I was planning to write a post about fundraising in a recession, but plenty of other people have done it already, so rather than reinventing the wheel, here’s where to go for information.
But the main points to remember are:
- don’t panic, donors are still giving
- invest in strengthening your relationships with existing supporters
- your organisation is probably needed more that ever now. Make your case. People will support you.
Here’s the links:
Sean Triner has set up an excellent blog on fundraising in a recession.
Conor Byrne has been running a series of articles over the last few weeks.
Jeff Brooks, as usual, has some great stuff to peruse.
And, of course, the words of Warren Buffet spring to mind: ‘Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are...
[Taking a break from the mystery shopping - will return to it next week.]
Search Engine Optimisation may seem like some obscure techno-witchcraft, but it deals with a serious question - can people find you when they go searching for you. More and more people rely on google (and occasionally, other serach engines) to find things for them online. But what do they find?
Well this is what a search for ‘Irish third world charities’ throws up on google:
In the crucial ‘above-the-fold’ area, only two overseas / development charities appear. And they’re not the big ones. Gorta and Fair Trade make 1 and 2, with the rest of the sector absent.
Now, I know most progressive NGOs dislike the term ‘third world’. But that’s not important. Most of their...
Here’s the email thank you I got from Concern. Leaving aside the hiccup with the ‘Dear Salutation’ opening, there’s plenty to admire.
For a start it looks great - well designed, colourful and warm.
There’s a good selection of links for further information on Concern and where your money goes. Prompts for their gift catalogue and treks. And invitations to connect on social networking sites.
Technorati Tags: thank you, mystery shopping, fundraising, charity, concern...
Just over two weeks into our mystery shopping and it’s time to do a bit of a overview of findings to date. And the first thing to say is that there has been a marked improvement in how charities are handling online donations over the last two years.
In 2006, 66% of charities sent a thank you email in response to a web donation.
This year, 83% sent an email thank you.
There are also some significant improvements by individual charities in how they accept, process and acknowledge donations. I’ll be dealing with them in detail in the coming weeks, but Irish Cancer Society, Amnesty International, Simon Communities and Children’s Medical and Research Foundation can all take credit for clear steps forward - generally nothing extraordinary, just doing things better which...
It’s the bit you always overlook. You’ve written the great thank you email, thrown in an emotionally resonant anecdote or two (haven’t you?) and signed off with a big, empathetic hug of a thank you. And then you realise you need to stick something in the subject line. So what do you do? Write ‘Donation Confirmation’, because that’s what it is, isn’t it?
Time to stop and start again. Forget the content of the email for a sec and put all your energy, effort and empathy into that subject line. Because that’s what people read first. In fact that may be all people read - at the very least it will determine whether they read any further. You wouldn’t treat a billboard headline as an afterthought, would you? Well, don’t treat a subject...
The two rules of a Thank You are that it should be PROMPT and PERSONAL. We’ll get on to the personal touch later, but we have some clear winners in the prompt department.
Congratulations to Bothar, Cystic Fibrosis Association, Marie Keating Foundation and Trócaire all off whom succeeded in getting me a thank you letter in two working days.
Is your organisation that good?
Technorati Tags: mystery shopping, charity, thank you, charity...
Tragically, nonprofits are not very good at customer service and that is an understatement. All fundraisers should perhaps reflect that customer service is like personal hygiene – without it, your relationships won’t even get started.
As almost every mystery shopping test confirms, fundraisers are almost invariably rotten at customer service. In the past most donors haven’t expected anything better, but as customer expectations rise generally, that will change for nonprofits for sure.
Woody Allen … foresaw swarms of invading aliens who would not be eons ahead of us at all. Instead they would be 15 minutes ahead in everything … By being consistently just 15 minutes ahead … these infuriating aliens could always be sure to have just enough advantage over us to...
I got a very nice email from Liz Roche, the St Vincent de Paul’s National Fundraising Co-ordinator. They’re currently re-developing their website and will soon be able to capture donor information properly. I may have been a little harsh in my comments about SVP in previous posts (sorry about that) but it’s good to hear that they are taking steps to address the gaps in their online giving. Here’s Liz’s email in full:
Dear Damian,
Your post of August 5th has been brought to my attention and I am writing to personally thank you for your very generous donation to SVP via the website.
I’m sure you will be glad to hear that we are in the middle of a major website development and revamping project, which will include being able to capture donor details and thank...
A couple of quick updates on the Great Mystery Shopping Escapade:
1) The charity that I couldn’t donate to online last week was the Irish Hospice Foundation. I’ve spoken to Tim O’Dea, their Fundraising Director, and he’s explained that they were recently subjected to a hacker attack which disabled most of their website, including the donation function. They’re currently working on getting everything back in place, but a useful reminder to keep an eye on your internet security.
