Future Fundraising Now

5 things plain-text email does a better job of raising funds

The first few times I saw this, it shocked me: Extra-plain, low-design emails seem to do better than others. The plainer, the better.

It seems wrong that in a medium that easily and routinely includes visuals, sound, video, and all kinds of interactivity ... a message that basically looks like a piece of paper pulled out of a typewriter is an effective way to move people to action.

But it's reliably true. Plain text emails are often the best way to raise money.

Nonprofit Fundraising shows why at 5 Reasons to Send a Plain Text Email:

1. They’re More Personal. The emails you get from real people that you know are like that. When you take advantage of all the cool things that are possible in email, it looks increasingly like it's not from a human. That, okay to ignore!
   
2. They’re Less Likely to Be Marked as Spam. Some spam filters flag HTML-rich emails as spam. When that happens, your message doesn't get through, no matter how wonderful it might be. And being flagged as spam increases the likelihood that future emails will also be flagged as spam.
   
3. They Take Less Time to Load. Your donors might not have the fast and reliable connection that you have. When people have to wait for something to download, they become more likely by the microsecond to give up and move on.
   
4. They are Easier to Forward. Complex formatting can turn into alphabet soup if someone tries to forward it. Say good-bye to the possibility of peer-to-peer fundraising!
   
5. They’re More Likely to Be Read. The richness of our digital world makes less-rich things stand out.
   

Plain text isn't the only way to do fundraising emails. But it's possibly the best bet in a lot of situations.

20 ways to make your donation page a lot more effective

A lot of online donations don't happen because donation pages get in the way of the donor's intention to give.

Here's a super-helpful post that can keep that from happening to your donors, from the Bloomerang Blog, at 20 Best Practices to Optimize Your Nonprofit Donation Page:

1. Choose the right online fundraising platform. Make sure your platform can do what you need to keep donors on track! This is a combination of user interface and back-end tech that really needs to be good.
   
2. Include a compelling reason to give. The page needs to remind the person who has landed there why they are there.
   
3. Describe how donations make an impact. Connect donation amounts with specific activities.
   
4. Brand the donation page to your organization. A page that looks like it's part of some other website will lose donors fast!
   
5. Only ask for necessary information. Sure, you'd love to get their phone number and 17 pieces of demographic information -- but asking for those things will cause donors to abandon. Only as for what you really need to have.
   
6. Make your donation form mobile responsive. If your donation page doesn't work on a phone, it doesn't work!
   
7. Make your donation page accessible. Be respectful of all donors by making sure it conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
   
8. Consider making your giving form a multi-step process. Rather than have one huge page for the entire transaction, consider breaking it up into a few smaller steps.
   
9. Offer suggested giving amounts. Donors are looking for guidelines on what they should give.
   
10. Enable recurring donations. Make it easy for donors to give monthly. Their value skyrockets when they do that.
    
11. Spotlight matching gifts. Make it easy for donors to apply employer matches if they have them.
    
12. Offer multiple payment options. You may be able to encourage a larger donation by making it easy to break it up into more than one payment.
    
13. Embed your giving page into your website. Don't make people leave your site to give. Many won't do it.
    
14. Use a secure payment processor.
    
15. Provide information about donor portals. On your donation confirmation page or follow-up email, show donors how to set up a giving account and describe the benefits of doing so.
    
16. Ask supporters how they heard about your organization. But make it "optional."
    
17. Optimize your donation confirmation page. Make sure it has a human-sounding thank-you, along with social sharing buttons and other ways to get involved.
    
18. Use your donation page to collect donor information.
    
19. Promote your donation page on all online platforms. It's the page you really want people to visit. Include links in social media posts, email footers, and any other place you can think of. In print, include a QR code that leads to that page.
    
20. Encourage supporters to share your giving page. Make it easy for donors to share their connection with you with their own network.,
    

The post is packed with specifics and examples. Don't miss it. It could have an important impact on your fundraising!

Here's an amazing solution for languishing nonprofit e-newsletters

It's been a puzzle ever since email became a viable way to communicate with donors: There's something wrong with e-newsletters.

Usually the lowest open rates of email types. All the other numbers low too.

Which is odd, because print newsletters do very, very well for most who do them right -- that is, make them relevant to their donors.

