Why ePhilanthropy?

By now you've probably read about the phenomenal fundraising success of www.barackobama.com. You may have received a request via email to support a friend participating in an "a-thon." Or you've visited a friends' Facebook page and seen a "Donate Now" button. These tactics can all be categorized as ePhilanthropy.

Network for Good defines ePhilanthropy as "using the Internet and technology to manage your nonprofit fundraising, volunteer, and advocacy efforts." Simply put, it's taking all of the fundraising tasks you currently perform "in person" and putting them online.

If you're not practicing ePhilanthropy, you should — even if your existing, event-based tactics are working well for you. Here's why:

• Reach. Going online with your fundraising efforts opens up a world of donors, volunteers, and advocates that you simply couldn't reach any other way.
• Speed. You can have a Web-based appeal up and running in minutes, and you can drive constituents to that appeal with a simple email and a few clicks.
• Flexibility. You can quickly and easily update your appeal as conditions change, send different appeals to different audiences, or launch new appeals, with simple, easy-to-use tools.
• Cost. ePhilanthropy is much cheaper to execute than traditional methods. A traditional mailing to 1000 recipients can run into thousands of dollars depending on the promotion; a similar emailing will be in the hundreds of dollars range.

A well-executed ePhilanthropy strategy will allow you to connect with more supporters and volunteers and raise more funds for your mission. This edition of The Funding Edge was written to help fledgling ePhilanthropists get started and to provide food for thought for those more Web-established.

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Communicating Your Mission Via Your Website

The key to a well-executed ePhilanthropy strategy is to leverage Web-based tools and techniques in a way that supports your mission. Your Website is the foundation on which your ePhilanthropy strategy rests. Once you get potential donors, sponsors, and volunteers to visit your Website, how do you leverage your site to tell a compelling story about your mission? Here's a list of best practices to help you get started.

1. Develop a Mission Statement — and Make It Front and Center.
   
   Everyone who comes to your Web site is a potential donor, sponsor, volunteer, or all three. Without a clear mission statement, your Website and your organization will lack focus, and that translates into confusion for site visitors. More importantly, readers of your Website will be unable empathize with your cause if they don't understand your mission. For tips on developing a mission statement, see the Fall 2008 edition of The Funding Edge here.
   
   Once you have a mission statement, make sure it's featured on your Website home page and throughout the site. The full version of your mission statement on the home page should be placed "above the fold" — that is, where a site visitor can see the statement in its entirety without having to scroll down the page. That placement will ensure that you start building empathy with site visitors with their first visit.
   
   Keep in mind that individuals who utilize the Web are generally more impatient than those who get their information by more traditional methods. Your Web visitors expect that you'll be able to deliver information quickly and succinctly, so keep that mission statement as concise as possible.
   
   
2. Be Consistent.
   
   As site visitors move through the site, they should be reminded of your mission. By consistently referring to your mission throughout your site, you avoid confusing your audience, and you continue to build empathy with your cause.
   
   Inconsistency in a Website is usually the result of a variety of people on your team adding or changing content over time. If various members of your staff are changing Website content, you should periodically perform a site audit. Put yourself in the place of a site visitor and read your site content. Does your home page have a complete and accurate description of your mission? Do subsequent pages accurately reflect your mission description? If they don't, get them updated so all your content is consistent.
   
   As a guide for site contributors, whether on your staff, volunteers, or even your marketing agency, consider developing a 'messaging kit' that contains your mission statement, descriptions of your constituents, your programs, your events, etc. Update the kit at least yearly, and make sure that anyone contributing to your site content has a copy.
   
   
3. Use Case Studies.
   
   Case studies make your cause real to your readers and create empathy with your mission. They are your most powerful way to "sell" your mission to your reader. A case study should tell a story in a Problem — Solution — Resolution format. What was the issue or trouble prior to your organization lending a hand? What did you do to improve the situation? How has the situation improved? Telling the story using this approach positions your organization as a problem-solver, and provides potential donors or sponsors with an opportunity to 'be part of the solution.'
   
