Connections

Lessons Learned from Haiti - Online Rapid Response Strategies

Steve MacLaughlin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:54:00 GMT

Yesterday the Lessons Learned from Haiti webinar series began. This was part one of a five part series being done by Blackbaud. The sessions are free to attend.

I started the series with a session called "Online Rapid Response Strategies" and covered a range of topics. Norman Reiss from Common Knowledge did a great recap and summary of the session over on his blog. He noted "some memorable takeaways" from the session including:

After a disaster happens, there is a limited window to reach and engage supporters. It’s critical to act quickly.

If you wait for an emergency situation to happen, it’s too late. Be prepared with email templates, photographs and develop processes so you can quickly update web page / donation form content (this is not often the norm at many nonprofit organizations).

Emergency situations can impact any nonprofit, not just those that traditionally respond to disasters, such as the American Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

Online, social media and mobile are first response channels of choice in responding to a disaster.

Reliable people, processes and technology are critical.

Follow-up! Reaching out to constituents doesn’t end after you’ve sent an email appeal immediately after the disaster occurs.

Accountability is important; make sure donors are told how their funds have been used.

Plan in advance – make sure your web site / donation forms can handle temporary spikes in traffic.

Thanks for posting that write-up Norman! I've also gone ahead and posted my presentation on Slideshare. I hope that you find it and the rest of the series helpful.

Online Rapid Response Strategies

View more presentations from Steve MacLaughlin.

2010 Big 12 Development Conference

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:45:00 GMT

I'm in Kansas City for the Big 12 Development Conference. This is the second year in a row that I've had the chance to attend and present at the conference.

The conference is made up of schools from Baylor University, University of Colorado, Iowa State University, University of Kansas, Kansas State University, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, University of Texas, Texas A&M University, and Texas Tech University. Blackbaud works with nearly all these institutions to provide solutions around fundraising management, financial management, wealth screening and analytics, and Internet solutions.

Today, I'm doing a session called "Not Just Another Social Networking Session: How to Listen, Learn and Launch a Social Media Strategy" that is a follow-up to an intro session from last year's conference. The goal is to go beyond stats or explanations, and to get more focused on building out a functional strategy.

I'm looking forward to trying out some new things and some tips from Chad Norman and Frank Barry. Thanks to both of them for their never ending work to make sense of all things social media.

One Month Until NTEN's NTC 2010

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:25:00 GMT

We're just one month away from NTEN's annual Nonprofit Technology Conference. The 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference will take place on April 8-10, 2010 in Atlanta, GA at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center.

NTEN aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations skillfully and confidently use technology to meet community needs and fulfill their missions. NTC is one of the largest nonprofit conferences of the year and it's a must-attend event for those in the technology sector. Register today and don't miss this event.

There will be sessions on a broad range of topics including Advocacy, Budget, Collaboration, Community, CMS, CRM, Change Management, Data, Email, Infrastructure, Integration/APIs, International, Mobile, Open Source, Planning, Social Media, and Websites. The best thinkers and speakers in the nonprofit sector will be at NTC. Will you?

There are a few sessions featuring Blackbaud speakers and clients including the following:

We Are Media Sessions
April 8 @ 8:00am - 10:00am and 11:00am - 1:00pm
Chad Norman | Blackbaud

Blackbaud Enterprise CRM – Facilitating the Constituents’ Journey
April 9 @ 3:30pm
Richard Geiger | Blackbaud

Blackbaud’s Online Event Fundraising Solution - Friends Asking Friends
April 10 @ 10:30am
Frank Barry | Blackbaud
Mark Davis | Blackbaud

Online Fundraising Benchmarks and Metrics
April 10 @ 1:30pm
Steve MacLaughlin | Blackbaud

Another important part of the NTC is the Day of Service, which is our way of giving back to the community that hosts the Nonprofit Technology Conference. This year's Day of Service will be held Thursday, April 8 in Atlanta, where you'll be able to consult and assist the nonprofits working in the area or help install a wireless network in a community location.

NTEN is going great work to help nonprofits make the most of technology. I have been fortunate enough to be involved with NTEN over the past few years, including serving on the board of directors this past year. I can't wait for this year's NTC and I hope to see many of you there.

