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How to Keep Your Organization Relevant Online: 3 Tips

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A guest post by Carl Diesing, DNL Omnimedia

Online conversations move quickly. Your nonprofit fundraisers can underperform if you aren’t able to capture your supporters’ attention.

Whether your nonprofit already has a digital strategy or is just branching out to online platforms, an overview of how to maintain attention online can be helpful for maintaining your audience. We’ll review three tips for attracting and holding your supporters’ interest in highly competitive online spaces.

1. Create regular engagement opportunities.

When determining your approach to a social media site, first consider why supporters use that platform. Are they looking to connect with friends? Interact with new people? Create content themselves? Knowing what your audience is looking to do on social media first will help you shape your engagement strategy.

Your audience will likely scroll quickly through most posts they see online. However, they are far more likely to remember content that invites them to engage with it. Your approach to engaging supporters will depend on the platform, but it may include:

  • Interacting with supporters online. When someone comments on one of your posts, whether they’re asking for more information or sharing a personal story about how your cause relates to them, respond to their message. This type of communication shows that there is a person behind your organization who is interested in what supporters have to say, creating memorable connections.
  • Creating content that encourages comments. Your nonprofit should aim to create shareable content that your audience will spread to their friends and family. One approach is designing content that encourages comments. These might be posts that ask questions, invite supporters to share a story, vote in a poll, take a survey, or otherwise share their thoughts. Many social media sites also have algorithms that will promote content with many comments to other users.
  • Encouraging supporters to make their own content. You can build a community online by encouraging your current supporter base to interact with your new social media accounts through their own content. For example, during and after a volunteer day, you might help supporters take photos of their hard work, then encourage them to tag your social media accounts when they post them.

Engaging content will help you create a strong first impression. Create a social media calendar to manage your posting schedule and ensure you are regularly engaging the supporters your first posts attracted.

2. Empower your supporter community.

Regularly creating new content for your social media accounts is important but also time-consuming. To cultivate an active online community, your organization should  empower supporters to hold conversations about your nonprofit between posts.

Nonprofits rely on highly dedicated supporters known as “superfans.” These superfans are passionate about your nonprofit and willing to advocate on your behalf. You can encourage these superfans to continue promoting your nonprofit by:

  • Highlighting key supporters. Public recognition can go a long way towards deepening a supporter’s commitment to your cause. Show your appreciation and draw attention to interesting projects in your community by creating support spotlights. These could be features in your nonprofit’s newsletter, blog, or social media accounts.
  • Providing communication channels. Supporters will stay engaged with your nonprofit if they have other supporters to talk to about your cause. Encourage supporters to interact with one another in the comments of your posts, whether they’re on a social media platform or your blog. Nonprofits with membership programs can consider creating forums where supporters can engage with one another and create their own discussion threads.
  • Establishing a group identity. There are many ways to build a community, and you can encourage supporters to form a connection with your organization faster with branding. Give your dedicated supporters a name to help them identify as part of a group. For example, the Big Brothers Big Sisters youth mentoring nonprofit calls their volunteers “big brothers” and “big sisters,” providing a sense of community identity.

Ensure your supporters are aware of the resources you provide to encourage their involvement in your community. DNL OmniMedia’s nonprofit website design guide lists “ways to get involved” as one of the top items supporters should be able to find upon landing on your website. This might take the form of either a single page with engagement opportunities listed or a dropdown menu with multiple resources, including links to follow your nonprofit on your social media accounts.

3. Conduct market research.

Staying relevant with your audience requires understanding your audience’s needs and wants and knowing when those needs and wants change. This could be as simple as your audience losing interest in one social media platform in favor of another or as complex as needing to reconfigure your entire engagement strategy after a major rebrand.

To stay informed, regularly conduct market research. This includes polling your audience and taking note of supporter demographics, as well as monitoring other similar organizations and how they engage with their supporters. Also, strive to stay up to date with broader changes in the nonprofit sector. Resources like NXUnite’s nonprofit conferences page and similar listings can be useful for identifying where and when professionals in your industry are gathering.

If you are unsure how to make sense of your market research or apply your findings to your strategy, consider partnering with a nonprofit consulting firm. Nonprofit consultants that specialize in digital marketing can offer a professional, outside perspective on your current strategies. Services like this can be especially useful for launching new types of campaigns and outreach your nonprofit is trying for the first time.

Carl Diesing DNLCarl Diesing, Managing Director – Carl co-founded DNL OmniMedia in 2006 and has grown the team to accommodate clients with on-going web development projects. Together DNL OmniMedia has worked with over 100 organizations to assist them with accomplishing their online goals. As Managing Director of DNL OmniMedia, Carl works with nonprofits and their technology to foster fundraising, create awareness, cure disease, and solve social issues. Carl lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their two children Charlie and Evelyn.

Fundraising Tuesday: You Asked. Now What?

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By the time you read this, I hope you have sent out your ideal end-of-year fundraising letter. Maybe you did it by mail. Maybe you sent it by email. Either way, it’s tempting to sit back and let it do its work.

