Studies show that online donors give more and donate more frequently. But organizations need one important thing before tapping into those donors – the email address.

According to Tim Oleary, vice president of Malvern, Pa.-based McPherson Associates, Inc., nonprofits must cultivate their email list and try to ask for email addresses whenever possible -- through special events, direct mail and telephone solicitations. “We want people in the file who want to be there,” said Oleary.

“Communication doesn’t just mean sending out an appeal from a development standpoint,” said Oleary. “Every piece of communication that we are sending out has relevance to our fundraising efforts.”

Online communication quickly keeps donors and prospects more informed. “If I’m getting emails from you, then of course I feel more connected with your organization,” said Oleary. He also warned that nonprofits should be aware of spamming laws and have an email opt-out mechanism.

Another way to gain an email address is to have people sign up for content you already offer. American Diabetes Association (ADA), based in Alexandria, Va., requires people to input their email before accessing its virtual grocery store on its Web site, which helps diabetics analyze nutrition information for food items. Next year, ADA plans to launch a completely redesigned site that will include an interactive area where people can redesign recipe favorites with healthier options, according to Helen Mitternight.

Some organizations have extended past email. From newsletters to podcasts, MySpace to Facebook pages – the Internet gives a broad spectrum of communication options, but nonprofits usually don’t have the manpower, or donor dollars, to harness every technology resource. But Oleary explains that nonprofits shouldn’t rush out and join Twitter and Flickr just yet. “Everybody has to start somewhere – do what you can for now,” said Oleary, who encouraged discussions at the senior management level about funding technology platforms.

“The multi-channel world is already here and the nonprofit organizations who embrace consistent messaging across all of those channels are the ones who are surging ahead,” said Oleary. “The time to make the investment is here.”

Nonprofits try to create a uniform design and message across direct mail and Internet campaigns. And if your nonprofit has too much content to offer, think about creating micro-sites – individual Web pages or URLs that are specifically branded for one purpose. March of Dimes (MoD), based in White Plains, N.Y., hosts several micro-sites that keep with the organization’s overall brand but the pages are devoted one aspect of the mission.

“What I think we all struggle with is how do you really communicate everything you want to communicate through one home page? And it’s almost impossible to satisfy all of your needs. You have mission needs, fundraising needs, advocacy, different audiences, different campaigns you’re running,” said Patricia Goldman, vice president and chief marketing officer for MoD. “If you try to filter all of that through the front page, it gets to be a little bit like Times Square.” Goldman admitted that maintaining multiple micro-sites can be challenging, but are valuable tools to drive users to targeted messages.

Some of MoD’s micro-sites offer areas for user-driven content, an aspect of the Web 2.0 trend that some nonprofits worry about because they cannot fully control the messages on the site. But the organization can use its sites to bring like-minded individuals together and discuss topics related to the mission. This builds a solid online community, according to Oleary.
MoD’s micro-site ShareYourStory.org provides a forum for families with experience in neonatal intensive care units with premature infants or babies with other medical needs, providing a valuable outlet for families. “They are having a dialogue with each other,” said Goldman.

The site’s more than 25,000 members generate most of the content with blogs, pictures, parent-to-parent information and forums. “It was a big hurdle to let go like that, but once you do you see that people are really craving a space to discuss their issues. You can’t deny that this is where content is moving and that people want that platform to talk to each other,” said Goldman. Goldman also said that online widgets are also promoting the mission and users like that “you can do it on your terms in your spaces,” part of a growing user-centric trend that some nonprofits are now exploring. Mitternight explained that younger Internet users are used to creating their own space on the Internet. “We would love to be the destination site, but the reality is as the younger population is affected by diabetes they have a really different way of interacting – and that is they want to take our content and use it on sites that they create,” said Mitternight. “We really want to raise awareness and we know we could do a better job if people are also taking our name and our content and, in a really credible way, putting it on their Web site.”

Oleary said that user-driven Web experiences are coming up fast. For-profit entities, like Amazon, are already tailoring buying by analyzing past purchases to make new recommendations. ADA plans to have site pathways for different diabetic populations – newly diagnosed, children, teens, and more – with information and activities that target each demographic. Nonprofits should keep an eye out for opportunities to harness a user’s Web data to customize future communication.

 

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This article is from NPT TechnoBuzz, a publication of The NonProfit Times.

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