Nonprofit Insight: Track Donors, Not Channels

"Track the donor, not the channel," to create effective nonprofit integrated marketing campaigns, recommended Sean Powell of The Engage Group, speaking at the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s Nonprofit Digital Day. Powell was joined on a Digital Fundraising 101 panel by Mikaela King, vice president of marketing at Defenders of Wildlife, who provided hands-on advice based on her organization's shift from structural division by marketing channels, such as direct mail and social media, to division by audiences, such as donors and advocates. "It’s not about how the organization is structured. It’s about what’s most important for the donor," explained King. "It is very hard to integrate marketing when you are not integrated internally." After restructuring for a donor focus, King advocated a three-step approach; first target the audience, then determine what you will offer, and finally create the messaging. It's especially critical for successful integration to sync data, added Heather Marsh of ABD Direct: "Make sure that your data is in line before starting a large integrated campaign. If you can’t really make sure you’re talking to people accurately, don’t do it." For more panel insights, read the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) report at http://thedma.org/advance/best-of-dma/insights-from-dma-nonprofit-digital-day-track-the-donor-not-the-channel/

Nonprofits See Year of Generous Giving Ahead

Seven out of 10 nonprofits expect donations to increase this year, and 13% expect their gains to be substantial—growing by at least 15%, according to a recently released survey of 538 charities by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative. As reported by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, charities in the survey said say they are optimistic because 2013 was stronger than any other year since the recession started. Indeed, Blackbaud's Charitable Giving Report for last year showed overall charitable giving grew 4.9% in 2013, while online giving grew 13.5%. The growing impact of online giving also was reflected in the Nonprofit Research Collaborative survey: Nonprofit respondents attributed much of last year’s growth in donations to special fundraising events and e-mail and online appeals, as well as big gifts from wealthy donors. Nonprofits that raised the most said they targeted a mix of donors for small, medium, and large gifts and diversified how they pursued donations by combining channels such as direct mail, social media, e-mail, and grant proposals. See the report on the Nonprofit Research Collaborative survey at https://philanthropy.com/article/70-of-Charities-Expect-Gains/145437/

Direct Mail Is Still Strongest Donation Motivator

Direct mail remains the best channel for prompting donations, outperforming social media and e-mail, according to the latest survey by global research company YouGov. The study found that 21% of Americans cited direct mail solicitations as the prompt for their most recent gift. Direct mail is particularly successful with the over-55 age group, with 25% making their last gift in response to direct mail, compared to only 14% of 18- to 34-year-olds. Lower income households also respond strongly to direct mail marketing, with 29% of those earning $40,000 or less responding to direct mail for their last donation, compared to only 18% of those earning $80,000+. In contrast, social media has yet to take off as a major giving prompt, with only 6% of adults responding for their last gift. However, social media is becoming a more significant motivator for the 18- to 34-year-old demographic, with 11% responding to social media for their last donation, compared to only 3% of those 55+. E-mail does a little better in motivating donors, with 10% of Americans saying it moved them to make their last gift. E-mail works especially well for charities supporting the arts, with 25% of their donors in the last 12 months saying they were particularly likely to respond to e-mail. For more detail, see the news story and release at http://www.sacbee.com/2013/12/18/6010758/direct-mail-is-still-the-strongest.html

Will Political Turmoil Scuttle Holiday Fundraising?

Since our politicians "solved" impasses over the federal government shutdown and debt ceiling by kicking the can down the road to early next year, some nonprofit fundraisers, not to mention retailers, express worry about the potential drag on holiday spending. A recent post by Angie Moore in Fundraising Success magazine's blog, urged nonprofits to exercise both watchfulness and calm. Yes, fundraisers did report a drop in giving as measured by immediate channels, such as Internet and phone, during the actual shutdown, and market researchers confirmed the negative impact on consumer behavior: 40% of consumers cut spending as a result of the shutdown, with 32% of consumers making $100,000 and up cutting back and 37% of consumer earning $75,000-$100,000 tightening their belts. Since those income brackets represent the donor targets of many fundraising campaigns, it's not unreasonable to worry that donors might stay conservative with their wallets over the holidays. But what's a reasonable marketing response? We like Moore's advice to 1) first avoid panicked, potentially unproductive changes in campaign strategy and budget; 2) but keep a close eye on metrics (such as open rates, online giving, call volume, pledge and donation amounts); and 3) if you see a reason for concern confirmed by data from vendors and fellow fundraisers, tweak the tactics with quickly measurable results (online, social, and telemarketing, for example). For the full article, see http://www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/blog/angie-moore-fundraising-government-shutdown