2) So far, only 2 of the 14 charities haven’t sent me a thank you. For the record, they’re Amnesty International and St Vincent de Paul. Whatever about Amnesty International, I’m not expecting a thank you from the SVP, as they never bothered to record my email or...
Welcome to the great Mystery Shopping Adventure 2008! We’ve just tried to donate to 15 of Ireland’s largest and most well known charities - but one wouldn’t accept online donations. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing our experiences of being a donor in today’s Ireland.
But let’s start with the basics - saying thank you. You know, the way your parents taught you to when you were a child.
Of the 14 charities we donated to this afternoon, 11 have sent me a thank you email. Which means nearly a quarter of them didn’t bother (in fact one didn’t even bother to record either my email address or my postal address - more on that later).
Stay tuned for more…Technorati Tags: mystery shopping, charity, nonprofit, fundraising,...
Here’s some worthwhile, illuminating and interesting pieces to check out:
Seth Godin talks about marketing nonprofit causes. He’s worthwhile reading on anything, essential on nonprofits.
The Agitator on the latest research on improving the effectiveness of donation landing pages.
The ever-excellent Ben Goldacre, meanwhile, has unearthed a document by the (UK) charity commissioners which tries to argue that blogs - yes, all of them - have no educational value! Ben, as usual, demolishes this with aplomb.
Piaras and Richard Delevan both have good pieces on the appalling failures of the Yes to Lisbon campaign. Plenty of lessons for nonprofits: tell stories (about real people) and do it with passion and conviction.
‘No stamp required, but using one will save us money’ -...
Three reasons to support the Irish Hospice Foundation - our latest campaign for the Irish Hospice Foundation.
1. So seriously ill children receive the best palliative care available, at home with their families.
2. To encourage all Irish hospitals to take on the Hospice approach to end of life care.
3. To help us extend hospice services to people with illnesses other than cancer.
Technorati Tags: Irish Hospice Foundation, palliative care, fundraising, charity, direct marketing...
Conor Byrne has a great new blog on fundraising. Finally, the beginnings of an Irish fundraising blogging community!
Technorati Tags: conor byrne, fundraising, blogs, ireland, charity...
Some seem to have cracked it, some have yet to figure it out…
MarriagEquality
Friends of the Earth Ireland and International
Unicef
Greenpeace International and their Light bulb campaign
LGBT Noise
Concern Worldwide
Technorati Tags: facebook, social networking, non-profit, charity...
Two campaigns for Dublin Samaritans. If you’d like to support Dublin Samaritans, please click here.
More than 500 people in Ireland took their lives last year. We don’t know how many of them may have called Samaritans but we do know that for many people just listening helps.
… Many are afraid of being judged, of being told to “pull themselves together”. That’s why they feel safer speaking to someone they don’t know. That’s why they speak to Samaritans.
Technorati Tags: fundraising, samaritans, direct mail, charity...
(If you’d like to donate to Women’s Aid, click here)
In the next few minutes a woman will call our helpline… we don’t know what her story will be, but she will need our help.
Last year we responded to almost 12,000 calls from women who had been beaten, screamed at, kicked, threatened, burned, sexually humiliated, even raped by their own partners.
Technorati Tags: fundraising, womens aid, charity...
Marc is back!
Houtlust may be gone to the great online archive in the sky, but Marc has returned with a bigger, better, more 2.0 site - osocio. And it’s full of ambition:
Osocio is dedicated to social advertising and non-profit campaigns. It’s the place where marketing and activism collide. Formerly known as the Houtlust Blog, Osocio is the central online hub for advertisers, ad agencies, grassroots, activists, social entrepreneurs, and good Samaritans from around the globe.
Good to have you back, Marc.
Technorati Tags: houtlust, osocio, social marketing, non-profit, charity, advertising...
Our Christmas campaign for Dublin Simon.
(If you’d like to support Dublin Simon Community, click here.)
Homelessness is hard enough, but for Mark, stuck in a bettered wheelchair and unable to get around as well as everyone else, life’s suddenly become a lot harder. He can’t get upstairs, so most of the shelter beds in Dublin are off-limits to him, and now he’s even more vulnerable than he was before.
Technorati Tags: Dublin Simon, charity, fundraising, direct mail...
Today is the deadline for postaim and marks the end of the busiest couple of months for us at Ask Direct. With a couple of exceptions, all of the Christmas campaigns are now written, designed, printed, packed and posted. Time to catch a breath, and update the blog!
I’ll be posting up some of our campaigns here over the next few days. First, our Christmas appeal for the Irish Hospice Foundation, which recounts the experiences of Deirdre and Colin whose parents both spent their last days under hospice care…
Everyone was wonderful, and if my mother needed anything, like more pain relief, it just happened. She never had to wait or suffer unnecessarily. It gave everyone a feeling of calm and peace, and though it sounds odd, of well being too.