   Remember that your Website communicates through words and pictures. Can you use a photograph that illustrates your case study? Rather than using stock photography, use a photograph of the actual person or group referenced in the case study. The danger of using a stock photo is that some site visitors may recognize the photo from another site, creating skepticism about the entire case study.
   
   Case studies can be placed in multiple sections of your site. Maintain a section of your site devoted to case studies and make sure there's a link to that section on the top line navigation on your home page. Try rotating case studies on your home page. If you're planning an event with a Fund-a-Need or Special Appeal, make sure that the event site has a case study that illustrates that need. It can be an open-ended case study, with the 'happy ending' coming after the event as the result of donor generosity.
   
   Collect and publish as many new case studies as possible to keep content fresh and continue to build your organization's value in the minds of potential donors and sponsors.
   
   
4. Add a 'Donate Now' button to Every Page on Your Site.
   
   Make sure that every page in your site has a 'Donate Now' button. You never know which case study or description of your cause is going to compel a site visitor to donate to your cause. Cover all your bases by adding a 'Donate Now' button that links to your online payment system so you capture every donation you can. And place that button in the same location on every page of your site, preferably above the fold. Don't make site visitors scramble once they've decided to give!
   
   

By following these four suggestions, you can make your site more compelling and powerful, and generate more online donations.

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Adding ePhilanthropy to Your Fundraising Strategy

Is your current fundraising focused on events? Adding ePhilanthropy tactics can help you extend your reach and get more donations to support your mission. Here's a list of possible tactics.

Add an event page to your Website. Include the date, time, and location for the event. Will your event be held in a fun, interesting, or unusual venue? Include a photo of the venue to differentiate your event from other fundraisers. If your event includes a special Fund-a-Cause, include that information on the page. Leverage the page further by including a Donate Now button that links to an online payment system. That gives donors who can't make it to your event a chance to give, and it reminds them that giving is not restricted to just your gala.

Build on your existing event-related tactics. For example, if you're sending out printed Save-the-Date notifications, event invitations, or an auction catalog, consider doing one or more of those mailings online. Keep email communications brief. Most email recipients will not read an email if it's more than 100 words or so. If you have a lot of information you need to provide, include a link to your Website in your email and post the rest of the information there. Taking promotions online cuts postage and printing costs and lets you to "go green."

Take event reservations online. Free up time for volunteers and staff who've taken reservations by phone in the past and sell your event tickets online. And by selling tickets online, you allow potential guests to buy tickets 24x7. You also process ticket revenue and get it in your account faster. And you get a better idea sooner of how your ticket sales are going. Add some event or cause information to the registration page to remind donors about your cause.

Hold an online auction. The auction can be related to your event or stand-alone. Do you have some items that were donated to your event that you can't use? Put them in an online auction as a 'teaser' for the event, or save them for post-event. Or do you have items that didn't sell at your auction? Hold a post-event online auction. Some of your live event guests may feel more comfortable bidding online than in a live, competitive environment. You can also reach potential donors not in your local area who may want to give.

Put your auction catalog online. Putting your auction catalog on your event Website will create anticipation and excitement among your guests, and drive more bidding at the auction. Plus, it's easier to add last-minute donations to an online catalog versus printing an addendum to an already-printed catalog. Rather than mail a printed catalog prior to the event, email the Web page link to your contact list. Your donors will get the catalog sooner, and you'll save on postage and printing costs.

Promote your sponsors. It's easier to sell sponsorships when you can offer advertising space on your event Website as a sponsorship benefit. Consider selling ad space on your organization Website to sponsors, too, for year-round revenue. And if you've decided to post your catalog online rather than printing it, selling ads on your event site can replace the revenue gained by selling ads in your printed catalog or program.

Recruit volunteers. Are you always looking for volunteers? Add a page to your Website focused on recruiting and promoting your volunteers. Post a monthly 'volunteer spotlight' to commend a deserving volunteer. List your open volunteer positions and be sure to mention how volunteers benefit the organization and further your mission. Provide a contact within your organization for potential volunteers. And after your event, list all those who donated time to making the event successful and say 'thank you.'

