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Predictive Modelling uses “big data” to help predict the future.  It’s the data-driven, more reliable version of a crystal ball.  Last year, I worked with 2017 npExpert Katrina VanHuss at TurnKey P2P to build a model for walking events with no registration fee to give visibility into the future success of your walk based on the event’s current progress to date.

This predictive model can help you with understanding the real-time health of your event to ensure that you will hit your goals by event day. It also gives you earlier visibility into your numbers, so you can take corrective action and set executive expectations.

For traditional events like walks, event participation and total funds raised follow an exponential growth curve when tracked over time.  This growth pattern is relatively similar event to event, regardless of size, which makes it possible for you to use the model to track the real-time health of your event based on the number of days out from your event, the number of people registered and total fundraising (excluding sponsorships.)

Predictive Modeling for Fundraising Events

Predictive Model for Funds Raised & # of Participants based on # of days out from the event

Additionally, you can use this same predictive model to forecast how much money you’ll have in the bank AND how many people will show up when event day gets here.

Here’s the equation:

• Total # of participants = today’s participant count / % of participants based on # of days out
• Total expected fundraising = today’s fundraising / % from chart based on # of days out

Example of the predictive model for a peer to peer event:

I’m organising a walk that takes place in the next 30 days.  Today there are 2,000 people registered and £100,000 in fundraising in the bank.  On event day, I want to have 5,000 people at the event and fundraising a total of £250,000.

Based on the chart above at the 30 days out mark, I should have 50% of my total people registered and 30% of my fundraising in the bank.

• Total # of participants:  2,000 / 50% = 4,000 participants
• Total expected fundraising:  £250,000 / 30% = £300,000 in fundraising

This means that I can expect that by the time event day gets here, I may fall short on my participation goals, but I can expect to have extra fundraising in the bank.  I should focus on my recruitment strategies. Having this visibility can help you decide where you want to prioritise your limited resources.

This probably goes without saying, but predictive models are not an exact science. We used Blackbaud data to pull together this model specifically for walks without a registration fee and it does help set a good stage for comparison, especially for new events without historical data.

The most accurate predictor of your event is your own historical event data. 

The post Predictive Modelling for Future Peer to Peer Fundraising Events appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll have a good understanding of what you and your other stakeholders need. Now is the time to make a solid case for it. First and foremost, you must stick to your objectives. It may sound obvious, but this is easily overlooked once you’re down into the detail of software functionality! In this infographic, we explore the three main challenges when it comes to investing in technology: Data migration, managing cost and achieving buy-in from your board.

Staying laser-focused on your non-profit’s mission is the best way to keep the interest of your senior colleagues and trustees. Think about your key stakeholders and what’s in it for them. What do they stand to gain from a new CRM solution? What about your trustees? What are their drivers and objectives? With any new purchase, the return on investment (ROI) will rightly be scrutinised. In order to keep your project on track, you’ll need to be able to effectively answer any questions that your CEO, trustees and others will have regarding the value of your new investment.

A good vendor will take you through a fully consultative sales process and help you demonstrate how the solution achieves a positive ROI for your organisation. At this point, you should be asking for references to build a clear picture of how the potential technology partner has helped non-profits that are similar to yours.

Download your guide to choosing CRM software Build stronger supporter relationships, attract new donors and improve your fundraising. Download now:. Follow the step-by-step guide to selecting fundraising and donor management software. Identify your technology requirements, build a business case and find a solution that meets your specific needs.

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Over 60% of Charity Supporters Likely to Opt-in if Asked

Data Privacy: Donors know what they want, but don’t know they’re getting it

• Nearly 80% of Brits think it’s important that they only receive marketing communications when they’ve given explicit consent to receive them
• Nearly 90% of Brits think it’s important to have a single, simple ‘opt-out’ button to never receive fundraising requests from a specific charity in the future
• However, of those who regularly engage with a charity, 62% would ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ opt-in to future fundraising communications, if asked to do so by the charity

UK charity supporters are becoming more discerning when it comes to their personal data protection; and yet there are signs of encouragement for fundraising teams as GDPR approaches. According to new independent research commissioned by Blackbaud Europe, 80% of adults in the UK only want to receive marketing communications for which they have given explicit consent. Likewise, only 8% think that it’s ‘not important at all’ to only receive marketing communications for which they have given explicit consent.

How important is it that you only receive marketing communications when you’ve given explicit consent?

It may be a reasonable prediction that individuals would be more lenient with their personal data when being contacted about charitable causes as opposed to for-profit sales messages, but the report challenges this assumption. Whilst almost one-fifth (18%) would indeed be more tolerant of being contacted without consent if it was a charity doing it, in actual fact nearly one-third said they’d be less tolerant if it was a charity doing it.

However, despite this growing sensitivity around supporters’ personal data, a massive 62% of individuals who regularly engage with a charity would ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ opt-in, if asked to do so by that charity. This is a reason for significant encouragement for fundraising teams who are keen to make sure they can continue to contact the majority of their current supporter base, after May 25^th, 2018, using consent as the legal basis. (Remember, it’s not all about consent! Learn more about the six legal bases for processing personal data here.)

If asked by a charity you regularly engage with to ‘opt-in’ to fundraising communications, would you?

Also, whilst the report shows that many Brits do not want to receive fundraising communications they haven’t asked for, nonetheless the majority are not aware of the upcoming changes to legislation. More than three-quarters (77%) of Brits do not know what the GDPR is, and only 1-in-12 (8%) think they know exactly what it is. In other words, the vast majority of consumers do not know that in less than a year, their rights will be greatly strengthened when it comes to data erasure, data portability and – of course – consent.

Do you know what the GDPR is?

It’s interesting to note the differing levels of tolerance when comparing various direct marketing channels. For example, when being contacted by a charity without opt-in consent, telephone marketing is way out in front, with 53% of individuals saying this would be one of the channels that they’re least tolerant of. By contrast, direct mail was only disliked by 16% of individuals. Other channels fell somewhere in between, with SMS listed by 28% of respondents, and Email by 22%.

As regards UK charity regulation, when asked how important it is to them that they have a single, simple ‘opt-out’ button to ensure they never receive fundraising requests from a specific charity in the future, almost 9-in-10 (87%) think it’s important, with over half (56%) thinking it is ‘very important’. What’s fascinating is that when asked separately, only just over 1-in-10 (11%) of Brits have heard of the Fundraising Regulator, and incredibly only 6% have heard of the Fundraising Preference Service.

How important do you think it is that you have a single, simple ‘opt-out’ button to never receive fundraising asks from all charities in the future?

Have you heard of the Fundraising Regulator and/or the Fundraising Preference Service?

Rob Gethen Smith, Director of Customer Engagement for Blackbaud Europe, commented, “There is plenty for UK non-profits to be encouraged by in this report. It is undeniable that UK consumers across the board are becoming more protective of their personal data – and so they should be! Whether in the context of supporting a charity or any other direct marketing, more and more individuals are of the opinion that their person data is theirs to do with as they wish, and this should come as no surprise. However, the fact that over 60% of individuals who donate to, volunteer for, or fundraise for a charity would be likely to actively Opt-In to continue receiving fundraising communications, is hugely encouraging. When GDPR started being widely talked about in the charity sector last year, the fear was that opt-in rates would be in the single digits. On the strength of this report at least, it does not look like this will be the case.

“When it comes to individuals’ tolerance to charities’ direct marketing specifically, in some respects the findings are not surprising. Only 18% would be more tolerant of being contacted without consent by a charity, and I think this shows not only that the poor media coverage of certain organisations over the last couple of years has had an effect, but that consumers want control. Whether opting-in to hear from a favourite consumer brand or to hear about charitable activities, they want total control over the content that comes to them via all channels. Interestingly, young people are more likely to be more tolerant: 28% of under-34’s said they’d be more tolerant of being contacted without consent if it was a charity, whereas only 12% of over 55’s said they would. This may give those non-profits with ageing supporter bases a particular challenge.

“But it’s also an opportunity. What’s really interesting in this report is that consumers know what they want, but they don’t know they’re getting it! With such a small proportion of the survey respondents being aware of the GDPR and the Fundraising Preference Service, there is a big opportunity to educate individuals on their new rights as European citizens, and the new regulations that UK charities operate under. Demonstrating that the UK non-profit sector is responding positively to the negative publicity it has received will go a long way to restoring supporter confidence where needed.

“There’s no doubt that the British public is one of the most committed in the world to supporting social good, and new legislation isn’t going to change that. We just have to be more transparent about what we’re doing with their data, and put more effort into demonstrating the impact of the money they give.”

NB: The research was conducted in collaboration with Censuswide, with 1,164 respondents aged 16+ in GB between 24-25^th May 2017.  The survey was conducted from a random sample of UK adults, equally representing age ranges and UK regions. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles. 

To learn about the behavioural science behind increasing opt-in rates, join the Blackbaud webinar on Wednesday 21^st June at 2.00pm.

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If you’re responsible for your non-profit’s social media, you probably know about how many Facebook fans you have. Your fan count is the simplest way to know how many people see the messages, calls to action, photos, invitations, appeals, and news you post. Or it would be, if that number weren’t hugely misleading.

As you know, Facebook’s ever-mysterious algorithms limit your posts from reaching everyone that likes your page. In fact, most people who like your page don’t see any given post. In the 2017 M+R Benchmarks Study, it was found that on average, a non-profit will reach just 8% of its fans with a post that isn’t promoted. 

We know. It hurts.

You can pay to increase that reach, of course, and that kind of paid promotion can be an effective part of your social media and digital advertising strategy. But the truth is, resources are limited and non-profits do not pay to boost the vast majority of their posts.

But there’s good news, too! A lot folks—45% to be exact—who do see your posts aren’t your fans (yet). As your social media influencers engage with your content (especially when they click “Share”) it pops up in their friends’ news feeds.

So most of the people who follow you don’t see your Facebook posts, and about half the people who do see your posts don’t follow you on Facebook. Non-profits need a better metric than number of fans that more accurately reflects how many users you can expect to reach. Enter the Earned Reach Average, or ERA.

Earned Reach Average (ERA) is the average number of people who see a given post for every Facebook fan you have. 

In the Benchmarks study, the average non-profit had an ERA of .225, meaning for every 1,000 Facebook fans a nonprofit has, their next post will reach about 225 people. So if you’re a completely average organization (though… we know you’re not) with 60,000 fans, a given post will be seen by about 13,500 people (60 x .225=13.5).

It’s good to have fans, the more the merrier. But so much of your Facebook reach comes down to engagement, shares, and being seen by audiences beyond your existing fanbase. If you want to be seen on Facebook, the nature and quality of your content are just as important as the number of Likes you have.

The post How many people actually see your Facebook posts? appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

2015 was a year of challenges for the sector, with charities being branded as ‘vultures’ and ‘immoral’ by some sections of the mainstream media. So the charity sector banded together to create the Commission on the Donor Experience with one goal in mind, making meaningful changes to the way that fundraisers work with donors, and create an improved experience for them. The aim of the Commission is to support the transformation of fundraising into a donor-first approach.

The Commission states that donors should be placed at the heart of fundraising. After all, without the generosity of committed donors, where would we be? As an impartial initiative, the Commission is helping this to happen by training and equipping fundraisers to deliver the best practical donor experience.

Split into 28 working groups, the focus is on bringing fundraisers and donors together to make the donor experience better. Blackbaud is thrilled to be a partner and has supported the Commission from the get-go.

Blackbaud has invested in supporting the Commission because we agree that fundraising needs to put donors at the heart of fundraising. As a leading partner of non-profits and a company that is genuinely invested in the success of the sector, Blackbaud will continue to support the initiative throughout.

Recently, the Commission released its beta findings, which give free insight to the 28 areas of fundraising. The community forum encompasses the hard work from all of the Commission’s projects, and rest assured, they have been scrutinised by the most experience of fundraisers to give you accurate, actionable advice.

The recommendations come from some amazing fundraisers; hundreds of people who have contributed to the Commission; people who work for charities and who understand what it takes to make an extraordinary donor experience.

Now, the Commission is broadening its request for feedback. It wants to hear from individuals across the sector ahead of the main launch at IoF Convetion, so take a look now and let them know what you think.

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If your online donation form is ineffective, it warrants immediate attention. The occasional mistake is inevitable, but given the high-volume traffic non-profit donation pages receive, it’s crucial that your donation form is optimised to be as strong as possible.

Many supporters prefer to give online on their laptops or mobile devices instead of in person. A poorly designed donation page will make you miss out on these supporters’ donations.

If your donation form needs updating, read on to learn more!

Here are 9 of the most common donation page mistakes:

1. Hidden Donation Forms
2. Requiring Donors to Give Too Much Information
3. Overfilling Your Donation Page
4. Forgetting Security Certification
5. Not Being Mobile-Savvy
6. Avoiding Different Giving Levels
7. Not Suggesting Recurring Donations
8. Ignoring Social Media
9. Failing to Say Thank You

But don’t worry, we know how your non-profit can avoid them!

Mistake #1: Hidden Donation Forms

If your supporters can’t find your donation form on your site, they can’t donate. There’s no way around it. By having a hidden donation form, you’re losing donations left and right.

Your online donation form needs to be centre stage on your site and easy to use!

To further assist your donors with giving, you should:

• Include links to your donation form in your email blasts. Don’t turn every email into a plea for donations, but some emails should include links to your donation form so donors can give easily and your non-profit receives the donations it deserves.

• Use social media to your advantage. Most adults are tweeting, posting, and sharing content on social media. Include a link to your donation form in your next Facebook post or tweet so that users can easily find it. You can also include the link in your bio on social media profiles.

• Making giving easy on your site. No matter how involved a supporter is with your non-profit, if she’s on page 83 of your blog’s archive or just arrived on your homepage, she should be able to donate easily. Place donation buttons on every page to guide supporters to your online form.

Tucking your donation form away under menus and other pages only reduces the amount of donations your non-profit receives.

How to fix it: Include your online donation form in your online communication strategy and make sure donors can easily use your online form!

Mistake #2: Requiring Donors to Give Too Much Information

If a new prospect arrives on your website, she won’t know a lot about your non-profit right off the bat. But if she finds that her interests align with your mission and she’d like to give to your organisation, she’ll need to be able to find your donation form easily.

Because you know to keep your donation page easily accessible, your online donation form will be easy to find and your prospect will be ready to start the donation process right away.

But instead of landing on a donation page that allows her to donate right away, she has to make an account and fill out information.

No one wants to be greeted by a multitude of fields all marked “Required” on an online form, so limit the number of required fields on your donation form.

We’ve found that adding just one additional field reduces the number of completed donation forms and that adding two or more additional fields will cause your donation count to drastically drop.

If donors have to make an account and fill out their name, address, credit card info, and a security question just to make a donation, they’re far more likely to abandon the process and never end up donating.

Forcing donors to create an account sharply decreases the number of donations that your non-profit could be receiving with your online donation form.

Instead, try giving donors a choice of creating an account or donating as a guest. You can do this in a pop-up window that also explains the benefit of creating an account.

A cluttered donation form won’t appeal to anyone and the bottom line is that you shouldn’t require donors to make an account to donate.

How to fix it: Limit the number of required fields on your donation page for a higher donor conversion rate. Don’t require your donors to create an account to give, but provide them with the option to create a profile to track their donations and involvement.

Mistake #3: Overfilling Your Donation Page

You donation page should be just that, a donation page.

Your website is where people go to learn about your organisation through success stories, videos, and updates on your projects and events. That content belongs on your website, not your donation page.

Supporters are on your donation page to donate, so don’t distract them by overfilling your donation form with background information on your non-profit.

Follow these points to keep your donation page simple and straightforward:

• Limit your copy to a few sentences.
• Only include one image on the page and it should be at the top of the form.
• Remove sidebar navigation and menus from the page.

Adding too much to your donation form will distract from the donation and encourage traffic to leave the page.

How to fix it: Keep your copy concise and only include one picture on your donation form so that donors aren’t drawn away from giving.

Mistake #4: Forgetting Security Certification

When a donor gives online, they are submitting both personal and sensitive information so you should ask yourself, “Does your donation form reassure donors that their data is safe?”

If the answer is no, you could be losing contributions from millennials, gen Xers, baby boomers, and more potential donors!

Make sure that you include the proper security certification logos and comply with PCI Standards (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards), and check that your payment processors are verified. This will reassure donors of your authority and credibility.

Building trust with donors is key for donor retention and your non-profit’s reputation.

How to fix it: Include the proper security certification logos and maintain PCI compliance when it comes to your donation form.

Mistake #5: Not Being Mobile-Savvy

91% of British adults own smartphones and the past year has seen a 205% increase in mobile donations.

That’s a percentage you want to be included in.

Don’t rely solely on accepting donations on laptops and desktop computers. You’ll miss out on the contributions from donors who want to give on their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

When formatting for mobile devices, make sure your form isn’t cluttered or prohibitive to the donor’s experience. On the form, include just a brief paragraph explaining your campaign as well as your logo.

You’ll want your mobile-responsive donation page to be even simpler than your donation form for the best user experience possible. Think big, easy-to-click buttons and a vertical layout. Reduce a donor’s need to pinch and zoom!

This seamless experience will give them a quick and secure donation process.

How to fix it: Make a mobile-friendly donation page and keep it simple for a higher donor conversion rate. All the top online donation tools should have options for mobile.

Mistake #6: Avoiding Different Giving Levels

Offering different giving levels on your donation form can result in higher donations in the long run.

How? It all has to do with the psychology of giving.

If a donor lands on your donation page with the intention of donating £25 and you provide an empty field where a donor can give any amount they please, you’ll probably receive the intended £25 from that donor.

But if you offer different giving levels, like £20, £30, £40, and so forth, there’s a greater chance that this specific donor will round up and give £30 instead of down to £20 or filling in an “Other” blank.

And offering different giving amounts with appropriate descriptions allows your organisation to show donors where their donations will go.

That said, along with your preset amounts, you should still include an “Other” field for donors who want to select their own donation amount. Don’t box supporters in.

How to fix it: Give donors different giving levels to help increase donation amounts.

Mistake #7: Not Suggesting Recurring Donations.

Donors have busy schedules and giving to your organisation is a small portion of their lives. Help take away the stress of giving by offering recurring donations right on your donation form!

New donors might only want to give once for now, but your loyal donors are likely to give again and again.

Instead of relying on all of your donors’ memories, provide the option of automatic, recurring gifts on your donation pages.

This way, your donors don’t have to fill out a donation form every time they want to give and including this option may convert one-time donors into recurring donors.

How to fix it: Give donors the opportunity to make monthly, quarterly, or yearly gifts to bring in more donations.

Mistake #8: Ignoring Social Media.

If your donors are giving online, they most likely have social media profiles as well. They’re tweeting, posting, and commenting on a regular basis.

This is the time to include social media buttons on your donation page.

Let your donors easily share your donation page on Facebook or Twitter because it will:

• Let your supporters brag about their generosity a little.
• Spread the word about your donation page to a broader network.

Not offering social media options on your donation form is a missed opportunity because you’re losing easy shareability. Crowdfunding platforms have jumped on this opportunity, and you should too.

Donors can click the tweet button and share your donation page with little effort so give them that opportunity.

How to fix it: Give donors a way to share your donation page on social media to give your non-profit more exposure.

Mistake #9: Failing to Say Thank You

You’re not off the hook yet. Just because a donor has made it to your donation page and given to your non-profit does not mean your organisation is done with managing that donor’s experience.

Make sure that your acknowledgement page is just as great as your donation form.

This screen needs to express your gratitude for their donation. Also let them know that they will receive an email confirmation, direct mail acknowledgement, or both shortly.

Then, direct donors to more information about your non-profit like:

• Upcoming fundraising events
• Volunteer opportunities
• Updates on current and future projects
• Social media sites

But just remember, these follow-up links are always secondary to the actual acknowledgement.

Thanking donors is a must.

How to fix it: Your gratitude toward donors should be expressed thoroughly on the acknowledgement page, followed by additional information to involve donors.

Many of your donors will expect to give to your organisation through an online form, so don’t disappoint by having a sub-par donation page. Keep these common mistakes and our solutions in mind for the best results.

The post 9 Common Donation Page Mistakes appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

“We can end hunger around the world by 2030.”

Let that sink in for a moment. It’s a big statement, a big goal. When you consider a goal of ending hunger, you have a couple of choices. You could either think, ‘That is way too big for me to wrap my mind around,’ or you can say, ‘That’s a big goal, and I can do something to move the needle, even by one tick.’

Let’s take a step back. Why are we discussing big goals?

In 2015, the United Nations launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—also known as the Global Goals—to change the world for the better and leave no one behind by 2030. This 15-year initiative aims to tackle 17 areas of need across the world, from eradicating hunger to fostering responsible production and consumption to ensuring everyone has access to a quality education.

Across these 17 goals are 232 targets and indicators designed to be guideposts, acting as gauges to tell us how well we’re making progress toward achieving the goals. Translation: outcomes measurement. This is so much more than the UN pointing at a North Star – with the emphasis on outcomes tracking baked into the SDGs framework, we have the indicators to see if we’re on track to achieving social change with a ready-made formula to measure success.

Do the SDGs Apply in the United Kingdom?

Now, back to our big “end hunger” goal. If that feels too daunting, and almost like you’re trying to change the world all at once, what if we said this instead:

We can end hunger in your city by 2030.

That feels different, doesn’t it? One of the sentiments I have been hearing from funders over the past several months is how hard it is to align your mind with something when it’s presented as such a huge global issue. Instead of tackling an issue for the whole world, what if we thought about it in a closer context? The SDGs have to do with achieving social change around the corner just as much as they do with achieving social change around the world.

There’s plenty to do to make change ‘around the corner.’ Something like ending hunger isn’t a challenge that’s confined to developing nations. In fact, in 2016 600,000, including more than 150,000 children, lived in food-insecure households.

If we look at some of the other goals, we begin to see that “global” doesn’t have to mean “across the globe.” Ending poverty on a global level doesn’t have to start someplace else – there were over 4.6 million people living in persistent poverty in the UK between 2010-13. Or, with the goal of supporting good health and well-being, the UN isn’t restricting this to certain nations or areas in the world. When we consider that Cancer Research UK projected that there would be 350,000+ new cases of cancer diagnosed in 2014 as just one health-centric data point in the UK, it’s clear we have so much more progress to make right here at home.

At this point, you may be thinking, ‘The SDGs are worthy goals, but I can’t veer away from what I’m already doing in my work.’

As you’re reading this, you may be leading a health foundation striving to provide greater access to quality healthcare for the people you serve. You may be a grant maker sitting in a community foundation, convening local change-makers to address issues like ending hunger, addressing inequality, or creating economic opportunities. You may be reading this in between reviewing grant applications to support responsible production and consumption or to take action against climate change. You may be part of a non-profit running a local food bank, doing your part to make sure no one goes hungry in your city.

Here’s the kicker: if any of those descriptions scratch the surface of what you’re doing in your work, you are already supporting the SDGs.

The only adjustment I’d encourage you to make – if you haven’t done so already – is to acknowledge that your change-making work is fundamentally part of this global effort. What the SDGs have given us is a way to recognise that these big goals apply in our own backyard as much as anywhere else in the world. The Global Goals are everyone’s goals.

2030 is Around the Corner

When I say that the SDGs apply “around the corner,” I mean locality as much as I mean the clock is ticking. 2030 may sound like a far-off date, but it’s closer than you might think. We’re already in the third year of the SDGs, and we still have lots of progress to make.

While we don’t yet have an exact format or collection mechanism at the global level to capture and share SDGs progress data, there is no time to waste in ensuring you are as prepared as possible to provide your results data to contribute to the emerging global impact story.

Unless we have the data to depict our progress, how will we know if we’re making a dent in achieving the goals?

At the same time, as you bolster your ability to track and measure the results of your funding and investments against the SDGs targets, you’ll set yourself up to be a better collaborator for change. As more and more individuals and organisations recognise a shared commitment to achieving the SDGs, it will be crucial that each participant across the spectrum of social good speaks the same language. A goal of ending hunger could never rest on one set of shoulders alone. Big issues like the ones the Global Goals are addressing require multi-sector, multi-stakeholder input and effort. With multiple stakeholders across sectors, there’s incredible opportunity to collaborate for change.

However, if each participant talks about and measures the results of their giving in a different way, you may dilute the power of what you can achieve together. When we speak a common language of giving, we set ourselves up to share apples-to-apples results data of how we’re making progress on some of the world’s biggest issues.

The clock is ticking – the more we can bring people together to truly collaborate toward achieving the goals based on a shared understanding of success indicators, the more we’ll be able to do as the calendar approaches 2030.

How to Act on the SDGs (Hint: You Already Are) 

The SDGs present a unique opportunity for the entire giving sector to get aligned on achieving a better tomorrow for our world. Never have we had a formal platform that so clearly outlines goals and targets to achieve social change with the ability to foster cross-sector and worldwide collaboration.

If you are inspired to act, the good news is that you are already well on your way. The good work you do each day to invest in making change is already inherently supportive of the SDGs. Now it’s up to you to make sure you’re positioning that good work to align with the worldwide effort to create a better world for all, near and far, today and into the future.

4 Steps to act on the 2030 Agenda:

1. Get informed. There are lots of resources available to get acquainted with the SDGs, what they seek to achieve, and what’s being done to make progress on the 2030 Agenda. Visit the UN Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform or try taking our SDGs true/false quiz to explore the goals.

1. Familiarise yourself with the SDGs indicators. Spend some time reviewing the SDGs targets within the goals that align with your focus areas to see how the work you’re already doing could be contributing to achieving SDGs results. Speak with your partners and colleagues about the indicators relevant to you to ensure you’re on the same page about measuring progress from your work.

1. Evaluate your ability to measure outcomes, not just outputs. It is more critical than ever to ensure you can measure outcomes and assess results data stemming from your investments in social good. With the enormity of the issues the SDGs seek to address, no one change-maker can achieve the goals alone. We will be best positioned to answer the question, “Are we making progress?” when each participant is speaking the same language and measuring results in an apples-to-apples way.

4. Share your impact story.If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Likewise, if your organisation is making progress toward one of the SDGs and no one knows your impact story, did your change-making work move the needle? While the answer, of course, is yes, now is the time to share your results as widely as possible to build a global story of impact. As Matt Stevenson-Dodd, CEO of Street League recently said at a Blackbaud Event, “The best advice I could offer is to remind foundations to talk about the incredible work they do.”

Still wondering how the SDGs apply to you or curious about how foundations can actually measure outcomes and impact in the SDGs framework? Ask away. When it comes to achieving these big goals, the more we connect and share ideas, the more we’ll be able to accomplish.

The post Measuring Outcomes & Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

by Dan Keyworth, Director for Customer Engagement – Education and Foundations
Blackbaud (International Markets Group)

GDPR, recent ICO fines, the Fundraising Regulator and the Fundraising Preference Service have collectively focused the attention of the non-profit community on compliance – to an extent not seen before.  The purpose is clear: organisations must respect the ownership that individuals have over their own data.  At the same time, it is essential that institutions can champion advancement and tie this information processing closely to their missions.

Technology and data play a key role as enablers of great relationships, by helping us to understand, to excite, to ask and to steward.  This becomes even more relevant in the GDPR world.  You understandably need to review your CRM databases and digital technology solutions to ensure you comply, and any changes inevitably involve work for the back-office.

The changing regulatory landscape is also creating lots of noise, some of it contradictory.  To deliver a joined-up approach, Blackbaud is channelling its efforts into providing detailed, informed guidance in conjunction with CASE and other partners, through initiatives such as CASE’s GDPR technology workstream.

Recent introspection across the sector has prompted more of us to explain why our profession does what it does and how it supports the fulfilment of institutions’ missions.  This self-analysis, though time-consuming, will serve us well in the future. And the impact that advancement can have over the coming decades remains truly inspiring.

Opt-In, Opt-Out

Institutions’ priorities, their audiences and their paths along the advancement journey are diverse. So there is a need for our technology, and the data it holds, to be flexible enough to underpin a range of different approaches around opt -in and -out.

Alongside consent, it looks likely that legitimate interests (and performance of public tasks) will remain a strong ground for institutions processing personal data.  Of course, this doesn’t diminish the importance of adhering to existing opt-in obligations under ePrivacy regulation for channels such as email and SMS.

Where legitimate interests are the legal basis, then it is still imperative that technology solutions help make it clear to individuals how their data is processed, and how they can opt-out of specific communications or activities.  And for those who do pursue unambiguous opt-in consent, then we need to help make that journey successful.

