posted by Rad CampaignAllyson Kapin on 02/11/2013
While all nonprofits recognize the value of cultivating donors over the long-term, they feel an incredible amount of pressure to implement short-term strategies that will raise money today. Unfortunately, many nonprofits don't feel like they have the luxury of focusing on fundraising strategies that will bring in long-term results, which has led to low donor retention rates.
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posted by Rad CampaignAllyson Kapin on 09/15/2012
As a consultant to nonprofits who are looking to create social change in this world, I spend a lot of time reading through nonprofit’s online fundraising appeals. Even though many organizations have improved integrating their online and offline fundraising work, too many “goofs” are slipping through the cracks that can drastically impact response rates. These silly goofs can cost your organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations over time.
Before you send out your next fundraising appeal, print out my top six fundraising goof checklist, stick it up on the wall where you can see it, and refer back to it before you hit the send button.
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posted by Rad CampaignAllyson Kapin on 08/24/2012
The Chronicle of Philanthropy just released a new web interactive data set that shows donation patterns across the United States. The interactive also drills down to the local level by zip code and provides a wealth of data (courtesy of the IRS) about how towns and counties rank nationally in terms of their generosity.
“Comparing levels of giving is always a challenge in part because the cost of living varies greatly across America. To provide a fair analysis, The Chronicle’s rankings show the percentage of their income that households donated from the money they had left after paying their taxes and covering housing, food, and other essential expenses,” said the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
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posted by Rad CampaignAllyson Kapin on 08/12/2012
As a consultant to nonprofits, I get calls and emails daily from organizations are who are looking to market their online campaigns, grow their email list, and raise more money. Often they are looking for a quick fix, which is just bad strategy and frankly a waste of money. When you focus on one-off marketing campaigns (even if they are done through multiple channels) that don’t have a long shelf life, you see a quick bump and everyone at the organization is jumping for joy. But once the marketing has stopped, everything goes back to normal. Your web traffic, sign up rates, media coverage, and donations level out pretty quickly. Sound familiar?
This is why it’s important that nonprofits start focusing more on long term campaigns and multichannel marketing plans to engage their base and keep supporters feeling inspired and motivated to take action and be a part of your movement. Here’s some tips to get you started in planning your long term campaigns.
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posted by Rad CampaignAllyson Kapin on 07/29/2012
In fundraising, did you know that the more you ask people to suffer, the more money you will raise? It sounds crazy, right? But it’s true. According to studies by Chris Olivola “when people anticipate that they're going to have to suffer to raise money for a charity, then their willingness to contribute to that cause actually goes up.” This is why endurance and competitive peer-to-peer fundraising events like the 39-mile Avon Walk for Breast Cancer has raised over $423 million dollars since 2003 to support breast cancer research and breast cancer screenings at the local level.
Peer-to-peer fundraising events often bringing in more revenue than any other fundraising campaign. If your nonprofit is interested in planning a peer-to-peer fundraising event check out the infographic below by Convio, which is packed with useful metrics and performance benchmarks. Highlights include:
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