Helping nonprofits succeed online.		December 2006
Online Donations		Training & Workshops		Nonprofit Resources

In This Issue: New! Personal Fundraising Badges Refer a Friend and Get 30 Days on Us! 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference Website Tips for Year-End Giving Featured Customer: Global Exchange Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog Katya Andresen shares her tips on stealing corporate savvy to sell just causes in her new marketing blog. Ask why before acting from habit Best Internet Marketing for a Cause 2006 Doing good goes viral; use these ideas! Personal Fundraising Badges Turn your donors into fundraisers! The number one reason people donate to charity is because a trusted person asks them. This holiday, ask your donors to support your nonprofit by creating and sharing a personal fundraising badge. It's a free, easy-to-use online fundraising tool that you can customize with photos, text and links for your charity. You can create one for your donors or ask them to make their own! How it works: Users submit a photo, text, video and then choose one organization for which they want to fundraise. Network for Good gives users the HTML code that can be incorporated onto their social networking site (like MySpace), blog and/or in their email signature. The charity badge enables users to track donations real-time and encourages others to set up a badge. Yahoo! will create a microsite with a running list of the top 10 fundraisers according to the number of donations they have driven through their charity badge. At the conclusion of the campaign on 12/31, Yahoo! will match the person who generates the most number of donations through their badge -- up to $50K! It only takes minutes to create a badge - create yours at: http://promotions.yahoo.com/giving/index.php?loc=NFG Note to Groundspring DonateNow Customers: The Personal Fundraising Badge is a free service of the Network for Good website and is not a part of your Groundspring Account. Donor tracking and transaction processing costs are associated with Network for Good's free Basic DonateNow service. Refer a Friend and Get 30 Days on Us! Current Groundspring Customers—don't miss out on this opportunity! For every new nonprofit customer you refer to us in 2006, you can BOTH receive up to $44.90 toward your monthly fees. Send the following link on to your nonprofit friends this holiday season: http://www.groundspring.org/services/taf_instructions.html 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference Join us April 4-6, 2007 in Washington, DC! Each year the Nonprofit Technology Conference brings together over 1,000 people for three days of connecting, learning, educating, and fun. Collaborators in the nonprofit and technology sectors will have the opportunity to share resources and learn about what works, what doesn't work, and what new technology will help make the world a better place. The conference will address common issues faced by nonprofit leaders, program staff, development professionals, IT staff and technology support providers. The agenda will span a broad range of technology expertise and topics. Anyone who is interested in how technology can be used to help nonprofit organizations go farther, faster, or be more user-friendly should participate. Register before Jan 15th for special rates! Website Tips for Year-End Giving Follow these tips to make sure your website is ready for donors who wait until the few days of the year to give. Donations as Gifts Encourage your supporters to consider making a donation as a holiday gift for a loved one this year. Use a service that allows donors to send an eCard or provide a mailing address to have their honorees acknowledged. Remind them it is a wonderful way to involve children in the process of giving to others and helping your charity all in one effort. Put a face to the gift Whatever your mission is, relate the appeal to a specific need of your beneficiaries, such as a warm meal for a homeless child, shelter for abuse victims or the surgery of a rescued animal. Use messaging and touching imagery that relates directly to gift giving and your organization's mission. Offer Incentives Consider offering branded gifts or other incentives for giving over a certain amount, such as a t-shirt or hat with your organization's logo. Doing so will often encourage higher dollar donations and facilitate familiarity with your organization from loyal supporters. Giving Options Donors like choices. Consider listing the following options on your donation page: Donate Online Donate by Mail In-Kind donations Memberships/Giving Circles Stock Donations Honor/Memorials Estate Planning Program Results & Accountability Your supporters want to know how their contributions are being spent and what sort of programmatic results you are getting from your efforts. Many donors rely on websites, such as Charity Navigator or GuideStar, to look at information on your organization before they give. Make sure your website clearly displays your accomplishments and your GuideStar profile is up-to-date. Easy to Act Make that Donate Now button visible from your home page, donation and program pages to ensure that you don't miss a single opportunity to engage your supporters when they are compelled to give. Provide a form to collect email addresses too, so that you can continue communication with supporters long after the holidays are over. Driving Donors Once you have the website just right, you have to get people there. Include your Donate Now URL in all your online (and offline) communications - newsletter, blog, signature and last-minute appeals. Remind supporters of year-end tax breaks and don't forget to ask them to tell their friends about your mission too - trusted references are a great source of new referrals. For more ideas and techniques, download a free copy of our holiday donation tips. Featured Customer: Global Exchange Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. They use multiple customized DonateNow pages for specific campaigns. These campaigns include events, project specific e-appeals, and calls to action. Their use of the Custom DonateNow service plays an important part in their overall strategy of donor and constituent engagement. Donors can get to the online donation page from a variety of web pages and links from appeals to make a one-time or recurring donation. Through the DonateNow question asking capability, Global Exchange is able to learn more about their donors. Todd Mills says "we want to find out why people are donating" and their interests - a customizable drop down list of questions allows their staff to do just that. Todd said that they also value the low cost and "adaptability" of DonateNow. For example, they like the fact that their Custom DonateNow page has a customizable background look and feel (like their website). They also appreciate the fact that the DonateNow configuration wizard is easy to use and enables Global Exchange to set-up and change their donation page according to their needs.