Future Fundraising Now

5 ways you may be blocking your online donor from giving

When a donor completes an online donation, they have persevered against an army of distractions. A lot of those distractions are innate to the digital world -- no matter what you're doing, you're always one click away from something more interesting.

But some of the distractions are avoidable. You may put them there, costing yourself lost donations.

The Wired Impact blog has some good advice for helping donors stay on task, at Wondering How to Get People to Donate Online? Remove These 5 Barriers:

1. Your donors don’t trust you. Many donors assume your organization is a scam -- until they confirm otherwise. That may seem incredibly cynical, but it's not a bad starting point, given the number of real scams. The burden on you is to show each donor that you are for real. Give them clear signs of your transparency, authenticity, and results.
2. You don’t ask for gifts. If you want people to give, you have to ask.
3. Making a donation is complicated. Keep donation forms as simple as possible. Don't ask for information you don't really need. Suggest some amounts. Make it mobile-friendly.
4. They’re not convinced it’ll make a difference. This is the main barrier to charitable giving in all channels. That's why you need to express needs as solvable, not huge. And keep it simple. Teaching them how your programs work doesn't move people to give. Making them care and showing them they can make a difference is what it takes.
5. They see too many choices. Once someone is on a donate page, completing that donation should be the only thing for them to do. Don't distract them away with other choices.

Now is your time to join The Fundraisingology Lab. It's the top membership for smart fundraisers around the world -- with the best training, best resources, and best community you'll find anywhere. Enrollment is open until March 4. Check out The Fundraisingology Lab here!

2 weird subject line tricks for fundraising

Want to improve response to your fundraising emails?

The most important element to work on is the subject line. When you don't get a winner there, it really doesn't matter how brilliant the rest of your work is.

Strange thing about subject lines: There are two contradictory "tricks" to win eyeballs. You can read about them on the Bloomerang Blog, at Fundraising Magic Tricks to Boost Year-End Response.

Trick #1: Clarity. Use the subject line to tell the recipient exactly what they'll find inside.

Trick #2: Curiosity. Create mystery. Don't reveal what they'll find inside.

In my experience, #2 is the go-to approach most often. #1 works better only when the thing you're revealing is either an amazing "deal" or some situation everyone is thinking about -- like a natural disaster.

How not to feel like a failure next Giving Tuesday

Early reports are that Giving Tuesday was huger than ever this year.

Not a surprise, given that almost everything in fundraising has been huge this year.

Which raises the question for next year: "Should we 'do' Giving Tuesday?"

Here are my answers:

1. Don't decide next November. Think about it now.

One of the most common causes of Giving Tuesday Failure is hasty, half-baked strategy and execution, thrown together in the days before the big day, often because someone insisted that you "do" Giving Tuesday.

Decide now. If you're doing to pursue it, give yourself time to do it right.

2. It's okay not to do Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday doesn't work for everyone. If you've tried it and it hasn't done well for you, it may be your donors just aren't dialed in to the idea. If that's the case, don't waste your time.

The real "Giving Tuesday" for most organizations is on a Thursday this year: December 31. That's the biggest online giving day of the year for many, many organizations, including most that do very well on Giving Tuesday. You almost certainly should "do" December 31!

However, it may be that it hasn't worked because you haven't done it right ...

3. If you do it, do it right!

The most common mistake organizations make on Giving Tuesday is they don't actually raise funds. They just send out messages about Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday is not a reason to give. It is (for some people) and occasion for giving like birthdays, Christmas, Hannukah, and others.

My inbox was filled with subject lines like Today is Giving Tuesday and messages that went like this: It's Giving Tuesday, so give us a donation!

That's not fundraising. Fundraising is giving donors the opportunity to make something happen that they care about. Even on Giving Tuesday. That's what the organizations that do well are doing.

If your Giving Tuesday fundraising hasn't worked, take an honest look at it. Is it really fundraising, or is it just telling people to give because it's a random Tuesday?

4. If it's working, keep doing it.

13 ways to make your donation pages keep donors on task

Want your donate pages to work better? Check out these tips from the Hubspot Marketing Blog, at 13 Simple (But Critical) Tips for Creating Better Landing Pages. They're aimed at commercial landing pages, but can really help you improve your donation pages:

1. Include all critical elements of an effective landing page. Make sure the donor has everything she needs to complete her donation.
2. Remove the main navigation. Seriously. Don't create an encouragement to abandon the donation before it happens.
3. Match the headline of the landing page to its corresponding CTA. There should be no change of topic, mood, or words between whatever got them to the page and what they see on the page.
4. Remember: Less is more. Do one thing: get the donation.
5. Emphasize the offer's value. As always, remember what's in it for the donor.
6. Encourage social sharing. But not until they've completed the transaction.
7. Create more landing pages to generate more leads. More offers mean more donations.
8. Only ask for the information you really need. Don't ask for anything you don't need for the donation at hand. You can ask for other things later -- but not if they abandon before they complete.
9. Consider whether To Submit, or Not to Submit? "DONATE" is the default button for landing pages. Can you mnake it something more targeted and interesting.
10. Reduce anxiety with proof elements. Let them know the donation is secure, and you are a reputable organization.
11. Make the form appear shorter. Simpler is better, and looking simpler is better yet.
12. Include rich media on your landing pages.
13. Pay attention to the copy. This is where you win or lose. Make sure everything is clear and compelling.

