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| Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article |
Cybergifts, Part 2
By Adam Corson-FinnertyRead Cybergifts, Part 1
A Reason to Visit
Having a good website with a "donate now" button is just the beginning of online fundraising, not the culmination.
You can create the most attractive, most easy-to-donate website in the world--but that doesn't mean that anyone will visit, or that visitors will make gifts or pledges in support of your mission.
Ask yourself this question: Why would anyone want to visit my site? If you don't have a good answer to that question, you've got a big problem.
Some charities assume that if they create a website describing their mission, large numbers of people will surf over to see what they are about. And that a percentage of those visitors will donate. Wrong and double-wrong. Cyberspace is awash with tens of millions of webpages. People will need a reason to visit your lemonade stand, or you will end up with a lot of melting ice and watery lemonade.
Push and Pull
There are a few simple concepts that are worth keeping in mind as we review Internet-based fundraising. One is "Push." The other is "Pull."
Push and Pull are the two ways to get attention in cyberspace. A Pull strategy draws your prospect to your site. A Push strategy takes your site, or your message, and sticks it in your prospect's face.
Pull:
From a fundraising perspective, you want your site to have Pull. The more visitors, the more opportunities to present gift options.
Some sites "pull" visitors because they are Information-Rich. If you are concerned about human rights, Amnesty International can tell you exactly what is going on in practically every country in the world-and if there are abuses, then what exactly you can do about it (http://www.amnesty.org). If you are concerned about cancer, and want to know about survival-rates and treatment options, then Oncolink is a good site for you (http://www.oncolink.org).
Some sites can pull visitors because they are Product-Rich. The Metropolitan Museum, with its upscale online shop, is an example. I happen to like ties based upon designs by M.C. Escher and William Morris. So I will go out of my way to find them, and happily, the Met currently has a Morris' thistle tie that looks just right. (http://www.metmuseum.org)
Some sites pull visitors because they are Service-Rich. That is, they enable the visitor to accomplish a task online. A good example would be a digital library site, or any college website that allows prospective students the opportunity to apply online. Last summer, our family was delighted to discover that we could reserve a tent site at a tiny state campground in New Hampshire, at the last minute, and get an instant confirmation. Wow!
Another visitor attraction is Entertainment. Some non-profit sites include games, unique movie footage, contests, music, and online exhibitions. An example of an "entertainment" draw would be the Metropolitan Museum's site on its re-opened Greek Galleries. This site offers a "preview" of 18 objects, views of the galleries, a timeline "illustrated with signal works of art," a map of the Mediterranean and more. It is so alluring and so well done that I found it hard not to pause for an hour and dally there. (See http://www.metmuseum.org/htmlfile/newexhib/greek/greek1.htm)
The Metropolitan site almost "says it all" in terms of good design and clever strategy. Consider their bottom menu bar, which constantly offers the following options:
Membership | Calendar | Collections | Exhibitions | Information | News | Education | Store | Home
In fact, skip this article. Go spend five hours on the Metropolitan site. Then come back.
Involvement is key
Now that you are back, let's talk about the most important "pull" strategy. It's called Involvement. If you can involve your visitors, if you can engage them, and have them coming back again and again--then you are operating at a completely different level in terms of fundraising. Simply put, you will have moved from visitor, to participant, to member of your community. A loyal member of your community is the highest kind of gift prospect. And not just for fifty bucks!
One example of Involvement is online education. People who take an online course will be coming to your site repeatedly. They will be asking questions, viewing resources, downloading class material, consulting with the teacher one-to-one, and engaging with their fellow classmates in meaningful chat. Well-organized and well-staffed online courses are perhaps the most powerful devices for "engaging" your members and friends.
Recently I was "taken" with an Op-Ed page advertisement in the New York Times. It told me all about the "Virtual Jewish University," a new online offering from Israel's Bar-Ilan University. The ad offered:
"Thanks to VJU [you] can take on-line, for-credit courses in English on the Judean Desert Scrolls, the history of Jerusalem, war and peace in the bible, Jewish holidays, the Jewish musical tradition and more. VJU students benefit from some of the world's most advanced long-distance learning technology: a virtual helicopter ride over Jerusalem, a chance to see and hear a Moroccan prayer service, video clips of archeological digs, private conferences with professors and "chats" with fellow students."
I don't know about others, but I think this is pretty compelling stuff. Anyone with the slightest interest in Jewish subjects, and/or with an interest in Internet technology--or the hope of a free helicopter ride--would be very likely to cruise over and see what VJU is all about. (http://www.bar-ilan.edu) This is an example of Push and Pull. As an inveterate New York Times reader, the ad was "pushed" in my face. And the content descriptions started to "pull" me to the site.
(But, two pieces of advice. Bar-Ilan, if you want to go big with this, purchase www.vju.com, -net, or -org from whoever is squatting on it. And ditch the line at the bottom of your ad: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem...now you're just a mouse-click away." Oy!)
Online communities not just for big organizations
Online education will not be the sole province of colleges and universities. Any non-profit can offer a class online, of any duration, and on any subject. This can be a perfect strategy for attracting visitors to your site, and for making them long-term members of your community. Are you an animal shelter in Wisconsin? Offer a course in "Training the Mature Dog," or "Introducing a New Cat Into the Household," or "Ask the Vet."
Other examples of Involvement include offering periodic chat sessions with "stars" or experts, online book clubs, online chat groups, online threaded discussion groups, and online "members-only" interactive groups. Princeton University offers interactive areas for their alumni in each class. Want to catch up with the other guys from '85? Go to Tigernet and register. Princeton also hosts online exchanges on broad topics, in which any alumni can participate. Recent examples include discussions on real estate and biomedical issues. (See http://tigernet.princeton.edu/) If you would like to see an example of an "open" alumni exchange, see the one at Colby College http://www.colby.edu/alumni/bulletin/index.html
A very different example of Involvement can be found at the Amnesty International site. There, the visitor can become involved in a Campaign, or take action to help free a prisoner of conscience. (See http://www.amnesty.org) Similarly, The Nature Conservancy has a section called "Get Involved" and the World Wildlife Fund, USA, starts right off with a banner saying "Take Action: Protect Sharks"
(http://www.tnc.org and http://www.worldwildlife.org/)
(By the way, the World Wildlife Fund, International, has wisely claimed wwf.org. Too bad they didn't get wwf.com, which takes one to a rather different form of wildlife.)
To sum up on "Pull." Make sure your site offers something that will pull visitors, and not just once, but repeatedly. Be clever. Test ideas. Allow yourself to be surprised. Quick: what is one of the hottest "pulls" to Alumni web sites? Answer: Offering an online directory of email addresses of fellow alumni. It's so simple that it would be easy to miss.
What unique information do you have that might interest your potential constituents? Think Different, as Apple Computer might say.
Coming up in Part 3: "Push" fundraising strategies, and a soup-to-nuts list of ideas, tactics, and gimmicks.Adam Corson-Finnerty is a Development Officer, Author and Occasional Consultant. Reach him at: 215-635-4084 or corsonf@fund-online.com. Find his web site at: http://www.fund-online.com. This article was originally published as a series of three postings to the CYBERGIFTS mailing list at http://www.charitychannel.com.
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