Fundraising

3 Tips for Email Subject Lines

When it’s time to develop the content for an email appeal, the subject line is typically the last thing to get written. Ironically, it’s the usually first thing your reader sees.

Give your subject lines the love and attention they deserve. Use these three tips to make your subject lines more interesting, relevant and effective.

1. Substance over Style
   The subject line is an opportunity to establish that what you have to say is relevant to your readers’ interests and concerns. Does your subject line paint an accurate picture of what’s inside? Email can build or break a trusting relationship with your readers, so be clear about what they’ll get if they open the email. If the content within doesn’t live up to the promise of the subject line, it may be the last time some recipients open your emails.
2. Watch the Length
   Remember, messages are not always displayed consistently across various email clients and platforms (Outlook, Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, etc. may all display the subject line differently). Most email clients allow for 50-60 characters to display in a subject line, which is not that much to work with! If you’re aware that a substantial number of your supporters may be reading your emails on a mobile device, consider condensing your subject lines even shorter.
3. Support the “From” Line
   When deciding whether to open an email, readers sometimes look at the “From” line before the subject line. Support brand recognition by using a consistent “from” address for your email appeals. If your “from” line lists your org’s name, you don’t have to repeat it in the subject line, which frees up space in the subject line.

For more pointers, download our Making Email Appeals More Effective tip sheet.

Report: 33.5M U.S. Hispanics Online

According to Engage: Hispanics in January there were 33.5 million Hispanics online in the United States. Further, the Hispanic online market is growing three times faster than the general online market.

And as if those stats weren’t enough to raise your eyebrows, here are a few more:

• 59% of online Hispanics in the U.S. are under the age of 35 compared to 50% of non-Hispanics.
• Today, 53% of online Hispanics say that they use the Internet in English with 28% indicating they use both English and Spanish with the remaining 19% using the Internet in Spanish.
• Not only do Hispanics have above average use of established platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, they are also flocking to new platforms such as Google+, Tumblr and Pinterest.

(Read the full report on Engage: Hispanics.)

What’s all that mean? It means your organization needs to be paying attention to this market, especially for online communication and fundraising.

Get started with these:

• Hispanics are Online, But Marketers Don’t See Them from Engage: Hispanics
• Hispanics Spending More Online than Non-Hispanics from Mercury Mambo
• Hispanic Online Best Practices from the Captura Group
• Hispanic/Multicultural PR Case Studies from Hispanic PR Blog

PS Thanks to Tom at The Agitator for blogging on this report earlier in the month.

Pathfinder and Pancakes!

Today’s "Behind the Convio Admin Curtain" installment is full of juicy Convio best practices, and even a restaurant recommendation for stellar chocolate chip pancakes right outside Boston.  Read on to learn how Jamie-Alexis Fowler pushed fundraising goals to bring in more dollars for Pathfinder International and leveraged the services of Convio’s Strategy team to amplify her organization’s message.

PS—We call ourselves Convions, but I’ll take Convio-ers too!

EG for CC: What’s your elevator pitch about what Pathfinder does?
JAF: Pathfinder provides women, men, and adolescents with a range of quality reproductive health services—from contraception and maternal care to HIV prevention and AIDS care and treatment. Reproductive health is critical to giving people everywhere the ability to make choices about their lives. When a woman has access to reproductive health care, she can make choices about her body and her future—and that leads to more choices about staying in school, starting a business, or perhaps pursuing a role in local government. 
 
EG for CC: How do you describe your role at the organization to friends at parties?
JAF: I handle our public relations and online communications. So pretty much anything online--website, Twitter, email--as well as our outreach to media. 
 
EG for CC: Of Convio’s array of online resources, what have you found most useful?
JAF: Pathfinder has been a Convio client for many years and having worked at Pathfinder for nearly five of those, I've used quite a few of Convio's resources! I've found the survey tool quite useful for Pathfinder's online work, whether for building our 'Contact Us' section of the website, or establishing RSVPs for events. I'm also a fan of the email tools. From setting up an email send, to running reports, to establishing various email series (ie, a Welcome Series), I've always found it pretty easy to use and effective in meeting our needs.
 
EG for CC: Please share a few random (unrelated to Pathfinder and Convio) facts about yourself (a fave destination in Boston, perhaps?)...
JAF: I absolutely am obsessed with chocolate chip pancakes from the Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown, MA (near Pathfinder's office). Not only have they formed the basis of many post-training run breakfasts, they have also become an integral part of our weekly website overhaul breakfast meeting.
 
