Kristina Leroux

A few Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com readers have asked about QR codes so I thought it would be a good idea to get my assistant, Kristina, to explain what they are and how you can use them.  ~Kivi

Guest Post by Kristina Leroux of Kristina Leroux.com

QR Codes have actually been around for a while. They just took a while to catch on here in the U.S. Our friends at Wikipedia tell us that QR (Quick Response) Codes were originally created by a Japanese corporation to track car parts. It’s a two dimensional bar code that was designed to allow for quick decoding, but honestly, I know you don’t really care about the science behind it, right?

You just wanna know what’s the big deal and what the heck it does, right? Well, that little box stores information such as addresses, contact information, or website addresses. Anything you’d like it to, really. So, if you have a QR Reader on your cell phone (and there are several apps available), it will scan the code with your phone’s camera and automatically take you to, let’s say, a website on your cell phone’s browser. Pretty cool, huh?

How to Create One

It’s easy! You just need a QR Code Generator. I have used Kaywa and QR-Server before. I’ll be using QR-Server’s generator, called GOQR.ME, for this post since it gives you a few more options.

Once you have downloaded the image, you can add it anywhere you could add a photo or other image.

How to Read One

You will need a QR reader for your phone. Some phones have them installed, but you may have to download an app. You can find them in your carrier’s app marketplace and there are a lot of them.  I have a Droid X and use QR Droid.

Each app will vary, but basically you will be prompted to scan the QR code. That sounds all sci-fi, but it really just consists of you using your phone’s camera. Just hold the phone still until it is done scanning the code. Once it has “read” the code, you should be prompted to either visit that website or download whatever information was in the code.

What to Do With One

The possibilities are pretty much endless. Ask yourself:

• Where are the folks I want to reach?
• What do I want those folks to do?

Some ideas:

Fundraising: Direct potential donors to your “Donate Now” page.
Business Cards: Contact info could simply be scanned into your phone.
Marketing: Put QR Codes on brochures or fliers at your events or any place where people will be out and about.
Services: Add a QR code to the front door of your facility that sends people to your services page.
Calendar of Events: Link to your event’s page.

Now keep in mind, people scanning your QR codes will then be using their phone to look at what’s linked to the cod. If your website or donate now page is difficult to navigate on a mobile phone, rethink sending them there.  You can create simple pages that are better for cell phone browsers and use those.

I recently received this direct mail piece from Samaritan’s Purse. That QR code takes you to a video about their mission.

How might you use QR codes? Leave your ideas in the comments.

Kristina Leroux is Kivi’s little sister and executive assistant. She also runs Kristina Leroux.com, a virtual assistance service that provides online administrative support to nonprofits and entrepreneurs who need to spend more time focusing on their passion to help others and less time worrying about administrative and technical issues. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter or email her at kleroux [at] kristinaleroux [dot] com. For more “how-to” posts, check our her blog also.

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Political campaigns, especially in presidential years, are great testing grounds for new communications and fundraising techniques that eventually transfer over to the nonprofit world. Howard Dean revolutionized small-dollar online giving and Barack Obama was the first to integrate mobile/texting both for campaign advocacy and fundraising.

I wonder what we’ll learn about in the coming year?

Well, nevermind all that for now. It’s more important that you have a half-way decent website . . . and it seems that’s a lesson that several current presidential campaigns still need to learn.

As Colin Delany reports on his great e.politics blog, even presidential candidates still make “major and painfully avoidable mistakes.” Colin summarizes the results of a new study from Normal Modes, which ran the current Republican hopefuls’ sites through usability tests.

Here are just three of Colin’s points, all of which apply to nonprofit websites too:

• People hate email-gathering splash screens, which are now standard-issue on most campaign sites. In fact, some users (older ones in particular) found them so confusing that they tried to leave the sites entirely.