In both cases, technology should ease the collecting or updating of alumni and supporters’ preferences, be that online, by post, verbally or via any other means.  Recording such preferences and understanding changes over time should also be intuitive.  Critically, technology should empower you to best utilise those preferences, not just to comply, but to deliver progressively relevant, personalised and engaging communications that reflect each person’s interests and passions, and help you serve your mission.

Three key aspects of good data management

Beyond consent and preference management, three further factors hold true for all CASE members, for which technology should play a role:

• To manage data effectively, we must share and adhere to clear and transparent Privacy Notices, covering each aspect of how data is processed. And, as part of that, saying not just what you do, but why you do it – and how this helps transform lives for individuals, communities and societies.
• Leadership teams must be part of this conversation: not only to be accountable for complying with the GDPR, but to understand sufficiently – if they don’t already – the mechanics of successful development and alumni relations and how that contributes to the vision.
• At any time, anyone can request to see a copy of the data held about them. Whilst providing this may occasionally surprise, if you feel comfortable with how you would explain that data to them, then you are a step forward.

Balancing risk vs outcomes

Ultimately, a balanced approach is key.  Whether the least risky course of action is to collect consent is a decision for each institution to make.  Such an assessment requires not only reviewing options for delivering compliance but also the impact of any changes on the ability of your advancement function to support your mission.  No course of action is entirely risk-free.  By analogy, one way to avoid food poisoning is to never eat anything, but that is not optimal!

Philanthropy is a wonderful thing.  The SDGs ultimately find many of their answers in the outputs of educational institutions, and regulation is not intended to stifle the amazing outcomes which CASE members serve.  Rather, it is aimed at driving the balanced protection of individuals and their data alongside your mission and delivering a better supporter experience overall.

It is yet to be seen whether change will centre around this aim.  Technology enables security of data by design, and that is crucial and necessary.  However, it can do far more.

GDPR presents new opportunities

This is a unique opportunity for the sector to revisit goals, and maximise the collective benefits for institutions, alumni and supporters.  It is vital to articulate precisely how and why you are contacting alumni, researching prospects, engaging volunteers, inviting guests to events, and more.  Being able to effectively tell this story and demonstrate impact will help you to reach greater fundraising goals and embed lifelong donor and alumni relationships.

We see alumni partnerships becoming increasingly central to institutional priorities, spurred by advancement.  Alongside funding, alumni can enhance recruitment, social mobility, employability, industry and cultural engagement, research application, lifelong learning, governance, advocacy and – perhaps above all – boost reputations via word of mouth.  Alumni are your largest constituency and best global ambassadors.

Likewise, we increasingly see the supporter experience touching all parts of institutions, aided by coordination.  Philanthropy helps many students and staff members today, stirring new conversations and opportunities across campuses, through academics and other staff, within departments and colleges, and via volunteers beyond your walls.  Backed by systems, your development office can be the conductor of this orchestra – ensuring the right notes are played and the experience augmented for everyone.

As the recent Ross-CASE survey showed, quality of relationships matter.  Despite fewer alumni donors, overall giving to UK universities surpassed £1bn for the first time.  There are mutual benefits to segmenting who you are contacting, based on why you are contacting them.  Here, at least in the long-term, the GDPR and institutions’ missions can align: a careful, targeted and focused approach to engagement, underpinned by CRM, will enable achieving your goals whilst minimising the unwanted contact that any individual receives.

What you can expect from Blackbaud

When it comes to clearly understanding what we do with data, the regulatory landscape has undoubtedly raised the bar for Blackbaud and our customers alike.  Your planning and execution needs to be crystal-clear organisationally, and the same is true for us.

At the end of June, we will publish our consent and preference management roadmap for the rest of 2017, detailing new feature development tailored to enable you to capture and evidence preferences and accommodate other data subject rights in accordance with the GDPR, FPS (where applicable) and ePrivacy regulation.  Blackbaud product webinars in July will provide greater detail, and we will also publish companion information to CASE guidance, setting out how Blackbaud solutions can help you towards technology, data management and wider recommendations.

We recognise that advanced preparation for the GDPR is critical for operational continuity, and more broadly to thrive in support of your missions in the future advancement landscape, and all new features and solutions will be available in time to prepare for compliance.

The CASE Regulatory and Compliance Conference on 14 June and the subsequent guidance will be a great launchpad to support institutions along this journey, and Blackbaud is proud to be part of that.  We will continue working closely with CASE Europe and other partners over the coming weeks and months to accompany you through the changing landscape and beyond.

Visit our GDPR hub for all Blackbaud updates on GDPR and FPS, including solution guides, videos and blogs.

The post GDPR + Technology + Data = Mission Success appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

• Data security is important – being mindful of risks and mitigations can save you stress time and money
• If you have responsibility for safeguarding other people’s data, security should be your number one priority – even if that makes your job harder to do. Being data secure is not complex, but for those with stressful jobs and limited time, it can feel like an onerous responsibility. We all have moments when the easiest way to complete a task is less data secure, so keep in mind these simple rules around data security.
  • If it feels wrong, if you have any doubts, don’t do it
  • Shortcuts are usually responsible for poor security, they will come back to bite you!
  • Don’t let other people pressure you into being less secure – take responsibility
  • Don’t let the prevailing culture of an organisation lull you into thinking insecure practices (see below for examples) are acceptable
  • Do be confident and vocal about the precautions you take and encourage others to do the same.

You can ask yourself the following questions:

How strong is my password?

Automated attempts to breach security often focus on cracking users passwords

• Passphrases are better than passwords – easy to remember and more secure
• Never share your password
• Never leave a password on a laptop or PC
• Check password strength here: https://howsecureismypassword.net/

You could be surprised at the results!

• Don’t re-use the same password for multiple resources
• Never, ever use obvious passwords, such as variations of the word “Password” such as “P@ssword”, “P@ssw0rd” etc
• Try as much as possible not to save passwords in your browser

Is my data backed up?

• Ask yourself what would happen if my device was lost, stolen, compromised or was suddenly broken beyond repair
• Important data should be backed up regularly to an external device or drive
• Make sure you are aware how long it would take to recover your data in case of a disaster, so you can plan accordingly
• Cloud storage can provide an ideal backup solution and can be a better way to store your data in the first place, meaning there is minimal risk of loss due to compromised local devices.

Is my software up to date?

• Out of date software and frameworks are vulnerable to attack
• Always ensure your machines are set to take the latest updates immediately
• Never use software (such as XP) that is out of support to store or process data
• Ensure you have up to date anti-virus and anti-malware programs on all of your devices, scheduled to scan regularly

There are many brilliant free solutions – see here: http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/best-free-anti-spyware-and-anti-malware-software-1321656

Do I know my data?

Your data will not all be sensitive, and will not all be subject to the restrictions imposed by the data protection act. If you are not sure what constitutes personal or sensitive data you should check here: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/key-definitions/

• Always be aware when data you are using or storing falls under these definitions
• If you’re not sure, check!
• Minimise sharing or using personal data as much as possible
• Avoid retaining personal or sensitive data that is of no use to you, but could be to someone with nefarious intent
• Obfuscate personal data when using for anything other than it’s intended purpose – ie testing or troubleshooting

Where is my data?

We are often required to share our own data and data we are responsible for with others as part of our work. Such data sharing presents a risk to data security and should only be done if absolutely justified, and you should always ensure you have the authority to do so.

When you share data:

• Sensitive or identifying data should be obfuscated unless it is absolutely required
• Files should be encrypted and password protected for transfer, here’s a guide to getting started: http://uk.pcmag.com/encryption-products/83976/guide/the-best-encryption-software-of-2017
• Never send passwords or keys for encrypted files in the same or subsequent emails
• Share as little as possible and always be aware where your data is going, be certain of the identity of the party receiving shared data.
• Printed copies of identifying data should be destroyed securely after use

Is my data encrypted?

Modern tools and software freely available make it easy to encrypt your data to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. If your laptop or PC is likely to have sensitive data on it, you should consider taking advantage of these.  Such solutions will prevent a disaster the next time you leave your laptop on a bus, or have your premises burgled.

• Windows users should consider using Microsoft’s built-in solution bit locker which offers the user the choice of full machine encryption, or encryption for a specific drive which can be used to store sensitive data
• Apple’s OS X operating system has a similar facility called file vault.
• Other programs are available for more selective encryption that are useful for transferring files and sharing sensitive data. See here: http://www.techradar.com/news/top-5-best-encryption-tools

The post Is My Data Safe – 5 Questions Your Charity Needs to Ask appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Data security is an ongoing issue in the non-profit sector and is one that has been brought to the fore following the global ransomware attack on May 12. However, by getting the basics right, you can go a long way to protecting your organisation from attacks like WannaCry.

Here are four simple tips:

• Have an organisation-wide password policy in place. At a minimum, it’s best practice that users change their passwords every six weeks and use a mixture of higher and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Passwords should never be written down, reused or shared. If, like me, you struggle to keep track of your ever-growing list of passwords, there are secure password management tools that can help you out. Find out more here.

• Make sure you and staff can spot phishing emails. These are commonplace but easily handled. A phishing email is designed to look like an email that has been sent from an authoritative source, e.g. a bank. It will typically direct you to a website and ask for sensitive, personal and financial information. If an email raises your suspicions, do not open it and definitely don’t click on any links.

Phishing scams are usually easily spotted and unsophisticated. Recognising common phishing tactics can be done by training your staff using simple, free online programmes.

• Make sure all PCs, laptops and servers have the most up-to-date version of their respective software installed. You should see reminders letting you know it’s time to update. But in case you don’t, it’s worth to check every six weeks or so.

Software updates aren’t trivial, they include regular security enhancements and improvements to software.

• Make sure you are using the most up-to-date version of your CRM or database solution. This includes Raiser’s Edge for example. If you are hosted on a cloud -based system this will happen automatically – but if you are hosted on-premise, make sure you always update as soon as a new version becomes available.

If you have any concerns or would like to find out more on how Blackbaud is keeping your data safe, our Customer Support team is on hand to help. If you are currently hosting your Raiser’s Edge or Blackbaud CRM database on premise and you would like to find out more about Blackbaud hosting, please contact your Account Manager or solutions@blackbaud.co.uk.

The post 4 Ways Your Non-Profit Can Stay On Top Of Data Security appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Like many non-profits and social enterprise, you may be scratching your head and wondering how an Instagram presence can help you contribute to social good in a creative and heroic way. With all the noise out there, how can you be sure that your efforts are even moving the needle for your cause?

You know that Facebook and Twitter are still major drivers of traffic to your website, but your love affair with Facebook is somewhat diminishing because hardly anyone even sees your posts if you haven’t boosted them (i.e. paid for your posts to be seen). We’re getting report after report of diminishing returns on Facebook posts due to constant changes with the newsfeed algorithm.

It’s time to add something else to the mix—let’s start thinking about the value of Instagram for non-profits. Here are five key things non-profits should know about getting started with Instagram.

1. Instagram is the fastest growing non-profit community engine

In April, Instagram announced it now has 700 million users, with the last 100M growing even more quickly, and 200M are using Instagram stories. The 2017 M&R non-profit Benchmark Study found that for every 1000 email subscribers, organisations can expect to have 39 Instagram followers and that orgs experienced on average a 101% Instagram follower growth in 2016.

Therefore, Instagram = the fastest growing non-profit community engine on social media.

Instagram is here to stay, but for most non-profits, Facebook and Twitter are still the leading referrers of traffic to main websites. Instagram will be a major player for organisations within the next 2-3 years, given its strength in key groups, such as rural locations and most 18-34 year olds, with other demographics likely to follow. It’s also easy to forget that Facebook owns Instagram and has integrated its Ads Manager to run ads on both platforms by default. This opens a new, young, diverse and growing audience to non-profits and NGOs .

Keep up!

2. Engaging with supporters + influencers goes a long way

A little love goes a long way.  Pay attention to what others are doing on Instagram — follow key supporters, peers, influencers, those who inspire you, etc! —and engage with their posts with likes and/or comments! It’s about reciprocity – many of them will help you back.

Interaction (done well) warms people’s hearts. It’s age-old wisdom from Dale Carnegie and other wise people that, if you show interest in others, they will be more interested in you and you’ll be more influential to them. Compile lists of Instagram handles for your team members, key supporters, influencers, and organisations with like-minded causes so that you can easily tag and mention them in your posts.

Along the way, you’ll also learn from these interactions what people are excited about right now and see how you and your mission can fit into the current online conversation in the best way.

3. Visuals will help you build brand awareness

Facebook, which owns Instagram, is putting a lot of emphasis on Instagram, including integrating augmented reality features going beyond Snapchat in coming years. Instagram is not a niche platform anymore — it’s a major player. You need as strong a strategy for Instagram as you do for Facebook and Twitter. This is a challenge because many non-profits are more focused on text than visuals — be the charity who does visuals well! You can only post from your phone (or from Hootsuite on a computer after integrating Instagram), so you’ll want to recruit fun images from and about your team members, and save to your phone.

Your posts, stories, livestreams, and ads on Instagram will help you build awareness — especially with beautiful, colourful, high-definition, authentic images. There are so many easy ways to curate images—from team outings, program activities and events to pictures of your mission in action and those you serve.

4. Incorporate hashtags and mentions

After you’ve written up a snappy post and before hitting Share, type a hashtag sign (#) and start writing words relevant to your post to see what hashtags Instagram recommends. You can collect a list of hashtags that other like-minded organisations and influencers are using. Hashtagify.me— a platform that helps you identify popular hashtags by keyword area—can be used to find and analyse popular hashtags to help amplify your post and your cause. You’ll make your posts discoverable to people interested in that topic, beyond those who currently follow you. Then sit back and enjoy more engagement with your posts and new followers!

Mention and tag relevant people and organisations to gain more visibility from the people you care about — mentioning someone in your post’s copy sends them a notification, and tagging them makes the post appear in their tagged photos.

5. Use features like Livestream and Instagram Stories

Live videos on Instagram get preference in the Instagram news feed algorithm for display, so give it a try and go live! Once a live video has ended, it’s no longer visible on Instagram (so do it for long enough, like at an event!). And don’t worry about perfection. These videos disappear after the video has ended, so focus on really giving your viewers a behind-the-scenes look into your organization and mission.. See instructions for doing a live video.

Unlike Instagram Live, Instagram stories stay on your feed and your profile for 24 hours, with content grouped together in slideshows. You can choose to upload a video you’ve taken to your Story, so that it’s visible longer than livestreaming is available. If desired, you can also share them as a post to your feed timeline, for even longer enjoyment.

Who’s watching your content? You can check by watching your own story, then swiping up to check out who’s seen each photo and video. See what’s most popular and use that feedback to select what to feature from a particular part of your story, by posting it on your profile.

The post Why Instagram Could Be Helpful For Your Non-Profit appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

It can be confusing and daunting when thinking about corporate fundraising. You may often find yourself asking questions like: How do I successfully bring a partner on board? What are the expectations of the company? How should I treat our relationship?

These are all valid questions and ones that need to be addressed, but with good planning and clear understanding of your goals, a successful relationship with a corporate entity can be built!

So, without further ado, Here are our top tips for engaging with corporates.

Make Connections

Start by thinking of any companies you may have existing contact with.  Use your extended network (contacts of contacts) and ask for introductions – ‘LinkedIn’ can be useful in identifying indirect relationships you never knew you had.

Identify the right person

Make sure you approach the right person – the store/company Manager or person responsible for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is most usual.  Do some research, find out their name and approach them personally and directly – in smaller businesses, where there is no formal CSR policy, donations are often made at the discretion of the Manager.

Think about what you can offer

Where appropriate, think about what you are prepared to offer in return, such as a public acknowledgement or publicity opportunities.  Most companies give out of self-interest rather than pure altruism, and it is important to remember this when approaching them.  If you are asking for sponsorship, think about why a company would want to be associated with you – this could include positive publicity so bring along any press cuttings or correspondence indicating media interest.  Many smaller local businesses may be unaware of the tax advantages available in connection with charitable gifts, so make sure you are prepared to tell them! 

Prepare an ‘Ask’

A letter outlining what you are doing, what it is you are asking for, and why a company should think about supporting you is often a good starting point.

Follow-up with a telephone call a week or two later, allowing time for the recipient to familiarise themselves with your ‘ask’.  If you are looking for something substantial, this may be a good opportunity to suggest a meeting to discuss how any partnership might work.

Say Thank You!

Remember to say ‘thank you’ and report back on how a company’s support has made a difference.  This not only prepares the ground for any future donations but also helps ensure the reputation of the charity and fundraising in general.

The post Your Guide To: Corporate Fundraising appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Just two years ago, the words ‘Brexit’ and ‘GDPR’ didn’t really exist in the non-profit sector’s vernacular. Google Trends now tells us the phrases are now trending at 100 (that’s the max score). The phrases are so popular that people are even Googling them at the same time.

So, Brexit and General Data Protection Reform; what do they have in common? And will Brexit affect GDPR? You asked Google, so here is the answer.

In a nutshell, Brexit will not affect GDPR at all. Not one bit.

What? Why? Well, the ICO (or Information Commissioner’s Office to you and I) is the UK’s regulatory body for everything to do with personal information. They’ve played a big part in providing guidance for the interpretation of GDPR in the UK and even input to its creation. They’re also in charge of enforcing it once it becomes live. They’re 100% behind GDPR.

But what about in the future after we are properly out of the EU? Well again, Brexit won’t affect GDPR. For starts, GDPR has worldwide implications. The EU represents about 750 million people and so most organisations around the world are having to assume that during day-to-day business, they’re eventually going to come into contact with an EU citizen’s personal information and therefore will need to be compliant (or at least have the relevant processes in place). So even if they don’t have a physical presence in the EU, the global scope means it’s not just EU originations that have to be compliant. It’s everyone.

Furthermore, it’s also highly unlikely that the ICO would want to reverse the tightened and updated data protection laws following the expected split in 2019. Organisations would already be compliant, the consumer is going to benefit from the tightened regulations and the 1998 Data Protection Act would be the fall-back – the current UK law written in dial-up internet days. Safe to say that it’s a bit out-of-date.

So overall despite GDRP being an EU framework, Brexit won’t have any bearing on its scope in the UK one little bit. Sorry to disappoint.

The post Brexit & GDPR appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Even if you aren’t a frequent flyer, you probably have an opinion about United Airlines—and it’s likely that recent events regarding forcibly removing a paying passenger to accommodate crew members impacted that opinion. The truth is, when faced with an “urgent need,” common sense often becomes uncommon. Fundraising is certainly not exempt from this problem; we base decisions too often on expediency rather than an analysis of long-term consequences.

Common sense is very uncommon. (Horace Greeley, editor)

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines common sense as “sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts.” As fundraisers, facts are the basis of much of our work, especially with the direct response portion of our program. Yet, despite this abundance of data, fundraising faces serious challenges and many nonprofit organisations are balancing their futures on very shaky foundations.

Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. (Gertrude Stein, author)

Perhaps one challenge is that “sound and prudent” decision-making is rather subjective. I may think I know the best fundraising decision, but too often that is based on my being convinced that what I want to be true is true. In other words, what works for me will work for everyone else.

How can we develop more reliable decision-making to reduce the risk of failure and increase the likelihood of building a cadre of faithful, committed donors? Based on resources providing guidance for developing common sense, here are three tips that I believe are apropos to fundraisers today:

1. Slow down

I lead with this recommendation because it is where I most need to improve. The stupidest mistakes I make – sending an email to the wrong person, for example – happen when I am rushing to finish “just one more thing” before I go to bed. In my hurry to get it done, I create more work cleaning up the fallout the next day. Making decisions when we are tired, angry, scared, or experiencing other strong emotions can negatively affect our judgement. Give common sense a chance to kick in by allowing yourself time to consider the options and the consequences.

2. Know your target audience

“It works for me” is a terrible reason to go in a certain direction, but too often it’s the deciding factor. If you can’t relate to your typical donor, get to know someone who can be a mental surrogate for the donors, and then consider each decision in light of that person. “Will it play in Peoria?” isn’t just an expression that relates to vaudeville; our own common sense will increase if we ask, “Will this decision ‘play’ with our target donor?”

3. Admit mistakes quickly

One of my childhood memories relates to my dad trying to convince my mum that he hadn’t made a wrong turn to the east toward Green Bay, despite seeing the “Home of the Green Bay Packers” along the road. He could keep driving in the direction he was going and make excellent time, but he would never get to Minnesota, which was to the west. It’s great to be cranking out fundraising projects, but if they aren’t resulting in gifts from donors who are growing more and more committed, it’s time to make a course direction. 

What to be a fundraising genius? Cultivate common sense!

Common sense is the genius of humanity. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet)

The post Three Tips for Common-Sense Fundraising appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

By Collette Langley, Business Development Executive, Blackbaud Europe

As a member of a sales team, I work closely with a wide range of IT and Fundraising consultants. When I know a good consultant has been involved in workshopping a non-profit’s requirements or helping in the selection and implementation process, I’m relieved.  To me, it means that the organisation is committed to action, that they have spent some time thinking about what they want to achieve and that they are taking the process seriously.

Investing resource in an external consultant drives an organisation to take the sometimes-daunting first step on the journey of achieving their goals through new technology.

I can also say with confidence that the best consultants know a great deal.  They have been allowed on the inside of a lot of boardrooms; they see all sides of the process; they are in on every conversation and their experience is invaluable to us all.

Benefits of using a consultant:

• Milestones: Helping you set timescales and sticking to them; not just in the project implementation but also in the selection process itself.  The selection process often overruns, and it’s rarely because the supplier isn’t keen enough! For example, we often work with organisations who don’t have a desired go-live date. It’s a bit like working with someone who doesn’t have financial constraints – sounds great, but in reality, it means the selection process isn’t following any rules, project plan, or selection criteria and things can – and will – overrun.

• Budget: A consultant is great in helping you define an appropriate budget for your project.  Many organisations will put a call into a number of suppliers to get a feeling for a budget.  But there are so many variables to consider and making sure you’re comparing apples with apples isn’t as easy as you think at first glance.

• Insight: We are all biased in our opinions. We all think we know what we want out of a system.  But a consultant provides an outsider’s view. A fresh pair of knowledgeable eyes to assimilate your goals and prioritise your requirements, which can bring great benefits.

However, one note of caution. You as the non-profit must remain strong and in control. The wrong consultant, or a lack of direction from you, can muddy the waters, eg. by introducing suppliers that aren’t a good fit, just to make up the numbers or allow comparisons to be made.  This (in my opinion) often happens when an organisation isn’t confident in making a decision.  You may already have a supplier in mind who is a good fit for you, but rather than do due diligence yourself, you introduce a consultant to take you through a process of supplier selection which just leads back to the original supplier.  I recognise this also happens because you may have procurement rules which mean you have to see at least three suppliers and there are merits in this (arse-covering is one!), but you need to be clear why you’re doing it, and remain open to other possibilities the consultant presents.

As with most things in life, communication is key.  There is nothing more disconcerting in my working life than getting one answer from the customer and another from the consultant.  You need to be honest with your consultant and communicate continuously with them throughout the process.  Let’s be honest, when something goes wrong in a project the consultant is the first one to cop it!  All fingers point to them, they were the ones who made the suggestions and guided the decision, it’s easy to blame them and people do (on both sides). It’s a tough job, but both we and you can make it easier and ultimately lead you to making the right technology choice for your organisation.

The post How To Use a Consultant When Selecting A CRM appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

£4,200,000,000. That’s the value to UK universities of knowledge exchange activities with businesses in 2014/15. That’s a lot of zeroes.

To put that number in context, philanthropy to UK higher education institutions contributed £0.8 billion in the same year. And these philanthropy figures also incorporate corporate donations.

Considering this 5:1 ratio, it’s not surprising that business engagement is currently high on the agenda for many university leadership teams. But it is surprising how little business engagement and advancement interact in their work as external relations departments.

Business relationships should be harnessed to strengthen advancement activities, and existing advancement relationships should strengthen business engagement. And, given that philanthropy is the junior “funder” at present, advancement directors should probably be the more eager to progress this conversation!

Why businesses are critical to institutions

Business engagement is flourishing, because of its deep reciprocal nature in the modern economy:

• Research Funding: ranging from sponsoring academic projects and bringing new ideas to market (by commercialising knowledge and technology), to forming new companies. Where research output is significant, this can even result in capital funding for new buildings and laboratories. If the business receives a benefit then the grant is likely to be non-philanthropic (i.e. contractual).

• Student Support: providing significant sources of student-focused funding, especially at postgraduate and postdoctoral level. This might include scholarships, travel or work placement grants, and other awards. These may be funded through companies’ R&D or marketing budgets, rather than corporate social responsibility (CSR).

• Employability: playing critical roles in careers programmes, above and beyond being the actual destinations for many leavers. From providing work placements or internships to hosting Years in Industry. Or attending careers fairs and networking events, participating in mentoring programmes, and offering other training or skills-based learning opportunities.

Why universities are critical to businesses

• Innovation: producing cutting-edge research, which is impactful around the globe and across all disciplines. Partnering can help businesses directly, quickly, and potentially exclusively, benefit from these innovations. Especially in the case of rapidly-evolving fields like medicine, engineering and other sciences.

• Recruitment: providing the best and brightest recruits available. Partnering directly with an education institution helps build more linear pathways for employment. It provides businesses with privileged access to current students, and higher confidence that recruits will have the knowledge and skillsets required.

• Reputation: reinforcing a business’s brand by attaching their name to academic excellence. These partnerships can also give something back to communities or regions in a way that gives confidence to staff, customers and shareholders alike, whilst adding real societal value.

Join up the dots with advancement.

Advancement teams should look to maximise these networks to achieve even more social good. We all know the importance of opening doors and establishing connections. So, if opportunities exist for companies’ R&D, Marketing or members of the Board to make introductions to CSR teams, jump at it!

Advancement can also be the key to creating deeper corporate engagement. Our existing audience of alumni, donors and parents includes employees – or even directors – of exactly the businesses that could have greatest impact on universities’ knowledge exchange activities. Especially when we consider alumni are typically the largest engaged constituency of all. These connections are already helping to drive mentoring and employability initiatives.

A good place to start is by offering access of your Advancement CRM to Business Engagement teams. Your employer data will be vital to unlock doors for wider engagement conversations. And your technology and processes could be an ideal fit for their functional needs. After all, both departments share similarities around the importance of relationships and networks, depend on complex and diverse funding mechanisms, and require multi-channel touch-points to deliver success.

Some institutions have already begun to join up these dots to great effect. But as a sector we’re only scratching the surface of cross-pollinating our external relationships. Where better to start for advancement than with business engagement?

The post Business Engagement: Join the dots with philanthropy appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

What are the laws?

DPA: 1998

The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) is based on eight principles of good information handling. These give people specific rights in relation to their personal data and place certain obligations on organisations that use it.

Understatement alert: A lot has changed in the way data has been collected, processed and stored since 1998. To give it some context, in 1998 less than 10% of UK households had an Internet connection. Google, Linkedin and Facebook didn’t exist, nor did any of the other great personal data collectors we have today. ‘Big Data’ wasn’t a thing and the entire internet could easily have fitted onto a modern desktop hard drive.

PECR: 2003

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) provide rules about sending marketing and advertising by electronic means (telephone, fax, email, text and picture or video message, and by automated calling system). PECR also include other rules relating to cookies, telephone directories, traffic data, location data and security breaches.

GDPR: May 25 2018

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will apply in the UK from 25 May 2018 and will replace DPA. The government has confirmed that the UK’s decision to leave the EU will not affect the commencement of the GDPR.

What’s the difference between DPA and GDPR?

1. Scope: DPA applies only to individuals in the UK, whereas GDPR covers any organisation that holds or processes the personal data of EU citizens – regardless of whether the company is based in the EU or not. This means UK non-profits must comply, Brexit or no Brexit. Like the DPA, the GDPR applies to ‘personal data’. However, the GDPR’s definition is more detailed and makes it clear that information such as an online identifiers – eg an IP address – can count as personal data.

2. Accountability: GDPR requires you to show howyou comply with the principles – eg. by documenting the decisions you take about a processing activity

3. DPIA/PIA: You must carry out a Data Protection Impact when using new technologies and when the processing is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals.

4. 72 hours to report a data breach: Breach notifications become mandatory within 72 hours (if the data breach is likely to result in a risk to an individual’s rights and freedoms)

5. Fines: The current max fine of £500,000 increases to 20million euros or 4% of global revenue – whichever is higher.

6. Individuals’ rights are strengthened e.g.
   1. Data access requests (free under GDPR)
   2. The right to be forgotten (erasure)
   3. The right to data portability
   4. CONSENT!

