1. Let them know that any amount counts – 58% of respondents said their single largest gift was less than $150. They are likely to give smaller amounts to several organizations rather than a lump sum to one organization. Let them know that even a small amount will have an impact so they can feel confident about their contribution. Donor satisfaction will increase their chances of giving again in the future.
2. Optimize your online giving page – 49% of Millennials who donated last year gave online. 58% of surveyed Millennials said this is their preferred method of donating. So it’s important to provide this option along with a smooth and easy transaction when they give online. Make it a secure and user-friendly experience.
3. Develop a compelling and specific cause – 85% of Millennials are motivated to give by a compelling mission or cause. Let me know exactly what their money will be going towards and provide updates on progress being made by your organization.
4. Focus more heavily on the ones that have a personal connection to your organization – 56% of Millennials are motivated to donate by a personal connection to the organization. You could benefit from investing more in those that have had previous contact with your organization (i.e. – solicit them for frequently than those who have had no prior contact with you).
5. Encourage peer to peer solicitations – 57% of Millennials gave in response to a personal ask. This kind of solicitation can be face to face or through social media and could be a very powerful and cost-effective tactic.

Don’t miss out on contributions from this generation! They are willing to give but need to be approached a little differently than other generations. Click here to read the full report from Achieve and JGA.

So where do you begin? Your donors and prospective donors are going to differ in their giving history, giving patterns, income, etc. so first determine out how you want to segment them. For example, one segment could be people who have donated $1-$999 to your organization in the past year. You can go after this group a little more aggressively giving them a variable ask amount that may be higher than your non-donor segment. Or you could give them an ask amount that is variable depending on their last donation – it could be either the same or even a little higher than their previous donation. Do not risk losing donations by asking too little or too much. Using variable ask amounts will help you to avoid this. You don’t want to miss out on a donor who doesn’t think $10 is enough so they choose not to give. Let them know it is.

1. Focus on what’s important. Is your data up to date? Is your data clean and thorough? This will determine your list hygiene and how well you can segment and personalize your email messages. Your data is going to be key in determining the relevancy of your content.
2. Measure your metrics. The most important metrics you can focus on are open rate, click rate and conversion rate. All of these will help you determine ROI and give you insight as to where your emails may need some improvement.
3. Determine how much to spend. Even with the rising use of social media, email marketing is not on the decline. In fact, 51% of B2B email marketers say their email marketing budget will not change in 2011, while 45% expect it to increase. Keep this in mind when allocating funds in your budget. It may be worthwhile to invest more in your email marketing to ensure you are executing your plan in the most optimal way.

For more insight and for the full article click here .

1. You brand is not being clearly communicated across all channels. – Branding is just as important for nonprofits as it is with any other organization or company. With direct mail, email, websites, social media sites, etc. it can be difficult to maintain brand consistency across all the channels. Take a look at all elements of your fundraising campaigns and make sure everything matches as far as imagery, messaging, logo usage, colors, and your brand’s overall identity.
2. You do not have concrete goals. – As a nonprofit you probably do already have future fundraising goals in place, maybe for the next year or the next five years. But what about what you intend to accomplish with every phase of your campaign? Are you trying to reach a certain monetary goal? Do you want to increase participation by a certain percentage? How many non-donors do you want to convert to donors? Make a list of specific goals you’d like to accomplish
3. You are unsure of the best way to connect with donors. – To make sure you are targeting the right people it’s important to build relationships with your audience so you understand them and know how they prefer to communicate with your organization and what kind of messaging resonates best with them. You can achieve this by opening up two-way communication either by leading them to personalized landing pages where they answer a few questions or by opening up conversations on social media sites.
4. Your messages are not donor-centric. – Your organization may be accomplishing wonderful things, which is very important to communicate, but focusing too heavily on that and not enough on your donors may cause donors’ interest to wane. Your messaging should revolve more around the benefits you can offer donors rather than what they can do for you. View some examples of donor-centered copy here.
5. You haven’t established your niche. – There may be other organizations out there like yours or very similar to yours. Are you clearly communicating what makes your organization different from the others? What can you offer donors that other organizations can not?

It is not necessary to start over from scratch if all five of these items pertain to you so please don’t get overwhelmed.  You can start improving your fundraising today just by focusing on one change at a time and planning small steps that will guide to achieve it.

I’ve written about QR codes before but I came across one example of QR code usage (on Drew’s Marketing Minute) that has taken this technology to a whole new level in terms of marketing. See below:

This is just one example of how print is evolving into more powerful tool rather than losing its power as most people seem to think. Options may be expanding for digital marketing channels (social media, mobile, etc.) but that does not mean you should abandon traditional marketing channels. Digital and traditional have always worked well together (when properly integrated) and will continue to do so. As digital evolves, so will print. Do not become distracted by advancements in digital technology and lose site of the exciting things going on in the print world. You could be missing out on an important part of your marketing equation and therefore, marketing potential.

