Network for Good: Economy Is Down, Charitable Giving Is Up

The biggest time of the year for online fundraising is rapidly coming to a close, or so I'm reminded daily by the emails I receive from charities that I follow alerting me to the fact that I have just 5 days, 2 days, 48 hours, or "still time" to make a tax-deductible donation. But how will it all end? Will charities see the usual rush of year-end gifts made online? Will giving be up or down in these tough economic times?

Network for Good just released some stats that show online charitable giving is up, even though the economy is down:

• Philanthropic procrastinators are flocking to the Web to make their year-end charitable donations this year, despite the downturn in the economy. More people are giving, though at lower dollar amounts than years past: Network for Good is seeing a 50% increase in the number of donations in comparison to this time last year; the donation amount is up 20%. We have been processing approximately $500,000 in donations per day since the beginning of December and we expect an even larger spike in the next few days which are typically up to $2 million per day in the last days of the month.  Annually, about 45% of annual giving occurs in December alone and we forecast $75 million in donations processed this year, which is 30% growth from last year. 
• More people are giving the gift of charity. We saw huge growth in the gift of charity this year.  Network for Good saw record sales of its Good Card (www.networkforgood.org/goodcard) - a gift card with stored value that can be redeemed as a donation to any of more 1.5 million charities. This year we have sold over $1 million in cards, and we were averaging 500 cards sold per day through December 25th.  We also have an increasing demand of people looking to send them for the New Year.

Not your father’s gift card

I recently received a gift card (thanks boss!) to an online charity site where I can choose what cause I want to support. It’s a relatively new phenomenon, and I love it.

(And I’m not the only one who does.)

Think about it:

• The gift giver gets to give a meaningful, eco-friendly, tax-deductible gift, through an easy online shopping experience.
• The gift recipient gets to contribute to a cause that they care about.
• And most importantly, the charity and those it serves gets much-needed funds during a difficult year.

The charity gets a little buzz too. I’ll tell my boss which cause I gave to and how I decided on it. And he might trust my judgment and regard that organization highly now too. Ditto with my friends who I'm telling (and who may very well be getting charity gift cards as presents this year...).

So nonprofits: make sure your Guidestar and Charity Navigator listings are up-to-date, as many of these gift card sites, like Network for Good’s GoodCard, display your organization’s profile from there. There will be thousands of potential supporters scouring nonprofit descriptions in the coming weeks as they redeem their gift cards. Others sites allow you to enter your charity or projects to be listed, so submit yours if the gift card site is a good fit for your organization.

And last minute shoppers: if you're looking for a quick and meaningful gift idea, look no further. Charity gift cards are great for coworkers, friends, and family – including your father.

Charity Gift Card Websites:

Network for Good “GoodCard”  
http://www.networkforgood.org/goodcard/

DonorsChoose “GivingCard”
http://www.donorschoose.org

Global Giving Gift Card
http://www.globalgiving.com/

Charity Choice
http://www.charitygiftcertificates.org/

Debunking Fundraising Myths for 2009

Dispelling myths is not an easy task--you can anyone who does online fundraising consulting. It's amazing that despite all the success stories and articles about online fundraising, there are still organizations unwilling to make an investment in their online programs. Even worse, there's the over-promise that you if you slap a donate button your website that the money will flow in like honey. Despite the pundit (like us) and all the vendors who publish regular pieces on tools, strategy, and outcomes, some organizations keep huddling around these myths.

Organizations embrace these myths for several reasons: they have an unclear strategy, they aren't sure about the tools and technology involved, or they expect a low yield compared to other forms of fundraising.  Kimbia President Thon Morse's recent article "Debunking Five Myths of Online Fundraising" addresses some of these myths. Morse provides amazing statistics, such as $12 billion raised online in 2007 and raising 30 percent of total fund online. But, gaudy statistics aside, he offers compelling reasons to avoid the fundraising myths, especially with goal setting. Imagine raising 10% of your annual donations online? That's a big number, even for the large organizations who meet it. But, it's completely possible and will soon be the norm (we hope). Morse is correct in saying that you should consider 2009 as an opportunity to reach that goal.

So, if your stodgy CEO or head of your fundraising division hasn't completely invested in a 2009 online fundraising strategy or hasn't stayed pragmatic about it, maybe this article will help them put these myths aside:

http://www.kimbia.com/articles/five-myths/

7 Lessons from Cyber Monday

This year’s Cyber Monday – the online shopping extravaganza after Thanksgiving and Black Friday – proved that all is not lost this holiday season as sales increased by 15% over last year. Consumers – and donors – are turning to the web to find the best ways to spend their money during these tough economic times. HINT: Your website is more important than ever.

