September 2009

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INTRODUCTION

This is it. The moment is nigh. It's now or never.

Whatever platitude you choose to express it, one thing is clear: it's time for your end of year campaigns. For many of us, it's a cross-your-fingers kind of a moment. It's been a tough year for our sector, and the December donations we already count on will be even more important.

We want to make sure that you set yourself up for success by building a strong foundation to maximize this opportunity. After all, online giving is maturing, and has become a real source of new donors and revenue. Keeping those new donors is another issue to tackle if you're going to succeed. And while lots of nonprofits are pouring into Facebook to raise money, the real lesson that's repeated throughout this issue is this: Integration.

We don't fundraise in channels anymore. It's one big storming river and it's up to us to figure out how to navigate these new waters.

Best,

Holly

THE STATE OF ONLINE FUNDRAISING

Steve MacLaughlin, Blackbaud

The last three months of the year represent a critical time for the fundraising efforts of nonprofit organizations. The end of the calendar year is also a significant source of the funds raised online for nonprofits.

There are still some skeptics out there, those who say "wake me up when online fundraising is really, really big."

Here's your official wake-up call. Blackbaud's analysis of online giving in 2008 found that December accounted for about 21% of the year's transaction volume, but 48% of the total dollars raised. The average online gift for the month of December increased to nearly $250.

ONLINE DONORS: WHY THEY LEAVE AND HOW TO WIN THEM BACK

Rebecca Higman and Katya Andresen, Network for Good

Online donors can be summed up with a phrase that would make an excellent soap opera title: the young and the generous.

They tend to be under 40 and their gifts are around $100. We want more donors like them: they account for most of our acquisition, and they are a leading source of new revenue for most nonprofits.

The trick is getting them to stay once they give. We've developed some tips to help you learn how to improve your cultivation strategy (or combat a lack thereof) and what fool-proof avenue will satisfy donors and Board members alike.

RAISE MONEY ON FACEBOOK: FOUR STRATEGIES YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

Peter Deitz, Social Actions

When it comes to online fundraising, an obvious tip is to meet your current and potential donors where they are. With 300 million active users, Facebook is a natural starting place. Moreover, the company reports that people who are 35 years and older make up the fastest growing user demographic, which corresponds to the demographic mostly likely to make a donation online.

To help tech-savvy nonprofits make use of Facebook, this brief guide looks at four strategies:

  1. Raise Meaning Before Money
  2. Money Is Not the Only Metric
  3. Your People Are Your Impact
  4. Be Specific and Timely

'TIS THE SEASON TO RAISE FUNDS

Ron Weber, Trinet Internet Solutions, Inc.

As the holiday season approaches, many nonprofits often find themselves scrambling to meet year-end donation goals. While it's well known that Thanksgiving initiates a greater charitable focus, it takes more than a "donate-now" button to funnel that giving spirit into a plentiful fundraising season.

Yet when it comes to nonprofit fundraising, remember one size doesn't fit all. With countless nonprofits vying for donors' dollars, the more tailored the campaign, the more success you'll find.

THINGS WE LIKE

A monthly roundup of our favorite nonprofit tech resources. Read more posts on our blog.
  1. Controversy. Seth Godin's broadside against nonprofits rubbed a few people the wrong way. Beth Kanter, voice of moderation, rounded up many of the responses.
  2. Taglines.
  3. What if Star Wars was made by environmentalists? (And, while we're on the subject, to those who claim Red Dawn was the most violent movie of the 80s, we'd just like to say: Star Wars blew up a planet. A planet.)
  4. Google may be able to predict where the flu virus is on the uptick. Not a big surprise: they already know the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
  5. And did you know Google has an internal group dedicated to making sure you can get your data out of Google products? Why? Because you are all individuals!
  6. Idealware's new "Consumers Guide to Low-Cost Data Visualization Tools".
  7. What's stranger than this cat? How about this guy imitating a cat made famous by the Internet. This kinda makes our brain hurt.
  8. Putting her money where her mouth, er, her posterior where her values are, NTEN's own Anna is participating in the Climate Ride. Won't you help her meet her fundraising goal?
  9. Also, Holly's going to moderate a fundraising webinar, "While They're Hot! Converting Fresh Leads Into Donors". Meanwhile, Brett's been busy playing with this online anagram generator.
  10. All the single babies! (All the single babies.)
  11. Turn your kitchen table into an ecosystem (that doesn't involve supporting an ant colony with spillage).
  12. We seem to be a little light on social media this month. That's not right. So, take your pick between Alexandra Samuel's plea for a kinder, gentler Twitter and Ben Stiller discussing Twitter with Mickey Rooney. NTEN: A little somethin' for everyone.

10NTC: SAVE THE DATE

Let's talk about the future. The 2010 NTC will be held in Atlanta, April 8-10. We want you to attend. You want to be there. So, go block off those days on your calendar. No, right now.

Registration will open on November 1st. Before that, though, we need to set the agenda, and you can help, starting September 28th, by voting on session ideas.

And if you just can't wait, recordings of the recent Online NTC are now available at a much discounted rate.

DATA ECOSYSTEMS

When you need to move data from your CMS to your CRM (or some other system so complex, you don't even use its full name), are you happy, like hobbits frolicking in the aptly named Hobbiton? Or would you rather walk through Mordor?

Either way, we want to know about it. We're taking a look at how systems work together at nonprofits (if they do at all) with our first Data Ecosystems Survey.

When you have a spare 10 minutes -- and if you were just about to go click all the links in "Things We Like", you can't really claim to be busy, can you? -- we hope you'll tell us about your data ecosystem.

COMMUNICATIONS ROUNDTABLE

If you're on our Communications Staff list, you may have already seen this, but we're not above recycling:

We're knights of the Mar-Com Table,
We sell magnanimity when ere we're able,
We write tidings and polar bear scenes,
With grammar that's impeccable.
We'd do well o'er there in Camelot,
We'd send pictogram salams, not spam, a lot.

But sometimes even the best of us get stuck. That's why we've started a monthly conference call and online chat devoted to Marketing and Communications Staff. The next one is September 25th.

UPCOMING WEBINARS

NTEN CONNECT is the monthly e-newsletter of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).
Photo Credit: J.H.Gray (Header), boxchain (Puppy).
Contact the editor at editor@nten.org