#FUNDRAISING: Outreach Tactics & Technologies Need To Adjust To Demographics
With the texts and tweets and the touchscreens and with those crazy(-cool) Google goggles and whatnot, a nonprofit would be daft to send those old-fashioned appeals by mail. The cost of printing and stamps, the hassle of upkeep of a database of address, the imposition of making potential donors find their checkbooks buried ever-farther into their desk drawers… who would bother?
But an extensive whitepaper from the folks at Convio makes it quite clear that not only is the traditional through-the-snail-mail appeal still a great way to solicit support for your charity, it is the hands-down winner over all media outreach. As the chart to the left reveals, outreach by mail achieves incredibly high response rates. That said − and unsurprisingly − the impact of mailers fades as one moves down the age groups, as Generations X and (especially) Y choose to respond to other media as well. What media will carry the donation message into the future?
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Aging, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Direct Mail, Donor Acquisition, Education: General, Fundraising, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Mobile, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Planned Giving, Public Relations, Publications, Resource, Social Marketing, Social Networks, Study, Technology, Technology for Aging, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#INTERVIEW: Paul Jolly of Jump Start Growth Helps Us Plan for the 2013 ‘Ask’
Paul Jolly, President of Jump Start Growth, Inc.
This past December, Paul Jolly, President of Jump Start Growth, Inc., talked about the spiritual side of fundraising, and how he works with nonprofits to help them appreciate the motives and desires of big donors. Paul’s company has many years of experience to bring to organizations that are trying to improve their success rates with big donors.
Today we are excited to bring you part two of our interview with Paul. We shift directions just a bit in this conversation to talk about the near future of fundraising. What seems to be the lay-of-the-land for 2013? What technological/communications developments should we keep our eye on? What is developing on the Jump Start Growth website for the new year?
| Category Advocacy, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Cross-Post, Donor Acquisition, Education: General, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Planned Giving, Planned Giving, Public Relations, Storytelling, Video, Video Interview | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#INTERVIEW: Paul Jolly of Jump Start Growth Explores The Spiritual Side Of Donors
The soul of fundraising
Raising money for a nonprofit or charity is tough work. With the focus of the organization on fundraising, it is not surprising that outreach tends to focus on the numbers (the thousands who benefit from the nonprofit’s work, the millions required to keep such work going, the hundreds of people asked to give…). In this first part of our video interview with Paul Jolly, Founder and President of Jump Start Growth Incorporated, we learn that the numbers really should be the last concern of a nonprofit or charity, not the first. For Paul and Jump Start Growth, the first concern is the personal, the spiritual, connection between the donor and the cause she or he wants to support. Where is your organization’s focus?
| Category Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Nonprofit, Planned Giving, Planned Giving, Storytelling, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Video Interview | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#FUNDRAISING: Consider Moving Online Donors To Direct Mail Giving
Tap into a steady growth of new online giving
Social networks can be so important for communicating with folks who support (or will support) your cause. The high speed and low cost of such outreach can offer huge dividends, but mostly those dividends are paid in good will and spurring interest. Online donations are certainly growing, but as a recent report from Blackbaud demonstrates, long-term support and larger donations still mostly come from responses to direct mail, even if initial support comes online. The effort for any nonprofit, therefore, should be to develop interests and first donations online, yet also to strive to engage those donors with direct-mail appeals to keep the support coming. What are the numbers to back up this strategy?
| Category Cause Marketing, Community, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Mobile, Mobile, Nonprofit, Planned Giving, Planned Giving, Report, Resource, Social Marketing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#FUNDRAISING: The Holiday Season For Donations Begins Now. Ready?
The pools are open and busy. The grill has cooled down since the July-4th Picnic. The MLB All-Star Game is tonight. It’s July. One of the traditional/old-fashioned ways to disrupt the heat is to hold a “Christmas in July” party, and your nonprofit or charity should be having one. Why? To celebrate the good work you have been doing for the last six months, and to energize yourselves for the critical holiday season of solicitation and fundraising that should hit its peak in mid-November and continue right through the new year. Yep, the groundwork for a successful holiday season needs to start soon, like tomorrow.
| Category Advice, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Major Gifts, Marketing, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Planned Giving, Planned Giving, Public Relations, Publications, Report, Resource, Social Marketing, Strategic Marketing, Volunteerism | | 3 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#FUNDRAISING: Maximizing Your Organization’s Return on Fundraising Events
We are pleased to welcome back Susan Emfinger of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. For her previous posts on institutional fundraising, please click here.
In today’s post, I ask readers to imagine a world in which fundraising staff and programmatic work closely together with a variety of “programmatic” events in order to expose the organization to those very individuals who have the financial capacity to enhance and/or to ensure the organizations’ future. My prediction: your fundraising results will surprise you.
Given how much time, energy and effort tends to go into organizing fundraising events, I thought we might start with one question: Just what is a “fundraising” event?
| Category Advocacy, Campaigns, Communications, Community, Conference/Congress, Development, Events, Fundraising, Gala, How-to, Marketing, Nonprofit, Planned Giving, Planned Giving, Public Relations, Resource, Sustainability | | Comments Off
Written by: Susan Emfinger
#INTERVIEW: Phyllis Freedman, President of SmartGiving and Author of The Planned Giving Blogger
Phyllis Freedman is President of SmartGiving and author of The Planned Giving Blogger. For the past eight years her consulting practice has focused exclusively on planned giving. She previously has held senior management positions in fundraising for several large organizations. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: How long have you been blogging?
PHYLLIS: May will be three years.
MKC: What was your thinking on why to blog?
PHYLLIS: I’ve always had strong opinions – about everything, not just fundraising – and especially in planned giving, there had been some long-held views about how planned giving should be marketed and talked about and how donors should be stewarded, that I didn’t necessarily agree with and that my work with clients suggested might not still be valid. So I thought, why shouldn’t I start communicating my views more widely? As I traveled around in my consulting role, it became increasingly clear to me that planned giving practitioners were looking for a new point of view.
| Category Blogs, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Fundraising, Interview, Nonprofit, Planned Giving, Planned Giving, Special Series | | Comments Off
Written by: Don Akchin