Network for Good's Training Series

How to Craft Your Nonprofit Call to Action: Why me? Why now? What for?

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:25:27 -0500

Are you disappointed with your fundraising results? Are your fundraising campaigns and messages getting inside the heads of your prospective supporters and motivating them to take real action? If not, it's time to take a look at your call to action.

With a little planning, you can create a call to action that motivates people to volunteer or donate with these four questions.

Why me?

Your audience needs to care about what you are doing. Show them why what you're doing is personally relevant to them. They need to connect to you on a human level. Use pictures, tell stories and do anything that can help your audience relate.

Why now?

If there's not a built in sense of urgency for donating -- such as end-of-year campaigns or disaster relief -- you need to show potential donors why it's important to give now.

Create a sense of urgency and immediacy in your appeal. Explain why a donation is needed right now.
Break down what you are currently doing and show any immediately understandable or visible results that will make people want to take action.

What for?

People want to know where their money is going. It's your job to illustrate what will they get in return for their donation - personally and in terms of your programs.

Don't just focus on need; show the real impact a donation will make.
Show them that you will take care of their money so a potential donor knows it won't be wasted or inefficiently used.
Clearly show which programs are being helped by a donation or what goods are going to result.
Share how other donors made an impact or how donors impacted other individuals in need. Avoid talking about massive numbers, mind-numbing statistics, or intangible outcomes.

Who says?

People tend to do what other people are doing. Tap into that by using trustworthy messengers - people you've actually helped or other donors instead of just you. People say friends and family are the most influential in determining where they give money, so also think about how you can get your supporters to speak for you among their own circles of influence.

How “Wow!” Experiences Create Lifetime Donors

kleroux — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:25:49 -0400

Zappos.com is an online shoe and apparel store whose mission is to deliver happiness through a philosophy of WOW! It has built an entire culture around these WOW! experiences by providing exemplary customer service. Because of this commitment to their customers, Zappo's is now the gold standard for customer service.

Ever wonder if your organization could do the same? You may think this has nothing to do with your mission of helping the homeless or saving the planet, but you need donors. And with donor retention stats as horrible as they are, you need to create WOW! experiences to keep them coming back.

A WOW! experience starts with the "Thank you." You must send a thank you letter after receiving a gift. Donors want to be thanked and they want to be thanked properly. Don't use typical nonprofit speak with statistics and jargon.

10 Components of an Ideal Thank-You Letter:

1. Speed - send your thank you letters preferably within 48 hours but no more than a week.

2. Spread Joy - let them know they are a hero.

3. Personalize - do not use "Dear Friend" letters or postcards. Use their name.

4. Reference the gift amount and date.

5. What was the gift for and how you are using it.

6. Acknowledge past giving.

7. Don't highlight the boring stuff - tax deductible and legal terms can be added in fine print at the bottom.

8. Don't forget the PS - drive them to your blog, Facebook page, etc.

9. Give the reader a contact person - someone they can contact directly.

10. Never, ever ask for a second gift in a thank you letter.

What else can you do to WOW your donors?

Phone calls. Call to thank donors - not solicit from them. Get your board members and volunteers involved.
Regular Surveying. People love to be asked for advice. Ask why your regular supporters keep contributing. Ask why new donors decided to give to you.
Gifts. Nothing big or expensive, but send something fun to your major donors to let them know you are thinking about them.
Get your board involved. Have them make donor thank you calls or handwrite letters.
Welcome Kits. Send a package that thanks them and encourages them to get more involved.
Social Media. Use Facebook, Twitter or YouTube to say thank you.
Communicate more not less. I don't mean soliciting. Provide great content and tell good stories. Think in term of touches. How often do you reach out to your donors? I recommend between 12-24 times a year.
Celebrate. Send out cards not just for Christmas, but for birthdays, Thanksgiving or other holidays when you may get more attention.

Don't forget about online donors. Walk through every step of your online donation process. Where does the donor land after making the gift? Does the donor receive an immediate receipt or thank you email? With online giving going up, you need to make sure your online donors are getting the same attention as your offline supporters.

When your donors are WOWed, they will continue to support your cause and become lifetime contributors. You need to make your donor not only feel appreciated, but also feel like a friend. The sooner you start treating everyone who has given to your organization as a friend, the closer your organization is to creating lifetime donors.

