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Alliance Guide to Fundraising

Part Five: Online Fundraising

July 2014

PREVIEW


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Alliance Guide to Fundraising Series

Creating and Implementing anEffective Fundraising Plan1

2

3

45

Anatomy of a Winning Proposal

Finding Local Funding Sources

Government Consulting and Contracts

Public Funding Best Practices

6

Online Fundraising


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Guide to Fundraising PART FIVE: Online Fundraising

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Acknowledgements

This publication includes notes fromthe Alliances Mutual Aid Call on

June 5, 2013. Thank you to the callspanelists for many of the notes andtips in this guide:

Active Transportation Alliance

Bike Pittsburgh

BikeWalkKC

Cascade Bicycle Club

Consider Biking

Livable Streets AllianceLiving Streets Alliance

Los Angeles County Bicycle Coali-

tion

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Transportation Alternatives

Washington Area Bicyclist Associa-

tion

This publication was made possible

thanks to insight, resources and ex-amples from:

M+R Strategic Services

New Organizing Institute

Blue State Digital

Brighid OKeane, Lead Author

Mary Lauran Hall, Editor and Secondary Author

About this Series

Since 1996, the Alliance or Biking & Walking has workedto create, strengthen and unite bicycle and pedestrian

advocacy organizations across North America. As agents

o change on the ground, state and local advocates are

transorming their communities into great places to walk

and bike.

Securing and maintaining sustainable and diverse unding

streams is a key component o a successul advocacy

organization and undraising is a top interest among

Alliance members. In order to share knowledge, bestpractices and real-world examples, the Alliance is creating

this six-part Guide to Fundraising.

Tis guide serves as Part Five o the evolving series. As

these guides are meant to be living documents, we invite

your input and examples to strengthen and enhance these

resources or all Alliance member organizations.

Please contact Brighid OKeane, Deputy Director, withany insight or contributions or this or uture guides in the

undraising series: [email protected].

Cover photo credits (rom lef):Natalie Baker - Lending a helping hand; Derek Slagle - International Walk toSchool Day; Cheryl Burnette - First day on the job; Jackie Douglas - Reclaiming streets or people
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Contents

Introduction 3

Generational Giving 5

Websites 7

Email 16

Social Media 25

Crowdunding 27

Fundraising Videos 29

Crowdunding 30

Conclusion 33

Appendix I: Online Fundraising Worksheet 34

Appendix II: Basic Email Template 36

Reerences and Resources 37

Contact 38

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11% o U.S. adults attend more than 1 public meeting per year.48% o adults have never attended a public meeting. 78% o U.S.citizens are online. 90% o U.S. households have a cell phone. In

order to attract the next generation o donors, we must shif ouroutreach and appeals to a ormat that will reach young givers.

GenerationalGiving

TIP: Collect age data fromyour members and donors

to track giving trends.Test different strategies,track responses, and actaccordingly!

Image: Pew Charitable rusts


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According to research by Convio, while all generations still givedirectly to charities through direct mail, 53% o Gen Y and 37% oGen X donors engage with their top charities through their websiteand social media. Tese younger donors describe themselves asmore random and peer motivated in their giving, making socialnetworks a critical component in cultivating supporters or yourorganization.

Generation USpopulation

Estimated % of thegeneration that give

Avg givingamount

Matures (born 1945 or earlier) 39 million 79% $1066

Boomers (born 1946-1964) 78 million 67% $901

Gen X (born 1965-1980) 62 million 58% $796

Gen Y (born 1981-1991) 51 million 56% $341

How can you engage younger members and encourage them todonate to your organization?

Build an online constituency. Tere are many ways to attractnew supporters, such as search advertising and collecting nameson your web site. Always think o these new contacts as potentialdonors i you engage them successully.

Segment your marketing audiencesrather than streamliningall your messages into one communication will help you directlyreach younger generations o members and donors. I you collectage data, consider sending appeals asking or $10 to supporters ingeneration Y and younger.