1. Deals of the Day (and other reasons to email): Retailers are sending out plenty of emails this season to remind consumers of their brand and products, and you should too. Don’t panic: you don’t need to email daily. But, give donors plenty of reasons and opportunities to come back to your site.
2. Subject lines matter. We’re not the only ones thinking about sending holiday emails. Your messages will arrive in inboxes with competing requests for money, from retail stores and other organizations. Be creative with your subject lines, and test them on smaller segments before sending to your larger list.
3. For Sale! If you have an e-commerce store, advertise a holiday sale. Free shipping has been a popular technique used by online retailers.
4. Calling all last-minute shoppers: Offer procrastinators an easy, last-minute deal they can’t refuse: a gift to your organization in honor of a loved one, with an e-card to send the honoree. It’s thoughtful, and it’s quick. (Letting them choose the date it’s sent is a nice touch too.)
5. Save a tree. Create holiday e-cards for your constituents to send to their loved ones. Free e-cards will help build your email file. Or, create tribute donation e-cards, if your top priority is raising money.
6. Be loud and proud: With everyone pinching pennies, you can bet your donors want to make sure their donations are going to trustworthy and efficient organizations. If your organization has a good rating on Charity Navigator, now’s an important time to include that “Charity Navigator 4-Star Charity” widget on your website and donation pages.
7. Tax-free! (Okay, this one is a tip from Massachusetts’ successful tax-free shopping weekends, not Cyber Monday.) Remind donors that their gifts are tax-deductible. Include language like “make your tax-deductible gift online” in emails and on donation forms, and appeal to your donors’ need to watch their wallets.

And here’s one that the Cyber Monday retailers can’t do: remind your constituents that their support is more important than ever in this economy. Include language on donation forms and in autoresponders thanking them for their support, especially now.

Happy holiday fundraising!

Foolish Giving

Today, Motley Fool, the financial solutions website for all levels of investors and individuals wanting to take over their financial lives, announced that DonorsChoose.org was selected by it’s online community as the beneficiary of it’s 2008 Foolanthropy Campaign.

For 12 years, Motley Fool as held it’s annual Foolanthropy campaign with a single mission, providing early financial education. Specifically put on it’s website, it’s long-term goal is to ensure that every young person in the world gets a basic financial education. What’s great about this is how Donors Choose’s giving model works fittingly here.

Donors Choose is a non-profit dedicated to addressing the scarcity and inequitable distribution of learning materials and experiences in public schools. Their approach to giving is to provide the donor the same level of treatment often reserved for the established philanthropist.  Central to this philosophy, is the ability for donors to select what specific project they want to give to. The project/campaign can go towards books, pencils, a field trip, or pianos for a music class. It offers the donor an opportunity to make a unique gift towards a specific cause that they personally feel can have an impact. 

Motley Fool makes the case for their interest very well here:

“Sixty-two percent of school-age Americans responding to a 2006 Jump$tart personal finance survey received failing scores. Still, only seven of our 50 states require high school students to take a personal finance course to graduate. Nationwide, less than half of all teachers get support from administrations to use financial curricula.

[The United States is a] nation not of savers but of borrowers, and our dependency with credit is developed early. According to the Young Americans Center for Financial Education, the number of young adults declaring bankruptcy has increased 96% in 10 years, and by the time college students reach their senior year, 56% carry four or more credit cards, with an average balance of $2,864.”

Donors Choose approach offers Motley Fool a level of empowerment to achieve it's long term goal, and fulfill it's mission to educate, amuse and enrich.

More about Foolanthropy. Foolanthropy, moderated on Motley Fool’s website, which will be running for the next 10 weeks (until 1/20/09), asks visitors to donate to an annually selected cause. Motley Fool itself donates $10,000, and will also donate $0.02 for every comment posted on their discussion board, dubbed the “My $0.02 Cents” campaign.

Learn more about this year's campaign: How to Prevent the Next Global Credit Crisis
Learn more about DonorsChoose.org

Convio Summit: Soaking it all in

The Convio User Summit wraps up today after a packed agenda of networking, exhibiting, API know-how, email strategies, form-building, multi-channel marketing, and much more.

