Category: Digital
-
6 ways to avoid being a spammer
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.…
-
Nonprofit online revenue down 1%
How is our online fundraising doing? You can get a picture for comparison from M+R’s 2024 Online Benchmarks, a large look at the online fundraising landscape. (Downloadable PDF available.) Here are some key findings of the benchmarks: A word of warning about benchmarks: While they are super helpful and can give you amazing insights, they…
-
Tools to make your digital content inclusive (and effective)
The good news: There are a ton of great tools that can help you make your digital content accessible and inclusive. The bad news: well-designed accessible content is still uncommon. Too many content creators just aren’t paying attention to this. That includes many nonprofits. Even those whose mission includes promoting accessibility! Here are some excellent…
-
9 ways to write better subject lines
The subject line is the most important part of an email. It’s typically seen by your recipients in their inboxes alongside dozens of other subject lines. They are highly likely to delete it without a second thought. Here, from the NextAfter Blog, are some guidelines for getting your emails noticed — which gives them a…
-
9 tested ways to raise more money online
As email becomes more and more important as a way to raise funds, we’re learning many of the ground rules that work best. And it’s often just as counterintuitive as direct mail. Here’s a useful guide from NextAfter: Email Fundraising: A Quick Reference Guide for Crafting Emails that Lead to More Revenue (downloadable PDF, registration…
-
20 ways to improve your emails
Here’s a useful checklist for email fundraisers, from the Hubspot Marketing Blog: 20 Email Best Practices That Actually Drive Results. It’s aimed at commercial emailers, but most of the hints work for fundraising too. Don’t purchase contact lists. It’s basically paying to be labeled a spammer. Avoid using ‘No-Reply’ in the sender’s email address. Let…
-
10 things to make your fundraising email stronger
From the Hubspot Marketing Blog, How to Write a Marketing Email: 10 Tips for Writing Strong Email Copy: Subject Line: Use actionable language. Make it about doing something. Subject Line: Personalize when possible. This increases open rates, click-throughs, and response. Subject Line: Prioritize clarity, and only then think about “catchiness.” If it’s clever but unclear,…
-
Should you ask donors to cover processing fees for their donations?
Asking donors to cover credit card processing fees (usually 2% to 3% of the donation) is often marketed as a clever way to squeeze a little more revenue from your online donors. Does it work? Not in this experiment reported by NextAfter: How introducing “donor fees” impacts conversion. The test was very simple. A landing…
-
6 ways to fix your nonprofit website
You’ve got a great looking website with tons of excellent content. You’re getting lots of visitors to the site. But not many donations. What’s wrong? It’s your conversion rate — the percentage of visitors who end up taking action. Here are some of the common problems that hurt conversion rate — and cost you revenue,…
-
What should fundraising emails be like?
You might be surprised what works to raise funds online. In short: Simpler is more effective. Here are three tests from NextAfter that just might make you want to rethink how you do online fundraising: Test #1: Simple and personal How a radical redesign of an email appeal and donation page affected donor conversion rate.…