EG for CC: What are you most proud of regarding your use of Convio with Pathfinder?
JAF: Two projects using Convio that I'm most proud of are: Girl2Woman.org, a microsite that we developed on Pagebuilder, and our online fundraising. Girl2Woman.org started as a small idea to raise awareness about the importance of sexual and reproductive health care throughout a woman's life. It turned into our most successful constituent engagement and list-building campaign. Outreach utilizing Girl2Woman.org skyrocketed our organic registration rates drove our Facebook following to record numbers.
 
In terms of online fundraising, Convio's tools have helped Pathfinder meet goals that a few years ago, many on our team would have thought impossible. For instance, our 2011 end of year online fundraising campaign brought in what we raised over the course of the entire year in 2007. We have a long way to go, since Pathfinder has a smaller individual donor base than other groups of our size, but we're pretty proud of what we've accomplished so far! 
 
EG for CC: Share an anecdote about a project or specific campaign you worked on through Convio that was particularly exciting or interesting or productive. 
JAF: We did our first online matching gift campaign, 'Two Months, Twice the Difference,' in 2009 with a goal of reaching $25,000. Some staff were nervous that we had set our goal too high and were worried we wouldn't be able to do it in only two months. We ended up raising nearly $25,000 one month in and raised the goal to $35K! In part, the success of that campaign was due to the great help we had from Convio providing strategy and advice. Based on that initial success, last fall, we held our third online matching gift initiative, raising a whopping $80,000, not to mention that the match was a $2 for $1!
 
EG for CC: If you had advice to share for a new Convio admin, what would it be?
JAF: Save, save, and save! I learned early working in Convio products that if you're in the midst of something--an email, a page edit, etc--that if a colleague pops by your office, or a Skype chat distracts you for a few minutes, you will likely lose your work! Convio's security is great to protect access to your information, but it can also spell trouble if you don't save early and save often!
 
EG for CC: One secret tip or trick you’ve picked up along the way related to the Convio platform…
JAF: That Convio staff are among the best. Any time I have ever had a concern, needed help, wanted a new product feature, or am curious about the best way to do something, I know I can always reach an amazing Convio staff person. It is a treat to catch up with Convio-ers (if that's a word!) at the Convio Summit or even just a friendly chat on the phone. Their enthusiasm for helping nonprofits achieve their missions, and their friendliness in helping us all do it, are pretty much unparrallelled in my experience!

Backin' up the Smack Talk

I’m the world’s worst smack talker. Just ask my husband or close friends who love to rip on me about my beloved Fightin’ Texas Aggie Football Team, who has a 31.4% win rate against our rivals, the Texas Longhorns.  

I struggle with “talking smack” because it’s hard to argue against the truth.  No matter how passionately I might feel about my team, we lose to UT in 2 out of every 3 games.  There is not much room for smack talk when the stats clearly communicate who is the leader.  There is no better way to speak the truth than by looking at the numbers.   

Last week the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council, an independent group focused on supporting the non-profit fundraising event industry, released its 2011 report of the top 30 fundraising events in the US.   I'm really proud to say that Convio TeamRaiser remains the undeniable leader in the special event fundraising industry.  This is just fact, I'll let the numbers speak for themselves...

If you are interested in learning more about how your event stacks up against other Convio clients, check out the P2P Benchmark Report.

If you are interested in digging a little deeper in the 2011 RWR 30 data set, check out the Top 10 Fundraising Events Infographic from my friends at Event360.

Daily Good Deed at SXSW

"Do a good deed daily" is an excellent little rule to live by and the Convio team is all about making that easier for folks. For the next four days, we're pleased to be adding an extra (and easy) opportunity for doing a good deed daily with our "fork over your lunch money" campaign.

Throughout SXSW Interactive (today-Tuesday), we're sponsoring lunch at The Beacon Lounge and instead of asking SXSW attendees to pay for the food, we're asking them to reach into their pockets and fork over their lunch money to support an Austin charity. Each day will be dedicated to a different organization and because we think sometimes more really is more, we're going to match up to $500 per day.

I know you are reading this on your computer/smartphone/tablet and thinking "hey, that's pretty sweet" and some of you are thinking "Sign me up! Food for a cause!". For y'all, yup, see you for lunch! But for those of you thinking "Lame, I'm going to be at cousin Lucy's wedding in No-wheres-ville instead" have no fear. In addition to accepting cash donations at the lunch we've also set up a donation page for anyone, SXSW attendee or otherwise, to contribute to the cause.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I invite you sit back, relax and enjoy these short videos about our awesome beneficiary charities.

Saturday, March 10: Lifelong Friends

Sunday, March 11: American YouthWorks

Monday, March 12: Capital Area Food Bank

Tuesday, March 13: American Red Cross of Central Texas

Learn about all of Convio's SXSW involvement.