Connections : online giving

NTEN Webinar Links - The State of Online Fundraising

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:05:00 GMT

Later today I'll be hosting a webinar called "The State of Online Fundraising" as part of NTEN member appreciation month. It's free to NTEN members and Blackbaud customers.

My presentation is full of lots of information, metrics, benchmarks, and more. Below are some of the reports, research, and links that I reference during the session:

These links should give you plenty to think about and take action on when building better online fundraising programs. And here are my slides from the presentation:

The State of Online Fundraising

View more presentations from Steve MacLaughlin.

I'm looking forward to other sessions like this in the future.

NTEN Webinar - The State of Online Fundraising

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:12:00 GMT

November is NTEN member appreciation month and they are having several free webinars for members. I am fortunate enough to get to host a session called "The State of Online Fundraising" on Wednesday, November 4th from 2pm to 3:30pm EDT / 11:00am to 12:30pm PDT.

The State of Online Fundraising webinar will be free for NTEN members. You can learn more and register by visiting the NTEN website. Blackbaud customers can also attend the webinar for free. Please look for registration details in the October issue of the NetWits Think Tank enewsletter and The Connector enewsletter.

This webinar is a 90-minute session based on the NTEN Connect e-newsletter article I wrote called "The State of Online Fundraising" that recaps trends, research, and other useful information about online giving. I will also be covering information from across online giving research we've been doing for a while now.

If you're not already an NTEN member...join. Individual memberships start as low as $85 per year and there is certainly more value in just this session than the cost of an annual membership.

Full disclosure: I am member of the NTEN Board of Directors.

2009 Online Giving Trends - Q3

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:00:00 GMT

The year is rapidly coming to a close and we have more information about online giving trends for the third quarter of 2009 from Blackbaud clients. This is part of a series of published insights from all of 2008, Q1 2009, and Q2 2009. This information comes from approximately 2,200 nonprofit organizations using Blackbaud's Internet solutions and represents the largest sample size studied in the nonprofit sector.

Online Fundraising Growth Trends
An analysis of nearly three years of online fundraising data reveals a giving pattern for Blackbaud clients. Online revenue in the third quarter of 2009 was up 41% compared to the same time period in 2008. The trend data also illustrates how online fundraising is entering its traditional peak period during the final quarter of the year. Data from across 33 months shows that the largest amount of online giving takes place in Q4 followed by Q2, Q3, and Q1.

Online Major Giving Trends
Last quarter we published some findings around trends among donors making significant online gifts in excess of $1,000. These gift amounts mark a threshold for many nonprofits between annual support, transitional gifts, and major gifts to the organization. Blackbaud's research identified 1,429 nonprofit organizations in the analysis with least one online gift of $1,000 or more in 2009. 41% of those organizations had their largest online donation within a gift range of $1,001 to $4,999. That was the largest segment in the breakdown followed by 21% of the nonprofits having their largest single online gift at the $1,000 level. The highest gift range in the analysis was $10,001 to $50,000 and 7% of the nonprofits had their largest single online gift in this group. Blackbaud also did a year-over-year comparison from 2008 to 2009 and found that the median gift amount for online donations of at least $1,000 has held steady at $2,500. Blackbaud’s research continues to show measurable evidence of donors making significant gifts online as part of their giving behaviors.

Economic Impact on Online Giving
There are a variety of perspectives on how the global and domestic economy is impacting fundraising. The latest Target Analytics Index of National Fundraising Performance continues to show a decline in revenue and donors across the sector. Our research suggests that the majority of nonprofit organizations are still in a growth phase for online giving, compared to well established offline channels, and the impact of the recession is largely masked. Online transactions are still growing at 56% year-over-year and this volume growth overcomes any declines in gift amounts. The emerging trend in the data is that a nonprofit's online fundraising mix might influence their year-over-year results. More research and analysis on the impact of fundraising mix is certainly required.

Notes: All data is calculated directly from online transactions processed by Blackbaud. Online recurring gifts and pledges are not included in the entire data analysis. The single largest online gift ($75,000) and single smallest online gift ($1) during the analysis period were removed.

The State of Online Fundraising in NTEN Connect

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:25:00 GMT

The September 2009 edition of the NTEN Connect e-newsletter is out and it's all about raising money online.

It contains an article that I wrote called "The State of Online Fundraising" that recaps trends, research, and other useful information about online giving.

My recommended next steps: Give it a read. Sign-up for the newsletter. And become a member of NTEN.

Online Giving Trends in Higher Education

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:05:00 GMT

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) recently released a report called "Click Here to Donate: Results of the CASE 2009 Survey of Online Fundraising." The report was prepared by Dr. Chris Thompson, former CASE Senior Research Director, and respected nonprofit consultant Robert L. Weiner. Thompson is now Director of Editorial Research for the Chronicle of Higher Education and The Chronicle of Philanthropy in Washington, DC.

The CASE "Click Here to Donate" report is the latest in a series of reports that give nonprofits a clearer picture of what is being done online. It references the Target Analytics 2008 donorCentrics Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis study as well as data from The Chronicle of Philanthropy. The CASE report has a lot of good information and insights in it. I thought I would share just a few of them with readers.

Survey Background
The survey was conducted in March through April of 2009 and was sent only to CASE members. 562 CASE member institutions responded to the survey. The sample is slightly more skewed toward research/doctoral and private institutions than the Voluntary Support of Education survey’s participating institutions, but it is geographically representative of CASE’s membership, with more than 85% of survey respondents coming from the United States.

Main Findings
There are a lot of insights in the study but these are the ones that I thought stood out the most:

Almost two-thirds of the institutions have been raising private funds online for five years or less.
72% of the online fundraising opportunities are located on institutions’ main Web pages, 59% from links inside e-mails, 58% on alumni office Web pages, and 51% from links inside e-newsletters.
Fewer than 2% of institutions are using new media such as blogs, Twitter and mobile giving.
The total value and number of online donations are the two most frequently reported measures of success used, but even these have been implemented by fewer than two-thirds of the respondents.
34% of institutions report "we do not measure performance."
30% of respondents think their online donors are younger, while only 1.5% think they are older and 18% think they are about the same age as other donors.
45% of respondents did not know the average age of their online donors.
About 20% of respondents reported that online fundraising exceeded their expectations, and 22% said it met their expectations.
Just over 38% reported it was below their expectations, and for 17% it was "very much below" expectations.

Too Many Unknowns
My first reaction to the report was the significant amount of unknowns. This was surprising because my experience working in and with higher education institutions is that they live on a steady diet of data and information to make decisions. For a variety of reasons, the online fundraising realm remains mysterious for many of the survey respondents.

When asked about the effectiveness of online fundraising compared to other channels, the most common response was "Don't Know." The section on "Online fundraising success compared to other routes" has "Don't Know" as the most common response for half of the routes surveyed. Respondents were asked for their predictions of the next big thing in online fundraising. The most frequent responses were "I have no idea" and social networking. It was good to see the survey show a strong adoption of social media to make connections with constituents.

Missing Measurements
If you can't measure it, then you can't manage it. Period. The CASE study finds a tremendous amount of undermeasurement happening. 34% of respondents said "We do not measure performance." This was the third most common answer, behind the total value (56.5%) and number of online donations (55%) coming in through all channels. The irony here of course is that the Internet is overflowing with measureable metrics compared to traditional channels like direct mail. At least there's an admission that the right kinds of metrics and measurements aren't being used as much as they can be.

The report suggests that the reason for the lack of measurement might be because "online donations may arrive via third parties and not be linkable to donor profile records or to existing measurement systems used with other types of donations." There is a high degree of fragmentation in the systems and data being used by higher education institutions. Another theory put forth is that "data collection systems take time and resources to put in place, and investment may not yet be perceived as worthwhile given the relatively small stream of online funds." This sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me. If it's not perceived as worthwhile, then it's probably not going to get the right amount of attention in the organization.

Professor, We Have a Problem
There are a few bright spots in the report, but the overall message is troubling. More institutions are fundraising online, the average gift amount is $241, and some of them have had tremendous online revenue growth in recent years. But the survey responses suggest that many institutions are doing just the basics online, make judgments about the effectiveness of online giving without meaningful metrics or measurement best practices, and use fragmented systems that prevent them from getting a more holistic view of their donors.

