Introduction
Fundraising
Holly Ross, Executive Director, NTEN  I recently gave a presentation on managing risk in social media use, Quipi. During the open Q&A period, we had quite a conversation going about the value of all this tech stuff. Don't people want to meet face to face anymore? Isn't this email / Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter hype all just a little silly?
Simply put: no. It's not silly. Not one bit. Even if direct mail is still the best performer for your fundraising campaigns, you need good technology to segment your lists and analyze the results. A good database can make your best performing tactic even more impressive. Further, if there's one way to sum up the next generation of donors, it's this: Multi-channel. It's true, even Millennial Donors love a good personal ask – see the 2011 Millennial Donors Report – but they are more comfortable with an ask in ANY MEDIUM than the preceding generations. So we've got work to do! Whether email has long been part of your fundraising plan, or you're thinking of dipping your toes in the mobile waters, we've got you covered in this edition of NTEN Connect. We also have a fantastic webinar series that can help your organization with its year-end fundraising: "The Email Fundraiser's Toolkit". This five-week series of classes will walk you through the soup-to-nuts process of creating a fundraising campaign, just in time for year-end appeals. You'll walk away with an expert-reviewed strategy - and the first message in your next campaign. I highly recommend you check it out. Best,
Holly FEATURE
The 7 Habits of Effective Personal Fundraisers
By Rob Wu, Founder, CauseVox  Your supporters love your nonprofit and the work that you do. Many of them want to raise funds for your nonprofit or cause, but don't know how to approach it.
We know it's a real struggle to fundraise effectively when you're not a professional fundraiser. We're with you and want to help your supporters become the best fundraisers possible. To do that, we combed through thousands of individuals and selected some of the most successful to study. We examined what and how much they raised, and identified seven habits they all had in common. CONTINUE READING > FEATURE
Fourteen Ways to Improve Your Open Rate
By Brett Meyer, Communications Director, NTEN  You can't raise money if your constituents aren't reading your messages. Writing last month's post about how NTEN differentiates between types of open rate made me think about the ways we've worked to boost both our numbers. We're on pace to deliver more than 1,000,000 messages in 2011, so our data is beginning to amount to something meaningful. Despite the increased volume, we've managed to increase our absolute open rate year-over-year.
Looking just at our webinar messaging, we saw an open rate of roughly 22.5% in 2010, but have managed to increase that to 23.5% so far this year. While you should keep in mind that all of this is based on data specific to NTEN – your own results may vary – here are 14 ways we've worked to achieve that modest bump. CONTINUE READING > Partner Sponsor
 FEATURE
Fusing Mobile Fundraising with Email & Social Media Outreach
By Bob Jones, CEO, CharityCall LLC  Today, when your targeted recipient reads your online call to action from their PC, the "donate" link to your website's donation portal allows them to respond immediately with a gift. So, the process of reaching out via email and social media to gain donations is fruitful – as long as the recipient is using a PC.
What happens if your target recipients are reading email and social media updates from their smartphone? Unfortunately, this is where your CTA for donations can hit a dead end, because the "donate" page linked from your current email or social media message may be inconvenient and nearly impossible to navigate and use from a mobile device. So what can you do? CONTINUE READING > FEATURE
Embracing Next Generation Philanthropy
By Nathaniel James, Social Innovation Consultant  Recent economic forecasting suggests that traditional fundraising is not going to get easier any time soon. While it's tempting to focus on scarcity, a new generation of philanthropists is coming of age.
They are young community builders, driven by a DIY ethic, and empowered by social media. They are leveraging the lowered costs of coordination provided by the web and mobile net, and they are stepping up to meet the challenges facing their generations. What are you doing to find them now and cultivate relationships with them for the long haul? CONTINUE READING > PARTNER SPONSOR
MerlinOne Digital Asset Management I found it! Merlin digital asset management users can find what they're looking for in less time then it takes to read this. Manage your brand and your important digital assets with state of the art workflow tools. More than a DAM; Merlin is workflow, Merlin is scalable, Merlin is in-house or hosted. Merlin is fast! Can you find what you're looking for? "Having all the images stored in one place allows the staff to search for exactly what they need, without spending a lot of time searching or tracking down photos." John Leckie, World Vision > www.MerlinOne.com RESEARCH
Consumer Attitudes Toward Mobile Giving
By David Farnes, Executive Director, Mobile Giving Foundation Canada, and Vice President, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association and Jim Manis, Chairman and CEO, Mobile Giving Foundation   Early last year, mobile giving evolved from an emerging technology to mainstream awareness with Haiti earthquake relief raising approximately $45 million for victims of that natural disaster. Since that time, other disaster relief efforts such as the Gulf oil spill, Japan disaster, and tornado relief in the Southeast U.S. have further validated the effectiveness of text-to-give fundraising.
With that awareness came a further evolution as the question for charities everywhere regarding mobile giving transitioned from "if" or "when" to "how". CONTINUE READING > CASE STUDY
How a Simple Facebook Strategy Can Turn a Crisis into a Community
By Sarah Janczak Corona, Community Manager, NTEN  Marfa Public Radio, KRTS, is the little nonprofit that could. This public, listener-supported radio station in West Texas, with only three staff members, carried their community through the largest wildfire in Texas history.
The Rock House Fire began on April 9 and ran through May 13th. Shortly after the fire began, KRTS lost power to their terrestrial signal. In the middle of the process of purchasing a backup generator, thanks to a federal grant, the station turned to the next available medium to continue the broadcast: their website and social media outlets. CONTINUE READING > Partner Sponsor
 Things We Like A monthly roundup of our favorite nonprofit tech resources and other goodies. Read more posts on our blog. - How much money do Americans give online, anyway?
- It's been a good month for infographics, especially since we discovered the Tenniswood Blog. Check out this visualization of "Who in Washington is Responsible for the U.S. Debt". The only conclusion we can draw: information presented visually is much more compelling than a spreadsheet.
- While you're on Tenniswood, you might also discover such fantasticalness as Duracell Stormtrooper batteries and some photoshopped kitteh masterpieces. (We're not saying you should, just that you might, should you be so inclined. Please forward any and all design magic our way.)
- For social media awesomesauce, you may need "The Social Media ProBook". No, it's not yet another Apple rebranding of its laptop line. They only wish Ping had succeeded well enough to justify such a thing.
- In more recent social media news, Ted Fickes wrote up the lowdown on Facebook's new subscribe feature on the frogloop blog.
- September 24th is National Punctuation Day. Hooray! But an official meatloaf (pdf)? Hmm... We're not so sure about that; a pie seems more appropriate—or perhaps some cookies. [Ed. note: this "joke" is going on too long for us to let you try to fit every form of punctuation into one bullet point.]
- Ah, a line late and a hyphen short. If you're short on text for your new website demo, we're pleased that there are now alternatives to the standard Lorem Ipsum generator, including bacon and hipster versions.
- And – good timing, this – Big Duck recently told us it's okay for nonprofits to harness the power of humor.
- So, it only seems appropriate to close with Richard Dreyfuss reading the iTunes EULA. We would all be better served as organizations if we read the contracts we sign in full, even if we can't afford vocal talent like that.
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