NPA's Blog: News, Posts, Advice

Host your videos at YouTube or your own site?

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:39:00 +0000

A client and colleague were in a discussion about where the client should host their videos. The colleague rightfully pointed out that if we direct visitors to a YouTube page, we run the risk of having them get distracted. The client likes the ease of hosting there.

My colleague is right, of course -- we don't want email subscribers or site visitors to end up at YouTube watching skateboarding accident videos, or whatever.

But so is his client. Hosting the video on your YouTube nonprofit account has great value. There are about as many YouTube views as there are Google searches, so a strong presence there will help people who've never heard of you find your videos if they're searching on relevant terms (which means your video pages in YouTube need to be search-optimized as well as your landing pages at your site).

You should already have a nonprofit account with YouTube. For more information on the benefits available to nonprofits at YouTube and the rest of the Google empire, see http://www.google.com/nonprofits/

In addition, it's easy and free to host your videos at YouTube.

So, it seems to me that you'll want the best of both worlds. You can have that by embedding the html code from YouTube in the code of your landing page. For example:

This way, you can design a great landing page at your site to “capture” visitors and keep them at your site, while still hosting the video at YouTube and enjoying the benefits of YouTube exposure.

Where have all the donors gone?

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:59:00 +0000

I know it sounds like a pop song from the 60's. But seriously, how true is it that donor files are decreasing in size steadily, and what does it mean for our industry?

Studies have shown that, while overall donations to charity have increased slightly in each of the past few years, it has been the result of slightly fewer donors giving slightly higher average gifts. Until this year, in the economic meltdown, when those slightly fewer donors started giving slightly less.

We're looking for insightful comments on this, as well as profound thoughts on what we, as an industry, can do about it. Are traditional low-level direct mail donors just dying faster than their children are taking their places? Are they being turned off? Or are bigger nonprofits making the mistake of "mailing smarter" and cutting back on the kind of acquisition and reactivation that loses money in the short run but increases long-term donor files and revenue?

Please add your comments here, or see Rick Christ at next week's DMAW/AFP Bridge Conference in DC and give him a piece of your mind there.

Rick...

TeeBeeDee is closing down

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:48:00 +0000

TeeBeeDee is an online community for the 40+ crowd. Was. It's just given two weeks notice.

I don't think online communities can support a niche crowd like that at a profit right now. I think that advertisers are pouring their money into FaceBook (despite data that indicates MySpace is the social network of choice for adults). Someday the market may splinter, but I think that with sites like FaceBook, we who are over 40 can also network with those substantially under 40. My friends on FB include my kids, many of their friends, and fellow volunteer firefighters. They range in age from 16 to, well, even older than me. And that's one of the benefits of the social network.

How to Make Twitter Useful

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:26:00 +0000

While Twitter use is still very low among most nonprofits' desired demographics (5% of those 45-54 years old tweet, and fewer of folks older than that), its popularity among the media is sure to make those numbers grow, especially among those who are highly wired.

Maybe no one is following you right now, but if you start posting tweets on topics where your nonprofit is the expert, then clever use of hashtags will propel your messages around the twitterverse. For example, I'm following #swineflu and so I'll see lots of tweets about swine flu that have that hashtag, even if I'm not following the users who posted those messages.

This is a great way to reach the mavens on the issues you cover.

For more on hastags, see the Twitter Fan Wiki

Rick...

When to test-drive a new web site design

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:53:00 +0000

Recently we've received several emails inviting us to come to a newly designed nonprofit web site, and to take a survey expressing how we feel about it. Among them was one for the newly redesigned RedCross.org site.

Doesn't it make more sense, however, to invite some of your regular visitors to your site BEFORE you invest all that money in design?

Jakob Neilsen, the guru of usability, recently said, "Even the tiniest amount of empirical facts (say, observing 2 users) vastly improves the probability of making correct UI [User Interface] design decisions."

Given that, why not (a) invite a few regular users of your site to tell you how they use it and what's wrong with it, and then (b) invite a few users to the newly designed site BEFORE it's launched, and let them tell you what's STILL wrong with it, before you invest thousands of dollars in developing it and promoting it.

If you need some further advise on usability, give us a call.

The twitter limit

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:42:00 +0000

How many tweets are too many?

One nonprofit I follow went from one every few weeks to 5 or 6 a day, including inane posts like "Is it Monday again?" There are a few very smart people for whom I've turned off posts to my phone because I can't stand the traffic. My rule of thumb? If you try to have more conversations with me in a day than my wife does, you're over the line.

And if I "unfollow" you once, or set your account so I don't get posts to my phone, you cease to exist for me on Twitter. I suspect that's true of most followers.

Get FaceBook fans for "only" $30 each?

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:47:00 +0000

I just read this in the DMA Nonprofit Federation's email newsletter:

"THE NEW YORK TIMES
CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL GETS MOST VOTES IN CONTEST
The results are in, and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital is the winner of the Target Corporation’s “Bullseye Gives” contest on Facebook, in which 10 charities vied for votes from the social network’s users. St. Jude’s, founded by the late actor Danny Thomas, garnered 26.6 percent of the 291,399 votes cast and won $797,123. Coming in a close second with 26.5 percent of the votes was the American Red Cross, which won $793,942 from the company, which gave away a total of $3 million. Contests are fast becoming an additional means for charities to raise money, but Target, too, found benefits. More than 97,000 new fans joined the retailer’s Facebook page during the contest, and daily views of its page increased by 4,800 percent."

So... $3million / 97,000 = about $30 per fan. I'm REALLY curious about the ROI on that.

Blackbaud will acquire Kintera

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:30:00 +0000

This should only come as a surprise to those who thought some other company would soon acquire Kintera. According to Forbes and Kintera's own site, Blackbaud will get Kintera for a price that's higher per share than Kintera's stock was trading recently. It's still a great deal for Blackbaud, who will no doubt bring the best parts of Kintera's content management system to Blackbaud's net community. It's a great deal for most Kintera employees, especially those who create and support the product. It's a great deal for Kintera customers, who now have a stable vendor.

It's also a good thing for Convio customers, who will benefit from some real competition. Convio's a good product, but after they acquired GetActive, they didn't have to sell hard against Kintera, they just had to leave the Wall Street Journal laying around for potential clients to see. Kintera has taken such a beating on its stock price that most of Kintera's own press releases lately have been about that and not about product.

NPA continues to be bullish on online fundraising in general, though we're proudly agnostic about particular platforms.

Radical Concept: Asking the Donors to Decide

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:12:00 +0000

The title of the email was bland: "Help us Serve You Better." I opened it anyway, and the first words from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Foundation caught my interest: "The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) strives to communicate with you in a timely manner to keep you abreast of our efforts..." It went on to ask,"

Please take two minutes to complete our seven-question survey to help us better serve you. Your answers will enable us to modify the type and frequency which we send information to our supporters and subscribers.

We aim to provide only the information you wish to receive and in the format you choose. Participating in this survey today will allow us to better serve your needs through direct communication.

Please click here to begin the survey and thank you, in advance, for your participation.

So I did. It asked me what kind of information I wanted to receive, via what channels (hard copy, email, RSS, or "I'll would prefer go to the web site on my own to get updates" (which is so much nicer than saying, "Don't call me, I'll call you"). The survey went on to collect a little bit of interest and demographic information.

We preach this all the time. It's so nice to see someone doing it. I was tempted to submit a few different submissions just to see how the different answers are used. That's the hard part, of course. It's easy to ask your email supporters their preferences. It's another thing to be prepared to truly delivery on them.

Online Marketing to Demographic Segments

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:09:00 +0000

At the DMA's Nonprofit New York Conference this August, I'll be moderating a panel discussion on fundraising "from people who don't look like you." It's aimed at discussing the opportunities and pitfalls of reaching out to different demographic groups. As part of the research, I'm identifying news items that may add to the body of knowledge, and I'll be blogging them here.

Today's New York Times announces the launch of Rushmore Drive, a search engine that is aimed at blacks. It does this by looking at search results (probably from its sister company, Ask.com) that were clicked on in heavily black cities and comparing them to the search results that were clicked in less black cities. While that's not exactly precise, the model found distinct differences in "hair products, dance, cars, fraternities and sororities" and recipes.

Yes, the article says, one could find much the same results at Google by including a phrase like "African American" in the search. And to the extent that someone is aware that their demographic or lifestyle differences will impact the search results they want, that's an option. But search, and in fact much of the internet, has been about making it easier, not harder, on the user.

It will be interesting to see how this succeeds, and how Google reacts.

Only the Feds can move this slowly

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:23:00 +0000

Today's New York Times reports that Federal regulators have approved a plan to allow text messages to be transmitted to all cell phones in the US in the event of natural disaster, terror attack, or kidnapped child. The last line of the article says, "The service could be in place by 2010."

No doubt federal bureaucrats will spend the next few years creating flowcharts and finding a way to tax us for this service. As we all know, a federal project with a two-year time frame has a high likelihood of coming to fruition about the time cell phones are replaced with the next technology.