A few years ago this might have been acceptable, but research from across the entire nonprofit sector indicates that educational institutions are getting sub-par results. Research for 2008 online giving done by The Chronicle of Philanthropy shows that colleges and universities are underperforming compared to other nonprofit groups. The 67 colleges and universities in The Chronicle's analysis had 0.97% of total fundraising revenue coming from online giving. Compare that to other sectors like health (4.43%), religious (3.62%), and international (3.36%). Target Analytics found some organizations with online giving exceeding 10% of total fundraising revenue. Even with some outliers and statistical fluctuations — that's not good comparative performance by higher education institutions.

A Working Theory
Having recently spent a lot of time looking into online giving trends, I have one working theory as to what's going on in higher education. These institutions have traditionally relied heavily on major gift programs for the majority of their fundraising. The culture of fundraising is focus on a small number of large gifts instead of a large number of smaller gifts. The exception is at colleges and universities where a strong and well developed annual fund is in place. These organizations have been able to leverage online giving to contribute to the annual fund and a growing number of online major gifts. But this requires change within the institution to really succeed.

Compare this to nonprofits that traditionally raise the majority of their revenue from direct marketing programs. These organizations raise tremendous amounts of dollars both online and offline through smaller gifts. Their adoption of online giving required much less change in the fundraising culture of the organization. They simply added another channel and applied many of the same direct marketing principles. These nonprofits represent the largest online fundraisers and raise a much higher percentage of total revenue from online giving than educational institutions.

This is just one working theory based on countless hours looking through data, talking to nonprofits, and attempting to connect some dots. I've heard plenty of other reasons and excuses. It could also have something to do with gravitational forces, plate tectonics, or fractals. But I doubt it.

Donation Form Usability

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:20:00 GMT

Jakob Nielsen is considered the leading expert on website usability in the world. His firm, the Nielsen Norman Group, does a variety of studies and reports every year in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Jakob's useit.com website regularly reviews and discusses trends in usability.

Back in March of 2009, they published a new report called "Donation Usability: 58 Design Guidelines for Improving the Donation Process and the Usability of Essential Information on Charity and Non-Profit Websites" by Janelle Estes and Jakob Nielsen. The report references Target Analytics, a Blackbaud company, and the 2008 donorCentrics Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis in several places throughout the report, including the following:

"In 2008, non-profits got about 10% of their donations online, according to a survey by Target Analytics. Given the high growth rate for Internet donations, we estimate that they’ll constitute the majority of donations by 2020. If non-profit organizations get their sites into shape, that is."

The entire 124-page report, complete with 111 color screenshots, can be purchased online for $98. It probably pays for itself in no time at all. They looked at 23 nonprofit websites and asked testers to complete two important tasks: Participants visited two non-profit sites within a given category and decided which of the organizations, which had roughly similar missions, was most deserving of a donation. They were then asked to use their own credit cards and make an online donation to the chosen charity. I thought I would share a few findings to hopefully get you thinking about the usability of your own websites and donation forms.

What Donors Look for Online
The researchers asked users to tell them what they need to know before they feel comfortable making a donation to nonprofit online. 83% of participants wanted to know the mission, goals, objectives, and work or the organization, 67% wanted to understand the use of donations and contributions, 42% looked for signs of legitimacy and reputation, and 33% said local presence was important information. The report also notes that not one person made a donation to an organization that had objectives they didn’t understand or feel comfortable with.

What Donors Don't Like Online
The report reviews things people referred to as annoying, confusing, or frustrating when viewing a nonprofit website. 17% said their biggest turnoff was a lack of or unclear information about mission, goals, objectives, or work, another 17% were bothered by an inability to quickly find where to donate, 13% said a lack of or unclear explanation of how donations are used was annoying, and 13% were frustrated by busy or cluttered homepage or site. The report recommends that nonprofits use the homepage to address the top two questions potential donors have: what you do and how you use donations.

