More and more non-profits are moving a large portion of their fundraising efforts online, specifically to Facebook. When the build thier fundraising campaign plan, they see Facebook and other online avenues as efficient and inexpensive ways to build support for their non-profits. And in many ways this makes good sense. Facebook is a still free, as is email, twitter, linkedin, and so on. Furthermore, everyone has email, and more and more people, now in the billions, have a Facebook page.
Non-profit Development Directors start to dream very big when they think of Facebook’s potential. They look and see their hundreds, or even thousands, of “friends” and imagine a single post leading to thousands of dollars rolling in and a well spring of support for their work and cause.
But does the big “Facebook Campaign” translate into tangible support for a non-profit? Perhaps more importantly, does it lead to donations for your important projects you have coming up?
DIRECT MAIL IS THE ENGINE THAT DRIVES THE TRAIN
Facebook, email, and twitter are most certainly fantastic tools for any non-profit, but Direct Mail remains the primary means of building support and raising funds. Any non-profit that wants to find fundraising success and build a consistent flow of revenue, must build a solid Direct Mail Campaign. A recent study showed that 60-80% of all non-profit donations come from Direct Mail. And in spite of a few years where it looked to be in decline, Direct Mail has made a huge comeback in recent years. And when the numbers are broken down, Direct Mail comes out on top, especially when we compare the all-important ROI’s of Direct Mail vs Social Media. (Click here to see a recent analysis)
We’re tangible beings. We like things we can touch and feel and see. We like the feeling of paper in our hands, and to some degree trust it. And thanks to internet scams and unscrupulous e-marketers many people simply do not trust online solicitations. Direct Mail is something many donors trust and respond to. Its a tool that physically bonds your organization with the client. (To learn about starting a Direct Mail campaign click here)
INTERGRATE, INTEGRATE, INTERGRATE
This is not to say that you should discard your online efforts. Not by a long shot. When executing a Non-profit fundraising plan, you should remember, and make every effort to ensure, that all your different avenues of fundraising are working together. All the fundraising strategies must be integrated (Click here to receive a free ebook on optimizing Facebook for non-profits). And remember, there are plenty of fundraising companies for Non-profits that help sculpt effective Non-Profit fundraising strategies.
The key word in the plan is INTEGRATION. Direct Mail, Facebook, email, twitter, and so on should all be working together, supporting one another, and lifting each other up. In the short term, one of these avenues can be seen as competing with the other, but in the long term, if all are working together an increase in one avenue, is often linked to support from another. All ships rise, as they say. Or as IPM says:
In all marketing, whether its for a business or non-profit, familiarity plays an important role. People want to get to know the organization they are buying from or donating to. That’s one reason we see the same commercial over and over again. The same is true for non-profits. If a client sees a post on Facebook about a certain project you are doing, then gets an e-newsletter explaining that project in more detail, they are more likely to read it. Then if they see a twitter post about that project and receive an email with pictures of that project’s progress, the all important trust factor is starting to develop. So when the Direct Mail piece comes asking for support, if they are willing to give, they have already gone through their usual research process of giving, and are therefore more likely to give to you.
Single stream messaging is no longer a viable option for non-profits. Every way you have of communicating with your supporters is important and should be utilized at every turn. Keep your messaging consistent – both in look and content. All these avenue are “bonding” opportunities between your charity and your supporters. Facebook (or twitter or email) is a long way from taking over Direct Mail as a means of donor support but it is becoming essential to your overall fundraising efforts and any fundraising campaign plan should make every effort to integrate all thier different avenues.
To learn more about engagement strategies for Facebook, take a look at our new ebook below:
