Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Fundraising Tuesday: That’s the Ticket

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The ticket to success in direct mail fundraising is letting your donors know what a difference they can make.

Not what a good organization you are.

Not what fine work you do.

Not the nice things that other people say about you.

There are other times to tell them that, and you should.

All year, throughout your communications calendar, there are plenty of opportunities for you to share success stories and testimonials. Your newsletter, blog, email, social media…all those are good platforms for convincing people that when they gave to you before, they did the right thing.

If you’ve waited until you’re asking for money again, it’s too late!

When you send out an appeal letter to your current donors, they should already have the best impression of you in mind.

Now, it’s time to answer one simple question: “If I donate now, what will happen?”

Make the Impact of the Gift Feel Real

Partners in Health knows  from their donor database that I typically donate $50/year. So, when they asked me to renew, they told me that my gift of $50 can

help provide lifesaving, ready-to-use therapeutic food to start malnutrition treatment for a child in need.

But they didn’t just tell me. They made the impact feel real.

Along with a well-written appeal letter, in the envelope, PIH enclosed four “Treatment Delivery Tickets.” Each one looked like this:

PIH ticket frontPIH ticket back

This is a little different from the usual reply card!

For one thing, it asks for my signature, which makes it feel more like I made a personal decision and a commitment.

For another thing, PIH nudged me toward giving 2-4X my usual amount.

They avoided giving me a range of amounts to give (50, 100, 150, 200, other), which is what everyone does. Instead, they made me handle each card and decide how many of them to put in with my check…and how many to throw away.

Throwing away a “treatment delivery ticket” feels awful. It makes me picture a child who doesn’t get food unless I help.

On the other hand, signing four cards and putting them all in the envelope with my check makes me feel like a hero. (Even if I go online to make my donation, I will linger over those cards, and they will stay in my mind for a long time afterwards.)

Has your organization put anything like these tickets into your donors’ hands? If the answer is “Not yet,” then what can you do to make the impact of their donation real to them?

Enhancing Your Site’s SEO Value: 4 Tips for Nonprofits

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Are you looking to boost your nonprofit’s website’s traffic? Maybe your site sees little traffic, only a few thousand visitors per month or so. But you know that you could be doing more when it comes to promoting your website. After all, more website traffic means greater visibility for your mission and even a donation boost!

Using search engine optimization (SEO) strategies is a popular strategy among nonprofit organizations to increase their website engagement. SEO is a set of techniques used to boost a website’s visibility on search engine results pages by improving its appearance, content, and technical structure.

If you’re interested in adopting SEO strategies but don’t know where to start, these tips will set you on the right path:

  1. Incorporate keywords into your website content.
  2. Offer valuable educational content.
  3. Streamline your site’s user experience.
  4. Build a strong internal and external link profile.

SEO can be a great addition to your nonprofit’s digital strategy. It can supplement your other online marketing efforts to create a well-rounded digital presence and grow your audience. Let’s dive in!

1. Incorporate keywords into your website content.

In the context of SEO, keywords are the terms or phrases that people type into a search bar when they’re looking for information. When you use keywords naturally in your online content, you signal to search engines that your content is relevant to the terms and questions people are searching for.

For instance, let’s say your nonprofit supports girls entering the STEM field. Some popular keywords that are relevant to your mission might be “scholarships for girls in STEM” or “conferences for girls in STEM.” By including these keywords in your blog posts or “about” page, you’re telling search engines that your content is relevant to searches for STEM opportunities.

Also, consider keywords that are popular locally when crafting your site content. For instance, if your organization is looking for local volunteers or donors, you might target keywords like “volunteer opportunities near [your city’s name]” or “nonprofits near [your city’s name].” This can help your local community members connect with your volunteer or donation opportunities.

2. Offer valuable educational content.

You can’t just add your keyword to a page a bunch of times and expect your site to rank higher. That’s called “keyword stuffing,” and it’s highly frowned upon by Google and other search engines. These platforms may devalue your content if you adopt this practice.