The wacky thing is, the process already works. What do they need to implement? I've already signed up at USGS.gov to get major earthquake notifications sent to my cell phone. The weather channel sends me storm alerts based on my zip code. And I don't really want to know every Amber Alert in the US (though I would likely subscribe to a service that broadcast Amber Alerts that correspond to my current GPS location).

Rob Prisament has too much fun at March for Babies

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:41:00 +0000

Also, he positively loves it when you laugh at him... so long as you're supporting MOD!

So this is the latest thing he's come up with:

Create Your Own GushyGram
Visit Marchforbabies.org

It's the first video I posted to my MySpace page in a long time. I just don't have the nerve (or time, or creativity) to create my own. Maybe we need to empower our crazy-about-you supporters to do crazy stuff like this?

Rick...

CityYear.org - great graphics

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:06:00 +0000

Yesterday I was riding the "el" from downtown Chicago to O'Hare. It's a 45 minute ride, so my eyes took in all of the advertising material One of them caught my eye. It was a very simple "time line" drawn across the add. On the left it said "born." About a quarter of the way over was another dot labeled "Graduate." Not far to the left of that was one that said "Get a job." Three quarters of the way towards the right was one that said, "retire," and on the far left was one that said "die."

In between "graduate" and "get a job" the ad had a handwritten additional dot labeled "change the world."

The organization is called CityYear, and their motto is "Give a Year. Change the World."

The timeline is pretty depressing (especially since I'm fairly far along the line) but it must seem very staggering and almost pointless to a young person... until they grasp the opportunity.

Red Cross Takes "Nonprofit" to a new level

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:32:00 +0000

The American Red Cross, the biggest nonprofit agency in the US, announced this week that it was going to lay off up to one third of its National Headquarters Staff in the face of a $200 Million "operating shortfall." Wow.

$200,000,000.00 is more than the 77th largest nonprofit raised in all of fiscal 2006 (NonProfit Times) and probably more than the smallest 100,000 charities combined! It's almost $550,000 a day! You have to try hard to blow that kind of cash.

Some wonder if it's the lack of any significant disasters in the last year. That makes no sense to me. I thought the Red Cross spent a lot of money in times of disaster. I'm sure at least $10 Million is directly related to investigations, butt-covering, and missed opportunities just last month when it had to let go its new CEO after he admitted having an affair with a chapter officer.

The Red Cross is not an organization that moves quickly or decisively in its administration. If this is their first announcement, stand by for more to follow.

The good news is, well-run smaller nonprofits (which includes every other nonprofit in the universe) can start to expect some resumes to be arriving. Sift though them carefully, and ask tough questions.

Red Cross CEO Out the Back Door

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:27:00 +0000

I've given each of my three daughters the same basic talk. I explain that it's normal, indeed essential for the very preservation of any species, for its young to reproduce at every opportunity. In mammals, the male of the specie seems to take the lead here. However, I point out to my daughters, what separates humankind from the cattle that graze the fields below our home is that our young girls can say "No." Indeed, I tell them, the major reason we have art, and hospitals, and literature, and music, is that their forebears said "No."

It seems we can add charitable activities to my list, too. In case this wasn't covered in any of the AFP's nonprofit leadership courses, let's make it clear here: It's hard to govern a nonprofit effectively, much more so the biggest, best-known nonprofit in the world, when you're doing the horizontal mambo with the hired help.

I mean, what's Mark Everson's excuse? That, coming from the IRS, he was a numbers guy, not a wordsmith? How was he to know the difference between 'philanthropy' and 'philandery'? Did he take his office leadership lessons from Bill Clinton?

I do credit the rest of the Red Cross leadership. They dealt with this issue quickly and decisively. It had to pain them to toss their eighth leader in twelve years, after only six months on the job. How tempting it would be to cover it up or belittle the problem.

But let me address my fellow male mammals in the business: We are NOT going to help solve the great problems of the world if we can't keep it zipped at the office. We need to respect our colleagues enough to treat them with the respect due them as human beings and fellow laborers in our vineyards. Even the really pretty ones. It's really that simple.

-Rick Christ...
P.S. I don't put all the responsibility for society's advances on young women. I give the boys who call on my daughters a slightly different, more short-term-focused talk. If you want to know what it is, ask.

Great email copy criteria

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 23:09:00 +0000

Herschell Gordon Lewis nails it, as he so often does, in the Nov. 15 issue of NonProfit Times. He lists ten criteria for online fundraising, pointing out that if political candidates are raising tons of money online, why can't the rest of us? His answer: out copy stinks.

