Future Fundraising Now

Category: Digital

  • How a tiny change in a Facebook ad doubled donations

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    by

    Jeff Brooks
    in

    Here’s an eye-opening test from NextAfter: Will Testing Different CTAs in Facebook Ad Copy to Increase Donor Conversions. A Bible distribution agency in Canada ran a set of Facebook ads, with an interesting test: The ad consisted of several paragraphs of text, with a one-minute video at the bottom. The test was the wording of…

  • No excuse for deception in email fundraising

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    Jeff Brooks
    in

    I get a lot of political fundraising email. A lot. Dozens of similar messages every day from a bewildering variety of Democratic-leaning organizations. So many that it’s not possible to keep track. I used to open them and pay close attention, because they were from sophisticated email fundraisers who were running tests all the time.…

  • Online fundraising benchmark report shows mixed picture

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    Jeff Brooks
    in

    What’s going on in online fundraising? Here’s a view, from the M+R Benchmarks for 2025 (free download; registration required). It’s a look at what happened in 2024, as seen by a =healthy range of organizations who are raising funds online. Some highlights: There’s a whole lot more in the report. Includes a lovely selection of…

  • 8 ways to improve your donation pages

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    Jeff Brooks
    in

    You are probably losing a lot of donations from people who clicked onto your landing (donation) pages, then left without completing them. Most donations pages could be better, and here’s help from the Hubspot Marketing Blog, at 8 Must-Have Tips for Writing Landing Page Copy That Converts:

  • How self-centered brands make nonprofit websites weak

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    Jeff Brooks
    in ,

    Sometimes, your website reveals things about your organization that you might not have intended. Like: Hey donor, we are not very interested in you. But we think you should be very interested in us! That’s common, though I doubt it’s ever the intended message. Let me show you how it happens by describing a very…

  • 6 ways to excite donors to open your emails

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    Jeff Brooks
    in

    What really makes email fundraising a heavy lift is how hard it is to get peoples’ attention. Your message is just a subject line in a long list of subject lines in an overcrowded inbox. Here’s help, from the NextAfter Blog: How to Write Fundraising Email Subject Lines Your Donors Will Open (And Click). All…

  • Fundraising lessons from political subject lines

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    Jeff Brooks
    in

    If you’ve ever made a political donation, your email inbox soon fills up with political fundraising. They seem to indiscriminately share or sell names. It’s annoying sometimes, but it’s also educational. Just the subject lines tell us something. Most of these political emailers are highly sophisticated groups with large lists and constant testing. Political and…

  • Engagement scores plus a few dollars will get you a cup of coffee

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    by

    Jeff Brooks
    in

    You’ve likely been approached by someone who says they can take your fundraising to new heights through some kind of “engagement” magic on social media. Before you direct any of your budget toward them, read this post at The Agitator: Engagement Scores: The Empty Calories of Fundraising/Marketing. “Engagement” — actions like click, like, attend, follow…

  • 9 ways to meaningfully improve your donation pages

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    Jeff Brooks
    in

    I hate to say it, but a lot (really, a lot) of nonprofit online giving pages are a hot mess. This is holding back those organizations. And as more and more giving migrates to the web, the problem is getting worse. But it’s completely fixable. Here’s a helpful post from the Engage Blog: How to…

  • 6 ways to avoid being a spammer

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    Jeff Brooks
    in

    I don’t think any fundraiser wants to send their donors spam. But spam is in the inbox of the recipient. They define your email as spam, just by thinking so, and more importantly, saying so. And when they do that, you don’t lose just one address — you degrade the deliverability of all your messages.…