Instead, your content must have value. If your website features original, engaging, valuable educational content, search engines will note that your content is useful for users, boosting your chances of ranking higher on results pages.

Use your organization’s institutional knowledge and expertise to write valuable content. For instance, let’s say your organization helps combat the effects of climate change in the Florida Everglades. You might create an in-depth, multimedia guide that explains the issue and educates your audience on the implications of unmitigated climate change on the ecosystem.

3. Streamline your site’s user experience.

A good page experience doesn’t only encourage visitors to browse and return to your site—it can also impact your search results rankings. In November 2020, Google announced it would start considering page experience when ranking pages.

Make sure each page of your site, from your homepage to your online donation form, offers visitors a user-friendly experience by:

  • Using a clear page structure: Each page should have a clearly defined title with an H1 tag. All subsequent page sections should use heading tags in descending order (H2, H3, etc.). A clear page structure makes it easy for visitors to browse through your content and quickly find what they’re looking for.
  • Ensuring your website has a fast load speed. The recommended load time for website pages is just two seconds. If your website loads any slower, you’ll start losing visitors. To avoid this, compress all images, eliminate unnecessary characters from your code, and avoid complex design elements that require a heavy coding lift.
  • Crafting an aesthetically pleasing design: Incorporate design best practices such as using white space and multimedia elements to break up chunks of text. 

In addition to these tips, ensure your website is mobile-friendly. According to this nonprofit fundraising statistics page, half of all nonprofit website traffic last year came from mobile and tablet users. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, a large swath of visitors can’t use it. Review how your website looks in mobile view and adjust any formatting issues as needed.

4. Build a strong internal and external link profile.

As you start building your SEO strategy, create a plan for using valuable links both inside and outside of your website.

Each page of your website should include links to other pages on your site using in-text links and buttons. A strong system of internal links helps search engine crawlers move through your website quickly and efficiently.

An external or backlink is a link on a different website or blog that leads back to your website. A strong backlink profile signals to Google that your content is legitimate and valuable for users.

The most effective strategy to build your backlink profile is creating valuable internal content on your website that encourages external sources to link to your pages. You can also begin writing guest blogs for other organizations’ websites that link back to your own site. The more reputable the organization, the more powerful having a backlink on their website is for your organization.

Your linking strategy can help spread awareness of your organization and establish your brand as trustworthy and authoritative.

Ultimately, keep your audience members in mind to build a strong nonprofit SEO strategy. What are your nonprofit’s current and prospective donors, volunteers, and other supporters searching for? How can you help connect them with the information they need? If you can appeal to supporters’ interests and help fulfill their search intent, you can effectively improve your search engine rankings.

 

Anne Stefanyk head shotAs Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs, and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions.

Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddle boarding, kayaking, and hanging with her nephew.

https://twitter.com/Anne_Kanopi

https://www.drupal.org/u/annabella

https://www.linkedin.com/in/annestefanyk/

Fundraising Tuesday: 3 Favorite Hybrid Fundraising Events Your Nonprofit Can Host

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A guest post by Kelly Velasquez-Hague of OneCause

Hybrid events have become far more popular among nonprofits in the past several months. They offer the convenience and flexibility of virtual events with the face-to-face connection of in-person events — all rolled into one. When a hybrid event is pulled off successfully, it can make a positive first impression with new supporters and deepen connections with existing supporters.

There is one thing every fundraiser should know! Hybrid events have a lot of moving parts. There are many logistics to consider, such as how to keep both remote and in-person audiences engaged, what activities you should plan, the software you should rely on, your registration, fundraising and checkout flows, and so much more.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of favorite hybrid fundraising events to help get you started. Here are our top three hybrid events:

  1. Auction
  2. Drive-In
  3. Webinar

Planning your own hybrid event might seem overwhelming, but shifting your mindset helps. Here’s the key: think of the in-person and virtual options as two ways to experience the event. When you think in terms of what the in-person and remote supporters will experience at key points in your event, it helps ensure you are maximizing engagement and fundraising for both audiences.

