EchoDitto - Fundraising

Be Gentle with Me (I’m not as young as I was) - posted by Anne Keenan

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:07:04 -0700

I’ve been listening to this song quite a bit recently. Not only is it the ideal mix of depressing lyrics/upbeat music that we all love so much, it echoes my thoughts on non-profit strategy.

Really? Really.

These days, I feel like too many non-profits are trying to rush me, and I really want them to take it easy, romance me, make me fall in love, aim for a long-term relationship.

How do I mean? This week, my friend, Jacque, sent me a MoveOn campaign to my gmail about Fox News and how they are being racist in their coverage of Obama. Okay. Because I love Jacque (+1 for leveraging social networks!), I went to the page, watched the video (+1 for interactive content that’s convincing!) and found it compelling enough to add my name (conversion—success!). So far, so good, right? Then, the minute I hit submit, a giant donate button appeared—-help MoveOn change media by giving us money.

Whoa—all of a sudden we’d skipped from flirting to something a little more intimate, and I felt icky and strangely violated in a similar way. I understand that there’s probably some research out there that says ‘as soon as someone signs on, ask them for a donation’ and probably they’ve made some money from it. But all it did for me was feel like they were rushing things.

Now, maybe it’s just that I’m getting older, and I don’t sign up to every email list that catches my eye. But now I’m on their email list again, kind of too lazy to unsubscribe, and also only marginally interested in the other current campaigns. Just not that satisfied with the way things are going, and thinking about breaking up.

So what’s my advice?

First, I think they did a great job creating compelling content—I love the video, and it was interesting enough in a few minutes to a) encourage my friend to send it to me, and b) for me to give up my gmail address, which I keep pretty close to the vest.
I also don’t necessarily think it was a bad idea to ask for a donation. I think it was just a bad to ask me for a donation *at that point in our relationship.* We’ve been on a few dates, sure, let’s split the check, I’ll even get the whole bill. On first meeting, why don’t you just spring for my ice cream cone?

One of the most amazing things about technology is that it allows such incredible personalization and segmentation.

Amazon recommends things based on my previous purchases—We think you like the wire. Maybe you want to pre-order Season 5? Yes, yes I would.
FreshDirect constantly asks for my feedback on everything from delivery time to product selection.
Doctors Without Borders usually remembers that I’m a monthly donor, and doesn’t hit me up for additional gifts via email.

I guess at this point I expect that organizations and companies are tracking my activity, and in exchange I want them to talk to me in a way that respects what I’ve already told them about myself. I know you can tell how I got to your website, where I live, if I've been on your list for a day or 5 years, so use that information to show me you care. Talk to me as an individual, not a list. Yes, I know it’s not easy. Yes, I know it takes time. Yes, I know it’s not really in anyone’s job description. But it makes a huge difference—probably the difference between my staying involved with your organization, or ignoring your emails, and pretending we’ve never met.

So, MoveOn, if you’re out there, I still think you’re pretty smart and good-looking, and I’d be interested in seeing where things go, but… be gentle with me, okay?

Money can’t buy happiness… but it can buy you an intern! - posted by Gregory Cooper

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 11:58:28 -0700

This week, the Kucinich 2008 campaign tried a new tack at fundraising: asking for contributions to specifically finance campaign interns, so they can… well… eat.

Adopt an intern?

Maybe this is just intern solidarity, but I though their video was genuine. More importantly, these five interns actually caused me to reach for my wallet. To be perfectly honest, I’d never considered donating to Kucinich before!

I don’t even have to agree with their political beliefs to respect that there is something authentic about this type of communication, especially from interns (the low men and women on the totem-pole). This video was moving because it allows the usually voiceless members of a Presidential campaign to be appreciated, as well as providing a new way of creating a sense of ownership.

All major Presidential candidates have or will have a strong online presence in 2008. For instance, the Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards campaigns all have well-developed online presences. No surprise there. Yet the grassroots successes of 2004 were not just about having a strong online presence, but finding the magic formula that gives people a feeling of ownership in the campaign. Kucinich’s camp is getting closer to finding that formula, by providing opportunities not only to interact with Kucinich online, but with his campaign staff and supporters.

