What landing page elements can increase your online paid search conversions? Find out in this session! Multivariate optimization testing of images, headlines, description/copy, page layout, font, form field format, and other landing page elements can significantly increase the number of Google Grants or PPC visitors who complete a donation form, sign a petition, or sign up for email newsletters. Tools such as Google Website Optimizer generally use a single conversion rate to determine which combination of landing page elements are the winners with respect to driving conversions.  But, what about other valuable, more complex metrics such as Avg. Time on Page, Multiple Goal Conversion Rates, Bounce Rate, Exit %, and Full Navigation Analysis? Based on our PPC microsite landing page experiments utilizing a combination of Google Website Optimizer multivariate tests and also Google Analytics, we'll explain how you can find out which landing page elements not only increased conversion rates, but also led to in-depth visitor engagement in the content of the campaign microsite.

Session Takeaways:

1. Practical steps on defining your paid search campaign microsite landing page goals and formulating a test performance hypothesis

2. Guidelines on defining the best three to five initial page elements to test and setup tips on integrating conversion rate data with

3. Case studies from Google Grants and PPC campaign microsite landing page conversion optimization testing experiments

Level:  Intermediate

Right now nonprofits have a unique opportunity, and almost an
obligation. For our constituencies to be a part of the public
discussions that inform policy, they need to be online. You need to
think of yourself as access point. It's our job to be a conduit for
our constituencies to get online, and ensure their voices are
contributing to the stream of data online. This can happen in two
ways. The first is to helping to provide online access. Second, you
can provide your constituents stories as data to those already already
on internet mashing up data by making make data sets available. We can help our constituents tell their stories.

Sessino Takeaways:

1. Resources you can use to get your community online
2. Reasons to get your community online
3. An understanding of how your communities data can tell a story

Level: Beginner

This panel will cover the basics and ethics of creating and managing

online platforms and communities. We will give nonprofits a basic
framework of things to consider including identity and anonymity,
digital inclusion and access, community management, taxonomy, content
ownership, and your data ecosystem.

Session Takeaways:

 1. An actual checklist of things to consider when creating and managing online platforms and communities

2. A working knowledge of the issues creating and managing online platforms and communities  and a way to stay in conversation with colleagues who are working with the same issues.

3. A checklist, also actual, of things for your board to consider around online platforms and communities

Level: Intermediate

Meet other NTEN-ers from the Midwest. Attendees from Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana meet current and future collaborators and friends for introductions, gaffes and practical amusements.  And yes, there will be bling.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Meet some non-coastal types, and renew old friendships.

2.  Get a head-start on conference session itineraries and activities

3.  Laughs and bling-ing.

Level:  Beginner

Online events aren't only about having a conversation on your own website. How can you get more people involved by meeting them where they're at?  We'll use the TSdigs event in October 2009 as a case study. This cross-platform event allowed for multiple levels of interaction with the single goal of teaching nonprofits how to tell stories digitally. The event took place on forums, webinars, Tweetchat, Second Life, flickr and YouTube.

Takeaways: 

• What were our multi-platform mistakes and lessons?
• How can event organizers manage multiple backchannels?
• How can you make platforms talk to each other via feeds? 

Level: Intermediate

As every nonprofit leader and grant officer knows, a grant award is only the beginning of an ongoing relationship. The growth of strategic giving has driven a greater focus on outcomes reporting and evaluation. However, the tracking and reporting required to support this type of accountability can drive up administrative costs for both foundations and grantees. New technical innovations and products have begun to make the reporting process more efficient and effective for foundations and their grantees.

Takeaways:

1. Grants managers use a wide array of methodologies to evaluate outcomes to strategically direct their giving

2. New technical innovations and products have made the reporting process more efficient and effective

3. Understanding these new directions will help organizations align and integrate their IT systems.

Causecast is a community of people who care.  Causecast provides several free tools that allow nonprofits to engage these people.  This workshop will show individuals how to use the tools, gain trust in the community, and advocate for their cause.

Session Takeaways:

1. Getting started with Causecast

2. Familiar with all of the basic tools on Causecast

3. Leveraging an existing/focused community

Level: Beginner

A social responsibility project can be a great way to unify your organization, learn new methods of communication, and lend your expertise to others to help them prosper. Learn how a project in Ghana utilized social networking approaches and tools to make a lasting impact with a minimal investment.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Identify a social responsibility project that would benefit from social networking communication practices

2.  Put together a working group and manage a social responsibility project

3.  Learn how to effectively communicate with social responsibility partners on the project

Level:  Beginner

In July 2009 Junior Achievement launched The Triangle, a private social network that securely connects thousands of its worldwide employees.  Within a few weeks of the launch, more than half of the JA employees were using the community to network, share best practices, solve challenges and improve results at the local level.  In the first month alone, more than 300 questions were asked of the employee community by its members, ranging from fundraising to operations to programming to requests to trade program material.  More than 40% of those questions were answered within one hour of posting and 80% answered within a day.  In addition, more than 50 virtual groups were formed, allowing employees to network and exchange ideas in areas of functional responsibility, geography or programming.

