Emma Zolbrod

Shortly after my son was born, he was weighed and measured. And so it began: A new life surrounded by numbers. How long did he sleep? Apparently the ‘average’ baby slept longer than my little guy. How often did he eat? Oh no! This ‘average’ baby ate more often than him too. Who was this ‘average’ baby anyway? This entry into parenthood served as a good reminder that there are some important metrics to follow, but you should not be afraid to dig a little deeper when it comes to the information behind the numbers. And after I started to get sleep in blocks longer than 4 hours, I realized the same applies to metrics tied to fundraising events.

This realization about event fundraising analytics was reinforced during recent conversations with Alan Cooke at Convio and Jeff Shuck at Event 360. Basically, there are many key metrics organizations should monitor closely. Below are a few that stood out to me:

 1. Donors per participant. This metric is one of the best ways to understand participants’ fundraising reach. If this number falls below three, then it’s time for your organization to take a closer look at how participants fundraising. The best way to boost this number and increase adoption of fundraising tools is to share tips and best practices with participants, who may be inspired and reinvigorated by the ideas they receive.

2. Number of emails sent per participant. Time to dig a little deeper here because the average for this metric can be easily skewed by participants who are not sending any emails. (As my accounting professor at business school once told our class, “If you have one hand in boiling hot water and the other in freezing cold water then, on average, you’re warm.”) So, look at the median to find out how actively participants are reaching out to their contacts. After you’ve identified those participants who are slacking off, reach out to them with a very specific action that they can execute easily. For example, tell them to look in their sent folder and email the five people they’ve contacted most recently to ask them for a donation.

3. Amount per gift. Gift size is an interesting metric to track because it can be influenced by various factors, such as how easy it is for a person to give, or by gift levels presented on a donation form. For this metric, the average donation might not provide you with a realistic view of your participants’ fundraising efforts and results because it can be skewed by some very generous donors. In this case, the median donation amount is a better number to examine. Try to boost this number by tweaking donation forms or streamlining the online donation process.

There are more details about key metrics and best practices in driving online fundraising success in Analyze This: A Nonprofit’s Guide to Event Fundraising Analytics. This joint guide published by Convio and Event 360 contains some sound advice that can be applied by any nonprofit which uses event fundraising as a source of donations.

(By the way, my son has turned out just fine. He’s reached the important milestones and has proven to be a very kind and gentle soul. My daughter, on other hand is a force to be reckoned with. I guess you could say that, on average, they’re normal. )

An obvious place to sign up for an email newsletter. A well placed donation button. A prominent photo that conveys your mission. I’ve seen how these tactics can boost the results of a nonprofit’s website, but there’s plenty more that organizations can do on this front. These top five lessons serve as a good starting point for evaluating the effectiveness of your organization’s website.

Top 5 Lessons Learned in 2009: Evaluating Your Website’s Effectiveness

1. Back to the basics. Does your homepage cover essential points that meet the basic needs of your website’s visitors? To see how good a job you’re doing at providing this critical information, ask yourself a few questions. Who are we? What are we trying to accomplish with our site? Do we proudly display our tagline, which clearly summarizes what our organization does? If your homepage answers these key questions, then you’re on the right track.

2. Tell a compelling story and tell it well. Whose lives are you affecting? How are you making a difference? Clearly communicate these details on your homepage if you want to convince a visitor to become engaged with your organization. If a visitor understands how their involvement could make a difference, then they are more likely to dig a little deeper and might even give you their email address, make a donation, take action, or volunteer.

3. It’s never too early to start building a relationship. Does your content try to address the masses, or does it target the major audiences you want to reach? Hopefully, it does the latter. Your website content needs to be structured in a way that meets the information needs of these different audiences. Think in terms of personas, each with its own detailed demographic information, description, online habits, and needs as they pertain to the programs and services your organization provides.

4. Keep it fresh. Are you presenting website visitors with content that is timely? Are you refreshing it frequently to encourage them to visit more than once? Dedicate at least one section of your homepage to the latest news, call-to-action, or other piece of current information that will appeal to your target audiences, and update it regularly.

5. Data is priceless. Do you track key information about your website (e.g., source of visitors, actions once a person arrives on your site, which pages visitors look at, how much time they spend on your site, etc.)? If not, then get cracking. But remember, just tracking information isn’t enough. You need to use it too! Make informed decisions about website content, design, architecture, advertising and more based on an analysis of the data you collect.

Admittedly, these lessons only scratch the surface of website effectiveness. Read more tips in the 2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide  and share some of your own here.