Turn Supporters’ Time into Money through Polling and Surveys

kleroux — Mon, 23 May 2011 19:12:08 -0400

At Research for Good, we partner with nonprofits just like yours to turn your supporters' time into revenue for your organization. Market researchers constantly need people to fill out online surveys and polls. We connect your supporters with those researches and then donate to your cause every time a supporter completes a survey. This allows supporters to contribute to your nonprofit who may not otherwise be willing or able to donate money to your organization.

The concept is pretty simple. A company has a question and hires a market research company to design a research plan to get that question answered. The market research company finds the right people to survey and asks for their feedback. That feedback is analyzed and presented to the company who then implements their strategy based on the findings. That is Market Research 101.

Market research is a $10 billion industry with $1 billion dollars spent every year getting people to participate in online research. Finding people to take those surveys is a big business.

So, what does this mean for your nonprofit? By partnering with Research for Good, you ask your supporters to take those surveys and we allocate a donation back to you - typically between $1-5.

Getting started with Research for Good is easy. You'll need to give us some information about your organization (We only accept 501(c)(3)s at this time). Then, we do all the heavy lifting for you.

You will get a starter package with a unique recruitment URL. Anyone who goes to that URL will take surveys for your cause only. All you have to do is reach out to your supporters and encourage them to take the surveys.

Supporters will be asked create a Research for Good profile and provide basic demographics so we can make sure they get appropriate targeted surveys. Then, they will be sent a survey opportunity by email. We track who is taking the surveys then send you a donation through Network for Good who then distributes the money to you monthly.

Tips and Tricks for promoting your Research for Good Partnership:

Make it personal and tangible ("Each survey earns a vaccination for a child.")
Highlight it as an opportunity to give time, instead of asking for money. Again
Include alongside your current communications strategy when you need another reason to stay top of mind ("Thanks to your opinions, Research for Good donated $1000 to our cause helping us buy 100 Malaria nets!")
Use our polling features on your website. It's a great way to engage people.

For more information on what partnering with Research for Good can do for your nonprofit, check out the recording from this webinar.

If you have questions or would like to make a comment about this webinar, please join the conversation at The Network for Good Online Community.

Adapted by Kristina Leroux

Optimize Your Nonprofit Landing Pages: Improving the Odds You Get What You Want from Your Supporters

kleroux — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:23:27 -0400

A landing page is any page on your nonprofit website where you want someone to take an action. That action could be signging up for an email, signing a petition, donating or sharing your content with others. A successful landing page is about having one clear call to action. Everything on that page should focus on getting the visitor to take that one action.

Here are a few quick tips to get the results you want from your nonprofit landing pages:

Prepare

Know your audience. Their motivations are different from yours. What drives them and stirs them? Find out and tap into their passion.
What's your goal? Pick ONE goal. Have them sign up for your newsletter or donate, but don't encourage both on the same landing page.
Who's your audience? Pick just one segment (volunteers or donors or grant funders) and direct the page toward them.
What's your story? Storytelling is key to nonprofit communications. Find one story and stay focused on telling it.

Design

Maintain the same branding on all landing pages. Your Facebook custom tab and avatar should have the same logo and colors as your email newsletter template which should use the same logo and colors as your direct mailings. You don't want to lose your audience by having them reorient themselves to different branding.
Use white space to direct the eye. Start a new paragraph every two sentences. Use bullet points and numbered items to draw attention.
Use big fonts. I suggest 14 or 16 point. Research shows that bigger fonts create more trust. Don't make visitors feel like they are reading "the fine print."
Use big buttons. Studies show bigger buttons convert more donors.
Focus attention with a compelling and concise headline. Don't use industry jargon and make sure the title communicates the single outcome you want.
Focus with a single compelling image. Use an image with one person. Have them look directly in visitors eyes. Professionally licensed photos or photographers are a must.
Ditch the sidebars. Use single column layouts. Sidebars will distract from the one goal and give visitors a potential escape hatch.
Keep the important stuff above the fold. Keep your story and call to action above the area of the browser that's visible without scrolling down.

