Michael Stein: Internet Strategy for the Nonprofit Sector

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

11 tips for using video to raise money

While I'm on the subject of Michael Hoffman and See3 Communications, here's their wonderful list of eleven tips for using video to raise money online:

1. Tell a story.
2. Be relevant.
3. Tell them what you want.
4. Be brief.
5. Videos don’t raise money by themselves.
6. Embed video on your donations page.
7. Put video at the center of a campaign.
8. Empower your viewers.
9. Create a media library.
10. Test.
11. Know when not to use video.

Read the full post on the See3 blog

A few good methods for processing credit cards

The good folks at Idealware (I'm on the Board) are up to it again with another fine (and free) article, this one covering A few good methods for processing credit cards. It turns out that it's not necessarily difficult or expensive to accept payments by credit card, and this article provides tips and tools to process credit card transactions both online and off. Perhaps you’re hoping to process credit card donations based on phone calls from donors, or allow on-site registration at your next conference. Perhaps you want to take credit card payments at a T-shirt booth at a concert, or at your organization’s gift shop. There are a number of different possible methods for taking credit cards, which may require different types of hardware, software and relationships. Idealware talked to six different nonprofit staff members and consultants with a lot of experience in credit card processing to help you understand the high-level options.

Read the article

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

The Good Temp: Inside America's temporary help agencies

My wife's first book, based on her Ph.D. dissertation, and co-written with her colleague Vicki Smith, was published earlier this Spring.

Temporary agencies place approximately two and a half million people in jobs each day in the United States. Every year, about twelve million people use these placement agencies to find temporary work. Many Americans, even those who desire permanent jobs, decide to enter the labor market through the portal of temporary agencies. Compared with the post–World War II era, when it was a marginal labor practice, temporary employment is today an entrenched feature of jobs and labor markets. How have temporary employment relationships become so widespread and normalized? In The Good Temp, Vicki Smith and Esther B. Neuwirth provide some novel answers to this question.

Their provocative analysis is based on an insider's view of the interior dynamics of a temporary help agency in Silicon Valley. It incorporates a historical perspective on the rise of the temporary help service industry. Smith and Neuwirth document how this powerful industry not only created a new market for temporary labor but also played a fundamental role in the erosion of the permanent employment model. They analyze how agencies themselves came to manufacture and market this reinvented product-the good temp, an employee who is effective and efficient, committed, and sometimes preferable to a permanent staff member.

Available at your local independent bookstore

And don't miss the article about the book in U.S. News & World Report.

Two constituent management articles from Idealware

Idealware has just published two excellent articles on the topic of constituent management.  (Full disclosure: I'm on the Idealware Board of Directors.)  The new articles offer two different lenses on the issues of constituent tracking. First up is the first of a two part series from the ever insightful Paul Hagan: In Search of CRM Part 1: Understanding Constituents and Processes. This article summarizes how you can get a good handle on the constituents and processes you'll need to support with a Constituent Relationship Management system. In the second part, coming next month, Paul will talk about how to use this information to look for a CRM technology solution that will work for you.

Second up is a great constituent tracking article for small organizations: Tales of River Databases: Tracking Constituents in Small and Mid-Sized Organizations. Working with the River Network, who funded the article, Idealware spoke to a series of organizations that work for the protection and conservation of U.S. lakes and rivers about their constituent database situation and needs, and wrote up a summary of the best practices and a few case studies that speak to the needs of these smaller organizations.

Mobile phones and fundraising campaigns: 3rd strategy guide from MobileActive.org

I'm pleased to announce that MobileActive.org has published its third MobileActive Guide, entitled "Using Mobile Phones in Fundraising Campaigns."  The guide was written by yours truly, Michael Stein, and edited by Katrin Verclas.  The guide features case studies from around the world, strategies for using mobile phones in fundraising, and a how-to section for organizations considering using mobile phones to support their causes.