• Once users got past the splash screens, the sites frequently did a terrible job of collecting email addresses on internal pages.  (Colin notes that “nonprofits have known to put a clear email signup form or button on every page for years” but I think he’s actually being pretty generous with us on that one. Lots of work to do there still!)

• One phrase that turned out to be particularly confusing: “join the campaign,” wording that’s also become standard on campaign websites. People found it off-putting since the text didn’t actually tell them what clicking on a “join the campaign” button would imply. Colin suggests making the wording specific, as in “get emails from Mitt” or “volunteer in your community” or “donate.” (I’ve lectured about lame calls to action before, so you know I agree on this one!)

Check out Colin’s full post and the full report for more details.

P.S. Here’s what’s coming up next on our webinar schedule . . .

December 1: Trends for 2012 and Your Marketing Plan for the New Year

December 7: Writing Thank-You Notes That Inspire Future Gifts

December 14: The New and Improved Nonprofit Annual Report

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Most nonprofits understand the potential power of social media to connect with both old and new supporters, advocates, and clients. But have you considered how social media like blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can be used to increase your organization’s accountability to and transparency with those same people?

Social media can help you improve your accountability in seven ways.

1. Real-time Communications

Social media is about the here and now. It’s the fastest way to share timely news with people, and when you use it that way, you demonstrate that you aren’t using the old “We missed the newsletter deadline, so forget it” excuse. People turn to social media for breaking news of all kinds, and they expect you to use the tools in the same way. Say there is a unexpected problem with an event you are hosting, such as a road closure that makes it difficult to get to your fundraiser. Twitter and Facebook are perfect ways to tell attendees about an alternate route.

2. Personal – Not Institutional – Voices

Social media is, well, social, which means that it works best when it’s used by real people at organizations, speaking in conversational, natural voices, rather than stilted official-speak. You are more likely to explain news more clearly when you speak in a conversational style and to take personal responsibility for what you post online when it is attached to you personally. It’s appropriate to have “official” Twitter and Facebook accounts, but it’s also good practice to let supporters know which human beings actually update those official accounts.

3. Responding to Negativity

While you can certainly put social media policies in place, the reality is that anyone can say just about anything about your organization in social media. The overwhelming majority of what people say about nonprofits is positive or neutral, but when the negative does appear, responding to it directly, calmly, and thoughtfully goes a long way. Many corporations are relearning the value of great customer service the hard way because their unsatisfied customers now broadcast their displeasure via social media. While we haven’t seen that happen too often in the nonprofit world, it’s not unheard of.

4. Show Behind-the-Scenes

Social media allows you to share little vignettes and “slice of life” stories from your daily work. That means it’s easy to take people behind the scenes and share what really goes on within your programs. Full-blown, in-depth descriptions aren’t necessary – simply give us a little peek into what’s happening by sharing a few moments from your days. You’d be surprised how what you find mundane in your work life is actually interesting to those who support your cause!

5. Ask Questions and Seek Feedback

Many nonprofits use social media to float ideas for comments, to gather opinions, and to let their supporters weigh in. It’s an easy way to demonstrate that you are listening to your supporters. Can’t land on a theme for your next event? Come up with a few finalists and put them on Facebook for a vote. Then use social media to share the results or other ways that you used the feedback you heard.

6. Invite Participation

Social media gives you more opportunities to allow your supporters to engage with your staff and your work. Can you encourage supporters to upload and share their own photos or videos with you, for example? Or to write a guest blog post? Also think about ways that you can use social media to open up your programs to those who cannot easily connect with you or participate face to face. We are all so busy these days, so think creatively about ways can people can participate in off-hours, but online, for example.

7. Keep Talking in Between Meetings

Social media can also be used in smaller, more controlled groups, like closed Facebook Groups for board members. Allowing board members to connect and converse in between board meetings can help keep your organization top of mind, while allowing board members to more fully discuss important issues outside a hurried board meeting agenda.

By focusing on using social media as a tool for increased accountability and transparency, as well as marketing and communications, your nonprofit can truly optimize its power.

