you share details of your personal life for the world to see and comment upon, it is a good idea to show more than one dimension of your personality.

What does this mean for nonprofits?  The more you can get to know about your constituents, the better you can develop your relationship.  You can find out by analyzing which of your web pages are most popular with Google Analytics, by taking surveys or polls with tools such as SurveyMonkey, or by simply asking what their most important priorities are.  You can also learn from listening and by using simple tools such as Google Alerts.

Even if you don’t fully understand why it’s become such a phenomenon, you can’t afford to ignore Facebook.  But make sure you review your privacy settings so you understand how your information will be shared. For a detailed description of Facebook’s brief but remarkable history, read David Kirkpatrick’s The Facebook Effect.  For help on deciding what to put on Facebook vs. Twitter vs. other social networking sites, see my post earlier this year, What Content to Post in Each Channel.

Addendum 7/15/10 – I will be featured today on Nten’s Facebook page.

At last night’s 501 Tech Club NYC monthly meeting, Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadura and Brooklyn Museum‘s Chief of Technology Shelley Bernstein talked about how Foursquare can be used to attract and engage constituents.  Earlier this week, Foursquare received $20 million in financing and currently has over 1.8 million users despite having only launched 18 months ago.

Naveen described his product as ‘software designed to change people’s behavior,’ to ‘get them to do more things, go more places.’  In addition to becoming ‘mayor’ of places frequently visited, Foursquare users can display badges as well as take advantage of promotions offered by participating vendors.  Shelley described how her organization has used Foursquare to get more involved with the community surrounding the Brooklyn Museum.  Interestingly, when she was asked whether the museum’s initiatives have resulted in an increase in museum visits or in donations, she said that Foursquare doesn’t yet offer enough information to be able to evaluate this.  Naveen added that Foursquare currently offers limited demographics on who is currently using its service.

Why has Foursquare worked well for the Brooklyn Museum?  Shelley explained that it was the nonprofit’s ‘social culture,’ which is further discussed in the recently released book, The Networked Nonprofit (Beth Kanter also attended last night’s event).  Another attendee from the Metropolitan Museum also described using Foursquare, but pointed out that it was more tied into the Met’s focus on education (vs. the Brooklyn Museum’s emphasis on community).

Reportedly Facebook is already working on including a similar functionality within its service, so it will be interesting to see how this affects Foursquare.  What I find most interesting is that for many of us who use the web, it really doesn’t matter where we are.  Yet with Foursquare, users are encouraged to ‘check in’ to their location several times daily, and to possibly connect with (in person) other friends who are where you are.  Can this be beneficial for a typical nonprofit?  If your constituents are using Foursquare, it may be interesting to find out.  But as has been done by the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum, first consider your organization’s mission and how this type of product can fit in.

Thanks to group leaders Charles Lenchner, Thomas Negron and Farra Trompeter and to Planned Parenthood who hosted the event and provided snacks.  This was the largest crowd that I can recall for a NYC 501 Tech Club gathering.  See also Farra’s recap.

P.S. Has your nonprofit tried Foursquare yet?  If so, leave a comment detailing your experience.  I will offer a free Nten webinar registration to first person that responds.

As much as I’m on the web, I’m also a big reader, especially of books in ephilanthropy.  Here’s some selections from my summer reading list:

1. The Networked Nonprofit – Beth Kanter & Allison Fine – as discussed last week, Beth & Allison offer advice on how to use social media to make your nonprofit more ‘open’ and is authored by two of the most respected experts.  More about live book release events here.
2. Fundraising When Money Is Tight – Mal Warwick – Having long advised fundraisers, Mal focuses on how to survive in tough times.
3. Raising Thousands (if Not Tens of Thousands) of Dollars with Email – Madeline Stanionis – Email marketing is still the nucleus of many organizations’ fundraising campaigns;  Madeline advises on how to use it most effectively
4. The Nonprofit Marketing Guide – Kivi Leroux Miller – Kivi has always been generous with her knowledge on the web;  the book offers advice on “high impact, low cost ways to build support” for your cause
5. Internet Management for Nonprofits – Ted Hart, James Greenfield, Steve MacLaughlin, Philip Geier – Recommended by Nten‘s Holly Ross, this book offers individual chapters by a wide range of ephilanthropy experts
6. The Ask – Laura Fredericks – While not heavy in online techniques, Laura offers many specifics on ‘how to ask anyone for any amount for any purpose.’
7. Developing Your Case for Support – Timothy Seiler – I haven’t started reading yet, but my sense is that many nonprofits can benefit from a systematic approach of demonstrating to potential contributors why they should help
8. Open Leadership – Charlene Li – Follow up to her popular Groundswell, Charlene describes how social media can help your organization

A few more that are not nonprofit specific, but are still very relevant:

9. Rework – Jason Fried & David Hansson – Authors are founders of 37signals, developers of project management software Basecamp.
10. Switch – Chip Heath & Dan Heath – I am always fascinated by books about the change process;  Chip & Dan’s suggestion of focusing on what works, not on what doesn’t, is particularly enlightening.

