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Improving Donor Engagement Online

Bridget L. Brandt

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About me

https://about.me/bridgetlbrandt

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Agenda• Do you have engaged donors?

• What works to engage donorso Howo Examples

• Tips/Ideas to Engage

• A Glimpse at the Success of Others

• Q&A

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What are “Engaged Donors”

• Engaged Donors are those who are taking ACTIONSo Donateo Attend eventso Volunteero Recruit new donors

• Engaged Donors are those who are a part of your “Community”o Interacting and communicating WITH your organizationo Interacting and communicating with others ABOUT your

organization (online and offline)o Building a relationship

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Why do you want “Engaged Donors”?• More cost-effective to renew a donor than find a new

donors • Engaged donors extend your organization’s reach into

the world• Engaged donors do more:

o More frequent donations, larger donationso Take more actionso Tell more people about your organizationo Peer to Peer fundraising

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How do you know if your donors are “Engaged Online”?• Are they taking actions?

o Back to the definition of an engaged donor

• Are they following/fanning you? o Increased mentionso Increased fans / followers 

• Are you seeing increased traffic to your website? o From social media, emails, etc. 

• Are you receiving donations online?  If you answered NO to any of these questions, you will be glad you came today!

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Why ONLINE?• That’s where

your donors are

• That’s where the money is

$303 Billion

$15 Billion Online

$10 billion in 2007

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What works

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Listen / Connect• Engagement = Conversation

 • Don’t just listen on your site, go where the conversations are

already taking place o Facebook, Twitter, etc.o Largest growth on Facebook is 35+ year olds, with the 55+

crowd growing at 922% • Join the conversations in an authentic way

 • Accept and respond to criticism

 • Identify Influencers and engage them separately

o Help influencers help you--spread the word

•Listen/ Learn•Make It Easy•Give Them What They Want

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Learn- Online Giving Learn from others successes and failures: • Online giving spikes during the month of large-scale disasters.

• During disasters, donors are more likely to consider new giving options, while in December, they’re more likely to give based on relationships with the charities.

• A third of all online giving occurs in December, and 22% of annual giving happens in the last two days of the year.

• Online giving (by dollars) on December 31 is concentrated between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. in each time zone.

• Online giving happens largely between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays, with a noticeable drop in giving during the lunch hour. 

  *Network for Good-Online Giving Study Dec 2010 http://www.fundraising123.org/files/Community/Online_Giving_Study_2010.pdf

•Listen/ Learn•Make It Easy•Give Them What They Want

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Learn- Video• Most active days are weekdays, peaking on Wednesdays.

• Weekends including Friday had the highest engagement per view based on average minutes watched

• Online video streams from newspaper websites surged in Q2. This can be attributed to the sustained coverage of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tips:•Post on You Tube and your site

•Keep it short

•End with a call to action

Brightcove 2010 Quarterly Survey http://files.brightcove.com/brightcove-whitepaper-online-video-and-media-industry-q2-2010.pdf

•Listen/ Learn•Make It Easy•Give Them What They Want

12The Marketing Data Box

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179 Million Watch Video Online

Gaining its share of some of this increased internet audience,

the online video market continued to gain momentum in 2010,

with an average of 179 million Americans watching video

each month, according to a new white paper from comScore.

Engagement levels also rose during the year, with viewers

watching online videos more frequently.

Americans also spent about 12% more hours viewing online

video in 2010 (14.2) compared the prior year (12.7) due to

increased content consumption and more video ad streams.

The average American streamed a record 201 videos in

December 2010, up 8% from 187 a year earlier.

American watch 14 hours of online videoTop 10 Video Multimedia Sites by U.S. Market Share of Visits (%), March 2011Source: Experian Hitwise

•Listen/ Learn•Make It Easy•Give Them What They Want

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Learn- Website• Use video, graphics, and images

• Create interaction on your site • Communicate the value of returning

• Get donors involved in decision making

•Don’t have a boring donation page

Derrick Feldmann, Blog from CEO of Achieve, AFP 2011 Building Websites to Enhance Donor Engagement

•Listen/ Learn•Make It Easy•Give Them What They Want

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Make It Easy

• Make it easy to stay in toucho Capture emails, blog updates, RSS feeds

• Make it easy to spread the wordo Tell-A-Friend / Email this Pageo Social Media Icons

