Future Fundraising Now

5 reasons fundraisers should never buy an email list

What are you doing to grow your email list?

I'll tell you one think you should not do: Don't buy an email list! Don't even think about it!

Here's why, from the Daily Egg, at Why You Should Never Buy an Email List:

1. You won't get qualified contacts.
2. You'll increase the chances of get marked as spam.
3. Your contacts won't be exclusive.
4. The engagement rate won't be high.
5. Bought email addresses might have a negative impact on brand awareness.

There are ways to build your list. But they aren't easy. You have to go through the hard work of figuring out what people actually want and then brilliantly offer them (the right group of them!) exactly that.

You can't get there by buying the names!

Here's a cool way to use email sender names

Here's something I saw among the political emails that flooded by inbox last week: Personalized sender names. That is, my name was worked into the sender's identification that shows in the inbox.

Here's one, with my full name "via" a specialized sender:

And here's another that paired me up with President Obama, as if we were buddies:

We've known for a long time that the sender name matters, and that if you're using a system-generated name life like emailbot@organization.org you're not optimizing your email.

The logic of getting the recipient's name into the sender address escapes me. But I bet it works!

Let us know in the comments if you have any experience with this!

How to make the most of Giving Tuesday this year

Are you ready for Giving Tuesday?

This year, it's on November 27. It might be a very big deal for you.

(I've expressed my mixed skepticism and wonder about Giving Tuesday here.)

To help you get ready, here's a post from npENGAGE, Creating a Giving Tuesday Strategy That's 'Just Right':

• Tell your donors specifically what their dollars are supporting. (Just because it's Giving Tuesday doesn't mean you shouldn't do the normal, proven things that work in fundraising every other day ... like including a strong, specific fundraising offer.)
• Engage donors who gave last year. (People who gave on Giving Tuesday last year -- regardless of what they've done or not done since -- are your best bet.)
• Target donors. (As opposed to nondonors.)
• Don't treat Giving Tuesday like every other day. (Send several emails. Send emails a day or two before. Send followups.)
• Plan much sooner than you think you need to.
• Don't forget humanity. (Your donors are all living, breathing human beings. Even on Giving Tuesday.)
• Set realistic goals. (Don't expect a gold strike. Unless you got one last year!)
• A thank you is more important than an ask.

Until Giving Tuesday stops working, you should keep doing these things!

Free online workshop: 5 Steps to a Wildly Successful Bequest Fundraising Program with Christiana Stergiou. October 17 and 18. A must for serious fundraisers ... and it's FREE.

5 ways to improve digital fundraising with emoji

I didn't believe it at first, but it's true: Using emojis in email subject lines almost always improves open rates. Go figure.

I didn't like this troublesome fact at first. Emoji annoy me. But that doesn't matter, does it? (Had to look it up: the plural of emoji is either emoji or emojis.)

Here are some great tips for using emoji in your fundraising from the Nonprofit Marketing Guide, at BEYOND CUTE: Why Nonprofits Should Try Emoji In Their Digital Marketing:

1. Use Emojipedia to find the latest emoji.
2. Make Sure It Works (Test it to make sure it displays properly in email).
3. Know Your Tone (Four words: Smiling poop ... probably not!).
4. Don't Go Overboard (a little emoji goes a long way)
5. Words Still Matter (all-emoji subject lines are a challenge).

I personally find emoji annoying; maybe you do too. But that doesn't matter. If you like open rates, use emoji.

How to build a more effective donation form

How well does your donation form work?

Could be better?

Here are some tips from npENGAGE, at 5 Tips for the Perfect Online Donation Form:

1. Your Donation Form Should Exist on Your Homepage
2. Keep it Simple and Mobile
3. Nudge Your Donors Upward (Suggest higher gift amounts)
4. Translate Money into Tangible Impact
5. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Number 3, #4, and #5 are also great advice for paper donation forms.

Online fundraising calls to action that work

DONATE NOW.

It's pretty much the stand-by call-to-action phrase for fundraising.

