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Thursday, May 24, 2007 |
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---------------------------------------Advertisement---------------------------------------
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Nonprofit Marketing Conference: Transforming
Your Organization Through Marketing
·Hear from corporate and nonprofit
marketing professionals who will share how to develop a
successful marketing strategy and be an effective agent of
change. Hosted by the American Marketing Association: July 9-11,
2007 - Washington, D.C. For more information or register, visit
www.MarketingPower.com/nonprofit. |
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In this
issue:
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---------------------------------------Advertisement---------------------------------------
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The Association of Fundraising Professionals/DC
and Direct Marketing Association of are excited to announce the
2nd annual Bridge Conference. The three-day conference will
feature over 75 exciting sessions covering cutting-edge direct
marketing and fundraising strategies. Go to www.bridgeconf.org for more
information. |
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Is It $10, $25 Or $100
Deciding how much to ask for in a solicitation
Every
fundraiser wants to maximize the giving of a donor. But, how do
you determine that number? The answer is a mix of testing,
intuition and prodding. Getting from point A, the ask, to point
B, the bank, was the topic of a recent Executive Session, held
over lunch at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. during
a break in the Direct Marketing Association's Nonprofit
Federation meeting this past January.
The experts participating in the
Executive Session were: Brian Cowart, senior director, Mail
Acquisition/Donor Retention, St. Jude Children's Research
Hospital, Memphis, Tenn.; Cathy Finney, associate vice
president, MINDset direct, Arlington, Va.; Tom Gaffny, executive
vice president, fundraising, Epsilon, Wakefield, Mass., Stephen
Mally, principal consultant, Professional Services, Blackbaud,
Charleston, S.C., and Rita O'Neill, president O'Neill Marketing
Company, Fairfax, Va.
The session was moderated by Rick
Christ, president, NPAdvisors.com in Warrenton, Va., and Paul
Clolery, editorial director of The NonProfit
Times.
Paul Clolery: I've always been
curious about "the ask." How do you evolve your solicitation and
message to get to that very important point? And, how are you
deciding what that ask will be?
Around the table, we have people
who are experts in online strategy, in list selection, creative
and technology. We have both vendors and clients. Where does it
all start? Does it start with the creative? Does it start with
the list selection?
Tom Gaffny: Like
any form of communication, it really comes down to the sender
and the receiver. In terms of the sender, it's what is your
objective? In terms of the gift ask, organizations have
different objectives. Some want to acquire a lot of people and
they might leverage a price point towards that goal. Some might
want to acquire a certain kind of person at a higher range. And
given that they know that at the outset, they're going to be
limiting the number of gifts they get.
In terms of the receiver, I think
the key thing to identify -- more particularly for renewal -- is
the comfort zone/price point. The surest path to failure is to
ask someone to give more than they're capable of and you've lost
the sale immediately.
It really is a question of looking
at an array of lists and determining, based on the history of
the people on that list, what they're most likely or most
capable of giving.
Click Here
for full report
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---------------------------------------Advertisement---------------------------------------
NPT
Online Resource Directory
Fundraising Category of the
Week: Online Fundraising
HELP Is Only a Click Away
For Your Next Fundraising Project!
Click on the link
for details on fundraising ideas,techniques and
services.
http://www.nptimes.com/main/directory/onlinefund.html |
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Fundraising
Tips
Online
Fundraising...
Using A/B testing to improve
response
While the Internet has completely changed
marketing, many tried-and-true rules still apply. It is still
important to know your target audience and to speak to them in
meaningful ways. A/B testing is a method of testing a marketing
message in which a control sample is compared to a variety of
single-variable test samples.
According to Allison Van Diest, product marketing
manager at Charleston-SC based Blackbaud, the Internet has made
this classic direct marketing tactic easy, inexpensive and fast,
as results can be quickly collected and analyzed.
