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Online Fundraising:Harnessing technology to

build and maintainrelationships

London Fundraising Summit24 September, 2008

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Agenda:• Presentation:

o Conversations = Conversionso Management = Messageso Case studies, reports, resources...

• Networking break• Small group work session• Small group reports and closing• Question & Answer

Jonathan and I are each going to present on the widerange of topics included within our topic today of onlinefundraising.

My presentation will focus on tools that facilitateconversation and engagement, donor management andstrategy, as well as case studies, helpful reports and anoverview of possible tools.

When we reconvene after the networking break, we willbreak into small groups to work on some examplescenarios as a way to put into practice some of theideas and strategies we've presented. Jonathan and Iwill both be floating between the groups to answerquestions, and help with your work.

We'll also spend some time reporting out from our smallgroups to share the scenarios and what solutions werereached. We have saved time at the end of the sessionfor questions and answers but we want to make sureyou feel comfortable asking questions as they arise, aswell.

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Conversations = ConversionsGood tools are those that most easily,

efficiently and effectively enableconversations between you and your

constituents.

Why is the conversation so important?

Conversations = conversions

What's a conversion? This means anything from:

- new website vistor signing up for e-newsletter- new website visitor donating money- e-newsletter recipient signing a petition- e-newsletter recipient donating- donor forwarding information to a friend

well, you get the point.

what's so great about conversions? well, that's all thatengagement is! getting people onboard, getting themto the next level of participation, enabling them torecruit for you, and so on.

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Flickr photo by suneko

shouting rarely works!

a conversation means a two-way exchange.

traditional websites and communications on a wholewere one-way speaker phones from the organizationshouting out at anyone who cared to come by.

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Flickr photo by panayotis

two way conversation empowers your constituents andthe larger community to:

- give you feedback when things are bad- give you praise when they are happy- ask questions- get involved

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Flickr photo by joe shlabotnik

two way conversations also turn your staff into realpeople.

organizations aren't run by robots, so let voices andstories be heard. let people connect with people.

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Conversations = ConversionsWe have conversations all day long, right?

Over coffee, on the phone, etc.

Why use social media instead of only faceto face?

of course this can be done any time in person. but whynot use social media to enable those conversations toinclude a dramatically higher number of people?

why use social media instead of face to faceconversations?

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Flickr photo by lord of the flies

people are already talking about you online.

you may not thinks so, but it's true. whether it is yourorganization specifically or not, people are alreadyusing social media to talk about, share ideas, andopinions, and even influence their networks about yourfield, your services, your needs, or your organization.

if a conversation is taking place online and you aren'tthere to hear it, does it still happen? YES!

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Flickr photo by gorgeoux

social media tools let your conversations reacheverywhere and anywhere.

by putting yourself and your organization online, youcan be part of the conversation that is already takingplace.

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Flickr photo by two roses

plus, using social media tools online means that peoplewill be able to find your organization and be part of theconversation with you who may have never known youexisted.

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the conversation prism, from Jesse Thomas and BrianSolis, helps visiualize social media tools by the socialactions they are associated with.

tools are developing, changing, and launching everyday that will continue to grow this picture more andmore.

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Chart from OneNW

there are many permutations of the 'ladder ofengagement.' what is key is that people usually start atthe bottom and with appropriate opportunities forconversations and engagement move up the ladder.

using tools to facilitate back-and-forth participationbetween the constiuents and the organization will helpthem step further up the ladder.

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Management = MessagesWe have everything stored and sorted

already, in our heads.

Why use online tools to manage yourconstituents?

Using online tools for donor management, volunteerrecruitment, website testing, and fundraising can putyour organization at an edge to increase success.

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Flickr photo from Vermin Inc

people are all different, even if they are all interested inyour organization. what they want to do for you, howthey want to hear from you, what they plan to say aboutyou and even how they want to support you.

it's hard to juggle that much in your head or even most"management" practices (excel, notecards, etc.).

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Flickr photo from bill barber

we are all unique and beautiful flowers, aren't we? :)

comprehensive donor/volunteer/constituentmanagement software will let you track, trace, separateand sort your members.

this means you have better information about whothose members are, as well as how they want tointeract with your organization.

not only are you tracking and organizing things better,but you are able to track what you do, what yourmembers do, and evaluate for success.

