Once is Not Enough – Why You Need a Multichannel Fundraising Campaign

October 29, 2019 Ann Green appeal letters, email, fundraising, multichannel, planning email, fundraising, multi-channel, planning, year-end appeal

9302746500_abac718b17_w Year-end fundraising season is starting to gear up. Perhaps you’ve already mailed an appeal letter or are planning to in the next couple of weeks.

Planning is the key word here. If you just send one fundraising letter and wait for the donations to come in, prepare to be disappointed. Your donors are busy and may put your letter aside to handle later, and never get to it.

You may be thinking of not using direct mail at all because it’s too expensive and only sending email appeals. That’s a mistake. Direct mail is still a viable way to communicate and well worth the investment.

Of course, you can also send email appeals, but you’ll need to plan to send more than one appeal due to the enormous volume of email people receive, especially at this time of the year.

Some donors will respond to the first appeal, but most are going to need a few reminders.

Your fundraising campaign will be more effective if you use a combination of mail, email, social media, and phone calls. Some donors may respond to your direct mail piece but donate online. Others will see your email message but prefer to send a check.

This is why you need a multichannel fundraising campaign with a series of asks.

BEFORE YOU START

Clean up your mailing lists

If you haven’t already done so, clean up and organize your mailing lists. Do you have both postal and email addresses for all your donors? Be sure to segment your donors into different groups (current, monthly, etc), as well.

6 Steps to Direct Mail List Management

Clean Up Your Email List With These 3 Simple Steps

Make it easy to donate online

You must have a donation page that’s engaging and easy to use on all platforms, including mobile. Test all links in email messages and social media posts. The last thing you want is a donor contacting you about a broken link or have to hunt around on your website for a link to your donation page.

When you’re ready to launch your campaign, include a blurb on your homepage that says your appeal is underway. Make sure your donate button is in a prominent place and stand out even more by including an engaging photo to draw people in.

Which channels do your donors use?

Don’t spend a lot of time on channels your donors aren’t using. Figure out in advance where you want to focus your efforts.

SAMPLE SCHEDULE AND STRATEGY

Come up with a schedule of when the appeals will go out. I’ve created a sample schedule below. Of course, you can adjust the timeframe as needed and use this for campaigns at other times of the year. That said, I do recommend starting your year-end campaign sooner than later. If you’ve already mailed your appeal, you can start planning your reminders.

November 6

Give your supporters a heads up by email and social media. Let them know your year-end appeal is underway and they should receive a letter from you soon, provided you have their mailing address. Encourage them to donate online right now. This means your donation page needs to be in great shape.

Keep in mind that the fact your year-end appeal is going on will matter to some donors and not to others. Use an enticing subject line such as How you can help Lisa learn to read.

Make sure it’s obvious your message is coming from your organization so you have a better chance of getting it opened. Get noticed on social media by using an engaging photo.

Week of November 11

Mail your appeal letters.

Week of November 18

Start sending follow-up reminders via email and social media. If possible, don’t send reminders to people who have already donated. Otherwise, be sure to thank your recent donors. You can even phrase your reminders as more of a thank you or an update.

Thanks so much to all of you who donated to our year-end appeal. We’re well on our way to our goal of serving more kids in our tutoring program. If you haven’t donated yet, please help us out today by visiting our website (include a link to your donation page) or sending us a check (provide address).

Week of November 25

Send another reminder, along with a Happy Thanksgiving message. Share a success story in your appeal.

Week of December 2

December 3 is #GivingTuesday so you could tie that into a reminder message. You may already have a campaign planned.

Your donors’ inboxes will be bursting at the seams on #GivingTuesday and your messages can easily get lost in the melee. Make your messages stand out and show some gratitude, too.

Don’t just send generic weekly reminders. Also, keep it positive. Don’t make your donors feel bad because they haven’t donated yet.

Week of December 9

Start making reminder calls, along with sending electronic messages. If time is an issue, you could just call people who have donated before. That’s probably most effective. It’s a busy time of the year and your donors may need a gentle prompt.

The rest of December and beyond

Keep sending reminders throughout December. It’s tricky because you want to get your messages across without being annoying. This is another reason why you should only send reminders to people who haven’t donated yet.

Be sure to keep sending your newsletter and other updates. You don’t want the only messages your donors receive to be fundraising appeals. December is also a great time to show some #donorlove and send holiday greetings.

The end of December is the busiest time of this already busy fundraising season. Send two or three reminder emails during the last week of December, including one on the 31st. This is especially relevant if your fiscal year ends on December 31 or your donor wants to give before the end of the calendar year.

Even though you’re trying to raise money, don’t forget about building relationships, too. That’s just as important.

Look to see who hasn’t contributed yet. Concentrate on people who are most likely to donate, such as past donors. You may need to send another letter or a reminder postcard to donors who don’t use electronic communication.

In addition, plan to get in touch with your lapsed donors at the beginning of January.

Your fundraising campaign will be more successful with multiple asks and by using multiple channels. Good luck!

How to Make Your Online Thanks Yous More Personal

October 9, 2019 Ann Green Communications, donor relations, donor-centered, email, thank you letters, website donor relations, donor-centered, email, thank you, website

4102985881_0c855d40d7_n Many people donate online now. There’s a good reason for this. It’s usually fast and easy, or at least it should be.

One problem with online donations is the poor thank yous that come after your donor has given you a gift. Even though your thank you landing page and thank you email are automatically generated, it doesn’t mean they need to sound like they were written by a robot.

There’s a human being on the other end and they just did something nice by donating to your organization. Don’t they deserve to be lavished with gratitude?

It’s not hard to make your online thank yous more personal. Here’s what you need to do.

Use words that convey gratitude

First, make a list of words you associate with gratitude. Did you come up with words such as transaction and processed? Because those are words I often see after I make an online gift. I want to tear my hair out every time I see transaction complete or your gift was successfully processed.

Words matter and some words of gratitude include appreciate, grateful, and of course, thank you.

Think of the donations you receive as the start or continuation of a relationship and not a transaction.

Make a good first impression with your thank you landing page

Your landing page is your first chance to say thank you and it’s usually about as engaging as an Amazon receipt. In fact, I’ve received online shopping receipts that are more personal than some nonprofit “thank you” landing pages.