Are you over-emailing or under-emailing?

Afraid you're annoying your donors by emailing them too often?

Are you also afraid that you contact them so infrequently they don't know you exist?

Both are potential problems.

But under-emailing is far more common.

There's a "sweet spot" between the extremes, and you can read about it at How to Avoid Being a “Spammer” or Being Forgotten: How Often Should Your Nonprofit Keep In Touch? on the Bloomerang Blog:

... e-mail marketing statistics tell us that between one and two e-mails a week prove to be the most effective. Additionally, good social media practice says to try to post once a day to stay in your audience’s “feed” and top of mind.

Of course, being relevant, interesting, and welcome are part of the job too!

4 ways to keep online donors from leaving before they donate

Are you getting all the online donations you should, or is your website causing donors to lose their way before they can make the donation they mean to give?

Here are some important tips on keeping your online donors on task as they move from thinking about giving, to completing that online donation form, from the Big Duck blog, at Four ways to ensure your online donors don't get lost on their way to giving:

1. Don't be subtle. Make your DONATE button stand out like a beacon. Don't make it blend in with your tasteful brand color palette.
2. Don't bury the ask. Make it easy for any visitor to quickly and easily see why they might give. And don't make them jump through hoops to do so. The donate page should be one click away from everywhere -- at most.
3. Don't overcomplicate it. Make it easy to give. Don't ask for information you don't have to ask for. Don't give them extra decisions to make. You can engage in all those other ways later.
4. Don't give them a reason to walk away. Make your donation pages secure (and tell them so), make sure it's readable and works on smart phones, and accept as many payment methods as possible.

5 ways to connect with those new digital donors

If you've been active and relevant during the pandemic, there's a good chance you have quite a few new donors who gave online for the first time.

These new donors present a real opportunity -- if you can encourage them to keep giving. And that presents a few challenges. Here's a helpful post for handling them right, from the Good Works Blog, at What to do with new digital donors during a pandemic:

1. Focus on email. Email is the best way to cultivate your online donors. Hands down.
2. Find out where new donors came from. Many of these new donors are coming out of the woodwork. Track where they came from, because that knowledge will allow you to get the most from channels that are working best. You may also find you have different messaging in different channels, and you should zero in on what's working in all the channels.
3. Build a plan to convert new donors. Emergency-motivated donors are less likely to keep on giving than typical donors. You can improve their retention rates by showing them lots of love and connecting your subsequent fundraising offers with the crisis messaging that brought them in.
4. Make sure your back-end copy is up-to-date. You might have long-forgotten auto-responders that have becoming embarrassingly irrelevant for the moment we're in. Check out those things right away!

Let me add one more that can make a big difference:

Work to get their postal address and phone numbers (if you don't have those) and cultivate them through those offline channels. Connecting with the both online and offline really improves the relationship.

6 ways to make your fundraising email work better

Let's take a quick look at what commercial emailers are doing to keep response strong, from the 60 Second Marketer, at How to Craft Powerful, High-Converting Email Copy:

1. Make sure your emails are getting delivered. Keep your list clean and up to date, ask readers to add you to their address book, and stay aware of current spam trigger words and phrases.
2. Write better subject lines. Don't be boring. Do you best use urgency, curiosity, personalization, timeliness, and name recognition.
3. Optimize the preview text. (That's the that's visible next to or below the subject in the inbox.) It's another way to get attention.
4. Grab attention immediately. Get to the point quickly in your message.
5. Use conversational copy. Short paragraphs, informal tone. Make it like real email.
6. Don't send so many emails. The blog's idea of not sending so many is to cut down to one a week in many cases. Very few fundraisers (outside of political fundraising) are over-emailing!

Email metrics during the crisis

Are donors getting sick of our emails?

Not according to this bunch of data reported at the THD Blog at What We Learned About Email Marketing During the Pandemic.

The findings, looking at March 2020, showed:

• Highest open rates in 2+ years.
• Lowest unsubscribe rates in 2+ years.
  
• Response rates way up.

(See the post for more details.)

If you've been afraid of some kind of donor rebellions about your emails, stop being afraid!

We are in an unusual time. Donors are more responsive than usual.

Part of the reason is no doubt because so many fundraising are sitting this out, leaving donors fewer choices. But the other part is the nature of the crisis -- everyone is in it together.

It's likely this phase will end. Fundraising will become more difficult. Open rates and response rates will drop, while unsubscribes go back up.

Let your donors decide whether they will give! A lot of them are choosing to give.

Are you ready for the next leap in online fundraising?

From Marketoonist:

On December 26, 2004, digital fundraising became a thing.

It had already been around for several years, growing steadily. But that day it went from something nonprofits dabbled in, wondering if it would ever matter -- and became an important part of any fundraiser's toolbox.

That was the day of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the Disaster Made for YouTube. Because there was so much video of the destruction people were highly aware of it for weeks. They went online to give like never before and sparked massive growth in giving online.

Suddenly online fundraising wasn't only for organizations with extra time and budget on their hands. It became necessary.

We may be in another moment like that.

The pandemic has sparked incredibly successful email fundraising campaigns, and more donors than ever have been responding online to direct mail.

If you're ready, this is a good thing.

If you're not, it's just another moment where you fall farther behind and become less able to serve donors and raise money effectively.