While writing about multi-channel engagement, I couldn’t help but to think that each lesson learned applied mainly to supporters who are actively engaged with your nonprofit organization. But what about those donors who have seemingly fallen off the face of the planet? Well, last year, I learned that there are many options when you’re trying to reconnect with donors.

Top 5 Lessons Learned in 2009: Reconnecting With Donors

1. Remind them that money is not the only option. In challenging economic times, many donors might not have extra funds to give to your organization. These individuals might wrongly assume that a donation is the only way they can help. Of course, this is far from the truth. Your organization survives and thrives thanks to a combination of dollars, volunteer hours, and other generous support. Of course you know that there are other ways that lapsed donors could support you, but do they know? Don’t make any assumptions. Lay out the options in clear, non-financial terms.

2. Dangle a carrot. Premiums and incentives can go a long way with some donors, including lapsed ones. It might be enough to bring a person back into the fold, and prompt them to support your organization financially once again. 

3. Speak to them directly. Use the information you have about your lapsed donors to write a message in which you acknowledge that they’ve been MIA, and that you would love to reconnect with them again. Don’t make it all about the money. Your goal in the short-term should be to rebuild your relationship, not to ask them for a donation.

4. Showcase your progress. You might never know what prompted a donor to stop giving. However, you do know that at some stage, they had a tie to your cause. Use this fact to help you reconnect with your donor by sending a message that shows how much progress your organization made last year with the donations it received. (This could be conducted in conjunction with lesson #3.) A meaningful photo and a heart-warming story might be just what the individual needs to remind them why they cared in the first place, and that they should get involved once again.

5. Don’t be afraid to sever the ties. You need to take a step back first and approach this segment carefully and wisely, with a view towards your return on investment. These might not be the people you want on your direct mailing list because you might not see the return you’re looking for. Of course you need to make an informed decision before you remove a person from your list, but at the same time, you need to be smart with your limited budget.

If you’re looking for additional tips on this topic, take a peek at the 2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide. It contains a few nuggets that will be useful to those of you who are trying to come up with new ways to reconnect with donors.

I’m connected in different ways to numerous nonprofit organizations. On the professional side, I’ve interviewed many industry professionals for articles, case studies, best practices guides, white papers and more. On the personal side, I’ve donated, volunteered, taken action, and raised money. From my interactions with them over the years, I became aware of how these organizations could engage me more effectively so that I feel even more committed to supporting their cause. And with the publishing of the 2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide, 5 main lessons learned in the way of multi-channel marketing were evident in 2009.

Top 5 Lessons Learned in 2009: Multi-Channel Engagement

1. Coordinate your efforts. Two emails from the same nonprofit in one day? Both asking me for money? I replied to one of the senders and gave them a heads-up about the overlap because I knew that if I was annoyed by it, many others likely were as well. She thanked me for my input and apologized for bombarding me with emails. This simple oversight on the nonprofit’s end reminded me how important it is for an organization to coordinate messages across departments. Even if you operate in silos, try to create the illusion that you don’t.

2. Use the data you have about me.  You should be collecting information about me – donations, interests, communication preferences. So, please use it to your advantage. If I donated $50 last year, don’t suggest that I give $25 this year. Instead, remind me that I gave $50 last year, and then ask me to give the same again or more this year. I’ll appreciate the personalized message and the fact that you remember the amount, because I probably won’t!

3. Tell me what else I can do. If you tell me about other ways I could get involved with your organization, then I probably will. The reason that I typically open my wallet first is because that is what you tell me to do. So tell me to do something else. My son’s preschool, which is a nonprofit organization, is a perfect example. Since he started there in 2008, my family has made several donations to support the school. Last week, I received an email asking me to donate earthquake supplies. This was not a generic ask, it was a specific list – from duct tape and shovels, to blankets and flashlights. In the wake of the Haiti earthquake, the message was timely and reminded me that in the case of his school, I can do more than give cash. I can donate specific items and even join the earthquake preparedness committee to ensure that my son, his peers, and teachers, are well equipped if an emergency arises. They asked. Now I’m inspired to deliver.

4. Respect my preferences. You’ve told me that your organization’s fundraising results were down because of the economy, and that my donation – no matter how small – will make a difference. I’ve told you that I’m most responsive to email (as long as you don’t send me two of them on the same day). Yet over the holidays, I received a fancy direct mail piece from you. The attractive double-sided, full color piece on high-quality card stock might inspire some people to donate, but for me it made me feel as though you aren’t listening to what I’ve told you in the past. So, please choose your communication channel more carefully when you reach out to me. If you do, then I’m more likely to keep supporting your cause. 

