When it comes to online fundraising slow and steady wins the race
September 16, 2002
By Nicole Zummach
There was a time not too long ago when online fundraising was the darling
of the nonprofit sector, promising increased revenues for charitable
organizations and ease of use for donors. Hoping to take advantage of
this new technology, many organizations jumped on the online fundraising
bandwagon only to find out that their donors weren't quite so eager
to join them in cyberspace. Though some groups didn't achieve the results
they were hoping for, others, such as the Canadian Breast Cancer
Foundation (CBCF), forged ahead cautiously and are now seeing great
results from their online fundraising efforts. In fact, CBCF is so successful
with its online component, that it has now taken all aspects of its
annual CIBC Run for the Cure online. Everything from registering
for the event, to donating or volunteering, can now all be done via
their web site.
Don't bite off more than you can chew
"We first started very small by looking at online donations," says Deborah
Kroeger, National Director of Information Technology for CBCF. "Then
I saw some software that was used by corporations to send out invoices
and receive payables and I thought, 'how could we use this software
in a not-for-profit?' Then it dawned on me, if we could push out electronic
tax receipts that would be amazing. So that's where it started." Once
the organization got approval to set up electronic receipting, taking
the run online was the logical next step. "It is our largest event,"
says Kroeger, "and one of our biggest task-oriented activities after
the run is to make sure we get all of our tax receipts out."
Obviously, being able to issue some tax receipts electronically cuts
down on the organization's post-event workload but there are many other
advantages for CBCF. "It is making a huge difference for the foundation.
As a foundation we don't want to be engaging people just for this one
time of the year. So we have some permission-based questions where we
ask if we can have a dialogue with donors throughout the year. This
is a tool that allows us to leverage the e-mail addresses that we've
acquired, which is quite significant," explains Kroeger. "We have more
than 85,000 e-mail addresses in our database, so we can send out newsletters
and communicate throughout the year about what is going on and how we
are using the money. It doesn't matter if you are raising one dollar
or a hundred million dollars. If you aren't telling people what you
are doing with their money, you are really doing them a disservice."
Allow donors to become comfortable with the technology
The organization continually strives to provide a very high level of
service to its donors and having an online component goes a long way
to assist with donor relations. Kroeger does admit, however, that when
they first started taking online donations in 2000 there was some resistance
on the part of donors. "Initially, because it was very new, there was
reluctance about giving credit card information over the web. People
really need to have a comfort level, to know that they are going to
a secure site. As more and more people start to do things online, that
reluctance has slowly dissipated." Thankfully, the CBCF didn't have
to wait too long for donors to become comfortable with the idea of online
donations. Last year at least 10% of donors chose the online route.
"We raised $245,000 in online registrations [for the annual run] and
then we receipted more than $400,000 in online donations."
Look at the process from the user's perspective
Part of what makes the organization successful at online fundraising
is its approach. "We really focussed on the process from the end-user's
perspective," says Kroeger. "The more information that you can provide
to participants in terms of a self-service the better. So what is her
advice to other organizations looking to start or improve their online
fundraising? "Keep it simple in the beginning. Start with just your
donations and perhaps your receipting and really look at the message
you are trying to convey to your constituents." She says part of
the equation is about data mining and understanding who these people
are and why they've engaged with your organization. "Ask yourself
what message you want to give back to your key donors."
This year's CIBC Run for the Cure will take place on October 6 (October 20 in Victoria) in 34 communities across Canada. For more information about the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation or the run, visit: www.cbcf.org.
If you would like to read other articles on this topic, visit the Online
Fundraising section of our Research
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