Lessons Learned from Haiti Webinar Series

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:05:00 GMT

Blackbaud has announced a free five-part webinar series to help nonprofits build strategies for mobilizing, soliciting, and stewarding supporters during and after times of disaster. The Lessons Learned from Haiti series starts March 11th and runs through May 5th.

We've brought in experts from around the nonprofit sector to address a number of important topics. Here's a review of the upcoming sessions:

Lessons Learned from Haiti — Part 1: Online Rapid Response Strategies
Presented by Steve MacLaughlin, Director of Internet Solutions, Blackbaud, Inc.
This session will explore how online fundraising, email communication, and social media played an important role in nonprofit relief efforts for the Haiti earthquake. Participants will learn how to develop a rapid response plan, be prepared online for emergencies, and implement best practices from across the nonprofit sector. March 11, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. ET

Lessons Learned from Haiti — Part 2: The Mobile Giving Revolution
Presented by C.B. Barthlow, Director of Marketing and Client Services, mGive, moderated by Steve MacLaughlin, Director of Internet Solutions, Blackbaud, Inc.
During this session, the presenters will explain mobile advocacy trends and examine the unprecedented response to mobile donation appeals after the Haiti earthquake. Participants will learn how to acquire, retain, and cultivate mobile donors. March 24, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. ET

Lessons Learned from Haiti — Part 3: Mobilizing Your Supporters Using Social Media
Presented by Jeff Patrick, Founder and President of Common Knowledge, moderated by Frank Barry, Manager, Professional Services, Blackbaud, Inc.
Participants will learn best practices and practical tips for leveraging social media for fundraising and outreach for disaster relief programs. Presenters will take an inside look at several programs; present the tools and techniques for maximizing the potential of Facebook®, Twitter®, Flickr®, and YouTube®; and how best to connect these social media outposts to your mainstream outreach efforts. April 6, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. ET

Lessons Learned from Haiti — Part 4: Stewarding Donors Following a Crisis
Presented by David Lamb, Senior Consultant, Target Analytics, a Blackbaud Company
David will cover how to respond to new donations effectively to encourage stronger future financial commitments and what kind of stewardship communications are the most important to send after donors make disaster-related gifts. April 21, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. ET

Lessons Learned from Haiti — Part 5: Turning One-Time Donors into Major Gift Prospects
Presented by Lawrence Henze, Managing Director, Target Analytics, a Blackbaud Company
This session will help nonprofit professionals understand the best strategies for retaining first-time “crisis” donors and methods for moving retained donors closer to their ultimate giving destination. May 5, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. ET

I hope that you'll be able to join some of these sessions.

Online Giving and Rapid Response Trends

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:54:00 GMT

The recent Haiti earthquake disaster has once again brought to the forefront the role that new giving channels play in helping those most affected. The combination of online giving and mobile giving were the first response channels of choice by donors. I will save the pros and cons of mobile giving for another blog post.

I did some research to look back at previous major events and the volume of online giving that took place. Blackbaud has online giving data going back to 1999 and that allows us to look at some historical trends. USA Today referenced some of these trends in their recent "More go online or text to donate for Haiti's quake victims" article.

The graph above shows the volume of online giving for the first five days immediately following each major event. This was based on approximately 3,300 nonprofit organizations that had online giving data for these time periods.

Online giving following the Haiti earthquake was 19% greater than response to the 2004 Asian Tsunami and 109% greater than Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The tsunami data begins on December 26, 2004, following the earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The Katrina data begins on August 29, 2005 when the hurricane made its second landfall in Louisiana. Online giving during the first give days following September 11, 2001 was less than 1% of what was given towards Haiti relief.

All of these events have a very long tail of online giving, but the purpose here was to look at the first few days when online giving serves a key role in raising money for relief. It should also be noted that there's a pareto distribution on the organizations receiving most of the donations. For each event, about 80% of the donations were received by 20% of the organizations.

A year-over-year comparison of organizations not specifically raising money for Haiti relief did not have any unusual difference in online giving in January 2010. Giving to organizations directly involved in Haiti relief were simply off the charts compared to previous time periods and other events in the analysis.

