When most of us think about our online donors, we think about small or mid-level donations.  The type of donor that is gradually transitioning from direct mail to email.  What we don’t usually think about is our major donors – the individuals who make very large contributions that help the organization build new programs or take old ones to the next level.

Earlier this year, Mikaela King and Nancy Withbroe released a whitepaper suggesting we need to start changing our thinking on this front.  King has a highly recommended guest post summarizing their work at Connection Cafe.

Their main reasoning: major donors are already online.  They are already on your site before they make a gift.  They are looking for evidence of what you’ve been telling them, connections to the things they most care about and more.  If they’re making the effort to go online, shouldn’t we find ways to better engage them while they are there?

You could definitely file this as another great example of why tools aren’t strategies.  Your web site, email program and other online marketing efforts are tools.  While many organizations have a major donor strategy to raise significant portions of their budget, those organizations have often ignored the online tools when thinking about this group.  While you want to give major donors special care, cultivation and appreciation, doing so online gives you even more tools to make and further those connections.

I recommend reviewing out the full whitepaper, but here is a list of some of their ideas for using the online experience with major donors:

• Ask for large gifts online: include higher-dollar amounts when you solicit gifts through your web site, and personalize ask amounts to a person’s giving history.
• Don’t just ask for large gifts – explain the need for them and the impact they’ll have: include “price points” that show how you’ll use larger gifts.  What could your organization achieve with a gift of $1,000? $5,000?
• Create a section of your web site or a micro site specifically targeted to major donors: customize information to this audience – make current financial information readily available, include “exclusive” and in-depth program content, event invitations, and reports.
• Provide program reports and update them monthly: provide quantitative data on program needs and impact, goals, progress and achievements
• Post interactive content: tell stories and ask donors to provide their own, show videos, or post a “program cam” where visitors can see your programs in action!
• Create a special email “stationary”: mimic the look of a one-on-one email from the President or a program officer; this could include a “forward” of an email from a program director or a “cc” to an executive assistant.
• Acknowledge people who have already made significant gifts to your organization in the past year, with their permission, and ask others to join this “exclusive” club!

When trying to activate donors, members, or activists to take action, asking only once leaves a lot of potential “actions” on the table. Most of the time, asking several times still doesn’t maximize what your members are willing to do.

For anything that you’re going to ask for, you should plan to ask for it at least three times, preferably in a pre-planned series of messages.  This includes donations, membership renewals, calls to their legislators, surveys, etc.  A series of messages helps create urgency, reach more members and show progress through the campaign (or mini-campaign). This series of messages can be all email, but it certainly doesn’t have to be.  Here are a few ways in which it can work:

Email series: The most likely and easiest channel for many non-profits.  You have an annual fundraising campaign.  You plan a series of 3 messages over a 1-2 month period.  The emails focus on a central theme, set out a goal from the beginning and then gently push members to help you reach it.  

Or, you know that you have legislation coming for a vote in 3 weeks.  Before sending that first email blast, plan 3 email blasts, with the the second and third messages in the series increasing their urgency and push.

Email auto-responders: Don’t be scared off by the ‘auto,’ part, either because it sounds hard or you think it’s less than personal.  When users sign up for your email list or join your organization, is there something they can do right away that will contribute to the cause and get the more invested?  My guess is yes.  In addition to the initial welcome message (that has a follow up ask, right?), follow it a few days later and a week or so later with another easy ask.   The ask can be timeless so it applies to someone who joins in February or June. Recent subscribers are the most likely to be fired up and ready to act.  Don’t wait until you’re next campaign to put them to work.

On the flip side, do you have users who haven’t take any action more than six months?  A year?  Set up a short mini-campaign of automated messages to dormant users.  Enlist their feedback, have them take a survey or some other ask to bring them back into the fold.

The best part of auto-responders is that you can set them up once and then you’re users will get at the time you set (when they join, after not taking action for a period of time, etc.  You should, however, review/refresh these messages every quarter or six months.

Offline follow ups: There isn’t any reason that your series of messages has to be through one channel.  In fact, there is a lot of research that shows that making a touch in a second channel can increase the potency of your campaign.  Some possible ways to follow up offline:

Post cards: For your next annual fundraising campaign, insert a post card as the second message between two emails.  This not only gives you the additional touch, but stands out a little as it is in a different medium.

Direct mail: Direct mail also works better in a series of messages, but that series doesn’t have to be all snail mail.  If you have a series of 3 letters, try adding a touch or replacing a letter with an email message.

Automated Phone calls:  Many are not fans of ‘robo-calls,” and count me as one.  But in certain contexts, they may be helpful.  One popular method with advocacy is the patch-through call.  It starts with an auto-mated message on your particular issue with an ask for the user to press 1 to be connected to their legislator’s office to voice their opinion.  Consider inserting a call like this into your email series to make it quick and easy for your members to deliver your message to legislators.

