Tag Archive for 'nten'

Finding the peers you didn’t know you had

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Amy Sample Ward
on August 11, 2008
in community
. 3 Comments

I am a huge fan of all things shared-knowledge. I get excited, dive right in, and always feel like I learn so much regardless of how much I’m able to contribute (though I try to always put in all that I can). I hope, and believe, that many of you are the same way and thought I would make sure you all know about two awesome ways for sharing peer-to-peer knowledge, especially with peers you didn’t know you had!

Net Squared Community Blog: Net Squared “enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.” This is a great place to hear about what other organizations are doing, regardless of where they may be on the adoption timeline for different new media tools. I love the varied topics and people that post here, keeping me exposed to all sorts of fields. It is a community blog, so feel free to set up your free account with Net Squared and post to the blog as well!

NTEN Affinity Groups: NTEN is a membership organization of nonprofit technology professionals that “aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations skillfully and confidently use technology to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.” You don’t have to be a member to join the affinity groups, though! There are many different topic areas covered and it’s a terrific way to find resources and contacts that can help answer questions or provide advice, especially for areas where you previously didn’t know quite who to ask. Check out the lists and join groups that match your interests!

Where do you find peer-to-peer help when you have a question or need advice? Do you prefer on or offline help; people you know already or people you may know via a network (like Net Squared or NTEN)?

Upcoming Events in Portland

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Amy Sample Ward
on July 15, 2008
in events
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We have two great events coming up here in Portland - the July Net Tuesday and 501 Tech Club.  I’m really excited!

Net Tuesday: Effective Websites for Nonprofits

We will learn about conversion, testing your website and campaign language, and the attributes of effective nonprofit websites (especially for fundraising!).  It should be a great opportunity to examine websites from organizations in the group and relate new learning.  Hal Newton will be our opening presenter, but we want everyone to participate when we open it up to discussion and conversation.

Do you have resources you want to be sure are included?  What about a great case study?

501 Tech Club: Municipal Wireless

Join with members of the Personal Telco Project, NTEN and the City of Portland to learn more about and discuss the history, progress, and future of municipal wireless.  This is a great opportunity to hear about efforts like MetroFi and Personal Telco, as well as how you can get involved in improving your neighborhood’s networks.

If you aren’t from Portland, what have been successes or failures in your city with municipal wireless?

If you aren’t in Portland, don’t worry!  I’ll be sure to share with you the conversations and resources from these two great events!

WeAreMedia Project - It’s week 3!

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Amy Sample Ward
on July 15, 2008
in issues, socialmedia and wiki
. 0 Comments

Have you checked out the WeAreMedia Project from Beth Kanter and NTEN yet? I am really enjoying this great collaborative project and experiment in working wikily.

Week 1:  Why Should Your Nonprofit Embrace Social Media?  (or not?)

Learn about basic social media concepts and principles, as well as the situations in which social media would or would not help your organization.  Here is a great presentation that introduces social media.

Week 2:  Thinking Strategically About Social Media

Learn about the key ingredients you should use for putting together a great social media strategy, how social media strategy relates to your organization’s other internet and communications strategies, and more!  You can even check out the example group exercise I contributed for creating a social media strategy!

Week 3:  The Social Media Ready Nonprofit: Dealing with Resistance

Learn about the signs of resistence in an organization, how to get organizational buy-in for social media strategies, and which policies are useful for dealing with social media in an organization.  Week 3 collaboration and contribution is happening now - join in or learn more!

What have been some of the hardest obstacles to over come in getting buy-in for social media at your organization?  Were the main evangelist, or did you have partners?

Office hours

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Amy Sample Ward
on June 16, 2008
in events
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Did you ever visit a teacher during their “office hours”— when they were prepping for class but available for questions, ideas, conversations, etc.? I did, on a few occasions, and it really changed my perception and relationship with those teachers away from traditional and hierarchical towards a friend, peer, ‘real person.’ When it comes to technology or new media questions, many people are intimidated to jump in the conversation and be THAT person who asks the ‘dumb’ question.

Well, just like using office hours in school, where no question is dumb and real friendships are made, NTEN is offering virtual office hours for your technology needs!

