When raising funds you can get desperate, and that's when the newest thing can sound so sexy as to pose a single solution to all your nonprofit's fiscal woes. But new technology often just masks old problems like a deteriorating donor base, confusion between p.r. and fundraising, and a diminishing donor renewal rate. Whether you communicate with your donors and prospects online, in print, or on television or radio, one-way communication is passive. Direct marketing principles of engaging the reader hold true in any medium. Social networking can be simply direct mail in a spiffy new envelope, if you approach it as doing the same old things a letter does.
When social networking and the new interactive media become powerful is when they connect to build momentum of visibility and heighten interest in your cause. Linking new technologies and old can help your organization gain dynamism by increasing the number of times a prospect or donor becomes aware of it and sees something to interest her or him.
Want to harness the power of online media to your nonprofit? Make them all work together. This is a rather absurd example -- a micro-example, if you will -- but I have a blog about poetry (http://dacusrocket.blogspot.com, if you must know) from which I can tweet using a nice little program called Tweetboard, meaning I never have to leave Blogger. Once I've blogged and tweeted to drive people to the blog entry, I go to Facebook and use their Links mechanism to bring my FB friends to by blog. So Twitter and Facebook friends all know that I've added a new entry, and briefly what it's about. On top of that, I add an announcement on an 800-member listserv I belong to, with the links. It doesn't sound simple, but I can do it all in under 30 minutes. That means it could be done daily, or certainly weekly.
About.com has a nice article about using social networking to support your nonprofit cause. I urge you not to think of it as a panacea or replacement for the conventional guidelines of good, old-fashioned fundraising, but as new tools in the fundraising toolkit. The more tools, the better built the house will be.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Direct mail and the new economy
Fundraising mailers are finding acquisition of new donors a tough go in the new economic climate. But if an organization doesn't continually replace lapsed donors with new ones, its constituency shrinks and the donations ultimately dry up.
What to do?
One approach might be to take a lesson from the wild success of the Obama campaign's direct mail strategy. This article covers three basic points that have to do with the synergy of traditional postal mail and online approaches. The campaign shattered fundraising records with small donations raised through a combination of technologies.
Focusing on new donors who are willing to make small donations is a winning strategy in a down economy. Once on board, new donors will receive (if you are wise in your mailing program) more information about your organization that will increase their sense of loyalty and encourage them to increase their donations as the economy eases up. Getting a first-time donor at a net loss is a rule of thumb these days. Don't be afraid to spend the money. A new donor is a prospective planned gift donor, a lifetime donor, and possibly a major donor. Even a donation of $5 should be treated with respect in these times.
What to do?
One approach might be to take a lesson from the wild success of the Obama campaign's direct mail strategy. This article covers three basic points that have to do with the synergy of traditional postal mail and online approaches. The campaign shattered fundraising records with small donations raised through a combination of technologies.
Focusing on new donors who are willing to make small donations is a winning strategy in a down economy. Once on board, new donors will receive (if you are wise in your mailing program) more information about your organization that will increase their sense of loyalty and encourage them to increase their donations as the economy eases up. Getting a first-time donor at a net loss is a rule of thumb these days. Don't be afraid to spend the money. A new donor is a prospective planned gift donor, a lifetime donor, and possibly a major donor. Even a donation of $5 should be treated with respect in these times.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Grants and the new economy
With a prolonged recession and the plunge of the stock market came a diminishment of private foundation endowments, as we all know in the fundraising field. Now that the market is ticking upward again, looking like the only healthy sector of the economy (leaving aside big pharma), grantmaking is beginning to show signs of life once more. Grantmakers, however, have had a long period of soul-searching. This means that nonprofits seeking grants from non-government sources would do well to redo their basic prospecting. Yes, a whole new search! It's a great time to discover new sources of grant funding by redoing the search through the Foundation Center, local and regional news, Google searches, and networking through your board members.
For everything old is new again. Forget that stuff about there being nothing new under the sun. Under the grants sun, everyone in the position of disbursing grant funds has new ideas.
I'd love to hear about your experience in seeking grants from private and corporate foundations this last 12 months. My experience is that foundations that were tried and true sources for my clients reduced or refused grants many were counting on and new sources popped up. Does this ring any bells?
For everything old is new again. Forget that stuff about there being nothing new under the sun. Under the grants sun, everyone in the position of disbursing grant funds has new ideas.
I'd love to hear about your experience in seeking grants from private and corporate foundations this last 12 months. My experience is that foundations that were tried and true sources for my clients reduced or refused grants many were counting on and new sources popped up. Does this ring any bells?
Friday, January 1, 2010
Blogging as a fundraising tool
I will admit I'm just doing a little brainstorming here. Most of the blogging that I see connected with nonprofit organizations could be characterized as "staff meeting." It's inward-directed, not written as if people outside the organization had any reason to read it.
I'm going to propose that you approach blogging for your nonprofit cause as, basically, direct mail. And I always tell my clients to approach direct mail as a phone call to your best supporter. Tell her or him everything about what's important that's going on, what you're planning or thinking about planning for the organization -- and this is the way in which blogging is oh-so-superior to direct mail -- ask them what they think.