Remember to use words that convey gratitude. You could open with Thank you, David! or You’re amazing! Include an engaging photo or video and a short, easy to understand description of how the donation will help the people you serve.

Invite donors to connect with you in other ways such as signing up to receive your newsletter, following you on social media, and volunteering.

If you use a third-party giving site, you might be able to customize the landing page. If you can’t, follow up with a personal thank you email message within 48 hours.

Don’t let your donors think they only made a transaction.

How to Create Post Donation Thank You Pages That Delight Donors

Six Tips for a Stronger Post-Donation Thank You Landing Page

Write a thank you email that will impress your donors

Start off by thinking of a good subject line. At the very least say Thank You! and not Donation Received. Stay away from the dreaded words processed and transaction. You want your thank you email to stand out in your donor’s overflowing inbox.

Open your message with Thank You or You just did something incredible, and not the usual On Behalf of X organization. Then let your donors know how they’re helping you make a difference for the people/community you serve.

Basically, you want to follow the rules of writing a good thank you letter, the key word here being good. I covered this in my last post The Purpose of a Thank You Letter is to Thank Your Donors. It amazes me how many thank you letters/emails don’t do a good job of saying thank you.

You won’t be able to segment much, but you should be able to distinguish between single gifts and monthly donations.

Speaking of monthly donations, many organizations send their monthly donors an email acknowledgment each month. There’s nothing wrong with that, but what’s wrong is many of these are dreadfully boring and usually include the same message each month.

Your monthly donors have made a long-term commitment to you, you can show the same commitment to them by writing a better thank you email and mixing up the content by sharing updates.

You can include a donation summary or receipt with your thank you email, but that should be at the end – AFTER – you pour on the gratitude. I prefer the term donation summary because it doesn’t sound as transactional.

Again, don’t make your message sound like it was written by a robot. Write something warm and personal.

Thanking a Donor by Email: Best Practices and Examples

7 Best Practices for Donor Thank You Emails

Give your donors a good thank you experience

Since your thank you landing page and email are automatically generated, you can’t make them as personal as a handwritten note, phone call, or letter. That’s why you need to do at least one of those for your online donors. An online thank you is not enough.

You want to give your donors a thank you experience. Your thank you landing page and email acknowledgment are just the beginning. Make them engaging and personal and keep up that theme as you continue to show gratitude to your donors throughout the year.

Don’t Get Lost in the Shuffle – Make Your Messages Stand Out

May 14, 2019May 15, 2019 Ann Green Communications, donor-centered, multichannel, writing Communications, donor-centered, email, messaging

4698746521_0f3d47dd0f_m Information overload is an understatement right now. We’re bombarded by messages of all kinds from many different sources.

How can your nonprofit keep up with all this? You want to communicate with your donors, but you don’t want your messages to get lost in the shuffle. It won’t be easy, but here are a few ways to make your messages stand out.

What’s your intention?

What’s the purpose of your message? What do you want your reader to do? Maybe it’s to donate, volunteer, attend an event, or contact her legislators. Maybe you’re sharing an update.

Think from your reader’s perspective. What would she be interested in or what would make him take action?

Keep it simple and stick to one call to action.

Choose the right channels

Most likely you’ll use more than one channel to communicate. Pay attention to the channels your donors are using and focus your efforts there.

Email is often the primary way nonprofits communicate and there’s a reason for that. It’s fast, easy, relatively inexpensive, and almost everyone has an email address. You can quickly get a message out to a lot of people. Also, unlike social media, it’s something you can control. You don’t have to rely on a social media algorithm to hope your message ends up in your donor’s feed.

But email has its drawbacks. People can get hundreds of emails a day plus messages from other sources such as social media. It’s easy for your messages to get lost in this melee. I often don’t read all my email. I usually scan through the burgeoning list to see what looks interesting. That, of course, depends on if I even have time to look at my email.

Some email messages, such as a fundraising appeal or an event invitation, you’ll probably need to send more than once. Try not to send messages to people who have already responded.

You can also go multichannel. For example, include a link to your e-newsletter on your social media platforms.

While you’ll likely use electronic communication pretty regularly, don’t discount direct mail. Your donors are more likely to see these messages. We get far less postal mail than electronic communication. Also, a person can put a piece of mail aside and look at it later. Don’t count on that happening with any type of electronic communication.

Get noticed right away

A good subject line is the key to getting someone to open your email message. If he doesn’t bother to open it, all your work has gone to waste.

Give some thought to it. Instead of Donate to our Spring Appeal or May 2019 Newsletter, try Find out how you can help Michael learn to read or Thanks to you, Dara won’t go to bed hungry tonight.

For postal mail, consider an engaging envelope teaser or a colored envelope with a stamp. You don’t want your letter to look like junk mail.

Keep it short

Your next step is to get your donor to read your message. Keep her interested. With email, yours may be one of hundreds she’ll receive that day, along with whatever else is going on in her life.

Make your messages short, but engaging, and get to the point right away.

Keep this in mind when you send your e-newsletter or updates. You might want to consider a two-article newsletter twice a month instead of one with four articles (and it’s unlikely your donors will read all four articles) once a month.

Given the cost of direct mail, why send a six-page annual report when you can wow your donors in an instant with an infographic postcard?

Photos and other visuals can be a great way to stand out, especially on social media.

Make it easy to read and scan

Besides sending a short message, use short paragraphs and lots of white space, too. Your messages need to be easy to read (and scan) in an instant. Don’t use microscopic font either.

Be personal and conversational

Write directly to your reader using clear, conversational language – no jargon. Address your message to a person – Dear Janet and not Dear Friend.

Segment your lists so you can personalize your messages. For example, you’ll create different messages for current donors, potential donors, and monthly donors.

Don’t cast a wide net

It’s important that you send your message to the right audience and your audience isn’t everyone.

You’ll have more luck with a fundraising appeal when you send it to past donors or people who have a connection to your cause. The same is true for event invitations or recruiting volunteers.

You may want to reach out to as many people as possible, but that won’t guarantee you’ll get more donations or event attendees. Segmenting and engaging with the right audience will bring you better results.