It works. But is it best? Here are 12 Call-to-Action Phrases That Will Convert Your Users from The Daily Egg. These are all from commercial marketing, so take them with that in mind. But they're strong and proven in their original context, so they're worth considering:

1. "Yes, I Want X!"
2. Snag/Grab/Seize/Score/Gain X Now!
3. Start Your Journey Toward X
4. Do You Want to X? Yes or No
5. Activate X Today!
6. You're Running Out of Time!
7. Add to Cart
8. Add to Wishlist
9. Join X Other [Category] as Subscribers to My Email List
10. Get Your Free X
11. Reserve your spot now!
12. Start the quiz

The only one here that might not work in fundraising is #7 -- but I'd be interested to know if someone has used it (or something like it) and seen it work.

Do you have a winning CTA phrase that works? Share in the comments here!

How to make your donation pages work like crazy

The raising money online is hard. And one of the hardest parts, where many otherwise great campaigns fizzle out, is the donation page.

EveryAction blog has a great gallery of donation pages that don't fizzle out: 12 Nonprofit Donation Pages That Don't Suck. It's well worth your time to take a good look at these pages.

Note what almost all have in common:

• They are mobile responsive -- they reformat for small screens, making it just as easy for users no matter what device they're using.
• No distracting navigation. Once someone is on a donation page, don't give them other interesting places to go.
• Simplicity. Only what's really needed is there.
• The donation process is broken into several steps.

As you'll see, there are a lot of ways donation pages can look, but a few ground rules for the ones that really work.

Steal smart!

4 tactics for successful nonprofit email

From Catholic Fundraiser, Why email is the hottest trend in fundraising, along with some hints for getting emails to work:

• Be Personal. (Send emails from people to people, not "digital publications.")
• Use email regularly. (If you're emailing just once a month, you're not really connecting. Aim for once a week. Or more.)
• Don’t always ask for money. (Connect with your people in many different ways.)
• When asking, be emotional AND logical.

Email is an important way to connect with donors. Make sure you're using it!

How to get donors to click for action

Fundraising is all about action. That's true in all media, but it's probably most urgently true online. It's action now, or nothing will happen.

Here's a helpful post from the Classy Blog, at 6 Tips for Effective CTAs That Get Clicks:

• Balance Creativity and Practicality. Being clever and creative is nice, but not if it means people have to figure out what it means if they click that call-to-action button. Few will bother to figure it out.
• Keep It Simple. Use as few words as possible to convey what they action you want them to take.
• Keep It Clear. Be literal. Even boring.
• Use Strong Verbs to Start Your CTA. Like Donate, Support, Discover, Explore.
• Evoke Emotions. Given all that, find the emotional core of what the donor is going to do.
• Create Urgency. Even adding the word now can help. Just make it clear that now is better than "some time."

Want to make those powerful calls to action that motivate donors to give? Take my online course, Irresistible Communications for Great Nonprofits. It's a four-part complete masterclass in the surprising things that work in fundraising. Details here.

How not to lose your donors from that donation page you worked so hard to get them to

A lot of success comes from doing a ton of small things right. That's especially true when you're raising funds online. That's why this post at The Daily Egg -- 19 Form Design Best Practices to Get More Conversions -- is so useful. It's a long and very detailed post with many examples, so give yourself time to pay attention to it!

1. Reduce friction (technical problems, unclear instructions, complicated forms)
2. Create a beautifully designed form
3. Only add fields you need (asking for information you don't actually need turns people away)
4. Test multi-step forms against single-step forms
5. Single-column design is best for readability
6. Position the messages on the right places (test and find out what people do with your forms)
7. Start with the easy questions
8. Add auto-format
9. Allow copy and paste
10. Add a clear CTA message (don't make it "Submit"!)
11. The CTA button must have a contrasting color (despite what your brand cops think)
12. A/B test the call-to-action buttons
13. Indicate when a field is optional
14. Don't slice fields (that is, don't divide the phone number field into two parts or the credit card into four)
15. Avoid captchas
16. Guide your user to the right answer
17. Add contact information or a chat
18. Use a progress bar when there're too many fields
19. Never use a "Reset Form" button

Want help with your online fundraising? I'm available for free 25-minute coaching sessions. Just click here and directly schedule an online conversation with me or with Sean Triner.