I operate online office hours during the day for my employer and have enjoyed the questions and opportunity to share ideas and help. I have encountered things from using a tool to conducting a video contest. It’s been a treat!

You can drop by an office hour that fits your question area and get real-time answers. Check out the schedule!

Let me know if you have questions, comments, ideas, or anything else - this blog is kind of like a 24/7 office hour, too!

CMS Survey from NTEN

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on June 2, 2008
in reports
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Last week, NTEN released the Content Management System Satisfaction Report (which you can download from their website).  Over 650 people fully completed the survey which covered over 27 different systems.

What I found most interesting was the impact of open source systems on the field:

  • Just over 25% of respondents said open source was in the top 3 of priorities when choosing an CMS
  • Over 1/3 of survey respondents reported using an open source tool already
  • Open source tools (including Drupal, Joomla!, Plone) were given some of the best over all grades by respondents

If you want to find out more about open source solutions, check out the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative.  You can download the report here.

What are you currently using for CMS?  Do you have an CMS or in-house technology staff who manage the website?  If you could ask one question and get a truthful answer in your CMS search, what would you ask?

Mercy Corps’ Story Arc

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on June 2, 2008
in events and storytelling
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Last week was the May event for the Portland 501 Tech Club.  We had a great opportunity to hear from Roger Burks of Mercy Corps who presented on the art of storytelling around and about crises.  It’s an interesting topic as many organizations who work in advocacy or aid find that their work is driven and their membership engaged around crises, but it is in those times that staff time can be the most strained, causing communication to suffer.

Roger laid out a story plan for organizations to use when a disaster strikes:

  1. Breaking news and details (can also include stock photos of the area or maps, etc.) - Day 1
  2. What the organization is doing (include stock photos or any photos coming out of the area) - Day 2
  3. From the field reports (include personal photos/videos from place of reports) - Day 3
  4. Updates (includes news stories, organization involvement and field reports with any photos and videos that accompany) - Day 4 and beyond
  5. Real-time field journals/blogs (great ways to send out short stories, updates, photos from the field with organization staff and partners working in the field) - Day 4 and beyond
  6. Beneficiary stories (help tell the story of those the organization is serving/helping) - Day 4 and beyond
  7. Community fundraising stories (help tell the story of local people and organizations working to fundraise themselves) - Week 1 and beyond
  8. Partnership stories (explain how the organization is partnering with other organizations and individuals) - Week 1 and beyond
  9. Milestone stories (1 month, 3 months, 1 year, etc. are great time-based milestones for reporting on the situation and progress) - Month 1 and beyond

It is important to create a place on the organization’s website for those looking to donate, a button that is clear and obvious and does not navigate the user to more stories or content but to the donation form.

Sending out emails to your membership is a great way to keep them informed of the above information, but keep in mind the balance of information and asks (asks = fundraising calls).  You gain loyalty from your membership (new and old) and create a presence as an information agent by providing quick and truthful news that isn’t tied to fundraising every time.  Try separating your emails into news-information and updates-fundraising, where the first may include news updates, links to more information, and firsthand reports from organization staff, while the second includes information about what the organization is doing to help, how it is partnering with other organizations and individuals to be more effective and ways the membership can help (which includes donating).

Has your organization responded to a disaster either locally or internationally by integrating the website, email notifications, and staff reports?  What did you find most useful in fundraising?  What did you find most useful in connecting users to information?

501 Tech Club - Conversations from the NTC

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on April 30, 2008
in events
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Today was the April 501 Tech Club brown bag lunch event and we focused on some of the best parts of NTEN’s NTC which took place last month.