Be a welcome visitor

If you communicate regularly and do it well, your donors should recognize you as a reputable source and are more likely to read your messages. If all you do is blast them with generic fundraising appeals, well good luck to you.

Make sure people know your email is coming from your organization. In the from field, put DoGood Nonprofit or Lisa Wilson, DoGood Nonprofit. If you just put a person’s name or info@dogoodnonprofit.org, people may not know who it’s from and ignore your message.

Only send email to people who have opted into your list. Otherwise, you’re spamming them. Some people will choose not to receive email from you, and that’s okay. The ones who do are interested in hearing from you. Give people the option to unsubscribe, too.

Even though people only get a few pieces of mail a day, most of it’s junk mail. You never want any of your letters, newsletters, or postcards to be perceived as junk mail.

It’ll take a little more work, but it’s possible to make your messages stand out so you don’t get lost in the shuffle.

Seeing the World Through Your Donors’ Eyes

April 23, 2019April 24, 2019 Ann Green Communications, donor relations, donor-centered, fundraising, multichannel Communications, donor relations, donor-centered, email, multi-channel

16694129500_90ff25d71d_m In my last post, I wrote about the importance of staying donor-centered. Now let’s take it a step further. Try to think like your donors. Visualize one donor or a type of donor and imagine how they will respond to your communication.

Get to know your donors better

You may have a hard time with this if you don’t know your donors very well. One way to get to know them better is to send short surveys. The key here is short. Ask a few questions at a time.

3 Examples of Nonprofit Donor Surveys

The 5 ½ Principles of Effective Donor Surveys

GET TO KNOW YOUR DONORS: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO NONPROFIT SURVEYING

While surveys are a great way to connect, not everyone is going to respond to them. Another tactic to try is to create donor personas. You can use your database to figure out vital information and/or interview a few donors.

How to Develop Donor Personas for Your Nonprofit

GUIDE: Using Donor Personas to Maximize Your Nonprofit Fundraising

I think some of the most important things to know about your donors are why they give to your organization, what aspects of your work are important to them, and how they like to communicate (by mail, email, social media, or a combination of those).

Let’s look at these more closely.

Why do your donors give to your organization?

Donors are human beings, not just money machines. There’s a reason they’ve chosen to give to your organization. If you can find out what drew them to your nonprofit, it will help you with your donor communication.

Most likely they feel a connection to your cause. For example, I support the American Cancer Society because way too many people I know have been affected by cancer.

The best time to find out this information is right after someone donates, especially for first-time donors. This will be easier to collect online and you could include this question on your donation form.

Of course, not everyone donates online. You could also include a short survey and a reply envelope or a link to an online survey with your thank you letter or welcome packet for new donors. (You do send those, right?)

What aspects of your work are important to your donors?

You may have already found out this information from the question above, but most likely you’re working on several initiatives. If your organization is working to prevent homelessness, you may discover your donors are most interested in finding affordable housing for homeless families. Then you can share stories and updates about that initiative.

What communication channels do your donors prefer?

It’s probably more than one, but listen carefully. Don’t spend a lot of time on channels your donors aren’t using much.

Email will probably be your biggest communication tool. You won’t use direct mail as much because of the cost, but you do need to use it at least a few times a year, especially if you find out some donors don’t use electronic communication.

You could also try to get feedback about the frequency of your communication. Shorter, more frequent messages, especially for email and social media, should be more effective. This doesn’t mean blasting your donors with a bunch of generic messages.

The advantage of email and direct mail is you have complete control of them, unlike social media. Speaking of social media, almost every day you hear about some issue with Facebook. I’ve stopped using it and only use Twitter sporadically, but that’s just me. Other people can’t get enough of social media.

This is a good opportunity to monitor your email and social media to see if people are responding to your messages. Look at the open rates, click-throughs, and likes. (I know likes don’t mean that much, but they do reflect some sort of engagement.) Monitor this frequently and focus your efforts on channels your donors are using.

Use your database

As you gather vital information about your donors, put that in your database. Your database also comes in handy because you want to segment your donors – first-time donors, long-term donors, monthly donors, etc – so you can personalize their communication as much as possible.

Putting your work into action

You’ve spent time getting to know your donors better. Now you want to make sure they respond to your messages. This can be hard, especially when donors are bombarded with messages from many sources.

Keep them in mind. What will entice them to look at your email or letter and take action, if necessary. The email subject line Find out how you helped Claudia and her family move into a home of their own is profoundly better than April e-newsletter.

Now that your donor has opened your e-newsletter, is the first thing she sees a story about Claudia? You know from surveying your donors they like to read about the people they’re helping.

Every step of the way you need to see the world through your donors’ eyes – why they give to your organization, what they would like to hear from you, and which channels are best for connecting with them. Do this for every fundraising letter, thank you letter, newsletter, or any other type of communication.

Take time to get to know your donors, so you’ll have a better chance of keeping them for a long time.

The Importance of Keeping Things Simple

April 9, 2019April 10, 2019 Ann Green Communications, email, fundraising, website, writing Communications, email, fundraising, website, writing

Keep it -simple Over the years I’ve come to find the value of keeping things simple. Whether it’s preparing a dish with just a few ingredients or not cramming my schedule with one thing after another.

But keeping it simple doesn’t have to mean a bare bones existence. There’s a Swedish term called lagom (there are also several books about it) meaning everything in moderation or not too much, not too little. It’s definitely a concept I agree with and it’s much needed in our society of too much, too much.

Keeping things simple is also important for your nonprofit communication. Donors are busy and are receiving an abundance of messages from a variety of sources.

You don’t want to get bogged down with a bunch of complex content. Here are a few ways to simplify your communication.

Keep it simple by sticking to one call to action

Your communication needs to be clear. Before you send an email message or letter, ask what is your intention? Is it to ask for a donation, say thank you, invite someone to an event, or recruit volunteers?

Stick to one call to action. If you ask for a donation, try to recruit volunteers, and invite someone to an event all in the same message, it’s likely your donors won’t respond to any of your requests.

In your fundraising appeals, don’t bury your ask. Start with a story, followed by a clear, polite ask. Recognize your reader. Thank previous donors and invite potential donors to be a part of your family of donors.