If online video has made the candidates more personal and relatable, can it happen to the campaigns themselves? Will supporters even care about the interns who run themselves ragged for their Presidential candidate?

I think so.

Eastern Market, Thanks for the Goat-Gouda - posted by Jess Paar

Fri, 04 May 2007 06:11:25 -0700

I opened the fridge door and peered in. Alone on the second shelf (yes, I need to go grocery shopping) sat a small, flat brown paper bag. There was no logo, no corporate tag line, nothing to distinguish it from any other brown paper bag. At 6am Monday morning, the bag was given new meaning…

It was about that time that I heard the terrible news that Eastern Market, one of my favorite spots in all of DC, had been damaged by a fire that raged for several hours, late that night and into the morning. I've heard the building structure will remain, but its contents are a total loss...and the market may never be the same.

But I consider myself lucky. As I usually do in the warm spring/summer months, I had just spent the day catching up with friends while wandering the booths, peering at handmade jewelry and antique furniture I can never afford. You can regularly find me hovering over the purses made from old books, the water colors and photography captured by local artists, taking apple samples from the produce section, trying to haggle the guy who makes those amazing chunky bead necklaces so they’re actually in my price range (never worked).

It was also that day that I felt inspired to introduce my friend to “the cheese guy”. The funny older gentleman in the market who wins you over with samples of wonderful cheeses (I’m partial to the sage cheddar), and let’s you sample a few before encouraging you to make a selection or make room for other customers. After at least three samples, I settled on a serving of an incredible goat-gouda. Wrapped in brown paper, I put it in my bag and moved on.

My sadness can’t even compare to the devastation facing the local artists and vendors who lost a part of their livelihood…their place of business. So I jumped at the chance to join Blue State’s own Clay Johnson, and others, to help support those who were displaced by the fire at Eastern Market. Using a Facebook group and EasternMarketRescue.com, we’re asking local bars and restaurants to donate proceeds next Tuesday (May 8th) to the Capitol Hill Community Foundation. So far the response has been great…but we’re not done yet. Have you asked your local watering hole to join?

It’s the least we can do to thank our market friends for the many gift ideas and fresh produce over the years…and for the cheese samples. I just can’t bring myself to eat that goat-gouda. As long as my roommate will let me, I may leave it in the fridge as a reminder to keep up the fight and protect the memory of our market.

Useful Widgets - posted by Matt Stempeck

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:24:18 -0800

Being the early-adopting nerd that I am, I've gone through my share of widgets. I've tinkered with every site- and PC-based widget engine from Konfabulator to Yahoo Widgets to Google Desktop. At work I use a Mac, so I got to experiment with those guys, including an ill-fated Christmas Countdown widget. But as much as I love fun technology, the overwhelming uselessness of widgets thus far has tainted my expectations for the platforms that enable them. The fact is, I've never had any stocks to check. If something's really important, I'll place the RSS feed or bookmark somewhere prominent within Firefox. And don't get me started on how many different ways I can check the weather.

Which is why I owe Katya Andresen thanks for her Net Squared DC presentation last night for changing all of that and making me realize their potential again. The Six Degrees project
has done something genuinely groundbreaking. They want people to do good in the world, but they don't really care if you go to their website to do so. They're doing what we've grown hoarse repeating: If you let go of your message a little and empower your supporters, big things can happen.

Six Degrees allows users to make badges for their cause and take their fundraising elsewhere: their blog, their MySpace, and so on. In doing so they've essentially enabled individuals to become their own charities, in the same way that tools like Wordpress allowed people to become their own publishers.

And it works. Think about it, when is the last time you gave to charity? Chances are, it was for a friend or family member who was running a race or otherwise soliciting donations for a cause. And you gave. You do support Save the Baby Zebras, but you gave to them because your friend or family member asked you to, and what's important to them is important to you.

Six Degrees keeps things interesting with a Top Six Badges contest for matching grants that judges based on how many donators you've attracted rather than how much money you've accrued.

Oh, and I almost forgot the best part of this whole thing: It was started with the help of Kevin Bacon, who bought the Six Degrees domain after realizing that most mentions of him on the Internet were about the six degrees from Kevin Bacon game and not his stellar performance in Footloose. The celebrity tie-ins continue with Celebrity Badges from Jessica Simpson, Kanye West, Nicole Kidman and others.