Not convinced that people have embraced QR codes yet? Click here for an infographic posted on Alltop. One interesting fact from the infographic – there has been a 1200% increase in QR scans between July 2010 and December 2010.

It is becoming instinctual now for people to look for links to your social media sites on your website, look for a QR code in your advertisement, and expect personalized marketing messages and offers (just to name a few things). If your metaphorical “phone” (marketing efforts) does not grow and evolve with these expectations you run the risk leaving your customers wanting more.

As quoted from the article, “Email will only get more social.” It will not go away but rather it will evolve to work hand in hand with social media. Mark Schmulen, general manager for social media at Constant Contact, says “Of all channels, e-mail marketing and social media go hand in hand better than any other.” They work so powerfully together because it can work both ways – email can promote a company/organization’s social media sites and the social media sites can promote a company/organization’s email campaigns, newsletters, and promotions. Customers can click back and forth between these two channels while remaining in the same arena (the internet) and without even having to leave their seat.

Schmulen also believes only 10% of Constant Contact customers are using social media to its full potential (not to mention users of other email service providers who are fall into this category as well). This leaves a lot of room improvement when it comes to integrating social media with email. So the question is not, “Should I continue with my email marketing campaigns or not?” Instead, the question is, “How can I adapt my email marketing practices to have them coincide with my social media marketing?” This is certainly a scenario where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Click here for some successful examples of social media/email integration.

View the video here!

• maintain company-related profiles on social networks
• participate in Twitter
• host blogs
• monitor brand mentions
• engage in discussions and Q & A sessions
• upload/share content on social networks
• expand their presence to a multitude of social networks

Whether you are B2B or B2C it is beneficial to engage in these activities not only for the people who already want to interact with your company but also for people who are unfamiliar with your company. Social media can be the first stepping stone in introducing people to your company or organization. According to the same study mentioned above approximately 50% of people who stumble across a new brand on Twitter feel compelled to search for additional information either through search engines or social networks.* From this group about 25% will move on to visit the company’s website directly.

Not only will people happen to come across your brand in social media but they are also actively searching for information or already talking about your products, competitors, and industry on these networks. For example, 46% of Facebook users talk about or recommend products on the social networking site.* In a network of 225 million that means a lot product discussions are going on and that also means there is a lot of opportunity to get in on the discussion and put yourself in front directly of the customer. People tend to trust peers and testimonials more than advertisements and now with this information so readily available it’s only going to become increasingly important that you be present in the same realm these discussions are taking place.

Research is just one part of the buying cycle for individual consumers and businesses alike. Social media is actually relevant to every step in the buying cycle:

1. Acknowledging the need
2. Awareness
3. Research
4. Consideration
5. Evaluation
6. Purchase
7. Applications
8. The Experience
9. Reaction
10. Opportunity for Advocacy

It’s worth your time to think about how your company can become involved in each step and if you think it’s not as relevant to your company because you are B2B it’s time to reframe that mindset and join the 86% of B2B firms that are engaging in social media.**

*http://socialmediatoday.com/index.php?q=SMC/164282

**http://socialmediab2b.com/2010/08/b2b-social-media-statistics/

Lead generation is more about building relationships than it is being at the right place at the right time such as when a prospect is ready to buy. It’s a process that you can begin at any point and this process should first revolve around the prospect, not you. The best kind of process would be cross channel choosing the appropriate media depending on your objective with each point of contact. For example, sometimes email may sufficient enough to touch base without having to send a letter. But what is the best way to make sure you can commit to this process? Get off to the right start.

It’s best to first open up the lines to initiate two-way communication with your prospects so they can ask questions and seek information. Then, provide valuable information to educate them and become more of a knowledgeable resource rather than a “salesperson”. Providing prospects with a personalized micro-site for them to visit not only provides a channel where they can seek information or ask questions but it also provides you the opportunity to gather whatever insight you would like from them that could better help you understand their needs. Do not waste time and energy overwhelming prospects with too many marketing pieces in this first stage. Establish the relationship first.

Follow-through is critical. Longer-term leads, which are often abandoned somewhere down the line, represent about 77% of potential sales.* The more you build a relationship with a prospect, the more you will come to know them and understand their needs. Only after that are you in the best position to inform them as to how your product/service could help them, why they need it, and why it may be better than what they are doing now. By this point you have also gained their trust.

Without some sort of strategy as to how you are going to first help your prospect before they can help you paired with a proper communication plan, your lead nurturing process could prove to be lackluster and so will your motivation to follow through. And without the follow through the sale will not occur.

*Carroll, Brian. “Lead Nuturing – Ripening the Right Bananas.” Start With A Lead. 12 Nov. 2010 http://www.startwithalead.com/article.asp?ARTICLEID=162