Your thank you letter should thank the donor. Simple, right? Make them feel good about giving to your organization. Welcome new donors and welcome back returning donors. You don’t need a lot of wordy text explaining what your organization does.

Keep your messages simple, yet sincere, and include a clear call to action.

5 Nonprofit Email Call-to-Actions That Inspire Action

Keep it simple with shorter, easy to read messages

If your communication is too long, most people won’t read it. Limit print communication, such as newsletters and annual reports, to four pages or less. Your email messages should be just a few paragraphs. On the other hand, you don’t want to be terse or say too little.

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Mark Twain

Be sure your communication is easy to read and scan. Use short paragraphs, especially for electronic communication, and include lots of white space. Don’t clutter up the page.

Keep it simple by using conversational language

There’s nothing worse than reading an appeal letter or newsletter article that sounds like a Ph.D. thesis. Write at a sixth to eighth-grade level. That’s what most major newspapers do. This is not dumbing down. You’re being smart by ensuring your donors will understand you.

Keep out the jargon and other confusing language. Use the active voice and there’s no need to get fancy by using a lot of SAT vocabulary words. Again, you want your donors to understand you.

You May Love Your Jargon, But Your Donor’s Don’t

Keep it simple by creating a clutter-free website

Your website is still a place where people will go to get information. Make sure it’s clear and clutter-free, as well as easy to read and navigate. Don’t forget about short paragraphs and lots of white space.

How to Get Your Website in Good Shape

One of the most important parts of your website is your donation page. It needs to be easy to use and collect enough information without overwhelming your donors. If it’s too cumbersome, they may give up and leave.

If it’s a branded page (e.g. not a third-party site like PayPal), make sure it’s consistent with your messaging and look. Don’t go too minimalistic, though. Include a short description of how a donor’s gift will help you make a difference, as well as an engaging photo.

It’s not always easy to keep things simple, but your donors will appreciate it if you do. Read on for more about the importance of keeping things simple.

Is Your Fundraising Appeal Cluttered? That Won’t Do

Your Donor Communications Should Be Simple & Direct

The Complexity of Simplicity

Make #GivingTuesday More Than Just a Giving Day

November 13, 2018 Ann Green appeal letters, donor retention, donor-centered, email, fundraising donor retention, donor-centered, email, fundraising, year-end appeal

Image result for giving tuesday logo 2018 I’m sure you’ve all heard of #GivingTuesday, the annual giving day that takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. This year it will be on November 27.

Perhaps you’ve participated in the past and it’s been successful, or maybe it wasn’t. Perhaps you’re planning to participate for the first time.

Whether you participate or not, #GivingTuesday is now part of the nonprofit landscape and if you’re doing a year-end appeal, you’ll need to factor it into your campaign.

I’m not a huge fan of #GivingTuesday or any giving days, for that matter, because they focus too much on getting donations. Many of these donors are first-time donors who don’t give again. That may be because they were drawn into whatever gimmicks the organizations were using to get donations and/or the organizations failed to build relationships afterward.

I have a few suggestions to help make #GivingTuesday more successful or how to navigate around it if you’re not participating in it.

Is #GivingTuesday working for you?

If you’ve run a campaign in the past, check to see if people who gave the year before gave again. Go back as far as you can to check retention rates.

Also, who is donating on #GivingTuesday? Are they brand new donors or current donors who choose to donate on that day?

Focus on relationship building

Never miss an opportunity to build relationships, whether you’re reaching out to new donors or following up with current ones. Keep your appeal donor-centered. Thank current donors and find a way to make a connection with potential donors.

I realize the purpose of a fundraising appeal is to ask for donations, but don’t forget to build relationships, too. Again, the problem with most #GivingTuesday appeals is they’re focused too much on getting donations.

Use #GivingTuesday as a way to follow up with your donors

If you don’t want to launch a full #Giving Tuesday campaign (understandable), it can be a great opportunity to follow up with people who haven’t donated to your year-end appeal. You should be doing regular reminders, anyway.

Send email and social media messages before and on #Giving Tuesday encouraging people to donate. You can use the #Giving Tuesday logos, etc. Obviously, you’ll want to keep following up with anyone who didn’t donate on #GivingTuesday.

Keep in mind your donors will be barraged with email and social media messages on #GivingTuesday. Make yours stand out and be prepared to keep following up.

How about #GratitudeTuesday instead?

Maybe you’ll decide to bypass #GivingTuesday all together and make it a day to show some gratitude to your donors.

A New Approach to Giving Tuesday: Be different and stand out from the crowd

Attitude of Gratitude: A Different Kind of Giving Tuesday

Remember that your donors may not see your messages that day so send some #donorlove on other days around that time, such as Thanksgiving.

Donors are going to get a lot of appeals from you at year-end so you also want to use this time to communicate in ways in which you’re not asking for money.

Don’t forget to say thank you

Speaking of showing gratitude, your donors should be feeling the love right after they make their donation.

Make sure you have an engaging thank you landing page and thank you email for your online donors. You could even create ones especially for #GivingTuesday. Then you need to follow that with a phone call, handwritten note, or thank you letter.

Send welcome packets to new donors or welcome back messages to current donors.

#GivingTuesday has a transactional feel to it, although it doesn’t need to. Go the extra mile and do a good job of thanking these donors – both right after they’ve made their donation and throughout the year.

5 creative ways to thank #GivingTuesday donors

5 Ways to Thank Your #GivingTuesday Donors

How did you do?

When this year’s #GivingTuesday is over, make a plan to measure your results, whether you do a full campaign, a follow-up, or a thank you fest. Was it worth the time and effort?

I think you’ll find that your #GivingTuesday campaign, or any fundraising campaign, will be more successful if you focus on more than just the giving part. And a big part of a successful campaign is getting repeat donations.

Tips for Keeping New Donors After a Giving Day

3 Ways to Turn #GivingTuesday Donors Into Year-Round Supporters

Why You Need a Multichannel Fundraising Campaign

October 23, 2018 Ann Green appeal letters, email, fundraising, multichannel, planning, social media email, fundraising, multi-channel, planning, social media, year-end appeal

Year-end fundraising season is here and it’s the busiest time of the year for most nonprofit organizations.