Anyway, thanks again to Katya and to everyone else for coming out and making this another great NetSquared event. Join us next month on March 20th at 7pm!

Presidential 2.008 Site Analysis - posted by Cristen Perks

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:44:18 -0800

So, the election is a full 21 months away and there are already a number of campaigns in "full gear." Being the DC nerd that I am, I went searching for the cool, hip, new features and functionality that campaign sites have for the election.

I was surprised by some of the stuff out there so I ended up doing a review of campaign sites for the 2008 Presidential election. My chart makes it pretty easy to see which candidates recognize the importance of their web site, and have already committed to using the site as a tool to be elected.

I've reviewed all the major players who have official sites (not PAC sites or grassroots supporter sites). I'm assuming that some of these folks have an amazing online strategy including the features listed on my sheet, however to save myself from drowning in my inbox at this time next year, I didn't subscribe to every list and instead based the comparison on what's "promoted" on the site. I'll try to keep this chart updated throughout the election cycle.

Highlights of the review:

Someone in Hillary's camp obviously read about the lessons learned from the '04 cycle. She took a page from Bush's handbook and is using the site to organize offline. Great idea to start early. Let us know if it works.
Barack, "Where's your blog?" You're the only D without one.
Granted John Edwards has a lot of content on his site from his PAC site, but he also has an awesome Mac OS X Widget. (I realize my "nerd level" just increased) If you're a blogger you can sign up to help him too, or grab a badge to put on your site.
While Kucinich's site is pretty blantantly drupal, he does have some pretty neat user tools including a supporter map.
Mitt Romney is leading the pack for the R's. He's highlighting videos on MITTtv. You can grab the code to embed the videos too.

Please let me know what you think of my review. If you have any suggestions, let me know and maybe I'll build them into the next version.

PDF: TxtMessaging and Mobile Politics - posted by Jason Yovanoff

Fri, 26 May 2006 11:56:07 -0700

With a little help from our Washington DC compatriots, the EchoDitto NY office headed over to the Personal Democracy Forum Conference, held last week, to check out some emerging trends in the political-technology space.

You may have noticed that we're a little mobile obsessed around here, so it's fitting that, for me, one of the more interesting break out sessions was TxtMessaging and Mobile Politics.

The session pretty quickly turned to discussing exactly how (and how not) to get a mobile campaign up and running. I knew you were wondering, so I compiled a few of the DOs and DON'Ts for you:

DO make your campaign have a very specific, immediately actionable message. Whether you're Bono from U2 telling everyone to text support for OXFAM, or you want to stop the innocent killing of cute little seals, make sure your message is compelling enough to get people to send an SMS right now.
DO make use of an SMS short code. A short code is the 4,5, or (very soon) 6 digit number that people can send a text to and get some sort of response. You might be familiar with sending a text to 46645 (GOOGL) and getting back all sorts of information. Setting up a short code can be expensive - as much as $1,000 per month just for the right to use a specific code. (UsShortCodes.com distributes them in the US.)
DON'T spam people. Not only do people hate this, but you'll very quickly get your short code shut down by the major cell networks. Make sure you give your supporters ample opportunity to opt out or stop receiving your text messages at any time.
DON'T send bulk SMS messages via an email gateway (like 5551234567@mobile.att.net). This is another sure-fire way to get your campaign banned from the major cell networks.

I also had a chance to chat with another panel speaker, Dan Weaver, about fundraising via SMS. Accepting donations directly from a cell phone is a fairly new technology and, according to Dan, there are two primary players today:

Premium SMS (PSMS) allows people to text a message to a short code, and a donation charge (up to $10) will appear directly on your phone bill. Beware, there is a huge price for this - 40 to 50% of every donation is taken by the cell carriers.
PayPal is now allowing mobile money transfers with its new service, PayPal Mobile. I'll leave the details as to how exactly this works to others, but I'll add that I've tried this out, and Dan and I agree that there is a high barrier to entry for anyone who wants to give an on the spot donation.

In order to give, you have to register your mobile phone number (even if you already have a PayPal account), which requires access to a computer, followed by a multi-step opt-in process. It's a great idea, and gets around the hefty premium SMS fees, but I think it's in need of a little refinement before it's ready to for your nation-wide campaign.