There are a few important points to make from all of this. First, nonprofits that had a plan in place to quickly respond online through web content, focused online giving, and email communication performed better than organizations that didn't. You cannot react fast enough to just be a fast follower. Things move too quickly, in particular how soon various media outlets begin referencing where people can donate online. If your nonprofit is involved in programs and services often related to disaster relief, then you better have a plan and resources in a staging mode. And every organization should have some kind of emergency communication plan that involves the use of the web.

Second, the response to these kinds of unfortunate events will only increase in the future. We are well beyond the tipping point of whether people will give online and that is now true for mobile giving in North America too. Several organizations reported system outages from other vendors and tools being used. Now would be a good time to ask about whether your system can handle even larger volumes. This is a situation where poorly built multi-tenant systems can knock down anyone using them, including those organizations not directly involved in relief efforts.

Finally, this might be the end of internal obstructionists that question the importance of online communication and giving. Remind them that it is a multi-channel world, even if your nonprofit serves other parts of the sector. And it may prompt some more serious discussions about how prepared organizations are for the future.

Blackbaud NetCommunity 6.15 - Release Preview

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:03:00 GMT

Blackbaud NetCommunity 6.15 represents a major step forward for our Internet Solutions based on thousands of hours of research, customer feedback, usability design, application development, testing, and validation.

The updates and new features in this release are another sign of Blackbaud’s commitment to improve our online solutions. From a technology perspective, BBNC 6.15 also represents a major milestone as the entire application has been migrated to Blackbaud’s next generation Infinity platform.

There are a few high level requirements for this upcoming release. BBNC 6.15 is a PA-DSS / PCI compliant application and requires clients to also be using The Raiser’s Edge 7.91 or Blackbaud Enterprise CRM 2.5. This release also requires and only supports Microsoft SQL 2008. Blackbaud OnDemand customers will have these requirements taken care of as part of their ongoing support.

Here are some highlights of what to expect in Blackbaud NetCommunity 6.15:

User Interface / Experience Enhancements: The first thing you will notice about BBNC 6.15 is an update of the entire user interface and navigation. A tremendous amount of feedback and usability testing has resulted in significant improvements throughout the program. There are also several user experience updates that will reduce time spent on tasks. Click here for a preview.

HTML Editor Changes: The HTML editor has been completely replaced with TinyMCE, an open source editor that is used in other tools like Joomla!, Drupal, Plone, and WordPress. The editor is both cross-platform and cross-browser compatible. BBNC remains the only nonprofit solution with admin tools that truly work on Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

Multisite Functionality: The solution now supports multisite capabilities, including the ability to build parent/child relationships for multiple websites in the system. Your website always includes a default site and you can create an unlimited number of additional sites. These additional sites can be any combination of parent and child sites at any level in a hierarchy. You will notice some user interface changes to support multisite, include a new Organization Settings screen to manage global settings.

Users and Security Changes: The addition of multisite functionality also means some changes to users, roles, and security assignments. Security now includes four main components: Users, Roles, Task groups, and Security assignments. These changes not only deepen the overall capabilities of BBNC, but also make managing roles and security easier. When you upgrade to 6.15, your security data migrates to the new security automatically.

Form Engine: BBNC customers now have the ability to create online forms to collect information from website users. This will allow nonprofits to collect information online that doesn't need to be stored in their CRM system. The new Forms section allows you to create and manage forms, view the data, and export the collected information. The form creation tool offers a robust set of options, including the ability to create multi-step forms.

Online Fundraising Updates: The online donation form functionality has several updates in BBNC 6.15. This includes the ability to make pledge payments based on donor information in The Raiser’s Edge or Blackbaud Enterprise CRM. There are several other improvements around multiple designations, Gift Aid options for multi-geographic clients, and some other feature goodness.

Scheduled Email: You can now schedule emails to send to selected recipients at specific times. For example, you may want to send a renewal notice to members a month before their memberships expire. You can create a constituent query in The Raiser’s Edge or Blackbaud Enterprise CRM with all members. You then determine how often to run the email process. In this example, you may run the process on the first day of each month. At the scheduled time, BBNC merges the information in the list with the merge fields in the template and automatically distributes the email to recipients.

Online Address Lookup: Constituents now have the ability to have BBNC complete their address lookup after entering only their postcode. This new feature is for the UK market and the data is provided by Experian QAS. This process cuts down on address processing and dramatically will improve address accuracy and validity. This cuts down on invalid postage costs and manual data manipulation saving both time and money.

