In This Edition:

• Revenue, Donors Continue Free Fall
  
  
• Direct Response ...
  DMANF Advisory Council picks new chairman, members
  
  
• Donors ...
  4 things you can learn from the Obama campaign
  
  
• Online ...
  Do you have your stop-watch handy?
  

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Revenue, Donors Continue Free Fall

By Mark Hrywna

It’s no surprise that revenue continues to fall but the number of new donors also continues its drop, declining almost 13 percent in the first quarter of 2009, as compared to 2008.

Key metrics in the Target Analytics Index of National Fundraising Performance declined as a whole for the first quarter of 2009 as compared to the same time last year. The index -- released today (6/25) by Target Analytics, a Blackbaud company -- analyzes direct marketing giving for 79 national organizations.

To read the complete article click here...
 

Direct Response ...
DMANF Advisory Council picks new chairman, members

The Direct Marking Association Nonprofit Federation (DMANF) announced new members to its advisory council, who take over July 1.

Susan Loth, director of fundraising at Disabled American Veterans (DAV), will serve as chairman and Geoffrey Peters, president of CDR Fundraising Group, will be vice chairman for 2009-2010.

Three new members also will join the council: Kyla Shawyer, senior vice president, response marketing and development, Operation Smile; Karen Gleason, mass market CRM lead, American Cancer Society (ACS), and Ken Dawson, chief marketing officer, InfoCision Management Corporation. Department Advisory Council members include Jo Sullivan of the ASPCA and Joan Wheatley of Special Olympics.

Donors ...
4 things you can learn from the Obama campaign

The numbers are staggering: more than four million individual donors and more than $500 million raised online. If Barack Obama can raise that much money online, why can’t your nonprofit?

Stephen Geer, former director of email and online fundraising for the Obama for America, presented “What nonprofits can learn from the Obama online fundraising campaign,” during the recent Fundraising Day New York, sponsored by the Greater New York Association of Fundraising Professionals.

The tactics used by the Obama campaign helped optimize their online fundraising strategy, Geer said, and “I believe the core lessons we learned apply to not just nonprofits but any organization trying to raise money from an online constituency.”

Geer, who now is vice president for new media at Washington, D.C.-based OMP Direct, reviewed four core concepts that can be applied:

• Grassroots match: Build on what works, said Geer. The traditional donor match added personal connections, and allowed donors to communicate enthusiastically with one another and create a sense of community.
  
• Dinner with Obama: Supporters were asked to share their stories for a chance to have dinner with the candidate. “There are lessons here that go beyond celebrity,” Geer said, connecting supporters with leadership, lowering the barriers to connecting supporters with leadership and breaking the stereotype that big money donors get access to the top.
  
• Strategy updates: Sharing messages minus the campaign spin from campaign manager David Plouffe was popular, but you must match the style of communications to the message, Geer said.
  
• Merchandise and premiums. Testing the creative set merchandise apart, Geer said, and the campaign had dozens of different items and landing pages.

Online ...
Do you have your stop-watch handy?

Some studies show you have less than one minute to convince an online reader that your piece is worth reading, according to Roger Burks, senior writer at Portland-Ore.-based Mercy Corps.

So you need an online story that can create a strong emotional connection as quickly as possible, according to Burks during NTEN’s 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference.

Here are some questions to ask while creating a story:

• Is this a story that I want to tell? Can you remember details without looking at your notes? Is this a story you would tell your friends? If you don’t have a passion for the story, it will show when someone reads it.
• Does the story have a heartbeat? Most stories need a human focus to breathe life into the text. Readers want to have someone they can cheer for in the story.
• Is the story transformative? Your sixth-grade English teacher was right -- you need an introduction, conflict and resolution to make a good story. Make sure your character’s challenges are clear. And if there isn’t a happy ending don’t sugar coat it, according to Burks. It might spur-on your readers to take further action.
• Does it sound like my organization? Understand your audience and what they are looking for. Make sure the story’s tone fits with your organization. For example, Burks said Mercy Corps never uses the word “victim” in a story; instead, they use the word “survivor.”
• Does it have an expiration date? Are there parts of the story that will lose urgency as time goes on?
• Will it make the reader want to do something? Creating an inspirational story is tough enough. But remember to include a call-to-action after the story so your motivated readers can take part in the organization.

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