Consent

Consent is one of six conditions of legal basis for processing personal data. In other words, an organisation can process an individual’s personal data if one or more of the following conditions are met:

• 1. Consent of the data subject
  2. Performance of a contract
  3. Compliance with a legal obligation
  4. Protect the vital interests of a data subject
  5. Necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest
  6. Legitimate interest (NB – excluding public authorities)

You need to check that consent is the most appropriate lawful basis for processing. (NB – if you rely on someone’s consent to process their data, they will generally have stronger rights.) Note that the Fundraising Regulator has set an expectation that consent should be the legal basis for Charity direct marketing (i.e. fundraising) going forward.

You must decide your legal basis for processing personal data for each activity, and document this.

Consent: DPA vs GDPR

GDPR sets a higher standard for consent:

• Consent must be unambiguous and involve a clear affirmative action. In other words, it requires a positive opt-in

• Consent must be separate from other terms and conditions

• Consent must be specific and granular, ie. new consent given for each processing activity

• It must be easy for people to withdraw consent

• Consent must be evidenced and auditable: you must keep a record of when and how you got consent from the individual and what they were told at the time.

• Dynamic: consent needs to be maintained and refreshed, not viewed as ‘open ended’.

• Asking for consent must mean offering individuals genuine choice and control

• Benefit: To quote the ICO: “Doing consent well should put individuals in control, build supporter trust and engagement, and enhance your reputation.”

What official guidance is available?

• ICO Direct Marketing Guide (DPA & PECR)
• ICO: Overview of GDPR
• ICO: Preparing for GDPR
• ICO: Privacy Notice Code of Practice
• ICO GDPR Consent Guidance for Consultation
• Fundraising Regulator: Personal Information & Fundraising (Feb 2017)
• NCVO Working Group: how to enable donors to give consent (Sep 2016)

What should you be doing now?

1. Engage Trustees: make them aware of the issue, and ensure they understand the impact this will have on your priorities leading up to May 2018. Does your Board own a set of principles about how their fundraising teams will operate?
2. Fundraising Policy:
3. Update Privacy Notices
4. Appoint a Data Protection Officer
5. Move now towards opt-in consent

What is Blackbaud doing?

For our part, we’re putting every effort into making sure our customers are comfortable with GDPR, and well-prepared well in advance. Some of our activities include:

• Ongoing customer discovery
• Ongoing consultation with governing bodies
• Recommendations on how to use our solutions to manage consent
• ICO consultation on opt-in consent
• Reviewed draft in March – informing gap analysis in product
• Awaiting final recommendations to ensure any product changes are compliant
• Audit of our current products (Raiser’s Edge 7, eTapestry, Blackbaud CRM, Blackbaud NetCommunity).
• Preparing our next generation solutions (Raiser’s Edge NXT)

While the information provided above is reliable, it does not constitute legal advice and should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances.

The post GDPR – April Update appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

If you’re like most non-profits and charitable organisations you’re seeing growth in online giving. How fast is your online giving growing? 5%? 10%? Maybe 25% or more?

The latest figures from the Blackbaud Index for charitable giving show that online giving continues to grow approximately 7% year over year, while overall giving remains relatively flat, growing only 1-3% per year.

So what’s driving this increase in online giving? Have charities been able to learn from e-commerce sites like Amazon to improve their online donor journey?  Have we finally broken through to millennials with our fundraising efforts?

I’d like to say yes, but unfortunately, I don’t believe that’s the case. Certainly, many non-profits and charitable organisations have made great improvements in the way they conduct their online fundraising. Online donation pages are much better today than they were even a few years ago.

Here are a few examples that indicate why non-profits and charitable organisations need to look a little deeper into online giving data to determine the true source of online donations:

• For one international development organisation HMA discovered that 91% of their online donations were given by donors who were being mailed regularly in the direct mail program.
• For a children’s charity, HMA found that 73% of online donations were received from donors who already existed in the direct mail program.
• And for another national organization, HMA found that while only $12,000 had been given via the specific URL provided on the direct mail pack, an additional $190,000 was given by direct mail donors through the regular website.

You might think that this doesn’t add up. Direct mail donors are old and certainly not keen to give online. And online donors are young millennials— they wouldn’t give through the mail. Right? Well, that’s not what the numbers show us.

Older donors are online

The fastest growing age cohort on Facebook is 65+. In the last year, this group has seen a 30% increase in usage. 62% of online adults 65+ now use Facebook. 47% of online adults 65+ now do their banking online. (Source: Pew Research Center) And it’s these older donors who are also increasingly making donations online as they become more comfortable with technology.

What does this mean for your non-profit or charitable organisation’s fundraising strategy?

Most importantly, it means that to increase your online giving you need to continue to invest in direct mail and other traditional sources of fundraising revenue. Yes, you should be sending regular e-mails. And yes, you should post regular updates to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels. The more integrated the messaging across channels, the better fundraising results you will see. But you shouldn’t re-allocate all of your resources to online just because that’s your fastest growing revenue channel.

You should, however, test the usability of your online donation form. Your online donation form is used by many of your older, traditional donors because it’s convenient for them. Have you ever asked a parent or grandparent to test your online donation form for you? It’s a great exercise. Just ask them to sit down and make an online donation to your organisation. Resist the urge to help them if they struggle to complete the donation. But take notes and make changes if they had any challenges completing the form.

Millennial donors need to be cultivated

If most of the online revenue comes from older donors, how can you cultivate Millennial donors?

Millennials want to make an impact, but often times they don’t have the financial resources to do so. They’ll be happy to share your content through social media and participate in an event to raise money from their friends and family, but they may not yet have the financial resources to make a significant charitable donation.

So rather than focusing on trying to get money from this group, focus instead on engaging them in your cause—give them other ways to get involved. Connect with them through social media. Provide them with ways to share about your mission and the impact your nonprofit or charitable organisation makes. This could include providing a platform for them to create their own peer-to-peer fundraising page.

Most importantly – show them how their support (whether financial or not) has made an impact. Because if you’re able to engage them now and keep them interested in your cause, they’ll be more likely to donate to your organisation in the future.

3 tips to increase online donations from both older and younger donors?

1. Build a well-designed online donation form

Keep your online donation form to 10 fields or less. Ensure it works on mobile phones and tablets. Provide a variety of payment options. And test it on multiple devices to ensure every donor (especially your older donors) will be able to easily complete their online donation.

2. Continue to invest in off-line fundraising programs

Yes, there have been a few purely online campaigns that were successful. The Ice Bucket Challenge is one that I always get asked about. ‘How can we re-create that for our organisation?’ The short answer is that you can’t. ALS didn’t even create the ice bucket challenge, it was created by individuals who cared about the cause. Others got involved and it took off. But if your strategy is to create the next Ice Bucket Challenge you’re almost guaranteed to fail. Instead, brainstorm ways you can genuinely connect with your donors. Provide them with a platform to share content. If you do a good job with that, they’ll help you with your online fundraising.

3. Focus on donor stewardship

Whether it’s an online or offline donation, great donor stewardship is critical. Donors have more choices than ever to whom they can direct their donations, so it’s important that your organisation stands out. Thank donors for every gift they make. Send them their tax receipt promptly. Make thank you calls to ALL donors. And always be sure that donors know what impact their donation has made.

The post What’s Really Driving the Increase in Online Giving? appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

As an events or community fundraiser you’ve got a lot to juggle and a lot of hats to wear; from risk assessments, budgets and ROI plans to Gift Aid and donor stewardship – there’s always enough to keep you busy. The last thing you need is a soup of acronyms to confuse your day – but data consent is important and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming in May 2018. As a fundraiser, what does that mean for you?

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) don’t have a fun job when it comes to issuing guidance around GDPR. They can’t seem to satisfy everyone. (Or anyone?) But one thing is clear – your donors’ data processing consent is of paramount importance, and with the introduction of the new Fundraising Regulator in the UK your processes need to be spot-on from the beginning.

What Can You Do Next?

Be patient. With all that is going on at the moment, there will be a lot of conflicting information thrown around. Trying to make sense of it can be frustrating and counterproductive. If you want the facts as they stand today, you can check the ICO’s pretty useful guide,  or the Blackbaud website.

Keep in touch. Regular contact with your donors is integral to successful event fundraising. Every party involved in these discussions understands the importance of good stewardship and a good donor journey online and offline. Being sensitive to your supporters and their needs will help you understand how they want to give consent.

Be passionate.  You should be obsessive about constantly improving the experience your supporters and donors have whilst engaging with you – putting your supporters at the heart of what you do will insulate against a lot of common errors. See consent capture as an avenue to understand your supporter base better – and how they want to interact with you, rather than a roadblock.

What is happening now?

In the meantime – be sure to look forward to June, when the ICO will be releasing an update on guidance surrounding the implementation of GDPR.

What you need to know.

With GDPR quickly approaching, as a fundraiser you need to know that the ICO wants to ensure non-profits are transparent in their processing of supporters’ personal data and that donors give informed consent to such activities. This consent requires “clear affirmative action”. Knowing what that consent looks like, and keeping an accurate record of when consent was given are the first steps towards compliance with GDPR.

(Note: Brexit will not affect GDPR –  although Brexit may be all we hear about at the moment, you need to know that it won’t affect GDPR’s implementation in the UK.)

Keep an eye out for more bitesize GDPR posts from Blackbaud. We’re right alongside you as the full impact becomes clear and more details come to light, and will keep up a steady stream of content to help you – and your data – get ready.

While the information provided above is reliable, it does not constitute legal advice and should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances.

The post GDPR – The Basics for a Fundraiser appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Influencer marketing is the practice by which businesses recruit a person of influence to share the organisation’s messages with the influencer’s own audience, often (but not always) in return for a financial incentive. I look at this as – empowering your advocates. This method is based a core principle of marketing: people are more likely to absorb and act on the recommendation of a friend or individual they trust than that of a brand or organisation.

The five rules of influencer marketing

Whether you’re considering dipping a toe in the waters of influencer marketing or simply want to add further rigour to your current influencer program, your timing couldn’t be better. As the channel matures, many of the challenges and teething problems of the last few years have been solved or improved upon. The relationships between brands and their influencers are becoming less murky and more sophisticated. Best practice approaches have been identified and perfected.

Here are a few rules of thumb to help you get the most out of your influencer marketing program:

1. Be authentic.

Authenticity is the key to a successful influencer campaign.  Audiences have a nose for when something feels contrived or an influencer is ‘doing it for the money’ so it’s critical to work with people who have a genuine stake in your cause.  One of the reasons influencer marketing and charities are such a good fit is that influencers will often already be vocal about causes they support; this, in turn, makes them easier to identify, the relationship smoother to establish and your message a more natural fit.

2. Don’t assume bigger is better.

Experience has taught us that going after big-name celebrities or digital influencers with huge fanbases to endorse your cause doesn’t always provide the best ROI. In fact, statistics have shown that niche social influencers with smaller followings tend to enjoy greater engagement with their audience and higher conversion rates, all of which is great news for charities with limited marketing budgets.  We call these individuals micro-influencers or long-tail influencers: their audiences are smaller but highly targeted and more active online.

Where it gets really interesting, however, is when you can start to search for these individuals within your existing donor database. Attentive.ly is a social listening software provider created especially with nonprofits in mind. It reveals what people from your database are saying on social media, as well as which issues resonate and why allowing you to identify who your own micro-influencers are and build rich social profiles on those individuals. This offers charities the potential to radically increase the engagement and reach of campaigns by creating tailored outreach to influential and highly engaged individuals from within their own networks.

3. Choose quality over quantity.

Influencers like to feel valued and expect to be treated as individuals. Even if they provide access to their fans in return for a financial reward, it’s still important that you invest time in the relationship to ensure they are emotionally committed to your cause.

4. Be strategic.

Before committing to an influencer program, have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, how you’d like to achieve it and how you plan to measure success. Consider how best to use your influencers and what actions you want them to take: is the primary goal sharing your brand’s content with as many people as possible?

5. Track & measure.

Measuring the success of influencer marketing campaigns has historically been problematic – and continues to be. According to a recent industry survey, 78 percent of marketers said measuring ROI for influencer marketing was their biggest challenge for 2017 – and it’s easy to see why.

So how should brands be measuring success? For starters, introducing a wider range of metrics, such as engagement, audience sentiment and conversions will help to level the playing field and ensure you are measuring more than just fan numbers.  Even easier to incorporate into your campaign are hashtags: they encourage others to join the conversation and make it easy to track.

The post What is influencer marketing? appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

For many, the term “automation” conjures up images of Rosie from The Jetsons or computers coming to steal our jobs. In reality, automation just means integrating your cloud apps and is an efficient way to simplify complex tasks and business processes that would otherwise require tedious human effort. For non-profits, automation offers specific benefits in terms of transparency and efficiency. It can simplify your administrative work, allow for a 360-degree view of your organisation, and even help you raise more money.

Here are four reasons your non-profit should consider integrating your apps:

1. More time for your mission

You work at a non-profit because you want to provoke social change, but you spend most of your workday reconciling invoices in your account app. Sound familiar? A non-profit isn’t a business, but it does need to accomplish basic business tasks such as accounting, record keeping, and reporting. Frequently, non-profits dread these tasks because it means devoting less time to work that directly relates to their missions.

With automation, however, you don’t need to worry about checking tedious, repetitive tasks off of your to-do list. Rather than focusing on tasks that keep your organisation running day-to-day, you can focus on tasks that push your organisation further towards its goals.

2. Improved reporting and greater transparency

Running a non-profit involves making strategic choices about your goals. These decisions are more difficult to make when you have inaccurate or inadequate information about your programs or campaigns. In addition to this information block, we already know that non-profits often face unrealistic expectations as written by The Stanford Social Innovation Review:

“The cycle starts with funders’ unrealistic expectations about how much running a charity costs. And results in non-profits’ misrepresenting their costs while skimping on vital systems—acts that feed funders’ skewed beliefs.”

Automation, however, makes aggregating the information non-profits need to make high-level decisions simple, by syncing it between otherwise separate apps. This gives you an instant view of your donations and leads in one place. Automation means you can make better high-level decisions about your goals because at any moment you can view a 360-degree snapshot of the entire organisation.

This 360-degree reporting also means that you can be more transparent with your donors and leadership. By connecting your CRM with your accounting program, it’s much easier to account for every penny spent.

3. Lower cost; higher ROI

Another distinct challenge for non-profits is that, though they aren’t profit-driven, they still need to run efficiently. Donors expect organisations to spend as much of their funding on the mission as possible, minimising other costs. Non-profits are always looking for ways to be both leaner and more efficient – automation can help you accomplish both. Cherrice Browne of Houston, TX based non-profit The R.O.C.K. explains: “The point of having everything integrated and working together is to cut down on the time we spend on activities that don’t help us grow. For example, updating sales reports by hand – it doesn’t make money and it leaves room for error.”

Automation takes tasks that would otherwise require human labour and does them more quickly, more accurately, and more reliably. Instead of paying tens of thousands of pounds per year for a dedicated administrative staff, you can automate many repetitive tasks and allocate resources to new initiatives. By lowering your spending on grunt work and using those funds on higher level tasks, an increase in donations and hitting your KPI’s are sure to follow.

4. More efficient donation campaigns

Non-profits rely heavily on online fundraising campaigns, but raising money can sometimes feel like throwing things at a wall and trying to see what sticks. With automation, you can make sure all your donor information is stored in one place. When you can access donor information more easily, you can craft targeted emails and campaigns that are more likely to result in a donation. This is key for increasing campaign efficiency, as personalised emails deliver six times higher transaction rates.

For example, let’s say an annual donor recently attended a fundraising event for a particular cause. Knowing that she attended the event is valuable information; because she demonstrated an interest in that particular cause, she’s more likely to respond to a campaign about it. With automation, this insight is immediately available in your CRM or Marketing automation tool, and you can use it to craft tailored email campaigns that target donors based on their past behaviours. Additionally, automation enables you to interact with donors at otherwise disparate touchpoints, such as event attendance, membership renewal, and even birthdays.

Automation isn’t just the future of labour; it offers distinct advantages for non-profit organisations. It allows you a 360-degree view of your entire organisation from accounting to lead generation and frees up staff to focus more on your mission and less on administrative work. If you want to run a leaner, more efficient, more accountable organisation, automation is worth considering.

The post 4 Ways Smart Integrations Can Improve Non-Profit Fundraising Results appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Don’t ignore the ‘thinkers’ and talkers’ – they will encourage more ‘doers’ in your community fundraising tribe, says Julie Roberts

Often as fundraisers, we can focus too much just on the ‘doers’ – the actual participants in our community fundraising and events programmes. We can often overlook the social media observers (‘thinkers’) and advocates (‘talkers’) if they themselves don’t give or fundraise. In doing so, however, we are denying ourselves a real opportunity to expand our community fundraising.

Community fundraising is generally seen as a reactive form of fundraising: passionate supporters approaching an organisation and telling them that they want to raise money to help the cause, but in their way and when they want to.

It is always fantastic to have the support of these ‘doers’, but how do you find more of these like-minded, passionate people who love fundraising in their own way? This is a key question I get asked by charities over and over.

Building a tribe

Well, the answer is to build a ‘tribe’; a community of people in which there is a sense of collective purpose and belonging. But how? Well in this day in age the perfect platform is, of course, social media – no geographical barriers, no time barriers and interaction as and when supporters want it.

But you need more than a platform. You need a strong content strategy to engage your potential supporters.

First, let’s think about what you know about these passionate supporters. Start by asking, what’s their key connection? It all starts with your cause. They have come to you because they believe in your mission, your purpose, what you are hoping to achieve as an organisation.

Second, in what way do they want to support your cause? What are the attitudes and beliefs that motivate these individuals to act on behalf of and in support of your charity? Many want to fundraise in an active way, so they feel like they are helping the individual/family that is being immediately affected.

In my experience, the best content engages supporters by highlighting how others are helping your cause to achieve the outcome of your organisation in the same, active form of fundraising.  For example:

Now you need to reach out and find your tribe. You should start by focusing on your warmest supporters, then add additional marketing (links to your social pages, Facebook adverts etc). You’ll soon start to see your tribe grow through their connections.

When I worked at Cancer Council NSW we ran a campaign called Do It For Cancer. The following results are for the first EDM we sent to our warm past community fundraisers to grow our Facebook page. The email was titled ‘Stick up for us and we’ll support you!’

Email sent: 12,877

Emails opened: 2,666

Open rate: 20.7%

Click throughs: 466

Likes received from email: 249

Conversion from click through: 53.4%

Additional likes from the day of email sent: 320

Additional likes from day after email sent: 209

Creating a journey

So, you have created a social media community and now you have great content. But will this, in itself, bring additional doers? For some, yes. Others, however, will need to be taken on a journey within the community. They need to feel that they too could belong to the active pool of supporters. But they need to be convinced. This could be achieved through inspiration for the activity that they could do, the support others have gained from the organisation or the way other people’s networks came to support them. You’ll never truly know what caused someone to register on that day to become a doer. All you need to understand is how to take them on this journey.

To help me explain how the journey comes into play, meet my three key tribe personas: Nelson Mandela, The Poet and Oprah.

Nelson is the doer; the go-getter who is rallying his troops and is actively helping your cause head towards its mission by raising vital funds.

The Poet is the thinker of the tribe. In community fundraising terms, the Poet is the one who will add fun and a creative input to provide inspiration to others.

Oprah is the talker. The one who will comment, share and like posts, and interact with others, spreading messages that bring the content to more people.

Why are these important? All three work alongside each other to spur each other on and in turn help identify and engage your next army of doers. By understanding these community characteristics, you can start to build a real fundraising community.

Start by showcasing your current doers. This is one example of what we used to do on our Facebook page:

This will inspire the thinkers about what potential fundraising ideas they could do. Meanwhile, your talkers will start to talk about the activities of your doers and share the ideas of your thinkers. And in turn, new doers will start to realise how they can support your cause and act.

The bonus ball

Not every single person will become a doer – but they may become a donor for another doer. They could become an advocate for your cause and for these active ways of fundraising. They could be the link to another potential doer for your cause. The list of opportunities is endless.

The insights you’ll gain and additional networks you’ll reach will allow you to create a brand new tribe for your community fundraising programme. Hopefully, one that can be used not just for finding doers, but for finding and making the most of all kinds of new opportunities.

Julie Roberts is the director of More Strategic [http://www.morestrategic.co.uk/] and a passionate community and events expert. She recently spoke at the IoF Yorkshire Conference in February about how she grew the community fundraising programme at Cancer Council NSW [https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/] in Sydney, Australia and turned it into an innovation funnel. If you need help in your community or events programme, email julie@morestrategic.co.uk

The post How to Build a Tribe of Community Fundraisers appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Ensuring that your foundation makes impactful grants to the right non-profit partners starts with a thorough proposal evaluation. A proposal should include more than just the organisation’s mission statement and program description.

To help you better evaluate submissions so that you are set up for success, here are nine items you should look for in any grant proposal:

• Organisation Background & Experience: Has this organisation run similar programs in the past—similar budgets, focus area, geography? Does their previous experience set them up for success with this new program?

• The financial health of your organisation: Make sure you take a look at the non-profit’s financial records and ensure that there are no red flags that could indicate this may be an unwise investment.

• Program Partners: If the non-profit will be working with other partners (whether non-profit, academic, government, even other grantmakers), are these partners experienced in this type of program? Are they subject matter experts or invested in the target community? What specific roles will the partners play, and how will their activities be tracked? If there aren’t other partners, are you comfortable that the one organisation can fully implement the program on its own?

• Program Description: This should be more than a few sentences with high-level goals. The proposal should include a detailed description of how the program will be executed, how exactly the pieces fit together to achieve the desired outcome, and of the different phases involved in implementing and running the program. Which leads us to number 5…

• Program Timeline: Of course, even the best-laid plans are subject to change, but the proposal should include a general timeline of when the various parts of the program will be executed, how the program will ultimately come together. This timeline should serve to help you, as the grantmaker, to monitor the progress of the grant and ensure it’s on track with hitting various milestones.

• Measurement Plan: Has an appropriate plan been laid out to monitor and measure the program outcomes? If appropriate for the grant size, is an experienced independent evaluator involved to administer the outcomes measurement plan? Or if being implemented internally, do the staff tasked with tracking results have the appropriate knowledge and experience to accurately do so?

• Sustainability Plan: Has the organisation specified a plan to obtain continued funding and/or an ability to self-sustain the program after the grant period has ended? In other words, is the non-profit already thinking about what happens after this grant?

• Communications Plan: Does the proposal outline an appropriate communications plan as part of the overall program, to promote awareness and gain buy-in from the target population? And separately, does the proposal outline how the organisation will publicise the program, share learnings at conferences and in publications, etc.?

• Detailed Budget: Does the proposal include a detailed line-item budget? Does the line-item budget include reasonable costs (meaning neither inflated nor underestimated) for personnel and program-related expenses? A detailed budget enables you to be a good steward of your foundation’s grant funds.

In my experience as a former corporate grantmaker, if a grant proposal includes satisfactory responses to these nine elements, that’s a good indicator that the organisation has carefully thought the project through and will be a great grantee partner. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and have a two-way conversation about the application responses—some of my most successful grants resulted from working together to refine the proposal by sharing experience based on past learnings. And make sure that you have the right technology in place that allows you to easily ask for and collect this information in applications. A clear, easy-to-use application form will help set you and your partners up for success from the very beginning.

The post 9 Things to Look for When Evaluating a Grant Proposal appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Download the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s story

 
“I love the partnership approach we have with Blackbaud. It’s like we’re on a journey together, and we’re both focused on a common goal. Raiser’s Edge NXT is a sophisticated solution, but it’s also fun to use. It’s definitely the way ahead in terms of the next generation of fundraising and development!”
 
Chris Newson
External Relations Data Manager, Guildhall School of Music and Drama

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Customer Story: Guildhall School of Music and Drama appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Download the University of London’s story

 
“We’re doing very well so far. We’ve already managed to raise donations into six figures using Blackbaud Enterprise CRM. This is a significant amount of income that we wouldn’t have otherwise had, and can be used to help ensure that we are meeting the aims of the University.”

Karl Newton
Head of Development Operations, University of London

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Customer Story: University of London appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Advocacy is a way to showcase your organisation’s mission while solving a problem at the same time. With a plan and resources, you can arm your biggest supporters with the tools they need to be stewards for your cause.

But how do you create an advocacy program that actually works? Read our 6 Key Takeaways and start sharing your mission today.

Key Takeaways for Creating Your Own Advocacy Program

• Identify: What is it that you want your supporters to help spread the word about? This could be anything from helping raise money for a new program, to showcasing a new exhibit.

• Inform: It’s important that your advocates have all the facts. Those are going to be their strongest weapon. Prepare them with material that outlines the issue and provide any facts and figures.

• Role Play: Help your advocates make their case for your cause by giving them a sense of what they can expect. Provide them with talking scripts if necessary so that they can practice what they are going to say.

• Social: Create a social campaign and draft posts with relevant hashtags that people can easily share with their own networks.

• Top of Mind: Create a one-pager that outlines your mission, the cause being advocated for, and how others can help.

• Give Thanks: Without your supporters, sharing your mission can only go so far. It’s with their passion that the word spreads about causes that are important to your organization—and to them. Make sure they know you appreciate everything they do to help advance your cause.

Advocacy in action

If you’ve never had an advocacy program at your organisation, here are a few pointers from the event that you can use as inspiration.

Let’s say you’re a cultural organisation, and want to build advocacy for the institution you support – whether that’s a museum, gallery, theatre or leisure facility. You might want to prepare materials that empower your supporters.

Provide your supporters with:

• Briefs that outline key issues, such as the economic and social impacts of your organisation. Identify your key concerns so your supporters can spread the word.
• Snapshots of your fundraising figures, campaigns and initiatives. Inform your supporters about the acitvity your undertaking, and the success it’s having.
• Tips for speaking with new prospective supporters and institutions. Help your advocates spread your message by writing role play scenarios.
• Provide highlight packs about the impact your institution has on communities, both locally and further afield. Keep your institution top of your supporter’s minds.

The post How to Make Your Mission Heard by the Masses appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Blackbaud’s 2016 Charitable Giving Report shows us that donor retention for first-time donors is still remarkably low – 29% for offline donors and 21% for online donors. But if donors are retained passed that first year, the retention rate jumps significantly to 60% for offline donors and 58% for online donors. This data shows that new donor retention should be a high priority for non-profit organisations.

According to this most recent Charitable Giving Report, “The non-profit sector is entering a period where sustainable growth depends on embracing best practices in donor engagement, retention, and stewardship.” This is our professional call to action. Now is the time to instate best practices at your organisation and truly develop a great system for donor retention.

So much of fundraising and relationship building is about following up with donors—keeping in touch, reporting impact, keeping them apprised of new happenings and so on. This is where I see a lot of organisations struggle. First, they wonder about the “right” volume of communications to send to donors. Second, they wonder what the content of these communications should be.

My short answer to the question regarding volume of communications to donors is that it needs to be more than you are currently doing. For instance, one email a month to your email list is not that much and more than likely not enough to do the heavy lifting of relationship building. Start by evaluating the volume of your communications to your donor segments—offline and online donors. List out everything someone would have received if they made a gift six months ago. Ask yourself: Is this enough to successfully build a relationship with the donor?

When it comes to the content of donor communications that actually retain donors, we must focus on communicating impact. The best content to accomplish this is stories. Stories show donors their impact in action and clearly demonstrates how, through giving, a donor has helped solve a problem or meet a need.

As you evaluate your donor communications strategy, here are three places that you will want to incorporate stories:

1. Thank You Letters

Thank you letters are often the first touch point a donor receives after making a gift. A great thank you letter should surprise and delight donors, tell them how the gift was used, and tell them a story of impact. This does not have to be a long story. It can be a short paragraph in the letter, but that will be enough to give your donors the warm fuzzies about their philanthropy.

2. Donor Newsletters

Newsletters are such an important piece in donor communications and stewardship. But all too often they are just used to report updates and nothing more substantial. Pivot your organisation’s newsletter to be more donor-centered. Make the whole newsletter about donors and donor impact, which includes telling a variety of stories.

Need some newsletter inspiration? Check out these five non-profit newsletters.

3.  Impact or Gratitude Reports

Many organisations are starting to do special follow-up reports on larger annual campaigns that they run. These reports are impact or gratitude reports that, again, highlight donor impact through stories. They showcase stories of program participants, clients, and beneficiaries of the work. In some cases, they will also tell donor stories to help connect donors to their peers.

