Tad Druart

As you have probably realized from some of my posts, being a good dad and husband is my top priority in life. Last night at bed time my 8-year old son pulled some of the books he no longer reads and some of the toys he no longer uses together to give to the Church so other kids who are less fortunate can get more this holiday season. Even if there is a part of him that is “just making more room” for what he hopes to get, the fact that he is thinking about others is a nice win for a dad.

I then went down to check my home email and look through the year end appeals that I am getting from organizations I have engaged with this year. There were many wonderful causes and wonderful appeals. Most were generic with greetings like “dear donor”, “dear friend” and “dear volunteer”.  One tried to be more personal, it read “Dear insert name”. As mistakes happen, I feel for that person and the organization (See Sally’s post on mistakes from earlier this year.) Some were customized around my interests and engagement through-out the year and were personalized with “Dear Tad” or “Mr. Druart” and one had “Dear Druart Family.”

The last one got me thinking about the best way to engage me as a donor this season and a topic that has been prevalent in this year’s nonprofit donor research – knowing your constituents better. 

A quick review – the Wired Wealthy Research showed most causes were not making the best possible use of their Web and email efforts to connect with important donors. Similarly,  according to initial findings from a new survey initiated by Bank of America, nearly 60% of wealthy households who stopped giving to a charitable organization attributed their change in philanthropic behavior to "no longer feeling connected to the organization."

There is a famous holiday song that has as part of the lyric “Do you hear what I hear?” In this holiday/year-end giving season what I hear from these donors is that we canal do more to connect with them.

Given the economy and competition for resources and dollars, it seems that hearing and knowing your best supporters – donors, volunteers, advocates and participants – is more important than ever.

As you’re sharing information, making appeals or updating your constituents over the coming weeks ands months here’s a few ideas to keep in mind:
1) Build in a feedback loop or opportunity to gather intelligence on your most important people resources (don’t just ask for money, ask for insight and ideas),
2) Listen to what those donors and other supporters are telling you and work that into your on-going and future campaigns,
3) Be open to changing the way you do things to better serve their needs for information and engagement,
4) Use the technology available to segment your constituents based on their needs/wants then match that to your needs (if they help you create the engagement they are more likely to participate).

Next year, I expect to receive an email solicitation that reads in part:

“Dear Tad,

Thank you and Nancy for the generous gift in June. We also enjoyed having you participate in our run last August. As you, Nancy and the kids plan for your holiday giving, I hope you’ll consider expanding your support to include…”

The more you know and engage me the harder is it to say “no.”   If you get my son or daughter to do the ask then you’re golden, but that’s another post. 

On the MStonerblog, Michael Stoner posted a great summary of Convio Chief Strategy Officer/Founder Vinay Bhagat’s keynote address at yesterday’s 2008 CASE Online Strategies conference. Michael helped make the point that it is not just about the internet - it is about engagement. Technology has changed the rules of engagement and how one connects with donors, volunteers, advocates and other supporters.

I read his post while representing my alma mater (Newman University) at a college fair in San Antonio. I watched hundreds of college bound students communicate, connect and engage with one and another in person, but more so through text messages.  These young people along with my high school and college daughters will never own a phone that is wired to a wall and I wonder if they will actually ever mail a letter (other than the obligatory Hallmark to mom and dad that I hope to receive at some point in the future.) Yet they are connected and engaged in more relationships than I was at their age. Their expectations are high and spreading to middle age old men like myself.

To that point; I posted a comment to Michael’s blog from my car, in the parking lot of the school, via an iPhone as soon as the event was over. Technology let me connect when, where and how I desired – and allowed me to do it when I was compelled and passionate about it. That’s the imperative of embracing technology and the Internet for your donors, volunteers, advocates and other supporters. It makes it easier for the constituent to help build and manage the relationship - to work for and with you as you reach others and fulfill your mission. As I said in my comment to Michael, it was a “wow” moment. I connected with him, when, where and how I wanted.