Summit attendees that I spoke with where a mix of long-time Convio users and recent sign-ups and all expressed the challenge of trying to absorb as much as possible before the last sessions wrap. A lot of the focus from people I talked with was on data integration, APIs, and analytics.

The long-time Convio users I met were spending time in the Expert Lab to seek advice and exchange ideas with Convio staff and attendees. Others were making the Common Ground display a hot spot during session breaks.

We'd like to send a special thanks to all those who came by the Changing Our World exhibit table. We had a great time meeting and connecting with people from these and other organizations:

American Farmland Trust
Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America
Equal Rights Washington
Pathfinder International
North Carolina Conservation Trust
Children's National Medical Center
American Kidney Fund
World Wildlife Fund
American Cancer Society
National MS Society
Peta Foundation
WAMU 88.5 FM
Reserve Officer Association
MD Anderson Cancer Center

Big Expectations from the Convio Summit 2008

This year's Convio Summit 2008 kicked off this evening at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin, TX with an opening gathering for clients and partner organizations. As the drinks were poured, the buzz for this year's client sessions is centered on a few topics: 

Common Ground: Convio launched their Salesforce-platform-based CRM system two months ago. Now, nonprofits will get to see more of the product and ask tough questions about why the product would work for their organizations. We expect to see plenty of private and group demos to take place over the next two days.

Social Networks: Social media sites continue to be the elusive goldmine that every organization wants to tap into and reap fortunes. Expanding an audience through social media has been the hot topic at a lot of conferences this year and a few panels here are devoted to Facebook applications and social media. Expect a lot of small talk to focus on how to attract and convert social media denizens to eCRM-managed donors and constituents.

Convio Open: How you get these folks from social media sites to an eCRM platform will depend partly on the Convio Open APIs and extensions. Last year, Convio Open was buzzworthy because it was brand new and an interesting concept for the company. This year, it's becoming more about how the APIs and extensions can really be used by all organizations and what are the practical applications for the enhancing the tool. Of course, most organizations still don't have the staff or expertise to create their own Facebook applications and the like. But, knowing is half the battle and just getting acquainted with the initial ideas behind Convio Open can help these organizations make smart decisions about how they can use the platform to do more for their overall online programs.  

The Economy: The elephant in the room; every conversation seems to touch upon our struggling economy. Are donations down? Are people giving like last year or in 2006? Will online continue to push at 30% overall growth rate or will it slow considerably? How can organizations meet capacity, raise money, and communicate with limited resources? How are we doing YTD from last year? Will we meet our online fundraising goals? It's doubtful anyone will have the answer, but they might have good advice on how they're tackling the issue.

We'll review some of the sessions and provide highlights from keynote speaker Tony Elischer's breakfast plenary. Couldn't make the conference and have a question? Drop us an email or leave a comment, we'll be happy to answer your questions or get the scoop on a session for you.

Online Fundraising in a Troubled Economy

Our country's economic woes are most likely affecting many organization's online donations, but it's still difficult to tell. The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University reports that 74% of donations to charities in 2007 stem from individual gifts, according to a CNN article published yesterday. No doubt online fundraisers will start to see some dips not usually associated with September and October, months where online giving is typically up from the August malaise. But, are online fundraisers affected and how will this affect year-end giving? It's unclear. Changing Our World's report on The Economy, Fundraising, and Philanthropy shows that-- historically, at least-- giving won't be affected as much. A recent poll by the Online Fundraising Blog shows that 70% of poll responders are giving as much or more as they did last year.

Of course, recent news and the upcoming elections may give history a new chapter. So if the series of economic events sends ripples through the sector and you indeed hit a slowdown, what can you do? How can you avoid a drop-off?

Communicate.

Your press releases, blog posts, newsletters, social network posts, Tweets, online ads, Google ads, everything you do can promote that despite the economic downturn, you are still providing services and programs for your constituents. The benefactors of your services still need those services and the people who have shown any interest in your organization over the years need to know that you're still out there, doing good.

Don't be shy: address the economic downturn. Let people know that your services are needed now more than ever because of the economic crisis. Promote the advantages of giving (tax-deduction, incentive gifts, benefactor services, good will). Offer special online giving levels that donors haven't seen before (a $35 or $45 gift levels, perhaps a new incentive). Create more honor/memorial gift opportunities for the upcoming holidays and offer more ways for people to make these gifts. Get creative with your success stories and appeals to address the economy.

