FEATURE ONE

eView: Political Marketers Have Embraced Web 2.0, But What About Online Advertising?
There is no question political and advocacy campaigns have embraced the Internet as part of the 2008 campaign cycle. Blogs, social networks and the YouTube phenomenon all are prevalent aspects of the marketing mix, and most campaigns have perfected fundraising and e-mail marketing online.

However, to date, the presidential campaigns have overlooked an opportunity to capitalize on what non-political marketers have known for years: online advertising works. Otherwise, it would not be a $20 billion industry, surpassing radio advertising revenue and continuing to grow at 20 percent each year. Today, online represents about 7 percent of all commercial advertising spending in the U.S., versus approximately 1 percent of advertising budgets in the political sector.

But don’t think political marketers are ignorant about the Web; they’re not. After all, Howard Dean proved you can move the masses to action online, and John Kerry, Ron Paul and John McCain are legendary for their online fundraising accomplishments. The campaigns also have proven to be sophisticated about e-mail acquisition and database marketing. Political marketers being hesitant to advertise online seems to stem more from the need for education and understanding than a lack of desire to embrace the channel.

FEATURE TWO

10 Tips for Fundraising in Tough Times
[This is] a challenging year. In addition to the recession, we are also seeing some other troubling indicators. Direct mail-based donor acquisition is getting harder and more expensive due to postage rate increases, mailing list fatigue and postal mail delivery challenges. Many nonprofits have cut back on direct mail-based acquisition efforts as donor files shrink and current communication approaches fail to align with a more empowered “new breed of donor” — constituents who value transparency about how their funds are being applied, are increasingly taking an active role in their philanthropy and have high expectations as to how they should be communicated to online.

Current economic conditions, the shift toward online marketing and the trends in donor empowerment make a strong case for investing in an effective online marketing program.

QUICK HIT

DonateNow Mashup Challenge
From NetSquared, an online community created by TechSoup, that offers nonprofits direct assistance, Web-based knowledge and resources, and donated technology:

How would you mashup the Network for Good donation processing service with other services to make it easier for nonprofits to raise money online? We’re working with Network for Good, the Case Foundation and the NetSquared community to enhance the online donation process.

There are two categories to enter:
* Build a mashup using Network for Good’s donation API, with a particular focus on enhancing the donor experience.
* Build a mashup using Network for Good’s donation API,with a particular focus on improving or revolutionizing a nonprofit organization’s ability to fundraise.

Winners in each category will be awarded a $10,000 prize by a panel of judges present at the N2Y3 Conference.

In addition, each winner will be granted a one-year license for the Network for Good API to be donated to an organization of their choice (if the winner is an organization, it can choose to donate the API to itself).

For more information, go to www.netsquared.org/mashup/donatenowchallenge or e-mail DonateNowMashup@techsoup.org.

QUOTE

“Even if your organization doesn’t want to have a blog or twitter strategy today, it’s important to consider those things outside of your site if even to put them on the shelf for a while. If we start by talking about our web site, we’ve already shut the door to many things that will make us successful. So please, call it your web presence. You’ll be glad you did.”

— “Think Outside the Site,” posted April 16 by Peter Genuardi at Connection Cafe.