January 25th, 2007 at 07:21am
Under fundraising
Convio has released a comprehensive benchmarking report on online marketing and fundraising.
According to Convio’s announcement, the report “includes data compiled from nonprofit organizations across six vertical segments and of various sizes and levels of online maturity. It also discusses tactics for impacting key metrics and strengthening online marketing programs.”
Convio plans to produce the report on an annual basis, providing a rolling benchmark of changes in online marketing trends.
Download the report here. (requires free registration)
By irishg
January 22nd, 2007 at 07:20am
Under fundraising
Techsoup has released a collection of online resources, including comparison charts, handy guides and tutorials to help organizations tackle the often-daunting issue of donor management technology.
The toolkit covers both online data services (ASPs) and installable software, and is organized along the main themes of best practices in employing donor management techology: Discover, Research, Acquire, Implement, Support and Sustain
Visit Techsoup’s Donor Management Toolkit
By irishg
January 19th, 2007 at 07:16am
Under fundraising
Another indication of the competitive state of the Software-as-service marketplace…
Kintera has responded to the announcement of the Convio/GetActive merger with a direct promotional campaign encouraging customers to switch to Kintera.
The opening lines of Kintera’s email offer read:
Has the proposed merger of Convio and GetActive raised uncertainty at your nonprofit – creating concern about the integration of technology platforms, culture, and which platform survives?
If so, Kintera is excited to offer a migration, implementation and software replacement program specifically for existing Convio and GetActive clients.
Read Kintera’s press release about this program.
By irishg
January 18th, 2007 at 07:10am
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In one of the larger shake-ups of the nonprofit web services industry in recent years, Austin-based Convio has announced it is acquiring one of its main competitors: Berkeley, CA’s GetActive.
In a statement about the acquisition, Convio’s CEO Gene Austin says “This combination will bring together two great companies, each of which has a deep commitment to serving the nonprofit sector, … we believe our customers will be even better equipped to realize the potential of the Internet for fundraising, advocacy and outreach.”
Combined, the two companies service some 1,400 nonprofits.
Read Convio’s press release
News of the acquisition has generated a flurry of posts and comments in the nonprofit-tech blogoshere. Here are a few samples:
echoditto
Democracy in Action
NonProfit Tech Blog
ePolitics
Personal Democracy Forum
By irishg
January 5th, 2007 at 03:59am
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Blackbaud is kicking off the new year with the launch of Blogbaud.com, a new blog that promises to “give our employees a platform to sound off on what they know best: technology, nonprofits, business, and Blackbaud itself”. The new blog aims to build an active community where Blackbaud’s staff and developers can interact and collaborate with users of their products.
First posting on Blogbaud, Ten Social Web New Year’s Resolutions for Nonprofits by Internet Marketing Manager Chad Norman, looks promising of more good content to come.
By irishg
January 2nd, 2007 at 03:55am
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An interesting flurry of activity in past weeks with the appearance of a new type of online fundraising tool that could bridge the gap between tried-and-true online donation forms, and the emerging world of Web 2.0 applications (myspace, youtube, wikipedia, etc.): charity badges — also known as fundraising widgits. (widgits are small objects that you can put anywhere on a web page to add new functions, new content, etc.)Idealware posted a roundup of the candidates that appeared just in time for the holiday giving rush. URL: Tis the Season… for Cheap and Easy - and Distributed – Online Fundraising Tools
Charity badges are interesting new tools that could open up a whole new area in online fundraising - it’s still a bit early to tell if and how these tools might catch on.
Here is a list of some of the early players in this new fundraising technology field:
By irishg
November 21st, 2006 at 03:44am
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ChipIn has announced a new release of their handy add-in personal fundraising tool, making it possible for just about anyone to raise money online for the causes they support.From their blog:
We released our ChipIn widget on Widgetbox today making it even easier to embed our contribute now badge on many more sites. You can easily place our contribute now badge on your Typepad blog, blogger, Myspace, Xanga, Friendster, Wordpress, and many more. Check it out at widgetbox.com/widget/chipin
This new tool is already generating interest. Michael Stein has posted an article on ChipIn’s fresh approach to the ASP/web service equation, and Peter Deitz at First-of-its-kind has kindly provided a detailed post on the ChipIn feature set, including step-by-step instructions.
