Appealing to Mom

For the past two weeks, my inbox has been flooded with appeals built on Mother's Day. I confess, for my clients and for my own personal life, Mother's Day came way too early this year and left me a bit unprepared. This is why I should look at my Google Calendar every day!

So, I sat down on Sunday night and began wading through the plethora of appeals and newsletters with a Mother's Day theme. I finished up last night. I had a lot of clicking around to do.

Here are some highly unofficial statistics and notes from my inbox:

• 29 straight appeals, 21 of them with links to honor or memorial giving

• 6 of them featured gift memberships

• 18 of the appeals offered an eCard option

• 13 newsletters with mentions about Mother's Day

• Two appeals with links to video

• Moms are "choosy", "picky", "stubborn", and "hard to please"

• Donors need to "honor", "celebrate" and "surprise" Mom

• Most donors have no idea what to get their mothers for Mother’s Day

• Mom loves organic flowers, chocolates, and shirts

• But, don’t just get Mom those things--she likes eCards, too.

• Mom understands the importance of feeding the homeless and feeding children, giving water to children, helping the blind, helping the deaf, and helping fight diseases ranging from cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, etc.

• She also understands the importance of emergency relief efforts in places like Myanmar, Darfur, and Haiti, education reform, preventing animal cruelty, adopting an animal, sponsoring a child, testing for disabilities, fighting climate change, conservation of trees and nature, supporting our troops, helping people with physical disabilities, meeting people just like herself, and the current crop of political candidates running for president

• Mom is waiting for your eCard today (hopefully, she’s not just sitting by her computer literally waiting).

These messages all show the diversity of Mother’s Day as an occasion for nonprofits to build their brands and give a nice spike to their online fundraising for May. I like the idea of virtual gifts over real gifts. Gift memberships and eCards can say a lot to honor Mom. They also show moms how well she raised her children. Plus, they are easier and simpler to deliver as last-minute gift ideas.

If your organization doesn’t feel like your message or mission is directly related to Mother’s Day, you might think again. Mom apparently has a lot of interests and knows a lot of things. But, we always knew that, right?

So, with five days to go before Mother’s Day, I’ll see how many last-minute appeals arrive in my inbox. However, as a dad, I wonder how many of these same organizations will feature appeals for Dad?

Working the Numbers: The latest benchmark study

The 2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study-- a newly-released update from the original 2006 study released by M+R and NTEN. I've spent a week reading and re-reading, looking at the sites of the organizations who participated in the study, and trying to see how these apply to the entire sector. A few CEOs and development officers have asked me for a brief about it... one asked me for a five-second breakdown of the study. Wow, five seconds. OK, here goes (each bullet is one second):

• eMail open rates and click-through rates are down


• Online gifts increased and $1,000 gifts are more frequent online


• Monthly giving is up


• Nonprofits send an average of four e-mails per month


• Go download a copy and soak up the numbers yourself

The recent wave of benchmark studies should keep your organization busy reading for awhile. These studies confirm that online fundraising numbers continue to rise, even as e-mail rates drop. Segmenting and communicating through social networks and specific channels can keep your organization on the rise. And, these kinds of studies will help you make your case to invest in your online future. So, go read it, memorize it, and hopefully you can make your five-second pitch to expand your online efforts.