by Nannette Vilushis
If you work for a nonprofit organization, you’re probably using online tools to help promote and administer your fundraising efforts and events. Are you using those tools to their fullest capacity to help you streamline operations and reduce your workload?
Email Outreach
The cost of an email “save-the-date” invitation is small compared to the cost of design, production, printing, and postage for a direct mail invitation. In fact, printing costs are the largest percentage of a live event’s overall cost. Email management programs are easy to use and are more flexible for bulk email distribution than a standard Outlook, AOL, or other program for mass email communication.
Email Outreach
The cost of an email “save-the-date” invitation is small compared to the cost of design, production, printing, and postage for a direct mail invitation. In fact, printing costs are the largest percentage of a live event’s overall cost. Email management programs are easy to use and are more flexible for bulk email distribution than a standard Outlook, AOL, or other program for mass email communication.
Print invitations also lack the response-tracking capability of email campaigns, in which you can learn immediately how many emails bounced, how many people opened the message, whether they clicked through to your site, and which links on your site they visited. With this knowledge, it is easy to set benchmarks for improvement and target specific invitees for follow-up.
Email also makes it much easier for recipients to respond. They can answer immediately upon reading the email, without completing a written form or finding a stamp and a mailbox. For those few donors who do not respond to email, consider following up with a printed invite to those who have not already submitted an RSVP. You can explain to those donors that email reduces overhead costs. Your donors will appreciate your effort to maximize the value of the money they contribute.
Email campaigns can generate buzz and awareness for your event and can be used to reach out to donors who cannot attend but would still like to donate. You may be surprised by the dollars you raise from people who cannot attend your event. Always give your donors another option to help. Use verbiage like “Can't attend? Click here to donate.”
Prior to sending an email to your entire list, test your message and format. The key to a successful email campaign is preparation and refinement. Your presentation and message will help determine the response rate for your email. If you have time, develop several options and poll key donors and your board as to which message is most appropriate. Ignoring this step may lead to fewer attendees and less revenue.
Send invitations early. Always include the basic event details at the top of your message, and remember to notify donors in the subject line that the email is an official invitation. Include your mission statement and a link to your privacy policy to assure recipients that the email is a legitimate broadcast from your organization.
Plan on sending out follow-up emails - one customized to those who have responded and one customized for those who have not. Consider rewarding those who RSVP early. The sooner you know how many people will attend your event, the easier it will be for event night plans and the more control you will have over your costs.
Avoid over-sending email to your list to avoid your messages being labeled as spam. Many email program filters are programmed to recognize frequent emails from a particular source, and may start automatically sending your email to your recipients’ Junk or Trash folder, where it may not be read. Include at the bottom some brief instructions about how recipients can adjust their filters so your email always goes to their inboxes.
Online Registration and Donations
Provide an online registration option for recipients of email invitations. You will eliminate the cost of including a pre-printed RSVP card and envelope in the invitation, and you will get registration information more quickly so you can make sure procurement, event seating, food, and beverage are all lining up with your attendance numbers.
If your website is already equipped to process donations, the addition of a registration page should be relatively straightforward. If you are not currently accepting donations online, this may be the right opportunity to implement an Internet strategy that covers year-round giving capabilities as well as registration for events.
Set a goal to register a percentage of your invitees online. The target number of online registrations will be related to event size, donor habits, and how well you communicate your message. By setting registration benchmarks specific to your event and making increased online registration a goal, you should have no trouble increasing the online volume from one event to the next.
Establishing an ongoing, online giving page on your site will allow you to solicit and collect donations year-round, not just at your fundraising event. If you solicit donations for a variety of causes, create pages for each cause. Make sure that you have a description of the cause and, if possible, descriptive images on the donation page to remind online donors of why they are there. And make sure that you offer a secure way to donate funds to protect your donors from possible fraud.
Including your sponsors on your online giving page will give them more marketing exposure and give them compelling reasons to continue being a sponsor. Include sponsor logos and messages on the page, and review the copy with your sponsors to make sure their message aligns with yours.
Online Surveys
Prepare your post-event survey before the event so you can field it while your attendees’ memories are fresh. Event attendees have a unique viewpoint that you and your team don’t have, and their comments can help you substantially improve next year’s event. Surveys help you to identify what went well (so you can repeat it) and what didn’t go well (so you can avoid it).
