While this article title sounds like a long dissertation, it's really a very well done piece for onPhilanthropy.com on the real work that's required to get into email marketing for nonprofits. I've seen a couple of nonprofits making requests on elance.com & guru.com where they're asking for someone who can obtain email lists for targeted demographics. Sure, you can do this, but it's not really all that wise anymore with the SPAM act and all.

David Crooke brings up another good point in the article when he talks about offering constituents a "lifetime email address." I'm not too sure how effective this is, but if I had an email address like "danavandenheuvel@redcross.org", I'd feel pretty good about it I guess...

The bottom line is, there's no easy way into email marketing without first making every effort to build your house email list.

[via onPhilanthropy.com]

This study from Luth Research fits nicely into the mantra that Ben and Jackie have been preaching over at Church of the Customer.

In a survey of 1,751 Luth Research panel members concluded that over 58% of respondents worldwide say personal correspondence is their top motivating factor for making a contribution.

Think about that. If NPR, which we've seen many discussions on lately, offered their listener/donors to send creative emails from their site, similar to how you can send all of your friends a discount on the books you just purchased from Amazon, they could potentially, at least according to this study, raise the success ratio of their donations among peer groups!

The Luth and Kintera survey, conducted in December 2003, also determined that 22.4% of people around the world have made an online donation. Furthermore, 17.8% planned to make a contribution to a political candidate or party in 2004. Among those people who have made on online donation before and are likely to donate to a politician or political party this year, 15% say they respond to solicitation e-mails sent from a person they know, whereas just 3% respond to e-mails from people they do not know.


[via eMarketer]

I love the new "Click & Build" donation page on the website of Habitat for Humanity. Here you can specify what elements of a house to donate, by clicking on different parts of a cartoon house.

Perfect use of the Web for a nonprofit donation page.
http://www.habitat.org/donation/clickandbuild

Baltimore Sun: Nonprofits take entrepreneurial path
As the economy has slumped, nonprofit organizations, which rely heavily on public and private donations, have felt the pinch and are seeking new ways of generating revenue to sustain their programs and services.

In Baltimore, several local nonprofits are partnering with businesses and development groups to engage in money-generating collaboratives which will not only drive 'profits' to the nonprofits, but also teach them much needed sales, marketing, and business operations skills.

[Wired News: By Amit Asaravala] Online donations are surging. Among the big winners in 2003 were the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Howard Dean's presidential campaign.

Why is this, you might ask?
"Clients are starting to see the demographics change," said Austin. "College grads want to be talked to over the Web. And the fastest-growing segment of Internet users is the 55-and-older crowd, a group that traditionally donates the most."

In PROMO magazine, Kathleen Joyce discusses how non-profits can take advantage of the momentum created and lessons learned from the political blogs of the 2004 campaigns.

"Blog? What's a blog? Short for “Web log,” it is an interactive online journal, with news and other information supplied by various constituents. With startup software costing as little as $200, it is also quickly becoming one of the more effective ways to enlist an audience, build loyalty with that group and — almost incidentally — raise substantial money for a cause."

“Non-profits want both dollars and visibility, and the Web creates an environment for engaging a corporate partner to maximize both.”

http://promomagazine.com/ar/marketing_new_kids_blog/index.htm

Many non-profit organizations are benefiting from a Google initiative that has quietly been in place for several months: free ads steering traffic to their sites.

The Google Grants program still is officially in the test stage, and the search company would not say how many non-profits it has helped.

Google's application period deadline has been extended to: January 30, 2004, so you'd better get cracking!

From Internetnews.com:
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/3303971

Google Grants Home
http://www.google.com/grants/