There's good news to report from a June 2007 survey by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Online giving to the nation's largest charities continued its strong rise in 2006, with online gifts to charities climbing 37% in 2006. Click here to read the full article.
How can you attract new donors online? Below are four tips for using e-mail to acquire new donors and build relationships with existing donors.
Tip One: Collect E-Mail Addresses. Most people probably won't make a donation on their first visit to your site, but if you get their email addresses, you can start building a relationship and invite them back to your website. There are many ways to collect email addresses, such as offering an e-newsletter or inviting people to sign an online petition. Click here for an example from Care.
Tip Two: Make it Easy to Subscribe. Carve out space above-the-fold on your home page to promote your email newsletters. Put a box for capturing email addresses in the navigation bar throughout your Web site. Click here for an example from Grist.
Tip Three: Make your messaging interactive. Create compelling 'calls to action' and special offers. Let recipients interact with your content. Build simple interactive polls and fundraising challenges and watch your response rates and donor data levels climb. Remember, a two way relationship is harder to break than a one way relationship. And don't forget to include your donate now button. Click here for an example from Komen.
Tip Four: Keep your subject line short & sweet. When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what's inside, and the worst subject lines sell what's inside. A recent study showed that subject lines with 49 or fewer characters had open rates and click-through rates up to 75% higher than for those with 50 or more characters.