Van Diest shares tips for how you can use this
method to improve your messaging, response rates, and hopefully
-- your bottom line:
-
Segment a list and send your current message, or
"control" message, to one
segment, as well as a message with
a single design variation -- such as a different subject line or
photograph -- to another segment. One idea is to use a small
portion of your list for the test to ensure that the "winning"
version can be used for the remainder of the list.
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It is possible to test many variations at once
by using many segments, but simultaneous tests should test the
same variable. In other words, in one set of tests, try to find
your best subject line. In another set of tests, determine your
best photograph. This makes results easier to analyze and use.
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As the recipients in each segment respond to
your message or take an action,
such as donating, advocating
or registering for an event, the response rates of each segment
can be compared to see which version of the message performed
best.
-
The best performing version is declared the
winner, and takes the place of the previous control
message.
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Arts Management ...
Engagement an
indicator of potential gifts
It is no secret to nonprofit managers and fundraisers that
civic engagement very often goes hand-in-hand with donating,
time or money or both, to various nonprofit organizations. The
National Endowment for the Arts has determined that involvement
in the arts can serve as a reliable indicator of community
involvement in general.
A large-population survey "The Arts and Civic Engagement:
Involved in the Arts, Involved in Life" was released this past
fall. It is based on data from the 2002 NEA Survey of Public
Participation in the Arts, which interviewed 17,135 adults
regarding their activities within a one-year period.
The survey findings were reported in the February 2007 issue
of the monthly publication, The Writer's Chronicle, published at
George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Also among the findings
resulting from the survey:
- Those who participate in the arts are more likely to
volunteer, attend sporting events and engage in outdoor
activities than are those people not involved in the arts.
- Those who are active in the arts are also avid sports fans,
volunteers and outdoorsmen.
- There is a decline in civic activity and arts participation
among young adults in the 18-34 year old range. The negative
trend for this age group has continued for more than 20
years.
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Newsletters
...
Establishing the basics to get started
If you're not already producing a newsletter,
you're missing out on a tremendous marketing opportunity. If
you're not producing an online version, you're missing out on a
tremendously inexpensive marketing opportunity.
In her latest contribution to the newsletter
industry, How to Publish Your Newsletter: A Complete Guide to
Print and Electronic Newsletter Publishing, author and
newsletter consultant Carol Luers Eyman lays the groundwork for
getting started. Establishing the basics:
-
Define your purpose - Just as
your organization has a mission, your newsletter needs a
statement of purpose to guide your choices of what to write, for
whom, when, and how to present it all. Some common reasons for
publishing include: to inform, to motivate, to improve image, to
persuade, to thank, to build community, to solicit media, and to
reduce snail mailings. Use your purpose statement to quickly
describe the newsletter to advertisers, vendors, and candidates
for staff positions, but not readers - that's the purpose of a
tagline, which appears on the front page of a
newsletter.
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Understand your audience -
Knowing to whom you are talking affects what you write, how you
write, and presentation. You might have a primary and secondary
audience, so include material of interest to both. Some audience
characteristics include demographics, education, interest and
motivation, and familiarity with organization. To gather
information reference almanacs, statistical abstracts, census
reports, business reference books, trade publications,
etc.
-
Choose the right style -
Writing style, layout, color, and paper (if print format) all
convey a mood and tone. If your purpose is to persuade, your
writing will advocate opinions and actions. If you seek to
inform, your writing will be more objective. If you're
soliciting donations from an audience with little money, choose
a frugal design, but if you're appealing to wealthier donors,
choose a design that's more expensive.
-
Black ink and white paper convey
budget-watching. You might choose an expensive
production technique even though you want your organization to
project a frugal image - e.g. if your newsletter contains
sensitive information, you'd use envelopes regardless of
cost.
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Don't Forget Us!
Changing positions? Or have you moved to another
organization? Then, make sure you still get NPT's family
of enewsletters by simply updating your
profile.
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Copyright @ 2007 The NonProfit
Times. | |
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Tell-a-friend!
