Technology and Online Fundraising

Welcome back to an online interview with experts in the online fundraising industry. I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s introduction to your experts. Please make sure to post additional questions, comments and feedback at the bottom of the post. Now onto today’s question:

What are some different strategies and models for fundraising online?

PaySimple:
Key strategies for non-profit organizations trying to raise money through the web include:

• Set up automatic recurring donations. This way, donors don’t have to contribute large sums, but small amounts on a regular basis. Plus, there is no burden of remembering to mail or drop off an envelope.
• Provide members and donors the option of egiving, or contributing online with a credit card or electronic check. Many fundraising solutions provide a securely hosted payment page, so the organization does not even need a website.
• Rather than holding a fundraiser in a brick and mortar shop, offer customers a way to take part online. It saves time from handling paper checks, cuts down on volunteer time, and is also more secure. No account numbers or card numbers floating around-everything is stored securely within the system.

-Eric Remer, CEO for PaySimple www.paysimple.com

Firstgiving:
One of the most rapidly growing strategies for fundraising online is engaging your supporters to raise funds on behalf of your organization. The nature of the internet is changing significantly. User participation and user generated content have evolved as the essence of the web. Empowering individuals to support you online is a powerful strategy for furthering your cause. You will find that individuals will use their social networks, blogs, web sites, email lists to advocate and fundraise for your organization.
-Mark Sutton CEO of Firstgiving www.firstgiving.com

Donor Perfect Fundraising Software:
There are many different strategies to fundraise effectively online. However, there is one strategy that never works, and that’s slapping a “Donate Now” button on your web-site to attract donations. Unfortunately, even we have clients that take only this initial step, and wonder why they only receive 4 or 5 donations per month.

Successful online fundraising requires real work that rivals any traditional campaign effort. It requires staff resources that many non profits do not have or cannot access. It requires a dedication from the top down, and should be referenced in every single piece of paper that leaves the building. It’s a long term investment that works in conjunction with other types of fundraising, such as special events, capital campaigns, direct mail, etc.
-Jon Biedermann, Vice President of DonorPerfect Fundraising Software www.donorperfect.com

GiveStream:
For starters I believe fundraising is about the message and the non-profit’s ability to reach out to those that have a passion for the same goals. To achieve this, non-profits need to reach out. I like to divide the reach out strategies to 3 groups.

• Single-dimensional spread out. This includes the standard, conservative methods where the supporters are passive. Some of the tools are: websites, newsletters.
• Bi-dimensional spread out. This includes tools where the supporters have the power to reply or open a new topic. Some of the tools are: Forum, mailing-list or blog.
• Multi-dimensional spread out. Here supporters have the greatest power and can spread the word autonomously in the name of the non-profit using tools such as: social networks and widgets.

Any organization that wants to fundraise / advocate online should pick wisely from this list of possible tools, there is no reason to open a blog if you don’t have the time to post or engage any social network if you don’t have a person who swims comfortably in these waters.
-Michael Ben-Nes, Director of Marketing from GiveStream.com www.givestream.com

Click and Pledge:
We see a big move to cell phones/mobile technology; we see micropayments becoming practical; significant reductions in the price of online fundraising technology with Software as a Service applications and open source software.
-Jim Barney VP, Marketing & Sales of Click and Pledge www.ClickandPledge.com

EchoDonations:
Online fundraising can be tricky. The internet is incredibly expansive, making it difficult to discover valuable contacts and share information in an efficient manner. Making use of all the social media developments is a good approach to the situation, but it takes a lot of time and effort to keep up. There is blogging, social bookmarking, press releases, email, etc. for available use by everyone. The only problem is that SO many people can use these tools, that they become completely invaluable unless they are used correctly and efficiently.
-Michelle Matthews, Social Media & Marketing Strategist from EchoDonations www.EchoDonations.org

Do you have a special strategy not mentioned above that you’ve found successful in online fundraising? Has your organization been successful in online giving? Please leave a comment with your feedback or advice below. Check out other questions this week:

• Introduction to Online Fundraising: Interview Part 1
• Creating an Online Fundraising Plan: Interview, Part 3
• A Look Into the Online Future: Interview, Part 4
• A Menu of Fundraising Experts: Interview, Part 5

Have you ever thought about online fundraising for your organization? It sounds like a great idea but who knows how to navigate the emerging world of online fundraising? Those are a few questions that motivated a series that you will see this week. I interviewed a number of online fundraising experts and they have some great words of advice for all of us. Each day this week these experts will tackle a different question about online giving so make sure to tune in. If you find what they have to say insightful make sure to check out their website or leave a comment at the bottom of the post.

Some areas these experts will be addressing are online fundraising strategies, creating an online plan, what is the future of the industry, and who are some organizations that can help you along this path. Let me introduce you to our experts and start with a short easy question.

Should a non-profit have an online fundraising plan?