You may be able to get some of these from your local library.  (If you’re in New York, please help the New York Public Library, which is facing drastic funding cuts.)  Above (affiliate) links are through Amazon, which usually has the best prices.  So if you’re heading for the beach, take one of these books along.

Attended this week’s NYC chapter meeting of the Internet Strategy Forum, where we discussed the latest changes on Facebook.  View the presentation;  plan to attend our future meetings (remote access is available even if you’re not in NY).

Kivi Leroux Miller, in addition to having released her new book Nonprofit Marketing Guide, also wrote an excellent post on Beth Kanter’s blog about the importance of knitting together your website, email and social media content.  Since each constituent may choose to connect with your organization in different channels, why not offer a consistent message throughout?  Also consider taking Idealware‘s webinar next week on Choosing the Right Communications Mix.

Beth also offered a simple process to use actionable listening to learn from other nonprofits when planning your social media outreach strategy.

Gail Fredricks spoke to ABC News about How to Ask for Money – great summary for those of us who are still learning about fundraising.

Many of us are now managing or working with colleagues across the country or even in other countries.  Nten has just kicked off a webinar series, Virtual Team Leader: Training for Managers of Remote Teams (a recording is available of yesterday’s first of four sessions).  Tip: Don’t rely only on email as your main communications device.

For some email marketing tips, read about the importance of personalized messages and 3 things that will actually improve your email campaigns.

I will be moderating two sessions at next week’s International Fundraising eConference which brings together many of the nonprofit sector’s leaders in online fundraising and building a strong constituent base.  If you can’t listen live, all sessions will be recorded and available for replay at your convenience.    In addition, Fundraising Success is sponsoring a free Virtual Conference & Expo which is described as a way to learn the latest and most effective strategies and tactics for engaging, enlightening and empowering your donors.

If you’d prefer a live event and you’re in NYC on Wed, May 19, join us at the May NYC 501 Tech Club meeting which will recap lessons learned from last month’s Nonprofit Technology Conference.

Finally, if like me you still like to enjoy books, don’t miss the recently released Internet Management for Nonprofits: Strategies, Tools & Trade Secrets, including contributions from many ephilanthropy experts.

In the just released 2010 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, small nonprofits showed better email marketing metrics than larger organizations.  Statistics also varied based on types of nonprofits, which is consistent with results of the recent Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report.  Some highlights:

1. nonprofits with small email lists (under 100,000 subscribers) had higher open rates, click-through rates and double the email fundraising response rate of medium and large nonprofits.  (However, unsubscribe rates were also significantly higher.)
2. while overall online fundraising grew 4.5%, results varied by segment;  for for half of the nonprofits surveyed, 2009 online revenue either remained the same or declined from 2008.
3. average email message open rate was 14%;  surprisingly, email newsletters had a slightly higher open rate than advocacy emails, but advocacy messages had much higher click-through rates and response rates.
4. environmental and rights organizations had the best click-through rates;  international nonprofits had the lowest.
5. health organizations get a large bulk of their online revenue from event fundraising;  international groups show the largest portion of monthly gifts, not surprising since monthly giving has traditionally not been as prevalent in the US as overseas
6. tribute gifts – as well as online catalogs / symbolic gifts – definitely seem to have more potential to be promoted more prominently
7. average one-time gift was an amazing $81, with international organizations showing the best results ($136)

There is much useful data here.  In addition to downloading the report, see summaries in the Non-Profit Marketing and Frogloop blogs, and also review Convio’s Online Nonprofit Benchmarks Study.  Thanks to M&R and Nten for sponsoring this study.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the 10th annual Nonprofit Technology Conference in Atlanta, GA.

Social media was a popular topic throughout the three day event.  Jeff Patrick hosted a lively discussion on the just released Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report (which I helped to prepare), co-sponsored by Common Knowledge, Nten and ThePort.  While nonprofits’ increased use of Facebook and Twitter were not a surprise, some of the data showed interesting trends about issues such as the use of commercial vs. house (private) networks.  You can download the report free here.