So there are still a few kinks that need to be ironed out with accepting donations directly from a mobile phone, but worry not - there are stills tons of ways to engage your audience today via SMS.

Ringtones, wallpapers, and even video can be sent over SMS. New services are popping up every day. If you need ideas, or are just looking for more mobile information, check out MOPocket. Justin Oberman, the moderator of the panel, regularly updates MOPocket with the latest and greatest in the mobile world.

You better jump on the mobile band wagon. It's here to stay, getting better every day, and I think it will be a major force for political and grass roots organizations in the next year.

A moment shared by stamps - posted by Joshua Shimkin

Tue, 23 May 2006 20:23:32 -0700

I caught this article in AdAge today:

The U.S. Postal Service last week canceled an old law that forbade businesses from placing ads or logos on any type of currency -- including postage -- relinquishing to marketers once-hallowed ground unsullied by commercialism. HP postage stamps feature images of the HP logo as well as its founders and the garage in which they started the company.
The effort is part of the USPS' push to stem a loss of income as consumers increasingly turn from so-called snail mail to Internet correspondence. First-class mailings have plunged since the mid-1990s from almost 55 billion pieces mailed in 1998 to just over 43 billion last year.

This isn't that surprising since personalized stamps are already allowed. Stamps.com, Zazzle and Encidia, the three USPS-approved vendors, have sold 17 million personalized postage "units." You have to buy stamps in sheets of 20 and the prices range from $0.90 to $0.65 per stamp, depending on the number of sheets. More than 500 sheets (10,000 stamps) and you can negotiate a better discount.

Most photo-sharing services like Flickr, Webshots, Shutterfly and Snapfish have partnerships with one of these three vendors making all your online photos a couple clicks away from stamp material.

Personalized stamps are still a surprise to most people. It's a great way to capture a moment and share it with friends and family in -- almost -- real-time. Of course, there are some creative advocacy and fundraising uses for personalized stamps too. Try these on:

With your next letter writing campaign, urge supporters to use a photo of themselves or of the campaign message ("Save Darfur") as a stamp;
Give your newlywed friends or family a stack of stamps with photos from their wedding, which happened...the night before;
Send thank you cards to their major donors and high targets with stamps of the donors with a celebrity guest or political candidate;
Send a stamp of a political candidate on the direct mail for fundraising; and
If you are a real estate agent, place available houses on a stamps.

It's funny. This technological evolution provides new value and importance to written letters, rather than email. Businesses that rely on mail will make easy use of this. Robert De Niro might sell his mug for use on American Express literature, which comes every darn month to my place. I can already see Ronald McDonald and The King waving to us on promotional literature.

You bet there is some short-term fun-factor in using personalized stamps now, to add some flavor to your existing campaigns. Try it on for size because you don't really have anything to lose.

Brawling over Ringtones - posted by Joshua Shimkin

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 05:10:57 -0700

I've been spending some significant time making ringtones for clients over the last two weeks. We've seen this ringtone wave coming for a while now given that 23% of American mobile phone owners (30 million Americans) downloaded a ring tone between August 2004 and 2005. Internationally, mobile phones will soon outpace computers as the dominant way to access the internet, so customizing a ringtone will soon be common.

Don't just take my word for it. Seth Godin, famous author and top blogger of strategic marketing, thinks ringtones are going to explode:

Take a look at virtually every giant online success (except for Amazon) and none of them were obvious in 1992. I think we're going to discover a whole new universe of cell phone services that people want to pay for, things that we won't be able to live without. Like... ringtones.

~~Last summer~~ In 2001, Fillipino President Gloria Arroyo was hounded by a ringtone made from a recording of her phone conversation with an elections official. Critics allege the conversation demonstrates her electioneering violations. But how many Fillipinos really used the ringtone? All we know is that it's been downloaded over 1 million times, making it the most popular ringtone ever.

Since then, we've seen ringtones used for political and advocacy campaigns in Israel, and the U.S. Our friend Eric Gundersen at Development Seed made a ringtone of Pres. Bush's infamous "Heck of a job, Brownie" comment regarding the former FEMA administrator's performance during the hurrican Katrina disaster. What if 20 phones with that ringtone went off during a congressional hearing of the post-Katrina response?

