The latest issue of New Dialogue carries an article about a New Zealand website that can help community organisations with online fundraising:

Fundraising for the sector has long been typified by cake stalls, begging for money and donations, filling out forms, collecting, handling and processing cash — and dealing with the fact that cash goes ‘missing’ sometimes. But now the audience perspective has changed.

FundraiseOnline provides the sector a new channel to supplement donation streams. It’s an easy to use, functionally-rich and low cost web capability for any sized charity.

… Visit FundraiseOnline to check out some examples of mindblowing fundraising success stories, particularly: www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/kayak4cancer/ showing how every day events can be changed into life changing experiences; www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/digdeep/ where communities of very special and local interest can do amazing things. The two organisations concerned together benefited to the tune of $30,000 from online donations.

Also visit: www.socialactions.com/new-benchmarks-for-group-fundraising.

[Via : New Dialogue -July 2008 - Focus on ICT.]

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We recently had a heat pump installed. I was absolutely amazed when I went to pay the bill ‘within 7 days’ that I was unable to pay this business online. I searched out the cheque book and saw the last cheque I had recorded was written a tad over 2 years ago.

I wrote out the cheque, with difficulty — it had been so long I’d almost forgotten what to do — and emailed them to suggest they allow online payments.

But it’s not just businesses. If your organisation likes to ‘collect’ money — donations, fees, sales, whatever — then you should make it as easy as possible for people to hand over the funds. The easier it is to give, the more likely you are to receive.

Wellington’s Downtown Community Ministry has just revealed that they now accept PayPal donations. Good show!

Now anyone that heads to the DCM website at www.dcm.org.nz will find a PayPal donation button at the bottom of the page they can click to make a donation.

DCM Director Stephanie McIntyre says, “We’re rapt about getting this function up online. Our supporters are a generous lot and this provides an easy and safe way for them to financially contribute to our work.”

PayPal, the world leader in payment gateways, was chosen to host the donation function because it gives people a safe way to make financial transactions online.

… As a reminder, people are still able to donate in person, by sending in a cheque, over the phone, or by setting up an automatic payment through their bank.

[Via : Donate to DCM – Online.]

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According to a new report just released by Convio, Edge Research, and Sea Change Strategies, an out-dated approach to online fundraising may be costing charities as much as $100 billion. Because few large donations are made via the web, some charities feel that large donors are not active online, but the results of the study, which surveyed 3,000 donors from 23 major non-profit organizations, challenges that notion. The so-called “wired wealthy” are indeed active online, says the report, and very generous.

The “wired wealthy” as defined by the report are people who give at least $1,000 per year to a single cause, who average $10,896 in donations per year to charities, and have a median gift size of $4,500.

“The main theme that jumped out at us is that major donors — or the wired wealthy as we call them — are very active online with the intention of becoming even more so when it comes to their philanthropic support,” said Vinay Bhagat, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer for Convio in a press release. “Based on what these important donors told us, we believe a tremendous opportunity exists for nonprofit organizations to better leverage their online presence to improve the online experience of the wired wealthy.”

Convio, Edge, and Sea Change expect that the results of their research will change the way some charities approach online fundraising. Specifically, they found that more than half of those surveyed preferred giving online, and 80% said they did at least some of their donating via the Internet (and a good portion do it via credit card to get the frequent flier miles). That’s imporant because even though the “wired wealthy” made up just about 1% of donors to the charities involved in the study, they accounted for approximately 32% of their annual gifts.

Unfortunately for charities, less than half of respondents thought charity web sites were generally well-designed, that charities did enough to connect with them online, or that they were inspired by charity sites. So how can organizations better connect with these important constituents? Email is one method. According to the study, 65% of the “wired wealthy” always open email sent from charities they support, and about 3/4ths of respondents said that email reminders about the renewal of an annual gift are “appropriate.” But just 43% thought emails from charities were usually well-written or inspiring, indicating that thus far email has been a lost opportunity for many non-profit organizations. Further, a large majority of respondents said an email letting them know how their donation was spent would make they more likely to give again, as would controls on how often a charity was allowed to email them.

More than half of respondents also use YouTube, which points to online video as another pontential way to connnect with wealthy donors online.

“We believe this research will fundamentally shift the way some nonprofit organizations approach their relationships with major donors online,” said Mark Rovner, Principal of Sea Change Strategies.

The study revealed three distinct personality types among the “wired wealthy.”

• 29% are Relationship Seekers - Relationship seekers put the most stock in how a charity web site forms a connection with them. They tend to skew younger (under 45) and are most likely to engage in social activities with the charity. 2/3rds of relationship seekers say that a charity’s web site plays a role in whether or not they give money.
• 41% are Casual Connectors - Like relationship seekers, so-called casual connectors also seek a connection with the charity. However, for them it is less personal — they’re more interested in things like how efficiently the charity is using their money and want easy access to that information.
• 30% are All Business - The all business set doesn’t care about feeling connected to the charity, rather they want the donation process to be as easy and painless as possible. They also tend give the most money.

