Building Your Web Presence
The Internet is an important tool for generating income and gathering signatures for petitions in support of your nonprofit. It is also a tool to promote your organization and your cause to the world. Social sites such as Facebook and MySpace as well as podcasts and blogs are popular forums in which to generate interest in a cause. These tools will be examined in greater depth in Chapter 9.
According to the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Internet is a great way to develop a roster of online volunteers who can lend their expertise. These volunteers can help with everything from research to database construction. Because online volunteers are often out of sight, take care to nurture relationships with them so they stay committed to your organization's goals.
Most organizations build their presence through a website. To build an effective site, you need professional help, which may or may not come from within your organization. Most organizations usually have at least one person who is a computer professional or at least savvy in creating a website.
What are the characteristics of an effective website? A website must be appealing to the eye, informative, enlightening, and easy to navigate. It is also an important branding tool for an organization, so make sure your logo, taglines, and other materials correspond with those in your printed material.
A good website has quality content on readable, concise webpages that allow people to learn about your causes and concerns, read your mission statement, get background information on your organization and board members, and donate money in a safe and easy manner. “Safe” means providing online protection so people know their personal information is protected, and “easy” means simple to navigate. People should be able to donate with a few clicks of the mouse — and then receive a thank you (which is very important); look for applications with auto responders that send a thank you to a contributor after each online donation.
If you are going to include links to other sites, make sure the links work and are in line with the mission of your organization. Links may lead to surprising places you do not want to be associated with. Check out all links before allowing them on your site.
You also need to have a good web developer to help you create your site and a server through which to post it. Many services provide both development and access to a server. Otherwise, if you have someone in your organization able to develop sites or you have access to website development software, you will need to find a site hosting service to get your site onto the web. You may want to invest in a backup server (or retain a web host that offers this service) in order to keep your site up and running should the system crash. Keep in mind that the bigger the site, the more it will cost. A powerful website can be money well spent, particularly when it offers reporting features, enabling an organization to see a site's click-through rate and streamline its fundraising efforts by collecting and organizing data.
Whether you build your own website from software or have a professional website designer come in and do the job, you need to carefully navigate and read through the site to make sure it works. Don't be afraid to alter the site or even tear it down and start it again from scratch. Many computer programs make it easy to input all the changes you will need. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs are fairly easy to learn. These have the benefit of showing you how the page will look on the Internet while you're working on it.
Those with a better understanding of the computer may want to learn some basic HTML to fine-tune your webpages. When shopping for website-building software, know your needs ahead of time and look for a program that meets those needs — don't get carried away buying a program with numerous new features that don't meet your specific needs.
Also, do not let your website get stale. Update your content often, or people will not return. Take it easy on the graphics; too many graphics can bog down the site, causing it to load very slowly. As a result, viewers may click on another site if yours takes too long to download.
As more people gravitate to the web, online fundraising has become part of most nonprofits' repertoire. Yet despite the fact that online giving makes donating easy for supporters, many organizations still say it is the least effective means of generating funds. Therefore, do not bank on your website as your primary means of fundraising. Let your website be just one of several means of fundraising but a major means of providing information.
You can use e-mail effectively to communicate with members of your organization and better establish relationships with donors. Sending information about what you are working on, updates and reminders of your upcoming fundraising events, and thank yous for contributions or volunteer work are all great uses of e-mail. One New York organization that supports women and girls sends periodic e-mails to supporters to invite them to view the latest picture gallery — a tactic that also drives traffic to its website.
Keep in mind that people do not read e-mails that go on endlessly, so think brevity. Also, don't send random e-mailings, as people delete unwanted e-mails and this does not ingratiate you to these individuals. Make sure that the recipient consents to your having his e-mail address, and don't just add to your e-mail list from other sources.
You should also:
Maintain an updated e-mail list and add or delete new or old members. Always delete someone who has asked to unsubscribe.
Respond to e-mails within one or two days of receiving them.
Avoid jumping at the chance to ask people for money — build a relationship. It costs nothing but a few minutes to send an e-mail, receive an inquiry, and send a response. Build a relationship first, and then ask for a contribution.
Avoid sending attachments. Computer viruses have made many people leery of opening e-mail attachments.
