Did you know that online fundraising makes up 8% of all fundraising? I had the pleasure yesterday to present with Jen Benka, National Development and Marketing Director of 826 National, Greg Harrell-Edge, Membership Director of Friends of the Urban Forest and Allan Pressel, Founder of PowerSite123. There is so much to learn in this emerging area.

Online fundraising is free, green and FUN! All of us agreed that this is only going to be growing. Imagine all the Executives of Facebook in 20 years from now? Will they really be sending checks and expect end of year donation letters in the mail?

Here are some of the highlights that were talked about.

Subject Line: It needs to get people to open the email

When you write an appeal, how much time do you spend in writing the title? Like Greg Harrell-Edge pointed it, imagine what the Inbox of an average donor looks like on the last week of December? Can you differentiate one email from the other?

If you want your email to stand out, make sure you write a strong appeal.

  1. Your argument should be inside the email not in your title
  2. It should be 45 characters or less
  3. Studies of people eyes show that people mostly read the first 2 words only
  4. Always write your title last

Social media is about awareness

Jen Benka shared the amazing work that 826 National is doing. Specifically, she had some good tips on strengthening online messages:

  • Bring personality; have something to say
  • Share stories about impact; remember adjectives
  • Share links of interest to your audience; add value
  • Be genuine and generous (lots of thanks!)
  • Engage in conversation (RT); engage spokespeople

Every nonprofit should have a website that actually furthers its mission — not just describes it…

Allan Pressel recommended 7 goals for a non profit to attain an effective website:

  1. Findability
  2. Stickiness
  3. Loyalty
  4. Referability
  5. Maximum conversion rate
  6. Dynamism
  7. Positive ROI

For those interesting in the topic, I recommend checking out the events from the Center for Non Profit Success.

Source of the photo

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