It certainly seems possible to appeal to each of those personality types via a single web site, which is exactly what the authors of the study hope will happen. “The research provides important insight into the ways non-profits can better connect, motivate and retain these donors. The results of this research will provide a variety of different non-profit organizations — both large and small — the tools to assess their online strategy and make adjustments where necessary to better capture big opportunities,” said Rovnar.

In September, we wondered if the web was still a windfall for non-profits. With online donations up 37% in 2006 according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, it is clear that the web, if not yet the main point for charitable donation, is playing an increasingly more important role. As part of that online fundraising strategy, targeting the “wired wealthy” is something that charities should be taking into account.

Written by Josh Catone, March 24, 2008 2:40 PM, and republished here with permission. Please visit the original article at ReadWriteWeb, Study: Non-profits Missing Major Online Fundraising Opportunities and contribute to the discussion there.

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The Wild Apricot Blog mentions an interesting US research finding:

… In 2007, the Internet adoption rate for American adults aged 50 and over, with a post-secondary education and household income of $75,000 or more, was up by 20% over 2006, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

…Further, online donors appear to be more generous in the size of their gifts than donors who contribute through other methods — in 2006, for example, the median revenue per donor was $114 for online donors and $82 for non-online donors. Online donors tend to be well-educated and well-heeled, and although all age groups are represented, those who give through online appeals are generally younger than the 65+ age group that responds most strongly to direct mail.

While I haven’t seen statistics for New Zealand, I would think they’d at least be similar. Community groups need to keep ‘online’ in mind for more and more of their activities — raising funds, recruiting volunteers and supporters, reaching out to potential clients and members. As Simon Hendery says in If it’s not on the web then it’s out of the loop:

If it’s not on the web then it’s out of the loop … New Zealand businesses spent around $2 billion last year advertising in print and over the TV and radio airwaves.

When the precise ad-spend figures for 2007 are totted up, however, they are certain to show the traditional heavyweight mediums’ share of advertisers’ budgets slipped while an upstart alternative - online advertising - grew rapidly.

There is a clear and distinct move online in countries such as New Zealand and the US.

Katya Andresen continues with the importance of capturing useful information:

… Noble and Weiner address the How of online fundraising, with a discussion of best practices for building a mailing list and reaching out to prospective donors by email. “Collect email addresses constantly,” the authors advise. “Ask for email addresses in all communications — direct mail, surveys, at events, on website,” making it easy to register and offering incentives to do so. It is vital to make it equally easy for people to opt out of email communications, however — and a clearly-stated privacy policy is essential.

Meanwhile Hendery offers six ways local businesses can get the most out of online advertising and marketing. Community groups should take note too:

1. Don’t ignore the shift online
2. Search engine optimisation
3. Search engine marketing
4. Business blogging
5. The power of YouTube
6. Public relations 2.0

While I don’t think that search engine optimisation and marketing are the be-all and end-all of an online ‘presence’, it’s certainly worth noting this particular point:

Media releases are now often written in language aimed at achieving a prominent placement on news aggregation websites and search result listings. At the same time, the PR industry is grappling with how best to get messages out to not just the traditional mainstream media outlets, but also the myriad of less accessible bloggers who can now also influence the public’s perception of their clients.

At the very absolute least every single community organisation should have a web page with contact details, a few words explaining what the group is about and a contact email address inviting interested parties to contact them and perhaps join a mailing list.

Even the tiniest and least-funded group can easily achieve this with a free website.

Online is where things are going.

[Via : Wild Apricot Blog : Online Fundraising 101, and If it's not on the web then it's out of the loop - 30 Jan 2008 - NZ Herald: Technology News and reviews from New Zealand and the World.]

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Beth Kanter’s post about her process for raising funds as part of the America’s Giving Challenge tells the story of Pharoth, an orphan in Cambodia. The story reinforces the all-important point that Beth makes:

…all nonprofits need to use stories as part of their communications and fundraising.  Research and studies have shown that donors are more likely to give if they are hear a story about one person who has been helped by the charity versus numbers and statistics. I now have a collection of stories about the Sharing Foundation.

[Via BlogHer - Social change, Non-profits & NGOs: Stories, Conversations, and Supportive Network are Key for Social Fundraising.]

It’s easy to think of charities who use the story technique, who ask for a dollar a day for a named person, for example. But there are also still many organisations who would benefit from working a little harder on putting stories to statistics.

Stories engage our human hearts and allow us to feel that the ‘problem’ is manageable. We can’t help hundreds, or thousands or millions who need a particular service, but we do feel able to improve the life of Josephine or Johnny.

What are the stories in your organisation?

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