Michael Stein: Internet Strategy for the Nonprofit Sector

A Consumers Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems

Idealware and NTEN, with the support of NPower, have announced the publication of their new Consumers Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems. This report looks at 33 different donor management systems that cost less than $4,250 in the first year.  The research is broken up into two different actual reports.  The first, the Consumers Guide, outlines the functionality that donor management systems provide, summarizes each of the 33 systems, recommends useful systems for each of a set of specific scenarios, a high level comparison of 10 systems, and lists consultants who can help you select or implement software.  The second, Detailed Reviews, provides six-to-eight-page reviews of each of twelve different systems. This is one of the most useful reports I've seen in years. 

Download a copy

Cragmont School PTA is Top 200 Earner in Safeway 10% Back to Schools Program

The Cragmont Elementary School PTA in Berkeley, California, announced today that they are one of the top 200 earning groups nationally in the recent Safeway 10% Back to Schools Program.  Over 15,000 schools participated. Cragmont School PTA earned over $1,700 by collecting Safeway receipts during the campaign in September 2008. As one of the top 200 groups, Safeway has contributed an additional $1,000 to Cragmont School.  In 2008, through this program alone, the Safeway family of stores has donated over $2.5 million to non-profit groups across the nation.

Students at Cragmont Elementary School collected receipts from shoppers at their local Safeway stores, and encouraged other parents and friends to participate. “It was great to get our students involved in a productive community activity that helps the school,” said parent Sue Martin, the Cragmont coordinator for the campaign, and the parent of 4th grader Sean.  “Working on the Safeway campaign was a lot of fun,” said Sean Martin-Hamburger, “It was exciting to collect so many receipts. We filled up more than six grocery bags! “

Cragmont School PTA plans to use their eScrip funds to support numerous school programs such as teaching assistants that help in classrooms, computer maintenance, and the school art and gardening programs.

Shattuck Safeway is happy to support the Berkeley schools. “We appreciate all that Safeway does and for their ongoing commitment to education and our local schools, especially at a time when public education needs strong financial and moral support.” says Amy Yamashiro, Cragmont PTA President. Cragmont sends a special thank you to the check out clerks at the who helped to draw attention to the campaign.

The 10% back to Schools Program is conducted in partnership with eScrip, a resource for fundraising where participating business partners contribute a percentage of their grocery loyalty cards, credit card, and debit/ATM card purchases to the school, group or organization of their choice.  The eScrip program has distributed over $120 million to schools and youth organizations across the country since its inception in 1999.

Make a gift to Idealware.org today and I'll double it

Many of you know that I have chaired the board of Idealware.org, and I am proud to have helped build the most comprehensive and thorough source for non-profit software reviews. 



I'm blogging today to ask if you can help out with a tax-deductible gift to Idealware by Dec. 31, because I'll double your impact by matching it dollar for dollar. 



2008 was a big year for Idealware:

• We published 26 articles and 3 reports providing candid information to help nonprofits choose software, including our landmark Consumers Guide to Grants Management Software, for grantmakers;
• Over 100 nonprofit tech professionals helped us write and peer review our articles;
• 180,000 people viewed and downloaded information on the Idealware website;
• 500 people learned from our online seminars.

Please support Idealware in any amount that you can and I'll double your gift

Fundraising in Tough Times: A No-Nonsense Guide to Surviving in a Challenging Economy

I have the great pleasure of working with the folks at Mal Warwick Associates and Donordigital in Berkeley, California.  They've been helping nonprofits raise money for almost 30 years, and they know a thing or two about the ups and down of the economy and how nonprofits can fundraise even in the toughest of times.  They've just published an excellent paper about how to cope with the harsh new financial environment the social sector now faces. This paper won't just drown you in statistics or regurgitate the familiar advice you’ve read elsewhere. I especially like the section on "Nine practical steps you can take now."  It's a well-written and insightful reflection on the current state of affairs in the social sector, and I highly recommend it. 

