Thursday, September 12, 2013

Online Gifts to Nonprofits Leap Upward

Online gifts to U.S. nonprofits are growing far faster than other types of donations, according to new studies reported by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Donations rose 14% in 2012 from the prior year, to $2.1-billion, according to a study of 115,000 nonprofits whose giving totals were tracked by online-fundraising processors Blackbaud, Network for Good, and PayPal. Contributions to the nation’s biggest charities also grew 14%, to $785 million, according to The Chronicle's own survey of 149 large nonprofits. That vigorous growth can be contrasted with the anemic 1.5% post-inflation rise in 2012 contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations as reported by Giving USA. Despite the robust growth of online giving, online gifts still account for a small portion of most charitable fundraising, with a median share of just 2.1% of all donations from private sources, per The Chronicle's survey of large nonprofits. Still the survey also found many groups bullish about online's potential. Nearly three-quarters of the groups surveyed said their goal is to have online donations account for more than 10% of overall fundraising efforts in the next few years. About one in five expect Internet gifts to reach up to 20% of their overall donations by then. For more detail on online giving trends, see The Chronicle of Philanthropy story at http://philanthropy.com/article/The-Big-Boom-in-Online-Giving/139965/

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

These Facebook Invites Came Courtesy of the USPS

It's assumed that, in today's digitally connected world, tech market leaders will snub old-fashioned snail mail. So Facebook generated a media buzz when it sent out invitations to a June media event courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service. Facebook, which holds frequent media events, doesn't normally send out its invitations via direct mail. Like others in the industry, Facebook typically uses e-mail for event invitations. The surprise use of mailed invites generated speculation that Facebook was working on some print-relevant project. Actually, Facebook unveiled the launch of 15-second videos via Instagram at the event. Here's an idea: Maybe Facebook used traditional direct mail because it gets a higher response than e-mail! See the Target Marketing magazine story at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/aggregatedcontent/facebook-sends-out-invitations-by-snail-mail