PaySimple:
Non-profits that have electronic payment processing overcome many fundraising obstacles including lack of or overworked volunteers, limited payment methods, limited reach, and overall limited funds. Online payment functionality not only enables your fundraiser to reach past the local neighborhood, but helps to automate processes. Customers can enter their own information and that transaction feeds into a back-end system automatically. Volunteers no longer have to spend countless hours sorting paper checks and making trips to the bank.
-Eric Remer, CEO for PaySimple www.paysimple.com

Firstgiving:
Yes. Every organization, regardless of size should have an online fundraising plan. It doesn’t take much money or expertise to get started.
-Mark Sutton CEO of Firstgiving www.firstgiving.com

Donor Perfect Fundraising Software:
It depends. Of course, all non profit organizations should think about their online fundraising strategy, but not all should participate in one, UNLESS, they do have a plan and resources to complete that plan.
-Jon Biedermann, Vice President of DonorPerfect Fundraising Software www.donorperfect.com

GiveStream:
Definitely, the Internet is a major channel and non-profits should use it to communicate directly to their supporters. The benefit is an increase of all indexes including funding, branding and general efficiency.
-Michael Ben-Nes, Director of Marketing from GiveStream.com www.givestream.com

Click and Pledge:
Of course. All communications and development efforts must begin with the web.
-Jim Barney VP, Marketing & Sales of Click and Pledge www.ClickandPledge.com

EchoDonations:
Yes, most definitely. Many young people have become engrossed in the “latest, greatest” technology, which is always being upgraded and improved. The world is becoming more and more digitalized. If non-profits can find a way to make it easier for their donors to donate more easily and in a more simple manner, they would find many more loyal donors coming to their doorstep, or more literally, their website.
-Michelle Matthews, Social Media & Marketing Strategist from EchoDonations www.EchoDonations.org

Please leave a comment with your feedback or advice below. Make sure to check out the posts each day this week we will be answering a different question. I hope that we can have a great dialog this week about online fundraising. Thanks for reading!
Check out other questions this week:

• Different Online Fundraising Strategies: Interview, Part 2
• Creating an Online Fundraising Plan: Interview, Part 3
• A Look Into the Online Future: Interview, Part 4
• A Menu of Fundraising Experts: Interview, Part 5

Faithful readers and subscribers I wanted to give you a bit of a note of explanation about this week. I have been working for the last few of weeks with a number of online fundraising experts to create a post that talks about what is happening in the online fundraising industry. I was overwhelmed with the response I received. I thought I might have one or two people write in and I had eight.

SO… this week is going to look different than most other weeks. Starting tomorrow, Monday, January 21, each post will be significantly longer than the usual post size and I will post once a day. There is a lot of really good content and instead of trying to paraphrase it I thought I’d let you decide what you want to read. After this week I will return to posting two or three times a week with a half page of written content.

I really want this week to be a neat experience and a strong dialog. If you have never posted a comment before or you post comments regularly please participate in this coming week’s discussion. Please tell your co-workers and others you know about this special online fundraising interview. Each contributor worked really hard answering the questions I asked them and I want as many non-profits & fund development professionals to benefit as possible. So please spread the news (send a link to a couple friends who you think be interested, post a link to each article on Facebook, or click on the “Digg” button at the bottom of each post). We will have a number of experts reading each post; this is a unique opportunity to have an incredible dialog about online fundraising.

Recently a reader posted a question in the ideas, questions & answers area of the site. Rephrased here is her question:

How can blogging help us fundraise, increase our visibility and how can I use technology to engage new donors?

Blogging is a unique kind of conversation. People have the opportunity to read a multitude of opinions and ideas very quickly. Since I started this blog about fundraising I have been impressed with the amount of fundraising and non-profit blogs that are out there. I am equally amazed at the brilliant comments and insightful conversations that are happening all across America. Overall it has allowed me to ask questions and promote ideas.

The point of blogging can’t be to raise or make money it has to be something more. A blog has to exist to tell a story or talk about a topic/issue. For you it might be, “how can I raise awareness for my organization and how can I link my donors and volunteers closer to the mission of the organization?” For me it is to answer non-profit’s questions about fundraising and provide some advice and ideas on how to do fundraising. You can have your blog mention programs or areas that need funding but I would do that by talking about your program and providing a link back to your non-profit’s website to make a donation.

I am relatively new to blogging so I thought it would be worthwhile to provide you with some links to non-profit blogging experts. Here is some advice from the experts:
Non-profit Marketing Blog

“Don’t ask should we blog? Ask, is blogging a good way to connect with our audience?”

Comment on the dangers of blogging from an earlier post:

“What’s key about blogging is that it be open and authentic. In my mind that means that the CEO (or whomever’s name is on the blog) actually do the writing, without a lot of organizational filtering from PR-like departments.”

Two posts from Tactical Philanthropy:
Blogs aren’t for everyone
Does Blogging Substitute Real Action

A note about the old ways of fundraising:
I don’t think that the old ways of fundraising are dead, but they are not always as successful as they use to be. The days of paper direct mail, and telephone campaigns are not over. I know of countless organizations that use both of those “tried and true” methods and they work really well. But I also know that online giving is growing exponentially every year. Non-profits need to make sure that they are linking to their donors and volunteers by providing online giving, enewsletters, and I think blogging could be another way.

Do you have any thoughts, additions or success stories that you’ve heard, leave a comment. I know many of you in the non-profit blogging community have expertise answering this question.