Who

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Whos Using the Internet Successfully to Raise
Money(and why)

• Willamette Valley Development Officers
• by Madeline Stanionis, Donordigital
• April 11, 2003

2
What well cover today

• Online fundraising overview
• Case studies
• Vendors and tools
• Discussion

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Whos using the Internet successfully?

• Big brands disaster (American Red Cross)
• Big brands animals (World Wildlife Fund)
• Small brands passionate users
• Big bucks
• Smart bucks
• Just plain smart
• Advocacy groups

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Online Giving Trends

• Stats say about 1 to 3 of individual giving
  last year was online
• Online space has favored large orgs, national
  brands, but . . .
• Higher average online gifts
• Online giving is one track thats growing
• Online giving is closely tied to other marketing,
  fundraising and communications integration is
  the key

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What you need to succeed

• Commitment, investment in longer-term
• Effective site
• Drive traffic
• E-mail messaging
• Web strategist (not just Webmaster)
• Testing, trying, risking
• Persistence

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Case study MSPCAs Summer of Love Campaign

• Goals
• Adopt more animals
• Raise money for shelters
• Gain buy-in from shelter programs for online
  fundraising and adoptions
• Results
• Adopted all but one featured animal
• 240 new donors (but small avg gift)
• Increased summer giving by 300
• Campaign elements
• Home page promotion
• Bi-weekly e-mails

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• MSPCA campaign features
• Groovy theme and subject lines
• At right and on following page is first e-mail of
  campaign series
• Six e-mails sent during summer

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Case study Earthjustice

• E-mail addresses
• Jan. 2001 4,000
• March 2002 28,000
• Jan. 2003 40,000
• Online revenue
• FY 01 14,000, FY 02 57,000
• FY 03 104,000
• Highlights
• Summer e-appeal (July) 26,000
• Winter series (Dec 02) 50,000

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• Earthjustice monthly e-newsletter, e-Brief
• Click-throughs typically around 15
• Some gifts, this is primarily cultivation piece
• February 2003 edition at right and on following
  page

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• Earthjustice last chance e-postcard for
  matching grant campaign (offline and online)
• About 7 of all gifts came in online
• Majority of gifts came in last day with this
  e-mailed postcard

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• Earthjustice year-end series
• Consisted of Web site appeal, two stand alone
  appeals
• Good sub lines!
• Generated 50k, avg gift about 50, majority on
  Dec 30th,

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Case study Aish.com Membership Campaign

• Goal
• Generate 1,000 new members over 6-week campaign
• Results
• Slightly over 1,000 members
• Generated 80k
• Campaign elements
• Home page, enews, other site promotion
• Three e-mails
• Tested pop-ups, pop-unders
• BTW Aish.com had previously not asked members
  to join via e-mail

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• Aish.com membership campaign - second e-mail
• From editors of Web site personal touch
• Generated about 20k
• 300 new members

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• Aish.com membership campaign - final e-mail
• From most popular writer on site
• (to drop March 26th)

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Case study Grist

• E-newsletter, Web site for Earth Day Network
• 50,000 e-subscribers
• Never asked for money before
• 1,900 gifts, total 75,000, avg. 40
• E-newsletters appeals about 3x/year

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NARAL Pro-Choice America Save the Senate campaign

• October 2002
• About 70,000 e-mail addresses
• Three special appeal e-mail messages, one
  e-newsletter
• Home page pop-up
• Splash screen replaced home page for one week
• Results 1,600 gifts, 80,000
• 2.3 of file gave

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• NARAL Save the Senate campaign splash page
• Splash page replaced home page for week before
  election
• Same design used for one e-mail and pop-up on
  site (prior to splash)

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• NARAL Save the Senate campaign - October
  e-newsletter
• 65,000 recipients
• 210 gifts
• 9,580

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• NARAL Save the Senate campaign - last chance
  e-mail
• 65,000 recipients
• 495 gifts
• 22,140

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Case studyMoveOn.orgs Iraq campaign

• Goal stop U.S. invasion of Iraq
• Political lobbying
• 270,000 e-mails to Congress
• 70,000 phone calls from e-mail
• 110,000 names added to list
• Fundraising for anti-war candidates
• Monday 15 Oct e-mail ask to 300,000
• Tuesday 400,000 raised online
• Wednesday 900,000 raised

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Getting new donors for offline events

• Lets participants engage their friends by sending
  e-mail
• Friends go to users event home page
• Friends give online or pledge
• Page shows total raised, credits best
  fundraisers, corporate teams

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• move

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Vendors tools

• List management tools
• Online donation tools
• Integrated suite tools
• Other ASPs
• Best practices

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Email system what you want

• Easy subscribe, unsubscribe
• Automatic removal of unsubs, bounces
• Subscription confirmation optional
• Easy to understand
• Ability to segment list
• Trackable URLs
• Ability to set From and reply addresses
• HTML sniffer

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Rags to riches email systems

• (Not systems Your own Outlook, Eudora, etc.)
• Free Topica.com, YahooGroups.com
• Inexpensive Groundspring.org, Sparklist.com,
  Topicas E-mail Publisher, Cooler E-Mail, Roving,
  etc.
• More features, more money GetActive, Convio,
  Kintera, LocalVoice, eTapestry, Blackbaud,
  SocialEcology, etc.

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HTML vs Plain text

• Plain text e-newsletter
• 5088 randomly selected recipients
• 530 unique click-thrus (10.4)
• 1 recipient sent a tell-a-friend e-mail
• HTML e-newsletter
• 12066 randomly selected recipients
• 1759 unique click-thrus (14.6)
• 38 recipients sent "tell-a-friend" e-mails

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Donation system what you want

• Complete merchant banking credit card
  processing
• Ability to customize the donation page with look
  of your web site
• Ability to issue on-screen email receipt
• Ability to handle premiums
• Ability to handle recurring donations
• Download your data 24/7
• Customer support ease of setup
• A trusted vendor

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Rags to riches donation systems

• Free NetworkforGood.org
• Affordable CharityWeb.net, Contribute.com,
  Donate.net, Entango.com, Groundspring.org
  (formerly eGrants.org), etc.
• More features, more money Blackbaud, Convio,
  eTapestry, GetActive, Groupstone, Kintera,
  LocalVoice, Social Ecology, Virtual Sprockets,
  etc.

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Integrated online systems

• Web site content management
• Email messaging
• Credit card processing
• Donor database, giving history
• E-commerce
• Events registration mgmt
• Advocacy campaigns

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The eNonprofit a Guide to ASPs, Internet service
and online software By Michael Stein and John
Kenyon Published by CompassPoint Nonprofit
Services January 2002 www.compasspoint.org/enonp
rofit
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Online FundraisingPretty Good Practices

• Campaigns vs. appeals (like MoveOn.org)
• Follow through on a strategy (like Heifer.org)
• What do you do with my money? (Cut to the chase)
• Creative risks (Let your funny, clever,
  intelligent side show)
• The Web is not print (Less rhetoric, More good
  stuff)

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What Donordigital does

• Strategic consulting
• Online fundraising programs
• E-mail acquisition and messaging programs
• Online relationship building
• Online advocacy campaign
• Internet marketing

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Contact us

• Madeline Stanionis
• Vice President, Donordigital
• 182 2nd St. Suite 400
• San Francisco CA 94105
• voice [phone]
• fax [phone]
• madeline_at_donordigital.com