By irishg
August 16th, 2006 at 11:43pm
Under fundraising
The rise of personal spaces online has been rapid and breathtaking… and that’s not taking into account the corporate money being thrown around to buy up these personal space portals. There has just got to be something that the nonprofit sector can do more seriously in these spaces. A quick perusal of myspace.com shows a lot of tepid or flat out false nonprofit fronts on personal pages. Just imagine what nonprofits could do if they could crack this place online and reach, inspire, and fundraise with the hundreds of millions of folks in personal spaces online. I heard rumour that Amnesty Hungary put up a page for the organization in the Hungarian equivilant of myspace.com. And lo and behold… they had a few hundred people link to that page… imagine how much more could be done. For fun, I had my design team create the following hypothetical fundraising personal space:
Â
By Michael Johnston
July 27th, 2006 at 11:31pm
Under fundraising
3D virtual worlds have been around for a long time, and are only starting to enter into the mainstream of online users. Second Life is one of the most successful, and as more people are joining - more than 200,000 so far - they are bringing more and more ideas with them from the “real world”. Tom Watson of ChangingOurWorld.com writes about how philanthropy has now appeared in Second Life.
Philanthropy, it turns out, is sweeping the world’s largest virtual 3D community and big-name organizations like the American Cancer Society, TechSoup, Global Kids, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society are getting involved, creating virtual “chapters” and holding online fundraising events.
Read Tom’s article: Second Life fundraising: Philanthropy dips its toe into Virtual Worlds
By irishg
May 30th, 2006 at 07:49pm
Under fundraising
Special events are an important part of how many nonprofit organizations raise money, strengthens its brand, and maintains donor relationships.
The online environment can be a more important part of the future of events for your organization and I’ve got a few recommendations in this area.  Â
Most likely, your events program has a supporter base that will not convert quickly to online giving. Like converting donors from single gift giving to a monthly committed giving plan, the conversion is incremental and small.
The future success of your online giving program doesn’t lie in your existing event database.Â
Your event donors should be given every opportunity to give online. A valuable incentive is to offering them an online receipt. Some of your donors may choose to switch to online giving in order to take advantage of an instant receipting for their records.Â
In addition, the event donors can be told that giving or registering online is the most efficient way to help your organization and that “their money will go to work faster†if they register/buy tickets/give online.
I usually recommend that an organization provide event donors every opportunity to give online and provide information on instant receipting and buying tickets online. This way you will encourage some of your donors to move to the online environment.Â
Most likely, your current prospective and past event goers receive a text-only email that reminds them to buy their tickets and to participate in a particular event. They do not have the opportunity to use their credit card and buy tickets through a real-time transaction online.
Your event emails sent out currently are probably text only and have a hypertext link to a PDF form. A wonderful improvement is to send an HTML email with key points and linked calls to action in text only with the overall look and feel in HTML. If you’re already there, what the heck are you reading this for?! 
As an example of best practice online promotion of fundraising events, HJC would like to highlight the work of Rethink Breast Cancer, an innovative fundraising organization that concentrates solely on helping young women, and their families, who struggle with breast cancer. Their constituency is largely younger and they have created effective online promotions of their events.
The following examples should inspire your organization in the creation of HTML, and perhaps Flash, promotions for its events:
The use of a link in an email invitation can lead to fun, cool, and hip use of Flash. If you go to http://oxygen.ca/clients/rethink/discoball.html, you will see a great use of animation to sell a unique event:Â The Little Sweetheart Ball, an event for young parents and their young kids. The end of the animated promotion piece also gives high branding position to the corporate sponsors.
Â
The use of graphics and a forward-this-to-a-friend function gives this invite a powerful viral marketing ability and gives it a hip look. Try it out for the right event and the right group!
By Michael Johnston
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