Why emails are sent out

This is the chart of the week on marketingsherpa.com. The marketing objectives are ranked by importance on the chart.

I thought it was interesting to see the similarities (or what I think would be the similiarities) between this chart--which was made for for-profit companies and nonprofits.

Definitely the most important for both nonprofits and for profits would be to retain existing customers/constitutents. In one of the posts yesterday, I talked about how 8 out of 10 donors do not donate again. Keeping existing donors/customers/constituents is very important for a nonprofit, since it has already worked hard to gain the supporter in the first place. By communicating with this in mind will help to ensure that the donors know how their funds were used and why it is important to continue donating. This doesn't necessarily mean that it has to come through email (although that is clearly the cheapest method).

I would think that for the building brand education would be higher on the list for nonprofits as some email communications are made specifically to educate about what the organization does.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this--and how you think that this would be amended for nonprofits.

8 out of 10 donors do what?>!?!

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a post on Social Fish that talked about some of the different free webinars that are going on through the month of April. Possibly the best post ever! I was able to sign up for a bunch of these free webinars and attended two today.

They were both interesting, but the second was really great--it was on how generations should be considered by nonprofits both for volunteerism and as donors. There are some generalities in each generation and it impacts learning styles, world views, etc. Nonprofits should know who their constituents are and how to approach them--for instance sending out a different newsletter to some of the age groups or changing messaging to recruit volunteers.

One of the most impactful things that came out of this was that 8 out of 10 donors do not donate a second time to a nonprofit. &*&(^(&(U WHHHAAT?!?! This is crazy. Thanking donors and mainitaining a good relationship with them is so important. But thanking them in a way that makes them feel good (possibly indicated by their generation) while making fiscal sense is the best. A millenial (born 1980-present) could be thanked via a quick personalized email. On the other hand, a Boomer may want a phone call thanking them, etc.
Moral of the story--get to know your donors, get to know their generations and use that information. Listening to the donors and what they want is imperative to keep donors coming back to your organization.

Lining up people and their passions

I read this blog post and I thought it was pretty amazing site with a pretty cool concept. Most people know what they want to become involved in, but they don't know how to find an organization that does exactly what they want.

A little rant or What not to do to your donors....

I love my alma mater. I hope to one day have a scholarship named after me there. However, because of the economy and other competing interests (like the cost of going there), the scholarship will need to wait.

I am on the committee for my 5 year reunion. Our contact person has asked all of us to make a donation to the college's annual fund. Completely understandable, I get it. I would expect that the people on the committee would be one of the first to donate. So, last night I got some money together and made my donation online.

Now, let me tell you this. My alma mater is a warm and fuzzy place. They are smiling people, a small college where everyone knows everyone and you feel good about yourself for going there. I made my donation pretty easily online. No big deal. Then I waited for the thank you email after the confirmation that I was sure would come. This place is warm and welcoming and they thank everyone all the time, so I was sure that a thank you would be on its way.

Immediately after I made the donation, I received an email. I will copy and paste it because it is that unbelievable.

From: xx_prod@infinet-inc.com
Subject: Standard Notification
Date: March 18, 2010 11:25:29 PM CDT
To: Molly Heinsler


Molly Heinsler,

A credit card payment in the amount of $51.00 was approved on 03/19/2010 at 00:25 AM.

The confirmation number is 124870.

Regards,

QuikPAY Online Services




this is the only thing that I have received from the college. I received a "Standard Notification". It doesn't even have a thank you.



Please do not do this to your donors.

In this economy, with my lack of a "big girl" job, I had to sacrifice to make a donation. And all i got was a standard notification.

Ouch.

"Call to Action" buttons

I came across this link today and I thought that it was really relevant, especially for those organizations to look at their website quickly and determine whether or not they are using the best practices that are listed in the article. A nonprofit may have a lot of different "call to actions", so making sure that they are not cluttered on the page, or losing their effect is important.

Personalization of donations

One of things that I have noticed recently in fundraising is that donations have become more and more personalized, and donors are able to have more control over where the funds are going. Heifer International was one of the first organizations that did this. Donors are able to choose which animal they are going to donate and learn about how that particular animal helps its recipients.