Similar to how Twitter forces messages to be limited to 140 characters, the Ignite presentations featured a series of talks which were each limited to 5 minutes and 20 slides.  Scott Bechter-Levin encouraged us to share more information with our network;  Steve Heye provided a wonderful comparison of how techies and business users interpret the same information very differently.

Friday’s plenary speaker Andrew Sullivan offered a look into what happens when your blog becomes too popular, as is his The Daily Dish.  Blog readers expect steady feedback but “expect you to say things they agree with.”  But he added that his blog has enabled him to cover international events very quickly and has encouraged a “free flow of data.”

Saturday’s plenary speaker Asi Burak described how games can be used to stimulate thought about difficult world issues, demonstrating PeaceMaker, a simulation of the Middle East conflict.   Games allow us to play roles that we’re usually not comfortable with and help us to understand the ‘other side’ of the argument.  I’ve often ignored games, but this is a very different focus than the games you see on Facebook.

When it comes to social media, small organizations often get better results than larger nonprofits.  In the session Beyond Traditional Fundraising: Utilizing the Web and Social Networks to Secure Donors, speakers from Alix’s Lemonade Stand, Architecture for Humanity and Spirit Jump described how they’ve been able to stimulate interest to their causes.   The goal “isn’t always to raise money” but that you “no longer have to have money to raise money.”  An interesting observation was that constituents who are most engaged online aren’t always the best donors.   Clearly these smaller nonprofits are not only using social media heavily, some are bypassing the more traditional channels such as direct mail completely.

Will Kiva kill your nonprofit? This session focused on the trend of allowing donors to pick specifically the people and causes they will support as well as receive regular feedback on how their contributions have been used.  Many nonprofits I’ve worked for in the past have discouraged restricted gifts, preferring to receive funds that can be used for any purpose.  While not all types of nonprofits can support this type of giving (e.g. direct service organizations work well but large affiliate based organizations will find it more difficult), clearly this is a trend worth paying attention to.  One suggestion was to not stop asking for unrestricted gifts, but to start additional programs that are more targeted.

While not as well attended as the social media talks, the session Diversifying Your Tech and Online Communications Teams provided an interesting overview into why diversity in nonprofit staff can result in better service to diverse groups of constituents – and better fundraising results.   One interesting perspective (of a typical nonprofit) was “We’ll help your community but we really don’t want your input.”  Another observation: “We’re all a majority in some ways but a minority in others.”  A recommendation: “Learn about the communities (you serve) instead of trying to represent people you don’t know.”

Online communications gurus Beth Kanter and Kivi Leroux Miller – offered How to Design and Present Online Training People Will Love.  Many of us need to train colleagues in remote locations, so it’s important to understand the differences between live and online instruction.   Since many of our attendees will be multitasking, it’s even more important to hold their attention;  one suggestion was to use a more visual slide design, using principles from Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen.  Idealware’s Laura Quinn also offered a look at popular web conferencing tools such as Readytalk and GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar – make sure you take advantage of discounts available to nonprofits through TechSoup.  (For a concise summary of nonprofit software options, check out Idealware’s Field Guide to Software for Nonprofits.)

Just for fun, we enjoyed an after-event party at the World of Coca-Cola, which offered a novel ‘tasting room’ allowing us to taste brands from all over the world.  (My favorite was Bibo Candy, but I’ll probably have to travel to Africa to find a store that sells it.)

I’ve been a Nten member for many years, and this event gets better every year.  Thanks to Holly Ross and her staff for a wonderful three days.  If you missed the event, you can enjoy some of the sessions here.

The second annual Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report, a joint project of Nten, Common Knowledge and ThePort, will be available for download on Thu, 4/8/10.  If you’re attending this week’s Nonprofit Technology Conference, plan on attending a presentation on the report results Fri 4/9/10 at 1:30 PM EST.

The report is based on an online survey which ran from Feb. 3, 2010 to Mar. 15, 2010, drawing responses from over a thousand respondents from nonprofit organizations of all sizes and types, covers issues such as:

• How do nonprofits utilize both commercial (Facebook, Twitter etc.) and house (private) social networks, and how has usage changed from last year?
• How successful have nonprofits been in fundraising through social networks?
• Which departments usually manage social networks?
• How much staffing do nonprofits devote to social networks?
• What types of organizations have been most successful to date with social networks?

Starting Thursday, download the new report Some of its findings may surprise you.