Function

Leverage social proof. People will be more likely to act if they see others doing the same. Give them a choice to share dollar amounts , but don't make it mandatory
Reduce page load time. People start to drop off if your page if it takes longer than 2 seconds to load.
Get more out of your thank you page. Lead them to a second landing page after they donate. Your cause is at the top of your donor's mind right after they give. Use that moment to get them to take another action (share, join an email list or text message list, etc)

Forms

Only include "must have" fields. The supporter's name, address, and email is all you need to start. Wait to ask for other information in follow-up communications so they aren't overwhelmed.
Include a phone number. Even if they don't use it, knowing they can call a real person helps them trust you more.

Measure

You need to learn what works and what doesn't for your organization:
- Where do people arrive from?
- Where do they exit?
- Which inner pages point to the landing page?
- How long do they stay?
- What other pages did they visit?
- Which social media sites end us the most traffic?
- How are they finding us in search?
Debrief. Data means nothing if there's no follow-up.

Remember, you have a limited opportunity to get visitors' attention. Keep your landing pages simple and focused with one clear and compelling call to action and you will be able to turn visitors into supporters for your good cause.

Microvolunteering: Why It's Better Than Sliced Bread

kleroux — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:23:59 -0400

In today's world, we live our lives on the internet. We communicate, learn, find loved ones, get our news and buy products all online. But, 90% of volunteering happens offline.

Traditional offline volunteering has a lot of hoops to jump through. You normally

Get online
Search for an opportunity that interests you
Fill out an application
Participate in a training call
Schedule the time to volunteer
Drive to the organization
Get more training
Volunteer!
Then, drive home.

This is a huge chunk of time that most people just can't do regularly.
A lot of Americans who would normally volunteer can't because it just doesn't fit in with their schedules. Not because they don't have any spare time, but because that spare time only comes in chunks of 20 - 30 minutes at a time.

We wanted to capture that spare time people have on the net and bring a new form of volunteerism to people's lives -- a form that supports traditional volunteer work and helps people get involved in between the times when they can actually show up in person and do something.

To be clear, we are not trying to stop people from volunteering offline. We just want to help facilitate engagement and keep relationships active in between those times when people can get together.

Sparked connects nonprofits with busy people who want to volunteer.
We work with organizations of all sizes and figure out what your needs are - those things you have to get done, but can't because you don't have the staff or budget. Those needs are posted as challenges and are routed to our skilled microvolunteers who donate their time to get it done for you.

Our microvolunteers can be part of a larger corporation's employee volunteering program or one of thousands of freelancers or small business owners that also want to offer their skills and expertise to nonprofits.
Sparked can deliver an incredibly high quality talent pool to nonprofits so you can get solutions from the best people possible.
We have matched microvolunteers with nonprofits who needed graphic design, translations, social media design, IT problem solving and copy writing for fundraising letters.
Sparked is also a way to fundraise - just not directly. Sometimes the best way to fundraise is to save money in the first place. If you don't have to outsource work to a graphic designer or translator, you save money and increase your capacity while keeping your supporters engaged with your organization.

Getting started and finding microvolunteers with Sparked is easy:

Create an account at www.sparked.com.
Post a challenge - create your own or customize our templates.
Collect your results - Volunteers will take on your challenge. Results are laid out like a forum so it's open and easy for volunteers to collaborate (which also holds them accountable).
Thank your volunteers. You can also give awards of excellence.

Your volunteers and supporters live in an incredibly networked world and finding ways to help make it easier for them to participate is important for your organization.

We know the frustration when you reach that point in a project that is just outside your skill set and we want to help you get more done - better and faster. The talent that comes from the world's biggest brands, like Kraft and SAP, is on Sparked right now ready to use their skills to help you solve your problems.

To find out more about Sparked or get started visit: http://www.sparked.com/content/nonprofit

You can access the full recording of this webinar here: http://web.networkforgood.org/nonprofit-911-040511-recording/

If you have any other questions or would like to make a comment about this webinar, join the conversation at The Network for Good Community.

Adapted by Kristina Leroux

Crowdrise and Its Potential for You and Your Supporters

kleroux — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:47:22 -0400

Everyone involved with good causes wants to make an impact. Crowdrise launched in May of 2010 with the simple goal of making giving fun. We thought we could have the type of impact we wanted by making a site where even if the cause was extremely serious, people raising money for that cause could have fun doing it.

