Do $5 Asks + Big Red Buttons Work? Results from our 2009 End-of-Year Fundraising Tests
When December 2009 rolled around, we were itching to test a number of promising new strategies to increase our clients’ online fundraising returns. We decided to take advantage of the high volume of online fundraising and website traffic that mark the end-of-year period to run a number of tests for our clients.
The results were surprising.
Quadruple digits: Who and how to ask for the (relatively) big bucks online
In M+R and NTEN’s most recent eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, we found that although high dollar donors make up fewer than 2% of online donors, their gifts make up more than 18% of funds raised each year. And while many organizations receive large gifts through email and passive web fundraising, few organizations have a 4-digit donor strategy as part of their online programs.
But imagine how many 4-digit gifts you could get if you really asked for them?
How Cross Promotions Can Help Your Organization
Sharing lists for fundraising outreach has long been accepted as a cost-effective practice in the direct mail world. But list sharing has yet to be applied to online lists in any great numbers. Many nonprofits are held back by fears over negative impacts to their...
Nonprofit Organizing in 140 Characters or Less
Part I: Getting Started The “Twitterverse” is going supernova, exploding with the power and energy of more than five million people worldwide reaching out for a way to stay connected. Unique website visitors to Twitter.com from the U.S. alone have clocked in at more...
Lower your membership amount? Think twice.
With direct mail and other fundraising channels hitting the skids, nonprofits are looking to boost online revenue in any way they can – trying out new tactics to get that all-important first donation from non-members. This one might have crossed your mind: “What if we...
The Power of the Premium: Convincing Prospective Donors to Give
There's no denying that the recent economic downturn is affecting nonprofit organizations’ funding streams. Although a recent M+R study found that nonprofit online fundraising continued to grow through the end of 2008, we did note that average gift sizes have declined...
The ups and downs of online giving in a down economy
In December of 2008, we published an article showing that online giving had grown significantly between the fall of 2007 and the fall of 2008.1 We decided to take one more look at these trends—the election is over, the economic crisis has deepened and end-of-year...
Weak economy, strong campaign*
*Or, How to stop worrying and beat the recession. The results rolling in from the fundraising appeal were… well, terrible. It was mid-November, the economy was in shambles and getting worse by the day and Oxfam America’s first end-of-year email appeal of 2008 was...
What Worked for Obama Can Work for YOUR Organization
The presidential campaign may be over, but there are still many lessons to be learned from the Obama campaign’s stunningly successful online fundraising efforts. Over the course of his 21- month presidential campaign, Barack Obama’s online fundraising machine raised...
The economy may be down, but online giving is up.*
*So far! The economy has been sluggish for over a year, but the financial crisis on September 15, 2008, shook consumer confidence and set off another round of corporate layoffs. Recent numbers show that unemployment is at its highest since 1994. Many of our clients...