Even recently in Iraq, a lawmaker's ring tone, sounding a Shiite religious chant, incited a scuffle and led to a shutdown of the legislature. There is enormous potential for the disruptive effects of ringtones to revolutionize advocacy campaiging.

For many people around the world, there are only three things they carry everywhere they go: wallet, keys, mobile phone. As mobile phones become true personal, mobile pocket computers, we'll see tremendous advances in mobile phones role in advocacy. Not only can you download ringtone from the internet, but friends and family can send them to each other via SMS and MMS.

What could a ringtone campaign look like in the real world?

"Mobile Stand" - Rather than simply organizing a rally, march or sit-in, organizers can also plan for the supporters around the world, no matter their location, to have their mobile phones ring a prepared ring tone at a set time. The ringtone could be a symbolic song or statement from a pivotal leader calling for change.
"Ring-raisers": Sell ringtones to fundraise for specific nonprofit campaigns. Create a ringtone for each campaign and restrict the revenue for each ringtone to the affiliated campaign. For example, revenue from a ringtone of recorded whale call would only help the current Stop the Whaling campaign.
"Ring-Alerts": Download a ringtone that will ring only at a set time. For example, an exclusive message from a candidate to wake you up on election day. Or a message from a candidate to remind you to join volunteers to knock on doors and drop literature at homes in your district. How about a message from a celebrity to remind you to see a movie on opening day?

This sample of possibilities only touches the surface we can see. There are enormous opportunities for ringtones to become the best advocacy or direct marketing tactic nonprofits, political campaigns and businesses have ever seen.

Here is a scary thought for those of you who think you can pick up this wave next year or later: organizations might never be able to buy mobile phone numbers -- like you can buy email addresses or landline phone numbers. (Big ups to John Aravosis at AMERICAblog for drawing attention to how easy it is to buy cell phone records.) Hence, the sooner you start to collect mobile phone numbers, the better. Otherwise, you are just playing catch up.

Making Room for Everyone - posted by Gisele Toueg

Sat, 06 May 2006 08:30:17 -0700

Having spent the past 7 years working in the Internet space at a variety of for-profit and non-profit companies and organizations, I've noticed that the differences between the two become increasingly blurred. While the goals of each may be different--selling software and driving traffic to media outlets vs. raising money and promoting online advocacy--the methods and overall objectives are surprisingly similar.

In both cases, everyone wants to see some kind of measurable result--whether that means selling more Adobe Acrobat 7.0 versions than the other guy, or breaking fundraising records in a time of national crisis. The tools we use to accomplish these results are also quite similar--drive traffic to the site, offer compelling reasons to buy or donate, and make a case for why your site or cause is unique. In the end, it's all about marketing and message. The tools are simply the means to an end.

Still, the importance of said tools cannot be underestimated--no one likes to see spotty product, and ease of use remains the most important barrier to overcome. But once you have a solid grip on your tools, it's all about making a convincing case.

What's even more astounding is how these tools are crossing all boundaries and closing gaps between new and old media companies, etail and retail stores, cutting edge political campaigns and old school non-profits. In many ways, the dot com boom of the late '90s is experiencing a renaissance, only this time, people are ready for it.

We're accustomed to seeing established Internet giants like amazon.com and google innovate and astound every day, but what we're seeing now are smaller operations like flickr, youtube, even small non-profits break boundaries and revolutionize the ways in which users interact with technology, and with each other. And the Internet giants are catching on, not only by acquiring these smaller sites but by learning and incorporating the successes and innovations made apparent each day.

In the late '90s, everyone who worked at a start up thought they were going to become the next Jeff Bezos. We accepted half pay in exchange for hundreds of stock options that promised to make us all billionaires before turning twenty five. People who were worth millions on paper found themselves selling off their cars months later in order to pay off unexpected debt, and suddenly everyone was applying to law school or taking off to be a ski bum in Tahoe to ride out the storm.

The storm is over, and the sun is shining. And there's more than enough sun for everyone, whether you're advocating for human rights or creating viral videos. In fact, you may just run into each other along the way.