1. Establish rapport
2. Explain rationale for contacting
3. Offer heroism
4. Provide logic
5. Create urgency
6. don't accept pledges
7. offer recognition
8. create guilt
9. provide satisfaction
10. maintain verisimilitude

If you can get these points right in your next email, you'll raise more money.

Where are you supporters - right now?

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:47:00 +0000

The new "Loopt" application, currently available on some Sprint and Boost phones, uses phone's GPS abilities to display your position graphically on a map on the cell phone's display -- and on the displays of your friends who use the application. Sure, you can now find out "who else is at the mall" as Loopt pitches the service ($2.99 per month), but think of the applications in the nonprofit world:

Locate potential visitors to your museum, church, etc. and guide them to you;
Attract fellow activists to the rally;
Encourage supporters to meet the candidate;
Pinpoint the location of today's blood drive;
Follow your teammates on the bike-a-thon;

Cell phone companies, according to an article in the Washington Post, are eager to recoup some of the money they've invested in meeting federal requirements to provide precise positioning along with 911 calls. So they're finding fun ways to package the information and sell it to subscribers.

The result is potential for nonprofits beyond the obvious. It also provides a real-time authenticity to web activism and fundraising. And it's new, hip and cool. So who's using it? Let us know.

Convio isn't the only one "opening" their system

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 02:52:00 +0000

I really wanted to make a joke about the security breach at GetActive this week. I wanted to say that it appears some hacker has done for GetActive what no one at Convio or Kintera seems to be able to do -- let users export their donor data.

However, it's no laughing matter. CARE is one of 92 organizations whose contact email file was breached. They had to send an email to their list on Tuesday telling them about the breach. That can't help online donations.

It's important to understand how hackers pick their targets. No doubt they were working on Kintera and Convio platforms, too, and couldn't figure out how to get inside. They're working on the big platforms because that's where the largest files of email addresses are. I'd be surprised if they're not trying to get into the Obama, Hillary, and now even Ron Paul sites. Not only would they be able to harvest hundreds of thousands of emails addresses, but they'd be able to embarass a public figure.

Internet security is something to be taken seriously. As much as expose the flaws in the major online fundraising platforms, they're probably safer than something your staff cooked up alone. Yes, they also higher profile targets, but they probably have more staff just working on security than you have working on your whole site.

It's also worth commending CARE and others like them who swallowed hard and did the right thing -- telling their most valuable online contacts that there was a serious breach, and giving them hints on how to protect themselves from any phishing that may result.

Rick...

Mike Huckabee emails caught in my spam filter

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:45:00 +0000

Republican candidate Mike Huckabee is trying to use email to communicate with me. His campaign has sent three emails to me in the last four days. The problem is, they're getting caught in my spam filter.

The reason? He's sending them from an address at "explorehuckabee.com" but the return address is "bounces@bounce.mikehuckabee.com." My spam filter says this violates its "Reverse DNS not found" rule.

It's too bad. They're well-written and full of calls to action. They even refer to previous emails and offer a continuous conversation.

Lesson: test your emails with all major ISP's and spam filters to make sure your message is getting through.

We'd love to hear your observations on the Presidential campaigns online.

Give up meat in America to help feed Europe?

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:24:00 +0000

On October 5, 1947, in the first televised White House address, President Truman asked Americans to refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to help stockpile grain for starving people in Europe.

The above quote is from today's New York Times' feature "on this day in history."

I'm impressed that the first-ever White House televised event was to ask Americans to forsake some favorite foods so that we could support Europe, still recovering from the devastation of World War II.

I'd like to see that kind of leadership, and that kind of response, to the silent crises of the world today. Sure, cash pours out after a Tsunami in Asia or a devastating hurricane at home, but what about an all-American response to hunger in Africa?

Verizon blocks text messages from NARAL

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:47:00 +0000

An article in today's New York Times discusses Verizon's decision not to transmit messages to their cell phone customers who have signed up for action alerts from NARAL Pro-Choice America. The article expands to cover the broader issue of "net neutrality" wherein carriers of internet content, and presumably SMS messages, can (or can't) make decisions about which messages or content to carry.

Verizon says it makes decisions based on issues, not on specific content.

“Our internal policy is in fact neutral on the position,” said the spokesman, Jeffrey Nelson. “It is the topic itself” — abortion — “that has been on our list.”

Of course, since Right to Life groups aren't using text messaging at the moment, that's an unproven point.