Don't just blah-blah at them, don't just ask, just ask them what they think and what they like about what you're doing. Run polls and surveys. Ask for feedback and suggestions. Make them partners!
About.com has a good article on how to blog as a nonprofit in a way that makes sense.
And send me YOUR ideas about how blogging can help increase and enhance support for your cause.
After all, this is a dialogue.
Happy New Year -- and may your funds increase exponentially!!
I'm going to propose that you approach blogging for your nonprofit cause as, basically, direct mail. And I always tell my clients to approach direct mail as a phone call to your best supporter. Tell her or him everything about what's important that's going on, what you're planning or thinking about planning for the organization -- and this is the way in which blogging is oh-so-superior to direct mail -- ask them what they think.
Don't just blah-blah at them, don't just ask, just ask them what they think and what they like about what you're doing. Run polls and surveys. Ask for feedback and suggestions. Make them partners!
About.com has a good article on how to blog as a nonprofit in a way that makes sense.
And send me YOUR ideas about how blogging can help increase and enhance support for your cause.
After all, this is a dialogue.
Happy New Year -- and may your funds increase exponentially!!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Strategic planning & creative visualization
Planning in fundraising has never been more important. The age-old strategy of "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks" won't work in 2010. To understate it, it's a very competitive market. Foundations and donors cutting back, and they have to be strategic too -- so if your organization has reached June and you still don't have an annual fundraising program plan, you may fall by the wayside in their priorities.
Planning ahead - maybe two years ahead -- is what I'd suggest.
Convene an informal group -- not a committee -- of your best creative thinkers and have a rolled-sleeves, kitchen table creative session to visualize your nonprofit two years in the future. Does it look the same? Provide the same services? Depend on the same funding sources? You need to do some outside-box thinking.
Creative visualization isn't just for artists. It's a powerful tool for gaining access to your more creative ideas, the ones that can make a big difference in your organization's future. One nonprofit I know envisioned starting a commercial catering service that not only provided vocational training and employment for its clients with disabilities, it succeeded in becoming financially self-sufficient in doing so. Now they have to turn away customers.
Others have envisioned such innovative strategies as micro-loan programs, where funds aren't donated to help people, but lent to give good ideas a start, and then return to the lender to go out again empowering individual initiative and enterprise somewhere else.
One nonprofit organized a Thankyou Squad. The opposite of those telemarketing programs that annoy us at meal times. This group of volunteers agreed to call donors to give them a personal thankyou, as one donor to another, for supporting the cause. The results: increased donations from every single donor who received a peer thankyou call.
Planning ahead - maybe two years ahead -- is what I'd suggest.
Convene an informal group -- not a committee -- of your best creative thinkers and have a rolled-sleeves, kitchen table creative session to visualize your nonprofit two years in the future. Does it look the same? Provide the same services? Depend on the same funding sources? You need to do some outside-box thinking.
Creative visualization isn't just for artists. It's a powerful tool for gaining access to your more creative ideas, the ones that can make a big difference in your organization's future. One nonprofit I know envisioned starting a commercial catering service that not only provided vocational training and employment for its clients with disabilities, it succeeded in becoming financially self-sufficient in doing so. Now they have to turn away customers.
Others have envisioned such innovative strategies as micro-loan programs, where funds aren't donated to help people, but lent to give good ideas a start, and then return to the lender to go out again empowering individual initiative and enterprise somewhere else.
One nonprofit organized a Thankyou Squad. The opposite of those telemarketing programs that annoy us at meal times. This group of volunteers agreed to call donors to give them a personal thankyou, as one donor to another, for supporting the cause. The results: increased donations from every single donor who received a peer thankyou call.
Maiden Voyage
Welcome! A new blog, notes of a fundraiser in the trenches during the worst year for fundraising I have ever lived through. But hope is on the horizon! In the form of working smart and getting creative.
Tips for getting your nonprofit organization through hard times:
* Don't stop sending letters to your constituents and prospecting to find new supporters
* Don't rely on the amount of grant funding you've been used to; it will be awhile coming back
* Use new media to reach your supporters and prospects -- have you given any thought to a blog? Email blasts? Tweeting? A Facebook page?
Frogloop.com has a great post on ten things every nonprofit should know about social media.
Contact me if you'd like to brainstorm ways to increase your donations in 2010. And feel free to leave comments and good ideas here!
rachel@dacushome.com
Tips for getting your nonprofit organization through hard times:
* Don't stop sending letters to your constituents and prospecting to find new supporters
* Don't rely on the amount of grant funding you've been used to; it will be awhile coming back
* Use new media to reach your supporters and prospects -- have you given any thought to a blog? Email blasts? Tweeting? A Facebook page?
Frogloop.com has a great post on ten things every nonprofit should know about social media.
Contact me if you'd like to brainstorm ways to increase your donations in 2010. And feel free to leave comments and good ideas here!
rachel@dacushome.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)