In this session, a leader from Junior Achievement and a leader from cubeless, the platform JA selected for the community, will discuss the value JA is receiving from its internal social network and detail the critical steps it took to ensure that employees embraced and engaged in the community when it was launched.

Session Takeaways:

1.  How an internal social network can improve organizational results

2.  How to set up and launch an internal social network for rapid adoption

3.  What ongoing management is necessary to continue to drive value from the social network

Level: Beginner

It is a fundraising 'given':  prospective donors are coming to expect that your organization will provide a variety of different ways to give.  Nonprofits are adding more and more transactional formats as new technologies arrive.  It's exciting, but it can be daunting: how can you get the most "bang for your buck" out of your ask on-line, via text, or even on a paper donor form?

This session looks at the transactional moment for different formats from the donor's perspective.  How hard does the donor have to work to make the gift?  Does the ask vehicle help the donor engage with your community?  Are you giving the donor the information she wants about your security and privacy policies, and are you learning all you could about your donor?

Session Takeaways:

1.  Survey review of different types of solicitation forms and formats

2.  Discussion about the critical differences in language and style for different types of asks.

3.  Checklists to help consider your nonprofit's particular donor needs and considerations

Level: Intermediate

Organizations like Community Technology Network (CTN), Communities Connect Network (CCN), and Zero Divide have focused on building the capacity of organizations to support community technology providers. We will discuss this capacity building work, including best practices and challenges for increasing technology and broadband adoption.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Infrastructure and resources needed to support community technology organizations

2.  How to select technologies to support community collaboration

3.  Information about programs that increase access and adoption of computers and broadband

Level: Beginner

As social networks and new technology tools are heralded as the wave of the future, CTCs and the clients that frequent them, often multi-lingual, lower income and lacking adequate technology skills, are consistently forgotten from this conversations.  How can we, as non-profit technology advocates and providers, take responsibility for addressing gaps in accessibility and usability in social networks and tools that are meant to work with communities and make the world a more just, equitable place?

Session Takeaways:

1.  Who is forgotten in the buzz around social networking in the non-profit technology sector and why is this important?

2.  How can we incorporate technology tools and social networking into direct service programming?

3.  What are some examples of how CTCs are effectively using social networking?

Level: Intermediate

Hear from leaders of the biggest, smallest, most successful and, well, not (yet) successful online teams about how the challenges, obstacles and lessons learned while creating truly derriere-kicking groups that make change while raising money. 

Session Takeaways:

1.  Every group is different - how to staff for outcomes and not just positions.

2.  Hear from others about what has worked and not.

3.  Have evidence/real stories to share back at the ranch when planning for the future.

Level: Intermediate

Learn about integrating Joomla and CiviCRM for a great FOSS solution in organization and management from small fundraising events to national campaigns.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Basis of org infrastructure and framework that helps visualize the entire operation

2.   Demonstration of installation and ease of configuration

3.   Importance of many points of contact within one website and demonstrate ease in teaching users to use it.

Level: Intermediate

Bring your most recent fundraising campaign with you and compete in breakout teams for the title of top fundraiser!

Part Heidi Klum, part Tim Gunn, this session will be a mix of camp and top talent to give you hands-on experience making your fundraising campaigns even better.

Fundraisers, make it work!


Session Takeaways:

1.  Hands-on experience improving current fundraising campaigns.

2.  Broad based, wisdom of crowds feedback on fundraising tactics and concepts.

3.  Conference sessions don't have to feel like conference sessions.

Level:  Intermediate

Developments such as the emergence of the Alliance for Effective Social Investing and Charity Navigator's plans to add outcomes to its rating system are fueling greater demand for demonstrated results in the nonprofit sector.

This session explores how performance management helps organizations continuously improve their services and client outcomes, and ultimately creates a competitive advantage in a tough fundraising market.  

Through case examples, the presentation will demonstrate how organizations use technology to track that they are reaching the intended population, ensure that individuals are receiving the appropriate level and quality of services and to track improvements in clients' lives. Software allows for real time reporting that supports management decisions and facilitates funder reporting.

Technology is only one tool to manage performance, however, and the session will discuss how sound program design, strong leadership and change management are other key ingredients to reaching a point where data is used for continuous improvement.

The session will include examples of how successful organizations have improved over time and increased their funding. It will also include practical tips for selecting performance management software, developing strong program design and managing change. Participants will leave with resources for peer networking and further learning.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Learn how performance management helps organizations continuously improve their services and client outcomes

2.    Learn how performance management creates a competitive advantage in a tough fundraising market 

3.   See how actual organizations are using technology to enhance performance management

Level: Intermediate

New research demonstrates that for every $6 raised in a given year, nonprofits will lose $5 by means of donor attrition. Emerging research in the area of on-line or -phone giving is underway now, but preliminary results look just as dire.  Yet, just small changes in an organization's approach to retaining donors can yield great long-term gain.