We can't help but wonder how letting a carrier make a choice about the content it carries compares to letting a woman make a choice about the baby she's carrying. We agree that everyone benefits from a healthy discussion about a controversial issue. We wish Verizon and other carriers would agree to carry any message between organizations and the cell phone users who have opted in to receive messages from those organizations. We're just not sure that requiring Verizon to, shall we say, carry the message to term, is consistent with a pro-choice position.

What do you think? About text messaging, that is.

Forget Visa? Do you take "Revolution Money"?

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:08:00 +0000

No, it's not a credit card for anarchists (what an oxymoron!). "Revolution Money" is a new online banking and credit card system founded by former AOL, MasterCard and government bigwigs that hopes to upset MasterCard and Visa.

Steve Case, founder of AOL, has partnered with Ted Leonsis (Washington Capitals hockey team owner and former AOL Vice Chair), former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers; former Charles Schwab CEO David Pottruck; and former MasterCard international president Russell Hogg. According to the Washington Post article, they plan to drastically undercut the percentage of each transaction that MasterCard and Visa take (the article said 0.5% instead of 1.9%). There's a more meaty article at TechJournal South.

So, does it make sense to become a Revolution Money merchant? One the one hand, they say they hope to have 100,000 cardholders in the next few months, but grow to over one million in a year. That's not much of a dent in the credit card market. On the other hand, Ted Leonsis helped form Network for Good back in the day, so we bet he'll make some rapid inroads into the donation processing market.

Just the name "Revolution Money" will appeal to the younger, online crowd (not that they've replaced their grandparents on the top of the donation pyramid yet, but they will someday).

So, check it out. While we're at it, let's get your opinion: Does PayPal make a difference in your donation processing? We've tested it with one client and seen that it makes a marginal increase in donations. What about you? Please comment.

Web users have varied interests in online news

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:35:00 +0000

One of the best ways to create a surge in web traffic is to get some great press coverage. How big? One of our clients captured 50% of its 2006 online donations in June -- most of that within 24 hours after its spokesperson appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper for an hour. We're talking over $350,000.

Some good news has just been published by Pew's Center for Excellence in Journalism. They compared the top news stories offered by "mainstream" news outlets to the most popular stories in user-driven news sites, like Reddit, Digg, Deli.cio.us, and Yahoo! They found very little overlap.

In addition, they found that the top stories on user-driven sites tended to be much more varied and much more transient. This means that nonprofits have a greater opportunity to get their stories "published" in these user-driven sites. But, the decision to make these stories popular does not lie with editors. Instead, users drive the rankings. In other words, your communications department can stop schmoozing the editors, and instead publish press releases that are hip, relevant, unique and easy to read.

Whether this is good news or bad news for your nonprofit depends on which of those skills your communications department practices.

Read the report highlights here.

Purging email data?

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Fignar) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:26:00 +0000

According to their website, "Blue Sky Factory is a leading provider of products and services designed for online marketing communications." As an online marketer, I subscribe to their newsletter to keep up with the industry. Apparently I was not active enough so I've been unsubscribed. Here is the email they sent me:

Hello from Blue Sky Factory!
We noticed that you've never clicked on a copy of our Factory Direct monthly e-newsletter.

Was it something we said?

In order to respect your privacy, we have now removed you from our Factory Direct mailing list. If you would like to continue to receive your copy of Factory Direct, chock full of industry news, email marketing tips and so much more, please click here to re-subscribe.

Otherwise, we are certainly sad to see you go! If you have any comments or suggestions you'd like to share with us, please email us.

Sincerely,
Team Blue Sky Factory

Last time I checked it just doesn't cost that much to store an email address. But, email marketing is their business... So now I wonder what the goal of this act is? To clean up data? To reengage those really interested?

Is this a good practice? What do you think?

Fred08 - great site, too bad it doesn't work

noreply@blogger.com (NPAdvisors.com) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:05:00 +0000

I expected more from the Fred Thompson campaign than the others. This guy, who recorded a great YouTube rebuttal to Michael Moore, seemed like the "hippest dude" among the Republican candidates (I know that's not saying much...).

So I went to his new site tonite, after the big announcement, and was surprised and thrilled to see the home page taken up by a bold request to "join" and asking for first and last name, email address and zip. I signed up, and then was directed to a page requiring a street address and a password. It also invited me to enter my cell phone and IM information, but hey, we're not that committed to the campaign.

So imagine my frustration when I got this error message:

Your friend account was not created. Please try again.

So I did try again. And again. and again. Same message. What was I doing wrong? Often it's a password problem (too short, needs a number or alpha character) but here, no explanation. Nada. Insert another quarter and try again.

I even tried it in MSIE instead of my native FireFox, thinking maybe they weren't that hip after all. No dice there either.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!