Phone Calls: Set up a phone program to chase your email, mail or other communications. Using patch-through technology is still possible, but this can also be used for fundraising, surveys and other asks.

Very Personal Phone calls: Probably not ideal for larger organizations, but if you have the capacity to identify previously active users (regular small donors who haven’t given recently, users who took 3 or more actions last year, but none this, etc.), then consider making a really personal touch.  As part of a campaign, reach out to 10 or 20 users and ask them to help with today’s priority.  If they do, they are also a little more likely to pay attention to future messages.  If they don’t, you may be able to get some feedback for future improvements.  This could also work for your high value users (recurring donors, users who take action on every message): ask them to take the next step by recruiting/organizing supporters or more.

And don’t forget about:

Twitter, Facebook et al:  Social networking does provide another touch and more importantly provides a way for your members to share your asks with their networks (aka potential new supporters).  If you turn any ask into a campaign (or mini-campaign if that sounds easier), then be sure to tweet or update your facebook friends multiple times to show momentum and ask them to help. You’ll probably even find a few new leaders this way by seeing who constantly re-tweets or shares your updates with their networks.  Don’t forget to engage them.

So, the next time you think you’re ready to ask your members to take action, take a few minutes and decide how you’re going to make sure they hear the ask at least three times.  It can be a combination of any of the above.  And as always, measure your results along the way to see what works best for your organization.

-Stephen

“…the use of social medial for nonprofit fundraising is:

• the greatest thing since sliced bread, or
• a flash in the pan that doesn’t deserve the attention it’s getting and will be over before you know it.”

I agree with Heaven that this argument is a lot more nuanced.  I would file it as another entry under, “it’s a tool, not a strategy.”  And this new tool is less like email and direct mail and more like your finance committee and annual fundraising event.

Social media sites are just another way (with tons of potential) to engage your supporters.  Facebook doesn’t make it any easier for YOU (ABC Non-profit Director of Development) to raise money online, it makes it easier for your supporters to engage their friends and networks to raise money for your organization.  Just like your finance committee or you annual 5k run/walk-a-thon/other event are tools that require major commitment from members, utilizing social media also requires your members to do the heavy lifting.  

The tools, white not ubiquitous, there are plenty.  They range from off-the shelf solutions that can be customized and integrated with your web site (Convio’s Team Raiser, ActBlue,) to external sites (FirstGiving, ChipIn) to social networking applications (Facebook Causes).  

Any of these tools make it possible for your members to set up fundraising pages to raise money for the organization.  Each of these tools not only provide the mechanism for making a contribution, but also allow them to publicly set and track those goals as well as reach out to their networks to raise money.

But I would advise NOT focusing on the tool.  Any of the above (and many more) could work for your organization.  If you want social networking to be “the greatest thing since sliced bread,” then you need to find the storytellers and networkers in your group and help them tell your story.

Social networking sites have great potential not because they allow you to connect to potential donors (or members, activists, etc.), but because they allow your members to share their passion for your cause with their networks. 

So what should you focus on to make social networking a successful way to raise funds and friends?  I would follow a similar process to setting up your finance committee or recruiting hosts for your annual event:

• Identify the people are most passionate about your cause.  Make it super easy for them to tell their story, set up their fundraising page and identify how to push it out to their friends.
• Identify the supporters who are the best networkers/social-networkers.  We all know the person who has 1000 facebook friends or followers on twitter.  Share stories from others to help them develop their story.  Once they are on board, these people often master the tools themselves.
• Use the organization’s presence to amplify the voices of it’s members.  Share their posts on facebook, retweet their tweets asking for support to their network.  This not only supports your early adopters, but will help in recruiting more folks to do the same.
• Rinse and repeat.  Help promote those once they’ve started and keep working to identify new people to grow your list of raisers.

In summary: Tools only work when you use them well.  Fundraising (or friend raising) is about building and utilizing relationships.  Social media is another tool that makes it easier for your organization’s supporters to advance your mission.  If the tool isn’t working, focus on helping the people using it, not the tool itself.

-Stephen

The article includes a long list of basic principles, and a few really struck a chord:

“Email activism is really relationship management, since people vote, volunteer and donate because of the feelings they have toward a candidate or cause.”

I’ve seen the confused expression on people’s faces when I tell them that they need to build a ‘relationship’ with those on their email list.  Not that they don’t value the people who want to help their cause, but that it’s hard to think about an excel file with multiple thousands of names and email addresses as something tangible enough to get a beer with.  Well you may not need to have a beer with them, but learning to entertain (engage) them is very important.

As has been said often, your emails should be timely and relevant.  The more you feel like you are really writing to one person or a group of 10 people who are very similar, the more people will respond as if they are being communicated with personally, rather than as part of a giant mass.  The Obama campaign found many ways to segment their list – not just by demographics but by how users signed up and responded to previous messages.  If the Obama campaign can segment a giant of 10 million into 10,000 lists of 10,000 folks, surely you can find a way to segment your list of 15,000 into 3 lists of 5,000.