Start your survey by thanking attendees for their attendance. Tell your guests that their feedback is valuable and will help you improve next year’s event. To maximize the number of responses, keep the survey short enough that a recipient can complete it in ten minutes or less.
You’ll learn more - faster - if you conduct an online survey. Survey tools like SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang are easy to use, allow you to deploy a survey quickly, and enable you to tabulate results fast.
Mix closed- and open-ended questions on your survey. For closed-ended questions like “Did we successfully communicate our mission at the event?” include a selection of possible answers, such as “Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree.” This will help you to pinpoint the degree of attendee satisfaction so you know how much emphasis needs to be placed on every issue at next year’s event.
Keep open-ended questions as specific as possible. Rather than simply asking, “How can we make next year’s event better?” you can segment that question into categories like entertainment, venue, food and beverage, sound and lighting, etc. You’ll get much more actionable answers.
Also, consider fielding online surveys to your donor list or segments of your donor list on other issues pertinent to your organization. This ongoing dialog will create a stronger relationship between your organization and your donors - but be prepared to take action based on their input.
Website Promotion
Promote your website with every form of communication, including direct mail, phone conversations, and email messages. Make your site the default location for the latest information about events, fundraising campaigns, and organization news.
Create a standard email signature template for you, your colleagues, and volunteers that includes general contact information, your site URL, and a follow-up teaser. For the teaser, you can say, “Click here to sign up for our email newsletter” or “Click here to register online for our annual dinner.” Make sure the email signature is always up to date.
Train staff and volunteers to conclude phone conversations by reminding people of the promotion mentioned in your current email signature and pointing them to your website for more information. Get others to spread the word for you. Ask partners, peers, colleagues, etc. to reach out to everyone in their core groups and plug your event, cause, and organization via their own email lists or bulletin board services. To do this effectively, you may want to write a short description including the usual who, what, when, where, and why. Remember to include your URL for further information.
Many nonprofit organizations are enjoying the benefits of using the Web to supplement or replace traditional marketing efforts. When assessing the relative merits of these tools for your organization, remember that it’s okay to start small and build over time.
Nannette Vilushis has over 20 years of technology sales and marketing experience. Prior to joining Greater Giving (www.greatergiving.com), she was senior product marketing manager at Sage Software. Previously, Nannette was a senior manager at Citrix Systems, where she managed a team that planned, promoted, and executed over 400 marketing and training events a year. Her background also includes marketing and program management positions at IBM and a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off, with responsibilities ranging from public relations and marketing programs to event strategy. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Heartwood Institute, a non-profit organization providing literature-based ethics and character education programs for children.
Email also makes it much easier for recipients to respond. They can answer immediately upon reading the email, without completing a written form or finding a stamp and a mailbox. For those few donors who do not respond to email, consider following up with a printed invite to those who have not already submitted an RSVP. You can explain to those donors that email reduces overhead costs. Your donors will appreciate your effort to maximize the value of the money they contribute.
Email campaigns can generate buzz and awareness for your event and can be used to reach out to donors who cannot attend but would still like to donate. You may be surprised by the dollars you raise from people who cannot attend your event. Always give your donors another option to help. Use verbiage like “Can't attend? Click here to donate.”
Prior to sending an email to your entire list, test your message and format. The key to a successful email campaign is preparation and refinement. Your presentation and message will help determine the response rate for your email. If you have time, develop several options and poll key donors and your board as to which message is most appropriate. Ignoring this step may lead to fewer attendees and less revenue.
Send invitations early. Always include the basic event details at the top of your message, and remember to notify donors in the subject line that the email is an official invitation. Include your mission statement and a link to your privacy policy to assure recipients that the email is a legitimate broadcast from your organization.
Plan on sending out follow-up emails - one customized to those who have responded and one customized for those who have not. Consider rewarding those who RSVP early. The sooner you know how many people will attend your event, the easier it will be for event night plans and the more control you will have over your costs.
Avoid over-sending email to your list to avoid your messages being labeled as spam. Many email program filters are programmed to recognize frequent emails from a particular source, and may start automatically sending your email to your recipients’ Junk or Trash folder, where it may not be read. Include at the bottom some brief instructions about how recipients can adjust their filters so your email always goes to their inboxes.
