3. Use Facebook as a place for potential donor research. Don’t just set up a Facebook group and get a few friends to join — it won’t achieve much on its own. Instead, use Facebook strategically. For example, if you’re an environmental organization planning an event in London, you can research environmental interest groups on Facebook, find members in the London area and start communicating with them about the event you’re hosting. It’s a list that, for the want of a little research, is there for you to build.
4. Personalize your Web site. Make your homepage capable of remembering a returning visitor and offer content based on his or her interests. Amazon.com is great at this. Highlight updates on projects previously supported by that donor or events in his or her area, etc.
5. Offer Web 2.0 features on your site. Open up parts of your site so that content, such as videos, blogs and photos, can be created and shared by visitors. Web 2.0 sites can rapidly increase traffic, buy-in and presence on search engines.
6. Get your supporters to wear fundraising badges. This can be on their Facebook or MySpace pages, where friends will see it and possibly click through to either your main Web site or to that donor’s personalized fundraising microsite.
7. Offer an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) subscription to the news service on your Web site. If you aren’t offering regularly updated news via RSS, then you’re probably not reaching the increasing number of people who choose to keep up-to-date with all their news this way — whether via a browser or on their mobile devices.
8. Provide a daily update about your organization on Twitter. This is another way in which people who might never visit your site can be kept aware of your cause, and it allows you to link back to your giving page.
9. Bring it all together in one CRM or database system. The database is the engine room behind all of your supporter communications. If you don’t track the history of your communications in a central place, along with the history of support from each donor, you will rapidly create huge problems for yourself in managing future communications. This could potentially offend loyal supporters with inappropriate information and make it impossible for you to find useful constituent information.
10. Make it easy to respond. Ensure your Web site and news stories make it easy to click through to give money and pledge support.
Robin Fisk is the fundraising technology expert at Alexandria, Va.-based Advanced Solutions International.
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