Start off by asking people or as little as possible, and then workpeople up the ladder o engagement. First ask people to do smallthings like adding their name to a list. Ten, ask them ormore high-bar asks, like donating or joining your organization.Follow up one action with another that involves a slightly highercommitment. Make sure youre constantly asking people to dothings. Dont ask them too much, but be sure that they always

know the next thing to do.

Facilitate giving among younger generations by simpliyingyour donation tools and making it as easy as possible to donate.Rather than suggesting our or five methods to donate (PayPal,credit card, snail mail, membership), just offer one clear stream.We recommend ocusing on the credit card option.

Ask orsmall-dollar donationsto help engage nontraditionaldonors young people or first time donors who would bereluctant to give unless it was 3 or 5 dollars.

TIP: Set up theinfrastructure to workpeople up a ladder

of engagement. Anautoresponse email shouldalways say thank you,now take the next step.

Source: Convio


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More and more donors are giving via online donations, but themajority are still giving offline afer visiting a nonprofit website.Effective websites teach supporters about the work that youre

doing, highlight successes, provide tools or involvement andopportunities to get involved both online and offline.

A study rom M+R Strategic Services ound that large nonprofitssaw website visits increase by 16% in 2013. On average, 0.69% owebsite visitors made a gif, amounting to an average value o $0.60per visit.

Websites increase your reach to stakeholders. Maximize thevisibility o your organization online by having a simple, easy toread website that clearly states what your organization does, showsrequent updates about your work, and draws potential supportersinto involvement. o maximize your websites visibility in searchtraffic, make sure the title o your website is closely related to yourorganizations name. Also, be sure to link to your website and yourcontent pages rom external sites.

Here are some tips or encouraging website giving, and examplesrom a scan o Alliance member organizations.

Have an easily accessible Donate option

on all pages.

Make a clear ask or people to donate to your organization, ratherthan an implicit Support Us, so donations arent conused withmembership or email list asks. Tis button should also remainvisible on all parts o your organizations website.

Cascade Bicycle Club has a Donate option on the menu barseparate rom their Join option:

Websites

TIP:Engage supportersthrough advocacycampaigns. Shareinformation and updatesabout those campaignson your website. For thevast majority of yoursupporters, if you dont

communicate about it, itdidnt happen.

TIP:Make sure to updateyour membership andcontact information with

the Alliance, so people willbe directed to your page.

Image: Cascade Bicycle Club
https://www.bikewalkalliance.org/dashboardhttps://www.bikewalkalliance.org/dashboardhttps://www.bikewalkalliance.org/dashboardhttps://www.bikewalkalliance.org/dashboardhttps://www.bikewalkalliance.org/dashboardhttps://www.bikewalkalliance.org/dashboardhttps://www.bikewalkalliance.org/dashboardhttps://www.bikewalkalliance.org/dashboard


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Te Active ransportation Alliance website includes a noticeablebutton on a header that remains consistent across every page otheir website:

Strip down the donate page to its barest

elements.

Collecting donations online isnt easy-peasy. Te 2014 M+RBenchmarks study ound that only 15% o visitors who make itto a nonprofit websites primary donation page actually made adonation. Tis number is called a conversion rate because it reersto the proportion o people who were converted rom passivevisitors into active supporters.

15% is pretty low, suggesting that its already an uphill battleto convince people to give dollars to your organization online.o minimize the chance that a potential supporter will becomedistracted rom donating, ensure that your donate page is as simpleas possible. Successul donation pages have very little to distractpeople rom the act o making a donation.

I possible, build donation pages that have templates that are muchsimpler than the basic skeleton o your website. Its also helpul toset donation pages to open in a new window, so that when visitorsdo close the donation page, theyll still return to your website.

Image: Active ransportation Alliance


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Like what youre seeing?

Te ull guide is available to members o the Alliance or Biking & Walking.

Join the Alliance at https://www.bikewalkalliance.org/membership/join
https://www.bikewalkalliance.org/membership/joinhttps://www.bikewalkalliance.org/membership/join

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