Four sites that will help you raise more money online.
The theme to today's blogs is raising money online through effective design and compelling copy. The theories also translate to offline forms of marketing, such as direct mail... so even if you have not invested the time/resources to get online, you should consider reading these articles (particularly the fourth):
Donor Power Blog: Want online donations? Let donors lead web design. A novel approach that removes Web design from the board room (or more likely, a staffer's PC) and places it in the hands of the end user!
Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog: To Increase Charitable Donations, Appeal to the Heart—Not the Head. Sensible advice on how to better craft your "pitch" to donoors. Remember, individual donors are not foundation staffers!
These final two Web sites are not specifically about fundraising, but they can help any fundraisers to improve his/her work:
Advanced Marketing Institute: Headline Analyzer. Ensure that your email's subject or the cover of your envelope gets the target to open your letter!
Paul Graham: Writing, Briefly. Ensure that your letter achieves its goal of getting the reader to take an appropriate action... like make a gift!
SHAMELESS PLUG: At Central Dallas Ministries, we have also recently set up a partnership with Active Giving to help us raise money online. Here is an example of the type of fundraising site that our donors can now set up for us:
http://www.active.com/donate/cdm/maddie
Learn more about how CDM is using this program here:
http://www.centraldallasministries.org/active/index.htm