You need to plan carefully. If you just send one fundraising letter and wait for the donations to pour in, you’re chasing rainbows. Your donors are busy and may put your letter aside to handle later, and never get to it.

You may be thinking of not using direct mail at all because it’s too expensive, and only sending email appeals. That’s a mistake. Direct mail is still a viable way to communicate and well worth the investment.

Of course, you can also send email appeals, but you’ll need to plan to send more than one appeal due to the massive volume of email people receive. Some donors will respond to the first appeal, but most are going to need a few reminders.

You’ll have a lot of competition since you’re not the only organization seeking year-end donations. Plus, you’re competing with a deluge of email and social media posts from a variety of sources, even more in the US since it’s an election year. The fact that it’s an election year may not affect nonprofit giving, but it does factor into the amount of communication your donors are receiving. Fundraising in an Election Year: Much ado about (almost) nothing

All this is why you need a multichannel campaign with a series of asks.

BEFORE YOU START

Clean up your mailing lists

If you haven’t already done so, clean up and organize your mailing lists. Do you have both postal and email addresses for all your donors? Be sure to segment your donors into different groups, as well (current, monthly, etc).

6 Steps to Direct Mail List Management

Clean Up Your Email List With These 3 Simple Steps

Make it easy to donate online

Which channels do your donors use?

Don’t spend a lot of time on channels your donors aren’t using. Figure out in advance where you want to focus your efforts.

SAMPLE SCHEDULE AND STRATEGY

Come up with a schedule of when the appeals will go out. I’ve created a sample schedule below. Of course, you can adjust the timeframe as needed, and use this for campaigns at other times of the year. That said, I do recommend starting your year-end campaign sooner than later.

October 31

Keep in mind that the fact your year-end appeal is going on will matter to some donors and not to others. Use an enticing subject line such as How You Can Help a Family Move Into Their Own Home.

Make sure it’s obvious your message is coming from your organization so you have a better chance of getting it opened. Get noticed on social media by using an engaging photo.

Week of November 5

Mail your appeal letters.

Week of November 12

Thanks so much to all of you who donated to our year-end appeal. We’re well on our way to our goal of helping more families find a home of their own. If you haven’t donated yet, please help us out today by visiting our website (include a link to your donation page) or sending us a check (provide address).

Week of November 19

Send another reminder, along with a Happy Thanksgiving message. Share a success story in your appeal.

Week of November 26

November 27 is #GivingTuesday so you could tie that into a reminder message. You may already have a campaign planned.

Keep in mind that your donors’ inboxes will be bursting at the seams on #GivingTuesday. Make your messages stand out and throw some gratitude into the mix.

Don’t just send generic weekly reminders. Also, keep it positive. Don’t make your donors feel bad because they haven’t donated yet.

Week of December 3

Start making reminder calls, along with sending electronic messages. If time is an issue, you could just call people who have donated before. That’s probably most effective.

It’s a busy time of the year and your donors may need a gentle prompt.

The rest of December and beyond

Keep sending reminders throughout December. It’s tricky because you want to get your message across without being annoying. This is another reason why you should only send reminders to people who haven’t donated yet.

The end of December is the busiest time of this busy fundraising season. Send two or three reminder emails during the last week of December, including one on the 31st. This is especially relevant if your fiscal year ends on December 31 or your donor wants to give before the end of the calendar year.

Even though you’re trying to secure donations, don’t forget about building relationships, too.

In addition, plan to get in touch with your lapsed donors at the beginning of January (more on that later).

Your fundraising campaign will be more successful with multiple asks and by using multiple channels. Good luck!

More on multichannel fundraising

How to Make a Multichannel Fundraising Ask: the Basics

6 Tips for Planning a Multi-Channel Fundraising Campaign

5 Ways to Optimize Your Web Presence for Mobile Donors

October 3, 2018 Ann Green email, fundraising, social media, website email, fundraising, mobile, social media, website

By John Killoran

Developing your website and ensuring your donors have the ability to donate to your organization online was a great undertaking for you. You probably saw a spike in donations and donor engagement. But did you know there’s a way to make online giving even more effective?

By adjusting your website design and donation opportunities to appeal to mobile donors, you open up a new avenue for giving to your nonprofit organization.

In order to effectively appeal to your mobile donors, your organization should:

Optimize your donation page.
Launch a text-to-give campaign.
Maximize your social media campaign.
Incorporate mobile-optimized emails.
Host a pledge campaign.

Ready to learn more about mobile responsiveness? Let’s get started:

1. Optimize Your Donation Page

Your online giving form is a great place to start your mobile optimization processes. Submitting online donations is already incredibly convenient for your supporters. But making your online giving form mobile responsive makes it easy for people to give from any device, further growing your potential base of donors.

Make sure your donation page is mobile responsive. Mobile responsiveness is when a website or other online resource automatically adjusts to fit the screen on which it is displayed. This means the online resource is visually appealing on smartphones, tablets, and desktops alike.

It should be easy to read your online giving form from any screen. Make sure your online donation platform provider offers the ability to adjust form elements such as

Images. Make sure your images are visible, clear, and size-adjustable depending on the screen they are viewed on. There’s nothing worse than having to scroll across a webpage on your phone to try to see an entire image.
Straight-forward text. Eliminate unnecessary or “fluff” text from your donation page. Lots of text can look bulky on a smaller screen. Limiting this text to only include essential information will make it easier for donors to read or skim the page.
Customized (and limited) information fields. Typing lengthy information onto a form on a computer is much easier than on a cell phone. Most of us type much faster with a keyboard than on a touchscreen. Therefore, limit the amount of information you require from mobile donors on your donation page to speed up the process.
Page Speed. Page speed is an even more important element for mobile users than desktop users because many people are more willing to wait for a page to load from their computer than from their phone. Increase your page speed by minifying code, reducing redirects, and compressing images.

Ensuring your donation page is welcoming to all visitors, whether they access it from their computer or from their cell phone, is a key factor in higher donation rates. If more people can access the page more often, you don’t turn off the donors who would have otherwise given while on-the-go.

2. Launch a Text-to-Give Campaign

In addition to optimizing your usual online fundraising page, a great way to encourage mobile donations from your donors is by including a text-to-give option. As the name suggests, text-to-give encourages donors to text their donations to organizations.