What to Do and Why
The report contains 58 different nonprofit website and donation form guidelines. The guidelines include lots of examples from the nonprofit websites that were used as part of the testing. Here are just a few of them:

Explain why someone would be interested in donating, and provide a link to do so.
If you are rated highly by watchdog organizations, mention it.
Use real examples of people you have helped and situations you have improved.
When asking for a donation amount, list pre-defined contribution amounts, along with an “other” option for users who want to donate a different amount.
Confirm the transaction has been processed.
Provide information about your organization’s presence on social outlets so users can connect with you on them.

Just Your Average Donor
The Nielsen Norman Group screened out any participants who were ”technical experts,” such as IT personnel, programmers, or Web or software engineers, since they have expert knowledge in using the Web. They also screened out any participants who worked at a nonprofit, because they have expert knowledge about these types of organizations. Users were required to have made a donation to a nonprofit in the past 12 months and at least half of the participants were required to have made a donation online using the organization’s website in the past year. This is a good reminder not to use your staff or website builders for testing if you want more valuable feedback.

Just Do It
Some of the findings in the report are obvious. Some of them are simple to implement. Others reveal some fundamental flaws to how a nonprofit is using the web as part of their fundraising efforts. I am sure that a few recommendations might be met with some resistance and a couple of excuses of why they can't be implemented. You would be surprised what a difference a few changes or testing of your own can make. So stop saying "no" to getting better results and say "yes" to success.

The answer to nearly every online fundraising question is...

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:03:00 GMT

When in doubt — test it. Yes, there are some very well established best practices for online fundraising, but testing always helps you improve your own performance.This is especially true when you are trying something new or outside the norm. Over the years I've gotten countless questions about how should nonprofits setup their online fundraising programs. Many of the same questions came up during NetWits Summer Camp last week and in the numerous emails I received following the sessions.

Lots and Lots of Questions
How many different ask amounts should we have on our donation form? Is having a minimum gift amount a good idea? Should we let donors enter any gift amount? Should we use reCAPTCHA? Is it a good idea to put single gifts, recurring gifts, and pledges all on a single donation form? Should we put different kinds of giving options on different pages? Should we ask donors to opt-in to our enewsletter on the donation form? What are the best segments to use for an email campaign? Does a one step or multi-step form work better? Should we only put unrestricted gift designations on the web? How many different landing pages should we use during a campaign? What should we put in an email acknowledgment for our online gifts? How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? — "The world may never know."

A Little Secret about Best Practices
Here's a little secret about the inner workings of the nonprofit consulting world: All those best practice recommendations all come from first-hand experience with clients. And at some point along the way each one of those "best practices" was a "best guess" that has been validated with a certain number of clients over time — through testing. We didn't instantly know it would work until we tried it out. And when you've been doing this kind of work for many many years the amount of things-tested-that-work can be pretty sizable.The other secret is that all the other things we tell nonprofits not to do comes from things that were tested and didn't work — or things nonprofits were already trying that weren't getting results.

Anyone interested in a blog post about running a test session to make your own best practices? Just let me know...

NetWits Summer Camp - Day 3 - Online Fundraising Demystified

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:07:00 GMT

This is day three of NetWits Summer Camp and the focus is all about online fundraising. After today we'll be halfway through Blackbaud's five-day series of web seminars.

Be sure to check out the NetWits Think Tank blog or the Blackbaud Internet Resources page to get more online wit and wisdom. You'll find links to blogs, podcasts, whitepapers, webinars, and a whole lot more. Here is a brief recap of today's session:

Online Fundraising Demystified
The Internet continues to be the fastest growing area for fundraising in the nonprofit sector. Using a website, email, and other channels can help improve overall fundraising results for your organization. This session cover how nonprofits are taking their online fundraising efforts to the next level and beyond the simple “donate now” button. Here is a brief outline of the session and the major topics covered:

Online Fundraising 1.0 vs. 2.0
Myths about Online Fundraising
Online Giving that Gets Results
Your Next 6 Months Online
Where We Go from Here

That means we've covered websites, email, and online fundraising so far at NetWits Summer Camp. I'll finish up the series with social media and online metrics later this week.

More NetWits Summer Camp Sessions Added

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:28:00 GMT

We must be on to something. In just two days, Blackbaud is close to completely filling up NetWits Summer Camp, our free five-day series of web seminars about how nonprofits can better use the Internet.