Best of the Rest: There always other tweaks, changes, and updates to improve the overall solution. BBNC 6.15 also continues previously released features like Addressee and Salutation support, improvements to data integration, and a long list of other updates.

Blackbaud NetCommunity 6.15 is now in controlled release and will go into general availability shortly. Stay tuned for future updates...

Independent Fundraising Event Trends

Steve MacLaughlin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:00:00 GMT

Blackbaud and Event 360 have released a new white paper based on a joint research project to better understand the common denominators of a successful programmatic approach to third-party fundraising. Independent fundraising events (IFE) are activities designed and run by volunteers to raise money on behalf of a specific nonprofit organization. You can download a copy of "Raising More Money Online with Independent Fundraising Events" and register for a free webinar on February 3rd at 2pm EDT.

The research team analyzed data from nearly 30,000 donors and 4,000 individual fundraisers who organized or participated in independent fundraising events on behalf of leading nonprofits including Alzheimer’s Association, Autism Speaks, Canadian Cancer Society’s BC and Yukon Division, Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Lance Armstrong Foundation, and The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Based on a Blackbaud assessment, there was an estimated $300 million raised in 2008 in the United States from these types of events, indicating that organizations should find better ways to cultivate these fundraisers and provide the solutions they need to succeed.

The analysis showed that online registrations, donations and fundraising per participant are increasing, and that IFEs represent a growing revenue source, especially online, for many organizations. The research also uncovered how third-party events can dramatically reduce the overall cost of fundraising compared to other methods.

A survey of the independent fundraisers found that 64% of all respondents were first-time fundraisers for the organization through the IFE program. The top three responses for how the online tools impacted their fundraising were "Made it easier to communicate my efforts," "Made it easier to coordinate my efforts," and "More funds raised." When asked what most likely motivated their supporters to donate, 59% of event participants claimed it was to support their individual efforts, while only 28% claimed it was to support the organization’s cause. 56% of participants were connected to the cause through a family member/close friend while 16% were directly affected.

Attend the free web seminar Raising More Money Online from Independent Fundraising Events to learn more about taking a programmatic approach to independent fundraising and to hear from Canadian Cancer Society about their successful independent fundraising event program.

Support Disaster Relief in Haiti

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:05:00 GMT

The images coming out of Haiti following Tuesday's earthquake are heartbreaking. It is comforting to know that so many nonprofit organizations are already helping on the ground and more relief is on the way.

People are using the Internet to stay informed about the disaster, help communicate what's happening, and to donate to charities. The volume of online donations on January 13th was 3 times that of December 31st and growing.

There are several organizations accepting online donations to support their relief efforts in Haiti:

Sadly, these kinds of disasters also cause an increase in attempted credit card fraud by hackers and forgers. Nonprofit organizations should monitor suspicious transactions. Donor forms that accept $1 gifts or don't require a Card Security Code are most at risk.

I am thankful that so many organizations are having a meaningful impact during this tragedy.

Is the Fundraising Pyramid Really a Lie?

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:01:00 GMT

The nonprofit sector needs more spirited debate. Mark Rovner over at Sea Change Strategies blogged some strong opinions about the state of fundraising. So I asked Lawrence Henze, managing director of Target Analytics, to write this guest blog post in response:

Mark Rovner recently offered up the opinion that the fundraising pyramid is a lie because "most major donors at most organizations do not rise up through the ranks of $15 donors, who become $100 donors, and then ultimately become $100,000 donors."

My 30 years of experience in the fundraising world give me a very different perspective. The fundraising pyramid is not a lie; rather, it is an unfulfilled promise. The creation of a "complete" fundraising pyramid requires time and patience, and can be hampered by a primary reliance upon peer-based major giving programs. Major donors with the greatest staying power are those that develop through the annual giving program.

There is significant statistical evidence for that conclusion and absolutely no foreseeable reason that individuals originally acquired through online giving vehicles will mature any differently in the future. For example, research shows that $1,000 gifts to organizations occur most frequently when that donor has already been giving to the organization for about 7 years. Many years of research with successful nonprofits also shows that those very same donors are approximately 900% more likely to make a major gift in their lifetime than individuals without that progressive history. Of course there are experiential differences among organizations, but the trend is clear.