Mobile Text Donors Want to Give Even More

Most donors who give via text message would like to make larger gifts using their mobile phones, according to a new mobile donor survey reported in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Of the more than 20,000 text-message donors in a survey sponsored by the mGive Foundation, charitable arm of a mobile fundraising firm, 85% said they would be willing to give $25 to $50 via text. Mobile contributions are currently limited to $10 each. The generosity of the mobile-giving crowd can be tapped to a greater extent by other methods as well, the survey shows. For example, the survey found that people who make donations via text message also give using other methods at the same time, with online giving top-ranked as the preferred donation method, followed by special events and then text messages. Roughly 85% said that making a small gift via text message would not make them less likely to make a larger donation through another method, such as online or direct mail. For more details from the survey, see the article at http://philanthropy.com/article/Donors-Who-Give-by-Text-Want/140521/

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/

2012 Study: Nonprofit Mobile Donations Up 205%

For 2012, donations to nonprofit organizations from mobile web sites increased 205%, according to fundraising technology and services provider Artez Interactive. Nonprofits that offer mobile web sites, apps or both for taking donations also generate up to 123% more individual donations per campaign than organizations that don’t, the company reported. In 2012, Artez tracked 16 nonprofit fundraising campaigns around the world, with those campaigns raising amounts ranging from $100,000 to $10 million. An example of the growing mobile impact is provided by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), where mobile donations during its biggest campaign at the end of 2012 accounted for 4% of its overall fundraising, up from 1% a year earlier. For more detail, see the Internet Retailer report at http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/05/15/mobile-donations-triple-2012

For Millennial Donors, Give Them a Cause to Share

The latest nonprofit Millennial Impact Report, based on 2013 online research by Achieve and 14 partners, underscores the promise and challenge of appealing to millennials, those born between 1979 and 1994. How do nonprofits maximize millennial engagement? Per the report, charitable appeals need to tap millennial motives for involvement, with 79% of millennials saying it's about passion for the specific cause (not the institution), 56% citing opportunities for socializing and networking, and 45% seeking enhanced professional expertise. A hefty 72% were interested in joining a nonprofit young professional group, for example. To communicate their message to millennials, nonprofits also need to invest in mobile-friendly communications  (with 85% of millennial respondents owning a smartphone), social media (75% "like," retweet or share content on social media, especially if there are compelling photos), and updated websites catering to millennial usage (51% will go there to connect to social media, 46% will donate and another 46% will read a blog post). The good news is that 83% of millennial respondents reported making a financial gift to an organization, and 52% said they would be interested in monthly giving. So if nonprofits can get it right, they can cultivate a new generation of donors and volunteers. For the full report, go to http://www.themillennialimpact.com/2013research

Data-Driven Mailings Create Arts Marketing Success

If you need an example of direct mail power in arts and entertainment marketing, look at the Everyman Theater Company, a nonprofit Baltimore-based theater group. Last year, it incorporated data-driven strategies to optimize its direct mail marketing with impressive results. The total ROI for one campaign was an astounding 552%, with an 80% increase in ticket sales and revenue, for example. Prior to its data-driven mailings, Everyman's traditional marketing had relied mostly broadcast messages: postcards, radio spots, and e-blasts. Everyman's prior direct mail efforts usually equated to mailing to its entire list. Enter Marketing Director Jonathan Waller. He hired a database services firm to clean up the database (mainly removing duplicate names), to identify segments most likely to purchase tickets, and to build predictive models. After direct-mail testing of segments and messaging, both response rates and cost efficiency improved. For more detail, see the Direct Marketing News story at http://www.dmnews.com/data-driven-marketing-gets-dramatics-results/article/290791/