This post is excerpted from an article I wrote for the National Catholic Development Conference‘s newsletter. If your readers are nonprofits, I’m happy to contribute to your newsletter too. Send me an email to start the conversation.

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I originally wrote this article as a guest post on the Nonprofit Technology Network’s blog, but just realized I hadn’t shared it with you, so here it is!

Your website is out there for all to see. You never know who’s going to end up visiting. So how can you create website content that all kinds of potential visitors will find interesting and engaging?

We could get into a traditional marketing discussion about target audiences and personas, but let’s go at this challenge in a different way. Let’s think about the stages that your supporters go through as you build rapport with them over time. To keep it simple, let’s group your website visitors into three categories:

Strangers: People who know nothing about you.
Friends: People who like your organization or cause.
Fans: People who LOVE your organization or cause.

What kind of content does your website need for each of these groups?

Strangers: People Who Know Nothing About You

If someone knows nothing about your organization and lands on your website, what’s the first thing you want them to see?

It’s not your mission statement. Trust me.

What you want them to see is the answer to their question.

If a stranger lands on your website, odds are they are searching for the answer to a specific question about something going on in their lives right now. Maybe it’s a problem they want to solve, or something they heard from a friend or saw on TV that piqued their interest. They went searching, and Google or another website with a link to yours pointed that stranger to you, thinking that you might have the answer.

What three questions are strangers who land on your site most likely to have? For some nonprofits, the answers are obvious. If you run an animal shelter, one question will be “What animals are available for adoption?” If you run a Meals on Wheels program, one question will be “How can a senior get food delivered?” If your organization addresses a particular disease, one question will be “What is the treatment?”

The best way to build rapport with strangers is not to babble on about yourself; it’s to be a good Samaritan who answers their questions. These questions are almost always programmatic in nature, and rarely about donating, volunteering, or otherwise helping you out.

Devote space on your home page and/or within your navigation to answering the three big questions most likely to bring strangers to your site. When you do, they are more likely to become friends, which brings us to our next group of visitors.

Friends: People Who Like Your Organization

Friends know you, at least a little bit. They may have an incomplete picture of you, but the one they do have is favorable. What do they want to see on your website?

No, it’s still not your mission statement.

Tell your friends some good stories.

Stories are the quickest and most memorable way to explain what it is you do, how you do it, for whom, and why. You want these friends to get it.

Tell stories about people like them, so they can see that they belong. If you are trying to get more young families to participate in your program, tell a story about (you guessed it) a young family already in your program.

Tell stories that appeal to their inner guardian angels. Show them how they – through being your friend — can look out for someone else or change someone’s life for the better, even if only in a small way.

Tell stories with a sense of adventure or wonderment. Appeal to that inner child that’s looking for a break from the day-to-day responsibilities of adulthood.

Help them learn more about what you do, but not through long statements of need or bulleted lists of programs and services. Images tell stories too – often better than words – so don’t forget photographs and video as you create your website content. Connect with your friends through good storytelling, and some of them will grow into big fans.

Fans: People Who Love Your Organization

Fans are people who know you well, and they love you. They are ready and willing to help – as long as you make it easy for them. What do they need from your website?

Anyone for the mission statement? Anyone? Of course not!

Give your fans clear calls to action so they know exactly what they can do to help or support you – which means not asking for them for “help” or “support.” That’s too vague. Be specific. Ask them to donate $50 towards a specific campaign. Ask them to volunteer for an hour. Ask them to retweet your event invitation to their followers.

Empower them to help you on their own time and in their own ways. Give them downloads and checklists they can use at home, work, or in their community to advance your cause in their own small way (it will feel big to them). Give them pass-along content like short videos and sample email text that they can share with their friends.

Give your fans the personal touch by encouraging them to connect with you in lots of different ways. When they mention you on Twitter, comment on a Facebook update, or reply to your email newsletter, respond with a thanks or some other kind of encouragement.