Depending on the software you choose, you may encounter different models of the text-to-give collection process. Your provider should:

Offer your organization a text-to-give number. This is the number your donors can text in order to donate. The number may be a whole phone number or simply 5 digits for simplicity. Your donors can text the amount of the gift they wish to give to your organization when prompted.

Direct the donor to necessary giving information. This is especially relevant for first-time donors who have not yet filled out any information with your organization. They may be directed to a pre-written email that when sent will complete the donation after they fill out the necessary fields on the donation form or the gift could be added to their cell phone bill at the end of the month.

A text-to-give option is an easy method of giving no matter which of the submission options is offered by the provider. Be sure to consider your donors when deciding between these methods to ensure it will be the easiest for your particular donor audience.

Mobile giving with a text-to-give campaign is a great resource to combine with other unique fundraising ideas. For instance, if you host a fundraising event, announce the donation opportunity over a loudspeaker so that your attendees can donate from the event.

3. Maximize Your Social Media Campaigns

One platform nonprofits often already take advantage of is social media. Social media was built to be viewed from mobile devices using sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Therefore, that is where the majority of people are viewing their social media feeds.

Be sure to use social media as an integral part of your optimization strategies to appeal to mobile donors.

Increasing your social media presence increases the likelihood your followers will see your organization’s latest updates when scrolling through their news feed. Increasing this presence by posting more frequently is just the tip of the iceberg to use your social media to its fullest extent.

You also have the ability to spread fundraisers through social media platforms for people to view (and donate to) from their mobile devices. Two of the online fundraisers most suitable for social media promotion include:

Crowdfunding. Crowdfunding enables your organization to collect small donations from a wide audience, making the wide reach of social media the perfect platform to promote such campaigns. Conduct research on the various providers to make sure you choose the website that will best suit your organization in terms of fees and platform capabilities.

Peer-to-peer fundraising. Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are similar to crowdfunding in that you are collecting small donations from a wide audience. However, these campaigns differ in how those donations are collected. With peer-to-peer fundraising, you invite your supporters to create fundraising pages and raise money on your behalf across their respective networks.

Both of these fundraising opportunities are more frequently found from a person’s mobile device as opposed to their home computer because of their reliance on social media. Therefore, increasing your visibility with more frequent posts and starting a mobile-minded fundraiser is a great way to entice your wide audience of donors who prefer to work from their smartphones.

If peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns or crowdfunding sound like opportunities from which your organization could benefit, launch into further research with Double the Donation’s nonprofit guide.

4. Incorporate Mobile-Optimized Emails

When you are considering the optimization of your web presence, you probably think of your website or online donation pages. Don’t forget that your emails are another online resource frequently accessed from mobile devices.

Optimizing your email content is very similar to optimizing your general website or donation pages. Take the necessary steps to ensure your images are properly sized and adjust with the size of the screen. Limit the amount of text you use in your emails and be sure the font size is appropriate for a mobile viewer. Be sure the email is visually appealing on screens of all sizes.

However, in addition to these general tips, there is more you can do to increase the success of mobile donations from your emails. For instance, you can:

Include actionable donation buttons. Optimize the buttons you use in your emails in order to quickly and easily lead donors to donation options. Increasing the size of these buttons for mobile viewers can make them easier to see (and click!) from a small screen such as a smartphone.

Connect your emails to other platforms. Be sure your donors have an easy way to access the other donation platforms you have available online. For instance, including social media buttons will instantly connect your supporters to future crowdfunding campaigns. You may also choose to include a link to your donation page and the number for your text-to-give campaign to regular emails.

Feature a calendar with donation opportunities. Be sure your supporters know about upcoming opportunities for more donations with a comprehensive calendar feature. This may include volunteer opportunities for them to donate their time as well as upcoming fundraising campaigns to get involved in.

Regular emails, such as email newsletters, are a donation opportunity that should be taken advantage of more often in the nonprofit world. Many of your supporters likely check their email from their phones, so be sure they have direct access from that device to other donation opportunities.

5. Host a Pledge Campaign.

Just imagine you’re holding a fundraising event. You’ve set up a text-to-give number and the success is overwhelming. However, there are a number of people at the event who can’t give to your organization right at this moment. Even if they want to, they just can’t for some reason or another.

Pledge campaigns are designed to help your organization in these types of situations. You can appeal to those people who can’t give right at this moment, but have the heart and the desire to show their support and give in the future.

Pledges are the promises of future donations. Someone can pledge $100 now, then actually give the money to the organization next week. Choose an online tool with the option to optimize your pledge campaign to mobile. This will make it especially effective for the situation above. Other situations in which a mobile-optimized pledge campaign may come handy include:

Social media fundraising pushes. In addition to your typical fundraising promotions featured on social media, including your other fundraising campaigns or advocating for your organization’s cause, give people the option to participate in your pledge campaign. This gives people the opportunity to pledge money, then go to your website and see more information about the organization before they give.

When there is a lot going on in the world. For instance, if your organization is tied to a world event that went on recently, let’s just say clean up from the devastation of a hurricane, the event will be in the news for a couple days. At that point, many people will forget their drive to give, even if they still care about the cause. The pledge to give money helps keep your cause in the forefront of your donor’s mind.

Many times people will hear about and see news events, social media fundraising efforts, and other donation opportunities from their phones. Even if they don’t have time to give right away, they’ll pledge to make a donation in the future.

Be sure to pick a pledge fundraising tool that offers mobile customization for your organization. Pledge buttons included on these screens can help boost the user’s ease of using the tool as well.

Before starting your pledge campaign, be sure to check out resources like Snowball’s guide to collecting pledges so that every stage of the pledge campaign is executed to the best of your ability.

Optimizing your web presence over a variety of pages, platforms, etc. can help boost your donation amounts by increasing the available opportunities to give. These 5 tips can help you optimize your overall online presence to benefit both your donors and your organization.

John Killoran is CEO of Snowball, an exciting new fundraising technology that makes it easy for people to donate in two clicks from text, email, web and social media sites. John pioneered SMTP payments and has been a major innovator in the mobile payments space for the past 5 years. When he is not running a company, he is cooking food for his family and telling his dogs to stop barking.