Don’t give in to temptation! There’s more to do if you want to stay atop your donors’ mind…and donation list!

Your appeal is one of many, many appeals your donors are receiving this time of year. (Just look at your own mail or inbox and you will agree.) To make yours stand out, it cannot be one and done. Here are some ideas to bring your appeal to the top of your donors’ list.

What to do after you ask

  1. Follow up a letter with email.
    • In the From: line, send the message in the name of a real person.
    • Make sure you choose a Subject: line that will make the donor perk up and open the message.
    • Talk about what the donor wants, not what your nonprofit wants.
    • Include a link to your Donate page–twice or three times!
  2. Follow up a written message with a phone call.
    • Prepare a good script.
    • Train your volunteers.
    • Invite your Board to get involved. Following up an ask will be easier for many of them than making the ask themselves!
  3. Follow up a personal message by talking to all your donors on social media.  Now is the time to make the donor the hero of the story.

“Here is a person who’s struggling, and you can help them get over the hump and have a happy ending.” There is no better message to post in December!

December is different. As Double the Donation points out, “30% of annual giving happens in December, with about 10% of all annual donations coming in the last three days of the year.”

The rest of the year, telling success stories helps donors feel happy and proud that they gave to your organization. But in December, you want to make the donor feel that the ending of the story is all in their hands. When you call, or email, and especially when you post, bring them to the brink, and then ask. And always make it easy to give by including the link to your donation page!

3 Simple Communication Tips to Help Your Nonprofit Build Healthy Relationships With Donors

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A guest post by Elena Stewart

Nonprofit communication has changed drastically in recent decades. In the 1990’s, most people didn’t expect a personalized experience when dealing with the organizations they supported. Nonprofits would send a letter in the mail, and donors would send back a check — and that was it.

Now, organizations (and businesses) use algorithms, CRM software, and automation tools to personalize everything from our shopping carts to our newsfeeds. As a result, we expect personalization. And you can rest assured that your donors do too!

But donors are after more than a personalized experience; they want to feel that they have the inside scoop and a sense of belonging with the organizations they support. And they want to know they’re making a positive impact. Below are three practical communication tips for connecting with your donors!

Know the Core Functions of Your Strategy  

First, you must know how to create a successful donor communications strategy, which involves identifying your core functions. For example, you’ll need to focus on telling impactful stories about people instead of relying on statistics and numbers. A personal story about someone directly impacted by your organization can be powerful and inspiring.

You should also plan to regularly update your donors about the progress your nonprofit is making in the community and the world. Of course, you should always communicate how their contributions have made an impact.

Furthermore, it’s important to allow your donors to participate in the conversation. When people give their money to a nonprofit, they want to feel like they belong to the community and contribute to the world’s betterment. Take advantage of your donors’ expertise and resources when strategizing, and give them a platform to share ideas and opinions.

Send Email

Once you have your core functions in place, it’s time to make a plan for executing your donor communications strategy. To do so, you’ll need to choose the appropriate channels.

Chances are you already use email because it has long been among the most common platforms for donor communications. But there may be some things you can do to improve results.

For example, make sure each email is personalized by including the donor’s name, contribution amounts, and years with the nonprofit. And consider that email tends to lack the personal touch of a phone call. Think of ways to warm up your messages by recalling bits of your last conversation with the donor or mentioning their specific interests or recent donations.

You should also respond quickly when a donor emails you. When someone sends an email, it shows they are engaged in your nonprofit, and you want to maintain their enthusiasm with a fast and personal response.

And, of course, every email you send should be relevant to your organization’s goals, challenges, and progress. The occasional uplifting story can also go a long way in inspiring action!

Engage on Social Media   

If your nonprofit is not active on social media, now’s the time to engage. Develop your social media strategy around age and other demographics to determine which platforms to focus on for your messaging. Social media is an excellent way to post updates about your nonprofit, interact with donors and other supporters, and promote your cause.

You can even build a community by growing your online presence. Look for free tools that allow you to design custom infographics for explaining the challenges and victories occurring in your community.

Meet In-Person

We live in a digital world, but face-to-face communication is as powerful as ever. Look for opportunities to meet people in person so you can have natural conversations without the possibility of technical issues. The right body language and connecting on a human level can do wonders for moving people to become donors or continue their contributions.

 

There are many other ways to build healthy relationships with your donors through communication. A well-timed text message or handwritten letter, for example, can inspire people to action.

But the ideas above can help you lay a firm foundation for your donor communications strategy. Keep learning how to get your organization’s message across more effectively, and stay true to your mission and values along the way!

 

Would you like to read more helpful content or learn about communication consulting services for nonprofit organizations? Visit DennisFischman.com today!

Elena Stewart made the jump from a corporate job she wasn’t entirely happy with, to running her own business that gives her the financial freedom and flexible lifestyle she’s always wanted. As a life coach, she now gets the happiness of helping others get to the places that might seem out of reach.

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