"It's the strategy, stupid."
Brian Reich of Mindshare Interactive Campaigns gave an excellent presentation on Internet/Online Strategies. The video clip of Brian repeating our mantra, "Think about the tools last!"
Here’s some of the key points from his presentations:
3 steps
• Identify you goals (specific, not outlandish)
• Develop your strategy
• Pick your tools (CRM/database, individual giving pages (race for the cure), online auctions, mobile)
Online auction anecdote: He shared a story about an organization that had received a donation of toilet paper for an event 12 months before the event. The organization didn’t have any place to store it! (It was a lot of toilet paper). This type of stuff can be auctioned online. Unfortunately, the organization didn’t sell the toilet paper online because they were afraid they wouldn’t have toilet paper for the event.
Mobile tools are the future of how people will get information. Mobile phones stay on. How does/that leverage into fundraising? Right now, not much going in US. So, as a first step, organizations should be at least collecting mobile phone numbers in their databases.
He mentioned that “short code fundraising” – that someone could punch in a number on their cell phone and make a donation to a charity. Some money for Katrina came in this way. Unicef in Greece raised $6 million euros for tsunami. People were calling cell phone 5 or 6 times to make a donation. The campaign was about 1 month.
Also mentioned that selling ring tones is a way to raise money. People that buy ringtones are heavy users.
Bono/Live Aid Concert – concert in London, Flagship concert – did a lottery via mobile phones. Text your support and you get entered. Emailed your code and you showed your phone to get in. At U2 concerts, text message and spool it on the screen.
Provided some stats on Internet ads, “even though we find them annoying, they can make money.” Target ads aligned with news cycle are viewed more favorably and if ad is placed next to relevant news article more likely to click.
Defined CRM as a tool and a piece of technology that allows you to collect and manage people in your universe. Way of life. CRM is about personalizing content and communication to your audience. You can talk to cat people about cat people. If you’re a dog owner and someone talks about cats, you tune out.
Most orgs don’t segment. People tune out if they don’t see something personally relevant to them.
It takes work and time. You can’t just put a “donate button” on your site and expect to raise money.
CRMs can help with organizational efficiency – multiple people in the organization can communicate with audience in different ways. Smart organizations balance good content and communication with what the organization is doing with fundraising request.
Vendors: Recommendations on which one depend on organization’s needs
Get Active (best for advocacy, easiest to use email tool)
Kintera (big program and lots of features are not necessarily used)
Convio (fundraising)
Blackbaud
Other tools like, “Constant contact” can be good for smaller email lists. For transactions, there are “just giving” and “authorize.net”
What doesn’t work
Going into it without a strategy – isn’t sustainable!
Doesn’t work to ask for money every time you communicate
Doesn’t work to raise money when you don’t have content
Lack of specifics about the ask about what you want people to (give a specific amount of money)
Content is king
Think about technology last
Laws/Regulations/Bookkeeping Hire a lawyer as part of your strategy – don’t break the laws – there is information you need to collect, security/regulations, if you’re raising money out-of-state, international fundraising has even more regulations.
Need SSL
Merchant Account
Nonprofit status
Documentation on your site to demonstrate the rules
Privacy policy – should be in same tone as organization’s materials
Processing and recording of gifts, be careful of regulations.
Established vendors have experience with other clients and lawyers on the regulations and rules and can help. Can’t Spam regulations – turn to a lawyer?
Can’t Spam requires you to have a physical mailing address, opt out of every mail and be responsive, registered domain and bunch of other things, only allowed to email to people who have opted into your list.
Ways to get around it
Not of the methods are easy or cost-effective Can contact them – we’d love to had you stay on the mailing list, click here to get on the list and then if they don’t get rid of them.
Still in a grace period for Can’t Spam. If you’ve been existing in a homegrown database, you need get people to opt in. Expect that you will loose some people during the transition 50-60% will drop off.
Constant contact is cheap and good for organizations with under 10,000 names. Does the can’t spam work. Over 10K, need to invest in a system with robust features that allow you to track.
Deliverability – 80% of communications is done via email. Most value thing you can have is a person’s email and permission to use. You must have that email get delivered. Server level: Did it bounce back? Did it get passed into a spam folder.
Find tools that help you get into people’s inboxes. Constant contact is great for that.
35% of email goes into spam filter, most people don’t check spam filters. He knows this because he has different email addresses: yahoo, gmail, hotmail, aol and watches the spam folder.
How to get past spam filter:
Qualified ISP – good email vendor
Choose a tool with deliverability rates – anything less than 97% - the tool isn’t using its job.
Abandonment statistics – constant contact
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