Event Fundraising Blog

Just when I thought social media was hitting its marketing stride, our friend Beth Kanter posted a recent article on her Facebook page by BBCnews.com co-founder and journalism professor Alfred Hermida, in which he declares the now ubiquitous phenomenon is about to become – ready for this? – “boring.”

One of my favorite things about the holidays is receiving cards from friends and family and hearing what everyone has been up to.

While not as heartwarming, the yearly deluge of holiday emails that land in my inbox is certainly interesting for a marketing professional like me. Reviewing these festive missives inspires both admiration (Wow, what a great opening line!) and horror (Oh no, typo alert!). It's always an instructive exercise.

This morning, when I opened my email, the first two messages I read were transactional emails (emails facilitating, competing or confirming a previously agreed upon transaction). The first was a post-event email from a fundraising walk I had registered for, and the second was from an airline about a recent flight I had taken. The email from the airline had a compelling subject line, excellent personalization, interesting content, a strong call-to-action, strategic use of graphic design, and easy to find social icons. The event email, well, didn't.

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed to economically assist Haiti after its devastating earthquake in 2010, tested two different landing pages for their online giving page. One had a prominent photo, the other didn’t. One landing page raised 10.2 percent, roughly $1.2 million, more than the other landing page.

Martin Memorial Hospital Center used two separate direct mail fundraising letters to send to their supporters. One of those letters increased donations by 307 percent.

How can you determine which test is better?

Most nonprofit marketing departments today are organized by functional silos, each advocating why its role is relevant for the constituent. But what if you organized around various target audiences instead? For example, if you are a cancer organization, what if you organized around "her" and "him" so that the needs of your constituents could be seen from a more holistic perspective.

Despite what you may think, higher unsubscribe rates for your email lists can actually be a good thing. In fact, higher unsubscribe rates directly correlate with increased fundraising: those who are uninterested in your cause unsubscribe, and those who continue to receive your messages are interested in your cause and are more likely to donate. Either way, both groups have been exposed to your message.

A “nonprofit thought leader” is basically a trendy label that refers to “an organization that is recognized for having ideas, programs, services or research that are valuable.” For example, Malaria No More is considered by many to be a thought leader, because they were one of the first nonprofits applying business principles to the fight against malaria. Once an individual or organization is recognized as a thought leader, they are also thought to have influence over a specific group of people by becoming a conduit for ideas and conversation.

Though that definition is rather straightforward, there is one key consideration necessary as you consider developing thought leadership: Thought leadership can be either intentional or unintentional. Some organizations stumble upon the position as a thought leader through sheer luck, while others arrive there through careful planning and execution. The latter is decidedly more effective than the former for achieving your organization’s stated strategic goals.

Clean, safe drinking water for everyone on the planet -- that’s the goal of mycharity: water. The nonprofit has a clear, but extremely ambitious goal: to bring safe drinking water to people in developing nations. So how have they raised funds for their mission? They've used inbound marketing. Inbound marketing allows your organization to generate inbound leads by enabling potential donors to find you through search.

Hubspot’s Dan Zarrella doesn’t spew “unicorn and rainbow” advice. In his webinar, The Science of E-mail Marketing, he used raw data to compile a comprehensive list of best practices for e-mail marketers. His counterintuitive findings are relevant to e-mail communication with your donors. Below are the three top takeaways from his presentation:

Seth Godin’s blog, particularly his insight into why people do what they do, is a good basis for determining how to better engage an event’s participants and donors. So when I came across this article outlining five visitor outcomes from a landing page, I was compelled to share (and paraphrase). According to Seth, a landing page (in fact, every page) can only cause one of five actions: