Tips for nonprofits on reinventing donor relationships from The Online Giving Study

Network for Good just released The Online Giving Study: A Call to Reinvent Donor Relationships. The study was a biggie for Network for Good - nearly $400 million in online giving via our platform to 66,000 charities over seven years all over the Internet.

The key findings were: People seem to give more when the online experience is intimate and emotionally coherent, and they also give online for reasons of convenience, especially at the end of the year and during large-scale disasters. In fact, we’re headed into the two biggest giving days of the year: December 30 and 31st, when a staggering 22% of all annual giving happens in a mere 48 hours.

So what does the study mean for nonprofits? In addition to providing data and analysis in The Online Giving Study, we also decided to give lots of advice. Here are some highlights.

1. Most giving still comes to charities via their own websites. Make sure your home page is compelling and your Donate page is branded to your organization, motivating, short and easy to use.  Especially this time of year.
2. Cultivate the donors who come via giving portals and social networking sites, where you will find new people with whom to engage.
   • Thank these donors promptly and thoroughly. Assume they don’t know much about your organization.
   • Keep your organization’s profile up to date (contact info, mission, etc.) so you look good on your portal and social networking listings.
   • Declutter your site. Make your homepage clear, uncomplicated, and designed to encourage giving from visitors arriving from portals.
3. Encourage recurring gifts! Because recurring giving is one of the key drivers of donor value, nonprofits should encourage this behavior:
   • Always offer a recurring gift option on your giving page.
   • Monthly giving is the most popular choice, so make that one the easiest for donors to do.
   • Present a compelling reason to give monthly, whether it’s a greater impact or convenience.
4. Maximize December donations!
   • Start early. Get your website and email house in order.
   • During the last few days of the year, change your website to make donation collecting the focus of the homepage.
   • Make your best offer to the donor (it’s not about you).
   • Prime the pump. Start building your email list and relationships with your supporters in the fall.
   • During the last week of the year, send several emails. 
   • Pull out the stops on social networking sites.
   • Create a countdown campaign and remind supporters they can give until midnight local time on the 31st.
   • Email early on the 31st. Mail in the morning so you’ll be near the top of inboxes on the biggest giving day of the year.

Let us know if this advice works for you! Check out the full study, review the data, grab the charts (like the one below) and weigh in at www.onlinegivingstudy.org.

Guest blogger Katya Andresen is the Chief Operating Officer at Network for Good and author of Katya Andresen's Non-Profit Marketing Blog: Getting to the Point.