Invest, Test, Track and Target - posted by Joshua Shimkin

Tue, 02 May 2006 05:48:15 -0700

I attended a briefing on the eNonprofit Benchmarks Study two weeks ago. It is a must read for any nonprofit online professional because it provides a timely and robust analysis of online fundraising and advocacy programs for nonprofits. It even breaks down email and ROI metrics between nonprofits focused on civil rights, environmental protection, and international aid. With the study, nonprofit online professionals can measure their email marketing programs against the results of these 15 national nonprofit organizations.

There is one grand story to tell after reading the whole report: you have to invest, test, track and target for your online activities to pay off. Don't expect to flip the switch of an online fundraising program and miraculously fundraising will go through the roof. Of course, disasters and emergencies are a rare exception, but most of the organizations doing this work have had online programs for years now. Here is a summary of the key findings of the report:

Findings you would expect:

Bigger organizations = Bigger email lists = Bigger results: More resources pay off.
Email open rates declining: I think most online programs have seen a decline over the last year because of the sheer number of nonprofits running online programs and using similar content to advance their programs.
Online activists outnumber online donors: An average of 47% of all email subscribers took at least one online action, while only 6% made a donation.

Findings you wouldn't expect:

Investment pays off: If you measure results just in terms of fundraising, online programs don't start earning a profit until they have spent more than $600,000 over the life of their online activities.
Email list churn at 28%: It's a reality, so plan for it.

At the end of the report, you'll find the best practices, which follow directly from these findings. During a Q&A, Kira Marchenese from the Environmental Defense and Jeff Regen from Defenders of Wildlife offered some great advice and lessons learned about how to manage an online program. I found the following tips very helpful as a way to invigorate online advocacy and fundraising activities: (in no particular order)

Do an email burst to inactive supporters when you have some down time and use your edgiest content. What do you have to lose? You might just find a new message that particularly resonates with supporters.
Set aside a budget for online acquisition. Defenders of Wildlife spends 50% of its online budget on advertising.
Hire an analyst to inform your future online activities. If that's too resource instensive, make traffic analysis and optimization part of someone's job description and set aside time every month to focus on that. You have to schedule it and make it a priority or you will never learn from the data you have collected.
Schedule a weekly editorial meeting to discuss the message, actions and metrics.
Pay special attention to the patterns of new visitors to your site. Their paths through the site are a real-time focus group for what is working -- and what isn't.

Unfortunately, the study didn't analyze the optimal frequency for sending emails in a month. The authors addressed this omission by noting how difficult it would be to compare the email blasts to different list segments. I recommend that you test different frequencies to see what works. Defenders of Wildlife sends an average of 9.8 emails a month.

IYVS, and the Online Advantage for New Initiatives - posted by Michael Silberman

Sun, 12 Mar 2006 12:09:54 -0800

Greetings from the Northwestern University campus in lovely Evanston, IL. I'm here at the International Youth Volunteerism Summit (IYVS), which was organized by an impressive group of students who corralled the money and interest to invite a select group of applicants from more than 20 countries and 30 universities to explore the "pitfalls and potentials of international engagement." Take a moment to check out some of the delegates' project plans and proposals to get a sense of the optimism and entrepreneurship permeating throughout this place.

Yesterday, I led the Integrating Internet Technology workshop for about 20 of the delegates, and one of the participants already blogged a summary. We talked about how the web and new technologies are changing the landscape for smaller, emerging organizations and, more importantly, how this generation's hard-wired understanding of online word-of-mouth gives them an advantage over larger, more traditional organizations that are still adapting to the internet as a two-way, conversational medium (versus just another broadcast tool). After an impromptu exercise on crafting messages and narratives compelling enough to sustain viral distribution and short attention-spans, we reviewed some of the free and inexpensive online tools that Jen and Mike also outlined here.

It was also refreshing to spend time with some of the other organizational reps, most of whom are successful social entrepreneurs working from shoestring budgets and with tiny staffs. At EchoDitto, we seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking about and partnering with organizations or efforts that have the luxury of a budget for online operations or access to the necessary resources.

The internet and Web 2.0 clearly has a great democratizing effect on smaller or new efforts looking to quickly generate interest and build momentum. But after some conversations with groups looking to bolster their initial successes with additional online infrastructure, I worry that the playing field starts to grow uneven after you reach a certain level of success.