You couldn’t have a better end,...
Please click here! http://www.irishwhiskeynotes.com/2007/11/help-good-cause-win-case-of-irish.html
Thanks to David at Irish Whiskey Notes.
And thanks to Stephen Teeling and David Horgan at Cooley Whiskey for your kind donation.
I’m also very grateful to a number of people in the UK who are helping me as we try to gather some further support.
I should also thank Terence at the Irish Medical [...]...
Just came across an interesting report from Donor Digital and Target Analysis Group benchmarking internet giving amongst US non-profits.
While the numbers are still small compared to those giving by ‘traditional’ methods, there are some interesting findings about the characteristics of online donors. Notably, they tend to be younger, richer and give much larger gifts (median gift of $57 against $33) than other donors. For 10 of the 12 non-profits participating in the survey, the revenue per donor from online donors was twice that from non-online donors.
Time to start building that email database, eh?
Technorati Tags: fundraising, charity, online giving, donors...
via Seth Godin.
So what does postern* mean?
An interesting, and probably quite addictive site. But, but, but….
… despite a pile of FAQ’s there’s a distinct lack of transparency. Is FreeRice a non-profit? Or is it a commercial venture? How much of the advertising revenue goes to the rice? It would be nice to know.
Still, a good example of stickiness on a website.
* back door, apparently.
Technorati Tags: fundraising, charity, free rice, governance...
For most Irish doctors and nurses, the daily battle to save lives doesn’t begin until they reach their workplace.
In the southern Iraqi city of Basra however - about 600km south of the capital Baghdad - it’s a battle just to get to work safely through the dusty, rubbish-strewn and war-torn streets without being kidnapped or [...]...
I’ve just downloaded nfpSynergy’s new free report on the 21st Century Donor - looks like it’ll be an interesting read.
Technorati Tags: nfpsynergy, research, donors, fundraising, charity, not-for-profit...
Sad to see that Marc has closed Houtlust. The good news is he’s leaving the site in place and also planning a new project. In the meantime, Houtlust remains one the most important resources for anyone interested in non-profit communications.
I’ve just discovered Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog. And this week she’s hosting the Carnival of Non-Profit Consultants.
Jeff at Donor Power has an interesting piece on what works in fundraising appeals. Remember, heart not head.
Technorati Tags: fundraising, charity, non-profit, marketing, communications, donor motivation...
The first thing to say about this article in today’s Guardian is that I doubt if an equivalent Irish survey would even bother to look at charities as a distinct sector. But moving on to the results…
The good news is flexible working practices are ‘firmly entrenched in the working culture’.
However
Even at the survey’s better performing charities, maternity pay was nothing special or had strings attached
And
Compared to parenting benefits at main public-sector departments we surveyed, the terms on offer to charity staff lag well behind.
And they go on
Were the bar not fairly low in this sector, it is also questionable whether some of our listed charities would rate as ‘above average’ - the National Trust, Unicef UK and Leonard Cheshire are on this...
Aside from the networking, there’s a lot of people on there. Here’s an example of a tool that can be used to raise money using Facebook.
One of the good things about Facebook is that it allows third parties to create applications which can be added to your profile - as has happened in this case. So someone puts together a fundraising application. Add in the peer-to-peer networking potential of Facebook and you have a possible outlet for recruiting new supporters and raising money.
Technorati Tags: facebook, fundraising, social networking, charity, causes...
There’s some interesting figures in July’s Professional Fundraising for direct mail repsonse rates in the UK
Quoting the Institute of Fundraising’s Fundratios study, they report that average warm direct mail response rates rose in 04/05 to 13.9% from 11.8%. While average cold response rates decreased from 1.4% to 1.3%.
Of course, averages can mask a huge amount of variation. And there are many factors that influence response. So before you get too distraught / ecstatic having compared these figures to your last campaign, bear the following in mind.
Lower asks will give higher response rates. Fewer people will respond to a direct debit ask than to a cash ask. And some charities will be more cold-mail friendly than others. So if you’re fundraising for the National...
Scam breast cancer charity shut down in UK
Technorati Tags: charity, fundraising, governance, charitable regualation...
Well, at least one of my new year wishes has come true. Fundraising Ireland launches on Wednesday next, 20 June at 5pm in The Four Seasons Hotel, Ballsbridge.
Fundraising Ireland is a network for fundraising professionals and I’d encourage anyone working in the sector to come along on Wednesday. The keynote speech is by Deirdre Mortell of the One Foundation. But don’t worry, it won’t all be speeches and serious. There’ll be plenty of time to meet and chat to other fundraisers over a glass of wine.
Technorati Tags: Fundraising Ireland, charity, non-profit, fundraising...