Mark’s comments suggest that we should accept our major giving fate and do not offer insightful suggestion for change. The primary reason that we do not develop enough major giving donors from our constituents is that many fundraising practices do little to promote transitional giving — the movement from annual giving donor to major giving prospect. Transitional giving prospects are often neglected in fundraising infrastructure and exist in "no-man’s land" between annual giving and major giving staffs.

Throw in related issues of the culture of ongoing campaigns, silo-based fundraising efforts and the transitory habits of development professionals and we have an environment that does not support internal cultivation of top donors. For example, constant campaigning focuses efforts on previous campaign contributors and discourages research into and cultivation of emerging prospects. Institutions organized by functional silos lack internal and external communication integration to support cultivation of emerging prospects. And, of course, migratory development professionals undermine the ability to establish long-term donor relationships.

It is clear to me that the answer does not lie with more peer-generated gifts that often disappear when the peer-solicitor leaves the board. Of course, these gifts should still be sought, but the theory that “major donors come to organizations via other major donors” doesn’t actually hold up to analysis. Furthermore, it is not a sustainable business model. The continuation of the status quo in the nonprofit industry is one of the reasons organizations fail to approach their fundraising potential. Rather, we must address the issues stated above. Creative thinking is needed.

Finally, the reasons many low-end donors give for a year or two and then lapse is also based on time-supported practice supported by faulty thinking. It may be corrected by changing the belief system in the industry. Acquisition is frequently based on the sole goal of increasing the number of annual donors, rather than the more appropriate goal of attracting sustainable donors.

While challenging long-accepted ways of thinking and provoking discussion is always valuable, offering an observation without deeper insight into the cause of the phenomenon is less than helpful and does not encourage change. What we need is greater understanding of the characteristics of loyal donors, cultivation strategies that foster additional loyalty and commitment, and the development of personal relationships with our transitional giving prospects. Then we will have a fundraising pyramid that fulfills its promise.

Suggesting that "this is the way it is" without saying "this is what is possible" encourages the perpetuation of practices that are flawed. We need better ideas and a willingness to try different ideas and strategies.

Lawrence Henze, managing director of Target Analytics, has extensive experience in fundraising, market research and the application of predictive modeling services to the nonprofit marketplace. The founder of Core Data Services, which Blackbaud acquired in 2001, he has also served as vice president of predictive modeling services at USA Group Noel Levitz and president of The Philanthropic Division of Econometrics, Inc. Mr. Henze has 15 years of experience in development, raising more than $125 million, primarily for higher education institutions. During his career, he has personally reviewed the giving histories of more than 30,000 planned givers across the country. He holds a BA in political science from Carroll College in Wisconsin, and an MA in public policy and administration and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Crimes Committed Against Email

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:00:00 GMT

Yesterday, I blogged about the mountain of direct mail that I received in 2009. Some was good. Some was bad. Some was ugly. Despite decades of using direct mail some nonprofits still can make mistakes. It happens.

Today, I want talk about the 57 email messages that I received from nonprofit organizations during the last week of 2009. Now, the challenge is to show what not to do without naming the guilty. So here are some criminal acts perpetrated by nonprofits using email:

Missing Person in the Subject
A clever little trick used in email is to insert the recipient's name into the subject line. Except when your email tool isn't integrated to your CRM, then the name can go missing. This might have been a one-time mistake, except another email message from the same organization the very next day did it again.

Attack of the Giant Image
Forget about that "Having trouble reading this" or "View this message in a browser" text at the top of a message. Let's just drop in a 600 x 565 pixel image at the top as the main content of the message. It looks great when Outlook blocks it or a mobile device like a BlackBerry can't display it. This really helps with conversion rates at a critical time of the year.

Subject Line Originality
I received 23 email messages that used a "___ left to make a gift" theme in their subject lines. Some had days or hours, while others clearly had a countdown clock going. This might work the first time but it does get old fast. Remember that the average active donor is giving to 5 or more organizations. And most, if not all, of them are using email marketing. Be sure to focus on subjects and content that set you apart.

Action in the Image
Repeat after me: I will never put the only call to action of the email message in a graphic. Thank you. I'm glad that you and I could have this little talk.