Integrate your real-time communications channels into your website, for example, by using Twitter or Facebook widgets or RSS feeds that bring the live conversation to your site. It reinforces for your website visitors that you are “here and now” with your fans if they can see that ongoing conversation.

You Never Know Who’ll Come Clicking

You never know who will stop by your website, so be prepared. Answer questions for strangers. Tell stories to friends. Make it easy for fans to interact with you.

And what about that good ol’ mission statement? If it’s a paragraph full of jargon or otherwise meaningless words to most website visitors, bury it on your About Us page. If it’s short, in plain English, and meaningful to your next door neighbor and your next door neighbor’s mom, then you can put it on your home page. But only after you’ve made room for those answers, stories, and interactions.

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I use Hootsuite to automatically send new blog posts to both Twitter and Facebook. That is, until May of this year, when the Facebook integration failed. I’ve tried to reconnect the two accounts a few times without success (yes, following Hootsuite’s instructions), and then I forgot about it until last week. It’s been almost three months since the blog posts appeared automatically on our Facebook page.

This creates a few interesting questions:

• What’s been the impact on traffic to the blog?
• What’s been the impact on the Facebook page?
• Should I get the posts flowing to the page again with or without Hootsuite?

Here’s what the data says . . .

According to Google Analytics, traffic to the blog from Facebook didn’t change much at all. Apparently, not that many people were really clicking through before, or people are finding the blog links elsewhere on Facebook now. The amount of traffic to the blog from Facebook is really, really small (less than 1% of our total traffic), so I’m not that concerned about this either way.

I’m much more concerned about what Facebook Insights says.

Our active users have been growing steadily from the beginning, but you’ll see that when the blog posts stopped (which represents the majority of our wall posts overall), our active users started declining. If I had made a concerted effort to post to the page every day after the outage, perhaps the decline wouldn’t have occurred. But the reality is that I posted non-blog updates to the page just about as much before and after the outage. So I do think the differences here are attributed directly to the blog posts no longer appearing.

The page interaction data is even more startling. In the three months prior to the blog posting outage, we had a total of 242,636 post views and 312 post feedbacks.

In the three months after the blog posting outage, we had only 71,777 post views and 180 post feedbacks.

Again, if I had changed my manual posting behavior, and updated the status of the page personally every day, perhaps the drop wouldn’t have happened. But I didn’t, which tells me that a lot of the interaction on the page was around the blog content.

This data tells me to get this fixed, but I wanted to get some anecdotal support too, so this afternoon, I asked directly on the page if I should put the blog posts back on — and 100% of the people who commented in the first two hours said Yes!

So we have our answer! I’ll get the blog posts back on the Facebook page, with or without Hootsuite’s help. It will be interesting to see if/how the numbers recover over the next few months.

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Convio has released a couple of interesting research reports that clearly demonstrate that multi-channel or integrated marketing (where you add online communications to direct mail)  increases donor retention rates, giving frequency, and consequently lifetime value. The boost in lifetime value occurred whether or not the donor actually elected to give online (guess what, direct mail donors read email!). Donors who actually gave online, in addition to the mail, were shown to be even more valuable (communicate with them and get them giving in more than one channel and you really win).

But integrated marketing is really more than just wrapping email around a direct mail letter. In Convio’s latest Integrated Multi-Channel Marketing Report, they identify it as six key concepts.

1. Constituent Centricity

Convio says this is “aligning processes and communication to respect constituent preferences and optimizing engagement based upon constituent actions.”  In plain English, that means communicating with people the way they want to be communicated with. This encompasses tailoring channel mix, content, program participation and message frequency based upon what your supporters want and how they interact with you. It also means moving away from a pure calendar based communication model to a communications stream that is more events driven, where an event is defined as a constituent interaction. An example is sending a message to encourage a donor to become a monthly (committed) donor after they donate for the second time in six months.