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Flickr photo from Dan Coulter

now that you are sorting your members into lists basedon their needs/activities, you can better tailor yourmessages (both in emails, website, and elsewhere likesocial networks or offline).

better messages means more messages, but notdrastically different. just enough so that your onlineactivists have something they can do when they get anemail from you, your donors can donate, yoursupporters can spread the word, and your lurkers cankeep hanging on.

the slightly tailored messages make for a betterconnection with your members, making them feel likeyou value them because you are paying attention andgiving them what they want.

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Software• The Raiser's Edge• Sage Software – Sage Fundraising 50 Version 7.0• DonorPerfect Visual Edition 8.0 (installed)• DonorPerfect Online (ASP)• Mission Research GiftWorks• eBase Version 2.12• eTapestry• Salesforce.com• Telosa Exceed! Basic• Telosa Exceed! Premier• TowerCare Technologies DonorPro

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/databases/page5961.cfm

there are lots of options for donor management tools,here are just some.

techsoup has a comparison between these 11 softwaresystems.

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Management = MessagesWe've made lists and categories and ladders

and more; can we be finished?

Why not take a little time to test what youare doing for success?

how do you know what they want? how do you know ifyou are succeeding or still just sending luke warmmessages?

testing. you can test anything from an email messageall the way to a campaign slogan or messaging.

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Flickr photo from Animals in Japan

testing can be small scale to large scale - really justdepends on your budget, your time, and your staffcapacity.

some people love testing, some hate the process.

i'd suggest starting small, and build from there when itis possible and appropriate.

for example, if you have 1,000 people on your email listto receive messages with action opportunities. createtwo different messages or two different subject lines,two different calls to action or two different images.send each to 50 random members, and see which onedoes better (the item being tested will determine yourmeasurement, like, if you try two subject lines, look forwhich message has a higher open rate). that is themessage to send to the other 900 members.

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Flickr photo from Ce nest pas un JB

you don't just need to test email messages, but you cantest the language on your website or other sites whereyou have an online presence, like social networks orsocial media.

if you are using tags (delicious for websites and news,flickr for photos, etc.) you may try using a lot of differenttags and then see which ones people are using to findyour information. those words may be more commonfor how people talk about your work or field than thewords you use.

try changing headlines on your website or images andsee if clickthroughs improve.

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TestingOptimost

http://www.optimost.com/

Google Website Optimizerhttp://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer

Offermaticahttp://www.omniture.com/en/

there are lots of options for testing, here are just some.

some or free, some aren't. some assume a higher levelof knowledge than others.

you can always do in-house though, by simple changesand comparisons. even using different contact emailaddresses on different pages of the website to guagewhere people are clicking through from.

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Case StudiesUsing the ladder of engagement with

constituents.

Amnesty Canada

In March 2007, two leading women activists in Iranwere detained for speaking out publicly in the weeksleading up to International Womens Day.

Amnesty Canada sent out an urgent e-appeal within 48hours to its list of 20,000+ subscribers, urging people toclick-to-take-action to send a protest email to theIranian Ambassador to Canada.

More than 2,400 emails were sent by AmnestyCanada’s subscribers.When the 2 activists were released just several dayslater, Amnesty sent an email update back to the peoplewho participated in the online action with the goodnews, and explained that this case is an example ofhow Amnesty is able to respond immediately whenthere is a human rights crisis - especially in the first 72hours after an activist has been picked up and is beingheld in police custody.

The email described that is exactly the role thatAmnesty’s Urgent Action network performs - thatthousand of people around the world have signed up toreceive notices of urgent cases, and who are preparedto react immediately with letters, faxes, emails, phonecalls, etc. when there is a human rights emergency.The email closed with an invitation to join AmnestyCanada’s Urgent Action network.This invitation to “step up” the ladder of engagementpicks up directly from the core message that takingurgent action can get positive results, and is a naturalway for people to deepen their commitment to helpdefend human rights.

As a result of the followup invitation, more than 300new members joined Amnesty Canada’s Urgent ActionNetwork - increasing it’s size by nearly 25% - a hugelypositive step forward in building this important actiontool for Amnesty Canada.

http://www.shakethepillars.com/?p=56

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Case StudiesTesting your website and email messages.

