Nonprofits rely heavily on their donors. But, some are still relying on outdated, underdeveloped donation pages, potentially causing them to miss out on revenue.

The Easier, The Better

A donation page needs to not only grab the donor’s attention, but also be easy to navigate. You want as few steps between the donor getting on the page and making the donation. The more pages you send them through, the more frustrated they can become, and the more time you’re giving them to rethink their decision.

Every Penny Helps

Every donor wants to feel that their donation makes a difference. According to the site Quirkology, during their experiment on charity donations, a box with the phrase “Every penny helps” accounted for 62% of the donations made. The phrase “every penny helps” makes every donor, no matter how small the donation, feel their contribution will make an impact.

Donate Now to Change a Life

Give the donors a sense of urgency. They are more willing to donate if they think it needs to happen right away. If they think they can put it off, it gives them the opportunity to put it aside and possibly forget to come back to it later.

Your Donation Goes Right Here

Donors also want to know where their donation is going. Given the financial scandals over the past several years, donors need to trust charities to use their money appropriately. Showing a simple pie chart of how the money from donations is allocated throughout the organization can build trust among your donors.

The Donor Is In Control

Donors like to feel as though they are in control of the amount they are donating. Research shows that if donors are allowed to choose the amount they are donating, they will donate more. If they are given a group of suggested donations statistically they are more likely to pick the moderate number. Some charities have taken advantage of these finding and are using interactive scales to allow their donors to chose a donation amount on the scale.

Join The Community

People who donate want to feel as though they are part of a community of donors. This is being referred to by many as social donating. Some organizations are creating communities on their donation pages by displaying posts from other donors with their comments for why they donated. This makes donors feel connect to other donors who share their interests and values.

Say “Thank You!”

The most important part of the donor process is retaining your donors. Donors need reassurance that their donation was appreciated. Organizations that establish an ongoing relationship with their donors are able to retain a community of recurring donors. After a donation is made, make sure to thank your donor. Then follow up with a message about how their donation has had an impact. This paves the way for future solicitations.

These small steps can help you maximize the effectiveness of your donation page and retain your donors to help your organization grow and have more impact.

By Nicole Gagen, Marketing Intern at Red Rooster Group.

For nonprofits, marketing research offers many options, including consumer panels, focus groups, surveys, observations, and more. Each method has its benefits, limitations, and costs. 

Knowing when to use each research option will not only save you time and resources, but also help you benefit from the true insights a technique offers. Surveys are a perfect method to understand your nonprofit’s audience.

Use a Survey When:

• The question you are asking is clear.
  Why? Surveys are great for presenting specific options and getting responders to choose among them.
  For example: Do you prefer one logo over another?

• You need a representative response.
  Why? Though response rates on surveys can be quite low (as low as 10%), if you have a large enough pool of candidates, the response will still reflect the broad population.

• You are testing more than one audience.
  Why? If you are serving more than one audience, you will want to know what the preferences of those different populations are.
  For example, populations with a higher education may have different responses and preferences than those who have a lower education.

A Survey is Not Your Best Bet When: 

• You are exploring options.
  Why? Because surveys mostly measure quantitative data. Asking for creative responses is difficult without a proper set up for context. Consumer panels or focus groups are better choices in this case.
  For example: What words best describes your organization?

• You are researching a narrow group.
  Why? Although today’s data on consumer habits can suggest a great deal about their demographics, drilling down to very specific groups is still challenging. In cases with small sample sizes, panels and focus groups are useful in gaining in-depth feedback.
  For example, parents of male children ages 7-8.

A Few Tips to Engage Your Audience:

When designing your survey, following best practices will help you reach the most accurate qualitative and quantitative measurements. Some suggestions:

• Get ‘em on Board: Letting your respondents know how their feedback will be used gives them a sense that their opinion matters. And if you can tell them in advance that you will share the results with them, even better.