Now, more and more organizations are doing this--including Habitat for Humanity and others. I think that this is really an amazing idea, and more nonprofits should get on board with it. it seems like every product that we purchase can be personalized or made to order, and as society moves towards this, nonprofits need to be able to follow suit with donations.

The other day, I was in the grocery store where they were having another fundraiser for a local food pantry. The greatest part about this was that they had brown bags of food all over the store with the contents stapled to it. A customer could choose the amount of the donation and the contents of the bag for the food pantry. I thought that this was particularly great as some people remember how great macaroni and cheese tasted when they were hungry, or only wanted to donate $6 worth of great food.

On a personal note, my siblings and I made a donation in honor of our aunt and her family to Heifer International. We had decided the amount of the donation, and then looked at the animals that we could get for that amount. After studying the catalog, my sister decided that she REALLY wanted to give a bee hive. This was a bit more than the amount that we had decided on, so we each pitched in a little more because the bee hive was the donation that we wanted to get.
Although we are probably the exception and not the rule in this case, we did donate more because we knew what we were getting for the donation. Nonprofits may be able to capitalize on this and get even more donations!

I donated to diabetes foundation and all I got was a...WHAT??!!?!?

I love going to the grocery store. There's something about the order of the aisles, the way that everything has its place and is in an order. It's one of my happy places. I love it. I also am really interested in the ways that nonprofits can work with grocery stores because the grocery stores are so willing to support local causes and because everyone in the community has to go to the store.

Last year, I was in the store, and at the check out, the cashier asked me if I would like to donate $1, $5 or $10 to a diabetes foundation (I'm not sure of which one). She then told me that if I donated I could choose a bottle of water or a...wait for it....

wait for it....

a cupcake. A beautifully decorated cupcake. Frosting 1/2 inch high, yellow CUPCAKE. For donating to a diabetes foundation. WHAT?!!?!

Granted, the colors of everything all matched well. The cupcakes looked delicious, but who made this decision? I am sure that the diabetes foundation is grateful for having such a prominence in the grocery store and for all of the donations from the customers, but someone is probably banging their heads against their keyboard for giving such an incongruous gift for the donations.

Somewhere, someone wasn't communicating. Perhaps the diabetes foundation didn't have support for this type of donation, or the grocery store just assumed that the cupcakes had worked before, for other causes, so it would assuredly work for this one.

I know that this was an oversight, and this type of thing can happen to any of us, but it's something that we should all be aware of. Asking a co-worker to check over our work, treating each situation individually, and looking at it from an outsider's perspective may help to avoid something like this.

WoW for WOW!!

My boyfriend is an avid World of Warcraft player. I don't get it, it annoys me and it takes up A LOT of his time. He has made up a character, earned weapons and "gear" and has also made a "pet". I don't think that there is a real purpose for these pets, I think that they just act as a silent sidekick. These items can be purchased with gold that is earned through completing different challenges in the game. Last fall he let me know that for $10, he could purchase a "pet" for WoW. The fee for the pets would go to the Make A Wish Foundation, and would just be added on to the monthly charges for the game.

It turns out that this promotion has made over $1.1 million for the Make A Wish Foundation. That's a whole lotta wishes! There's the stereotype of the WoW gamer that they are lazy Mountain Dew addicted nerds. This huge donation from the players of WoW disproves this theory, and I hope that the makers of WoW (and other similar games) can continue this momentum.

PND - News - Small Fundraisers Add Up to Help for Haiti

This story is really interesting, and has a lot of merit! Just like my conversation with Jordan a few weeks ago, these smaller fundraisers may not raise a lot on their own, but together they add up to something much bigger than anyone had expected! The earthquake in Haiti touched so many that people really wanted to get out and do something. Some people feel that just donating isn't enough, they need to motivate others, to collect items, etc. By having their own small fundraisers, these advocates can feel like they have more of an impact and motivate their friends and family to give more.

PND - News -


Small Fundraisers Add Up to Help for Haiti


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