For example, I spoke with two groups whose young leaders have successfully transitioned a project/campaign vision from concept into reality, but they now realize that it's time to take the internet component of their campaigns to the next level. Mark Hanis, founding director of the Genocide Intervention Network and Michael Poffenberger, co-founder of the Uganda Conflict Action Network, both started off using readily available online tools to build significant interest in their projects and even to organize real-world action.

When Mark spoke to the group at an opening panel on Friday, he practically glossed over the critical role that the internet played in his ability to rapidly organize 400 of fellow students last year to travel to Washington, D.C. and lobby elected leaders on America's role in ending the Sudan genocide. It was fairly simple for Mark and his non-technical friends to spread the word about his project and build momentum using every tool available to them -- not least of all by getting friends to spread the campaign URL from Facebook profile to Facebook profile.

There are a slew of free tools available to start-up groups, like Mark's was—from setting up a website on blogger.com to keeping people connected via email on Google or Yahoo groups, to generating buzz and interest via online communities like Facebook.com and MySpace.com. But after successfully going 60 MPH online and realizing success with free tools or basic technology, it seems almost too easy for groups to hit a wall when they realize they need a new engine, or something as basic as a supporter database.

With the exception of web packages like Democracy in Action and Orchid, there aren't many complete offerings for small organizations that realize the need to add a basic email signup box to their homepage or launch a simple an online fundraising campaign.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that there aren't great resources out there for nonprofits seeking tech advice. In fact, we refer people to TechSoup and N-TEN all the time. Rather, I think it's worth reminding ourselves of how far entry-level internet tools have come in leveling the playing field for new or emerging efforts looking to generate interest while entering the second level of internet campaigning can be confusing and daunting. This is especially true for younger generations of campaigners who are accustomed to being able to do or create almost anything on the web on their own. With the speed at which new, useful tools, like bulk-email systems, are becoming available to non-technical users, I don't think we'll have to wait long until the gap is closed. And hopefully we'll be able to play a role in helping to speed up that learning process for efforts and campaigns as worthwhile as those I met this weekend.

Raising money online – it’s a paradigm change, happening - posted by Larry Biddle

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 10:37:22 -0800

In the February 2006 issue of Wired magazine on page 54, “Click Here to Donate,” a graphic illustrates the results of recent disaster relief online fundraising and includes a comparison of traditional techniques of low-dollar fundraising.

Low-overhead online fundraising isn’t big news to those of us helping nonprofits learn how to get their website current with the best internet practices. It is still a bit new for most fundraising organizations. I feel the resistance to changing to online fundraising is high. For most nonprofits, change is hard and resisted.

But the paradigm is changing. It’s a fact. One can raise lots more money at a far less cost, dollar for dollar, online.

Maybe . . . No, it does cost less, but let’s look at the figures noted in Wired. I take issue with some of their numbers. (Their sources were listed in the article.)

“In 2001, $1,025 million was raised online; in 2004 it was $3,000 million (can’t wait to see the effect of disaster relief giving on the 2005 totals). The chart compares the cost of raising $1 online and offline. It states, “from a new donor via direct mail @ $1.25 per dollar raised; from an existing donor via direct mail @ $.25; via telemarketing @ $.63; online - $.07.” Impressive, don’t you think?

Wait -- there is more important data: “Average Donation – for Easter Seals – online, $57 vs. direct mail $12; for NARAL – online $50 vs. direct mail, $26.” In EchoDitto’s consulting practice with major nonprofits, the average contribution is that or higher. (Recently one of our clients raised more than $2 million with an average contribution of $147.)

Looking at the first set of numbers, I don’t believe they represent the total expense for direct mail or online giving. I know this may sound picky, but if your organization is thinking about shifting expenses from offline to online, comprehensive cost estimates are important. It’s all about what you count as costs, right? Many nonprofits don’t count the total overhead for raising money. I think that’s a mistake and that’s why I don’t think the cost are correct in the Wired figures.

Having said that, yes the cost of online donations is far less than mail. You just can’t argue that away. When calculating online costs it should include on-going internet operation cost (staff, platform user fees, advertising, list building costs, etc.,) So I don’t believe the $.07 number is correct either.