“The email initiation sequence was critical to starting the relationship-building process, with new list members receiving a pre-set series of messages after they signed up. The sequence steadily “scaled the ask,” encouraging newbies to step deeper and deeper into the Obama waters — first they show up to phone-bank, and the next thing they know they’re devoting 30 hours per week to managing a volunteer team.”

How many messages do new registrants on your email list get before they are included in the ‘general population?’ Are there ways to slowly step up their level of engagement over the first 2-3 months, learn more about them and gradually transition them to the best of your list segments?  I bet there is and there are rewards to reap in doing so.

“When possible, staff mapped out email narrative arcs in advance. For best effect, each message had to stand alone but also be a part of the stream.”

Your organization may not send 10% or even 1% of the messages that the Obama campaign sent in just a few short months.  But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t (or shouldn’t) develop longer narratives for your email campaigns. Presumably, you have a set of goals for the quarter, or year, that your members should know about and be engaged with.

In the context of your goals for the year (or any time period you’re planning for), develop a story for how you could ideally communicate your progress to your members.  Then map that story out on your message calendar for emails, direct mail and in other media.  While you may need to tailor messages to the particulars of a given month, you’ll have an outline to help your members follow your organization’s developing story of success.

Much is still being learned from the Obama campaign’s success in 2008.  Not all of it is applicable outside the context of a hotly contested national election featuring a rock star, but much of it can be adapted.  I highly recommend checking out the full list of principles and the rest of the post at e.politics. We’ll certainly be referring back to these principles in future posts.

-Stephen

More specifically, the article goes into the connection between urgency and action: to wit, there is no action when there is no urgency.  The article examines the differences between preferences and behavior when it comes to gift cards: while we say we would prefer gift cards with a longer time horizon, we are far more likely to spend gift cards with a short-term deadline.

The article veers a bit into implications for future happiness and delves into some odd philosophizing regarding different “selves” and how our various selves make decisions about being cautious versus happy, responsible versus self-rewarding, etc.  It’s a line of philosophy the editors of the Atlantic are evidently fond of, judging by the number of times it’s made an appearance in the magazine of late.

Ignoring the “selves” detour, the research cited in the article confirms what all of us in the fundraising and mobilizing businesses have long known: without urgency, nobody does anything.  A deadline – a point very rapidly looming at which one can no longer make a difference – is critical to advocacy and fundraising success.

Check your grassroots and fundraising communications: do they have built-in urgency? Clearly delineated deadlines beyond which something valuable is lost (limited time gift matching, end of legislative decision-making windows, etc.)?  If there isn’t built-in urgency, can you generate urgency?  If there isn’t any urgency anywhere in your ask, is there a better time for you to make it?  A different ask you should be making?

My own bit of odd philosophizing (tf it’s good engouh for the Atlantic editors, it’s good enough for me): I’d bet our 24-hour news, ever-present political campaign cycle culture has upped the ante for urgency.  It’s possible that in times past, effectively conveying urgency wasn’t as a critical an element of successful fundraising and mobilizing as it unarguably is today. Atlantic folks?  Any thoughts? Evidence?

-Shayna

1. People like to give to people-not organizations and statistics
2. People need to be asked to give
3. Fundraisers need to be coaxed
4. Fundraisers will perform better if part of a fundraising team
5. Fundraisers need to be recognized and feel valued

Definitely a great list.  I would add one more to Higman’s list: fundraising is 2 parts planning, 1 part working your plan and 1 part evaluating and perfecting your plan.  Whether online or offline, you start with your goal ($100,000 by September 1, $750,000 this fiscal year, etc), then work backwards until you can look at your spreadsheet and say: “that’s how we’ll get there.”

“Online” (aka the Internets or the “Tubes”, as one former Senator called them) is just another category of tools to help you accomplish your overall goal.  Once again, the tool is not a strategy itself.

Now back to those four parts:

• The planning is essential.  The online piece of planning makes assumptions about the size of your list (and how it grows), the response rate from emails and web site traffic.  Then, just like offline, you lay out a calendar of how you will communicate with your donors over a period of time.  It’s two parts (or three or four) planning because this stage is essential to the entire process.
• Working your plan is what you wanted to do out of the gate but you paused to make a plan so you could do it better.  It’s hitting on the message you developed through email, your web site, blogs, facebook, etc, etc, etc.
• The evaluation and perfection is often forgotten or shortchanged.  What were the results?  Did our assumptions hold? What feedback did we get from our members/donors?  Why did we hit/miss our goal? Doing this step well will make the next campaign (next month or next year) all the better.   

Online fundraising does sound an awful lot like fundraising in general, right?

-Stephen