The point is not to hide because of this crisis. Your online donations may likely take a downturn, but it shouldn't be a sheer drop-off. You need to be out there, with your ask, in an honest, transparent manner. Let your constituents know that your organization's programs and services are needed now more than ever.

Other Links:

• Network For Good: Key Components for Fundraising in a Downturn Economy
• NTEN: Five Tactics to Rev Up Fundraising in a Down Economy
• Online Fundraising Blog: A Way Out

The Holidays Again?! Ugh!

If you look up “procrastination “ in a dictionary, there’s probably a picture of me right there.

With the fall season approaching, so are the holidays, and with the holidays comes the busiest time for non-profits. This is your prime time, and given that, it’s important to not push any preparation back (like you probably did last year). In December 2007, Sea Change Strategies and Care2 published a brief manual titled “Procrastinator's Guide to Year-End Fundraising”. Inside, it goes over 10 solid steps to better online fund raising, and in the following pages it discusses the steps thoroughly. But come on, 10! 10! As a procrastinator myself, steps in double-digit figures are too daunting to warrant the effort- however, for my favorite procrastinating onLine readers, I have martyred myself by reading the ALL 10 steps, and have abridged it to 2 points covered that could vastly improve fund raising online.

1.  Inspire. The manual goes over a great point about the trend of emails often including an ask. Asking for help in an emergency, asking in newsletters, etc. Making every email throughout the year a request for money can hurt you in the season when many give the most. If you’re guilty of this, and have seen donations fall- it may be time to re-inspire. A new online campaign is the “best practice” approach, but it may be good to inspire something unorthodox. For instance, invite your online constituents to choose your cause for the season, or invite them to select from a variety of gifts to reward their donation. Engaging them early, and having something for them to follow and want to come back to your site to find out about can do a lot for your holiday giving- and your online following.

2.  Streamline donation. This second point is a mesh of multiple steps covered in the manual, but they all build on each other. Making an online donation on your web page should be the easiest thing to do. This can be accomplished by making donation buttons easily visible on all pages and creating a simple one-page form for donations. Know that you are better off creating one long page, than 2 short ones.

What about all that useful information about why someone should donate, or about your foundation’s awesome ability to keep administration costs low?

Well, keep them on the side of the donation page- but do not make them clickable! Keep the donors focused, they’re already on the page you want them to be on, why mess that up?

If you’re one of those non-procrastinators and are interested in reading the entire manual, download it here.

Five Ways to Recover from the August Doldrums

Summer finally draws to a close this week and if you've looked at your online figures for August, you'll probably notice a downward turn (unless your organization is in Denver this week). August is typically the low-water mark for most organizations in terms of visits, page views, donations, and actions. Your organization will need to come out swinging in September to make up for the lethargy.

Here are five things to consider for September:

Update Your Homepage - Where was that staff member who supposedly posted updates for your team? Oh yeah, he/she was on vacation and nothing has changed on the homepage since July(!). Even if you did make frequent updates this month, take the first week after Labor Day to beef up homepage content and graphics.  Start looking at features and services that will bring back repeat visits and attract new visitors.

Revisit that Calendar - Take a look at your production calendar again to see where you've been this year and where your organization is headed. What appeals, newsletters, events, and updates do you have planned for the rest of the year? What big items are coming up for November and December for year-end tactics? Get re-acquainted with your production schedule and get moving.

Get Social Again - Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Gather, Ning, Change.org — wherever you are in the social network world — say hi to everyone again. Post an announcement or news from your organization, kick-off a campaign, do a friend-raising activity, or just get out there and let people know your organization is back for the year.

Research, Redesign - Take the time to start looking at competitor's sites and communications, as well as what's coming up on the horizon. Take note, take screen grabs, visit NTEN and TechSoup, and start looking around at your own site. Why? Chances are these sites will be different by early next year, and yours might be, too. You might decide that 2009 will call for a fresh look, maybe even a redesign. Take the time now to start investigating the possibilities.

Think Engagement Strategies - While you're doing the research, start discussing next year's budget in terms of features and services. Is 2009 the year you build the Google Earth project? Use more videos and podcasts on the site? Build an interactive feature on your site for donation or events? Maybe a Facebook app? How is your organization communicating in an innovative and engaging manner and bringing people into your world? Don't just be clever or techy, be strategic. How can you communicate to get your best audience. And, start thinking now. The four months you have left will go very, very fast and before you know it, you'll be planning that early membership appeal or January newsletter.

Enjoy your last week of malaise, if you are so lucky.