Download the paper from the MWA website

Keep a Child Alive ties TV commercial to mobile giving

mGive is working with its partner Keep a Child Alive to promote its work via a television commercial on MTV during primetime.  But unlike any TV commercial you've ever seen, this one doesn't flash up an 800 number but relies on a mobile phone short code (and a website address at the end) to facilitate donations.  In fact, the text "Give $5 text ALIVE to 90999" stays on the screen for the entire 30 second that the commercial is running.  This is a very interesting test of mobile giving.  Will using TV advertising drive a larger volume of donations to make up for the low donation amount?  Can Keep a Child Alive convert some of these $5 gifts to larger gifts via email or mail solicitation?  I hope that mGive will keep us posted about the results.

Click to view the video above or see in on YouTube

Mobile Commons is busy launching mobile giving campaigns

I've been reporting recently on new mobile fundraising campaigns as announced by mobile vendor mGive, but they're not the only firm that is helping nonprofits deploy mobile communications and fundraising campaigns. The good folks at Mobile Commons are also busy launching mobile giving campaign with a focus on integrated data and reporting with existing fundraising tools tying giving into more participatory calls to action. Mobile Commons is working with ACLU, American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International, Humane Society of the United States, CREDO Mobile, Human Rights Campaign, NARAL Pro-Choice America, NRDC and many more.

You can stay up-to-date with all their activities on the Mobile Commons blog

More mGive mobile campaign go live

As a follow-up to my blog post on October 10, mGive reports on its blog that they've launched nine new mobile donation campaigns. This means that mGive now has over 40 campaigns for nonprofits that are now live.  The organizations include Toys for Tots, Special Olympics, Girls for a Change, among others.  As before, the blog post  talks about each nonprofit's plans for promoting their mobile giving campaign in order to reach untapped audiences of potential donors.

Learn about these new mobile giving campaigns

New mobile giving campaigns go live

Katie Maxfield reports on the mGive blog that several of their clients have launched new mobile phone giving campaigns this Fall.  Mobile giving campaigns are now live for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, The Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now, Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, Call + Response, Safe Blood for Africa, and Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy Foundation. Katie's blog post includes all the short codes to make a mobile donation, so if you haven't tried mobile giving yet, now's your chance to be amazed and to imagine how this could work at your nonprofit agency.  The blog post also talks about each nonprofit's plans for promoting their mobile giving campaign in order to reach untapped audiences of potential donors. For example, Komen will be doing live promotion at a NASCAR event on October 11th, where attendants will be encouraged to mgive $5 by texting KOMEN to 90999.

Read about new mobile phone giving campaigns launched this Fall

Online marketing strategies for fundraising in challenging times

As a nonprofit management consultant I'm frequently asked how the online medium can help nonprofits fundraise in economically challenging times. I've been pointing people to this good article by Vinay Bhagat, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Convio. Vinay is a prolific writer who writes about a wide range of online marketing and online fundraising topics. Here's Vinay's list:

• Ensure your Web site makes the right first impression.
• Collect email addresses for current donors.
• Optimize your Web site to convert visitors to email subscribers.
• Make every communication count.
• Inspire, provide value and be transparent to your donors about how funds are spent.
• Ask for money, regularly.
• Use multiple emails in a series to lift appeal response rates.
• Make fundraising appeals tangible and compelling.
• Empower volunteers to raise money.
• Encourage monthly giving.

Read the full article

Donation page optimization boosts online fundraising

The good folks at Donordigital have published some new research that shows that improving donation pages can boost online fundraising. In partnership with Donordigital, Amnesty International USA embarked on a project aimed at improving donation landing page conversions before the all-important end-of-year fundraising season in order to increase total dollars raised. While email and web copy may persuade people to "click to donate now," very few who land on the donation page actually complete the donation transaction. Key findings:

• Bigger donate buttons helped convert more donors
• Vividly colored donation buttons had varying levels of impact on donation page conversion
• Removing unnecessary fields from personal information forms significantly increased conversion
• Polite header copy yielded better conversion than a more forceful call-to-action
• Donation page testing can help improve YOUR organization's online revenue

Download the research