PaperlessChoice

by Michael Stein

Online video has continued to be a growing trend in Internet use for the past several years.  A big part of the phenomenal success of online video is the widespread availability of broadband Internet connectivity in homes and offices, and Web portals such as YouTube.com which have made video watching a common pastime for people of all ages.

Online video has been quickly adopted by nonprofits across the country as a powerful tool for communicating with supporters and donors, and it is rapidly taking its place alongside the websites, email messaging and Facebook pages as a key technique for online engagement.

Digital fundraising strategists strongly recommend incorporating video into online fundraising appeals.  Video increases email open rates, it increases click-through rates, and it often increases online donations through its powerful emotional impact on the viewer.

Here are ten best practices for the use of video with online fundraising appeals:

1)    Video should complement your other messaging.  Consider how your online video will fit in with the other online and offline content that you’re producing.  Video should extend other content so that it will attract viewers and a broader audience.  Your online videos should fit into an existing campaign that you’re engaged in so that you can use the video to broaden your reach.

2)    Let your creative juices flow.  Online video gets high points and praise when it can break out of the formula and entertain viewers.  Make the investment to add music, first-person speakers and lively camera angles to make watching fun, and to encourage viewers to forward the video to friends.  You can use videos to introduce your organization, recruit volunteers, present slideshows of actual program activities, or show stories from the field.

3)    Keep video messaging simple.  Videos often attract new audiences, especially individuals who may not be familiar with your mission and programs.  Don’t assume that your viewers are up to speed on everything you’ve done, and script them to educate viewers from the ground up.

4)    Keep video messaging short.  Under three minutes is best.  If you must produce a longer video, break it into multiple parts.

5)    Use video to go in-depth about an issue.  While it’s important to keep things simple, you can also use online video to explore a particular issue in depth, targeting your more knowledgeable supporters.  They’ll appreciate the effort you’ve made to connect with them.

6)   Invite video submissions.  Many organizations have been successful at opening their doors to video submissions from supporters.  Your best volunteers may have dreams of directing a video about your organization.

7)    Keep your production quality high.  To get a good end result, shoot your video with Web publishing in mind.  Prepare a script and get feedback.  Shoot “B-roll” (background visuals) to use in the video.  Sound is critical to enhance the images.

8)    Aim to go viral with your video. The more fun and engaging you can make your online videos, the more the video will get talked about and passed along to others.  Make it easy on your website and in your emails for people to forward the video to others, post to Facebook, or add to their website or blog.

9)    Be patient and build your online video audience over time.  Like website traffic and email subscribers, building an online video audience requires patience and consistency.  From campaign to campaign, online videos will attract a viewing audience among your core supporters and then more broadly.

10)    Learn more with the See3 “Guide to Online Video.”  For further learning, I recommend this informative seven-part video series created as an introduction to online video for nonprofits.

An earlier version of this article was published in Mal Warwick’s Newsletter in December 2008.

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by Michael Stein

For the fourth consecutive year, online vendor Convio has assembled The Convio Online Nonprofit Benchmark Study which assembles 2009 online metrics for over 500 nonprofits in 15 nonprofit sectors.

If you’ll accept that Convio customers are larger in size and better financed than the average nonprofit, then this annual study provides a useful source for online benchmarks such as average online gift sizes, online fundraising response rates, email list growth, website traffic, and much more.

Here are the key findings for 2009:

•    Online giving grew 14 percent despite a difficult economy. Overall, 69 percent of organizations raised more in 2009 than 2008, while 31 percent saw declines in their online fundraising.
•    Donors were still giving, but giving smaller amounts. 61 percent of all organizations saw their average gift drop in 2009.
•    The average online gift was $80.81, with higher giving reported for disaster fundraising. For those calculating return on investment for list growth, the online revenue per usable email address in 2009 was $11.68.
•    Small organizations grew fastest. Organizations with fewer than 10,000 email addresses on file grew online revenue by 26 percent, and gifts by 32 percent.
•    Email files continued to grow strongly. The total email file grew 27 percent in 2009 to 39,100 constituents.
•    The open rate for email fundraising appeals was 19%.  The click-through rate was 1.7%, down from 2% in 2008.  The overall performance of online fundraising appeals was 0.15%, a slight rise from the year before.
•    Web traffic growth continued for most, but at a slower rate. 60 percent of organizations grew their website traffic from 2008 to 2009. Web traffic growth in 2009 was in the single digits at 6 percent compared with double digit growth seen in previous years.
•    Web traffic was strongly correlated with email file growth. 38 percent of an organization’s success building large email files could be directly attributed to the amount of traffic to the organization’s website.
•    Registration rates dropped. The rate at which organizations converted website visitors to their email file declined to 2.12 percent in 2009.
•    Constituents were more reluctant to open emails and click-through. While open rates for both fundraising appeals and newsletters remained around 20 percent, the click-through rates for both types of online communication declined in 2009.
•    About 7% of online activists also donated money online to the organization they took action with.  Conversely, 8% of online donors also took an online advocacy action with the same organization.

This annual review by Convio is a useful compendium of benchmarks, although I advise organizations to not feel too locked in by these average results.  More than anything they provide a useful look into how digital fundraising is evolving, particularly at a time when electronic tools are changing rapidly and the economy is having an impact on giving.

Missing from Convio’s annual reports are the still murky impact of online social media and mobile messaging on fundraising, along with changing attitudes towards paper-based direct mail.  We’ll continue to explore the synergies between these platforms, channels, and devices in articles to come.

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Using Facebook to full advantage is a huge challenge for many nonprofits. Causes is a powerful application designed to help nonprofits engage and fundraise within Facebook.

How Causes Works

• Nonprofits of any size can easily create a Cause for their organization within Facebook.
• Causes are “adopted” by Facebook supporters and listed separately in the applications section of a Facebook account.
• Causes contains direct donation features as well as viral fundraising programs allowing individual supporters to do their own fundraising on behalf of an organization.
• The Birthday Wish for Charity feature allows supporters to ask friends to donate to their cause in lieu of giving a traditional birthday gift.
• Causes builds viral awareness for organizations as supporters tell friends about favorite organizations and make pledges to invite new members to the cause.
• Donations collected on Causes are processed by Network for Good which charges a 4.75% fee per donation.

• Causes can serve the overall organization or can be targeted for a specific project or initiative within the organization.

• Donor Choices is a feature which allows organizations to specify where a donation of a certain dollar amount will be going within the organization.
• Individual Facebook members can also start their own cause by designating or selecting a beneficiary.

History

The History of Causes is described on their site:

Causes was launched on May 25, 2007 and since then, the community has grown by over 90 million people and over $16 million has been donated through the application. Over 300,000 causes have been created by users on every topic from breast cancer research to stopping genocide to supporting local parks. Movements are being sparked, communities are coming together, and individuals are being empowered to use their social networks to change the world.

Site Traffic

Funds Raised

The Best of Causes page shows weekly fundraising totals for Top Fundraising Causes, Top Fundraising Individuals, and Top Causes by Category. Here you will also find featured programs and a live weekly total of overall fundraising efforts on Causes.

How to Get Started

To set up a cause for your organizaion, visit the Causes Nonprofit Partner Center. If you’ve already started a cause for your nonprofit, the Partner Center also has lots of helpful information about how to best leverage Causes for fundraising on Facebook.

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