Here's the table of contents:

• Mobile Phones in Fundraising Campaigns
• Mobile Fundraising for Humanitarian Relief
• Partnerships between Charities and Commercial Entities
• Harnessing Media and Entertainment Content
• Interplay between Donors and Activists
• Searching for Return on Investment in Mobile Fundraising
• Lessons Learned

The guide includes case studies and examples from Greenpeace India, Doctors Without Borders Austria, American Red Cross, Live 8, Breakthrough Breast Cancer (UK), Planned Parenthood Federation of America, YouthNoise, StandUp for Kids, Sweet Relief, Amnesty International, and Amnesty Norway.

Mobile phones have become a powerful emerging tool for participation in civil society. This five part series from MobileActive.org looks at ways nonprofits have used mobile phones in their campaigns, effective strategies deployed, and lessons learned.  Other guides look at voter registration and advocacy via mobile phones.

Widget fundraising case study

Beth Kanter and ChipIn have published a remarkable case study entitled Using the ChipIn Fundraising Badge for a Personal Fundraising Campaign.  The case study walks you through the step-by-step process of using the ChipIn widget to conduct a personal fundraising campaign on behalf of any nonprofit or cause. Beth raised $800 for a Cambodian orphan's college education in a few weeks.  Better than any marketing-ware that I've encountered recently, this document turns the case study on its head and shows how to actually use a technology product in the real world for a real cause (she calls this an "action learning experiment"). Strikingly devoid of marketing spin, Beth's report on raising money for a cause is a testament not just to Beth's endless inventiveness, but to the ever-changing nature of the Internet and fundraising. Beth explores issues such as setting a realistic fundraising goal, crafting an effective message, identifying likely prospects, incorporating social networking sites into your implementation efforts, and how to best use the ChipIn widget.

Vendors as Allies: How to Evaluate Viability, Service, and Commitment

Idealware (where I am Board President) has published great new article about evaluating technology vendors entitled: Vendors as Allies: How to Evaluate Viability, Service, and Commitment.  The article is co-authored by Steve Heye of the YMCA, and Steve Lancman who works with Jewish Community Centers.  This is an important topic for organizations that are looking at big investments in vendor managed enterprise software.  The article discusses the challenge of vendor partnerships, choosing vendor allies, viability, quality of support services, commitment to the nonprofit market, and choosing your ally for years to come.

Convio releases Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study

Convio has released an extremely useful study about key performance metrics for nonprofit organizations using the Internet.  It's planned as an annual study.  Convio compiled data from 30 clients of various sizes, missions, and levels of online maturity.  I've always been impressed by the studies and white papers that Convio publishes, and this one is no exception.  Here are the key findings of the report:

• Online donations continue to grow at a fast pace. In the span of just a few years, the amount raised online by many nonprofit organizations has grown from virtually nothing to a median annual amount of $362,485, with some organizations raising considerably more. The median rate of growth in funds raised online was 27%.
• Email addresses are valuable. The more people in your email file, the more money you can expect to raise online. Organizations with large email files (more than 100,000 email addresses) raised two to three times more online than those with smaller files.
• Small email files are gaining ground. While the median rate of growth in email files was 47% for the period of 2005 to 2006, organizations with email files composed of fewer than 50,000 records grew the fastest — at nearly twice the rate of the overall index.
• Web traffic matters. Organizations with the most monthly unique Website visitors have built the largest email files and promoted giving opportunities to the largest pool of new constituents. This relationship between Web traffic and file growth highlights the importance of driving traffic to your Website as a file-building tactic.
• The median unique Website visitors over the year studied was 26,481 per month, growing 30% since last year. 
• Site visitor registration is key. Driving constituents to your Website does not, by itself, grow your email file. Converting Website visitors into registered users — who can then be cultivated and converted into donors — requires compelling content and incentives to register. The median registration rate was 2.8%.
• Size matters, but it is not everything. While it is not surprising that organizations with large operating budgets raised the most money online, mid-sized organizations (those with annual budgets between $5 and $20 million dollars) are growing online donations the fastest.