No matter where your organisation is at with donor retention, I encourage you to evaluate and upgrade your efforts through story-based content.

The post How Non-Profits Can Use Storytelling to Boost Donor Retention appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Whitepaper: Guide to selecting CRM software appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Whitepaper: Grant Management Solutions – Build or Buy? appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Whitepaper: Raising More Online for Your College or University appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Over the past six decades, individual donors continue to be the largest philanthropic group. Donations by individuals accounted for £210 billion, more than double the amount of foundations, charitable bequests and corporations combined. Obtaining and sustaining these individual donors is vital to your annual giving campaign. Your annual giving campaign is comprised of strategic development opportunities, helping you meet and exceed your fundraising goals each year. Many different efforts will add to its success, with each step of the campaign requiring donor interactions and stewardship.

You have two main objectives as you develop your annual giving campaign:

• Strengthen donor or membership relations
• Sustain operational expenses

Planning a campaign takes preparation and detail. Focus on these action items as you begin to shape the campaign:

• Set a realistic annual fund goal
• Analyse your current prospects
• Develop a team utilising all resources and connections
• Follow-up and thank you

Your development team should focus on the annual giving campaign until they reach the annual fund goal. Consider these three opportunities to help you meet your goal, maximise exposure, and generate success: fundraising appeals, events, and stewardship.

1. Appeals

Appeals are direct communication pieces to your prospects and donors via print or electronic delivery. They contain powerful content and create exposure for your organisation by educating others on your past, current and future efforts. These solicitations generate awareness of your mission, build relationships, and increase revenue. The most common appeals are Mid-year, Giving Tuesday and the Season of Giving.

• Mid-year– Typically distributed in June or July, the Mid-year appeal is best sent via direct mail and electronic delivery. Sending out an appeal Mid-year will not affect planned year-end efforts.
• Giving Tuesday– Giving Tuesday, the global day of giving, is digitally driven. Every year on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, non-profits around the world develop campaigns to capitalise on this philanthropic day, often with strong messaging on social media.
• Season of Giving– Promote your end-of-year throughout the month of December, electronically and through direct mail.

While there are many ways you can go about shaping your appeal, highlighting an individual situation or story will have the most impact by enhancing your donors’ understanding and increasing their connection to your cause. Once messaging is complete and you’ve crafted a story, ensure the solicitation is delivered in a simple, informative, connective, and uplifting way.

• Delivery – Ensure the message is vibrant and concise. Use simple verbiage and keep statistics to a minimum. Statistics are great motivators, but can also alter the voice of an appeal. Readers need to easily understand the message to connect to it. A confused donor will disregard an appeal, resulting in no gift.
• Mission – The voice of your appeal must prominently support your mission throughout the piece. Your organisation’s mission and objectives should be clear to the reader.
• Personalisation – Personalisation is key to making your donors feel important and connected to your cause. Simple additions such as the donor’s name, last donation date, and the amount of their last gift can have a lasting impact.
• Imagery – People naturally look at pictures before reading text. Capitalise on this by using images to tell your story and enhance the donors’ emotions. Select photos that invoke feelings of empathy and joy to develop drive and energy to support your cause.
• Donor Impact – Donors like to feel connected and valuable to causes they believe in. Focusing on donor impact creates ownership and connection, ultimately increasing giving. Explain how donor support is critical to your mission, and highlight donor impact in your story.
• Donation Amounts – Engage your donors by showing and telling them how you are utilizing their money. Keep the amount you ask for and explanations simple, and use examples.
• Convenience– Accessibility is vital; make it easy for your donors to give. Your website should reflect your current campaign, and your donation button or page must be highly visible. Include options, such as recurring gift, so donors have the choice to give again automatically. Direct mail appeals should include a return envelope. It’s no secret that social media is incredibly effective: Don’t forget to include a link that leads directly to your donation page.
• Execution– Appeals are endorsed by many people in many ways. Leadership and development are the mainstay of appeals, but other staff, board members and volunteers must work collectively to drive the effort.

2. Events

Events are an exciting way to expose your campaign. Hosting an event can be challenging; however, consider these methods to increase success and profitability. Develop different types of events appealing to many levels of donors to maximise attendance.

• Fun-Allow your guests to be amazed while creating a fun environment. Building experiences that generate a buzz will sustain attendance for your next affair.
• Creative-Develop a unique atmosphere and treat guests to out-of-the-box encounters that everyone will remember. If possible, include a theme that will heighten the originality and allow guests to get involved.
• Customize-Be resourceful, and make sure your event is mission-focused. Details, small and large, should mirror your organisation’s purpose, and guests should feel aligned with your message.
• Committee-Build a committee specifically to increase ticket sales and recognise their efforts on your social media posts, website and printed collateral. Developing a name, such as “Friends of the Festival,” will intensify their purpose, strengthening their drive and increasing exposure. They are your advocates and should feel appreciated.

Every event serves the same purpose: face time with your donors while exposing your mission. Bonding with prospects and donors is imperative, whether it’s formal or informal, to deepening your relationship. Donors tend to let loose at events and become carefree while enjoying the moment. This is your pathway into their world, allowing for an easier stewardship process.

3. Stewardship

Each donor is unique and no two like to be stewarded the same way. Your interaction and communication plan will need to be broad and diverse. Stewardship is the key to successful donor retention. It’s easier to keep a donor than to acquire a new one. Ensure your stewardship plan is impactful through acknowledgement, designation, notes, communication, and low-cost touches.

• Acknowledgement– Recognise gifts within three days of receiving since a delayed response can be perceived as an insult. Some donors prefer to remain anonymous, while other donors might want the publicity to go toward their company, but one thing is constant: All donor requests should be respected. Acknowledgement levels mostly fall into three categories: major gift, mid-level gift, and lower-level gift. The amount for each category is customised to your organisation’s donor base.
  • Major Gift: Phone call and thank you letter
  • Mid-level Gift: Personalised email and thank you letter
  • Lower-level Gift: Thank you letter with hand written note
• Designation-Ensure that each donation is used to the fullest intent of the donor. Restricted or unrestricted, it’s imperative to honour the donor’s wishes.
• Take notes-Every organisation has turnover, but keeping detailed records will guarantee donor satisfaction. Appropriate software will help your development staff succeed.
• Communication-Keeping donors engaged is simple! To sustain your donors, make sure to follow-up on how their funds were used and remain in communication. When a donor can physically see a difference, they are more likely to give a second time, third time, and eventually become a recurring donor.
• Low-Cost Touches-Acknowledging milestones in your major donor’s lives is an inexpensive way to keep the connection alive. Send them a birthday card or congratulations on a new family member, for example. Every time you contact your donors, it shouldn’t be about money. Let them know you care and want to share their experiences.

Your annual campaign is your primary route to raising the funds necessary to accomplish your organisation’s mission. With careful planning, other benefits will arise throughout the year. Campaigns expose your mission and lead to greater awareness in your community and in the news. This is your most important campaign of the year – remember to engage your donors and share stories of positive impact.

The post Three Major Components of a Successful Annual Giving Campaign appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Whitepaper: Social Fundraising for Educational Institutions appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Whitepaper: Finding Major Donor Prospects for Your School appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Whitepaper: Inbound Marketing for Private Schools appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Whitepaper: The Timeless Art of the Telethon appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Whitepaper: The Major Donor Message appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Whitepaper: Asking for Large Gifts to Your College or University appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

CRM solutions tailor made for education institutions

Ensure the long-term success of your school, college or university with innovative cloud software.

Find a single, integrated solution that brings together your fundraising, relationship and grant management programmes.

The post Whitepaper: Maximising Alumni Engagement appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Using technology and data to enhance your advancement programmes is vital but can initially seem overwhelming. Here are 5 practical ways that you can effectively harness technology that you have at your disposal.

1. Building a reliable repository of data

   1. Think of your alumni and fundraising system as your colleague who never leaves – your institutional knowledge that isn’t stuck in people’s heads.
   2. It should be safe, secure, robust – and must be easily accessible and queryable, so you can interrogate it for insights.

2. Grant access beyond the development team

   1. When you can, empower more colleagues to be able to review and improve the data this allows you to gain better information.  To do this you need an easy-to-use, intuitive interface and role-based experience so that you can restrict more sensitive data appropriately.
   2. Take active steps to consolidate spreadsheets and other information into this single system – so you gain a 360° view of your alumni, parents and donors.
   3. Ensure that you have access when on the road – this improves efficiency, removes deadlines and ensures face-to-face meetings are effective.
   4. Harness the power of peer-to-peer networks.  You have alumni and parents who want to help; empower them to fundraise on your behalf.

3. Driving processes

   1. Your system allows you to effectively control your pipeline of donor meetings and proposals, so you never miss a task or an opportunity.
   2. It also helps you manage events, volunteers and communications – enabling you to test and learn what works best, for example whether a monthly newsletter has a better response rate than a one-off email.
   3. It delivers you step-by-step workflows based on best (and even next) practices.

4. Automating processes

   1. Wherever possible, schedule data flows, imports, exports and other global changes
   2. Systematise your data quality checks to ensure you’re improving your data continually.  Query lists are a great friend for this!
   3. Use the technology to deliver online giving, events, profile updates, preferences etc – better for all concerned.  Join up your CRM to payments, so the process is optimal both for your alumni and for you.

5. Providing insight and answers

   1. The right system pushes data to you – so you know where to focus time.
   2. It can also provide built-in analytics – up-to-date with changing circumstances.
   3. Increasingly we need to focus on metrics and outcomes – whether that’s for fundraising, engagement or demonstrating impact.

Your Alumni and Fundraising System has the potential to be the most important member of your Development Team, and one who can grow in responsibility and effectiveness as you grow over time.  So, be open to embracing technology and data as they can be one of your greatest enablers to supporter engagement.

The post How to make your Alumni and Fundraising System part of your Development Team appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Tracking outcomes can offer an array of benefits, from improving your reports to driving collaboration between funders and grantees.

One additional benefit is improved decision-making. By tracking outcomes and indicators using an automated process and aggregating the data in one place, organisations are able to spend less time on ad-hoc data collection and analysis and more time on important decisions that drive operational effectiveness. With the power of knowledge derived from measuring outcomes, funders are able to make better decisions about projects and organisations to fund.

Outcomes = Opportunity

In our ongoing dialogue with thousands of members of the giving community, we’ve heard from hundreds of foundations that are either measuring outcomes or want to measure outcomes. And what do they want? Sure, they want to use outcomes to measure performance, but they also want to know which organisations can benefit from added capacity to achieve their shared social mission. Having a shared understanding of intended outcomes from the beginning of the grant, and tracking progress toward those outcomes, allows foundations to evaluate where their grantee partners need extra help. Depending on the programmatic area, we estimate that 20 to 40 percent of all foundation funding is in the service of expanding a well-intended non-profit’s capacity to change the world and make it a better place.

Transparent Outcomes, Improved Funding

There’s another benefit not necessarily associated with the improved transparency an organisation gains measuring, tracking and reporting on outcomes: improved funding. Philanthropists are looking for effective stewards of their social investment. The ability to better articulate the work, by both funder and grantee partner, ensures these new champions of philanthropy can be confident of the return on investment, in the form of specific and measurable impact. Indeed, through our extensive market research, we know of benefactors that will immediately increase funding if outcomes are established early on in the grant application process.

Additional Benefits for Corporate Philanthropists

All foundations and their non-profit partners can benefit from measuring, tracking and reporting on outcomes. But corporations can realise an additional benefit not available to foundations: that of commercial success.

Corporations can benefit in the areas of employee retention and customer loyalty, both of which have potentially advantageous effects.

Skillfully broadcasting your well-defined corporate philanthropic efforts across the organisation helps to boost employee engagement and pride. “Well defined” is important here; specificity matters. Employees are much more excited by statements like “Our corporation provided funding that resulted in 100 third-graders improving their reading achievement by two grade levels in 2015” rather than “We gave £100,000 to our local public school system.” The power of specificity triggers added pride in the organisation, which can lead to increased employee retention, especially amongst Millennials.

As we continue on our shared outcomes journey, we will uncover and share more about the key ways various philanthropists and their non-profit partners benefit not only from the crisp measuring, tracking and reporting of outcomes to stakeholders, but the ways in which their organisation’s effectiveness is improved. The fun is just beginning!

The post Benefits to Tracking Outcomes appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

This Post Originally Appeared on NP Engage.

According to the Millennial Impact Report, 72 percent of Millennials are eager to join a non-profit and a little over 50 percent would like to give monthly to a charitable organisation.

When looking at these statistics, it’s clear that Millennials are eager, and would like to contribute. But what’s holding up the action? Why is the ‘Giving Barrier’ so high? Understanding that even small contributions can make an impact, why are we so hesitant to get involved?

Although millennials are clearly seeking a more meaningful life, my hypothesis is that we’d like to do so without seriously inconveniencing ourselves, more so than previous generations. Sound selfish and contradictory? Yes. But, our world of increased stimulation and increasingly instant gratification has taught us these behaviours. And non-profits don’t have to suffer the consequences of that mindset.

As a personal offender of the false ‘I have too much going on’ sentiment, I wondered why I don’t feel that way about the organisations I’m involved in, and why these organisations have my attention, my heart, my time, and my wallet. And most importantly, what the journey to full organisation immersion has looked like.

1. It was easy to get started: I had just moved to Austin, and wanted to get involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas, but wasn’t sure I had the time. I was getting married, settling into a new life, etc. etc. BBBS offered an option to be a part of a continued giving program. £20/month, that’s it. Easy enough. A few cups of coffee at home as opposed to Starbucks. My monthly ‘thank you’ email served as a reminder of the importance of my gift, and I began to feel like an invaluable part of the organisation (there’s that instant gratification!). Over time, that good feeling remained at the front of my mind, and when I realised how great it felt to make a difference, I decided to take the next step and become a big sister.
2. There’s always an opportunity to get involved more/in different ways: Whenever I feel the desire to get more involved, there’s always a way. Whether it’s a bowling tournament, joining an event planning committee, or simply sharing my experience with the volunteer management team, BBBS gives so many ways to continue to be involved, with varying levels of complexity/commitment. Whenever I’m ready, they’re ready, and it feels like a true partnership.
3. Communication and support are consistent: from the beginning of my journey as a contributor and big sister, the communication and support received from this organisation have been consistent and professional. I’ve always clearly understood what my contribution is funding, and my Match Support Specialist is constantly checking in to ensure things are going well. BBBS has developed local partnerships all throughout town (making volunteering easy and more fun), and I consistently receive communications about what’s happening in the organisation. I feel involved, updated, and reminded of the cause I’m contributing to. Disclaimer: understand these communications cost money, and it is much easier said than done, but regardless is valued!
4. I feel the organisation is invested in me. This organisation recognised that I have an interest in sharing my story and getting deeply involved, and has leveraged that opportunity to speak, build awareness about events, and encourage my friends to contribute, regardless on what level. I feel that they’re invested in me as a volunteer, and I’m certainly incredibly invested in them.

The end result of my experience with this organisation is that I appreciate them (and everyone who works there), I feel fulfilled in my life (check out that selfishness!) and I’m reminded that the contributions of time and money are making a difference.

Every organisation is different. What isn’t different is that it’s easier than we think to get involved. And while it’s not the responsibility of nonprofits to spoon-feed Millennials all the benefits of serving others, there are small things organisations can do to reach us in a more actionable way.

Millennials want to give with ease, but even more than that we crave a sense of purpose. If you can give us a reason to get out from behind our devices, you may help us realise that we have more time and resources to contribute than we think.

And then, true to form, we’ll pick up our devices and humble brag to our friends about our service-mindedness later—influencer marketing for you! A win for us both.

The post Lowering the Giving Barrier for Millennials appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

According to the Blackbaud Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Study, 5K events are struggling to recruit participants and raise funds. Revenue declined by 13%, participation decreased by 12%, and online fundraising was down 19%. 5Ks have been historically difficult to raise funds through, but they seem to be having a particularly tough go of it lately. Are we as fundraisers failing this group of constituents? Are our runs sub-par? And why can’t we ever seem to get these runners to fundraise?

With the number of people participating in 5Ks decreasing and the number of available events increasing, individual events are seeing significant participant declines, which would explain the 12% decrease we saw in the P2P benchmark report. From a revenue perspective, participants in 5Ks are stereotypically not very good fundraisers. Only 14% of them raise funds online, as compared to 31% of walkers and more than 60% of cyclist and endurance event participants. Let’s look at the top three reasons why this type of event doesn’t inspire as much fundraising as the others.

1. Walking is not much of a hobby: Most people who participate in a fundraising walk don’t sign up because they really enjoy walking. They sign up because they have a connection to the cause or because someone asked them to. They aren’t fantastic fundraisers, but more than twice as many of them raise money compared to 5K runners.
2. There is no implicit obligation to fundraise: The majority of cycling and endurance events require a certain level of fundraising to participate. From the minute you sign up, you know you need to raise funds.
3. There is less of a personal challenge involved: While a 5K would be difficult for many, a 5K is not an intense challenge on the same level as a long-distance cycling event or half-marathon. Those events take more of a commitment both physically and from a fundraising perspective.

To combat this, below are some bold ideas, not for the faint of heart, to bolster the performance of your 5K event.

• Put “scarcity” to good use: Did you have 200 runners last year? Limit the field this year to 200 runners or less and make sure everyone knows it. The marketing principle of scarcity utilises the appearance of a shortage to sell more. The fear of missing out will push more runners to your race.

• Generate more funds through registration and upgrades: According to the Benchmark Study, 38% of 5K revenue is derived from registration costs. Other types of events count registration fees as only 6% or less of their income. Rather than maligning this fact, it could be time to exploit it.
  • Increase your registration fee: You can either do this across the board or increase the fee at pre-determined points and advertise the fee schedule, making sure that those signing up on the day of the race pay the most.
  • Charge a premium for upgrades: VIP parking, no wait portaloos, pre- and post-race meals (donated), racing jerseys, and other wearables can all be offered to participants prior to and on the day of the event.
  • By increasing fees and concentrating on upgrades, you do enforce a consumer culture for your event vs. a fundraising culture, but if you’ve been swimming against the fundraising tide for years with your 5K, it might just be time to accept it and generate income any way you can.

• Utilise a fundraising commitment: After all, you are putting on a safe, fun event for more than just the sake of a good run. You are trying to cure sickness, end hunger, or advocate for the homeless. Your work is important and it takes money to realise your goals. Allow your 5K runners to be a part of the solution and double down on fundraising.

If your 5K is faltering and has been for years, it could be time to take a bold and fearless approach to your event. Could one of these options work for your event?

But what happens when you have an event that is BOTH a walk and a 5K? Chances are, the event was designed to satisfy a larger amount of people. Perhaps it started off with both options in the beginning, or maybe one was added in an attempt to stem losses and/or generate more revenue. The problem with that, to oversimplify, is that runners run and walkers fundraise. As we have already explored, these two types of participants are very different and it is incredibly difficult to make fundraising/marketing decisions for an event that is trying to cater to both. If you are unable to separate the events physically, try to separate them from a marketing perspective. Offer two different website, registration, and communications experiences for each group. At the very least, ask during the registration process if they plan to walk or run and plan your communications to these two groups accordingly.

As we get ready to analyse 2016 P2P events, it will be fascinating to see how 5K data relates to the latest 2016 Running USA study when that is released as well. Stay tuned for the 2016 Blackbaud Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Study!

The post Can Non-Profits Really Raise Money With 5Ks? appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

After ‘Outcomes’, naturally, comes ‘Impact’. This is when Street League really homed-in on who they were helping, to drive better decision making:

The post The Art of Impact appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

When asked by organisations whether their online fundraising programs should focus on donor acquisition or donor retention, I say, “Yes.”

As fundraisers, we don’t have the option of choosing; we must solicit from existing donors while simultaneously growing prospect lists and converting new leads into first-time donors.

Yet time and resources are limited, so from a strategic, data-driven perspective, we have to prioritise where our efforts should lie. We can see from the 2016 Luminate Online Benchmark Report that non-profits are having success in both areas, but that between the two, efforts are skewed toward donor retention.

• As a whole, the value of an e-mail address is £10.68, down 7% from last year’s £11.49. While a disconcerting drop, this number alone doesn’t speak to retention vs. acquisition efforts. For greater clarity, we must examine the differences and change in giving between first-time donors and repeat donors.
• Total online revenue from first-time donors in the 2016 report was just about even, down 1%, at £165,586. This made up just over a third (35.92%) of total online giving, which was a decline of 6% from last year. As one might expect, revenue from repeat donors went the opposite direction: up 8% as a total, and up 3% as a share of total online giving.

So we know that repeat donors are giving more dollars, as a subset of donors, than first-time donors, and donate about 2/3 of an organisation’s overall total. But it gets even more interesting when looking at average gift amounts.

• The average transaction amount for a first-time gift was £84.81. The average transaction amount from a repeat giver is lower, at £76.30. So how can repeat donors have a lower average gift than first-timers but still have a higher total revenue amount? Sustainers. The total transaction amount from sustainers was up 14% compared to the 2015 report, and their share of total online fundraising (11.26%) was up 10%.
• Overall, total online revenue in the 2016 report was up just under 5% from the previous year. So we see that sustaining revenue was up a larger percentage than overall online revenue, and revenue from repeat donors up was likewise up more, percentage-wise, than overall revenue.

So what does that tell us about donor retention vs. donor acquisition?

It might possibly leave us with a chicken and egg. What is behind the growth in repeat donor revenue and the drop in first-time donor gifts as a share of total revenue? Are nonprofits being more aggressive with renewing lapsed donors, or engaging in more sustaining giving campaigns? Probably both.

But let’s look at two more numbers that are indicative of the overall online engagement picture.

• Housefile growth was 10%, which is a lower growth rate than years’ past; at the same time, the percentage of constituents on a house-file who are donors was slightly up, to about 14.1%. So a lower rate of house file growth, a smaller percentage of first-time donor revenue of the composite total…yet an increase in the percent of e-mail addresses who give.

It seems clear that it is getting more challenging to bring in new names, and getting these new names to donate. The trends speak to nonprofits doing a better job at renewing donors, taking advantage of the longer-term relationships with existing donors (increases in fundraising appeal open and click-through rates suggest this as well).

Moving forward, it behooves organisations, as they continue to grapple with the donor retention vs. donor acquisition challenge, to better understand the make-up of their own file base. After reviewing the Luminate Benchmark Report data, these are the questions I’d ask of your own organisation:

• What percent of your file are donors?
• Last year, how many made their first online gift, and how many renewed a gift from the previous year?
• Last year, who gave more both in total and average gift, existing donors or first-time donors?
• Of those who joined your file last year, what percent gave?

Once you answer these questions, you can compare your performance to the benchmarks (both overall and to your specific vertical). More importantly, you’ll then be better equipped to properly allocate time, resources and effort in terms of renewing donors and seeking out new ones. If the rate of growing your list continues to slow, it will become more imperative to properly steward and nurture the constituents you’ve already got.

The post Retention vs. Acquisition: What the Data Shows About Overall Donor Engagement appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

While each of these methods has its merits, they can also feel intrusive and aggressive to potential donors, and will lead to quick drop-off rates if the donor isn’t fully ‘on-board’.

Fortunately, in the digital age, there’s another approach that’s working wonders for many leading non-profits … and much smaller ones too.

It’s called content marketing.

Content Marketing for Non-Profits

If you haven’t already downloaded our free 30-page guide to how content marketing can grow your non-profit, then go get it now. It’s chock full of practical, easy-to-implement tips and strategies.

In a nutshell, content marketing for non-profits looks like this:

• ATTRACT more attention for your cause through engaging and share-worthy content.
• ENGAGE visitors to your site and build your mailing list with a compelling offer
• CONVERT prospects through automated email series and effective landing pages
• NURTURE long-term relationships through ongoing content, social media and email communication

The beauty of this approach is that once you’ve set it up, it runs itself. That means, if you’re creating ‘evergreen content’ (i.e. the kind of content that remains relevant for years), then you’ll be building a donor-attracting machine.

Here’s how the idea looks in a more visual format, that we call the ‘Content Marketing Fundraising Funnel’

Making the Most of the Content Marketing Fundraising Funnel

As prospective donors discover your content, they begin their journey through the funnel. And for those that make it all the way through to the bottom of the funnel (which can take any time from a week through to many months), they’ve automatically become highly engaged with your cause along the way.

Here’s what the Content Marketing Fundraising Funnel can teach us:

• The more share-worthy articles, blog posts, social media updates and other content you’ve got, the bigger the top of your funnel gets … and therefore, the more people you’ll attract. So spend time on your content, create loads of it, and do whatever it takes to make it compelling and attractive.

• The quality of your download offer (e.g. a free eBook, infographic, tip sheet, printable poster etc.) will significantly impact the number of people who move down the funnel and become ‘engaged’ with your cause.

• Spend time getting your automated email series right. Its job is to further align prospects to your cause and deepen their relationship with your organisation. And that means, when you do finally ask them for a donation, they’ll be much more likely to give.

The post Attract More Donors with the Content Marketing Fundraising Funnel appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Of 60 million internet users in the UK in 2016, 42 million of them were active users of social media. That’s an increase of 11% on the year before. And It means having a presence on social media is now essential. Find out how your charity can use social media in 2017.

Even if you don’t have a social media presence, the people who support you probably do – and they’re using it to ask their friends and family for help with their fundraising.

Those are conversations you need to be part of. So here’s our 4 top tips for using social media in 2017.

1. Building relationships

When it comes to social media, the name is on the tin. It’s about being social; connecting with people, brands and organisations so that you can build relationships.

And we know that building relationships is key to building long-term support for your cause.

What social media empowers you to do is create a community of like-minded people. So you can reach out to new donors through the people who care about the same things you do.

The real power of social media is creating content that this community can share. For example, Facebook’s latest news feed update means that posts from friends are prioritised over adverts and brand pages.

So if you can get your existing supporters sharing, you’ll increase your visibility dramatically.

2. Connect with people on their terms

At the end of 2013, there were more mobile devices on planet earth than there were people. And what’s the most popular use of these mobile devices? Well, after checking emails, social media is right up there at the top.

Last year, 37 million people in the UK alone were active users of social media on mobile. What’s more, we know when they’re spending time on social media.

The most popular times are during weekday evenings, over lunchtime, and on Wednesday to Friday in general. Simply put, when people aren’t working, or when they’re tired of working, they’re on social media.

You need to be available for your supporters at a time that suits them and on a device of their choosing. And that’s exactly what social media lets you do.

3. It’s a brand new audience for you

Last year, The Children’s Society realised that their core donor base was typically an older demographic. That’s not surprising when you consider their work with children resonates best with parents and grandparents.

But social media allowed them to reach our beyond their historic supporter base. They capitalised on the ‘shareability’ Facebook gave them. It let them able to speak to a younger audience and introduce fundraising to a new audience through a light-hearted and engaging campaign.

Their first Facebook campaign brought in over £10,000 in fundraising. And the people that donated the money? Over 75% of them were aged 25 and under.

4. Integrate with your software

We already know that social media channels are combining with each other. In 2014 Facebook bought Whatsapp, having already bought Instagram in 2012. And Google bought YouTube all the way back in 2006.

But now technology companies are buying social media channels directly, with LinkedIn being bought by Microsoft last month. We don’t really know what this means just yet, but it’s likely you’ll be able to connect your Microsoft Office apps directly with your LinkedIn followers – so they can see exactly what you’re working on.

All of this means it’s more important than ever to find your supporters on social media.

Thankfully, building these connections doesn’t need to be hard work. With software like eTapestry and everydayhero, you can start to reach out to your donors, the people who support them and even keep track of all your interactions with them.

The post 4 ways social media can help your charity in 2017 appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

With the abundance of non-profit organisations, it can be difficult for the average would-be donor to choose one over another. Frankly, it’s even difficult at times for staff and volunteers to differentiate.

One of the first things I learned when I started in the non-profit sector harkens back to the “kinder, gentler days” of the Jimmy Carter presidency: Never differentiate your organisation by putting down others that do similar work. We need to focus on what we do well, not what others do that we may think is not as good.

I still think that’s good advice, and I’m glad that the ugliness of a political campaign hasn’t seeped into our fundraising. (Can you just imagine how painful it would be if we all were on the attack all the time?) But, that kinder approach doesn’t eliminate the need to describe what makes your organisation different to an often confused or indifferent donor society.