It was a great chance to talk between conference goers about highlights and questions and even more exciting to have folks who hadn’t been to the conference ask questions to start conversations. Some of the areas that we touched on include:

  • Leadership: Technology staff have a great opportunity for developing leadership skills and helping navigate the organization, with technology-related issues as well as non-technology-related issues. It strengthens the organization to have technology staff a part of the leadership team. Likewise, it is incredibly important for execitve directors to gain technology knowledge so that when new, shiny, tools/toys come out (which seems to happen every day!), there is an understanding of what the organization can and can’t adopt and how.
  • ROI (Return on Investment): Specifically that of Social ROI, for social media, is a growing body of thought and practice with lots of conversations about different ways to measure social media work that doesn’t relate specifically to fundraising dollars. The most prominent component of social media is the community building and conversational nature of the tools, so the development of ways to measure and evaluate your organization’s use of these tools is integral.
  • Social Media Adoption: I was part of or overheard many conversations reinforcing the idea that organization’s can’t, and don’t have the staff/time/support/money, to adopt every tool that comes out. Instead, campaigns and projects need to be designed around the organization’s missions and then appropriate technology can be used when it is appropriate.
  • Communities of Practice: It was interesting to see puddles of people form because of common job functions and experiences that transcended session tracks or table topics. Groups like IT directors, peer-to-peer fundraisers, and non-technical staff that manage or work with online tools in their campaigns. It was great seeing the offline communities form with people who only knew each other online or through other friends. It is very important for people to build their support community because so many of us work in situations where we are the only IT staff person and it can be a lonely position.
  • Vendors: Many people enjoyed the opportunity to meet with and talk to vendor company representatives IN PERSON. Shaking the hand of someone from PayPal or Salesforce really changed the faceless, distant organization to companies with human employees that nonprofits can connect with.
  • Mobiles: A constantly growing field in the nonprofit technology world is that of mobile technology and the changing opportunities for nonprofits leveraging the power mobiles hold for reaching out to communities in need and in crisis. It is a great field to watch, and if you are interested in learning more about mobile technology, Mobile Active is an awesome organization to check out.

If you are interested in attending the next 501 Tech Club meeting in Portland, it is May 28th from 1-2:30 at the NW Health Foundation. We will focus on ‘Storytelling in Crises’ with a presentation from Roger Burks of Mercy Corps. You can find out more and join the community online at http://groups.nten.org.

And then there’s Advocacy

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on April 27, 2008
in reports
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As promised, I wanted to share some thoughts on the advocacy data included in the 2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study from M+R and NTEN (you can read about the email campaign data and the fundraising data, too).

Email Advocacy
The average rate for page completion (filling in a form, etc.) increased from 85% in 2006 to 89% in 2007. Things like improved layout and design of advocacy pages could be the reason for the increase, or that supporters are more comfortble/used to the forms and what to expect when clicking through to the page. I think it is also important to think about the inclusion of auto-complete/fill information either from a personal option on the users’ computers or through a cookie from your site.

Taking Action
Environmental and rights organizations each had about half of their membership taking action in 2007. That is well ahead of health and international organizations. Often, it is hard to simplify the best reason or couple reasons that contribute to the high action rates. Of course, doing everything ‘right’ doesn’t hurt! I suggest signing up on the list for organizations or campaigns that strikes/surprises/motivates/impresses you outside (or in) your sector of work and learn from the ways it is done - how the emails are done (how many, about what, etc.), how you are called to action, how you are rewarded for action if you do take it, etc.

One statistic that is very important to learn from is that of those who are active members, 13% are categorized as ’super activists’ but those 13% account for 42% of the action taken (in 2007). These super activists comprise about 5% of an organization’s list. These are very important members. That much goes without saying; but, what does it mean for your organization’s interaction with them? It’s important to investigate and develop ways for super activists to do the work of cultivating less active or inactive members into taking action, so that you don’t have to. Building a system for interaction between members can allow for further actions that include inviting others to become active when you do, or suggesting actions to your contacts, etc.

Case Studies
#1. Human Rights Campaign

The HRC increased its advocacy response rates in 2007 by a full percentage point and contribute this increase to segmentation of its list. It split the list into five sub-lists based on the members’ past activities/interactions with the organization. HRC could then communicate in a more tailored way with the members on each list.

Today, everyone on the list gets one advocacy action and the one email newsletter per month, plus a fundraising campaign every 2-3 months. Beyond that, audiences for emails are based on demonstrated interest. For example, extra action alerts only go to people who’ve already shown an interest in that issue and to core activists (who have taken 5+ online actions in the page year). Special fundraising campaigns target recent donors. Higher-threshold actions like phone calls and letters to the editor never go to inactives.