We wanted to create a space that made people get involved because they were self-interested and not just because they thought they had to. And in the short time we have been around, we have found that making donating fun - through things like badges, game mechanics and point systems - actually works.

We want people to feel like they have a charitable life. And then make people want to build their charitable life on Crowdrise in the same way they built their life on Facebook.

The difference between Crowdrise and other fundraising sites is the fun. We don't want this to be a "drop and done" donate site. We look at our site as a donor tool plus social networking. We want people to be obsessed with it like they are with other social media. We want to build loyalty.

The key is peer-to-peer fundraising: Instead of charities asking for support, your Crowdrise team asks their friends and family to help. You get your supporters to become fundraisers, and your supporters get points and other incentives that make them want to keep giving and finding more people to give as well.

A few things you should know about Crowdrise:

Only US-based 501(c)3 nonprofits are eligible to raise money through Crowdrise.
There are no start-up fees, but we do deduct 5% on donations and also a transaction fee based on the donation amount.
To get started, you need to claim your charity at Crowdrise and then create a page.
You keep all of the fundraising and donor data - the donor's email, what project they donated to, and how much they donated.
You can publically thank donors on Crowdrise for the whole Crowdrise community to see.
Crowdrise is a good avenue to the younger demographic.
You can be a "Featured Charity" for $299 a year and you will be featured on our homepage and your donors will receive double Crowdrise points for every dollar they donate.

To find out everything you need to know about getting started on Crowdrise, check out our Charities Page.

If you would like to listen to the recording from this webinar, you can do so here: http://web.networkforgood.org/nonprofit-911-032911-recording/

If you have any other questions or comments, please join the conversation in our online community: http://www.thenetworkforgood.org/t5/Social-Networking-Engagement/bd-p/Social

Adapted by Kristina Leroux

10 Tips to Leveraging LinkedIn for Good

kleroux — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:36:00 -0400

At LinkedIn, our mission is simple: To connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful. Then we create economic opportunities for those professionals. And with over 95 million members, LinkedIn is a great way to connect with people from all over the world.

As a nonprofit professional, you and your organization should be leveraging the connective power of LinkedIn as well to promote your career and your cause. The two main reasons your cause should be on LinkedIn? Connections and Knowledge.

With the connections you make on LinkedIn, you can expand your network and build your brand. LinkedIn is also a great place to find and share information and resources.

Here are 10 tips for nonprofits on how to make the most of LinkedIn.

1. Enhance your professional brand to expand your network. With your profile, you control your brand and what you want people to know. But make sure your profile is 100% completed. It's 40 times more likely a completed profile will show up in search than if it's only 90%.

2. Tap your connections. Build up your network and take advantage of it. Organize your contacts with tags such as board members, volunteers, or potential donors. Look at who your connections know and who you could reach out to.

3. Create your company profile and rally your supporters. Look at your company's profile page. Make sure the overview is up to date. You should also update your product and services tab with services your organization provides and then your supporters can recommend those services.

4. Broadcast your message through your status bar. Share articles and best practices. Looking for employees? Ask for referrals in your status. Use it to promote recent news about your cause. It can even be tied directly to your Twitter account so tweets are broadcast to your LinkedIn profile as well.

5. Engage through polls. Polls are a great way to get people involved. Create a poll, and send it out to your network. Encourage your network to share with people they know on LinkedIn. You will also get instant analytics.

6. Find the perfect board member, major donor or volunteer. By using our advanced search, you can narrow down your results through criteria such as keywords, location, or industry. This will allow you to find more relevant candidates. Searches can be saved and new people will be added automatically.

7. Join groups to gain knowledge and influence. Join industry groups that relate not only to your cause, but also groups such as professional fundraisers. You can use these groups to seek volunteers or board members. You can also use it for internal communications. If you are in a group with somebody, you can send that person a message even if you aren't connected with them.

8. Use LinkedIn Answers to position yourself as a thought-leader. Showcase your knowledge, expertise and interests by answering others' questions. Or post a question to find answers from others in your field.

9. Connect with experts. Update the skills section of your profile to include your talents and skills. Then learn about top people with that skill.