• Make it easy to interacto Blog commentingo Online forumso Facebook and Twitter widgets on website

•Listen/ Learn•Make It Easy•Give Them What They Want

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Give Them the Content They Want• Donors want to hear:

o Organizational Impact (80%)o Success Stories (74%)o More details about the organization (71%)o Info on financial accountability (43%)

 • How they can pass it on:

o Tell-A-Friend / Forward This Page • Info. specific to them

o Segment and tailor your content

•Listen/ Learn•Make It Easy•Give Them What They Want

Community Philanthropy 2.0 survey, donors (30-49)

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www.charitywater.org Does it deliver?

1. Impact 2. Success3. Details on org4. Accountability

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Tips to Engage Donors Online

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ASK!• Them to do small favors

o Tell a friend o Forward emailo Sign a petitiono Comment on blogo Volunteer/Attend an evento Take a survey/Share feedbacko Every simple action will deepen the engagement and bond

• Them what they want / need / care abouto Easy way to engageo The results will allow you to tailor content to what they care

about

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Events• Online events

o Webinarso Online chats w/ the EDo Tweets during eventso Photos preparing, before, and after an event

 • Get to know them on a personal level

o Friend similar organizationso Share photos, comment on photos (if welcomed)

 

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Nurturing New Donors• Welcome Email(s)

o 1st 30 days is key (test)o Higher open rates, click-throughs, and actions (test)

 • Special invitations to events / opportunities

o “Since you are a new donor…..” • Give updates on how their donations are helping

o Give specific examples / Use emotion • Ask them to tell others

o Tell-A-Friend, social media, etc.

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Nurturing Established Donors

• Identify your most passionate donors and give them additional support o Need to identify them (CRM, Sage Fundraising Online, etc.)o Help them to spread the word

 • Segment and speak directly to them

o Online tools make this much easiero Separate emails for your top supporters

 • Special Recognition

o Events for repeat donors only (VIP’s)o Recognize at live events and in print

Name tags / Badges in community / Photos on facebook/flicker

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Tools to Engage Donors

• Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)• Google alerts• Hootsuite• Social media icons• Sage Fundraising Online-

Examples – o Upstate NY Transplant Services– www.unyts.orgo Jazz Foundation of

American--http://www.jazzfoundation.org/

What could you do? www.sagefundraisingonline.org

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Best Practices—Give, Not Donate

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Best Practices—Progress Bar, Interesting Donation Page

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Best Practices—Targeted Video, Interesting Donation Page

Video

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Support Us is on every page

Donation page needs to be more interesting and scanable.

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Donation page needs to be more interesting and scanable.

Excellent add in

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Video, Facebook, images…all great!

Add a chance for people to discuss how excited about camp they are, or past stories…Blog

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Conclusion

"Throw away the rulebook. Experiment, learn, try, fall, get up, discover, have fun, be puzzled, find

your way out again, thrive, and be humbled by the whole, miraculous vantage point.“

Kraft Foods marketing executive, Dana Anderson

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Questions: Q- Is online giving more

popular with younger demographics?

A- Yes, today, but tomorrow no.

o 1/3 of all donors havegiven online

Fundraising Success, October 2010 Getting to the Heart of the Donor

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Questions: Q- Is online giving more popular with younger

demographics?

A- No, today, but tomorrow no.o Cygnus Applied Research, in Chicago, found that more than half of

donors who are 65 or older now prefer to make donations online, and this is the first time a study has shown that.

Fundraising Success, October 2010 Getting to the Heart of the Donor

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Questions: Q- What is the best

way to capture individuals and drive them to our site?

A- Besides the things we have already discussed, integrate.

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Questions: Q- How many times should we ask to increase

loyalty?

A- “Over-solicitation” was the second most-reported reason why donors stop giving (32%) in a study done May 2011.

8 times per year is my recommendation, but watch opt outs and response rates.

http://www.cygresearch.com/files/free/US-2011-Cygnus-Donor-Survey_Report-Executive_Summary.pdf

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Question and Answer

Contact Me:Bridget <dot> Brandt <at>sage <dot>com

Contact Sage:www.sagenonprofit.com

800-811-0961

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