August 2009 Entries
“Nonprofits could raise a lot more money if they paid closer attention to retaining their best givers over the long term, “ Todd Cohen writes.
Paying attention to your best givers involves many different actions. Adrian Sargeant, a professor at the Center of Philanthropy, says that “the single-most-important factor in determining whether givers continue to give to a particular charity is how the charity’s fundraising staff treats them.”
The organizations that stand out are the ones that go above and beyond the call to treat their donors well. There is an intrinsic need within people to be cared for, and when organizations...
posted @ Monday, August 31, 2009 2:27 PM |
The term “church” is not actually defined in the Internal Revenue Code but when the IRS determines what a church is for tax exemption purposes, in more recent rulings it has exhibited a disturbing lack of predictability.
The ECFA recently reported on a non-traditional church that was denied church status by the IRS earlier this year. The organization applied for exemption as a church and religious organization (accounting for 60% of its activities) and as an educational organization by way of its seminary (40%). Every service, from sermons to seminary classes was offered online. There was no established physical meeting or...
posted @ Monday, August 24, 2009 7:09 AM |
“The bad economy is a good time for nonprofits to retool their technology and the way they use it for fundraising,” says Todd Cohen, a writer for the Philanthropy Journal.
Spending money on technology or software during a bad economy might seem to go against common sense. However, this is a misconception. One of the strengths of the software and technology available is that it helps improve communication and ultimately relationships. In a down economy, maintaining strong relationships is the number one key for success.
So how does technology help in this process? Cohen writes, “Nonprofits’ goal in using their technology should...
posted @ Friday, August 14, 2009 10:19 AM |
There have been many trends in fundraising this year so it is important to know which ones will last, which ones are good short-term investments, and which ones to avoid. Sarah Hoddinott, a writer from Fundraising Success, analyzes the various trends in her recent article.
1) Promote events online—Even though the capabilities of using the internet have continued to grow, many nonprofits are still not using it to its maximum potential. Hoddinott noted the growth of using the Internet to promote events. Organizations have had fundraising success by also promoting their major fundraising events through their websites/social media instead of just...
posted @ Thursday, August 13, 2009 9:36 AM |
Email newsletters are quickly becoming a popular option in addition to direct mail. However, with the huge growth of email usage, it is becoming harder to get readers to open emails and view the content, much less avoid spam filters and junk email folders. Jakob Nielsen did an in-depth study several years ago, analyzing email newsletters and the readers’ habits. From these results, we offer several tips for you:
1) Keep the sign-up process simple—In Nielsen’s study, he found that if websites would simplify their subscription process for the email newsletters, they could increase their subscription rate by nearly 25 percent....
posted @ Wednesday, August 12, 2009 9:52 AM |
In the July/August 2009 edition of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Today, nonprofit attorney Gene Takagi and assistant Emily Chan write about the alternatives to setting up a tax exempt charitable organization. They point out that in an environment that is increasingly competitive, the majority of new charities do not succeed.
Charity founders and their attorneys should consider many things before proceeding to file for exemption – beyond the simple questions of how, when, and what are the costs. First, the authors stress the importance of good planning and research. The charity should develop a business plan. “The plan should...
posted @ Monday, August 10, 2009 1:07 PM |
There is a lot of talk about social media, but it is not the only option. Traditional media (newspapers, magazines, and television) are still viable options. The key is to have a balance of both types of media. Today’s post will focus on how to use traditional media.
Let’s start with a question: “Did you know that the average American watches 153 hours of television a month?”
AC Nielsen’s Three Screen Report shows that this statistic has been increasing over the past two years. Immediately, you can see there is a large opportunity here. Television is not the only option though.
75% of...
posted @ Friday, August 07, 2009 10:02 AM |
With summer winding down, ministries are gearing up for the fall fundraising, planning for the year end giving, and many other things. It has been quite a year already, but there still are some things that need to be accomplished.
1) Use social media—If you have been following our blog for awhile, you may have noticed that we have spent a fair amount of time following the trends in social media and making you aware of the best practices. Your job now is to do something with this information! Get set up on Twitter, start a Facebook cause, or begin your...
posted @ Wednesday, August 05, 2009 10:18 AM |
A recent study conducted by Beth Kanter, Society for New Communications Research Fellow Geoff Livingston, and Qui Diaz of CRT/tanaka, reveals that “high dollar donors --especially 30-49 year-olds -- use the social web, but have yet to be engaged by strong, trustworthy philanthropic organizations.”
The main objectives of the research were:
“To determine if high dollar donors use social media
To see if those currently using social media could become potential high dollar donors
To examine if cultivation of high dollar donations is possible online
To determine what kinds...
posted @ Tuesday, August 04, 2009 1:27 PM |
American Express released a survey on online giving in November of 2007 to look at the reasons why people give online.
63.4% chose to give online because of the convenience.
20.3% gave because they were asked to give online, and the other 15.4% gave because of incentives such as credit card rewards, etc.
Let’s go back to that first statistic though: 63.4% chose to give online because of the convenience. Scott Neilson, CEO of FundBunch, says that “this is what you should expect. Giving is an emotional transaction. Once you’ve reached your audience with a compelling message about your cause, you need...
posted @ Monday, August 03, 2009 11:00 AM |