This session provides an overview of the scope of the retention problem, looks at current  topics in retention research, and offers some immediate steps to take to help assess your nonprofit's retention status and start on the path to retention.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Learn more about the increasing interest in donor retention issues in the sector

2.  Learn how to use your existing data to quantify your retention status

3.  Determine which steps to take first to respond to your organization's needs.

Level: Intermediate

Major gifts are a priority for every nonprofit, large or small, and leveraging an effective Moves Management strategy helps nonprofits maximize major gifts through a system that nurtures major donor relationships.  But simply adopting this strategy isn't enough, nonprofits need the processes and right tools to support the strategy.  This session will highlight successful methods for bringing in new donors, forging relationships, and generating major gifts through a multi-channel approach.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Learn best practices to develop donors, rather than simply securing donations

2.   Understand the anatomy of successful moves management strategy and how that translates into multi-channel fundraising

3.   Gain real-world knowledge and hear case studies of successful moves management strategies and multi-channel campaigns

Level: Intermediate

External financial audit and more recently internal audit requirements are now requiring a risk assessment of the IT function as part of the audit.  This means that auditors will be applying more scrutiny to IT departments, their management, and their operations.  This session will provide an overview of the requirements (from the auditee's perspective) and provide guidance on how to prepare documentation and update policies to address the things that auditors will be looking for.  Will also touch on PCI DSS requirements and documenting compliance.

Session Takeaways:

1.  PCI DSS compliance requirements and documentation

2.  Understanding of what IT auditors are looking for

3.  Guidance on preparing information for IT auditors

Level:  Intermediate

People want results. They don't necessarily care who creates them. Free or cheap tools, new online communities and the crumbling of traditional one-way media create conditions in which concerned citizens can create their own advocacy campaigns and directly raise money.

Is this a threat to non-profits? How do non-profits attract paying members/supporters in quantities and amounts sufficient to maintain their needs? If a motivated activist can create their own community around an issue, how does a non-profit maintain relevance on the topic?

Session Takeaways:

1.  Examples/stories of individual advocacy/fundraising.

2.  A better sense of how organizations find, communicate and work with outsiders that now have tools to make impact directly?

3.  How to celebrate and enjoy these changes, not fight them.

Level:  Intermediate

This high level session focuses on the value of investing in your organization's IT planning and development. We will explore the importance of integrating technology at a strategic level to support the organization's top initiates with technical resources. We will see how appropriate investment in IT can lead to improved organizational outcomes and systems that can measure impact and need.

Session Takeaways:

1.  How to develop IT planning at the strategic level

2.  How to gain stakeholder support for strategic IT initiatives and resources

3.  How to demonstrate the value of IT in your organization

Level: Intermediate

How can nonprofits strive for the same triple bottom line (win-win-win) that has been the hallmark of successful social benefit businesses? Thrivability discussions include solutions learned from sustainable practices while seeking to integrate symbiotic relationships at every stage, creating open, fluid and transparent networks of change.  Help us create a new language for "green" work to shift our relationship with Earth, self, organizational partners and the whole.

Session Takeaways:

1.  What happens after sustainability?

2.   How can my organization be more socially responsible at every level?

3.   What are the simplest changes we can make now to bring our org in balance?

Level: Intermediate

Nirvana for any non-profit constituent relationship management (CRM) strategist is the the integration of key marketing and communication messages across all in-person, print, and electronic engagement vehicles.  Reaching a state of nirvana, however, is something not always easily achieved in siloed organizations, particularly if they are large, multi-affiliate non-profits with staff distributed all across the country. 

Join the Director of Internet Strategy & Operations and the Associate Director of eCRM for the American Diabetes Association on a multi-year journey from organizational balkanization and infighting to cooperation, integration, harmony and collaboration -- and learn how to lead change management from the inside out in a way that has everyone thinking it was their own idea to make the trip.

Session Takeaways:

1.  How to assess organizational readiness for change; how to use group behavior and process to move indivs and depts to want change

2.  How to lead by example (email marketing and SEO success), and not by White Paper or PowerPoint.

3.  How to build an culture & enviro that supports change, and "give credit away" to ensure that needed change is here to stay.

Level: Advanced

Websites are so central to our organization's communication strategies. Yet there often exists a paradox -- it's hard to get funding if your website isn't up-to-date; but it's hard to get (or keep) an up-to-date site without funding.

Never fear, there are a lot of little things that can be done quickly and inexpensively to make a big difference.

If you're planning to attend this session, and would like to have your website used as an example, please submit your URL ahead of time. We'll pick from these submissions when planning the session.

Couldn't decide until the last minute? No worries. Come anyway and we'll take Q&A at the end, and/or break into small groups to brainstorm.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Encouragement!

2.  Inspiration!

3.  Free and inexpensive tools!

Level: Beginner

Come learn how to develop, implement, monitor, and refine an effective pay-per-click marketing strategy for your organization.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Stepwise tips on how to develop a strategy that works for YOUR audiences

2.  Real world campaign examples - the good, the bad, and the ugly

3.  Inspiration from the world of possibilities in the pay-per-click universe from rich media to search to social media and beyond

Level: Intermediate