2. Presence in Multiple Channels

Multiple if not all channels (direct mail, phone, TV, email, social media, SMS, etc.) are considered for every campaign as a means of engaging constituents where and how they want to be engaged, and as a means of amplifying a message across different media.

3. Thematic Integration

Regardless of channel or program (fundraising or advocacy) there is a consistent theme and message that tells the same story and uses reinforcing images across multiple formats. Copy does not need to be identical – e.g. you cannot write the same copy for Twitter as you would for direct mail – it just needs to be thematically consistent.

4. Integrated Processes

Using the right combination or sequence of messages or touch points across channels to optimize response and long-term impact. For example, for a renewal, what is the right sequence of messages and channel touches for a given audience segment?

5. Integrated Measurement

Establishing metrics that measure donor behavior and campaign performance across channels, and which focus on long-term value versus a single response. Ideally, metrics should also focus on net return as opposed to gross revenue.

6. Organizational Alignment

All teams work in coordination to ensure internal silos are broken down and campaigns work together as a cohesive unit rather than individualized efforts within an organization.

Convio notes that the participants in this most recent research report tended to focus on some but rarely all of these aspects, and focused primarily on thematic integration.

Where will your organization start? Share in the comments.

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Dave Raley of Masterworks

Today’s guest post is by Dave Raley, Director of Digital Marketing at Masterworks.  I met Dave at the Nonprofit Technology Conference in DC in March, where he took this awesome photo of a group of us on a night-time monument walk. I asked Dave to share some of his expertise on micro-engagement — all the little things you can do to engage your supporters with just a little time or effort.

~Kivi

A Guest Post by Dave Raley

Ever heard of micro-engagement? Maybe you haven’t, but I would be willing to bet that you’ve seen it in action.

Micro-engagement refers to the current trend towards “small.” In our overloaded and crazy lives, we engage with the world through micro bits of time and attention. In fundraising, people are giving very small amounts of money. The same trend is happening in advocacy, our social lives and more.

Let’s give it an official definition:

Micro-engagement — The practice of engaging constituents in communication or relationship through various forms that require only small portions of time, attention, money or other involvement.

Why micro-engagement matters
This is how your constituents and donors are increasingly living their lives. They are short on time and attention. If you are going to engage these people into the future, you need to understand the latest trends in the world of micro-engagement.

Six forms of micro-engagement
Let’s look at several different forms of micro-engagement, define each and see what they might mean for you specifically.

1) Micro-fundraising

The trend towards smaller gifts is not new, but is changing. Historically, we’ve found that $5 gifts in direct mail ultimately cost non-profits more than they are worth — they result in lower long-term-value donors, and it costs more to cultivate these low-dollar donors than they give.

But technology and scale are making micro-fundraising more promising and cost-effective than ever. Text2Give mobile donations of $5 or $10 are leading the way (though text-based giving is not without hurdles). We have a client who raised over $500,000 via text-based giving in the wake of the Haiti earthquake — primarily through free national-radio promotion.

Mobile apps continue to mature and enable other giving options. The mobile secure web is doing the same (example). New technologies powered by near field communications (NFC) are enabling platforms like Google Wallet to move us closer towards making payments via mobile commonplace.

2) Micro-volunteering

Traditional volunteering — coming to the office once a week, serving on the food line at the local shelter, etc. is difficult for large numbers of people who would give their time and talent if it could be on their terms.

Networks like Sparked (and apps too) allow people to volunteer wherever they want, whenever they want and in very small amounts of time.

Non-profits need to rethink how they engage volunteers and expand what they allow volunteers to do. Technology can enable all this in ways never before possible.

3) Micro-advocacy

Tools and technology like online petitions and virtual call center apps are making it easy to advocate for a cause. At an even more basic level, we all have seen friends ‘advocate’ for a cause online by updating their avatar with a ribbon or retweeting an advocacy message.

There’s value in the number of impressions and reach this type of advocacy drives. But the real value is in higher engagement of the person doing the advocating. People are more likely to increase their involvement with an organization after telling their friends about it.