According to Biology Reference, differentiation “refers to the processes by which distinct cell types arise from precursor cells and become different from each other.” While I can’t explain that from a biological point of view, as a fundraiser, I see a good lesson for all of us in the field: your charity arose from a specific need and you address it in a way that you believe is different from what others are doing. (After all, if we are just doing the same thing in the same place for the same population, why do we need to be a separate organisation?) Your organisation is distinct because you serve a specific geographic area, focus on people with particular characteristics, offer a unique twist to the solution, or show that in some other way you are a unique response to a problem.

That’s differentiation. And that’s what brand-agnostic donors need to understand if they are to develop a relationship with our organisation, not just with a cause.

Masterful Marketing suggests three questions that a business should ask to begin the process of differentiating. These are easily adaptable to a nonprofit organisation, and are a great place for a fundraiser to being the process of answering, “What about our organisation is unique and will resonate with our donors?”

1. What do your clients (the people you benefit) really appreciate about your service?
2. Why are long-term clients (donors) still with you?
3. What was one of the nicest things a client (donor) ever said about how you conduct business?

I think if you can answer those three questions, you are on the path to determining how you can show your supporters and prospects what makes you different from all the other organisations that also deal with Problem X. It’s that point of differentiation that may just break through brand apathy and help you journey toward a more committed, loyal donor base.

If you can instill a reaction in someone, you’re half-way to getting people to love what you do. Mundanity doesn’t come from products or services, it comes from the way they are talked about.

The post Cultivating Donor Loyalty By Differentiating Your Non-profit Brand appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

This post originally appeared on Blackbaud Pacific.

Is the quest for funding getting tougher? 

It certainly seems that way right now. It seems that a charities number 1 challenge right now is rising competition. And that’s no surprise, given that there is now 1 charity for every 422 people. 

But despite how hard things may seem right now, the philanthropic world is actually pretty healthy. Funding has been growing at about 8% per year for the last two decades*. 

Yet it appears the best is still to come. 

According to JB Were, who presented their Cause Report at this year’s Philanthropy Australia Conference, a whole new stream of funding is about to erupt… and it’s there for the taking, for those that are ready. 

So what’s going on? 

Philanthropy has gradually become more mainstream among high net worth individuals, causing Private  & Public Ancillary Funds to grow. With the ATO’s support and growing confidence in these funds, the Philanthropic pot is set to grow to 20 times its current size!

What’s the Secret to harnessing the Philanthropic dollar?

Philanthropic funding is a different beast to government funding and it’s getting more sophisticated.

We’ve moved from simple Transactional Philanthropy e.g ‘that sounds like a worthy cause – here have some money’ to Strategic Philanthropy e.g. ‘how does your work align with our strategic objectives? Can you show me the difference our funding has made?’

Check out these 5 Steps to Strategic Philanthropy:

1. Do your research and find the fund that aligns perfectly with your work. This is no time for the scattergun approach. Think quality over quantity.
2. Understand your audience…& get to know their ‘Why’. Why was the fund set up in the first place? What are they trying to achieve? Who do they need to impress?
3. Build relationships. Many of these funds won’t be advertised and will rely on the strength of your network (learn more about the power of relationships in Philanthropy Australia’s Chris Wootton’s article Funding & The Search for Atlantis)
4. STOP TALKING OUTPUTS! Private funders don’t care about how good you are, or how many projects you delivered or how long you’ve been around. In fact, they don’t care about you at all. What’s they do really care about is the impact their money has made and the lives it has changed.
5. Measure what matters. In funders eyes, if you didn’t measure it, it didn’t happen. Track your work. Invest in a system that keeps all your records, client history, contacts, milestones and reports in the one place. This will give you the ammunition to provide funders with hard-hitting facts about the true value of your work and the insight to keep on innovating.

The post Are You Ready for the Funding Volcano appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus famously said ‘change is the only constant’. Words that are hard to argue with when you take a look at the Non-Profit world. Mobile donations grew by a staggering 293% last year and online fundraising has sky-rocketed to $70 million annually, in Australia alone.

Audiences no longer want to simply donate, they want to viscerally interact with their chosen cause and feel part of our mission.  Multi-channel, donor-centric marketing is now essential to delivering the customised, immediate experiences supporters expect – and if we can’t deliver, they’ll swiftly move on to a cause that can.

Welcome to the fundraising revolution. A time of big data and even bigger disruption – which by definition, exists to ‘throw things into chaos or disorder’.

But what’s particularly daunting about disruption is the shift of power –  from the institution to the individual.   Technology has transformed the way people think, the way they behave and the way they interact with the causes they support.

Being a fundraiser in 2016 is a complex business – we need to be master storytellers, data analysts, salespeople and social media whizzes.  With the insight to pre-empt supporter motivations, the technology to run complex multi-channel campaigns and the intelligence to prove the impact we’re making.

But if we get it right, the payoff is worth the pain – the value of a multi-channel donor is 4 times that of an offline-donor.

Seems like a no-brainer, so why then, are we so resistant to change?

According to best-selling New York Times author, Michael Singer, the reason we fear change is that that it threatens our fixed ideas about how things ‘should’ be.

 In our heads, we try to create situations, that we think will make us OK, but when things start happening that don’t match that model, we get scared because it looks like it things aren’t going to work out as planned

But the nature of change is to keep on moving and things will eventually fall into place….as long as we can learn to ride the wave.

Where are you on the Wave of Change?

In the face of change, people typically go through 4 stages:

Stage 1: Denial: – ‘We’re fine just as we are, thank you. This is just a fad, let’s wait until it all blows over and we can go back to doing what has always worked’

Stage 2: Resistance (frequently accompanied by panic): ‘ What is happening? Fundraising has changed forever. This is a disaster. What are we going to do?   The sector is doomed.’

Stage 3: The Turning Point: ‘We’re still here.  Things aren’t as bad as we feared, they are just different.  Let’s find a better way to do things’

Stage 4: Success: ‘Things are different than they used to be, but look at what we’re achieving now!’

Right now, most of us are sitting somewhere between stage 2 and 3.  We’ve all realised that the game has changed and we should be thinking about the future, but we’re not quite sure of what do.

However, now, as always is an ideal time to get started.  After all, a vision without action is just a dream.

So, where to start?

1. With yourself: The way you personally respond to change is mirrored in the workplace.  Do you always need to be in control?  How do you feel if things don’t go to plan?  Can you find ways to relax and let go of rigid expectations? We can pretend that the people we are at home and at work are two separate entities, but we’re kidding ourselves.  Just as the lines between the public, private & NFP sectors are blurring, so do our lives.  Take care of yourself.    You can’t lead a resilient team if you’re freaking out inside.

2. Ride the wave: The Terminator was right ‘resistance is futile’.  Relinquish the need to fight what’s happening. And make sure you don’t get left behind -agility is everything when it comes to managing change.

3. Make friends with Technology: The paradox of change means that despite technology being the cause of the chaos, it also offers the solution. Gone are the days of endless workarounds, painful queries and IT updates.  Investing in a multi-channel fundraising system will enable you to manage all your campaigns from the one place, view constituent data in a single screen and identify lapsing supporters at the click of a mouse.

4. Become a change-agent: If we exist in a place of reacting and responding, we will never feel on top of our game.  What the NFP sector needs more than ever are fundraisers that can lead through change. Become a multi-channel champion, who takes your organisation into the next era of fundraising.

The post Learn to Bounce rather than Break in times of change appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Raise more money and build support for your mission by running testing experiments. Test your ideas and measure the results to find out what really works when it comes to engaging with your supporters and building support for your mission.

In December 2007, Barack Obama was running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. He was behind in the polls, so his team knew they needed to build more support.

What they did next raised an extra $60 million in donations, gathered 2,880,000 more supporter email addresses and converted 288,000 more volunteers.*

And they achieved all this by testing just two elements of their campaign website: their call-to-action button and image panel.

Finding the messages that work for your audience is key to fundraising success. And the only way to be sure of what works is by trying different ideas.

Don’t be afraid to fail

When it comes to testing, some of the things you try aren’t going to work. The most important rule in testing is to fail fast and learn quickly.

You want to try new ideas, new combinations of material and new ways of talking to people. And you want to learn which of these new ideas to keep, and which you can rule out.

You want to find out what effect these different variations have, so you can move towards the combination that works best.

What do you want to learn?

So, how do you go about finding out what works in your campaigns and what doesn’t?

First of all, you need to have some theories to test. For example, you might think that a gentle ‘learn more’ button will work better than a direct ‘sign-up now’ button on your website form.

Or you might want to know whether your emails work better when you use your own name, or your organisation’s name as the sender.

Keep things simple

At this point, it’s time to take a step back. It’s great that you’ve got loads of ideas, but make sure you don’t test everything at once.

You might get some brilliant new results, but how do you know which change has the biggest impact? Make sure you test your variables one by one, and measure the results of each change.

Over time, you can start combining the best of each variable for maximum impact. So, in our example, taking your best sender name and combining it with the ask that’s most successful.

Measuring your success

Of course, measuring what changes have the biggest impact on results means carefully tracking your actions. You need to know who receives what message, and what actions they take as a result.

You’ll want to try your variations on equal numbers of people, and make sure you try things out on enough people for your results to be reliable.

It’s no good testing your changes on a few dozen people, then expecting the result to be the same when you try your changes out on hundreds of people.

In the short term, this means being brave. Yes, you might not get good results from all your tests. But you’ll do much better in the future by using what you learn.

Keeping track of results

Having all of your supporter information in one place is a great start when it comes to measuring the success of your testing.

Having a single database helps you identify your sample groups (who receives what), and then track the outcome of those tests.

It can even help you start thinking about clever ways of segmenting your supporters, to see the effects tests have on different groups.

That’s where a fundraising solution like eTapestry comes in. It brings together your supporter information with email tools, website forms, and dashboards that help you track your success.

Find out how eTapestry can help you make changes that increase your fundraising and build support for your mission.

* And if you want to know more about the Obama team’s work in 2007, check out this blog here.

The post A beginner’s guide to A/B testing appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

We’re just a few weeks in and already 2017 is shaping up to be a roller coaster of a year.

With the constant changes, innovations, and breaking news impacting the sector, staying focused on the work that matters will be key for all of us. To help us navigate, Blackbaud leaders and industry experts came together to weigh in on what’s coming for the sector and what’s needed to best steer our work through 2017 and beyond.

Here are the top 6 trends that will impact the social good sector in 2017:

1. Democratisation of Data:

We’ll see the continued convergence of data, insights, and analytics to drive improved decision making in nonprofits. But the champions for being more data driven will be nonprofit professionals that traditionally haven’t been hands-on users of the data. The use of data will no longer be a specialised skill or role, but instead part of everyone’s everyday toolset. Technology is removing many of the cost, scale, and analysis barriers that existed in the past. The democratisation of data in the nonprofit sector will continue to increase in 2017. That means there’s an ever growing opportunity to improve results for non-profit organisations of all sizes and missions. – Steve MacLaughlin, VP of Analytics at Blackbaud

2. The Shift from Corporate Social Responsibility:

Corporate Social Responsibility will continue to shift to Human Social Responsibility, with non-profits of all shapes and sizes—not just large companies—understanding that their people, and the human contracts they sign with the world, are at the core of a socially responsible strategy.  Matching a deep understanding of your people and your communities is an essential first step as we work toward doing more good in 2017. – Rachel Hutchisson, VP of Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy at Blackbaud

 

3. A Heightened Focus on Industry Best Practices:

We’ve heard the saying that fundraising is part art and part science. However, unlike our peers in other industries, I think it’s fair to say that, to date, we have not invested sufficiently in the science. Fundraising practices are excessively varied and often for less than sound reasons. We need to take greater advantage of our industry’s scale, using our valuable data and collective expertise, to both identify best practices and find ways to efficiently implement them throughout our sector.  Donors and especially the causes we serve are counting on us. – Chuck Longfield, Chief Scientist Blackbaud

4. The Introduction of Artificial Intelligence:

Artificial Intelligence could have great benefit for the global philanthropic community in 2017.  For example, a nonprofit could leverage AI to learn how their organisation can collaborate with others to solve a global need featured in online posts and current events. AI can further foster collaboration for good by revealing how to contribute to a cause based on geography, skills, and/or passion. Mission delivery will also be enhanced with analysis and understanding of a specific cause or disease, and AI can help computer-based diagnostics in remote locations where healthcare resources are sparse. Robotics could even intelligently search and sort donations at a Food Bank or local Goodwill. Then, a community with the greatest need could be identified as recipients of those donations. I predict we’ll begin to see how the power of AI can be applied to very large and diverse data sets to help organisations make decisions, collaborate with others in their space, and promote their cause most effectively. — Mary Beth Westmoreland, Chief Technology Officer at Blackbaud

5. Measuring Outcomes to the SDGs:

In 2017, funders should increasingly look to connect their efforts to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unlike its predecessor, the Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs apply to all countries, regardless of classification as developed or developing. To achieve the SDGs globally, it will be necessary for funders to track, measure and report on the results of their giving against the SDG targets and to encourage the organisations and individuals that they fund to do the same. – Annie Rhodes, Director, Foundation Strategy

6. Social + Grassroots Organising:

In 2016, we saw traditional, centralised campaigns falter and fail. In 2017 I predict we’ll see a revival of state and local grassroots organising, with micro-influencers as the new grasstops. Thanks to social channels, individuals have the tools to self-organise at an unprecedented scale — just ask Teresa Shook, retiree and unlikely organiser of The Women’s March on Washington. In response, nonprofits are maturing their social strategy beyond ‘post and measure’ to include empowering micro-influencers who can not only raise the visibility of their cause and boost fundraising, but in many cases act as highly empowered volunteers doing real work “on the ground”. – Roz Lemieux, General Manager, Attentive.ly at Blackbaud

This post originally appeared on NPEngage.

The post 6 Trends That Will Impact the Charity Sector in 2017 appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

This Blog originally appeared on Blackbaud Pacific

In case you missed the big news last September, a well-known company announced they would ‘solve’ cancer within a decade.

And the brand making this bold claim?

Microsoft.

Yes, the same people that brought us PowerPoint, Xbox and the dreaded Bing, are now stepping into the oncology business.

What is going on in the world?

According to documentary maker and author of The Final Invention, James Barratt, we are now entering the Intelligence Era.  A time when technology rules and Artificial Intelligence will eventually surpass the ability of human beings to do absolutely anything.

This makes unsettling reading (even from a technology writer).

Have we all just been running around like baboons, waiting for a robot to enlighten us? Surely the human race can’t be that disposable.

And is it truly possible for technology to be more intelligent than a person?

That really depends on how you define intelligence.

A brief history of intelligence:

Let’s start by looking at the definition of intelligence, which itself has evolved dramatically over time.  The term originated from the Latin word intelligere, meaning to comprehend or perceive.

150 years ago, intelligence was assessed by a person’s aptitude in classics, arts & literature.  By the 1930’s the IQ test had taken over and shifted focus to our ability to learn and retain information.

This all went well, until scientists discovered that people with average IQ scores were out performing those with the highest.  It seemed that the know-it -alls didn’t, in fact, have-it-all, and that our social skills might actually play a role in our success.

This paved the way for a wave of behavioural psychologists, most famously Daniel Goleman, who popularised the term Emotional Intelligence.  And for a while, the IQ gave way to the EQ,

And here we might have stayed, had ‘Big Data’ not arrived on the scene.  Big Data was a heavy hitter and disrupted our definition of intelligence once again.

Up until then, fundraising technology had been pretty straightforward. A basic process of mechanical actions using simple data: you entered supporter information into your database, pressed a few buttons and exported back into a spreadsheet to manipulate.

But when Big Data arrived, we all got confused.  Suddenly there was so much information and so many possibilities that only the most Poindexter-ish of analysts could make sense of it all.

Technology had actually made fundraising harder.

And that’s a very real danger of science moving so fast – it can end up inhibiting the very people it sets out to help.

We’ve all felt the frustration of staring at 500 empty fields, as we search for the relevant tab, box, or dropdown to enter our information.  How intelligent do you feel then?

And then when you’ve entered your data, what on earth do you do with it all?  Most of the time you just feel guilty that you’re not fully realising the goldmine that you’re allegedly sitting on.

That’s not progress, that’s paralysis.

So Blackbaud decided to shake things up, and embarked on a mission to create technology that cuts through, rather than contributes to the chaos.

Over the last few years, we’ve invested a huge amount into Practical Intelligence; developing solutions that enable rather than replace the intelligence of our customers.

And no matter how sophisticated the science gets, it always comes back to our customer experience.

Every innovation starts by asking the following 4 questions:

• What can we do to help fundraisers be more efficient?
• How can we aggregate data to create insight?
• How can we present information in a way that the ‘next steps’ are obvious?
• How can we enhance the relationships between our customers and their supporters?

Intelligence in Action.

And the result of this approach? ‘The most beautiful, intuitive tool imaginable’ (the words of an overexcited fundraising during a recent customer success meeting!)

Blackbaud’s new SKY Reporting tool has SO much going on behind the scenes, but all the user sees is a funky dashboard with instant insight into their fundraising activity.  The lifetime value of a donor, largest sum donated and a visual of their relationship history, all displayed in a single, outrageously easy-to-navigate screen.

Not only does SKY Reporting signal the end of manual report running (they are in-built), it also analyses live data and provides suggested actions, based on historical actions and fundraising best practice.

It’s essentially an intelligent to-do list, that links straight back to the CRM.  This is efficiency at its finest and why organisations that migrate to Raiser’s Edge NXT have reported saving over 2,000 hours in their first year.

Aside from technological intelligence, Blackbaud also champion the ‘culture of shared intelligence’ that is so unique to the not for profit sector.

Insight of this kind is practical intelligence at its finest and is why Make a Wish were able to revise their fundraising strategy and achieve a 40% increase in gifts.  An example of how, in the fundraising world, intelligence equals opportunity.

So what does the future hold for fundraising technology?  Will we be joining our peers in the quest to cure the incurable? Actually, yes. But we won’t be replacing you with a robot just yet.   Our plan is simply to give you the insight and efficiency to make your own intelligence shine.

The post Is your next hire a robot? Fundraising in the intelligence era appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

So, you’ve engaged a supporter enough for them to pick up the phone.

They’re greeted by a friendly receptionist…& then left in silence or in the company of some horrendous 1970’s jazz music, until the relevant call-taker is found.

First impressions count and a supporter’s initial telephone experience has the power to make or break your relationship.

We can’t all have an immediate answer when supporters call, but we can ensure their precious time isn’t wasted.

Did you know?

1. 71% of callers that experience silence on hold will abandon their call within 30 seconds.

2. 90% of callers value professionally recorded on hold messages over radio, chimes, or music

3. Callers will remain on hold up to 4 times longer if the message is relevant to their enquiry.

A poor call experience results in major missed opportunity.

It’s something the corporate world has known for years and why customer-centric brands have invested heavily in call flow architecture and design. For non-profits, the on-hold experience has the potential to become a powerful storytelling touchpoint in the supporter journey – and it’s so easy to do well.

How often do you have the opportunity to speak directly to such a captive audience?

3 ways to overhaul your on-hold experience:

• Greet them: Ensure that callers are always greeted in person within 4 rings… if that’s not possible use a professionally-recorded voice announcement, thanking the supporter for their call and asking them to hold for the next available representative.

• Engage them: Treat your on-hold experience as an advertisement for your charity.  What’s the most important story you can tell in that short window of opportunity? Credibility is everything in the non-profit sector, so ensure you sound professional.

• Make it easy for them: If your charity is closed, leave a clear after-hours message and ideally alternative means of contacting the organisation e.g. website, social media etc.

By adding these simple strategies to your multichannel strategy, you’ll give your supporters a reason to keep on calling.

This is a guest blog from Andrew Whitaker, Director of Profit Messages on Hold.

The post How to Avoid Losing Donors Over the Phone appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

There’s no doubt about it, millennials are disrupting the fundraising landscape. As the lines between their social and working lives become increasingly blurred and young professionals continue to become more connected than ever, it can be hard to genuinely engage this group of potential fundraisers.

Their expectations from you as a charity are influenced by an interactive and social state of mind. A deeper level of engagement, connection and technology are all required to keep a millennial’s attention throughout a fundraising process. 

Peer-to-peer fundraising is seeing a shift in the interactions between fundraiser and charity, tying health and fitness, and workplace CSR schemes, closely into the process. Last year, Yahoo reported an 88% growth in fitness and health related apps. In fact, one in three millennials share their health and fitness related content online at least once a week. Given the huge importance that charities now place on fitness events, there is an obvious bridge between millennial fundraisers and your organisation.

One of the biggest challenges for a charity is understanding and acting on the needs of this demographic. They expect to be able to raise, or give, online through a platform that meets their high technological standards – not to mention the endorphin-release they desire from sharing their social contributions with their peers. That feeling of satisfaction through making a difference and being able to share with others is a major part of their fundraising process which, in turn, can attract brand new donors to your cause.

These desires are also met in the workplace, with 89% of millennial employees wanting to be active participants in helping their company be a responsible business and actively support good causes[1]. This is something that might have a big impact on your corporate partnerships strategy this year. Thanks to CSR you have the opportunity to build a real loyalty to your cause, cultivate repeat donors and enrol a fundraiser into your digital fundraising ecosystem.

The key to harnessing millennials is to bridge the gap between technologies. Creating a seamless fundraising journey, from spark to fundraising via physical effort and social media sharing.

Next week, we will explore what that fundraising journey looks like and everydayhero’s innovations in 2017 that will change the way millennials interact with your organisation through a new type of interactive fundraising campaign.

[1] Cone Communications Millenial Employee Engagement Study, 2016

The post Harness The Power of Millennials This Year appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Turn your first-time donors into committed supporters by building relationships that connect with people on an emotional level. Emotion drives decision making, so develop your fundraising strategy by demonstrating the impact of your supporter’s actions

“We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure.”

Dr Samuel Johnson, 13 October 1750

Samuel Johnson was an English writer, poet and literary critic. In October 1750, he published an essay on biography writing.

Johnson told us we could learn a lot from biographies because they were accounts of people’s experiences. And because we all feel the same emotions, biographies can tell us why people behave the way we do.

In short, Johnson knew that emotions drive people’s actions and decisions. And the emotions that motivated people’s decisions in 1750 still motivate people today.

Connect with your donor’s feelings

Attracting new donors to your cause is vital. And without attracting new supporters, you’re never going to be able to grow.

But don’t let the effort that you put into reaching out to new supporters go to waste. To develop a sustainable fundraising strategy, you need to keep hold of the people who already give to you too.

Like Dr Johnson taught us, people justify their decisions by how something makes them feel. So to meaningfully engage with people, you need to connect with them emotionally.

We might say; “It seemed like the right thing to do”, “My heart wasn’t in it” or “I felt like I needed to do something”. It’s not often that personal behaviour is justified by quoting percentages, numbers or statistics. When was the last time someone said their support was based on a return on their investment? And how often do people say it’s because they believe in what you’re doing?

It’s essential you address emotional motivations to attract new donors and to keep your current supporters. Make sure people are able to justify their support emotionally. How does helping your organisation deliver its mission make someone feel? Tell donors how their support enables you to do good, help others, or make a difference to people’s lives.

Building emotional connections

Building relationships with your donors begins with excellent stewardship. Make sure you thank the people who give to you immediately. So automate thank you emails or pick up the phone and let first-time donors know how their donation will help you.

Further down the line, make sure you let your supporters know what outcomes you’ve achieved. Send them a thank you card in the mail, an email newsletter of your successes, or simply share outcomes across social media with your supporters.

Let your supporters know that their contributions are important. Make sure they know, and feel, that they’re making a difference. Connect their actions to the outcomes that matter.

The post What the Georgians taught us about fundraising appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

When you decide to integrate new technology in your organisation, you may have a good idea about what you want that technology to do, you may even have leads about who makes it – but how can you be sure you’ve found the perfect partner to initiate and implement new solutions for your organisation? In a sea full of options, the seven characteristics below will help you identify a reliable partner who will help you reach your goals.

1. Stability – You can find a lot of pop-up shops on the market. You may really like what they have to sell – especially at that great price – but there is no guarantee that they will still be around in a few months. You may get started with this partner, but will your bargain partner be there to see the project through to the end? Make sure you take into consideration the stability and market longevity when you select vendors to work with.

2. One-stop-shop – Some say that we can’t find everything we’re looking for in one person. That doesn’t have to be the case when looking for a partner to implement technology. Instead of a variety of siloed teams working independently – look for one cohesive team working together for you. When things go wrong you only have one number to call, and when things go right you only have one big hug to give.

3. Invested in your success – Any good partnership is about give and take. When looking for someone to work with, make sure they are more invested in your success than they are in fulfilling their own sales quotas. Find a partner that looks at your success as a measure of their own.

4. Proven track record – No one wants to get stood up. Make sure you are selecting a partner with a record of success. Don’t be afraid to do your homework to know who you’re associating with. Ask for references and look at their past project successes. Also look at their failures – this tells even more about how they’ve handled and resolved tough issues so you know what you’re getting when you enter into a partnership.

5. Deep arsenal of best practices – Practice makes perfect; the longer you work on something, the better you get at doing it. The same is true when it comes to implementing technology solutions. You may only go through a project like this once or twice, but your implementation partner should have done it hundreds of times. Look for a partner who has refined their approach over time and brings a wide knowledge base informed by past successes. Your ideal partner should have a defined methodology and should be willing to adapt to the specifics of your organisation’s needs.

6. Open to collaboration – If your organisation has a standing relationship with other vendors, it’s important for a new partner to know how to incorporate that relationship into their work with you. Find out if your potential partner is open and willing to collaborate when needed. They’ll need to be able to work with any additional partners that you may have to help make your organisation’s vision a success.

7. Reliable and supportive – It’s easy to maintain a partnership when times are good, but the best relationships are those you can depend on even in the worst of times. You should expect that any vendor you purchase from will stand by and support their solution with an in-house body of experts. Then, you can rest easy knowing that you will get the support you need when you need it, from the very beginning. But most importantly, the relationship you build shouldn’t end when your project goes live. You need to feel confident that your partner is in it for the long haul and will be there for you as your needs change over time.

In your next search for a great partner, ensure a successful implementation by keeping these seven characteristics as benchmarks for a partnership that will be sure to please.

The post 7 Habits of Highly Successful Technology Partnerships appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

By Jamie Serino, Director of Marketing at MicroEdge + Blackbaud

When it comes to the social sector, philanthropy, giving back, helping others, improving our communities and our planet— however it’s defined—we are seeing clear and positive trends.

Last year, charitable donations hit a record for a second year in a row at an estimated $373.25 billion, corporate giving reached $18.45 billion, an increase of 3.9 percent year-over-year (YoY), and employee participation in their companies’ community efforts has continued to rise, and last year reached 33 percent.

How will this story continue to unfold? Here are some predictions for 2017:

Profit + Purpose. We’re likely to see the acceleration of aligning corporate philosophies and sales goals to better meet the needs of underserved populations and to address major global issues, such as noncommunicable diseases, climate change, and poverty. Examples of this include CVS Health’s decision to discontinue tobacco sales, Subaru’s commitment to building fuel-efficient vehicles in eco-friendly plants, and Prudential’s focus on financially empowering underserved communities.

The Impact of Corporate Responsibility on the Bottom Line. Similarly, we’ll see greater investor interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, which will cause the C-suite to further incorporate corporate giving and employee engagement as core components of a strong business strategy. Not only is this the right thing to do, but studies increasingly show a direct link between CR initiatives and greater profitability, higher investment value, and employee recruitment and retention.

The Expanding Role of HR. The 2016 Cone Communications Employee Engagement Study found that 51 percent of employees won’t work for a company that doesn’t have strong social and environmental commitments, and that 74 percent are more fulfilled when they are provided opportunities to make a positive impact at work. As such, CR initiatives will become increasingly integrated with HR efforts around employee recruitment, engagement and retention efforts. It’s critical that HR be able to communicate and present defined social programs and campaigns that both current and prospective employees can feel good about.

The Rise of Human Social Responsibility. Employees are increasingly looking for a greater diversity of options for giving back and supporting causes. Organizations need to listen to their employees more and take cues from them. It’s a shift in mindset from Corporate Social Responsibility to what corporate citizenship and philanthropy expert Rachel Hutchisson has coined as Human Social Responsibility, where organizations, as conveners of people, will take their lead from their employees and their individual human social contracts. This will result in more organizations looking for ways to support employees’ causes within the broader scope of their CR programs, incorporate giving and volunteering that employees do on their own time into these programs, and encouraging skills-based volunteering as a dual employee development and community investment tool.