Post photos and video. Leverage the Web for all it's worth — include photos and video on your site as appropriate. Video your auctioneer at work at your event and post it. Post video and photos that showcase the good results your organization delivers. An interactive site is more engaging. Site visitors will stay longer and come back more often to a site that's vibrant and interesting and continually adds new content.

Thank donors and sponsors. Post a big 'thank you' on your site after your event. List your donors and sponsors (just be sure to ask permission first!). This public gesture is an added benefit that will prompt donors and sponsors to come back next year and donate.

Be opportunistic. One of the beauties of a Website is that you can make updates almost instantly. For every event, every campaign and tactic, think about how you can quickly leverage your site to be more successful.

Convert once-a-year donors to regular supporters. Update your site frequently, especially with stories of the good you're doing with donations, to encourage repeat visits from donors and supporters. Make sure that every communication you send out contains your site URL to drive more site visits. And make sure the Donate Now button is on every page, so you can subtly solicit site visitors to donate. Once your donors recognize that you take donations year-round, not just at your event, they'll be more likely to donate throughout the year. Some online payment solutions enable you to set up recurring donation arrangements, which enables you to get the donations but reduces the workload associated with the task.

Leveraging your Website requires a slight change in perspective. Make that change, and your Website will become a powerful tool in your fundraising arsenal.

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Product Update

Auctionpay Online Payments

The recent Auctionpay Online Payments 4.2.5 release extended some existing features to add some very helpful capabilities.

Want to conduct a survey? You can now create an online survey using the Donations Module and leaving out collecting funds. Use this extended feature to monitor guest satisfaction after an event, get feedback from parents on a proposed new school program, or any time you want to survey your constituents. If the subject is sensitive, you can tell the system to omit collecting contact information, giving you the ability to collect candid feedback anonymously.

If an online donor or customer has lost their transaction receipt, you can now resend that receipt for approved or settled transactions — a great timesaver!

Your donors can use Online Payments to make a recurring donation to your organization each month. Now, as the end of their commitment approaches, these donors will automatically receive an email notifying them that their automatic donations will be ending soon. Receiving these emails can prompt donors to renew their commitment to your organization for another year, providing your organization a steady revenue stream.

The Settlement Report now uses information transmitted by the banks to confirm transaction status. This allows you to verify the funds received during a certain settlement period with the settlement report. In particular, any transaction submitted near the settlement cut-off time will now be properly allocated to the settlement period it was accepted by the processing banks. Furthermore, you will be able to see any transactions that have been approved but have not been reported back from the banks as being settled. This will help you reconcile bank statements and donations much faster and easier.

Auctionpay Card Reader

Auctionpay has recently increased the options you have for night of the event by introducing Auctionpay Event Payments credit card reader option. The card reader is tightly integrated with Auctionpay Event Software. This option works well for an event where you are using Event Software the night of the event to record sales and create bidder receipts as people check out.

Using credit card readers at your event speeds your event and payment processes in several ways:

• It reduces the number of steps in the overall event payment process
• It also eliminates the data sync (sync1, sync2 and sync3) processes
• Since the card reader integrates with Event Software, you use a computer to enter guest information, making it easier to see what's being entered, reducing errors and speeding check-in
• Guests see more purchase detail on their check out receipt than what's provided by a terminal, reducing questions at check out and after the event

To use the card readers, you'll need to use PCs for guest check in and check-out because the card reader is directly attached to the PC. Running a credit card through the reader inputs the credit card information into the system.

Here's how the card readers speed the check in and check-out process if most of your guests are preregistered and their donor information is entered in the software:

• At check-in, you run the guest's card through the reader, and up comes the bidder information with the bidder number. You hand them their package, and in less than 30 seconds, they are off to enjoy the event, ready to bid. If bidder's request to use multiple credit cards that information can easily be added at check in.



