Have you ever bought something online?
OF COURSE!
You know it!
What did you buy? Was it a book from bookfinder.com? Was it something off of Amazon or iTunes?
More and more people are shopping online, and more people are giving online. How can you take advantage of the fact that people are often online with their credit cards in their hands? Do you want to take advantage of the fact that your donors are online, looking for things to do? When they come to your website, how can you help them take the leap and give to you?
1. Make your programs into modules.
Ever since Kiva/org‘s record amount of donations in 2007. When I saw how they were putting the stories of each person they helped on their website, I knew that the multi-social service nonprofit I worked for should also make “modules” of each program. Due to a number of issues, that never happened on the website, but every time I looked at it, I thought, “How much money are we leaving on the table because people get overwhelmed by everything that we do?”
I wish we all could be like Kiva and make our programs rotate on our front pages with 1 click donation.
Tip of the hat to Katya’s Marketing Blog for this first one!
2. Help donors give to you through buying things.
The CSO Website is really good at this. You’d think, they’re the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, what could an orchestra do to have more income? Well, they sell MP3s of their songs, they sell CDs, they sell different levels of membership, they sell sponsorship, it’s a dynamic combination of earned income, fee for service, gift certificate, and donation.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra really has it together. If you work for an arts organization, how could you sell more products on your website? CSO sells gift certificates, t-shirts, boxed sets of their performances, tickets, memberships, and more!
3. Add your blog stories to your email newsletter.
If you have a link to give already in your newsletter, how can you make that bigger? How can you make it more compelling?
You can have the beginning of a story, and then link at the bottom to continue reading the story on your blog. At the bottom of the story on your website, you can have a link to give to the particular program the story highlights. Make people more aware that you have a blog, and maybe they’ll start to talk with you there, and build a better relationship with your nonprofit.
It’s worth a try, right?
Any other tips?
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