Let’s take a closer look at these three event types and see which one is right for your nonprofit!

1. Auction

Auctions are an adaptable and flexible event option for nonprofits of any size. The best part?  They can be adjusted to fit a variety of audiences. If you’ve ever hosted an auction before, you know that they require preparation, and that’s still true with hybrid auctions. To plan your  hybrid auction, use these tips:

  • Preview your auction items in advance. Giving your potential attendees a glimpse into what they could win to incentivize them to bid. This OneCause guide on charity auction item ideas can help you pick the best items.
  • Use mobile bidding software, which makes it easy for bidders attending in-person or virtually to compete for the same items simultaneously. Plus, you can easily keep track of winners, payments, and where to ship the items.
  • Keep the live auction fairly short so that virtual attendees do not become disengaged and log off. Consider pairing your auction with other activities, such as meet-and-greets or educational programs to keep everyone’s attention.

With compelling items, the right software, and an organized format, your hybrid auction can be an engaging event for participants attending in-person or virtually. And it’s a great way to raise money for your nonprofit!

2. Drive-In

Who doesn’t enjoy a night at the movies? Hosting a drive-in or a watch party is a great way to build community among supporters of your nonprofit. And of all of our hybrid event options, a drive-in is likely the easiest to pull off.

Once you secure a venue and set up your live-streaming software, there’s only a few things left to do to bring your drive-in to the next level, including:

  • Allowing attendees to vote on the movie: During the registration process, include a few movie choices and show the one with the most votes. You can even theme the movie around the time of year, like playing a Halloween movie in October.
  • Encouraging watch parties for viewers at home: Just because a participant isn’t attending in-person doesn’t mean they can’t spend time with others. Encourage your attendees to invite friends to watch with them.
  • Creating snack packs: Whether you participants are attending in-person or virtually, provide snack packs with popcorn, candy, and other treats. You can give them directly to in-person attendees and mail them to participants watching from home. This is also a great opportunity to include some branded materials to raise your nonprofit’s visibility.
  • Weave in Mission Moments: Be sure to orchestrate fundraising and donations moments before and after your movies. If you are doing a double-feature, have an intermission and do a Fund-A-Need moment.

To foster connection with your attendees and make it fun, you could plan themed activities for before, during, and after the movie (think Rocky Horror Picture Show or movie trivia). Adding a few creative elements and activities can boost engagement, and create a memorable hybrid event experience for all!

3. Educational Webinar or Event

If your nonprofit is looking to incorporate more educational events into your fundraising strategy, then a webinar, seminar, or other educational gathering might be the right hybrid event choice for you!

Webinars are a great way to raise awareness about your cause and ignite passion in your donors. You can offer in-person tickets to the speaking event to VIP guests while other attendees can stream the gathering from the comfort of their homes.

During your hybrid webinar, provide equal opportunities for engagement for in-person and virtual attendees. Allow both groups to ask questions and interact with speakers and each other. For virtual attendees, create breakout sessions to facilitate smaller discussions about what your speakers have shared.

Another option is to pre-record the speaker’s lecture and host a live Q&A session. This provides in-person attendees an opportunity to connect with each other as they watch the video, while everyone at home can keep up with the recording. With this option, be sure you have a moderator to run the online questions so that everything stays organized.

One last tip: When planning your hybrid event, start preparing early. Remember, there’s a lot of logistics involved, so it’s best to give yourself plenty of time to get everything up and running. Good luck!

 

Kelly Velasquez-Haguge head shotKelly Velasquez-Hague brings over 20 years of fundraising, nonprofit management, and sales/marketing experience to her role as the Director of Content Marketing for OneCause.

As a member of the OneCause sales and marketing team, Kelly manages all of the company’s content strategy and execution. She is passionate about empowering great missions and loves that her current role allows her to continue to help nonprofits reach new donors raise more funds for their cause.

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