But, in my experience, when you port them over to email -- and I've tried every which way of doing it -- the magic is gone!

But here's a possible solution, from the Better Fundraising Blog, at How to Increase Your Email Open Rate by 58%.

Yes, you read that right: A different way to handle email newsletters that has boosted open rate from 24% to 38%.

It's called an "e-story," and the main difference from an newsletter is that it tells one “before and after” story. No formatting, no header image, no photo, no links to social. It's a message from your ED or president that looks like she typed it herself.

Here’s the outline for an e-story:

• Warm, personal greeting
  
• Directly tell the donor that you are going to tell them a story that’s a good example of how their gift made a difference
  
• Tell a “before and after” story from your organization’s work
  
• Reaffirm to the donor that they helped make that ‘before and after’ happen
  
• Let the donor know that they can give again if they’d like to
  
• Thank the donor for their generosity
  

The results, at least for the organization that has done it: Much higher open rate, leading to higher response rate -- that is, a lot more revenue. Response rate leads to stronger retention, so over the course of a year of sending them, you are likely to see an uptick in that critical measurement.

Try it. See if it works for you.

(And if you're already measurably succeeding with your email newsletter, let me know. You might have found another solution to the strange puzzle of e-newsletters.)

5 signs you're telling your donors to go away

A large majority of first-time donors will never give a second time. You went to all that trouble and expense to bring them on board -- for nothing.

This is one of the central forms of disfunction in fundraising. It's a factor we should constantly work on.

Here's a post from Wired Impact focusing on things that often go wrong when donors give on line, at Why Donors Stop Giving: 5 Red Flags in Your Post-Donation Process:

1. Your donation experience is purely transactional. Treat each donation as a relational exchange, not just a monetary transaction. Don't just tell them their donation is completed -- thank them. Immediately. With heart. Often.
   
2. There’s a lack of immediate donation follow-up. There should be an immediate thank-you page for online donations. And a thank you email right away. And a paper acknowledgement sent within 24 hours. And a phone call. Many donors are hesitant to give because they think their donation is unimportant. Don't let that feeling fester!
   
3. Donors don’t receive updated reporting on the outcomes. Do they know that their donation actually makes a difference? They don't unless you tell them!
   
4. They don’t get plugged into the donor (and larger) community. Let them know they've joined a community -- even a family -- by giving.
   
5. Donors develop privacy concerns about their personal information. Treat their information as the precious treasure it is.
   

An easy email welcome series that will help you keep your donors

The quickest way to lose a new donor is to go silent on them after they give. The best way to cement the new relationship is to have a plan for what follows a donation.

Here's an easy 5-part email welcome series for online donors, from the Impact Communications Blog, at Don’t Follow Donations with Silence:

1. 0-24 hours after gift: Simple message of gratitude.
   
2. 1-3 days after gift: First-person story about the impact of the donation.
   
3. 1 week after gift: Ask the donor to take another action, such as complete a survey, sign a petition, attend an event, or share on social media.
   
4. 2 weeks after gift: another first-person story.
   
5. 3-4 weeks after gift: ask the donor to become a monthly donor.
   

You're lucky if you retain 50% of your donors year-to-year (and retention of first-time donors is under 20%). A ready-to-go series is one of the best ways to improve those numbers.

11 ways to get more online donations

"Conversion" is digital-marketing-speak for "getting people to take the action you want them to take." Commercial sales people think about this all the time. So should we.

The Hubspot Marketing Blog has some great hints at 11 Conversion Copywriting Tips that Grew Our Revenue by 240%:

1. Write like a boss. That is, with confidence. Directly and clearly state what you want people to do. Donate now. Not Maybe now would be a good time to think about donating, if you can.
   
2. Remove the phrase "check out" from your vocabulary. Ouch. I used that phrase a couple of weeks ago. Instead of this passive, non-directive approach, use action verbs and communicate why they'd want to do it.
   
3. Don't bury the lede. Get to the point.
   
4. Use negative calls-to-action instead of positive ones. Loss avoidance can be a stronger approach. Try Don't miss this chance instead of Take action now.
   
5. Leverage "why" and "because." Both are words that tell readers this is a decision point.
   
6. Use the royal we/you. Make sure "we" clearly includes the reader!
   
7. Read what you write out loud. It might look fine visually, but sometimes you've created something awkward or confusing. Reading aloud calls it out for you.
   