Online Registration and Donations
Provide an online registration option for recipients of email invitations. You will eliminate the cost of including a pre-printed RSVP card and envelope in the invitation, and you will get registration information more quickly so you can make sure procurement, event seating, food, and beverage are all lining up with your attendance numbers.
If your website is already equipped to process donations, the addition of a registration page should be relatively straightforward. If you are not currently accepting donations online, this may be the right opportunity to implement an Internet strategy that covers year-round giving capabilities as well as registration for events.
Set a goal to register a percentage of your invitees online. The target number of online registrations will be related to event size, donor habits, and how well you communicate your message. By setting registration benchmarks specific to your event and making increased online registration a goal, you should have no trouble increasing the online volume from one event to the next.
Establishing an ongoing, online giving page on your site will allow you to solicit and collect donations year-round, not just at your fundraising event. If you solicit donations for a variety of causes, create pages for each cause. Make sure that you have a description of the cause and, if possible, descriptive images on the donation page to remind online donors of why they are there. And make sure that you offer a secure way to donate funds to protect your donors from possible fraud.
Including your sponsors on your online giving page will give them more marketing exposure and give them compelling reasons to continue being a sponsor. Include sponsor logos and messages on the page, and review the copy with your sponsors to make sure their message aligns with yours.
Online Surveys
Prepare your post-event survey before the event so you can field it while your attendees’ memories are fresh. Event attendees have a unique viewpoint that you and your team don’t have, and their comments can help you substantially improve next year’s event. Surveys help you to identify what went well (so you can repeat it) and what didn’t go well (so you can avoid it).
Start your survey by thanking attendees for their attendance. Tell your guests that their feedback is valuable and will help you improve next year’s event. To maximize the number of responses, keep the survey short enough that a recipient can complete it in ten minutes or less.
You’ll learn more - faster - if you conduct an online survey. Survey tools like SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang are easy to use, allow you to deploy a survey quickly, and enable you to tabulate results fast.
Mix closed- and open-ended questions on your survey. For closed-ended questions like “Did we successfully communicate our mission at the event?” include a selection of possible answers, such as “Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree.” This will help you to pinpoint the degree of attendee satisfaction so you know how much emphasis needs to be placed on every issue at next year’s event.
Keep open-ended questions as specific as possible. Rather than simply asking, “How can we make next year’s event better?” you can segment that question into categories like entertainment, venue, food and beverage, sound and lighting, etc. You’ll get much more actionable answers.
Also, consider fielding online surveys to your donor list or segments of your donor list on other issues pertinent to your organization. This ongoing dialog will create a stronger relationship between your organization and your donors - but be prepared to take action based on their input.
Website Promotion
Promote your website with every form of communication, including direct mail, phone conversations, and email messages. Make your site the default location for the latest information about events, fundraising campaigns, and organization news.
Create a standard email signature template for you, your colleagues, and volunteers that includes general contact information, your site URL, and a follow-up teaser. For the teaser, you can say, “Click here to sign up for our email newsletter” or “Click here to register online for our annual dinner.” Make sure the email signature is always up to date.
Train staff and volunteers to conclude phone conversations by reminding people of the promotion mentioned in your current email signature and pointing them to your website for more information. Get others to spread the word for you. Ask partners, peers, colleagues, etc. to reach out to everyone in their core groups and plug your event, cause, and organization via their own email lists or bulletin board services. To do this effectively, you may want to write a short description including the usual who, what, when, where, and why. Remember to include your URL for further information.
Many nonprofit organizations are enjoying the benefits of using the Web to supplement or replace traditional marketing efforts. When assessing the relative merits of these tools for your organization, remember that it’s okay to start small and build over time.
Nannette Vilushis has over 20 years of technology sales and marketing experience. Prior to joining Greater Giving (www.greatergiving.com), she was senior product marketing manager at Sage Software. Previously, Nannette was a senior manager at Citrix Systems, where she managed a team that planned, promoted, and executed over 400 marketing and training events a year. Her background also includes marketing and program management positions at IBM and a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off, with responsibilities ranging from public relations and marketing programs to event strategy. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Heartwood Institute, a non-profit organization providing literature-based ethics and character education programs for children.
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