Nonprofit News

How do I build relationships with alumni? Every higher education institution is grappling with this question, from the largest public universities to the smallest liberal arts colleges.

Campbell & Company addressed this challenge in the 2018 study, “Alumni Engagement: Best Practices for Building Long-Term Relationships,” and our team continues to focus on creative solutions to the alumni engagement question. While there are no silver bullets, applying best practices from online fundraising to your alumni engagement efforts can help move the needle.

Download our strategy sheet to engage alumni online.

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This is a guest post by Ash Salleh from Campaign Monitor. 

How often do you check your email, and where? Ask anyone this question and you may realize that most people respond with, “anytime, anywhere.” With wider access to internet connections and the ubiquity of mobile phones across demographics, checking one’s email is most likely a daily habit.

In fact, the average professional spends 2.5 hours per day checking personal emails at work. This means that even in the midst of handling work-related emails, many opt to check upon communications delivered directly to them, regardless of time. People fit it in and around their schedules. That’s encouraging for marketers who depend on email as one of their primary digital channels—you can potentially reach your audience at any given moment.

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December 3, 2019 may be months away, but now is the time to start prepping for GivingTuesday. Use the summer to analyze last year’s efforts and plan for a giving day that meets all your goals.

The Campbell & Company Online Fundraising team created a checklist of GivingTuesday to-dos that you should focus on before fall hits. And if you’re prepping for another giving day, most of this content applies beyond GivingTuesday. Work through the checklist to set your team up for success in 2019!

Download the GivingTuesday checklist. 

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SPOILER ALERT! Were you surprised when Daenerys went Mad Queen in Season 8, Episode 5 of Game of Thrones? Were you thinking to yourself, “whoa, I knew she was tough, but I didn’t know she felt like that?”

In the same way Daenerys threw us all for a loop—sometimes (though hopefully with no fire involved) our donors surprise us, too. In fact, it’s common for us to make assumptions about what our base of supporters wants to hear without stopping to unpack the diverging values and motivations that are active within it.

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When you use your smartphone to shop online, check your bank account, or donate to a nonprofit, do you change the way you think about yourself? Do you put on your customer hat when shopping and your donor hat when gifting? Neither do your donors.   

As modern consumers accustomed to the ease of mobile transactions and customer-centric service experiences, we have become used to—and now expect—convenience when interacting with organizations. Always.   

Think back to your recent online activities. What do you do when a webpage takes too long to load or isn’t the right format for your device? You exit and find another website that works better. Your donors will do the same if their experience on your nonprofit's website isn’t seamless.    

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In the rapidly-changing world of online fundraising, you should never underestimate the power of an email. According to the M+R Benchmarks 2018 Study, email accounted for 28% of online revenue in 2017, with nonprofits raising an average of $42 for every 1,000 fundraising messages sent.

Email still matters—but it’s getting more and more important to craft those messages strategically. The same study reported that response rate to fundraising emails declined by 6% in 2017. Following the same formula and crossing your fingers for better results won’t cut it.

So how can you start refining your fundraising emails? Through A/B testing.

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In today’s digital landscape, web design that enhances customer—and donor—experience has become increasingly important. Internet users expect convenience, speed, and lots of options when browsing online or making any kind of purchase or donation.

For nonprofits and for-profits alike, that means focusing on the end user’s experience and making sure everything serves a purpose. Reducing points of friction, being concise, and creating user-friendly navigation are some key points to focus on.

To get you started, we analyzed the websites of 16 prominent nonprofits and compiled a list of five design features they have in common. We selected a mix of nonprofits from Forbes 100 Largest U.S. Charities and Top Nonprofits’ 20 Best Nonprofit Websites.

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Nonprofits have wrapped up their #GivingTuesday campaigns and end-of-the-year fundraising pushes and are hitting the ground running in 2019. But before you move ahead, take a beat to examine your digital fundraising strategy.

Practically every organization has some sort of online presence, but small tweaks and additions to your digital approach could produce substantial returns in both engagement and fundraising capacity.

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As nonprofit fundraisers look at the year ahead, it’s clear that rapid changes in technology show no signs of slowing. As technology moves forward, your donors’ expectations for their online giving experiences and their behavior online change too.

While nobody can fully predict where online fundraising is going, it’s likely that these four noteworthy online fundraising trends will shape the success of your operation this year. I’d love to hear what other online trends you’re seeing. Drop a note below or send an email to me at sarah.barnes@campbellcompany.

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