Email Newsletters: 5 Reasons to Stay in Touch with Donors

June 20, 2018 Ann Green Communications, donor-centered, email, marketing, newsletter Communications, donor relations, donor-centered, email, marketing, newsletter

AP_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Email-Newsletters-5-Reasons-to-Stay-in-Touch-with-Donors_hero

By John Killoran

Your email newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with supporters, but using extra tools and strategies can have a huge payoff! Check out the reasons why.

Like all nonprofits, your organization relies on the support of its donors and partners.You know that maintaining strong relationships year in and year out is essential to continually growing a stable base of support.

You already know, too, how to draft an effective email solicitation that attracts attention, gets to the point, and directly provides a way to give. But do you put this much thought and strategy into your email newsletters?

Think back to the earliest days of your organization. Starting a nonprofit requires consciously building a tight network of initial support to get your efforts off the ground. There’s no reason why actively developing strategies to keep everyone informed and involved shouldn’t still be a priority now that you’ve grown!

It becomes surprisingly easy to drift away from your founding mission when you don’t prioritize communication.That’s why email newsletters are such a crucial tool for nonprofits looking to stay focused, driven, and in touch with their stakeholders.

While every organization understands the need to stay in touch with donors and volunteers, they might not recognize all the interconnected reasons why focusing on your newsletter pays off in the long run. Crafting a perfect email newsletter gives your nonprofit the opportunity to:

Promote all your digital giving outlets.
Loop everyone in on your projects and goals.
Boost overall donor and volunteer engagement.
Connect all your campaigns and events.
Build stronger relationships with donors.

Strengthening even one element of your email newsletters will boost their overall effect! By crafting more engaging strategies for your newsletters, you can make a serious long-term investment in your nonprofit’s ability to attract and retain committed supporters.

AP_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Email-Newsletters-5-Reasons-to-Stay-in-Touch-with-Donors_header1

1. Promote all your digital giving outlets.

Email newsletters are a perfect place to promote and explain new donation tools that your nonprofit adopts as its strategies evolve.

This doesn’t necessarily mean soliciting donations! You already conduct separate email campaigns to reach your fundraising goals. While you can certainly ask for donations in your newsletter, your recipients are presumably already committed to supporting your work.

Rather, focus on raising awareness and explaining new donation tools and platforms in the context of your next fundraising campaigns.

Check out Snowball’s rundown of PayPal alternatives for nonprofits for more information on how nonprofit-centric payment and donation platforms will catch your donors’ attention, help you pursue your goals, and conduct more engaging campaigns.

Consider how you could promote and explain these donation platforms in your newsletter:

Text-to-give tools to incorporate into your events
Mobile-optimized donation forms to boost mobile donations
Crowdfunding campaigns for specific goals or projects
Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns leading up to major events

Plus, your email newsletter provides the perfect opportunity to learn more about your supporters’ preferred methods of communication and giving. Linking your recipients to a quick survey can have a major payoff for your mobile engagement levels by helping you refine your marketing and digital fundraising strategies.

AP_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Email-Newsletters-5-Reasons-to-Stay-in-Touch-with-Donors_header2

2. Loop everyone in on your projects and goals.

Another reason to focus on your email newsletters is that keeping all your donors, volunteers, and stakeholders fully informed about your projects and goals is the first step to getting them excited and involved!

Use your newsletter to announce your next campaign or provide a sneak peek of your next major event. Give your readers the sense that they’ve received a special ‘inside scoop’ to build excitement and rally support. You might share updates on any of your projects, like:

Client success stories
Upcoming fundraising campaigns
New community initiatives
Advocacy projects and campaigns
Capital campaigns and major developmental goals
Grant writing projects and donor surveys
New partners and sponsorships

Aside from making it easier to get everyone involved, sharing regular updates is useful because it provides the opportunity to collect more feedback. Keeping everyone informed and engaged means you’ll be able to gather more information and insights to guide your plans.

How well do you know your donors? Simply asking for feedback on your projects or campaigns with a suggestion form in your newsletter can be a surprisingly effective method for guiding your marketing and fundraising strategies.

Plus, your most dedicated supporters will have plenty of ideas of how you could approach your goals. For instance, a longtime volunteer can likely share important insights as you develop a programming proposal for a grant application!

AP_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Email-Newsletters-5-Reasons-to-Stay-in-Touch-with-Donors_header3

3. Boost overall donor and volunteer engagement.

Keeping everyone aware of new ways to support your organization’s work and updated on upcoming projects will provide a natural boost to donor engagement. Your newsletter recipients will feel more involved, which will encourage them to get more involved!

This engagement boost will take several familiar forms:

Digital engagement. Keep your base of support updated on your online fundraising and social media campaigns to see an increase in digital interactions.
Volunteering. Use your newsletter to make volunteering easier. Promote upcoming projects, provide sign-up forms, and mention any incentives you’ll offer.
Financial support. Explain new campaigns and tools in your newsletter, giving your recipients a more intimate view of your goals and planning process.

Remember to take the opportunity in your email newsletter to provide some easy tools for recipients to further their engagement, too.

Corporate philanthropy search tools are a great example. Include a search tool that allows your supporters to search for their employers’ corporate philanthropy programs. Matching gifts and volunteer grants are the perfect way for supporters to boost their impact.

These programs are generally not used much, so some programs can be extremely generous. If your organization has an active volunteer program, check out the top volunteer grant companies from 360MatchPro for an idea of the extra funds you might be eligible to receive!

As a way to potentially address all of your supporters at once, your email newsletter is the best place to promote extra tools and options that can boost the impact of your supporters’ engagement with your work.

AP_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Email-Newsletters-5-Reasons-to-Stay-in-Touch-with-Donors_header4

4. Connect all your campaigns and events.

Actively connecting your various activities is a great way to grow engagement and make more effective solicitations when fundraising. Your email newsletter is the perfect place to put this strategy into practice!

Solicitations become more effective when supporters can clearly understand how all your events, activities, and campaigns fit together in pursuit of your mission.

Think about it: an online fundraising campaign that feels disjointed or disconnected from any of your nonprofit’s overarching goals isn’t particularly inspiring.