2008 e-Nonprofit Benchmarks Study

http://www.e-benchmarksstudy.com/

Next 11 slides from Benchmarks Study presentation,NTEN

Changing gray submit to a red submitAdding small arrows next to donate buttonConfirmation of action also produced a donation form

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create a random home page assignment to web visitorsbetween the cute animal picture and the donate form

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Year-end Homepage Test Results

• Donation form won - brought in 8% more gifts(number of gifts)

• Raised 8% more dollars in donations $1,000 andunder

• Raised 10% more dollars in donations $500 andunder

• Did not hinder homepage interaction – bouncerate for the homepage stayed relativelyunchanged

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

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We Publish Our Stats

• We send meaningful stats to all staff and provideanalysis to encourage them to focus on:o List growth: requires extraordinary efforts (paid marketing,

SEO)o Current events and personal stories: actions perform better

w/ either elemento Syndication: web traffic and RSS feeds are email

alternativeso Search rankings: dependent on good writingo Fundraising: everyone contributes to our fundraising

success• By publishing comprehensive meaningful stats for the

entire organization, we spark curiosity and competitionamong staff.

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Action Web Confirmation

• By comparing ourselves to other NGOs, weget good ideas to test.

• Changing the web confirmation to donationform raised $46,000+ since December andtells us which issue inspires donors.

• Top issues: torture, Tibet, Darfur.o Our Tibet action went to 450K+ and raised $15K+

via the web confirmation donation page.• Loser issue: death penalty

o Best performing action in Feb., raised $0.

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EXAMPLE ANALYSIS SENT TO STAFF:

Fundraising:- We continue to monitor actions that inspire our activists to donate. Darfurconsistently tops the list of actions garnering the most donations. This month,the Shi Tao action and war on terror related actions also performed well. Thedeath penalty, although it brought in the most actions, did not prompt people togive. We’ve seen similar results in direct mail.

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Multivariate testing

• Make the most of your web traffic bytesting variations of your design.

• Tiny changes can have profound affects.• Doesn’t require you to use precious email

capital and improves overall usability ofyour website

• Improved usability leads to greaterconfidence in your organization and lessfrustrated supporters

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Big red button

• By changing the standard grey “submit”on our donation form to a large red“submit”, we got a 29% lift in ourconversion rate.

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Utility nav tweak

• changing the order of the utility nav itemsand changing “donate” to a bold, green“donate now” provided a:o 70% lift in overall traffic to the donation

formo 83% lift in total $ raised

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Right pointing arrows

• Adding some right pointing arrows to theword “Donate” on our homepage donatebutton provided a:o 5% lift in overall traffic to the donation formo 55% lift in total $ raised

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Case StudiesHaving conversations online.

Organizations using Twitter, Blogs, SocialNetworking sites, and more!

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Strategy BuildingI have heard about lots of cool tools and I'm

sold on using social media - let's go!

Using the POST method will help youkeep your goals in front of cool tools.

the POST method from forrester is a great way to breakdown your process into manageable chunks.

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POST Method from Forrester

Addressing the issue of People means looking first atwho the audience is before doing anything else.After you are confident about who you are reaching andsome of their online characteristics, you can move on toObjectives. This is where you really think about whatyou are trying to do. Think small. Saving the world is oneveryone’s list, but probably not quite as doable asprovide event participants with collaboration andconversation access.With your audience and goals in check, start thinkingabout the Strategy. Strategy doesn’t mean the socialmedia tools, though, don’t rush! In this part, you want tofocus on what the technology tools will change for youand your audience. How will things be after you haveimplemented the tools?Okay, now you can pick the most applicable technologytools to use. It will be easier to see the right tools fromthe plethora that exists because you are lookingthrough a specific lens that has the audience, goal andstrategy layers. You will now be able to also have amore constructive view of why some and not someother options.

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Resources• CommonCraft.org - Videos explaining

social media tools in plain English• TechSoup.org - Reviews, forums,

research and more• Idealware.org - Reviews and comparisons

of tools/software• NTEN.org - Community network, reports,

research and more

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UsJonathan Waddingham

Justgiving.comjonathan@justgiving.com

Twitter: jon_bedfordhttp://justgiving.wordpress.com

Amy Sample WardNetSquared.org

award@techsoup.orgTwitter: amyrsward

http://amysampleward.org

we would love to continue this conversation with you -so contact us any time!