Online Giving Revenue Up, But E-mail Response Dips

The good news for online nonprofit fundraising is that overall online revenue has grown robustly, e-mail lists are up, online sustained giving is rising, and social media audiences are soaring. The bad news: E-mail response rates, dragged down by steep declines in click-through, have fallen. Those are the findings reported by MarketingProfs from the "2013 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study" by M+R Strategic Services and NTEN, which is based on 2012 e-mail and online donations data from 55 nonprofits across appeals sectors. Online revenue overall rose 21% in 2012 compared with 2011, with international groups the only ones recording online giving declines, according to the study. And monthly online giving grew 43% in 2012, twice as fast as one-time giving. E-mail lists for nonprofits across the board also rose an average of 15% from 2011, with wildlife and animal welfare groups showing the strongest growth, up 32%. But social media audiences grew even faster: Facebook, still the primary social network of charitable support, had an average 43% growth in fan base, while Twitter turned in a whopping 264% increase in nonprofit followers last year. Despite all the 2012 growth, e-mail metrics sagged. A 14% decline in click-through for advocacy messages and 27% drop in clicks for fundraising e-mail sent average e-mail response rates tumbling last year. Fundraising response, for example, dipped 21% from 2011, to an average 0.07% in 2012. The steepest response declines were felt by human rights and international groups. For more information and a great infographic, go to the MarketingProfs report at http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2013/10508/nonprofit-benchmarks-email-social-audience-fundraising-infographic

Total Charitable Giving Dips; Online Giving Climbs

The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving reported that overall charitable giving dropped 3.4% for the three months ending August 2012 as compared to the same period in 2011. Throughout 2012, charitable giving growth has been limited to single digits, but this is the first time since March 2011 that the donations trend has gone negative. In contrast, the Blackbaud Index of Online Giving showed that online giving rose 2.4% for the three months ending August 2012 compared to the same period in 2011. And if last year's disaster-driven peaks in international relief donations are excluded, online giving was up 7% for the three months ending August 2012. For details, see http://www.blackbaudnews.com/tag/blackbaud-index.

For Ad Success, Let Your Heart Rule Your Head

For advertising success, marketers may need to go with their hearts not their heads. Orlando Wood, who serves as managing director of BrainJuicer Labs, argues, "We’ve found that emotional response [to an ad] was a better indicator of the business effects than any of the traditional advertising measures, such as message understood, clarity of branding or persuasion." And that translates into higher ROI. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has done work showing that emotional advertising is more profitable than rationally conceived marketing, Wood points out. BrainJuicer Labs' own research shows that consumers who respond well emotionally to ads are more likely to provide brand share gain and less likely to be price sensitive. Positive emotional response also helps ads go viral, with higher pass-along in social media. Lesson? Most people would rather go with their guts than strain their brains. And it's not just a b-to-c success strategy. It can work for b-to-b and nonprofit campaigns. However, cause-related pitches have more leeway to use negative emotions to generate pass-along, Wood adds, a theory likely to be applied this election season. See the chiefmarketer.com story at http://chiefmarketer.com/social-marketing/marketers-should-let-their-emotions-get-better-them

Reddit Debuts Fundraising Button for Topic Pages

The Reddit social news-sharing site has had fundraising success stories -- such as $700,000 for a bullied bus monitor or $180,000 for Haiti earthquake relief. But without a Reddit tool for accepting donations, most fundraising Redditors have had to point to crowd funding sites, independent funding sites, or custom landing pages on charities' websites -- and there was sometimes potential for abuse. Now, Reddit users will be able to execute some fundraisers within Reddit-branded pages. Managers of the site's topic pages, or Subreddits, can opt to accept donations to specific nonprofits by installing new "Donate" buttons on their Subreddit pages, with low transaction fees. The new program has launched with 12 nonprofit partners, including Kiva, Charity:Water, and DonorsChoose. For more, see the news story at http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/reddit-getting-fundraising-button-967956