• Set ‘em on Task: Retaining focus when taking a survey is very important in order to achieve reliable results. If certain questions do not pertain to all audiences to whom the survey is sent, use “skip logic.” This tool allows a respondent to identify a question that is not relevant and move on. The benefit is two-fold: the respondent does not waste energy, and the surveyor gets results that are not skewed.

• Keep ‘em Honest: Sometimes you will pose a close-ended question that allows respondents to choose a preference among given options. These types of questions require respondents to provide an intuitive response without analyzing their thought process. To uncover more, it’s best to follow up with an open-ended question, such as “Why?” A word of advice: Take the responses with a grain of salt. It is difficult to self-analyze one’s immediate reaction. With that being said, you may be able to gain very valuable insights.

By Gil Gilead, Marketing Associate at Red Rooster Group.

Preparation for a photo shoot is a critical part of creating good photos, according to Jason Gardner, a photographer experienced in both nonprofit and corporate photography. Proper planning will maximize the effectiveness of the photos while minimizing costs.

Photos catch the eye and pull your audience into your  website, annual report, marketing brochure or Case for Support. Make sure that you know what you want the photos to say as well as the technical parameters of what you need — horizontal, vertical, color, high resolution, etc. Professional photographers can help you figure all this out and guide you in setting up compelling rather than ho-hum images.

A conference before the photo shoot, either in person or via conference call, can help you home in on what you need, help the photographer decide what equipment to bring, and ensure the turnaround you need. During the conference, you can discuss the emotion you want the photos to evoke and the purpose of the photos. Knowing the answers to the questions below will result in better photos and also give you a more accurate assessment of how much the shoot will cost.

• Strategic Direction: What do you want the photo to accomplish?
• Message: What do you want the photos to convey?
• Audience: Whose attention do you want to grab with the photo? What is the demographic of your audience?
• Vision: What does “good photo” mean to you? Show the photographer examples of photos you like. Help the photographer “see” what you have in mind.
• Usage: Where will the photo be used? Online, in print, in social media, sent to the press? All of the above? The color system for these uses is different so it’s important to know ahead of time.
• Timing: Do you need photos immediately to send out with press releases or are these for a long-term upgrade of your website? What’s the deadline?
• Number: How many photos do you want out of this shoot? If it’s a gala or other event, do you need a photo of every board member and every major donor? If the photos are documentary or marketing, how many photos will you need for each purpose?

Another helpful tip from Jason: If you do want pictures of particular people at the gala, such as every board member, help the photographer find them. Give the board members special name tags or provide a guide to point out the people who must be photographed.

After the event or the photo shoot, the photographer will go through the images, selecting those that meet your criteria. You’ll then have to go through the images to decide which you like, whether you want them cropped, and where you’ll use them. Conferring with the photographer at this point is useful, to make sure that the cropped proportions and other technical requirements are met. When your selection has been made, the photographer will provide the images in the formats needed.

Images that make your audience take a second look and entice them to keep reading your website, brochure, or newsletter are valuable additions to your marketing.

Thinking of starting a nonprofit organization? Don’t do it.

We get a lot of calls from well-intentioned individuals wanting to make a difference in the world. That’s great. We need more caring people making a difference. We don’t necessarily need another nonprofit organization to do so.

Consider this, there are currently over 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the United States. To put that into perspective, the population of the United States is 300 million, so that’s more than one charity for every 300 people.

That means that if you have an idea for an organization, it probably already exists. So start by finding out. Do a Google search for your cause and see what shows up. You can also check CharityNavigator.org, which rates nonprofits in different ways, and GuideStar.org, which features information, including tax returns of nonprofits, so you can examine organizations in detail. After all, if other well-established organizations exist with a similar mission, then do you want to be competing against them for funding? And what chance do you really have?

Generally, our recommendation to people looking to start a nonprofit is not to do so, unless

• You have a very clearly defined mission that addresses a very specific problem and is unique, memorable, and inspirational.
• You have a specific, well-thought out means of addressing the problem, ostensibly, one this is unique as well.
• You have a strategic plan that addresses the goals and strategies for the organization.
• You have a method of funding that will sustain the organization for the long-term.