So we've gone ahead and added five more sessions during the week of August 24th to 28th. Visit the NetWits Summer Camp homepage to sign up for sessions about your website, email marketing, online fundraising, social media, and related metrics.

Websites Demystified
Monday, August 24 at 1 p.m. ET - SESSION FULL
Monday, August 24 at 3 p.m. ET - SESSION FULL

Email Demystified
Tuesday, August 25 at 1 p.m. ET - SESSION FULL
Tuesday, August 25 at 3 p.m. ET - SESSION FULL

Online Fundraising Demystified
Wednesday, August 26 at 1 p.m. ET - SESSION FULL
Wednesday, August 26 at 3 p.m. ET - SESSION FULL

Social Media Demystified
Thursday, August 27 at 1 p.m. ET - SESSION FULL
Thursday, August 27 at 3 p.m. ET - SESSION FULL

Online Metrics Demystified
Friday, August 28 at 1 p.m. ET - SESSION FULL
Friday, August 28 at 3 p.m. ET - SESSION FULL

Hope to see you there...

Sign Up for NetWits Summer Camp

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:07:00 GMT

Today, Blackbaud is announcing that registration for NetWits Summer Camp is now open. NetWits Summer Camp is a free five-day series of web seminars covering what every nonprofit needs to know about its website, email marketing, online fundraising, social media, and related metrics. The “Camp” will be held August 24 to 28 from 1 to 2 p.m. EDT.

The event series is an extension of Blackbaud’s popular blog NetWits Think Tank which focuses on technology, fundraising, social media and industry trends. NetWits Summer Camp will provide participants a broad knowledge of critical nonprofit technology concepts and how to best implement those technologies within their organization.

Websites Demystified
A website is one of the main cornerstones of your online initiatives, but are you making the most of it? This session will cover how your website fits into a nonprofit’s communication, interaction, and engagement efforts. Topics to be covered include website architecture and design, usability, content management, personalization, and how nonprofits can improve their online presence.
Monday, August 24 at 1 p.m. ET — Register Today! - SESSION FULL

Email Demystified
A successful email marketing program combined with an effective website form the core of your Internet efforts. This session will focus on the different types of email communication, ways to build your email lists, and best practices for getting the most out of your email marketing program. Topics to be covered include list building, segmentation strategies, design do’s and don’ts, understanding spam, and how to improve your email results.
Tuesday, August 25 at 1 p.m. ET — Register Today! - SESSION FULL

Online Fundraising Demystified
The Internet continues to be the fastest growing area for fundraising in the nonprofit sector. Using a website, email, and other channels can help improve overall fundraising results for your organization. This session cover how nonprofits are taking their online fundraising efforts to the next level and beyond the simple “donate now” button. Topics to be covered include online donation form do’s and don’ts, building a targeted online giving campaign, and how peer-to-peer fundraising plays an important role in all of this.
Wednesday, August 26 at 1 p.m. ET — Register Today! - SESSION FULL

Social Media Demystified
There is a lot of talk about social media these days, but how does it fit into an overall online strategy? This session will focus on how nonprofits are using Web 2.0 tools like Facebook. YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and many more to help engage and communicate with constituents. Topics to be covered include an overview of the social media and networking landscape, examples of nonprofits using these tools, and how to begin developing a social media strategy for your nonprofit.
Thursday, August 27 at 1 p.m. ET — Register Today! - SESSION FULL

Online Metrics Demystified
The combined use of a website, email, online fundraising, and social media brings with it a lot of powerful metrics to measure your results. This session will cover what are the key online metrics to measure, what they mean, and how to manage them on an ongoing basis. Topics to be covered include metrics for the web, email, online fundraising, and social media, industry benchmarks and trends in online metrics, and how to pull them all together to measure your online success.
Friday, August 28 at 1 p.m. ET — Register Today! - SESSION FULL

I hope you'll be able to join all or most of these sessions. Space is limited so be sure to sign up soon.

Are your donation forms smart?

Steve MacLaughlin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:03:00 GMT

I thought that I would share a personal experience from the other day that got the wheels churning in my head. Whenever I need to restock on pet supplies, then I make a trip to PetSmart. They have a store not far from the Blackbaud office in Charleston.

