More donors are integrating the web with other media

Maybe it used to be okay to have a website that wasn't really aimed at donors, but that's changing. A recent survey by the NonProfit Times, Web Triggers Direct Mail Response, says:

...twice as many potential donors are heading online after receiving a fundraising solicitation by mail than they did just three years ago, and among those 65 and older, the increases were even more substantial.

When the survey was done three years ago, 25% of respondents said they check out potential charities on the web. This year 44% said so.

(I just have to include my standard disclaimer about survey research: It doesn't tell you how people behave; it tells you what they say about how they behave. Not the same thing.)

Even so, there's no surprise in the direction of these findings. More people are growing more accustomed to using the web. Every day, more donors are making the web a meaningful part of the way they interact with charities.

So you'd better make sure what they're getting in the mail and what they find online are in some way connected. Make sure you're answering the questions donors have -- not the ones you wish they'd have. Make it easy to give online. Look out for confusing thickets of links that lead away from what donors are looking for.

If your organization's site is a hodge-podge creating by competing and conflicting silos, it's going to cost you.

Technorati Tags: fundraising, nptech

Comments

[Zariah K.]

The United States was founded on the principles of individual freedom, equality and due process
in a democratic society, but in the area of the justice system, these principles have often been challenged..
Nowhere are the principles of human rights and democratic society more at risk today than in the U.S.
juvenile justice system. Prior to the establishment of the Juvenile Court, children who were charged with delinquent actswere primarily tried in the criminal justice system, but age did play a role in presumptions of criminalresponsibility. Individuals under the age of fourteen were presumed not to possess the sufficient criminal responsibility to commit a crime, though the presumption was refutable between the ages of seven and fourteenApparently that is exactly what the government is doing to save some extra cash. Obviously, if the number of child criminals who re-offend goes back up, the number of adults who get thrown in the slammer will go up right along with it. This is going to create a bigger battle than what they are currently fighting. If you want to learn more, this article talks about which programs are getting axed in the government’s quest to save extra cash.