4) Micro-connections

When people post via social media today, they are generally not targeting that message to anyone in particular. This creates dozens (or hundreds or thousands) of small personal-relationship connections that often the author is not aware of.

Non-profits are taking advantage of this new form of connection as well. For example, I love seeing a non-profit post a message on Facebook and seeing people comment very personal experiences and feelings in return. You can literally watch people becoming more bonded with an organization or cause.

5) Micro-blogging

The poster child for micro-blogging is Twitter. 140 characters at a time. But Facebook, Tumblr and others are also micro-blogging platforms.

As busy people, we may not have the time to read a non-profit’s full-length newsletter, but we will engage with a brief status update, a single picture or a short video. Micro-blogging enables non-profits to build relationships with constituents, one small interaction at a time.

6) Hyper-local (aka location-based or geosocial)

As with most new industries — location-based services (LBS) like Foursquare and Gowalla are just the early-stage pioneers. The masses don’t use them or find much utility for them, but over time they are paving the way to whole new forms of engagement based on location data. In fact, there are a growing number of people talking about how location based services and these other micro-engagement trends are creating what they call a “game layer” on top of the world — essentially, that the historical mechanics from the video games are manifesting themselves in our everyday lives.

So what’s a non-profit to do about micro-engagement?

1) Recognize that micro-engagement is a new cultural and social reality. It’s a core part of the world we live in.

2) Only bite off what you can chew. These forms of engagement are not equally important, and for your non-profit some of these may not make sense for you right now. But you should at least be aware of the trends so you know when to jump in.

3) Go and do it! Don’t let excuses stop you from diving in!

Dave is the Director of Digital Marketing at Masterworks — a marketing and development agency that works exclusively with faith-based nonprofits. He blogs and tweets and you can also reach him at draley@masterworks.com.

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I had a great conversation with Susan Gordon, director of nonprofit services for Causes, last week. If you aren’t familiar, Causes has built free, customizable fundraising pages that integrate with Facebook, Twitter, and other channels (and the Causes.com site of course). Causes recently overhauled its integration with Facebook, making it much easier for small nonprofits to use Facebook for fundraising right on your own Facebook Page. And it looks much better too.

(I still firmly believe that fundraising should not be your primary goal for using Facebook and social media. But that said, I do believe that Facebook Causes is a great way to raise lots of small-dollar donations for a specific project.)

Let’s look at some of the recent changes to the Causes tab (It’s not really a “tab” anymore on your Page, but a link in the left-hand sidebar.)

First, the overall design is much cleaner and more direct. You can now include image galleries and nice big donate buttons.

Here’s what your tab can look like for a specific project (it looks a little different if you are fundraising for the organization overall):

Here are a few other changes:

• You can now set up a customized thank-you note that will go out automatically to your supporters.
• You can download first and last name of the donor, along with their physical address (if they didn’t opt-out) and which project they donated to.
• While you can’t download their email address, you can email through the Causes backend directly to donors. This is an actual email, not a message on Facebook. You can segment these emails by project or when the donation was made.
• You can also track who is promoting your cause for you.
• You can rename the tab from “Causes” to “Donate” or anything else you want.

Of course, just creating the tab isn’t enough. You have to promote it, and this is where small nonprofits can often outpace the big ones.

“Time and time again, we’re seeing small nonprofits have big wins on Causes,” says Susan.  ”We firmly believe that social media is a level playing field for nonprofits where having the best-funded marketing department isn’t nearly as important as storytelling and investing in community.”

Because smaller nonprofits are often much closer to the on-the-street action, Susan believes they are uniquely positioned to tell a compelling story about the impact of their work and to build meaningful relationships with supporters through social media.  She says the Prem Rawat Foundation (with 5,395 Facebook fans) and the Love Without Boundaries Foundation (with 4,322 Facebook fans) have become two of the top fundraising nonprofits on the Causes  platform. While their Facebook fan numbers look relatively small, Susan says Prem Rawat has amassed 463,737 Causes members and Love Without Boundaries has built up 39,679 Causes members.  Even though they’re small, they’ve grown their communities through Causes by telling fantastic stories of impact, which has encouraged their supporters to recruit their friends.

