When your nonprofit sends out its next fundraising
direct mail appeal, how many potential donors will be heading to the
Internet before they decide if they want
to donate? The number of people checking out your organization online may be higher than you think!
According to a new study by The NonProfit Times,
the number of potential donors using the Internet to find out more about the
nonprofits who contact them has jumped from 25% in 2005 up to 44% in 2008. Even more
significant, perhaps, is the data on where these people are going online in search
of their information...
The survey asked,
When you receive a mail solicitation from a
charity, which of the following places on the Internet do you look at
before deciding whether to give money?
Participants were invited to choose from the following options, and they could choose more than one response if they went to more than one of these places:
- Look up organizations on the Internet;
- Go to organization’s Web site;
- Go to the sites of independent rating organizations;
- Go to online discussion groups and/or blogs.
More people said they visited independent
rating sites (up from 11% in 2005 to 24% in 2008), online discussion
groups (from 3% to 10%), and blogs (from 2% to 8%) — but those
destinations still come in a distant second to the nonprofit’s own
website.
In fact, the number of people who report
visiting the organization’s website for more information has almost
doubled in three years — from 19% of those who responded that they went
online in 2005, up to 37% in this year’s survey.
“We already know that consumers believe that
your Web site is the most updated place to get information about your
organization,” e-marketer Gene Carr
notes: “What we’re seeing is that direct mail can motivate a Web site
visit in advance of a donation. So, for those fundraisers out there who
aren’t yet convinced that your online donation technology is as
important as your direct mail, this [study] should do the trick.”
“Maybe it used to be okay to have a website that wasn’t really aimed at donors,” says Jeff Brooks of Donor Power,
“but that’s changing.”
As the Internet becomes ever more integrated
with our lives and “more donors are making the web a meaningful part of
the way they interact with charities … you’d better make sure what they’re getting in the mail and what they find online are in some way connected.”
Naturally, your website address is printed
on every mailing piece that leaves your office… Right? (If 44% of the
people you mail to are going to go online to check you out, make it
easy for them to find your website!) And what do your prospective donors find, learn, and experience, when they visit your organization’s website?
Visual branding — color schemes, logo use,
even choice of type fonts — can help to confirm that the connection
between your web presence and your mail solicitation. Your web content
will answer your donors’ specific questions about your current
campaign, as well as provide background information about your mission
and methods — they'll be looking for transparency and accountability.
These are readers who have already expressed
an active interest in your organization, remember — simply by making
the effort to go online after reading your letter. Give them the tools
to take that interest one step further, perhaps with an invitation to
subscribe to your blog updates or become a member, and an easy way to
make their donation online.
What do you think?
Are there other ways in which your website
could be “tweaked” to better support your direct mail appeals, and
convert those prospects into donors?