5. If you insist on contacting me offline, then please tell me how I can respond online. I realize that sometimes you will contact me by mail. When you do, please give me the option to respond online and make it clear how I would do it. If there’s a special campaign, then include the link to the donation form in your direct mail piece. If you’re looking for volunteers, then point me to the volunteer sign-up page on your website. I’m more likely to come through for you if I can fulfil your request through your website.

We all know that you’re doing your best, but we want you to do even better by taking the time to listen to our feedback and then incorporating it into your multi-channel engagement strategy.

Even more tips and lessons learned for Multi-Channel engagement can be found in the 2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide. Have something else that works well for your organization? Share them here!

If there’s one topic that’s near and dear to my heart in the nonprofit world, it’s participant fundraising.

First a little background information. In memory of my brother-in-law, Bill Drew, I joined Team in Training in 2002 and committed to raise $2,500 and run a marathon. For someone whose fundraising experience at that time was limited to selling chocolate covered almonds door-to-door in seventh grade, and whose running experience could best be described as non-existent, the odds were not in my favor. But I knew a lot about marketing and I thought that my determination might come in handy, so off I went.

Back then, fundraising was different. Technology to allow participants to accept donations online? In my dreams! I had to use both email and regular mail, contacting every person in my address book. As I type this, I’m having bad flashbacks to numerous paper jams, countless trips to the bank to deposit checks, and many dollars spent on stamps that could have gone to the cause instead. Despite these challenges, I became one of the organization’s top fundraisers in Northern California that year. (I also finished the marathon!)

Thanks to the Internet and innovative companies like Convio, the world of fundraising has been transformed since then. Now, participants have access to the tools they need to raise money online. But in reality, having the tools is only half the battle for many individuals. Just as I needed some prodding to train regularly, participants need the occasional poke to keep them motivated and focused on achieving their fundraising goal. And who better to push them along than the organization behind the event!

From the combination of my personal experience, information gathered from a survey and subsequent interviews with successful individual fundraisers, and a discussion with Noel Beebe at Convio at the time of gathering information for the 2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide, I gained insight into the many steps an organization can take to maximize the success of their participant fundraising. From these, I pulled together this set of lessons learned. 

Top 5 Lessons Learned in 2009: Participant Fundraising

1. The 5/50 rule. Basically, your top five percent of fundraisers bring in more than 50 percent of the fundraising dollars for participant-led events. (This one came as a bit of a shock to me. I think of it as a variation of the 80/20 rule.) These are the folks who deserve a pat on the back or a more personalized thank you for their efforts thus far. They’ll likely return the favor and stay connected to your organization long after they reach the finish line.
2. Do the heavy lifting work. No, you don’t fundraise on behalf of your participants, but you can make it easier for them to raise money for your organization by eliminating (or at least lowering) hurdles. One of the biggest ones?  Writing the email to solicit donations. So, do your fundraisers a favor and create an email template for them. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should have some basic elements (e.g., explain the organization’s mission, provide a call to action, and make it obvious how to donate). Let the participants tailor the message by adding details about why they decided to support the cause and maybe an image to personalize their request. 
3. Past performance is an indicator of future performance. This isn’t the stock market folks. You can rely on historical data points as indicators for what lies ahead. If an individual participated in an event before, then they’ll likely do it again. So sift through the list of last year’s participants and reach out to them first.
4. Show some love to past participants. If I participated in your event last year, then show me a little love (and respect) when you reach out to me this year. Don’t send me the generic “Please join our event” email that you send to everyone whose email address you tracked down. No, I expect a little more from you. I’m not registrant #1967. I have a name. I have a history with your organization. I have a tie to your cause. Acknowledge my previous involvement.  If I’m going to dedicate countless hours to raise money for your organization, then I expect you to make a bit of an effort by acknowledging our ‘relationship’. After all, we’ve already had our ‘first date’! 
5. A little social media can go a long way. What started off as a means to stay connected with people and share content, has transformed the way we interact with each other. There are so many opportunities to put this channel to good use.  Your organization can use social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) to promote your event and recruit participants. You can also encourage registered participants to use social media to help them reach their fundraising goal. 

Even more lessons learned and ideas can be found in the 2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide, and of course, I know there are many other tips participant fundraisers must have. So please chime in with your ideas. What worked for your organization in 2009? And what are you looking to do in 2010?