10. Make sense of the noise: LinkedInToday. LinkedIn Today is a new free service that can filter all information leaving only what would be meaningful to you. Follow industries or topics or filter by your network, location, or most popular to find the information that is most relevant to you.

For more resources on using LinkedIn for your nonprofit, you can access the full recording of this webinar here: http://web.networkforgood.org/nonprofit-911-031511-recording/

If you have questions regarding using LinkedIn for Good, join the conversation in our online community: http://www.thenetworkforgood.org/t5/Nonprofit-911-Leveraging/bd-p/NP911_LinkedIn

Adapted by Kristina Leroux

How to Increase Attendance & Fundraising Results for Your Fundraising Event

kleroux — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:41:42 -0500

Thinking of hosting a fundraising gala, charity auction or golf tournament? Fudnraising events are a great way to cultivate donors, reach new supporters and raise money. They can also be a lot of work -- so you'll want to make sure you've got a good plan in place, as well as a system to manage all of the details.

Before you dive in and start planning your nonprofit fundraising event, ask yourself a few questions:

What are you trying to accomplish? As much fun as events can be, you want to have a clear idea of what the end result should be.
Who are you trying to reach? Is this for existing supporters or are you trying to reach new ones? Maybe your event is for clients. Decide on your target audience before planning the event.
What do I want them to do? Have a clear call to action for attendees. Will they be asked to donate at the event or participate in an activity? What is the primary result you want to see from those who attend? Make sure this is baked into your planning and communications.
Is an event the best solution? Events can be time consuming and expensive, so make sure it is the best way to reach your goal. If your goal is only to raise awareness, you may want to think twice about using an event to accomplish this.

Now that you've decided an event is the best way to reach your objective, invest some time in creating your plan.

Set a specific goal for your event. Whether it's adding new donors or reaching a certain donation level, you need to have a clear and measurable end result in mind. Know how you will define as success -- such as "Raise $20,000" or "Cultivate 100 Gold Level Sponsors".

Set a budget. A realistic budget (and sticking to it) is vital to a successful fundraising event. Ask yourself how much attendees will be willing to spend. Obviously the more lavish an event, the higher the ticket price should be, but don't be afraid to ask for a reasonable donation. Getting corporate sponsors is a great way to help with the cost and achieve a realistic budget.

Create a communications plan. For example, two months out, secure your sponsors and send out "Save the Date" emails. Begin sending out tweets and update your Facebook status with information on the event. One month out, send invitations to those you hope will attend. Write a blog post about the event and reach out to local media. In the days before, send reminders to your attendees and use social media to generate excitement and interest around your event. After the event, be sure to have a plan to send thank you notes and acknowledge all who attended and helped make your event a success.

Measure your success. Finally, don't think your work is finished after the last supporter goes home. Follow up after the event is crucial as well. Analyze the results to see what went right and what went wrong. Did you stick to your budget? Did you raise more money or sell more tickets online or offline? Did you receive any new donors? This will help make your next event even more successful!

Now that you have a plan, how are you going to manage implementing it? Try Network for Good's EventsNow service powered by givezooks! EventsNow allows you to create a customized event page, sell tickets and corporate sponsorships, and ask for donations from those who can't attend. It also lets you send and track emails and will automatically send thank you emails as well as emails your supporters can use for tax purposes. It's a one-stop event management resource!

Watch a full demo of how you can use EventsNow powered by givezooks!

How to Tell a Story that Feels Your Own in 30 Seconds

aschwalm — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:34:21 -0500

The wonderful Andy Goodman recently wrote about the Golden Theme. It captures the idea that the best stories are the ones in which we see ourselves: “It is our ability to imagine ourselves in a story’s circumstances that makes stories work.”

Andy explained in Free Range Thinking how this works:

Consider, for example, the story of a homeless person we’ll call Ted. When we first meet Ted, he is on the street, unemployed and in poor health, both physically and mentally. Through the diligent work of a nonprofit agency, Ted will be placed in permanent supportive housing where he will find not only a roof over his head, but an array of services that will ultimately help him break the cycle of homelessness.

