Future Fundraising Now

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.

10 must-do tips for your donation pages

Some of your donors are visiting your donation pages, and then not donating. That's so sad!

You can do something about that. Check out this post on the Nonprofit Tech for Good Blog: 10 Donation Page Best Practices for Nonprofits (lots of examples):

1. Ensure that your donation pages have the same branding as your website. Research shows that one in six online donors drop out of the donation process find themselves on a third-party website. Ouch!
2. Add a monthly giving option. The value of a monthly donor is many times that of a one-time donor, and online givers are somewhat more likely to choose monthly giving. Make it easy for them.
3. Add a monthly giving pop-up to your primary donation page. This can really increase monthly donations.
4. Experiment with default donation amounts. Suggested amounts are a fundraising best practice everywhere. Online, what those amounts should be can vary. Learn as much as possible about the right amounts for your page.
5. Add an optional mobile number field. SMS messaging is a powerful way to connect with donors. But make sure the field is optional. Making it required will likely lower completed donations.
6. Add charity rating badges and program vs. operating expense graphics. Donors pay attention to these things. If you've been reviewed by Charity Navigator, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Watch, or any others, and your reviews are good, display your rating. Also, if your program vs. operating expense ratio is good, create a simple pie chart graphic that illustrates it.
7. Add giving impact statements. Tell donors what their giving can specifically do. That's why they give, after all!
8. Add a tribute giving. Many donors want to give in honor or memory of someone. Make it easy.
9. Create a compelling, action-oriented "Thank You for Your donation" page. You have their attention at this point. Use the moment to thank them, encourage them to follow you on social media and otherwise be more involved.
10. Include your phone number and mailing address. Believe it or not, some donors still prefer to give offline. Make sure they can!

5 email "worst practices"

We've been raising funds with email for a lot of years now. We're learning a lot, though you might not see evidence of that learning in you inbox.

Want to raise money by email? Check out this post at the Hubspot Marketing Blog, at Is Email Marketing Dead? No, But These Practices Are:

1. Impersonal subject lines. Generic subject lines like "March E-News" don't get the open rates you want. Make it clear you're connecting with a living person through their inbox. Make it about something. Use their name. Be interesting.
2. Ignoring GDPR standards. That's the law in the European Union for marketing email. It's mostly about having clear permission for emailing someone. We don't have laws like this in the US, so you may think if you don't have donors in Europe you can ignore it. Nope. You should at least act like you are GDPR compliant because it's good for you donors!
3. Using templates that aren't mobile-friendly. A lot of people read your email on their phones. Make sure they can read your emails there!
4. Poor email design. That means your call to action is clear and easy to see. That it's visually interesting. That there aren't pointless distractions. And the load time is fast.
5. Not strategically using metrics. Pay attention to how people are interacting with your emails. Emails give us a lot of metrics. Learn from them.

Ready to discover more fundraising things to do -- and not do? Check out The Fundraisingology Lab? It's top membership for smart fundraisers around the world -- with the best training, best resources, and best community you'll find. Enrollment is open until Wednesday, March 18. Check out The Fundraisingology Lab here!

That "Do Not Reply" email address is killing your fundraising

If you're sending emails to your donors that have a Do Not Reply return address, you are hurting yourself.

They look something like this: no-reply@charity.org or donotreply@charity.org and they're supposed to save time -- the time you'd spend answering emails from your donors.

That has to be just about the dumbest time-saver out there!

But it's even worse than that, according to the Hubspot Marketing Blog at What You Need to Know About Creating a 'Do Not Reply' Email. Here's what it does:

• It negatively influences email deliverability. that's right, if you're using a Do Not Reply email, it's more likely your messages are ending up in spam folders. Ouch!
• It dissuades two-way communication. People actually reply to emails with questions and comments. What are you telling them when they try to do that and nothing happens?
• It isn't compliant. GDPR and CAN-SPAM laws require that customers need to be able to request information about the data collected about them and opt-out of your messages with a reply email. Your Do Not Reply email could get you in trouble!

Don't bring this on yourself!

3 tests for improving your nonprofit website

If something is making your website unusable for would-be donors, there's a good chance you have no idea that's the case.

Here's a post from the Donorperfect blog -- Does your nonprofit website pass these 3 tests? -- that can help you uncover hidden problems that could be making your site ineffective:

1. The 8-Second Test. Can visitors to your website tell immediately what you do and what means to them?
2. The Blur Test. If you blur out your website so nothing is readable, can you still find your DONATE button?
3. The Site-Speed Test. Does your website load quickly on all devices?

7 steps to raising more money online

Want to know the most impactful place to spend your time on money for online funraising?

Your donation pages.

That's where it all happens.

Or not.

Here are 7 Donation Page Strategies That Actually Convert from Fundraising Coach:

1. Don't neglect page design. Make sure it looks like the rest of your website. Remove distractions, like links to other things -- if they are on a donation page, assume they are thinking about donating. Remind them what their gift will do.
2. Remember mobile-accessibility. A meaningful percentage of your people are looking at your website on a phone. Make sure it's readable and functional for them.
3. Make recurring giving easy. Online donors are more open to giving monthly than offline donors. Make sure it's easy for them to do so.
4. Suggest gift amounts. You will do better if you suggest some donation amounts.
5. Nail down your payment processing. Make sure you can accept a variety of credit cards (and seriously consider PayPal). Be sure it is completely secure, fast, and accurate, and that processing fees are reasonable.
6. Keep your gratitude personal. You can't over-thank, and even when you're online, make sure your thank yous have a human, emotional touch.
7. Consider bringing on a consultant. A good consultant can be a large net-revenue booster. Get help from people who really know what they're doing!

Quick fixes for your broken donation pages

When you raise funds online, the donation page is where it all happens.

Or doesn't.

Sadly, too many donation pages just don't work to move donors from thinking about giving to actually doing so.

If you want to raise funds online, you need to pay close attention to your donation pages. A great start would be to read this post on Proactive Content: Why Donation Page Content Turns Away 83% of Potential Donors.

Especially these quick fixes for your donation pages:

• If it's very short (under 4 sentences), make it longer.
• Give it a headline and make the headline impossible to miss.
• Focus the content on the donor and not on the organization.
• Focus on what the donor will accomplish by giving.
• Reduce your use of video, graphics, and imagery.
• Tell them what to do.

Get digital fundraising in order for the big time

The big giving month is around the corner.

Starting with Giving Tuesday (December 3) and ending with the even bigger December 31, it's show-time for online fundraising!

Are you ready? From Wired Impact, here are 9 Common Mistakes to Fix Yesterday:

1. It's hard or confusing to give. Complex donation pages kill your fundraising. Simplify. And make sure it actually works.
2. You send donors away from your website to give. Big mistake. If you're using an third party to process gifts, at least make sure the donor isn't being carried away to some site they've never heard of!
3. You're not properly thanking your donors. Failure to thank donors will crush your donor retention rates. Make it part of all our planning.
4. You don't use visuals to your advantage. Use images that tell the story your donor wants to be part of.
5. Your donate page is too busy. The page should do one thing: make it easy to donate. Don't have a bunch of unrelated material that will distract people away from the reason they are there.
6. You focus on donations over cultivation. Remember, even online, fundraising is a relationship. Not a transaction.
7. You fail to relay your impact. Or rather, their impact.
8. You don't know who your donors are. Understand who they are -- both as individuals and by their demographics and psychographics.
9. You don't segment your emails to donors. Be relevant by saying the right things to the right people.