• At check-out time, you print the bidder receipts from Event Software showing their purchases and, assuming they swiped their card, automatically computing their charges. If the bidder has chosen to use multiple cards that information will be clearly shown on the receipt.

Our extensive beta testing showed that the only hold-up at check-out for an event using card readers is slow printers! To avoid slow lines, we recommend that you have one printer at check-out per 100 guests to avoid lines.

To run the credit card charges, you will need to be connected to the Internet. You can run charges after the event after you verified all sales, or you can run them right then if you have Internet available at the event. You can run them either as one big batch or you can run them one bidder at a time.

One big concern when dealing with credit cards should always be security — keeping your donors' credit card information safe. The card readers are implemented with high encryption, and donors' complete credit card numbers are unreadable in the software and only available for processing on the Auctionpay server. Once the credit card information is sent to the Auctionpay Server, that information is deleted from the PC and replaced with an Auctionpayer ID number used only by the Auctionpay Server.

In the second quarter of this year, Auctionpay will add the pre-registration feature to the card reader. Any guest registering online with Auctionpay Online Payments can check an option to use this credit card at the night of the event to avoid having to swipe their card at check-in. This release will speed check-in even further and make it most convenient for your guests.

To read more about card readers for your event, go to http://www.auctionpay.com/all-products/event-payments.aspx

Guido Persch is Vice President of Product and Technology at Auctionpay, Inc.

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Using Auctionpay Event Software Online to Drive Online Fundraising

In this economy, nonprofits and schools can no longer depend on an annual gala auction to reach their fundraising goals. The new buzzword — "ePhilanthropy" — is about accomplishing year-round fundraising in the most efficient and inexpensive way possible. Simply put, ePhilanthropy is online fundraising. And if you're already utilizing Auctionpay Event Software — Online Edition, your organization is ahead of the game.

Your online fundraising strategy is an evolving process. Many organizations begin the online fundraising process as part of their gala fundraising event efforts. This is a great place to start exploring techniques and processes that will work with your audience, especially if your gala is established and familiar to them. Start with your event — beginning with staying on top of donor' status, fundraising goals, and unsold auction items.

Ask yourself which fundraising "holes" can be filled using your Event Software — Online Edition and other Auctionpay products. Are you losing touch with sponsors because you speak to them only once a year and only related to your event? Do you track event goals and utilize reports to follow procurement and giving trends (remember that you can procure items as well as solicit dollars online)? And are you simply giving up on unsold items from your live auction? If so, read on about the exciting new features that Event Software — Online Edition offers that you might not be using to your full advantage.

In December, 2008, Auctionpay released Event Software — Online Edition vs. 4.3.3. This release added five major features:

• The Addition of Sponsors as a Supporter Role
• Event-Goal Tracking
• Aggregate and Multi-organization Reporting
• Export-Import for Auctionpay Online Auctions
• Advanced Export to Donor Management Systems

The addition of Sponsors as a Supporter role is a significant change. This new feature will simplify managing sponsors and the activities related to soliciting and tracking sponsorships. A Solicitation Status picklist and two currency fields for Sponsorship Goal and Sponsorship Committed have been added to the solution. Additionally, the Admit Types picklist has been expanded to "Admission and Sponsorship Types."

Another exciting change is that you can now create export files specifically formatted for the following Donor Management Systems:

• eTapestry® Supporters, eTapestry Gifts
• Kintera® Sphere® Business Supporters, Kintera Sphere Individual Supporters, Kintera Sphere Purchases, Kintera Sphere In-Kind Donations
• The Raiser's Edge® Supporters, The Raiser's Edge Gifts
• Telosa™ Exceed!™ Supporters, Telosa Exceed! Purchases, Telosa Exceed! Donations

What does this mean for you? Your organization can now easily track exactly where a sponsor is in the solicitation process. This will give you an edge on communicating with sponsors and strategizing how to solicit the maximum amount of support.