Now consider a different version of this story, one in which we meet a stock room clerk named Ted. He is shy, almost painfully so, but he’s diligent about his work and is well liked even if he mostly keeps to himself, voraciously reading comic books during lunch and breaks. When the recession hits, Ted is laid off, can’t find another job despite submitting dozens of applications, and eventually can’t afford his tiny apartment. Faced with the numerous challenges of surviving on the street, Ted’s shyness reveals itself to be a deeper emotional problem and he spirals downward.

As in the first version, Ted will ultimately connect with a nonprofit agency that will help him turn his life around, so both stories will arrive at the same happy ending. But the stories begin differently, and it is a crucial difference when you consider the Golden Theme. The first version introduces a homeless person, leading with the characteristics that make Ted different from the audience. The second version introduces a person who is shy, a hard worker, loves comics, and is persistent. In short, he is a person like us, and the fact that he eventually becomes homeless is all the more compelling because we can identify with him.

The reason the Golden Theme is so important is illustrated by my recent posts on the psychology of giving. The more we relate to a person in need, the more likely we are to help.

Here’s a 30-second video that does what Andy advocates so very well:

Community Housing Partnership shows the story of homelessness in such a relatable way. This is nonprofit marketing gold - because it illustrates the Golden Theme.

9 Tips to Improve Your Small-places Writing: How to Compose Better Microcontent and Social Network Updates

kleroux — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:15:11 -0500

According to Brian Clark at Copyblogger, "On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest." Headlines as well as email subject lines, tweets and Facebook status updates are all in the category of microcontent.

In these areas, you don't have much space to work with, but they are some of the most important spaces out there now. You have to create "sticky content" in that space that grabs people and lures them in. You want to make them open your email or click on that link.

Here are 9 ways to create that sticky content and get the most of these little tiny places we are being forced to write for:

Make the short version work.
Do not cut and paste the exact same thing between your microcontent. You do not have the same space to work with for each medium. Facebook gives you the most space. But keep it to one to two sentences and make your status "likeable." With Twitter, you only have 140 characters, but leave room for retweets by others. You also want to share good links (not just your stuff) so that means utilizing a url shortner like bit.ly or ow.ly. The smallest space to write for is your email subject line. You should keep it less than 65 characters, but put the most important words in first 30 characters.
Highlight Everything and You Highlight Nothing.
Do you bold words to the point that more words are bolded than aren't? You waste the advantage of bolding when you do this. Only highlight short important phrases - 3-7 words at a time.
Include Your Response Words.
Response words are those that get people to react. Your words will vary but some examples are: save, money, free, results, new, easy, today, right now, urgent. Victory, celebration. Be careful with negative response words that over-exaggerate or sound salesy.
Emphasize the personal value of your content.
We are selfish by nature. We want to know what's in it for us. The best way to make it personal is simply use "you" or "your" in your content. On Facebook, ask questions for a conversational feel. Make your content feel personal and about your reader.
Write Visually.
When images aren't available, be specific. Use more descriptive nouns and verbs as opposed to adverbs and adjectives. Too many words blur the picture especially in tight spaces.
Sometimes clever and coy works...sometimes it doesn't.
This works best in social media, but you really have to know your audience. Giving them what they don't expect can go either way. Your main goal is to pique interest, not necessarily controversy.
Be direct and timely, but not too pushy.
You can't control people. Make them want to do it - don't tell them to do it. Urgency can be a good tactic, but lure them in so it doesn't feel like an order.
Avoid ALL CAPS and *crazy* punctuation?!
Keep everything simple. This will also help you stay out of spam folders. However, I highly recommend the colon for punctuation in tight places. It lets you get those important words up front.
Test and track.
You have to experiment with your content. Test different subject lines and see which get opened more or what links get clicked. Go with what works for your readers.

The bottom line is promise and deliver. Delivering on what you have promised builds trust so ultimately people will know what you send is worth reading.

For more detailed information and examples on microcontent, check out Kivi's e-book from Network for Good - Big Impact in Small Spaces: 9 Ways to Write Better Email Subject Lines, Headlines, Tweets and Facebook Updates.

Also, you can listen to the full webinar recording from "9 Tips to Improve Your Small-places Writing: How to Compose Better Microcontent and Social Network Updates."

If you have questions or would like to make a comment about this webinar, please join the conversation at The Network for Good Online Community.

Adapted by Kristina Leroux