Measurement, Storytelling and Breaking Silos. The importance of measurement will continue to grow in 2017. We will see continued demand for measuring and reporting the results of grants, community partnerships, and employee programs. Also, aligning results with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will gain more attention and will factor into storytelling, particularly with the growing importance of public-private partnerships in business. In the end, organizations must have the infrastructure in place to connect the dots on measurement, impact and storytelling across the entirety of their CR, Sustainability, PR, Marketing, HR, and IR efforts.

Technology. In order to facilitate more employee participation, build better partnerships and support increasingly robust reporting requirements, CR software will continue to grow in importance as a core enterprise technology need. To meet the demands of their stakeholders, corporations need a technology platform from which to organize their employee giving and volunteering, tie all of their disparate CR efforts together, measure and report on their efforts, and tell their impact stories. And just as the private sector has adopted cloud-based and mobile solutions to manage other aspects of the business, CR will continue to follow.

The notion of corporate responsibility has evolved beyond traditional “checkbook philanthropy”— where checks were written each year to disparate causes and organizations; employees likely didn’t participate in or even know about these donations; and no one ever knew what that money actually did. Today, CR is transforming to become results-based, impact-focused, and inclusive to engage employees in ways that are meaningful to them. Companies and employees want their efforts to have an impact, and they want to know what that impact is.

In the year ahead, we’ll see organizations diversify their CSR efforts to create stronger, more engaging programs. Measurement will be crucial to a company’s ability to share its impact story with the people and organizations they help, as well as their customers, employees, boards, investors and other stakeholders. And perhaps, these impact stories will even inspire greater participation in causes and campaigns that will help build a better world.

The post A 2017 Outlook on Corporate Responsibility appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

By Robyn Mendez, a peer-to-peer fundraising rock star. Over the last 15 years, she’s done everything from setting up pop-up tents in the rain to deploying multi-national fundraising websites.

You’ve probably heard it said that the first million is the hardest. And if you’re in the peer to peer event space, you know this to be especially true.

I recently returned to Blackbaud after a 3-year stint working for a large cancer hospital where I established a brand new institutional P2P fundraising event—The Boot Walk to End Cancer. The event took place in November and I’m super excited to share that it attracted 6,000+ participants and raised over £1M in personal fundraising and sponsorships, more than double the revenue originally projected in our financial forecast.

I credit much of the success to one key component of our P2P event strategy: Leadership Volunteers.

Leadership volunteers are individuals who dedicate their time and talents to your P2P event prior to event day. Typically, these folks also function on your event committee and can be a key indicator of the overall personal fundraising efforts.

3 Reasons Why Leadership Volunteers Are Pivotal to a Successful P2P Fundraising Strategy:

1. A donation of time/talents is an indicator of a deeper passion for your mission/event.

Time is money. In today’s busy world, a donation of time and talents can be more valuable than a monetary donation from the perspective of your supporters. For example, the time I spend volunteering for an organisation is time I’m not spending with my kids, but it would only take me a few minutes to process an online donation.

When a person is passionate about a cause, they’re willing to do more than just click a donate button—they’re willing to serve. But it’s up to your organisation to ask for what it needs—recruitment help, fundraising help, sponsorship connections, etc.  Your volunteers will often bring new ideas and energy to the table, and that’s something you cannot put a price tag on.

2. Your volunteers are connected.

The average person has a network of 150 contacts that they could comfortably reach out to at any given time. In the social science world, this is called Dunbar’s number.

For our first-year event, we needed people to register. If people registered, then we could provide them with the motivation and tools necessary to start fundraising. As part of the job description for our leadership volunteers, we asked them to commit to recruiting 10 team captains. If you do the math, a committee of 10 people = 100 Team Captains.  If every team has 10 team members, then we have a starting foundation of 1,000 participants.

For the Boot Walk, our executive committee had ~12 people and our extended sub-committee had ~100 people.

Hypothetically speaking, even if only half of my 120 committee members actually fulfilled this commitment, I would end up with 600 team captains, who are all tasked with recruiting 10 team members. That would mean 6,000 participants. Taking this idea one step further using the metrics available in the P2P Fundraising Benchmark report, I can extrapolate that the average funds raised per participant at £31 will ultimately result in ~£400K.  For the Boot Walk, the average donation was closer to £153/person. As you can see, by mobilising your volunteers ahead of time you’re setting your event up for success before it even begins.

3. Volunteers lead to retention.

The key to getting volunteers to drive your fundraising & recruitment efforts relies on their motivation to serve your larger mission and the warm fuzzy feeling they get as a result of giving you their time. You must proactively plan and manage these relationships to ensure your volunteers are having a positive experience and are compelled to continue investing their time in your mission.

One easy way to retain your leadership volunteers is to give them legitimate jobs and the authority to execute. I’m a huge advocate of providing a documented job description to any candidate considering a leadership role. Be clear on the responsibilities of the position (like recruiting 10 team members) and the expected time commitment. The responsibility isn’t for everyone, but those who do choose to step up will prove to be some of your most ardent supporters. And those are relationships worth investing in long-term.

The post The Secret to Raising £1M During Your First-Year Fundraising Event appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Key takeaway: Understand the recency, frequency and monetary value of your supporters’ behaviour to segment your supporter data. Use what you know about your supporters to build more targeted campaigns and maximise fundraising opportunities.

Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist. He observed that about 20% of the peapods in his garden contained 80% of the peas his garden produced in total. Inspired, in 1896 Vilfredo published his first economic paper. He showed that approximately 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the population. This principle became known as the Pareto principle, or 80/20 rule.

Just like Vilfredo’s peas, it’s pretty likely that most of your success comes from the efforts made by a minority of your supporters. So it’s important to get to know who your most loyal supporters are.

Finding your top 20%

Running simple queries on your data that look at three key characteristics can help you identify who your top supporters are:

• Recency: when was the last time a supporter engaged with you?
• Frequency: how often do they engage with you?
• Monetary Value: how much do they contribute to your fundraising?

The people who gave to you recently, engage with you often and contribute large amounts, are your most valuable supporters. And you’ll probably want to pay these people particular attention. Over time, you can start looking at any similarities between these people, and build communications that appeal to their shared interests.

But they’re only the top 20% of your peapods, what about everyone else?

Defining what ‘best supporters’ means

Discovering who your ‘best’ supporters are isn’t just about finding the people who raise the most money for you. Especially when it comes to spreading your message and delivering your mission.

Depending on your campaign, your best supporters might be those engaging with you most frequently – regardless of their giving amounts.

If you want to generate more awareness and attract new followers, then the people you speak to most often might be your best advocates. These are the people who share your cause. And by sharing their positive experiences they’re giving you credible, trustworthy word-of-mouth promotion. Finding out who your brand ambassadors are helps you grow your network and expand your potential pool of supporters.

And what about if you’re holding an event next week? Then maybe the people you spoke to most recently will be the most receptive to re-engaging, inviting their friends and coming along.

Start working smarter

Looking at the recency, frequency and monetary value of contacts in your database can help you discover your best audiences for your campaigns. And by building a better picture of your giving universe, you’ll be able to communicate more effectively with all your supporters, show them that they’re valued and spread your message further.

Maximise the success of your fundraising activities. Start recording how you engage with your supporters, discover who your best advocates are, and design smarter ways of connecting with them.

The post Why your Best Supporters are Garden Peas appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Blackbaud Privacy Shield Certification Notice

Blackbaud, Inc. and all of its controlled U.S. subsidiaries (“Blackbaud”) comply with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union to the United States. Blackbaud has certified to the Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles. If there is any conflict between the terms in this, or any other Blackbaud privacy policy, and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern with respect to Personal Data transferred to the U.S. from the EU. To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view our certification, please visit www.privacyshield.gov.

Blackbaud’s participation in the Privacy Shield applies to all personal data that is subject to the Privacy Shield Principles and is received from the European Union, European Economic Area, and Switzerland. Blackbaud will comply with the Privacy Shield Principles in respect of such personal data. Blackbaud also maintains an affirmative commitment to the U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework and its principles, which will not be affected by our participation in the Privacy Shield.

For purposes of this Notice, “Personal Data” means information that (i) is transferred from the EEA and Switzerland to the United States, (ii) is recorded in any form, (iii) is about, or relates to, an identified or identifiable job applicant, consumer, customer, supplier or other individual (excluding Blackbaud employees), and (iv) can be linked to that job applicant, consumer, customer supplier or other individual. This Notice outlines our general policy and practices for implementing the Privacy Shield principles for Personal Data.

Privacy Shield Principles

Blackbaud’s practices regarding the collection, storage, transfer, use and other processing of Personal Data comply with the Privacy Shield principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, access, security, data integrity, and enforcement and oversight.

Notice

We notify our job applicants, consumers, customers, suppliers and others located in the EEA and Switzerland about the purposes for which we collect and use Personal Data, the types of third parties to which we disclose the information, the choices job applicants, consumers, customers, suppliers and others have for limiting the use and disclosure of their information, and how to contact us about our practices concerning Personal Data.

When we receive Personal Data from our subsidiaries, affiliates or other entities in the EEA and Switzerland, we will use and disclose such information in accordance with the notices provided by such entities and the choices made by the individuals to whom such Personal Data relates.

Purpose of Collection and Use of Personal Data

Blackbaud collects certain Personal Data such as name, email address, postal address and telephone number. We do not collect sensitive Personal Data of consumers, customers or suppliers, such as information about medical or health conditions, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership or other sensitive information as defined by the Privacy Shield framework.

We use Personal Data of consumers, customers, suppliers and others (i) to respond to their requests, (ii) to evaluate the quality of our products and services, (iii) to communicate with them about our products, services and related issues, (iv) to notify them of and administer offers, contests, sweepstakes and other promotions, and (v) for internal administrative and analytics purposes, and (vi) to comply with our legal obligations, policies and procedures.

Choice

Blackbaud shares Personal Data with its service providers and among Blackbaud’s parent, subsidiaries and affiliates. With respect to Personal Data we share with other third parties, we provide job applicants, consumers, customers, suppliers and others located in the EEA and Switzerland with an opportunity to opt-out of such sharing. Click here if you would like to opt-out. We do not use Personal Data for purposes incompatible with the purposes for which the information was originally collected without notifying the relevant consumers, customers, suppliers and others of such uses and offering an opportunity to opt-out.

In addition, we may disclose Personal Data (i) if we are required to do so by law or legal process, (ii) to law enforcement authorities or other government officials based on an enforceable government request or as may be required under applicable law, or (iii) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity.

Onward Transfer of Personal Data

We may share Personal Data with service providers we have retained to perform services on our behalf. We now require service providers to whom we disclose Personal Data and who are not subject to laws based on the European Union Data Protection Directive or the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, as applicable, to either (i) subscribe to the Privacy Shield principles or (ii) contractually agree to provide at least the same level of protection for Personal Data as is required by the relevant Privacy Shield principles. If the third party does not comply with its privacy obligations, Blackbaud will take commercially reasonable steps to prevent or stop the use or disclosure of Personal Data. In the context of an onward transfer, Blackbaud has responsibility for the processing of personal information it receives under the Privacy Shield and subsequently transfers to a third party acting as an agent on its behalf. Blackbaud shall remain liable under the Principles if its agents that it engages to process such personal information do so in a manner inconsistent with the Principles, unless Blackbaud proves that it is not responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.

Access to Personal Data

Blackbaud provides job applicants, consumers, customers, suppliers and others with reasonable access to the Personal Data maintained about them. We also provide a reasonable opportunity to correct, amend or delete that information where it is inaccurate. We may limit or deny access to Personal Data where providing such access is unreasonably burdensome or expensive under the circumstances, or as otherwise permitted by the Privacy Shield principles. To obtain access to Personal Data, job applicants, consumers, customers, suppliers and others may contact Blackbaud as specified in the “How to Contact Us” section of this Policy.

Security

Blackbaud maintains reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect Personal Data from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.

Data Integrity

Blackbaud takes reasonable steps to ensure that Personal Data collected by Blackbaud is relevant for the purposes for which it is to be used and that the information is reliable for its intended use and is accurate, complete and current. We depend on our job applicants, consumers, customers, suppliers and others to update or correct their Personal Data whenever necessary.

Your Rights to Access, to Limit Use, and to Limit Disclosure

EU individuals have rights to access personal data about them, and to limit use and disclosure of their personal data. With our Privacy Shield certification, Blackbaud has committed to respect those rights. Because in some circumstances Blackbaud personnel have limited ability to access data our customers submit to our services, if you wish to request access, to limit use, or to limit disclosure, please provide the name of the Blackbaud customer who submitted your data to our services. We will refer your request to that customer, and will support them as needed in responding to your request.

Compelled Disclosure

Blackbaud may be required to disclose personal information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

Inquiries and Complaints

If you believe Blackbaud maintains your personal data in one of the services within the scope of our Privacy Shield certification, you may direct any inquiries or complaints concerning our Privacy Shield compliance to jon.olson@blackbaud.com. Blackbaud will respond within 45 days. If we fail to respond within that time, or if our response does not address your concern, you may contact ICDR/AAA (https://www.icdr.org), which provides an independent third-party dispute resolution body based in the United States. The services of ICDR/AAA are provided at no cost to you. If neither Blackbaud nor ICDR/AAA resolves your complaint, you may have the possibility to engage in binding arbitration through the Privacy Shield Panel. Also, Blackbaud’s commitments under the Privacy Shield are subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the United States Federal Trade Commission.

With respect to human resources data, Blackbaud will cooperate and comply with the EU DPA’s with respect to human resources data transferred from the EU in the context of the employment relationship. If you do not receive timely acknowledgement of your complaint from Blackbaud, or if we have not addressed your complaint to your satisfaction, you may contact the EU DPA’s for more information or to file a complaint. The services of the EU DPA’s are provided at no cost to you.

How to Contact Us

You may address any questions or concerns regarding our Privacy Shield Policy or our practices concerning Personal Data by:

Contacting us through our website: Click here, or

Writing to:
Blackbaud
Attention: Law Department
2000 Daniel Island Drive
Charleston, SC, 29492-7541
USA

Amendment

The Blackbaud Privacy Shield Notice may be amended from time-to-time in compliance with the requirements of the Privacy Shield principles. Appropriate notice will be given concerning such amendments.

This Privacy Shield Notice is effective as of August 1, 2016.

The post Blackbaud Privacy Shield Certification Notice appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

By Susan McPherson, CEO of McPherson Strategies

#GivingTuesday, a global grassroots movement that started out as a mere napkin brainstorm, has reached ubiquity. And for once in my life, I was lucky enough to be in the “room where it happened”—or at least the moment the founders decided to start sharing their vision.

That room was in Rio de Janeiro at the 2012 Rio+20 Conference, where I was representing clients at an event with 92Y’s then deputy executive director, Henry Timms, and the UN Foundation’s VP of Communications, Aaron Sherinian. When the pair pulled me over to chat about Henry’s “big idea,” they were bubbling over with enthusiasm and a sense of wonder.

They said: “Susan, what if we could pull together a coalition to create an annual day of giving, following Thanksgiving, right around Black Friday and Cyber Monday?“ Instantly, I knew these two were on the cusp of something special. And 5 months later, #GivingTuesday was born.

A hodgepodge of do-gooders, global development executives and nonprofit leaders along with Blackbaud, Mashable, Skype, Case Foundation, Gates Foundation and other interested individuals came together, led by Timms and his team at 92Y, to launch the first #GivingTuesday on November 27, 2012.

That first year saw $10.1 million in funds donated via Blackbaud, the largest non-profit technology provider. In 2014, that number climbed to $26.1 million – a 159 percent increase from 2012 – as more and more corporations and non-profits began joining the grassroots movement. This year, Blackbaud reported $47.7 million donated on #GivingTuesday – remarkable growth and a testament to the movement’s increasingly global presence.

So, how did we get here? Five years after the inaugural event, I asked some of #GivingTuesday’s advisors and founding members about the growth of the movement and why they think it’s been so successful.

The community

Timms, the founder of #GivingTuesday, says the movement succeeded “because a lot of people came together to build it. Someone once called #GivingTuesday a ‘barn-raising,’ which seems so right to me. It was made initially by a brain trust of people like Aaron Sherininan and Rob Reich and Sharon Feder, but it scaled because of the creativity of the non-profit and corporate sector and the essential goodness of people everywhere.”

The Flexibility

What Timms describes about the creativity of #GivingTuesday is thanks in large part to the flexible, decentralised framework that lets anyone easily participate. According to Morra Aarons-Mele, founder of WomenOnline, “The incredible thing about #GivingTuesday is that it’s the most wonderfully flexible concept: Whether you’re the nation’s largest nonprofit or a local food pantry, whether you’re a 60-year-old billionaire or a six-year-old, #GivingTuesday offers a chance to energise supporters and get your story out there.

Beth Kanter, expert nonprofit blogger and a #GivingTuesday influencer, agrees, citing “the distributed nature of Giving Tuesday” as the biggest factor driving its growth. “Anyone can participate and adapt it and it doesn’t require a monolithic entity with a huge amount of resources to drive it.”

Rachel Hutchisson, who has witnessed the 317 percent growth in #GivingTuesday donations as the vice president of corporate citizenship and philanthropy at Blackbaud, echoes these sentiments: “From the very beginning, the movement has allowed everyone from individuals, cities and nonprofits, to small businesses, foundations and big corporations to celebrate generosity – by sharing voice, service and share of wallet.”

Global Adoption

That flexibility also means that organisations, individuals and governments can participate from anywhere in the world. Says Adam Hirsch, global EVP at Edelman Digital, “I continue to be inspired by continual increased adoption of #GivingTuesday globally. This year, while I spent #GivingTuesday in London, I saw phenomenal #GivingTuesday content (emails, social posts, news) across the board. Everyone in our London office knows about the day and helped their clients with activations.”

Timms hoped for global adoption when he dreamed up #GivingTuesday, but didn’t expect it to happen so quickly and seamlessly. He says: “The global reach was a surprise. The way the idea took on its own resonance in different cultures and countries is really inspiring. Singapore turned it into a whole week!”

In coming years, the movement will only continue to grow more global, predicts Chrysula Winegar, senior director, communications & special initiatives at the UN Foundation. “I expect it to be a robust truly global movement in almost all countries. I believe it even has the potential to move the needle on giving as a percentage of GDP over time,“ says Winegar.

Online Giving Technology

Winegar also points out that recent advances in online giving technology also helped bolster the movement’s year-over-year growth. She says: “The online technology for donating has become stronger and stronger every year. Mobile giving used to be so painful and now it’s a snap.  That coupled with the easy of social media makes sharing your giving less boastful and more of an effective added tool to support your cause.”

What’s next in this department? “I suspect we will see more adoption of virtual reality giving, like the experiment that Craig Newmark did on Crowdrise with the Giving Tower,” Kanter predicts.

Social Media

Finally, insiders credit social media for fueling the democratic approach of #GivingTuesday and helping it spread like wildfire. Timms explains, “Social media played a big part. It seems absurd but I remember the argument about having the # at the start of #GivingTuesday, because people were worried that many folks wouldn’t know what it was.” Looks like they made the right choice.

“The world’s largest organisations and small ones all come together with the same message. It’s democracy and the power of social media and online networks at their best, and it gives me hope to think of that right now,” explains Aarons-Mele.

Adds Kanter: “I was totally grateful to have positive energy in my social media feed, especially on Facebook. Giving does make us all feel good.” In the midst of one of the most divisive years in recent memory, that’s certainly something we can all agree on.

The post 5 Years On: How #GivingTuesday Reached Ubiquity appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

GDPR – December Update

Key updates on Data Protection Reform following further releases of information from the ICO and Fundraising Regulator. What can we expect over the next few months, and what should non-profits be doing right now to get ready?
Earlier this autumn, Blackbaud Europe published a statement detailing our position on the Data Protection Reform legislation, encompassing GDPR and the Fundraising Regulator, along with a handy guide to give a useful summary of the planned changes. As promised, we will continue to provide regular updates as new information comes to light.

Key updates

Originally the ICO announced that it planned to publish its interpretation of GDPR in November 2016. However, they revised their timetable in October, saying that they now won’t issue any guidance until 2017, and even then we should not expect all the guidance to be published in one go – it will come in stages.

This means, of course, that the ICO will now be out-of-sync with the Fundraising Regulator, who said they will release their guidance before Christmas. However, it’s clear that the Fundraising Regulator’s guidance will go ‘beyond’ compliance. So we are not unduly concerned that they will be out of step with the ICO. If non-profits follow the guidance issued by the Fundraising Regulator this year, then they are highly likely to be fully compliant with anything the ICO subsequently publishes in 2017.

We also remain very eager to engage with the Fundraising Regulator in a more technical discussion around the practicalities of integration and matching of the Fundraising Preference Service.

Our current understanding

It is clear that there are changes afoot, and some important new legislation of which we must all be aware. Blackbaud’s message is that sound preparation for GDPR would be making sure you are adhering well to current obligations under the Data Protection Act and PECR.  If you are doing the currently-required things correctly then there will be far less of a jump to GDPR.

Transparency, reasonability and supporter experience are three key principles we have seen shining through recent communications and discussions across the sector:

1.    Embrace transparency as a means of building trust and confidence with your supporters. Provide a clear Privacy Notice to individuals about how you will use their personal data and make this easily accessible online and within communications – use understandable language, not jargon, and don’t hide it away with small fonts!

2.    The concept of reasonability is a useful guiding principle. For example:
o    Your supporters can make a Subject Access Request at any stage to see the data you hold about them, so always ask yourself how they may feel upon seeing this data; even if a little surprised, will they consider it reasonable?
o    If an individual requests to have their data removed or be forgotten, it makes sense that you will need to retain a minimal amount of data, appropriately secured, for required purposes and to prevent them being mistakenly contacted again in the future.
o    Beginning a 1:1 relationship with a new prospective supporter by requesting acceptance of a complex consent form could be inappropriate for them as well as you, so a sensible path may be to build up ‘layered consent’ over several touch-points.
o    Your use of data may evolve over time and it can be impractical for everyone to ‘reset’ consents after minor changes to your Privacy Notice, so setting out a reasonable timeframe for periodically renewing consent offers a more manageable alternative.

3.    If you are continually considering ways to enhance your supporters’ experience, and inviting and matching their interests, then this is likely to help you drive long-term successful impact. There have already been several successes across the sector by non-profits who have embraced better understanding and responding to their supporters’ preferences.

Alongside a number of useful blogs and reports published by the NVCO, consultants and others, these topics are being very well discussed at events hosted by the Institute of Fundraising, CASE, IDPE and others.  An example was the very useful Data Protection session, led by Victoria Cetinkaya of the ICO, at the IOF’s recent Researchers in Fundraising Conference.

Collecting consent – start now:

Many charities, large and small, have already switched – or begun switching – to an ‘opt-in’ system of collecting consent to communicate with supporters and to store their data. Our recommendation is that all non-profits move towards channel-based opt-in today, working towards achieving transparent, supporter-focused engagement.

In particular, you can and should be collecting consent now – consent that complies with the GDPR’s definition of being freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. Likewise, be clear about how you use your supporters’ data. If what we are doing is reasonable, then our supporters will understand this, provided we explain it clearly and in their language. And if it isn’t reasonable, then we should stop doing it!

There’s no need to wait until GDPR becomes law in May 2018, you can take steps forward now.

Privacy Notices are necessarily very specific to each organisation. If you need help getting started, take a look at the ICO’s recommended wording for a best practice Privacy Notice. This is a good place to start, but do note that you will need to make edits to cover your unique processes and practices.  Contact Blackbaud if you have questions about how your CRM and digital systems can help. Also keep an eye out for a further update from us shortly around what we’re doing across our products to help you, and let us know if you would like to contribute to our product discovery process.

While the information provided above is reliable, it does not constitute legal advice and should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances.

The post Data Protection Reform – Blackbaud’s Update appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

— “Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a system for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers. It often involves using technology to organise, automate and synchronise sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support.” —

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is not just a database but a strategy; an improvement in the way you manage customers and, in the not-for-profit sector, your donors, contacts and supporters. It can underpin a new fundraising strategy, consolidate disparate IT systems (perhaps even multiple spreadsheets), reduce costs and automate processes as well as improve your knowledge of, and contact with, your donors and supporters. A fundraising CRM system is built with the
not-for-profit in mind, providing tools to make fundraising easier.

Why should I consider a fundraising CRM system?
Perhaps you are having difficulties keeping accurate records of your supporters, spending too much time on administrative tasks, or aren’t able to send out consistently targeted communications to your contacts. To solve these problems it’s always important to get the basics right so you are able to not only sustain, but grow your charity. A fundraising CRM system can help you achieve this.

A fundraising CRM system consists of four parts:
1. Relationship Management
2. Fundraising
3. Marketing and Communications
4. Reporting and Analysis

1. Relationship Management
Recording all your information about a supporter in one place means you are able to draw a 360
degree view of them, which in turn helps you to build a stronger relationship with them over time. A
fundraising CRM system makes seeing the history your not-for-profit has with a supporter quick and
easy, and provides you with the information you need to determine how loyal they are as a donor, or
what their particular interests in your organisation are. Knowing this information will allow you to create
more targeted and personalised messages so you are able to build a better, stronger and longer term
relationship with them.

2. Fundraising
Not-for-profits need to rely less on grants and statutory funding, and diversify through individual giving
and events. A fundraising CRM system manages the end-to-end processes and automated actions
for you, such as integrated online giving pages and gift processing, meaning less time spent on
administration. Keeping an accurate record of Gift Aid and automating monthly giving payments helps
make donor relationships your priority.

3. Marketing and Communications
Sustaining and developing your organisation will mean that supporter relationships need to be
cultivated. Being able to send consistent communications that are targeted and personalised, lays the
foundation for a more loyal supporter, protects your brand and builds trust. By keeping track of the
communications you send to your supporters, you can ensure that duplicate, or mixed messages are
not sent out.

4. Reporting and Analysis
An integrated fundraising CRM system provides quick and easy reporting at the click of a button.
You can also save even more time by scheduling reports to come straight into your inbox. Dashboard
tools provide quick statistics on how much your campaigns have raised, who your top donors are,
and which approaches work best for you. Pre-configured reports allow you to quickly access detailed
campaign analysis, manage your duplicates and much more. With the ability to design your own
reports for review or export, all bases are covered.

The post What is a CRM? – A quick guide appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

By Jamie Serino, Director of Marketing @ Microedge, Blackbaud.

One of my core values, both personally and professionally, is to give back to my local community. Because of the nature of my work, I’m lucky to be surrounded by many purpose-driven organisations making a difference for people, animals and the environment. One of those organisations is the YWCA of the City of New York (YW), a nonprofit organisation that offers job training, daycare, and after-school programs to New York City women and their families.

A few weeks ago, we aligned with the YW for a skills-based volunteering project with one of their partners, Independence High School in Manhattan. My colleagues and I spent an afternoon of job shadowing at our office with ten students from the high school.

Since our work is at the crux of the social good sector, it was important for us to share more about the sector as whole. We discussed the work of our customers, including some of the issues they’re working on and how we help them through the use of technology. I asked the group, “What do you think are the most pressing problems in the world today?” The most prominent answers were hunger, poverty, racism, education, police brutality, and pollution. Then I showed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and asked if anyone knew what they were, or if they had ever seen them. No one had. I explained why the UN created these goals, how they relate to everyone from individuals to large companies, organizations and governments, and why they matter to us. I pointed to the goals that lined up with the issues they named, and I suggested that they pick one or two and embrace the idea of contributing to fixing that problem over the next 14 years. Then, when the UN makes their assessment of progress made toward these goals in 2030, they can know that they helped make a difference.

Our discussion then organically evolved into a conversation about how the mindset of businesses are changing toward a notion of profit and purpose. The students were quite interested in this. We talked about how some businesses are founded on this idea of purpose and others are making changes to get there. There is a movement toward purpose and profit alignment that will be in full swing by the time they graduate college, and they will be in a position to contribute to that.

After the orientation, we helped each student create his/her own LinkedIn profile. They really got involved here, asking for advice as they crafted summary statements and job descriptions. Most of the students even reached out to connect with me on LinkedIn the next day! I look forward to staying connected with them and plan to do whatever I can to help mentor them as they continue their education and pursue their careers.

The next step was for smaller groups of students to spend time with certain staff members so that they could learn about specific roles—customer service, IT, marketing, and sales. The job shadowing was a mix of learning what the role was, responsibilities that come along with the job and hands-on learning. One student sat in on a customer call with a sales account manager, others helped problem solve with the IT team, and some participated in a brand marketing idea session.