Land of the Lost Donation Pages
When writing up this blog post I went through a folder full of all the emails I received from nonprofits. I noticed that the links in a few of them were no longer working. Which means that the organization or their provider had already removed the pages. Even though email messages have a much shorter response cycle than direct mail the reality is that a campaign may last a few months. Don't delete them too soon.

These are just a few of the crimes that were quickly spotted. Perhaps I'll cover this in a presentation or webinar in the near future.

Direct Mail Is Not Dead

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:03:00 GMT

Direct mail is not dead and I can prove it. In January of 2009, I started a little project to collect every single piece of direct mail that I received from nonprofit organizations. By the time December 31st rolled around the experiment turned into a mound of mail.

This past weekend I put them all out on a 4x6 rug that really ties the room together. There are well over 100 pieces of mail from annual reports to appeals to magazines to post cards to address labels to calendars to posters to renewal notices to thank you messages to coins. All different shapes, sizes, formats, colors, and printing techniques.

Like all fundraising and marketing efforts — some are done well and some aren't. Some of the direct marketing mailings that I received were clearly part of a well segmented and strategically planned effort. Others were more haphazard, like the nonprofit that sent me the same mailing six times. I have seen the exact same mistakes made with email or online channels too. It's less about the channel being used and more about how well things are being done.

Direct mail isn't dead, but single channel communication is. That goes for email too! You are wasting time and money if you only use a single channel to acquire, engage, and cultivate supporters. The key to success is getting these channels to co-exist as part of your overall fundraising strategy.

2009 Online Giving Trends

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:00:00 GMT

2009 is now over and the analysis of online giving trends has already started. This is a follow-up to the 2008 Online Giving Trends research and the subsequent 2009 Online Giving Trends for Q1, Q2, and Q3 analysis. This information comes from approximately 2,300 nonprofit organizations using a combination of Blackbaud online fundraising, email marketing, and integrated CRM tools. The analysis represents the largest study of online giving trends in the nonprofit sector.

Online Giving Continues to Grow
An analysis of the past 36 months of online giving continues to show positive growth despite challenging economic conditions. Online revenue grew 46% in 2009 compared to 2008. The first three months of 2009 had a 60% year-over-year growth rate in online revenue. December and May were the two largest months for online giving.

Year End Online Giving Trends
46% of online revenue was processed in the final three months of 2009. December accounted for 30% of revenue and 18% of transaction volume in 2009. The average online gift in December 2009 was $244.17 and was a decrease of only 2% compared to December 2008. Online giving in December 2009 grew 32% compared to December 2008.

Year Over Year Growth Trends
The analysis also looked at a subset of the same 1,703 nonprofits in 2008 and 2009. 65% of these nonprofits had a positive increase in online revenue compared to 2008. These nonprofits had a 21% year-over-year median growth rate in online revenue. Nonprofits that raised more than $1 million online in 2009 had a 35% year-over-year increase in revenue.

Average Online Gift Trends
The average online gift in 2009 was $144.72. The represents a 5% decline from 2008, but remains significantly higher than other fundraising channels. The healthcare sector had the smallest average gift amount of $94.37, while other sectors like foundations ($209.53), higher education ($204.05), and religious ($196.44) had much larger gift sizes. It should be noted that non-hospital healthcare sector nonprofits have a higher percentage of online peer-to-peer fundraising than hospitals ($120.16) which may account for the lower average gift.

Online Major Giving Trends
Blackbaud continues to analyze trends with donors making significant online gifts in excess of $1,000. The research identified 1,798 nonprofit organizations in the analysis with least one online gift of $1,000 or more in 2009. This represented 77% of the organizations in the sample analysis. 36% of online gifts of at least $1,000 were within a gift range of $1,001 to $4,999. The median online gift amount for online donations of at least $1,000 was $3,500 in 2009. This was up from $2,500 in 2008.

The following presentation provides additional information, graphs, and insights about the analysis:

2009 Online Giving Trends

View more presentations from Steve MacLaughlin.

Notes: All data is calculated directly from online transactions processed by Blackbaud. Online recurring gifts and pledges are not included in the data analysis. The single largest online gift ($60,000) and single smallest online gift ($1) were removed from the analysis. The year-over-year trend analysis removed outliers with growth rates in excess of 1000% and organizations with single transactions for the time period.