Study: Move Online Donors to Offline Giving ASAP

Online donors are more one-hit wonders than fundraising stars, according to Blackbaud's "2011 donorCentrics Internet and Multichannel Giving Benchmarking Report." The study found poor renewals by first-time online donors -- at least via online. But, if the online donors are converted into offline donors, meaning primarily direct-mail givers, then online-acquired donors as a whole have much higher cumulative value over the long term than traditional, mail-acquired donors. Blackbaud's study found that just under a half of online-acquired donors convert entirely to offline giving over time -- mainly in their first renewal year. The reverse movement from offline to online donations is rare; only a tiny percentage of mail-acquired donors give online in later years. So, tune up your direct mail and turn those online donors into direct-mail givers as quickly as possible! For more commentary, see the Blackbaud blog at http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/online-fundraising/truth-about-online-donors.htm

House Bill to Drop Threat to Nonprofit Postage

Nonprofit mailers can breathe a sigh of relief. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is going to remove reduction in the nonprofit postage discount from the pending Postal Service Reform Act before sending it to the House floor, according to a report from Independent Sector. The Senate has already passed a bill  version that would preserve the current nonprofit postage discount rate. In contrast, the House bill introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had a "cost-savings" provision reducing the discount rate for nonprofit postage by 5% each year for 6 years, effectively cutting the discount from 40% to 10% by 2018! For the full story, go to http://www.independentsector.org/nonprofit_postage_rates

Seeking More Donors, Food Bank Doubles Direct Mail

Despite nonprofit buzz over social media and online fundraising, direct mail can still win first place in wooing donors. At least that's why Canada's Mississauga Food Bank recently decided to double its direct mail campaigns in 2012, going from two to four mailings in addition to online efforts. Just three years ago, the nonprofit did no direct mail at all. "We have decided to use direct mail as we are moving our focus away from just events and corporate relationships and towards individual donors, and direct mail is a proven method of soliciting individuals," explained Meghan Nicholls, director of marketing and fund development. For more, see http://chiefmarketer.com/direct-marketing/canadian-food-bank-doubles-direct-mail-efforts/

Symphony Uses Integrated Marketing to Tune Sales

Looking for some nonprofit marketing inspiration? The Winston-Salem Symphony recently used a multi-channel approach -- combining direct mail, radio, e-mail and print -- to increase ticket sales by more than 50% and the number of concert series subscribers by 12%. For details, read the recent "Chief Marketer" story at http://chiefmarketer.com/direct-mail/integrated-marketing-boosts-nc-symphony-ticket-sales

Education Sector Tops 2011 Online Giving Growth

Education fundraisers provide a lesson on the value of year-round online effort in Blackbaud Inc.'s latest report on 2011 online giving. The report showed overall online giving up 13% on a year-over-year basis (after removing international giving's Haiti earthquake skew), but education organizations led the pack with a 40% rise from 2009. Most fundraisers still count on a seasonal spike, with October-December online giving accounting for almost 35% of 2011 donations, but Steve MacLaughlin, Blackbaud director of Internet solutions, noted, "It is possible to build an online giving program that avoids the make-or-break, end-of-year fundraising crunch. This is evidenced by the education and healthcare sectors that have benefited from concerted online fundraising efforts during other parts of the year." For details, see
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Online-Giving-Nonprofits-Grew-bw-2040041820.html

Homeless Charity Mailing Reaps $45,000 in 4 Days

Nonprofit marketing kudos are in order. A direct mail campaign to previous donors on an e-mail housefile raised $45,000 in four days for The Wheeler Mission, an Indianapolis-based charity aiding the homeless. The nonprofit dropped 9,000 pieces on Dec. 28 and got a 3% response rate. For more details on the charity's marketing plans, including expanded e-mail, see http://chiefmarketer.com/direct/non-print/Wheeler-Direct-Mailing-Raises-forty-five-thousand-in-Four-Days-lar2/

Charitable Giving on the Rise in Last Months of 2011

Approaching New Year's Eve, charitable giving was already up 15% for December 2011 compared with the same month of 2010, reported the Network for Good, a site that enables donors to contribute to more than 10,000 charities nationwide. That positive December report didn't even include an anticipated spike of last-minute donations in the year's final 48 hours. It also followed a 20% November-over-November donations rise. In the end, 2011 donations will still lag the pre-recession level of 2007. But, given positive economic trends, the year-end growth hopefully signals continued recovery of charitable generosity in 2012. For details, see http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/30/pf/holiday_money_donations/index.htm?iid=SF_BN_River