At the checkout there is a screen that asks if you would like to make a donation to PetSmart Charities. The screen would ask a simple yes or no question if you wanted to make a $1 donation. It was a simple ask and I never left the store without pressing the "Yes" button.

But during my visit the other day, I noticed that they had updated the screen to ask for a $1, $2, $5, or $10 donation. I immediately pulled out my iPhone to take a quick photo. And then on the drive home I starting thinking about a lot of questions. Why did they make the change? Are people giving more? Less? How much more? How much less? Is there a linkage to store purchases and donations? Do they test different ask amounts in different stores? How did they choose the giving increments? Was it scientific? Was it just some guessing and testing? Am I the only one who gets excited about seeing something like this?

What is clear is that if you only ask for $1, then the most you are going to receive is $1. And if you only ask for $10, then you probably lose a lot of potential donations at a lower amount.

Expand this idea to your online giving ask amounts and how strategic you're being with them. How did you determine the ask amounts? Is it open ended or close ended? Do you always ask the same amounts no matter who is visiting the donation form? Do some donation form and ask amount combinations perform better or worse than others? How do you know? How much testing and experimentation are you doing?

First, if you're still using a single donation form with all the same ask amounts, no matter who visits them or where they visit them from, then you're missing a huge opportunity. Your online donation forms should be smart. They should vary depending on audience, entry point, and adjust over time as you learn more about donor behaviors.

Second, if you're only focused on anonymous visitors to the website, then you're missing an opportunity to specifically target known donors. This includes active email and landing page campaigns for known donor segments. Lapsed donors, multi-year donors, donors that increased giving, donors that decreased giving, donors to specific funds or programs, donors that subscribe to enewsletters, donors that have participated in an event. The list goes on and on. Research shows time and time again that targeted, personalized, and focused giving experiences yield better results. That's the smart way to go about online fundraising.

Does Online Cannibalize Offline Fundraising?

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:41:00 GMT

This question seems to come up all the time when looking at online giving trends. It came up just the other day at the Institute of Fundraising Nation Convention in London. And the answer to the question is very simple — it depends.

Your Results May Vary
The cannibalization argument says that the growth in online giving comes at the expense of donors who used to, or would have otherwise, given offline. I have seen customer data that backs up this argument and I've seen data that refutes it. Your own trends may differ and it is extremely important to analyze your online and offline donor data together to see what is happening. It is also important to look at how giving to different channels impact the size, frequency, and length of giving. Start by checking a sample of your own data. Your own results may vary.

Changing Channels
The 2008 donorCentrics Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis examined how donors change channels over time. The Target Analytics study found that online donors do switch to become offline donors, but offline donors rarely become online donors. The same trend was true in the 2006 report and has held up over time. This trend means it is very rare for a traditional offline donor to change to online giving and any cannibalization would be very minor. If you are looking at things from a siloed perspective, then it would actually be more accurate to say that offline probably cannibalizes online. Of course, that would be a very short-sighted view of what is really happening with giving channels these days.

Don't Confuse Programs and Channels
Major giving and annual funds are programs. Direct mail and email are channels. Be very careful not to confuse the two. Email-driven giving doesn't steal from the annual fund. But it may be drawing donors away from those that traditionally gave via direct mail. Many claims of cannibalization are rooted in highly siloed organizations or where the culture rewards hoarding of donor groups. This is why it is so important that programs in the organization use multiple channels to drive giving. The annual fund program might choose a strategy where direct mail, phone, email, and social media channels are used to bring in new donors and retain existing ones too. Focus on the right mix of channels that complement the program and the donors you're trying to engage.

Where the Growth Is
Target Analytics noted in the donorCentrics study that as much as 16% of new donors and 27% of new revenue came from online in 2008. Compare that will a recent downward trend in donor acquisition using offline channels like direct mail. These donors also typically give more online than offline donors. Blackbaud's analysis of online fundraising continues to show positive growth on a year-over-year basis. I am sure at one point in history there were arguments over how the telephone was cannibalizing the telegraph. Even today there are debates over how debit cards are ruining the check writing industry. This seems to me like misdirected angst. But few would argue that giving donors more choice and options is a bad thing.

