Transforming Your Web Visitors into Eager Donors and Volunteers
Your website can be a great tool in engaging prospective donors and volunteers. To do this you need to foster a sense of community with your target audience, and then call them to action. Here are a few things you might want to consider:
Build meaningful relationships
A blog (short for the term "Web log") is a great place to tell stories about what your non-profit is doing, if it is personable enough and genuine in approach.
You can use a blog to share with potential donors/volunteers:
- What your group or organization did recently to save or change lives.
- What testimonials, awards or other sources of praise your non-profit has been singled out for.
- What upcoming events that your organization will be hosting or participating in.
- What strategies or tips that have helped your organization achieve its goals.
You can also use your blog to ask for help from your community. For instance, you can ask for help obtaining in-kind gifts or other items that your group requires: food, clothing, supplies, etc.
Ask visitors questions and invite them to leave comments on your Web site or blog. Show people you genuinely care about their opinions.
Find out two other key ways to attract volunteers and donors
N4P Dose of Humor
What is NOT a best practice for saving money in your NGO
Developing Effective Content for the Web
Your content – and how you present it – is a vital piece of the puzzle in selling yourself on the Web. You may have a very nice looking and sleek site, but if the writing on it isn’t concise, easy-to-read and relevant, visitors might only take a look at it once and never come back.
Here are a few ideas to attract visitors, and keep them returning to your Web site on a regular basis:
- Let your visitors know clearly what you represent: put up your mission statement, historical background, testimonials, and information about your staff and board of directors. Personalize it as much as possible. Tell stories about your accomplishments, but keep in mind the old saw: what’s in it for your users?
- Be sure to make any information you post as media friendly as possible: put up press releases and content-specific items with relevant contact information on them. Submit your press releases to relevant niche-market news sites on the Web, if any exist.
- When writing copy for the Web, you run a better chance of being discovered by search engines run by Google and Yahoo! if you use keywords that are specific to your organization. The easier you are to find in search engine directories, the more likely visitors are going to come to your site.
- Have a section of your Web site where they can share their stories with you. Consider creating a wiki, a photo-sharing site, or another means of allowing people to share information, dependant upon your needs.
- Experiment with emerging technologies, to see if they may help your organization attract more donors. This will make you look cutting-edge and participatory, which may help with your marketing and branding as well.
Read the article online for more ways to develop effective content for your website.
Wild Apricot InfoZone
Account plans start at $12/month
When we launched Wild Apricot we thought that our lowest billable plan at $50 would be affordable to everyone. Not so! - We quickly discovered that there is a great number of small grassroots and community-based groups who need a more affordable solution. Hence, since December 2006 we offer $12 and $25/month Wild Apricot plans
Customize your Member Database
You may not be aware, but Wild Apricot offers full customization of member database fields. Every N4P is different and you can now store information about your member’s gender, industry, company size, favorite ice cream flavor or a myriad of other things.
Database of Event Attendees
Another essential tool in Wild Apricot is a database of all past event attendees, since these are typically your best prospects for becoming volunteers, members or sponsors.
Custom themes (templates)
Many of you have been asking about more extensive look and feel customization for your Wild Apricot website. We are hard at work devising and designing the tools to address that. For now keep in mind that you can hire us to design a unique custom template for your Wild Apricot site – this service typically cost from $1000 to $1500, here are some of the WA sites using custom templates:
www.canadianventureforum.ca, Toastmaster.roundtablelive.org, tvg.memberlodge.com, www.aimscanada.com
Wild Apricot Setup Guide
Need step-by-step guidance to set up your Wild Apricot site? See our user-friendly Setup Guide
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"I greatly appreciate the timesavings we have achieved with Wild Apricot. I no longer have to spend time emailing application forms to potential fund-seekers and volunteers can quickly access up-to-date information online. Using Wild Apricot has not only resulted in time savings of at least 5 hours/week, but we have also significantly reduced our spending on postage, envelopes and letterheads."
JoAnn Nichols, Director
Tri-County United Fund Inc.
unitedfund.camp9.org
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Wild Apricot Orchard
discover how other organizations are using Wild Apricot!
Just signed up?
Check out our step-by-step Setup Guide.
...an affordable and easy-to-use tool for smaller non-profits:
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"My technical know-how is below average, but Wild Apricot delivered on its promise of being intuitive and easy to pick up on. It didn't take us more than two weeks to experience increased sign-ups, and an overwhelming response from our members, wanting to submit pictures and videos to our collection."
Lisa Dernick, Administrator
Gulf Cost Jack Russell Terrier Network
gcjrtn.onefireplace.com
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