There were also unexpected discoveries and learning experiences during the day that proved why mentoring is so important. One example was a student that was interested in theatre being randomly paired with one of the tech support staff members who just happened to have worked backstage on Broadway! The employee was able to give her concrete guidance on how to break into theater in NYC, and the experience turned into a very meaningful one for both.

Interacting with the students was very rewarding and eye opening for my colleagues and me. We gained invaluable insights from a generation that is ramping up to have an impact on the world. When the day was over I remember hoping that they all walked away having gotten something out of it. I was happy to learn through our LinkedIn interactions and our follow-up with the YW that it was a big hit with the students.

Our number one goal was to have a positive impact on the students and to guide them in some way. Feeling confident we achieved that goal, we started to assess how the day was for our volunteers. Was it a meaningful and worthwhile skills-based volunteering activity for our office? In reflecting on the entire process, from the planning stage to saying goodbye to the students, we felt that the activity was mutually beneficial. By coming together to plan an engaging day for the students, new connections were made between people who generally don’t have the opportunity to work together. Volunteers also gained new insight into their own areas of expertise and skills by sharing them with a new audience. It was also a bonus for our team to feel that we could contribute in a small way to SDG #4, Quality Education, while answering the call that the UN is making through IMPACT2030– that the private sector can, and must, further the SDGs by aligning employee volunteering in the service of the sustainable development agenda.

We look forward to finding new ways to give back and contribute to our local community in whatever capacity we can by collaborating with organisations similar to the YW. In doing so, we will strive to create transformational experiences for our volunteers to ensure that everyone wins.

The post Skills-based Volunteerism Creates Transformational Experiences appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

By Drew Bernard

Non-profits have a significant advantage on Facebook. The non-profit advantage comes from the fact that content that people engage with on Facebook (like, share, comment on, etc.) gets far more reach and visibility than content that people see but don’t engage with. To be more precise, content that Facebook users want to be seen engaging with does far better on the social network.

Who has the kind of stories that Facebook users want to be seen engaging with? 

Non-profits! That simple fact gives non-profits a considerable leg up over other brands; with both organic content as well as promoted content. Facebook is among their most cost effective channels for organisations focused on email list growth or donor cultivation.

Even so, few non-profits are using Facebook ads at all, many others use them ineffectively

The Advantage

As strange as it sounds, Facebook is a very personal space. In our modern world, it really is the place where people express who they are and what they think of the world around them. What we post, share and engage with all become part of our personal identity.

Think back to your own behaviour on Facebook.  How often do you like, share, or comment on a Facebook post from a corporate brand? Now think about how about you engage with content from non-profit organisations and causes you care about?

Brands work hard every day to create brand love and brand loyalty on Facebook. For most brands, that affection is superficial and the loyalty fleeting. It doesn’t matter how well a laundry detergent cleans my stained shirts, unless they offer me some kind of coupon or other reward I am highly unlikely to engage with or share their content. Why? Because everything I do on Facebook tells my friends something about who I am. Believe it or not,  “he cares deeply about the laundry soap he uses” simply isn’t a story I want to come to mind when my friends think about me.

Non-profits on the other hand have missions, goals and stories that people really care about. Caring runs deep! It may not always be glamorous, almost always not, but it is real. Nearly 1.8 billion people share what they care about every month on Facebook — joy, inspiration, hopes, and fears, over and over again. Who is doing work and has an abundance of stories of hope, fear, joy, and inspiration? Non-profits.

Keys to success

Some basic strategies must be adopted for non-profits to be successful on Facebook, and social media in general, and sustain that success for the life of their missions. The tasks are often left up to whomever may have the capacity to do so rather than a an expert. Below are a few basic strategies that should get you headed in the right direction with or without ads. Expert or not, these are a must.

1. Be authentic

Non-profits have the benefit of meaningful storytelling. Regardless if it is a post, a boosted post, or an ad, leverage your stories. People will spot constructed and disingenuous marketing line a mile away.

2. Post frequently

Most organisations should be posting at least a couple times each day. The truth of the matter is that not every post you publish will strike a chord with your audience. It reminds me a bit of Albert Einstein’s quote “ it’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” The key to success on Facebook is sticking with it. Post a lot.

Tone of voice, sentiment, and everything else should be consistent. The best way to do this is to document, share, and update your own internal best practices.

3. Learn from success and failure

The surest way to succeed on Facebook is to watch what other organisations are doing and to really learn from your own best content as well as the posts that fail. It should come as no real shock that by simply drawing inspiration from the best content on Facebook and doing most posts like the ones that excel on your Facebook is a recipe for success.

4. Don’t be rigid

You may have a very specific mission, it also may be very local. That’s great. However, you should feel free to post content that is on the outskirts of your mission and from other parts of the country and globe. If the content leads people toward your mission, even if it seems unrelated, post it. Being too narrow and too rigid reduces the amount and quality of your content.

5. Use ads to amplify your successes

Only spend money to promote content that does well organically. This kind of promotion can take off like wildfire. Promoting content that people don’t want to engage with is expensive and doesn’t drive results, we call it a pollution tax. In many ways, Facebook’s newsfeed is a meritocracy. It is designed to surface the content that people most want in their news feed. So, give them what they want.

The post Amplify your voice with Facebook ads appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Well, it’s approaching another new year and we’ve all resolved to get fitter, read more, learn a foreign language or get PADI-certified and go scuba diving with manta rays off the coast of Ecuador.

So before January slips by completely, we thought we’d share with you Blackbaud’s top 7 New Year’s  resolutions that every non-profit should be keeping in order to make 2017 the best year yet for your organisation!

1. Focus on your supporters’ preferences

With a big mood for change in donor preferences, Opt-Out pages will be THE area on your website where donors build trust with an organisation. Charities are under scrutiny to prove they can respect donors’ wishes by synchronising opt-outs with their CRM database.

For loyalty across all kinds of brands, the buzzword is “transparency” – the organisations that handle this well this year will come out with more loyal donors. Read our blog post to find out how to partner with donors rather than simply market at them.

2. Keep your existing donors happy

Each year, organisations watch as up to 80% of new donors fail to support them in Year 2. Why have we become accustomed to losing so many existing donors while spending so much on finding new ones?

Make 2016 the year you commit to retaining the supporters you already have. Make sure your data is accurate, ensure you’re not overloading donors with too many emails, focus on making them feel appreciated, connected to your organisation and informed about how their gift has been used. Read our blog post for some great tips.

3. Improve the health of your data

The start of a new year is the perfect time for a health check on your database. Having clean data can help you to sustain and strengthen relationships with donors, not to mention save on unnecessary costs.

Your donor engagement strategies are only as good as your data, so it’s vital to run updates to determine whether donors have moved, passed away or changed contact information.

Blackbaud can not only clean-up you your data, but also enhance it. Contact us today to get your free data audit!

4. Stop procrastinating – Set up Gift Aid

It is estimated that around £750million in Gift Aid is left unclaimed each year as it can be a complicated process. Make your New Year’s resolution to invest the worthwhile time into setting it up and reap the benefits in the future by claiming 25% more in donations!

And if you can’t find the time in your busy January calendar, let us do the work for you! Watch our pre-recorded webinar to find out about our Gift Aid service or read about it in our Gift Aid blog post.

5. Get your marketing activities in shape with better analytics

‘Analytics’ has become the phrase at the centre of all technology innovation. By analysing your marketing activities, you can set bespoke emails to automatically send based on previous engagement.

So when an individual watches your video, or browses your website for 20 minutes, or fills out a donation form but doesn’t click submit, you know you have an engaged potential donor to target with a well-planned communication. You should also be using Analytics to test email results. Learn about A/B testing in our blog post.

6. Be more social

Research consistently shows that people donate because of the influence of peers, and social media plays a vital role in this.

Building an online brand presence takes time. It’s a two-way tool for communication, finding and building relationships, and ‘overhearing’ what others are saying about themselves and subjects that are important to them. Focus on your relationship goals and over time, if used correctly, social media will be one of your most valued assets.

Read our blog post to find out more about the importance of investing in social media.

7. Learn a new skill – become a blogger!

Blogging is a great way to build expertise, boost SEO and provide useful thought leadership information to your donors and prospects which in time will increase brand loyalty.

Don’t know where to start? Google has the search function to be able to search only ‘blogs’ so take a look at a few that exist in your organisation’s mission space and see what others are discussing. Read our short blog post for some more great tips on starting your non-profit’s first blog.

The post 7 New Year’s Resolutions for your Non-Profit appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

I had the privilege of hearing from Rosie Siemer and Dana Hines on Membership & Engagement: The Power of Data at bbcon 2016. I loved this session; not only am I an undisputed data nerd, but also I love finding new ways to engage and communicate better. When it’s targeted specifically towards our arts and cultural clients? Even better.

Dana and Rosie could not be more qualified to lead this session. Both are founders and CEOs of consulting agencies that focus on how nonprofits can more effectively communicate with supporters to grow their members and donors. Their strategies ranged from things a beginner could start with today to much more sophisticated concepts that may require new technology.

Whether you’ve mastered target tags or are new to the power of data, there’s something for everyone in their insights.

Strategies for the Beginner

If you’re just opening your eyes to the power of data when engaging with supporters, there are a few places that you can dip your toes in:

• List Building – To capitalise on the power of data, first, you need to start collecting supporter data.Rosie and Dana suggest capitalising on touch points to get contact information for potential supporters in your CRM. So, ask for email addresses when people are onsite, and ask your social media followers for their email address. Be prepared to give to get. It doesn’t have to be your first born child – give them a cookie! People love cookies. Or offer your social media followers a promo code for their email address.
• Record Appends – Everyone has incomplete records in their CRM. Perhaps you have their name, but not their phone number, mailing address or email address. Or perhaps you had this information at one point, but the contact information you have is now out of date. There are data enrichment services that can screen your database for a reasonable fee and add this information back in – well worth it to ensure your communications are making it to your supporters.
• Facebook – Facebook is by far the easiest and most intuitive place to start digital marketing. Facebook combines critical mass (everyone is on Facebook) with data. When marketing with Facebook, start by targeting potential supporters that look like your current supporters. Facebook has enough information on their members to help you be extremely targeted and test until you find the right demographic profile.

Strategies for Those Who’ve Hit Their Stride

Now that you have a database full of information on potential donors and you’re exploring digital marketing with Facebook, it’s time to take data to the next level.

• Prospect Research – With a database full of clean contact information, should you ask them all for a major gift? Of course not. To identify a major giving prospect, you need to understand who has both the propensity to give and the passion in your mission. That’s where prospect research comes into play. While you could look up your supporters one by one to understand their wealth, including assets owned and other organisations they donate to, you could also use a prospect research solution to screen your database and deliver back wealth information into your CRM.
• Retargeting – Now that you have a grasp on Facebook ads, it’s time to add digital retargeting to your repertoire. Retargeting is a behavioural-based targeting technique. A cookie-based technology uses a javascript code to “follow” your audience around the web. So, a prospective member visits your site, then leaves your site. Your marketing “follows” them around the web, reminding them to click to return to your site and become a member!

Strategies for the Seasoned Data Expert

• Marketing Automation – If you haven’t tried out marketing automation, now is the time to explore. Marketing automation is broadly used in the corporate sector and allows organisations to sell like Amazon – that is to nurture prospects with highly personalised, useful content that converts prospects into delighted donors. Essentially, it allows you to craft the series or journey you want a prospect to take and set up triggers to automate that experience. For example, your email content will vary for supporters based if they opened, clicked through, or actually transacted with the last appeal you sent them, as well as target and personalise content based on which types of exhibits they most recently attend. Marketing automation to increase engagement generally requires marketing technology designed for this that syncs with your CRM.
• Matchback Attribution – One of the biggest frustrations as a marketing, membership or fundraising professional is not being able to measure your return on investment correctly due to transactions with no source code or primary attribution. Matchback attribution is the process of matching back transaction with no source to the appeal the donor was most recently sent, allowing you to roll up a more accurate ROI to measure the success of your efforts.
• Target Tags – With target tags, you identify specific attributes that would make someone a best prospect for a donation, based on both the attributes of your current donors and attributes of donors to similar organizations (this second piece requires working with a technology vendor that has access to cooperative data warehouses that can mine this info for you). You can then tag groups of supporters based on these attributes, track responses and optimise future segmentation.

Hopefully, you found something that you can jump into right away, and something you can aspire to use in the future. Happy data-mining!

By Laura Beussman, Senior Product Marketing Manager, US.

The post Growing your Members and Donors with the Power of Data appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Earlier this autumn, Blackbaud Europe published a statement detailing our position on the Data Protection Reform legislation, encompassing GDPR and the Fundraising Regulator, along with a handy guide to give a useful summary of the planned changes. As promised, we will continue to provide regular updates as new information comes to light.

Key updates

Originally the ICO announced that it planned to publish its interpretation of GDPR in November 2016. However, they revised their timetable in October, saying that they now won’t issue any guidance until 2017, and even then we should not expect all the guidance to be published in one go – it will come in stages.

This means, of course, that the ICO will now be out-of-sync with the Fundraising Regulator, who said they will release their guidance before Christmas. However, it’s clear that the Fundraising Regulator’s guidance will go ‘beyond’ compliance. So we are not unduly concerned that they will be out of step with the ICO. If non-profits follow the guidance issued by the Fundraising Regulator this year, then they are highly likely to be fully compliant with anything the ICO subsequently publishes in 2017.

We also remain very eager to engage with the Fundraising Regulator in a more technical discussion around the practicalities of integration and matching of the Fundraising Preference Service.

Our current understanding

It is clear that there are changes afoot, and some important new legislation of which we must all be aware. Blackbaud’s message is that sound preparation for GDPR would be making sure you are adhering well to current obligations under the Data Protection Act and PECR. If you are doing the currently-required things correctly, then there will be far less of a jump to GDPR.

Transparency, reasonability and supporter experience are three key principles we have seen shining through recent communications and discussions across the sector:

1. Embrace transparency as a means of building trust and confidence with your supporters. Provide a clear Privacy Notice to individuals about how you will use their personal data and make this easily accessible online and within communications – use understandable language, not jargon, and don’t hide it away with small fonts!

2. The concept of reasonability is a useful guiding principle. For example:
o Your supporters can make a Subject Access Request at any stage to see the data you hold about them, so always ask yourself how they may feel upon seeing this data; even if a little surprised, will they consider it reasonable?
o If an individual requests to have their data removed or be forgotten, it makes sense that you will need to retain a minimal amount of data, appropriately secured, for required purposes and to prevent them being mistakenly contacted again in the future.
o Beginning a 1:1 relationship with a new prospective supporter by requesting acceptance of a complex consent form could be inappropriate for them as well as you, so a sensible path may be to build up ‘layered consent’ over several touch-points.
o Your use of data may evolve over time and it can be impractical for everyone to ‘reset’ consents after minor changes to your Privacy Notice, so setting out a reasonable timeframe for periodically renewing consent offers a more manageable alternative.

3. If you are continually considering ways to enhance your supporters’ experience, and inviting and matching their interests, then this is likely to help you drive long-term successful impact. There have already been several successes across the sector by non-profits who have embraced better understanding and responding to their supporters’ preferences.

Alongside a number of useful blogs and reports published by the NVCO, consultants and others, these topics are being very well discussed at events hosted by the Institute of Fundraising, CASE, IDPE and others. An example was the very useful Data Protection session, led by Victoria Cetinkaya of the ICO, at the IOF’s recent Researchers in Fundraising Conference.

Collecting consent – start now:

Many charities, large and small, have already switched – or begun switching – to an ‘opt-in’ system of collecting consent to communicate with supporters and to store their data. Our recommendation is that all non-profits move towards channel-based opt-in today, working towards achieving transparent, supporter-focused engagement.

In particular, you can and should be collecting consent now – consent that complies with the GDPR’s definition of being freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. Likewise, be clear about how you use your supporters’ data. If what we are doing is reasonable, then our supporters will understand this, provided we explain it clearly and in their language. And if it isn’t reasonable, then we should stop doing it!

There’s no need to wait until GDPR becomes law in May 2018, you can take steps forward now.

Privacy Notices are necessarily very specific to each organisation. If you need help getting started. Take a look at the ICO’s recommended wording for a best practice Privacy Notice. This is a good place to start, but do note that you will need to make edits to cover your unique processes and practices. Contact Blackbaud if you have questions about how your CRM and digital systems can help. Also keep an eye out for a further update from us shortly around what we’re doing across our products to help you, and let us know if you would like to contribute to our product discovery process.

The post Data Protection Reform – Blackbaud Update appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

I admit words come easily to me; I’m comfortable talking or writing. (I won’t get into what I’m not so good at—some confessions are best left unsaid). Even though I constantly preach about the importance of the ability to say “thank you,” when I sit down to write another monthly receipt letter I sometimes wonder, “Am I just repeating the same things over and over? What can I say that feels brand new to the person reading it?”

With the Internet at my fingertips, I decided to do a quick search to see what advice there is for saying “thank you.” After all, with year-end approaching, hopefully fundraisers everywhere will have even more opportunities to practice this art.

Not surprisingly, the Hallmark blog popped up with a recent posting by Keely Chace that began, “You know that wonderful, warm-fuzzy feeling that comes over you when someone goes out of his or her way to … bless you, support you or help you out?” I was hooked; after all, “warm-fuzzy” is what I feel like when I hear that donors responded with gifts to the direct mail copy I wrote or they clicked on the link for the eAppeal.

So how can we do a better job saying thank you?

Choose words and phrases that will resonate with your donors.

First, check out the sample phrases Chace included in the article. If nothing else, they will give you a place to start. “Your gift to XYZ Organisation made our day! My heart just keeps thanking you and thanking you!” Over the top? Possibly—but when you are the recipient of thanks, do you usually feel like it’s overdone? (OK, the exception is when someone thanks you 10 times for giving them a tissue).

Next, think about who makes up your donors (for a mass thank you) or how a person expresses him or herself when you are writing to a single donor. Then, choose words and phrases that will resonate with them and help them understand what they made possible. A donation is more than an exchange of money—it’s a hope on the part of the giver that he or she will help create a miracle, small or large.

Share results with those who are writing and designing your fundraising.

Sitting down to write an appeal is so much easier when you know that the last one you wrote actually worked. Were there notes that came in that expressed appreciation for something that was said in the letter? Did someone tell you that her heart was touched by the story that was shared? Passing those along to writers and designers can give them a fresh excitement about finding a way to tell your story again.

Finally, don’t be afraid to do some soul-searching.

Who always lifts you up with a word of thanks? What is it they say that makes you feel good inside? Then start practicing saying “thank you” – even for little things. American psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers said, “Feeling gratitude isn’t born in us – it’s something we are taught, and in turn, we teach our children.” I would add that sometimes we have to teach it to ourselves, too.

2016 hasn’t been an easy year for many of us. But a word of gratitude—even from the nonprofit organisation that we chose to support—can give us a reason to smile and a reminder that hope is still there. So practice saying “thank you,” and create the nonprofit organisation that is known for truly valuing its donors.

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With end of year fast approaching, it’s likely that your non-profit is making plans for 2017. No matter your mission, having a website that inspires action is crucial to the continued advancement of your cause! This begins with understanding your audience and what’s important to them. The experience your organisation provides online must be one that converts. And every pixel counts.

Does your website provide an experience that converts interest into action? Ask yourself these questions to see if a website redesign should be a part of your plans for 2017:

1. Is your website responsive?

Responsive web design started its takeover of the Internet in 2011 and has since become a necessity. Your donors and activists want ALL of your content on EVERY device, and responsive design is the only way to achieve that. If your website is not responsive, it’s time to redesign!

2. Are your images large enough?

Thanks to today’s technology, your website visitors can see more clearly than ever before. Our screens keep getting larger and support higher resolutions and your website should take advantage. Click around on your site and evaluate the sizes of your images. Do you have to squint to see faces? If you want to get down to the pixels, your images should be at least 400 x 250px. You may need to go smaller to display a list page full of thumbnails and teasers, but most of your images should be big and beautiful. Also, for your large banner images, consider filling the full width of the screen. The most common screen width for desktop/laptop computers is 1336px, so you can go pretty wide. Full-width images are a nice way to break up content on your site and add a modern flair.

3. Do you have a lot of nested navigation?

Every site should have a main navigation component, and many sites need a section navigation component to help visitors get to each page within a section. For example, an “Our Work” section may have individual pages describing each type of work your organisation does, or an “About Us” section may have pages for Staff, History, etc. Things start to get complicated when there is even more navigation below that. So in the above example, let’s say your Staff section had even more pages for Executive, Marketing, Development, etc. I’d call that overkill. The trend these days is to have more content on each page rather than have tons of really short pages that users have to click around to find. If your site has a lot of these menus within menus, it’s probably time to redesign.

4. Do you have a lot of old, outdated or infrequently visited pages?

If you’re trying to assess your website needs, a content inventory is always a good place to start. By taking stock of your content, you can get a clear picture of what pages/sections you can retire. A quick way to look at a page’s popularity is to have your Google Analytics account open as you do your inventory. Pull up a list of content and then search for each page as you go, recording the page rank as part of your inventory. This way, you can be sure you don’t get rid of any popular content.

Finally, I’d add that it’s a good idea to redesign your website every 5-7 years. If it’s been longer than that for you, you may want to make it a priority. I hope these questions and tips will get the conversation started at your organisation!

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The “Ladder of Engagement” has become a common part of the digital organiser’s vernacular.  Every non-profit campaigner with a year of experience in the sector is familiar with the concept and has likely plotted one out for their organisation.

However, as the Ladder of Engagement has proliferated, the design of the different steps on the advancement path are often assigned in a way that does not support the achievement of an organisation’s mission.  Many of the engagement ladders that I’ve seen are in fact passive advancement paths that neither build up supporters nor help an organisation to win campaigns. Is it time to overhaul your ladder of engagement? Below I’ve compiled some of the common pitfalls that contribute to a ladder of engagement that does not work to build power and capacity for your organisation.

Problems with the Ladder Analogy & Execution

• Supporters don’t know they are deepening their relationship with an organisation
• Doesn’t build supporter capacity
• Doesn’t meet supporters where they are—having differents steps on the ladder doesn’t cut it
• Non-Profits don’t gauge availability and capabilities

Making the Invisible Visible

The ladder of engagement is often imagined as the least common denominator of supporter activities.  It includes the things that anybody could do, and that could be done without someone even realising they are climbing a ladder. Some of these passive activities often include:

1. Notice your Charity on social media
2. Sign a petition
3. Make a donation
4. Attend an event
5. Become a recurring donor

A common mistake that is made in designing a ladder of engagement is that ascending the ladder is passive.  The ladder of engagement is in fact often invisible for supporters. While going up the ladder, supporters aren’t consciously increasing their commitment to the organisation, they aren’t building a greater knowledge of the Non-Profit or the cause, they aren’t becoming more skilled in how they can support the cause.

An invisible ladder doesn’t help anyone. It doesn’t help an organisation build capacity, it doesn’t help supporters grow, it doesn’t build community or generate momentum.

Meeting Supporters Where They Are (And Helping Them Grow)

As an organiser, and as a digital organiser you’ve likely heard the common trope, “Meet your supporters where they are.”  However, in the transition to a digital organising model, we often fail to listen to our supporters and have lost sight of one of the most basic onboarding tactics: aligning supporters calls to action with their availability, capabilities, and resources.

This could include asking:

• “When can you be available?”
• “What are you interested in doing?”
• “How else can you support the cause?”

It might be helpful to think about it in the context of a political campaign office where a volunteer might come into a physical office and the staff ask, “Can you be available in the mornings, afternoons, or evenings? Would you prefer to phone bank, enter data, or canvass?  Do you have any other resources you could contribute to the campaign?”

Just because we are now interacting with new supporters online doesn’t mean we can’t be asking them how best they can support the campaign.  Ultimately, the key to building an army of grassroots supporters that can help you win is to effectively match each supporter’s availability, interest, and skills with the organisation’s mission and then help supporters to grow.

The Role of Capacity Building and Training

Rarely does the ladder of engagement actually reflect any real progression of experience or skill that an organisation would want a supporter to build over time.  Signing a petition once, making a donation, and then attending an in-person event does not necessarily require any additional level of skill, expertise, or commitment.  Instead, it is actually just a reflection of what any particular supporter is best equipped to do at that particular point in time.

If a ladder of engagement were actually designed to most effectively support an organisation, a key aspect of moving supporters up the ladder would be to contribute to building your organisation’s capacity by helping supporters to grow.  An optimised ladder of engagement would likely look more like a training program.  If you are going to grow your volunteers and activists effectively, your ladder of engagement shouldn’t be an escalator that can be ascended passively, it should be designed based on teamwork, with your charity’s staff and volunteers helping to lift other supporters up the ladder.  

The Limitations of the Ladder Metaphor

Once you start to engage supporters based on availability, interest, and skills you are going to realise that there are different ladders of engagement for different supporters.  Ultimately the goal should not be to create a single Ladder of Engagement that all your supporters must follow but to design the different paths that will match your supporters capabilities, support your organisation and the campaigns you are running, and help your supporters to grow through their involvement with your campaign.  As you think about identifying super volunteers and developing training programs, don’t be confined by the concept of a singular ladder.

The post Is your ladder of engagement holding you back? appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

John Bird explores how technology is innovating the Peer-to-Peer supporter journey.

“The word ‘integration’ is a dull one and turns off the less technical-minded fundraiser. But it belies an opportunity to allow data from every P2P campaign you run to automatically sync with your CRM, providing a near-instant 360-degree view of donor activity.”

Emotion is the ultimate disruptor.

People are driven by their emotions. Facts and figures are important, but emotion trumps logic every time when you’re trying to get someone’s attention and influence their next action.

The commercial world has known this for years. Just look at the some of the adverts we’ve seen of late for brands like Dove and Kleenex. Even the most disliked group of companies – big banks – have started dabbling with emotional storytelling on primetime adverts.

The truth is that in any ultra-competitive sector, a compelling Customer Experience is the last great differentiator. 

What does this mean for me as a fundraiser?

It means that supporters need to be at the epicentre of any fundraising strategy.  We need to build detailed personas of the individuals in our target audience groups; not just their basic demographic info, but a detailed map of their lives: the things they do, the challenges they face and the ‘moments that matter’ for them.   The importance of this is found in even greater concentration in the peer-to-peer (P2P) giving space.

Participatory Experiences

The digital revolution has transformed the way we operate. However, we mustn’t forget that a true Supporter Experience is about more than just the channel, it’s about participation: creating opportunities for audiences to become part of the cause they are supporting.

This is why we have seen such an explosion in P2P fundraising. P2P is participation at its finest, creating a two-way relationship between charity and supporter, where the supporters themselves become the fundraiser.  The new experience is meaningful, it’s personalised and it’s why the average donation to a P2P fundraiser is nearly £60.  (everydayhero giving study, Oct 2016)

The Next Generation of Peer-to-Peer

Impressive as it sounds, in reality, we’ve only just scratched the surface of P2P’s potential. What if we could create a Supporter Experience that pushes this average donation to £80 or even £100?

Right now, P2P campaigns are typically executed in isolation, using platforms like everydayhero, which have revolutionised the P2P space.  However, in order to try and create the integrated supporter experience, data then needs to be manually imported into a fundraising CRM.  This task can be time-consuming and prone to error, and one that few non-profits would have the time or inclination to execute – certainly not long-term.

Which is why recent innovations in technology will have such a profound impact on fundraising potential.

This month, Blackbaud announced an integration between everydayhero and eTapestry – the latter being the UK’s leading fundraising CRM for smaller charities. The word ‘integration’ is a dull one and turns off the less technical-minded fundraiser. But it belies an opportunity to allow data from every P2P campaign you run to automatically sync with eTapestry, providing a near-instant 360-degree view of donor activity. Immediately from this point, those donors are your supporters, and these new supporters can quickly begin to be nurtured through your personalised and automated email communications run directly out of eTapestry.

While larger organisations using Raiser’s Edge NXT are already integrated, the biggest impact is likely to be felt among smaller charities, who are desperate for a joined-up view of their constituents.

And while the time-savings and donations themselves are obviously of great importance, the real power of P2P lies in the potential of each supporter.  Not only do P2P fundraisers tend to be your most loyal supporters, they also have an engaged network that have just received a personal introduction to your cause.

Given that, on average, each P2P fundraiser attracts 10 donors, imagine the possibilities of now being able to build relationships with them individually.