The Donor is Always Right
Whether they choose to give online or by mailing in a check or during a phone-a-thon then that is the donor's choice. You might limit certain options or focus on certain channels but the donor always has the final choice. In a world where there are more and more options for donors and no shortage of organizations willing to personalize the giving experience the successful nonprofits will be those that embrace donor choice. Don't forget to give your donors choice and let them make choices that are right for them.

2009 Institute of Fundraising National Convention

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:47:00 GMT

This week is the Institute of Fundraising National Convention here in London. The Institute of Fundraising is the professional body for fundraising in the UK and the national convention has a big event since 1988. There will be over 1,700 attendees from across the UK and Europe. Look for the #iofnc hash tag on Twitter to follow the action.

The IoF is having individual one-day conferences within the Convention called Focus On sessions. Today's Focus On sessions are all about E-Media and Fundraising. There are four sessions all about the Internet and digital media from a variety of different speakers.

I've been invited to speak as a part of these sessions. My session is called "Unleashing Integrated Online and Offline Strategies To Get Results" and it combines some information specific to Europe as well as trends happening throughout the nonprofit sector.

The multichannel integrated marketing topic is not a new one for me, but I'm adding some new connections to social media. We are now dealing with a whole new wave of channels that nonprofits can use to engage supporters. But balancing broadcast, direct mail, online, and social media requires some vision, a solid strategy, and a willingness to break down silos within the organization.

2009 Online Giving Trends - Q2

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:03:00 GMT

The first half of 2009 is now over and we have some updated information about online giving trends from Blackbaud clients to share. This is a follow-up to the Q1 2009 Online Giving Trends information that was released in April. This information comes from approximately 2,000 nonprofit organizations using Blackbaud's Internet solutions and represents the largest sample size studied in the nonprofit sector.

Average Gift Amount Changes
An analysis of 1,973 nonprofits found an average online gift amount of $124.17 for Q2 of 2009. This was an increase of $2.07 from Q1 2009. A review of all the 2009 data shows that average gift amounts dropped through the first part of the year before bottoming in April and then growing again in May and June. This is consistent with giving trends we've seen for several years now.

Year Over Year Performance Trends
The analysis looked at a sub-group of 1,274 nonprofits to compare their online fundraising results for the first six months of 2008 to the same period of 2009. These nonprofits had a 22.13% year-over-year growth in online revenue. This growth trend continues to be very positive despite mixed economic conditions for many organizations. These organizations all used a combination of Blackbaud online fundraising, email marketing, and integrated CRM tools.

Online Major Giving Trends
An analysis of data for January 1st through June 30th of 2009 found that 1,245 nonprofits had at least one online gift of $1,000 or more. 38 nonprofits in the analysis had at least one online gift of $20,000 of more so far in 2009. Online pledges and recurring gifts were excluded from the analysis. Major donors continue to move to the web as part of their giving behaviors. The 2008 donorCentrics Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis indicated that a median of 34% of online donors earned over $100,000 annually, compared to a median of only 24% of offline donors in the same income range. We'll continue to monitor this trend in the future.

Notes: All data is calculated directly from online transactions processed by Blackbaud. Online recurring gifts and pledges are not included in the entire data analysis. The single largest online gift ($50,000) and single smallest online gift ($1) during the analysis period were removed.

Digital Leap Conference in London

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:29:00 GMT

Today is the Digital Leap conference in London. It's all about fundraising, social networking, and online charity success in the UK and Europe.

Digital Leap is being held at the ICO Conference Centre in central London. There are a great set of speakers at the event including:

Ted Hart, CEO, Hart Philanthropic Services Group
Alan Clayton, Director of Innovation, The Good Agency
Richie Jones, Founder and Creative Technology Director, Yucca UK
Robert McAllen, Programme Manager, Blackbaud Europe
Jason Potts, Director, Think Consulting Solutions
Reuben Turner, Creative Director, The Good Agency
Beth Granter, Social Media Marketer, Twentyfirst Will McInnes, Managing Director, NixonMcInnes

Be sure to check out the Digital Leap blog and follow the conference on Twitter.