Fundraising|Marketing

Choosing the Right Email Marketing Platform for Your Nonprofit   This isn’t about making pretty, branded emails. Yes, you can do that in Gmail. This is about reaching and engaging with your key supporters, increasing participation with your volunteers, and securing more generous gifts from your donors.    So many nonprofits are already heavily immersed in the email marketing game. But if you’re one of the many who aren’t, it’s time for you to make it a priority. And here’s why:   You can personalize your audience members’ individual experiences with your brand. Through audience segmentation, targeting tools, and analytics that [...]

Like everything else in the world, your audience is constantly evolving, expanding, and changing. It’s impossible to keep a pulse on your audience without constantly testing. And this is where an A/B test can come in handy for marketers and fundraisers.    Before you decide to do an A/B test, you MUST have a solid why. WHY are you doing this? WHY will anyone besides you care? WHY will these results be valuable enough to make any changes? These are the key questions you must answer to develop a compelling and convincing case to, as my boss puts it, “mess with [...]

Did you know that recurring donors can be up to 4x more valuable than one-time donors? Online retention rates for recurring donors are above 85% with the average recurring donor giving 42% more over the course of a year than a one-time donors. Having a recurring giving (or 'monthly giving') program in place, is nothing short of a necessity. This online workshop will teach you how to set one up based on strategies that have been proven to work well. A successful recurring giving (or 'monthly giving') program can create a sustainable and scalable funding stream for your nonprofit but the [...]

Online marketing and social media can be an incredibly efficient way to gain awareness of your cause and to engage supporters. The trick is to know how to best utilize it. Emily Goodstein, (on Twitter @EmilyGoodstein) D.C.-based Online Marketing and Social Media Strategist, has help for us all.  Take a listen to this podcast to hear her 5 favorite ways to amp up a nonprofit's social media effort. [adrotate banner="111"] Key Takeaways: Communicating with your supporters and donors with multiple touches through multiple channels results in greater giving. Facebook: Focus on interactions rather than Likes Twitter: Include current appeals, conferences, events in the Twitter [...]

The future of marketing lies within personalized, unique audience experiences. And the time has come for nonprofits to develop their audience journeys through audience segmentation. Running your marketing department without a solid understanding of your audience translates to wasted time, ineffective campaigns, and tons of unsubscribes.    Giving – whether it be actual money, time, or simply attention – has become a deeply personal thing. So you HAVE to make sure you understand who you’re talking to, how they want to be talked to, and what messages and information they value.    How do you segment your audience?   We’ve covered [...]

If you recently looked at the calendar and felt a shock of panic, you are not alone. "A lot organizations find themselves in a place where October comes along and it suddenly becomes obvious and important to get their Giving Tuesday and End of Year campaigns together," James Brobyn, CEO and Co-Founder of CauseEngine, a firm that provides "on-demand talent" for nonprofits. And, he adds, "the development person or staff has to do all the work; so, it helps to be strategic, since you can't do everything." It's not too late for End of Year Fundraising Plans The good news is that [...]

 Why should nonprofits invest in a modern marketing engine? Jamey Heinze, Chief Marketing Officer at CDS Global, recently spoke at the 2014 Bridge to Integrated Marketing & Fundraising Conference on the topic of how nonprofits can utilize certain marketing techniques more effectively than for-profits can. The full discussion can be found in a brand new white paper: “The Nonprofit vs. For-Profit Marketing Approach: Ten Techniques Your Organization Should Consider.” In this blog post, Jamey talks about technique number 10 – investing in a system to streamline your marketing efforts. Read about the other techniques here. This is an interesting one, and [...]