Tracking data, whether it is related to sponsor status, funding goals, or aggregate and event trends is as key to online fundraising as it is to an event. When you have a 360° view of your fundraising status, your organization will be able to make informed choices about where to focus your valuable time and resources. For instance, in Event Software — Online Edition, if you use the new event setting called Accounting Type in Event-Goal Tracking, you can classify revenue in different categories, such as donations, sponsorships, admissions, and auction sales, by assigning each to sections or admit types. In conjunction with aggregate and multi-organization reporting, you can decide who to email, what to emphasize on your Website, and which auction items might be best highlighted in an online auction.

Last but not least, online auctions are perhaps the most important element of an online fundraising strategy as related to a live event. They can be used as a stand-alone fundraiser, to generate excitement about live auction items, or as a way to sell unsold items from a live auction. And the Export-Import functionality for Auctionpay Online Auctions is now easier than ever to use with Event Software — Online Edition. You can now export data and images from Event Software — Online Edition that are specifically formatted for importing into Online Auctions.

And importing Online Auction data back into Event Software — Online Edition is also simplified, because users can import data files from Online Auctions without having to reformat a spreadsheet file. You can also use this function to return the online auction results into Event Software — Online Edition, to incorporate them into the live event, or for historical tracking.

With a little creativity and Auctionpay Event Software — Online Edition, your organization will be able to weather the economic storm we currently face. And when that storm subsides, you will find that your solid online fundraising strategy will continue to evolve as technology and fundraising trends change.

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ePhilanthropy "Top Ten"

The events of September 11th and Hurricane Katrina proved that fundraising via the Internet has come of age. However, many nonprofit organizations have not yet fully tapped this underutilized resource. Research indicates that in 2007, over 30 million Americans reported that they contributed over $12 billion dollars online to nonprofits.

This finding should encourage all nonprofits to take advantage of ePhilanthropy, no matter the size of the organization. Here's a fun look at how ePhilanthropy can help you thrive despite a down economy.

1. Make yourself visible.

Just building a Website is not enough to get donors to come. More than becoming visible, you need to have effective messaging on your site and execute a comprehensive online marketing plan.

2. Internet marketing is not about technology.

Your Website is for marketing and fundraising, so it needs to be user-friendly. And your site content should tell your story in a way that's meaningful to your audience.

3. Make your Website easy to find.

Consider engaging a qualified search engine optimization company that can make the behind the scenes technology of your Website more searchable by Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other internet search engines.

4. Remember that it's still about the donor.

Put your donors first. If your Website talks to them you'll maximize your giving opportunities.

5. Integrate ePhilanthropy into all of your paper-based marketing material.

Your website can't do it alone. Market your Website on all of marketing materials and describe how easy it is to give online.

6. Put your auction programs online.

Put your auction programs online and highlight the hot items. Let your donors bid online and even consider absentee biding. Don't forget to send emails to your target group letting them know about your gala and all the great items that will be available. Many charity auctions have increase their Gala revenue by 10-15%...you can do it, too.

7. ePhilanthropy is not "e-money".

ePhilanthropy is a powerful tool, but it is not a straight line to prosperity. There are no short cuts! A well-thought-out charitable solicitation strategy integrates ePhilanthropy with other tactics.

8. Make donor privacy a priority.

Donor confidentiality and privacy have to be a priority when implementing an ePhilanthropy strategy. e-Donors expect that your organization maintains the highest standards of ethics, privacy and Internet security — and it's the law.

9. Integrity and mission focus are first.

Many nonprofit Websites fail to emphasize the organization's mission, instead turning themselves into a shopping mall. Remember your site should focus on WHAT you do, WHERE you do it, WHY you do it, and HOW you do it.

10. eSuccess means targeting your audience.

Your Website, emails, and traditional marketing efforts should be targeted to an audience that has affinity with your mission. That's how you build a strong giving community.

George M. Noceti is a Financial Advisor with a major Wall Street firm and a professional benefit fund raising auctioneer for the SF Bay Area. He can be reached at george@yourcharityauctioneer.com.

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