It’s apparent that now is the time to make sure you are using the Internet and technology to connect with and empower your supporters.  It will be interesting to see how my 8-year old son is using technology when he is ready to go to college – but he’s still my buddy, so we’re not going to rush that. But, to state the obvious, people are using technology to connect and engage like never before – is your organization ready and easy to connect to?

It’s been fun talking with the media and blog community about the results of our year-end/holiday giving research. If you didn’t see the initial post or the report, here’s a quick synopsis – despite the economy more than 89 million online consumers say they plan to use the Internet to donate to nonprofits between November 1 and December 31 of this year. Based on the research we estimate that online giving will surpass $3 billion this season. As The NonProfit Times points out, “Just two years ago, $3 billion was the estimate of all online giving for a 12-mopnth period.”

There was a great deal of interesting data (and some tips on how to make sure your organization is optimized to benefit) in the report, so I wanted to take this opportunity to share some insight from a June/July survey we did with JupiterResearch, a Forrester Research company that can add more insight.

In that survey, also of online consumers, the analysts shared four key insights that add even more depth to this research:

• Most people (74%) who visited charity/non profit websites were motivated to do some sort of activity as a result.

These activities included donating, sharing their email address, signing up for a newsletter, signing a petition, forwarding information to a friend, etc. The analysts were surprised by such a high number especially compared to the consumer retail market.

The lesson for nonprofits is that you need to make sure your site has a variety of engagement opportunities – don’t simply focus on the transaction/donation, think about how you can engage people to organically build your constituency. (ConnectionCafe and the blogs we link to are full of great ideas on how to do this.) Here are some of the most common things that the online consumer said they do:

• Most common activities that people did were researched/learned more about the organization (35%), shared their email address with the organization (29%), made a donation (29%), or subscribed to the newsletter (24%). 

Don’t just focus on the donation – think engagement!

What about social networking. Even though 35-44 year olds are among the fastest growing adopters of social media it’s probably not a surprise to learn it’s a younger audience that values it most – they’ve been living it longer.

• The group most likely to see the value in social networking for non profits are 18-34 year olds (24% agreed they are an important source)

While the holiday giving research showed this group is also willing to give, think about them as brand ambassadors that can work with you and for you to support your cause. Connect with them and help them connect others to you.

I often hear that “online is for small gifts.” Our research into the online habits and preferences of the Wired Wealthy helped dispel some of those myths, but this research also supports the fact that the mid-size to major-gifts can be influenced online. 

• Affluent respondents more likely to have made a donation as a result of viewing the charity website (43%).

As Mark Rovner of Sea Change Strategies states from the research – nearly every time the donor gives, offline or online they are “checking you out” online.

Use this season as the season of engagement and know it will payoff in the long run.

(Here's Mark’s comments on donors checking you out.)

With the year-end giving season being important to nonprofit organizations that hope to achieve their fundraising goals and the communities they serve, we wondered what the economic climate will do to online charitable giving this year. We also wondered whether more people will use the Internet to give than last year and if there is seasonality around what type of charities can expect to benefit from online consumer donations.

Convio commissioned JupiterResearch, a Forrester Research company, to help gain insight into the online giving plans of the more than 175 million online consumers in the US. The results are interesting and indicate that the silver lining in this economic cloud just may be that nonprofits and consumers are aligning around online giving.

Over the next couple of days, I’ll be posting more insight and feedback about the research, but before we jump in, let’s look at the “elephant in the room” – what the economy is doing to nonprofits.

Things are tough right now for many nonprofits and if they are not already experiencing a slow downturn there is great concern about the future. In October, the DMA Nonprofit Federation put together an informal survey to gain insight into how the economic situation is impacting organizations in general.

More than 60 percent of respondents indicate that response rates for direct marketing are worse than last year,
Nearly 41 percent are seeing “smaller gifts, fewer individual donors.”
These organizations are also making organizational and marketing/communications changes in response to the economy. What was also interesting is that:

More than 67 percent said they are planning to use “newer marketing techniques in the near future (Web 2.0, blogs, social marketing, mobile marketing).”
The associated comments showed an inclination to more effectively use the Internet to reach donors. Are consumers and nonprofit coming together more often and more effectively online?

