Internet Relationship Management, Cont'd

Use the Internet Strategically

Strategically-used websites help non-profit organizations in 3 ways:

They build solid email files through events, advocacy and other activities. This consolidates management of your constituent lists and provides the opportunity for stronger relationships with those providing their email addresses – members, potential donors and grantees.
They allow you to conduct more frequent, smaller fundraising and/or advocacy campaigns instead of overloading (and scaring off) constituents with mega amounts of information, appeals or requests for action. Your website can break monolithic solicitation into chunks more easily digested by recipients. Operate campaigns around specific themes or events.
For example, a New England animal shelter sent urgent electronic requests for support to members, alerting them to the lack of pet food and money to purchase it. The Dean campaign also used this strategy, sending emails asking for funds and volunteers directly following a Bush fund-raising event.
Your website can also help you better integrate your nonprofit’s overall marketing efforts, combining email, snail mail and direct contact through events and calls.
Chicago Public Radio found that constituency management based website improved outreach, increased donations and sharpened efficiency. Each time a member used the site, he or she provided information on his or her likes and dislikes about the station’s programming. The site was used to generate an e-newsletter tailored to the interests of members, and other emails could be similarly tailored. This strategy of having an integrated Web-based relationship has improved the quality of the station’s relationship with, and thus, retention of donors, bringing in more funds with larger overall donations. Volunteer response was similarly improved.

If you are not already on the Internet express, your nonprofit needs to get on board and fast because, according to Mr. Bhagat, two years ago there were 3 billion online users and by the end of 2004 that number had more than doubled.

Looking Ahead

Articles on Online Communications

As you use your website to rally support for your nonprofit’s mission, what should your organization being doing right now to be sure not to be left behind by the Internet express?

Integrate your website into everything your nonprofit is doing in order to present supporters and the public with a comprehensive picture of what you are accomplishing. This means keeping your information current. There’s no faster way to close the portal door on repeat Web use than to have your website remain static.
Make your site as user-friendly as possible. Keep the information crisp and clear, take time to organize information well, and provide links to other relevant information. Don’t worry that your users will leave and never return. Think about the last time a store owner who didn’t have the product you sought provided you with information on a competitor that did. Didn’t you go back to the first store the next time because you were impressed with the owner’s helpfulness and integrity?
Use good quality, relevant graphics throughout. “We are visual people; we like to see progress when supporting organizations and not just read about it,” Mr. Bhagat advises. More and better photographs, charts, graphs, etc. help your organization seem more real and better connect your work with the people you serve -- and with potential constituents.
Pair your site information with targeted emails and e-newsletters now that your website can help you learn more about your constituents’ interests. Research implies that longer, more involved email mesaages may be as well-received as shorter ones. Mr. Bhagat advises, “We are so early in our learning that experimenting is best.” He tells us to vary our messages, and test, test, test.
Develop a comprehensive, “clean” email file to make your email campaigns their most effective and keep the communications flowing.
Build a realistic plan, determining what can be done with current staff and other resources. Be systematic in your short-term and long-range planning and execution.
Allocate adequate resources for this work in order to keep up with the trends in non-profit Internet use. To make your site and email most effective, you’ll need dedicated staff for this work. Additionally, your nonprofit will need to either develop an open source solution or partner with an ASP to develop an effective content management system for your website and a good constituent relationship management system (for email, enews, etc.). Many systems seamlessly integrate modules for both.
Ensure that e-communications becomes an explicit part (even if only a small portion) of your program staff’s jobs, so they are not always torn between Internet work and their “real” work.

With so much riding on your website in this brave new world, this is a major part of your organization’s “real” work. As Convio’s Mr. Bhagat tells us, a host of constituents want to support our non-profit work, but we haven’t always made it easy for them to do so. We can use technology as one more way to help our supporters help us change the world.

About Vinay Bhagat

Mr. Bhagat founded Convio, an Internet software and services company providing online Constituent Relationship Management solutions for non-profit organizations, in April 1999 after volunteering at a public television pledge drive. He was struck by the opportunity to leverage Internet technology to drive better fundraising results. He interviewed more than 500 non-profit executives to develop an integrated online constituent relationship management solution. Mr. Bhagat holds degrees from Harvard Business School (MBA), Stanford University (MS) and Cambridge University (MA) in England.

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