O.K., I may be too picky about this, but if you are an organization looking to spend money and make informed choices about cost comparisons, I think you must have the total picture. If I were a nonprofit development director, I would double the costs listed for prospecting and house list mail and the costs for online solicitation shown the in Wired.

One client of ours is now testing the value of shifting money they budgeted for prospecting offline to pay for online list-building expenses. It must be carefully done and watched. But there are rewards beyond fundraising to building their list; increasing the regular engagement of their new and old online constituents (meaning, registered online visits increases to several times a month), “beefing up” their email content and making important small adjustments on their home page to better “position” contribution options. I know it’s going to work. It already has.

It really requires a paradigm shift to make an institutional commitment to move resources and strategies to build loyal online communities (social networks) that support an organizations mission. The gain isn’t just monetary; it is also offering opportunities for the “netroots” to achieve more of the core mission of a nonprofit.

When online constituents are more engaged, informed and active, they give twice as much at a fraction of overhead costs of direct mail and telemarketing. (I wouldn’t give those up completely, however.)

Online fundraising is here to stay and should be growing – especially when the average gift online is double the offline gift. That’s powerful data. Paradigm change is happening for the good of nonprofits.

Red Cross' Online Donations Break 50% - posted by Joshua Shimkin

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 12:17:53 -0700

I am always impressed by the American philanthropic ethic during times of need. Unfortunately, we have had several disasters over the last 5 years that have tested Americans proclivity to donate online, as opposed to the traditional check or credit card contribution.

The Associated Press reports that almost 53% of donations to the Red Cross for Katrina assistance have come online:

As of Monday [September 12, 2005] afternoon, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross said the organization has received $584 million, with $308 million of that coming via the Internet.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy also has the definitive summary of the philanthropic response to hurricane Katrina as well as comparisons between other recent disasters.

It is no surprise that with every disaster we see even higher percentages of online donations vs. offline donations. How do we tap into this dramatic philanthropic response with more creative ways of using the internet? Is it even possible when most disasters generally make access to the internet impossible?

Online Marketing Discussion at PDF - posted by Joshua Shimkin

Sat, 29 Jan 2005 10:56:44 -0800

Michael Bassik has posted on Personal Democracy Forum some lessons learned from MSHC Partners online marketing work on behalf of the Kerry Campaign. These results show that the marketing effort didn't break even if you measure success only by money. But the persuasion and registration successes need be included into the mix. Michael, do you think the marketing campaign was a success?

What types of ads worked best? Did you see any difference in effectiveness given the length of the ad, style (i.e. cartoon, video of candidate, just text with no animation, etc), or subject matter?

Oliver Willis poses some great questions as well. I hope to see the answers to all of these in the near future. Michael, thanks for starting this dialogue. Democrats and Progressives can learn a great deal.

Why don't we get data? - posted by Harish Rao

Wed, 26 Jan 2005 15:24:56 -0800

Data should be the bedrock of any political campaign. But, it's not. I'm not talking about just polling data. Let's face it: pollsters don't want to tell you their craft is limited, finicky, and generally more of an art than a science.

What I'm talking about is customer relationship management style (CRM) data management. Replace the "client" in CRM with "Voter" or "Donor", and you get where I'm going. Minimally, all user online activity, voterfile data, donor history, should have an integrated back end. Then, you should hire a couple of smart people who understand data tools like Crystal Reports and let them tell you what's going on. You might just be surprised.

Look - there's an oft quoted statistic in the CRM industry, that something like 70% of CRM implementations fail. Political campaigns aren't ready to go for full CRM--process is the cornerstone of CRM, and campaigns aren't amenable to heavy process documentation. There are also enormous data privacy/security issues to be grappled with.

Andrew ~~Raseij~~ Rasiej said something interesting to me yesterday,

"Harish, it won't be until your generation turns 40 and runs for political office will any of this (heavy CRM, data mining.) be used by political candidates."

Andrew's probably right. Regardless, the political candidates and organizations that figure this data thing out today will have a tremendous political advantage. Don't get me wrong--I think there are pretty smart people that have figured out a lot of this. In the mean time, the rest of us are behind the curve.

With all of the computing power, bandwidth, and understanding of data mining techniques across client relationship management platforms, winning candidates will get with the program and leverage this technology, at least minimally.