Even though there may be fewer people receiving an important action, it is directed at the members more likely to actually do it, instead of becoming another email to someone frustrated by action alerts who only subscribes for the news and information.

#2. Environmental Defense

ED noticed that they were earning 40% of their dollars in the year-end and that people gave at the same rate regardless of how many emails when looking at the data from three consecutive Decembers. In 2007, they took a random 15% of their list and those members received only 3 messages while the rest of the list received 13 (between Thanksgiving and December 31st). The group receiving only 3 messages had a lower donation rate so they plan to do further list testing to find the ’sweet spot’ with their members. What has been the result of list tests like this; if you haven’t yet done any segmenting or testing, do you plan to?

An interesting test that ED conducted on their website took place right on the home page. They used a graphic with polar bears and a call to action for contributions, in one instance, and in the other simply put the donation form in the same spot (top, center of the home page). What they noticed was an increase of 8% more gifts with the donation form, 8% more donations of $1,000 or less and 10% more donations of %500 or less. The lesson they learned was to just put the option completely in front of the visitor, take out all possible clicks, and let them decide right away if they are going to give or not.

What has been the best advocacy campaign/call to action in the last year at your organization? What data did you collect (either quantitative or qualitative) that helped you plan for the next one?

Online fundraising’s little tricks

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on April 25, 2008
in fundraising and reports
. 2 Comments

As I started discussing yesterday, M+R and NTEN released the2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study and there is quite a bit of data to get through.  Today, I want to share some of my thoughts about the fundraising benchmarks highlighted in the report and one of the case studies discussed in the report’s launch presentation.

Fundraising Response Rates
It was mentioned in the previous post as well that messaging response rates, including those of fundraising messages, were down last year compared to 2006.  There is a bit of trickiness to that data though:  even though the response rates declined, the overall amount raised online continues to go up partly because of the fact that the average email list has grown by a factor that is larger than the decline in response rates.

The declining open rates still convince me to look for ways to integrate calls into one message so that you have actions/advocacy, fundraising opportunities, and news/information in every email so it isn’t a one shot or nothing deal.

Online Giving
On average, organizations raised 40% of the online giving in Q4 (October-December).  This trend is true as well for gift size.  The study found that gift size dramatically increased at the end of the year (same was true in 2006).  So, the obvious lesson here is to cultivate as many donations as possible at the end of the year.

It seems to me, though, that just as much as you should cultivate donors/donations at year-end, you should find new ways of engaging them in your fundraising needs in other times of the year.  Remember that tying fundraising appeals to current events and other communication campaigns as another option for support (it’s really just another call to action) can bring in new donors and help you identify what issues the supporters care most about.

Case Studies
#1.  Humane Society of the United States

One of the profiles included in the study focuses on the HSUS’ fundraising success.  There are a few things they did to improve their fundraising response rates, one of them was that:

They recruited new advocates on high profile advocacy campaigns, and then converted the new advocates to donors by sending fundraising appeals on the same issue.  This strategy has proved so successful for HSUS that the organization has decided to customize its rolling welcome appeal for new advocates so that new advocates hear from HSUS on the same issue they joined the email list on.  HSUS has extended this segmentation strategy to other appeals, too, by targeting list members with appeals based on those advocates’ and donors’ past online actions.

I think it is incredibly important to note that they didn’t take frequent or high impact DONORS to target in a more direct way with fundraising, but frequent and high impact ACTION-TAKERS.  Fundraising is often not very low on the ladder of engagement with new members.  It makes sense to cultivate other involvement with the organization and then approach with donation opportunities.

#2.  Amnesty International USA

During the report release conference call/webinar/live event, a representative from AI explained some interesting learning they went through with their website and online giving.  Here are some of the areas they made changes and saw results:

  • Changing the web confirmation to donation form raised $46,000+ since December and indicates which issue inspires the donor (this is a confirmation when taking action, filling out a form, etc.)
  • Changing the standard gray “submit” (or “donate” and so on) button on the donation form to a large red “submit” button, they saw a 29% lift in conversion rate.
  • Adding some right-pointing arrows to a “donate” graphic on the home page provided a 5% lift in overall traffic to the donation form and a 55% lift in total dollars raised

It is incredible to think what tiny changes can be made on your website, especially ones like these that take very little time to implement, that can drastically improve your online fundraising success.