That’s worth getting emotional about.

If you’d like to discover more about how technology can bring your Peer-to-Peer supporter journey to life, take a look at Blackbaud’s website or drop us a line at solutions@blackbaud.co.uk. 

The post Are you maximising the potential of peer-to-peer donors? appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

The technology sector has a huge love of jargon, acronyms and abbreviations. All too often, the fondness for technobabble makes life intimidating and frustrating for those of us either using or looking to use the services and products the tech-companies offer– it’s like they’re talking another language.

So here’s our attempt to lift the veil. A crib sheet for those trying to talk to tech-company reps or attempting to decode marketing materials.   

CRM – Customer Relationship Management.

The idea of customer relationship management goes back to the early 20^th century when companies realised customers were more valuable when the customer felt valued and respected so they developed strategies for treating their customers better and understanding their needs more. Note – a CRM isn’t a piece of software in itself, but a companywide approach to how they treat their customers/donors/stakeholders/partners. 

CRM Systems –

Customer relationship management systems aid an organisation to enhance their CRM policy by formalising processes, safeguarding and centralising information as well as providing insight and analysis.  CRM systems have developed from a file-a-fax and a post-it note on a sales rep’s desk to the highly sophisticated automated systems that help global companies manage relationships with millions of users over 1000’s of touchpoints we have today. (guide to CRMs)

SaaS – Software as a Service (pronounced – saas)

a way of distributing software in which vendors or service providers make their products available to customers over the internet, using cloud-computing technology. Spotify and Netflix are examples of everyday businesses who use this exact model – a monthly subscription allows you to use the software and as soon as you stop paying, you lose access.

CLOUD

This is simply a metaphor for the internet which stems from 80’s graphics where the internet was drawn as a cloud. Cloud computing and service have become ever more popular due to widespread access to the internet. Netflix, Spotify, DropBox, Microsoft Office 365 and even Facebook are great examples. See this article for more on why organisations are considering the cloud. (see guide to best free cloud software for non-profits)

Integration

When different software and systems are linked together to act as a whole. This can be through connecting them with wires or plugging stuff in (like a memory stick and your laptop) or with complex pieces of code to make two different software systems talk. The term ‘integration’ gets misused and misunderstood the most. Tech companies love to claim their products ‘integrate’ with another seamlessly when what they really mean is seamlessly integrate IF you hire a team of consultants to patch everything together. A ‘true’ integration is when two systems seamlessly work with one another which is the ideal, as it removes of any manual data administration – saving time and reducing the risk of human error.

API – Application Portal Interface (pronounced – ay-pee-eye)

This is basically the ‘key’ to get under the bonnet of software. By having access to an API you can integrate two or more systems together. A ‘closed’ API means the software is deliberately locked off, an ‘open’ API means it’s free to access. The main take-away here is that if you want software to integrate, it will always be more expensive to connect something with a closed API than an open API.  

HOSTING

A service where a company will save your data on their servers which you can remotely access. This is a service growing massively in popularity as it allows organisations to cheaply store their data without having to buy very costly servers sitting at the back of the office. E.g. The M.O.D has recently made the transition to have their data hosted. 

DATA CONVERSION

The process of taking data in one form and getting it into a state where another system will recognise it properly.  

CONCURRENT USER LICENCES

Concurrent is the key word here – this is a way of pricing software based on the number of people who can login or access a piece of software at the same time. If you have five concurrent user licences, up to five people can log-in at the same time. If a sixth person tries they’ll be denied access and have to ask someone else to log out. Some companies may advertise unlimited user licences, this simply means you can create loads of log-ins so be wary as unless they’re concurrent that doesn’t mean a lot! 

P2P Fundraising – Peer-to-Peer

A method of fundraising that empowers supporters to fundraise on an organisation’s behalf

DIGITAL MARKETING

This sounds fancier than it is. Websites, a social media presence and emails are a few examples of digital marketing. As most digital marketing channels are cheap and can reach a large audience at low effort, it’s difficult to get heard over the competition. Weirdly, digital marketing often works better on the less-tech-savvy. Conversely, a few recent publications have actually indicated you can elicit a better response from Millennials with direct mail rather than an email.

The post A Tour Guide to the Fundraising Technology Sector appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

“The ‘cloud’ is simply a metaphor for the internet. It originates from when the internet was drawn in manuals and graphics surrounded by a cloud shaped bubble.”

So what’s cloud computing then? Cloud computing is when you save and access your computer’s information or programmes over the internet instead of using the memory of your PC or office server. And a cloud based service is any programme you either log into or access over the web – think your Gmail account, Spotify or Netflix.

More than 90% of non-profit organisations are using cloud computing today with half of them using multiple cloud services to meet their specific organisational needs. The chances are that your organisation, to a lesser or greater degree, has already made the leap to cloud based services.

However, a recent report from TechSoup found that once you get past email and file storage, most non-profits are still reluctant to embrace the cloud for their other organisational needs as the below graphic demonstrates:

Why are Non-Profits using Cloud Based Services?

Used correctly, switching to cloud services can save an organisation time and money. Instead of investing in expensive hardware, licensing software or hiring IT staff, cloud software allows many companies to share this cost through pooling the resources. To easily visualise this, let’s use the example of a library. Instead of each household buying lots of books, finding space to store them and installing bookshelves – a library allows many individuals to pay a small fee to access a far larger range of books as and when they are required. Cloud based service providers benefit from the exact same economies of scale, allowing organisations to reduce infrastructure and upfront costs as well as often benefiting from a better service.

Providers of cloud resources offer what is commonly referred to as software as a service, or SaaS. That includes services we use every day like email, messaging and phone calls, but it could also include file storage, fundraising databases, office programs and accounting software. With the leaps and bounds in recent technology, this is no longer an area purely limited to the largest and wealthiest organisations. As long as you have access to the web, you can use their services.

The Changing Landscape of Technology

Less than a decade ago, when you purchased a new piece of software, it came with several physical compact discs that you installed on your laptop. But in today’s environment, you only need an Internet connection from your laptop, smartphone or tablet to access those same types of programs and applications. The complex and time consuming installation process has been replaced with a simple login that allows us instant access to the tools we need to do our jobs.

On Site or The Cloud?

Much like buying a new car, the value of your hardware and licensed software exponentially decreases the moment you drive it off the lot.

Instead of this on premise model, the cloud functions on a “Pay as You Use” model, where you are only charged for the storage and specific services you require. Cloud service providers handle maintenance and accessibility issues, including security. And changes do not need to be applied to everyone’s individual computer. Licensing costs become a thing of the past. And your IT staff will be able to easily adjust resources to meet the demands of the team.

Simply put, we’re now living in a world where most daily tasks are conducted online through our computers, phones or tablets. Cloud vendors are growing at huge rates, creating a cost competitive landscape for individuals and non-profit entities looking to make the switch on a limited budget. Of course, there are questions for any organisation considering a switch from on premise infrastructure to the cloud. But for most, the quick benefits of saving time, money and technological headaches will be a welcome change.

The post What is the Cloud? appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

“We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know.” – W. H. Auden

I’ve spent most of my career in business development and have worked with organizations of all shapes and sizes, both for-profit and not-for-profit. From this vantage point, I’ve observed that leaders of social impact organisations tend to be risk averse. This is because they feel pressure to maximize their time and resources on achieving the immediate needs of program service delivery. Often this pressure is increased when funders restrict resources to specific short-term projects.

In business, as in philanthropy, it takes long-term planning, time and resources to identify prospective partners and find mutual goals. There is an element of risk involved in sharing information and undertaking new business strategies together. One way that I like to describe strategic partnerships is by comparing them to a seesaw.Participating organizations strive to balance the four R’s: Reach, Resources, Revenue and Risk. 

Like a seesaw, organizations that collaborate can keep moving forward if they remain focused on their collective push, that is, their mutual mission. They balance the potential to increase their Reach, Resources, and Revenue against the greater weight of Risk.

There is no one size fits all approach to collaboration. Partnership arrangements can be formal or informal, long-term or project-specific.  Some examples include: negotiating purchasing deals with other businesses, undertaking a benchmarking study with peers, forming a coalition to address a community need, coordinating program service delivery, or forming a joint venture.

Organizations addressing similar social problems or serving similar constituents stand to benefit the most from collaboration. For example, Harlem’s Children Zone is hailed in the philanthropy community as a trailblazer in the collective impact movement. By working with community partners such as tenant associations, social service agencies and health care providers, the organization provides a comprehensive, birth-to-college continuum of services to help poor youth succeed. They also host workshops with community representatives, policymakers, and funding agencies.  This model has been replicated in other cities across the nation and has helped inspire a nationwide initiative, Promise Neighborhoods.

Identifying prospective partners and building and cultivating relationships that can lead to meaningful partnerships takes time and energy—and yes, an element of risk. However, keep in mind that inaction can be just as risky, if not riskier than taking manageable strategic risks. The latter offers potential growth opportunities while the former just ensures that the organization will remain stagnant. It would be irresponsible to stay still while those around you are moving forward.

The post Share the Risk and Reap the Rewards appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

If you’ve been in peer-to-peer fundraising for any length of time, you don’t need a study to tell you how valuable repeat participants are to your event and your non-profit. But from the looks of the data and the declining retention rates for walks and 5Ks, we all need a refresher on what matters when it comes to people coming back year after year.

This year’s Blackbaud Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Study shows retention rates declining for Walks and 5Ks.

While a decline in returning participants from 39% to 37% for Walks may seem slight, think about it this way: In a walk with 1,000 participants, that’s 20 walkers who didn’t return. With the average returning participant raising 2.5 times more than a new participant, you’ll need to recruit more new walkers to replace that revenue. If a top fundraiser doesn’t return it means a much greater loss.

Quite simply, returning participants are more valuable champions for our cause. Let’s look at the top three ways to invest in retention.

1. Improve customer service.

According to the 2016 Customer Engagement Index from 24/7, 79% of customers take their business to a competitor within a week of experiencing poor customer service, and Aspect Software’s research show that 76% of Americans view customer service as a “true test of how much a brand values them.”

Countless other studies have found that people are willing to pay more for a product or service when they know they will receive better customer service. These studies have more of a consumer bent to them, but certainly apply to peer-to-peer campaigns as well.

Customer service means more than responding to requests in a timely manner. It means being proactive and always looking for ways to surprise and delight your fundraisers. Nothing builds loyalty better than random acts of personalized wow! Did someone earn a t-shirt for their fundraising? Don’t make them wait until the day of the event to claim it. Send it in the mail with a heartfelt note of thanks. Is it a fundraiser’s birthday? Stop by their office with cupcakes decorated in the colors of your charity. Is a top fundraising team captain checking in at the event? Offer their team admission to the VIP lunch buffet after the event.

2. Focus on staff retention.

Let’s be real, staff turnover in the trenches of peer-to-peer fundraising is a common problem, and we’d be kidding ourselves if we didn’t recognize the impact this is having on retention and loyalty numbers. If we can’t retain solid staff members, how can we expect to retain our participants?

The 2016 Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey shows total turnover remaining steady at 19%. Total turnover also tends to be higher in fundraising staff. The survey also shows that a greater percentage of nonprofits are increasing their staff in 2016. That means there are more opportunities for unhappy staff members to jump ship. The BCG Global Leadership and Talent Index (GLTI), a 2015 study by the Boston Consulting Group, found that companies with strong leadership and talent management practices increase revenues 2.2 times faster and profits 1.5 times faster than companies with weak practices.

If you’re charged with hiring and managing peer-to-peer fundraising staff, take this as a wake-up call to spend a lot more time and resources on hiring, training, and retention efforts for these critical staff members. And this means more than the occasional pizza party.

Don’t throw employees into the fire upon hiring. Train them well. Pay them well. Allow for comp days. Give meaningful promotions, raises, and bonuses. Many front-line fundraisers feel under-paid, over-worked, and under-appreciated. This stymies efforts to build solid relationships with constituents, and it shows in our participant retention numbers.

3. Communicate impact.

People today are more informed than ever. Their expectations are also much higher. For years, storytelling was the cornerstone of nonprofit marketing. In 2016, storytelling is no longer enough. People want to hear actual results. They want to see progress toward a goal. And this doesn’t mean fundraising progress towards your goal. Your fundraisers and your staff need to know how your cause is tracking towards its ultimate goal. Are you eliminating homelessness in your area? Are you getting closer to curing a disease? Are you saving pets from being euthanized?

Share specifics about how the ultimate goal of your charity is being accomplished. Stories are great, but when it comes to retaining fundraisers (and staff), people need to feel like their time and effort truly matter.

The post 3 Steps to Lasting Participant Retention in Peer-To-Peer Fundraising appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Year-end fundraising season is upon us. Whether your organisation is large or small, you’ll want to capitalize on December’s fundraising opportunities—from #GivingTuesday to end-of-tax-year gifts. But taking advantage of the giving season means planning in advance for the surge. If you don’t, it can get overwhelming and ineffective very quickly.

Organisations that are consistently killing it during year-end fundraising season have three things in common.

1. They plan in advance.
2. Their campaign is hinged on a compelling story.
3. They choose a multi-channel approach to their campaign.

This post will take an in-depth look at these three factors for success and how you can apply them to your campaign this year.

Plan for Fundraising Success

Planning is the cornerstone of any successful fundraising program, especially those that have a lot of moving parts. A year-end fundraising campaign often involves: direct mail, email, social media, websites, landing pages, stewardship, and more. Your message, story, and ask must be coordinated across all of these channels.

A clear strategy and in-depth timeline are necessary for your success.

• Nailing down the message of your campaign—the story you’ll tell and the action you want supporters to take— is critical. These elements will be steadfast no matter what channel you use. Be sure to keep your audience in mind and choose messages that will resonate with them.

• Put all of the campaign milestones on your calendar. These include the drop dates for direct mail and email sends, social media posts, in-person events, and influencer activation. Then, reverse engineer your task list and reference these documents regularly to ensure that you are on track to getting everything done.

Have a Compelling Story

These days, a fundraising campaign is only as effective as the story it tells. Of course, you can tell the story of one individual or a group of individuals, but the more important story to convey is your theory of change—what impact will occur as a result of giving. In order to inspire action, this story must be well constructed and compelling. You must communicate to supporters how their participation is central to your story, how their gift can activate change.

Once you’ve got your theory of change in place, then you can think about a specific story that will illustrate the theory of change in action. In my book, The Storytelling Non-Profit: A practical guide to telling stories that raise money and awareness, I talk about the different types of stories you can tell: stories of people/places/things your organisation has helped, donor stories, volunteer stories, community advocate stories, board member stories, and staff member stories.

Finding a great story can take time. Start looking for your campaign stories now.

Choose a Multi-Channel Approach

Having one great direct mail piece or one fundraising email is a good start, but chances are that not everyone in your audience will see that appeal. To increase the odds of people both reading and responding to it, it’s best to take a multi-channel approach to fundraising. Multi-channel basically means that you use multiple channels to communicate with your supporter base. A channel might be direct mail, email, peer-to-peer, or social media. The channels you choose will be based on what works for your organisation and what works for your audience.

Ideally, you’ll tailor the appeal for the various channels and coordinate timing. This is an effective strategy that more and more organisations are using. You’ll want to use a variety of copy, images and video. Check out all of these great examples.

Because many of the channels your organisation uses are likely digital, you’ll want to track your metrics and make small changes as you go. Digital is flexible and agile—take advantage of this during December.

There is still plenty of time to get your ducks in a row for year-end fundraising. Set aside some time this week to strategise for your success!

The post Tried-and-True Approach for Year-End Campaign Success appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Technology is changing the world around us and is key for your non-profit. Used correctly, it can help you do more with less, but with so much tech available how do you do it successfully?

It’s important that you know where your organisation is heading, and how to reach those goals before investing in new technologies that will help fundraise, market and manage your information.

Knowing when and how to integrate technology at your non-profit can be tricky, so here’s some tips from the technology specialists.

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Do you struggle to stay switched on? Always running out of hours in the day?

In a busy non-profit sector, you may struggle to find ways to keep positive and productive. By simply maintaining your to-do list and organising your calendar you’re one step closer to keeping your professional self sane throughout the day.

Apply these tips to your daily workflow and you’ll be surprised by what you can accomplish.

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Just how far will your organisation’s supporters go to fundraise money on your behalf? Would they walk across hot coals? Shave their heads? Ride a rollercoaster with hundreds of strangers… while naked?

During the past decade, we’ve seen a massive explosion in the number and types of activities that comprise peer-to-peer fundraising—the practice of having a non-profit’s supporters reach out to their friends, family members, and colleagues for donations through their participation in activities.

In the past, these campaigns were built largely around structured events like charity walks and bike rides. Today, these campaigns can take hundreds of forms. But one thing remains constant—organisations that are diligent and disciplined in their approach to donor stewardship are the ones most likely to succeed.

For the past 10 years, my organisation, the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum, has been tracking the results of the nation’s 30 largest peer-to-peer fundraising programs.

And as we look at how these large programs have evolved, it’s clear that the landscape has grown more competitive and that supporters have more opportunities than ever to raise money for their favorite causes.

Looking back at America’s five largest peer- to-peer fundraising programs in 2006, four have experienced precipitous drops in revenue. These four programs are still huge—they collectively raised $455.8 million in 2015. But that figure is $254.5 million less than what those same four programs raised in 2006.

While these campaigns have struggled, a new wave of rapidly expanding programs has emerged.

Nearly one-third of the top 30 programs have seen their revenues more than double during the past decade. Two others—Memorial Sloan-Kettering CancerTM Center’s Cycle for Survival and the bicycling event Pelotonia— are so new that they didn’t even exist 10 years ago. Pelotonia, which hosted its first event in 2009, is already the nation’s 20th largest program after raising nearly $23.7 million in 2015.

While a handful of brand-name programs have struggled to keep pace with their prior results, a new generation of highly successful programs has appeared—meaning more charities than ever are seeing significant revenues from peer-to-peer fundraising.

Collectively, the 30 largest peer-to-peer fundraising programs raised more than $1.57 billion in 2015. And beyond the top 30, we saw great growth from locally-focused events.

We’ve seen a true democratisation of peer-to- peer, where your success isn’t driven by the type of event you run, but rather your ability to produce excellent experiences for volunteer fundraisers. You no longer have to be among the largest or most established organisations to successfully raise money through peer-to- peer fundraising.

To do this, you need a relentless focus on stewardship—a focus that begins with your first communication with your volunteer fund- raisers, extends through the event or campaign, and continues long after the campaign is over.

The most successful campaigns begin with focused messages to supporters that include clear calls to action—likely driving them to a page on the non-profit’s website that makes it easy for them to sign up for the event and learn more information. Simply put, organisations make it easy for people to join and spread the word to their friends and colleagues. Many groups supplement their larger-scale marketing efforts with in-person outreach.

But they don’t stop there.

They keep pushing and asking people to not only join their effort but also to ask for support on their behalf.
The fact is, many participants who sign up for your event won’t contribute or attempt to raise money beyond what’s minimally required. But the folks who do take the extra step of fundraising for you will carry your event.

The most successful organisations invest heavily in identifying and stewarding those power participants. They communicate with them regularly with personal messages and offer meaningful challenges and rewards. They provide support. They make them feel welcome and wanted.

This level of stewardship continues through the actual event. The organisations that succeed find ways to connect the event to their mission and give participants a reason to feel like they are accomplishing something special. They also pay attention to every detail, making sure that the experience itself is pleasant and fun.

To do that, they must make sure they are properly staffed, they have an army of well- trained volunteers, and they have planned ahead to ensure that they have a plan B in case the weather doesn’t cooperate, technology backfires, or a key volunteer gets sick.

Groups that nail the pre-event stewardship and provide a world-class event experience, have a greater chance of bringing their best fundraisers back to future events.

But the work doesn’t end there.

It’s also vital that organisations thank and engage with these participants regularly once the event is over. The best campaigns—regardless of their size and history—are the ones that are organised and thoughtful and recognize that if they are able to put the fundraiser first at every step of the process, that fundraiser will do almost anything to support their work.

Even if that means riding a rollercoaster in the buff.

The post The New Wave of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

While the main focus of many end-of-year campaigns will be direct mail and email, other channels are increasingly driving online donations. Just 27% of online donations now result from email (according to the latest M+R Benchmark report).

No longer does multiple-channel fundraising mean a home page mention and few Facebook posts during online campaigns. Multi-channel fundraising has evolved to include more donations driven from a nonprofit’s home page, digital advertising and social ambassadors.

Since these areas may be new to some non-profits, here’s a round up of helpful blog posts for your end-of-year campaign.

Home Page Pop Ups

Despite the recent news that Google will penalize pop-ups on mobile devices starting in January, this change has more to do with how pop-ups are designed rather than if you use a pop up. ASC has a good example of an updated pop-up design that’s not intrusive.

Home page pop ups can boost end-of-year donations and help offset declining email conversion rates we’ve seen over the past few years. Here are a couple of related blog posts:

• Why Pop-Ups Should Be Part of Your Online Fundraising – To convert more website visitors to donors during campaigns, a strong ask is needed. And that’s what a pop-up delivers—it asks your website visitors, point blank, if they’ll make a donation.
• The Nonprofit Website Tweak You’d Be Crazy To Not Try – Includes reasons why pop ups may not have worked for you in the past and outlines when to use pop ups that ask for donations.

Digital Advertising

In 2015, non-profits spent £0.04 in digital advertising for every pound raised online (per the latest M+R Benchmark report), with larger non-profits spending £0.13 and smaller nonprofits spending £0.01 per pound raised. Digital ads are no longer just being used by the largest non-profits. Both small and large nonprofits are running and raising money through digital ads. Here are a couple helpful blog posts:

•  Non-profits Missing Prime Opportunities for Digital Marketing – Makes the case that as demographics and behaviors shift more towards online and digital, it’s important for non-profits to shift their marketing strategies along with the trends.
• 5 Costly Facebook Ad Mistakes You Can Fix With This Checklist – John Haydon outlines five Facebook mistakes non-profits should avoid. The post also includes links to getting started with Facebook ads and how to target donors and email subscribers with Facebook ads.

Social Ambassadors

Like the for-profit world, non-profits are adapting to social media’s increasingly limited free reach. In addition to using digital ads – described above – they’re turning to social ambassadors to get the word out for fundraising campaigns. Here are a couple posts on what ambassadors are and how to use them:

• The P2P Fundraising Piece Likely Missing from Your Year-End Strategy – Highlights the origin of successful social ambassador campaigns in higher education and describes social ambassadors as “another flavor of peer-to-peer fundraising, minus the fundraising page.”
• Amplify #GivingTuesday with Social Ambassadors – Great tips for identifying social ambassadors, securing a commitment, communication strategies and measuring results.

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• 43% of non-profits allow prospective attendees to register for events online, and 78% of non-profits send event invitations through direct mail — this wide gap between online and offline is an area that screams for better constituent service.

Your website is one of the most effective marketing tools you have. With it, you can put information about your events in the hands of people you know and people you haven’t met yet. But providing information is only part of the equation. You risk missing a golden opportunity if you don’t allow interested visitors to register for your events while they are on your site and thinking about how they can become involved with your organisation.

Moreover, allowing event registrations online is simply a good service. According to the Blackbaud’s report State of the Non-Profit Industry (SONI), of those surveyed, 59% of respondents say that their organisations expect fundraising contributions from events to increase this year, and 26% expect that revenue to hold steady. Only 10% get no funding at all from events or don’t hold events. So 90% should be allowing registrations on the Web, versus the 43% that actually do.

At a minimum, the 78% that advertise events through other direct marketing channels could almost certainly see an improvement in event participation and associated gifts by allowing interested parties to learn more and register online. Of course, once you are using your website to market your events and collect registrations, the natural next step is to allow your most avid supporters to drive traffic there. One way this can be done is by providing supporters personal web pages where they can collect sponsorship dollars in support of participation in “-athons,” tournaments, or fundraising challenges (everydayhero, a free tool by Blackbaud is a great tool for this). Called Peer2Peer(p2p), “team-” or “sponsor-me” fundraising, this exciting new spin on volunteer solicitors can boost excitement around your events and dramatically increase the money you raise from them.

Fortunately, the technologies that support dynamic, engaging websites are well established and becoming more mainstream in the non-profit world. Donors have expectations of quality web experiences that have been set and driven by the competitive environment in the commercial marketplace. Non-profits that meet or exceed donor expectations will earn their loyalty and reap the benefits.

The post Taking your website to the next level: Online Event Registration appeared first on Blackbaud Europe.

Is your organisation struggling to turn those who run, swim, jump, skydive and cycle on behalf of your charity into regular givers? And how about turning the supporters of your supporters into regular donors?

If both your answers were “not too well”, you’re sitting with the majority and I admire your honesty. If your answer was “brilliantly”, just remember nobody likes a show-off or a liar.

The fact is, turning those event and community fundraisers and their supporters into regular donors for your charity is one of the trickiest things to do as an Event Fundraiser. Many donors don’t even remember whom they’ve donated to hours after they entered in their bank details. Many more opt not to share their information with you or don’t wish to be communicated with after the donation. So finding and turning that small list of potential donors is tricky at best. And that’s even if your peer2peer platform provider actually provides you with the details of those who donate you money.

However, the potential is there! So we chatted to a couple of event fundraising pros and these tips are the result.

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Reading through the 12^th Edition of the Small Charity Index I am struck by how loyal small charity supporters are.  When it comes to volunteering we have seen consistent rises in the number of volunteers over the past three years, with a 25% increase since June 2016.

So what could we do to move our volunteers to take that extra step and get involved in the governance of our small charities?

It is clear we have had a rocky year post Kids Company, with forensic investigation into the way charities are managed.  So now, more than ever before, when we are feeling the double pinch of decreased funding and increased demand for services we need to ensure that we have excellent governance delivered by skilled trustees who are confident and competent to govern.
I’m particularly interested in why, given the weight of statutory responsibilities, good people come forward to lead, especially when they have to make a significant commitment to share not only their time, but their expertise and often their networks or contacts.

Our most recent survey of Trustees found that what motivated people to become Trustees had at its heart the desire to improve the lives or communities we live in, with 61% saying “I care about the cause”.  Other reasons given were, “I want to put something back into my local community” and “sharing my skills to make a difference”.  Clearly for those who thought Big Society was dead, it’s alive and thriving in local communities everywhere. People want to get involved and make a difference.

So why I ask, again, are small charities finding it easier to get volunteers but harder to secure trustees?

We found that 44% of trustees surveyed felt that the Government should consider how to incentivise trusteeship, (although 56% did not).  After all if you donate to a charity, the charity can reclaim Gift Aid and if you are a high rate taxpayer you can reclaim tax yourself, even companies can write off donations against Capital Gains tax.  So it’s not surprising that those who thought there should be incentives pointed to tax breaks or allowances to cover expenses, as well as training and guidance, as just some of the ways we could incentivise trusteeship.

So why does government treat those who give time, differently from those who give donations?  Both believe in the cause, both feel their contributions make a difference, both must be found and nurtured, both need to be recognised and both can stop, so why not treat them both the same?

The subject of securing trustees for our small charities isn’t going away anytime soon, and so the sooner we understand what is needed to encourage more people to volunteer to be trustees the better.

Over the next three months we are going to meet with focus groups around the UK to try to find out how we can encourage more transition between volunteering and trusteeship – we will get back to you when we have the answer.

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The Story Behind the Stats

Not many would challenge the notion that we’re smack dab in the middle of a new philanthropic era today. A change in expectations has been spurred by savvy consumers and their unprecedented access to technological advances in their daily life.

Donors today want to be in the driver’s seat. They want you to tug at their heartstrings while providing transparency, engagement, and meaningful outcomes. As the sector has seen before, trends in donor stewardship follow the marketplace. This, my dear readers, is the rise of donor-ism.

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Is it really that time of year already? 2016, where have you gone?

With annual campaign goals to meet, target deadlines approaching and personal goals still to achieve, this time of year is always manic. And without wanting to pile the pressure on, nearly a fifth of annual giving happens in the last 6 weeks of the year. That means it’s vitally important you make the most of the season of good-spirit and kind-heartedness to set yourself up for a strong finish to 2016 and and super start to 2017.

It’s not too late either! Here are the top tips from our season(al)ed pros to help you finish the year with a bang!

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The Future of Fundraising

Sixteen leading not-for-profit experts have come together to share innovative trends, fundraising ideas and best practices that will help not-for-profits with donor retention, and keep their supporters in focus in a new era of philanthropy.

Download the eBook for fresh fundraising tips and ideas you can put into practice now!

Download Now!

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