Let’s look at what consumers told us:

Fifty-one percent, more than 89 million, online consumers say that despite the economic situation they plan to donate online during the 2008 holiday season. This level of online planned support shows that nonprofits of all sizes need to make sure their websites and other electronic communications meet consumer expectations.

In fact, among those who find online resources helpful in selecting a charity, they are 20 percent more likely to donate than the average online user. It is also important to make sure that traditional appeals such as direct mail, television and events provide people with the option to give online.

Here’s some additional insight:

• 54% of women plan to donate versus 48 percent of men.
• 64% of people with household income of more than $100K plan to donate online with 9% donating more this holiday season.
• 46% of 18-24 year olds and 50% of 25-34 year olds plan to donate online, with 13% of 18-24 year olds planning to donate more this holiday season than last. (Are these potential new donors that are not on traditional lists?)
• 53% of 55-64 year olds plan to donate online showing that it is no longer just for the younger age groups.
• 46% of the group who said their financial situation became substantially worse over the past 12 months still plan to donate online this holiday season (I personally think this speaks well to the generosity of American consumers.)

While I know organizations are feeling the fall out of the economy, the research indicates that more than 89 million online consumers are a generous lot – if nonprofits are ready to engage them.

With these numbers online giving has become a mission critical part of a nonprofit’s fundraising mix.

The efficiency and effectiveness of the Internet as an engagement, communication and giving platform continues to grow in importance for donors and organizations alike. In this year-end giving season, marked by the difficult economic situation, the Internet can serve as a cost-effective and efficient medium to reach audiences while providing nonprofits:

• More flexibility to adjust to the changing market,
• The ability to provide more timely access to news and information on their needs and how they are fulfilling their mission, and
• Ability to reach more and new donors.

You can download more information about the research and ideas on what a nonprofit can do now to help make this year-end, holiday giving season more successful at www.convio.com/holiday2008

I invite you to read the information and ideas and share your thoughts with us here. I’ll also be back here to share some of the other findings of the research in the coming days. I know there is great uncertainty, but I also think that the innovative ideas and creativity of the nonprofit community combined with insight, ideas and information can help everyone better weather the storm so that we can find the silver lining until the sun shines again.

A couple of months ago I had the privilege of coaching my son’s last YMCA baseball game. It was a wonderful experience to teach the love of the game to 7 and 8 year olds. At that age the "Y" doesn’t keep score but instead focuses on having fun, learning and getting better each and every game. While we were very successful, I found it interesting that after every game the kids would comment that “if we had kept score we would have won.”  Last week, as I walked from the office to my car the UPS and FedEx trucks arrived at virtually the same time. Neither of the drivers acknowledged the other but I sensed a bit more urgency and efficiency in their movement to deliver the packages to customers. After the packages were delivered they both literally bounded out of the building, jogging the last 20 yards to their trucks – competing to be the first to “win” that round of deliveries. I began thinking about competition in the nonprofit sector.

When I started my career at a nonprofit twenty years ago, we were aware of the competition for dollars, volunteers and attention, but we didn’t talk about it. As I entered higher education, the competition was more intense, but it seemed it was often based in jealousy for what they had and we didn’t or vice a versa. At AFP in San Diego I heard a “social entrepreneur” tell a crowd that if he “didn’t like the way your organization was doing things or communicating” he would “start a competing organization.” Today, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article titled “Cancer Groups Look for Common Ground as Competition for Research Funds Heats Up.” (At first I was thinking they were all looking at our new Common Ground product, but it was about competition.)

With the large number of organizations vying for attention, dollars and talent; with organizations that are competing on the advocacy front for their point of view to prevail, and; with the ability for individuals to leverage technology to “start their own” organization, what role does competition play in the nonprofit sector - not between vendors serving the sector, but with the nonprofits themselves?

Does the competition make you better?

Does it dilute the ability of organizations to fulfill like-missions?

Is it more like FedEx and UPS where winning is most important or more like our YMCA games where everyone is a winner if they focus on the mission?

It was something that made me think. What do you think?