New York Times: First-Time Online Donor Study
A very interesting article in Wednesday's New York Times. This is one of the key quotes:
"We know how to ask for money using the mail, but most organizations are still trying to figure out how to do that online."
Very true. The timing is interesting since we just blogged a piece about finding yourself online in which we challenged fundraisers to try to give themselves a gift.
How about this for a follow up question: Do your online giving options ever change?
When a hurricane happens, a donor may be willing
to go through a cumbersome online giving process because they know you
need money immediately. But if your giving forms are clunky and never
change they will probably "lapse" back into giving through channels
where you are spending time and effort - like mail. If you send a
donor six beautiful print pieces a year with unique stories in them
but you never change your online donation forms or content, you are
sending a powerful message to your donors about what is important -
and your donors will respond accordingly. This may go a long way
towards explaining some of the findings detailed in the article.
We think some of the solutions are simple. For example, check out our
ideas on email landing pages and contextual giving.
Kimbia makes it easy to quickly create donation options for all your
marketing ideas and programs that fit beautifully into your content.
In short, take better advantage of what you already have. If you have
successful mail campaigns, we are confident you can have successful
online campaigns too. Kimbia takes the technical difficulty out of
the way so you can concentrate on your message and your relationship
with your donors.