2009 in Review

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:29:00 GMT

The final hours of 2009 are ticking away. This year seemed to fly by faster than many others. Here's a quick look back:

10+ Years of Online Giving
Back in 1999, Blackbaud released NetSolutions. It was the first integrated online fundraising and email messaging tool developed specifically for nonprofits. I took a look back at the statistics and there were 39 nonprofits using the donation functionality in 2000 with an average gift amount of $85.29. Since then thousands of nonprofits have processed millions of online donations using Blackbaud. We've come a long way since those early days.

Grow on the Go
We introduced the Blackbaud NetCommunity Grow offering early in 2009 and it turned out to be very successful. BBNC Grow bundled our very popular online solution into a prescriptive implementation with ongoing help all at an affordable price. It was great to see how quickly we could get a client up and running on the solution. Later in the year we unveiled Blackbaud Sphere Grow for nonprofits looking to reach new supporters. These clients are already getting very solid online results.

Metrics, Metrics, and More Metrics
The beginning of the year started with a project to look at online giving trends. This resulted in several blog posts and presentations (2008 Online Giving Trends 2009 Online Giving Trends - Q1 2009 Online Giving Trends - Q2 2009 Online Giving Trends - Q3) on the subject. The research work also led to us publishing that approximately 5% of all giving in the US in 2008 was done online. It was great to see this estimate being used across the sector. More online giving metrics are coming in 2010.

To Infinity and Beyond!
Behind the scenes there was a lot of development working going on our Internet solutions. Having the largest development team serving the nonprofit sector allowed us to really make a lot of progress this year. Client involvement in the design process has also gone to a new level. In early 2010, we'll release Internet functionality that is native on Blackbaud's Infinity platform. Lots of exciting stuff on the horizon and a ton of hard work was done this year to make it possible.

Write, Read, and Edit
I started working on a new book this year as a follow-up to People to People Fundraising. Many long hours were spent writing a chapter about online metrics and editing several other chapters for the book. I am really excited that Internet Management for Nonprofits will be coming out in 2010. Thanks to the editing team of Ted, Jim, and Philip, and all of our authors for making it all happen.

Full Speed Ahead
Another year ends and a new one begins. 2010 should include more thrills and chills – and many many miles on the road. I am especially looking forward to another year working with NTEN and NTC 2010 in Atlanta. Plus some new research work, product announcements, and stories from across the nonprofit sector. Oh...and more blogging too!

The Changing Nature of Online Fundraising

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:29:00 GMT

Over the past year, I have been fortunate enough to speak at several conferences and nonprofit events. I have been giving a presentation called "The Changing Nature of Online Fundraising" that covers some important trends happening in the nonprofit sector.

The response and feedback that I have received by people who have seen me give this presentation has been very positive. It certainly has come a long way from an outline that I wrote on a plane to Nova Scotia back in 2008. Thank you to those that have helped me improve it over time.

I wanted to share a version of this presentation that covers how the channels used to fundraise are changing, the people who donate are changing, and the giving experience is changing. I have been focusing on some different topics lately and this presentation is going on the shelf for a bit. Enjoy...

The Changing Nature of Online Fundraising

View more presentations from Steve MacLaughlin.

Blackbaud NetCommunity adds Addressee & Salutation Functionality

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:04:00 GMT

The use of addressee and salutation functionality in The Raiser's Edge is a very powerful feature that nonprofits leverage as part of their communication and stewardship efforts.

Adding integration for this feature to Blackbaud NetCommunity is something clients have requested in the past. We're pleased to announce that support for addressee and salutation was released in BBNC 6.10 patch 8 on December 2nd.

The feature allows clients to set both an addressee type and salutation type from The Raiser's Edge in their Blackbaud NetCommunity configuration options. Administrators can choose from any of the available addressee or salutation types to use, not just the primary type. This allows for both merge fields to be available in email messages, directories, and profile display parts.

This is the type of integration that is unmatched by other solutions in the market. Blackbaud continues to respond to customer feedback to improve our products.

This was the fifth most requested feature on the Blackbaud NetCommunity Idea Bank website. We thought this would spread some good holiday cheer by shipping the feature before the end of the year. Enjoy...