You’re Facing an Uphill Battle

Now consider the requirements to start a nonprofit — you need to have a board of directors, incorporate as a charity, register in every state in which you will be doing fundraising, and meet auditing and reporting requirements.

And then consider what is necessary to run the operation and make it successful — knowledge of the issue and how to address it better than it is currently being addressed, operations management of delivering services effectively and a means of measuring their effectiveness, attracting staff with the right skills, building a board of directors, managing volunteers, managing finances, having the right technology and donor systems in place, developing your brand and promoting the organization, and most of all, fundraising – because if you don’t have money, you don’t have an organization — you just have an idea.

The fact is, that 85% of all nonprofits never make it over $250,000 in annual revenue and have a difficult time sustaining their organizations. And in this recession, even the government is late in paying nonprofits the money they are owed. As a result, many organizations have folded or merged in recent years.

Put Your Passion into Action in Other Ways

If you are looking to do good in the world, that is very admirable and there are a number of things that you can do:

• Start by volunteering for a nonprofit organization to learn what it is like and learn about the specific issues.
• Serve on a board of directors to learn the responsibilities of running a nonprofit.
• Work for a nonprofit to get experience on the inside.
• Participate in mentoring, training, and partnership arrangements.
• You can also donate goods and services, help charities organize fundraising events, and spread the word.
• Also consider how a socially-responsible business or other format (such as galvanize other people around the cause) can address the issue.

Resources

To research nonprofits, visit:

• CharityNavigator
• GuideStar

To find a volunteering opportunity, visit:

• Volunteermatch.org

To find out more about serving on a nonprofit board, visit:

• BoardnetUSA
• BoardserveNYC

Does this ad endear you to union DC37 and make you want to act on their behalf? The ad is a lost opportunity to build support for the union. Instead it isolates the public and is not likely to generate the intended result. Here’s why and what they could have done instead:

1. It’s defensive. Instead of leading with the value that DC37 brings, it attacks another party, making it both adversarial and defensive.

2. It’s misdirected. They want to change a fundamental way the city conducts business, but instead attack private contractors.

3. The tone is mean spirited. You certainly don’t feel good about the union after they disparage 18,000 businesses who have done nothing wrong.

4. It’s not believable. It is easy to understand that the city hires specialists to do what employees are not trained to do. And why would you need to do a background check on a graphic designer to create an ad campaign promoting public health services? And there are no tests or licenses for designers or many other professions. The also makes unsubstantiated claims about businesses not paying employees or taxes. If this is a real issue, the union should direct attention around these abuses.

5. It ignores the audience. The ad is written from the point of view of the union, not the audience. It doesn’t address any need or concern that a New Yorker might have. If the ad was directed around reducing fraud  in taxpayers’s money, people could identify with that, arouse an emotional concern about the issue, and inspire people to take action.

6. It doesn’t address a realistic solution. It’s not realistic to believe that the current workforce, even 125,000 people, can produce $6 billion worth of work. Are they offering to take on that additional work at their salaries?

7. It lacks a specific call to action. It’s not clear exactly what they want – how much cuts are they asking for? Over what period of time? Is there specific legislation pending? What time period do they want us to act? None of these questions are addressed.

A Better Approach

If you want to galvanize the public to act on your behalf, you have to get them on your side. Position the issue in a way they could not only relate to, but become emotionally charged about. Given the general diminishing support for unions and the unlikeliness that the city will stop using outside contractors. A better approach would be to focus on waste or fraud. If they could document that, it would make for a much stronger appeal. Who would not be riled by a headline reading: City Pays $700 Million to Businesses Who Don’t Pay Taxes: Urge City Hall to End Abuses.

WAKE UP CALL: Don’t wait until it is too late. Building your image is a constant, ongoing activity. Build a positive reputation and goodwill so that when you need it most, it will work in your favor, whether in currying support with funders, legislators or the public.