Susan says these new changes will help small nonprofits give their small-dollar donors a “big donor experience.”  All together, these new tools make it easy and time-efficient for small nonprofits to run effective online fundraising campaigns.

Here the instructions for how to add the Causes tab to your Page.

Coming Soon  . . .

Stay tuned for future posts on (1) how to get your fans to use the Birthday Wish feature in Causes to raise money for you and (2) how to raise money through social media even when you don’t have “cute” or “heart strings” projects.  Susan will also join us for a free webinar on June 21st on how small nonprofits can use Causes (registration opening soon — mark your calendar now!).

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In our latest interview in our series on Junction C: Where Creating and Curating Meet Content and Conversation, Jereme Bivins, the social media manager for the Foundation Center, discusses his approach to working with five regional offices across the U.S., while maintaining the voice of the national office.

Jereme updates the Foundation Center’s main Twitter account and Facebook page, and staff in the regional offices do their own. That means you’ll get a different ”flavor” from each office, but one that’s still consistent with the Foundation Center’s overall voice, which Jereme describes as a “neutral expert.” He tries not to lead conversations, but to have an active voice in them. He also likes to connect people who express interest in particular nonprofit or philanthropic topics with resources at the Foundation Center and with other organizations.

Staff across the various offices share a content calendar for events and blog posts and do regular calls about once a week, where marketing and communications is often on the agenda. Because each regional office has its own personality and expertise, Jereme sees his role not as dictating what should be said and when, but rather talking about opportunities and suggesting specific tactics in an ongoing, productive conversation.

P.S. Here are some of our upcoming webinars on content creation and curation:

May 18: Taming Your Editorial Calendar and Content Creation Process

May 25: Creating Awesome Content: Ideas for Nonprofit Writers

June 2: Get Real! Use Your Org’s Personality to Build Rapport with Supporters

June 9: Funny Ha Ha! Using Humor in Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising

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Cygnus Applied Research is releasing its 2011 Donor Survey this week, and the executive summary alone contains some really interesting statistics and trends. This is a major survey by Penelope Burk’s team of over 17,600 American donors (there’s a separate report on Canadians). I’ll report on the full study once I’ve had a chance to digest it, but here are a few important highlights from the executive summary.

Online Giving – Official Tipping Point?

According to the survey, 2011 will be the first year when a majority of donors in every age category will make at least one gift online.

At the same time, 69% of donors of all ages now prefer electronic over print communication. Even among older donors, there is more interest in online communications, in large part because donors believe they are more cost-effective than print.

The survey results also point to a trend we are all talking about: the need for integrated marketing. Donors will take advantage of the various ways they can make a gift regardless of how they are asked. Even if they are asked via direct mail, many go online to make the donation. (Thursday’s webinar is on this exact topic: Integrating Your Online and Offline Marketing Plan into One Plan that Works.)

Donors and Social Media

69% of survey respondents have one or more social media accounts, but the majority do not follow any charities. (I suspect this may be because nonprofits aren’t asking donors to follow them?)  But among those who do follow one or more charities, 65% do so because the charity “is an expert in its field” and 62% do so because the nonprofit posts relevant updates about its work.

How Donors Feel Today

There is considerable optimism among donors: 79% expect to give the same or more charity this year.

86% of respondents said they have continuously supported at least one cause for five years or longer, and that reputation and trustworthiness are primary factors in repeat giving. 53% identified “achieving and communicating measurable results” as prominent in their decisionmaking.

When donors stop giving, “my priorities shifted to other causes” (41%) and “over-solicitation” (32%) were cited as the top reasons.

I’ll write more about the implications for nonprofit communications and marketing in future posts.

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