Rather, use your newsletter to clarify the connections! For example, here’s how you might explain and promote some campaign elements in your newsletter by framing them around the shared purpose of supporting an upcoming 5K:

A peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. Encourage recipients to donate, volunteer, and form teams as you raise pledges for the big race.
Your marketing campaign. As you promote the 5K online, ask your newsletter readers to share your posts and invitations on social media.
Merchandise promotion. Link to your online store, t-shirt crowdfunding campaign, or order form for your 5K shirts. Or explain how teams can design their own!
The grand finale event. Promote the big 5K in your newsletter, invite all your recipients, and provide important necessary information for participants and attendees.

In this example, all the cross-promotional effort and campaigning will result in a hugely successful event! Giving supporters multiple ways to get involved and using your newsletter to clearly explain how it all connects to support the 5K gives your entire network of support a clearer, more focused goal.

AP_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Email-Newsletters-5-Reasons-to-Stay-in-Touch-with-Donors_header5

5. Build stronger relationships with donors.

Finally, remember that the long-term benefit of focusing effort on your email newsletter is that it’s an effective tool for expressing gratitude to your supporters.

By thanking your donors and volunteers and showing how their support directly helps further your mission, you can reinforce those important relationships. Plus, you’ll be contributing to a healthy culture for your nonprofit, ensuring it can retain more and more satisfied donors.

There are a number of ways to use your email newsletter to build stronger relationships with supporters:

Provide updates and success stories on campaigns and projects.
Promote and thank your important community partners.
Recognize individuals who go above and beyond in supporting your work.
Invite your newsletter recipients to special thank-you events.
Share surveys and field suggestions to better refine your retention strategies.

Thanking your supporters means you’ll need to switch out of solicitation mode for a moment.

Building strong mutual relationships and genuinely expressing your gratitude does more in the long run for retaining valuable support than constantly soliciting more funds, even if your donors are consistently happy to support your campaigns.

A great way to make sure your messages of thanks in your newsletter stay effective is to focus on the language you use. Drop the fundraising jargon, and keep your tone warm and natural. After all, the support of these important partners is worth celebrating!

The most basic function of a nonprofit email newsletter is to share updates with your supporters and announce new projects, but incorporating some smart strategies and being aware of all the roles a newsletter can play will make them even more effective.

By using your email newsletter as a space to communicate, explain new donation tools, provide ways to boost engagement, and connect all your campaigns, you’ll strengthen your donor relations overall!

John Killoran

John Killoran is CEO of Snowball, an exciting new fundraising technology that makes it easy for people to donate in two clicks from text, email, web and social media sites.John pioneered SMTP payments and has been a major innovator in the mobile payments space for the past 5 years. When he is not running a company, he is cooking food for his family and telling his dogs to stop barking.

How to Make Your Email Messages Stand Out

May 10, 2018 Ann Green Communications, email, fundraising, writing Communications, email, fundraising, writing

27350190733_eda43b9c77_m Email is often the primary way nonprofits communicate with their donors and there’s a reason for that. It’s fast, easy, relatively inexpensive, and almost everyone has an email address. You can quickly get a message out to a lot of people.

Email, unlike social media, is something you can control. You don’t have to rely on a social media algorithm to hope your message ends up in your donor’s feed.

But email is not a miracle mode of communication because you’re not the only one using it. People get hundreds of emails a day plus messages from other sources such as social media. It’s information overload to the max and it’s easy for your messages to get lost in the melee.

Here’s what you need to do to make your email messages stand out.

What’s your intention?

What’s the purpose of your message? What do you want your reader to do? Maybe it’s to donate, volunteer, attend an event, or contact her legislators. Maybe you’re sharing an update.

Think from your reader’s perspective. What would she be interested in or what would make him take action?

Keep it simple and stick to one call to action.

A good subject line is crucial

A good subject line is the key to getting someone to open your email message. If he doesn’t bother to open it, all your work has gone to waste.

Give some thought to it. Instead of Donate to our Spring Appeal or May 2018 Newsletter, try Find out how you can help Jason learn to read or Thanks to you, the Tyler family has a home of their own.

Better Open Rates: How to Write Killer Email Subject Lines

Short and sweet

Your next step is to get your donor to read your message. Keep her interested. Remember your email is one of hundreds your donor will receive that day, along with whatever else is going on in her life.

Make your messages short, but engaging, and get to the point right away.

Make it easy to read and scan

Besides sending a short message, use short paragraphs, too. It needs to be easy to read (and scan) in an instant. Don’t use teeny tiny font either.

Be personal and conversational

Write directly to your reader using clear, conversational language – no jargon. Address your message to a person – Dear Linda and not Dear Friend.

Use an email service provider that lets you segment your lists so you can personalize your messages. For example, you’ll create different messages for current donors, potential donors, and monthly donors.

Send your message to the right audience

You may want to reach out to as many people as possible about an upcoming event, but you’ll have better luck concentrating on people who will be interested, such as past attendees. Just because email lets you communicate with a large audience, doesn’t mean you should.

Your audience isn’t everyone.

Be a welcome visitor

If you communicate regularly and do it well, your donors should recognize you as a reputable source and are more likely to read your message.

Make sure people know your message is coming from your organization. In the from field, put DoGood Nonprofit or Jennifer Smith, DoGood Nonprofit. If you just put a person’s name or info@dogoodnonprofit.org, people may not know who it’s from and ignore your message.

No spam,spam,spam

Only send email to people who have opted into your list. Otherwise, you’re spamming them. Some people will choose not to receive email from you, and that’s okay. The ones who do are interested in hearing from you. Give people the option to unsubscribe, too.

Repeat performance

If you’re using email to send a fundraising appeal or event invitation, you’ll probably have to send more than one message. Try not to send messages to people who have already responded.

Be mobile friendly

Many people read their email on a mobile device. If your message isn’t mobile friendly, you’re missing out.

Your email messages can stand out in your donor’s inbox if you give some thought to them and do it well. Here’s more information about communicating by email.

5 Ways Nonprofits can Drive More Value from the Email Channel

Email Marketing: Tips and Tactics for Nonprofits

The 5 W’s of Effective Nonprofit Email Marketing

Ann Green's Nonprofit Blog

Advice and Resources to Help Nonprofit Organizations and Professionals Succeed

email