8. Write with your eyeballs. Make sure the writing looks good too: easy, inviting, digestible. That means short paragraphs, emphasis (bold, italic, underlines), subheads, and more.
   
9. Do unto others. Really get into your reader's head and think about what they want. Write to them, not yourself.
   
10. Write with a clear objective. Start with your call-to-action first. Then you have a target that makes your writing more clear and compelling.
    
11. Dog-food your own marketing. Encourage insiders to share material.
    

Badmouthing your donor to their face?

View from my email inbox:

On the left is the sender name. On the right, the subject line.

It's from a political fundraiser.

Apparently they hope I'll leap to my own defense by opening their message to tell them, "Yes, I recycle!"

Strong open rate? Maybe.

The right way to connect with someone who hope to be building a relationship with? I doubt it.

11 things you can do to improve fundraising emails

Your donors' email inboxes are crowded. You need every possible advantage to get their attention and action. Here are some tactics you can put to work from the Content Marketing Institute, at Fresh Ideas and Expert Advice for Writing Email That Gets Opened and Read:

1. [Use brackets] in the subject line. Brackets have been shown to increase email open rates by 31%. Go figure.
   
2. Keep comparison images close together. Before and after photos are highly compelling. If you use them, make sure they are close together.
   
3. Don’t spell numbers. 6, not six.
   
4. Say "because." This word helps prompt readers to action.
   
5. Capitalize without shouting. Emphasize a word here and there by putting it in all capitals.
   
6. Go negative. Loss avoidance is usually more compelling than opportunity.
   
7. Rhyme at the right time. Don't write entirely in poetry. Just use rhyming words in key places.
   
8. Proofread. Typos are easy to miss, but they can cause all kinds of problems.
   
9. Ask one question first and always. The question: Does this content serve our readers?
   
10. Give it a voice (and a face). Make it look and read like it's from a real and specific person. Not an institution.
    
11. Enable a two-way conversation. Make sure recipients can connect with you by hitting reply. Ask questions and invite response.
    

6 steps to make your giving pages work

How many online donations are lost because giving pages don't do the job?

Too many!

Here's a great post on making that page work, from Donor Search, at 6 pro tips for a great giving page (with lots of examples):

1. Remove or limit navigation. If someone is on a giving page, they are at least considering making a donation. Don't entice them away with links to other things they might do.
   
2. Keep it short and straightforward. Give a clear call to action. That's why they are there.
   
3. Use an actionable and value-driven headline. Grab their attention by capturing the action they are here to take.
   
4. Make your page’s “submit” button text compelling. "Submit" is clearly the wrong action word! DONATE NOW is good. Something else might be better yet, like HELP THE CHILDREN or DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT.
   
5. Use click triggers. Something that makes them feel good about clicking that donate button, like watchdog logos, accountability promise.
   
6. Add a compelling visual aid. Use the power of imagery to tell the story of the need and how the donor can make a difference.
   

It's a small miracle when someone clicks through to a giving page. Don't squander it!

9 ways to make your email fundraising work better

This is the time of year when email shines in fundraising.

Between the many holidays, Giving Tuesday and the final week of the year, this is when email works best.

Here are some powerful email tips from NextAfter, at 9 Proven Steps to Write a Better Year-End Fundraising Email Appeal:

1. Send your year-end fundraising email from a believable human. The sender visible in the inbox should be a person, not your organization.
   
2. Add value and mystery to your subject line. It should communicate that the email is of value to the recipient, and it should do so in a way that sparks their curiosity.
   
3. Don’t customize your preview text. Let the preview text just show the first words of the message.
   
4. Say hello and call your donor by name. Be friendly and human and use their name. Like we do in personal emails.
   
5. Follow the rules of basic fundraising:
   
   • Explain the problem at hand. A human-sized problem that the donor wants to help solve.
     
   • Propose a solution. Action the donor can take that will make a difference.
     
   • Articulate the donor’s impact. Impact that's meaningful to the donor.
     
   • Add an incentive to give now. A deadline or other reason to give now
     
   • Provide a clear call-to-action to donate. Be specific about what they can do. ("Support us" is not specific!)