There is one more section to the benchmarks study that I’m going to cover tomorrow (the section on Advocacy).  The fundraising section really creates just as many questions as the email data from yesterday.

Where do you find out the most information about a donor right now and how is that reflected on your website?  How are you currently designing ways to cultivate donors outside of the October-December high season?

How do your benchmarks compare?

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on April 24, 2008
in reports
. 2 Comments

Today, M+R Strategic Services and NTEN released the 2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study.

This “analysis of online messaging, fundraising and advocacy metrics for nonprofit organization” comes with some surprises and some data that shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention to their online benchmarks. The NonProfit Times has a piece on the report here.

I read it this morning and participated in a webinar/conference call with the producers of the report this afternoon. Some of my thoughts are below, and many more will follow in additional posts. If you want to download the report, you can do so right here.

Data and thoughts…

Email Open Rates
One of the first pieces of information most of us look at when considering our effectiveness online is the open rate for email campaigns. As the report indicates, open rates have continued to trend down—2007’s rate was 17.6% with 2006 being at 21.3%. One important factor to remember, though, that really messes with the validity of these numbers, is the the way opens are indicated. Usually there is a one pixel size image that is embedded in the email so that when it loads on the viewer’s screen, the sender’s server is indicated and a open is registered. Many email applications have a preview window that loads an email even if the viewer doesn’t read it. Alternatively, most email clients viewed in a web browser are set by default not to load images. So, a viewer could read an email and even click through to take action or donate, with an open never being registered on the sender’s server.

People have so many emails to get through every day and it is only increasing. My question to consider then, is how do you become a resource or include value in every email without overwhelming the reader? You still want them to click on the donate or take action links, but by increasing the value of the content of your emails (value doesn’t necessarily only mean information, but options for action, etc.), you can increase your open rate and the number of clickthroughs for donations or action because of the visibility.

Message Type
The report measures the success of emails (open rate, clickthroughs, page completion, and response rate) by the three main message types: fundraising, news, advocacy. Rates have declined for each type from 2006 to 2007 but advocacy actions generated slightly higher open rates and significantly higher clickthrough, page completion and response rates. This says to me: provide options for advocacy and fundraising and news in every message! Diversifying your email lists is important, and there is certainly a lot to the impact those more tailored emails get - but that doesn’t mean that they can’t have tailored and appropriate messages for all three areas in an email.

Clickthrough Rates
In this area, the rates vary by issue sector. The environmental organizations that participated (you can find out which organizations were included in the survey here), had the highest clickthrough rates of all participants. What do their email newsletters have that yours don’t? Are they offering/linking to compelling videos and photos? Maybe including compelling stories and reports that require the reader to click through to the website to continue reading or download. Or, maybe there is a link to community features that require leaving the email.

Message Frequency & Subscribers
The report’s findings indicate a correlation between the number of emails sent and the open rate: “when an organization sent five or more emails per subscriber in a month, the open rate dropped by 1%.” Likewise, “the more messages an organization sends, the higher its unsubscribe rate for that month.” This doesn’t mean that you should be wary of emailing your lists. On the contrary. Focus on key questions though, like: What is pertinent, relates to current events, contributes to a campaign, creates positive actions for members? Or, how can we combine some of these smaller messages into a compelling story or segmented email? Don’t let data that could seem negative, cause fear. It’s good to question what you are doing though so that you can really be sure to send the best messages you have to your members.

There are really so many questions that this report brings to mind that should be discussed and not hidden. I encourage you to ask a hard question about some of your data, and get excited for positive places you can go with the answers.

What benchmarks have you seen your organization’s email campaigns hitting or missing? What do you want to be with your data - and are those goals realistic based on these benchmarks?

I’m going to follow this up with some posts on the fundraising data from the report and discussion of some case studies used to flesh out the numbers.