Abortion Statistics Pro Life and Pro Abortion Folks Can Agree On

Regardless of whether you are pro life or pro abortion, it is hard to argue with these facts.

Via: Pro Life

Digital Fundraising is Green!

Hey folks, want to shrink the size of your carbon foot print? Consider donating online. Think about how much direct mail winds up in the trash. If we could convince everyone to put down the checkbook and pick up the mouse, we could save tons of money, tons of trees, and cut down on tons of waste. So let’s just all make our donations online now, okay?

Maybe someone should create a T-shirt to help spread the word.

Full-on Double Rainbow All The Way!

By now, I’m sure many of you have seen the epic viral video from Hungrybear9562. If you haven’t, it’s well worth the three minutes and thirty seconds.



I’m completely intrigued by the reasons why this video is so popular. Personally, I love it. I’ve shared it with tons of people. First, because it makes me laugh. But there is something else very appealing about this clip. Forget whatever preconceived notions you may have formulated about the mental state of the author. I think this video is so viral because on some level, we would all love to be like this guy—completely and totally amazed with childlike wonder at something so seemingly trivial. What if all of us reacted like Hungrybear9562 to seemingly trivial things? How would the world be different?

Shameless Pitches

I recently attended a conference where the last general session was billed out as a compilation of the best fundraising ideas of the year. This was the session “not to be missed!” Now, you know how you get that groggy, if-I-have-to-put-on-my-smiley-face-one-more-time feeling at the tail end of a conference? Well, I powered through that. I got myself geared up and ready to be inspired.

Total disappointment. Instead of “15 Great Ideas” I got to sit through 15 shameless pitches. Then it got me thinking. Ironically, the big idea I took away from this session was more of a things not to do list.

Here we go:

10 Things Not To Do When Speaking at a Conference

1. Don’t Sell
How annoying is it to pay to go to a conference to learn new things and then have to sit through a series of capabilities presentations? People aren’t stupid. Focus on what you can give away, not what you can take away.

2. Don’t Forget the Passion
I had a college professor that said 80% of what we communicate is emotion and 20% is information. If you get bogged down trying to get in all the right points, you often miss the point.

3. Don’t Read From A Piece of Paper
Preparation is good, but the best presentations I’ve experienced always have a hint of improv. Remember, your audience is what is most important, not your own personal agenda.

4. Don’t Do Bullets on PowerPoint
I swear, PowerPoint has made us all dumber presenters. No one wants to read bullet points on a screen—no one.

5. Don’t Forget to Make Sure the Presentation Makes Sense to Someone Other Than You
I’ve added this one specifically because there was one presentation I saw that was so unbelievably out there, everyone was checking their coffee to make sure they weren’t dosed with something.

6. Don’t Try to Be Too Cute
Creativity is great, but content is king. Don’t try to trump clarity with persuasion.

7. Don’t Be Afraid to Make it Interactive
Give the audience a chance to engage and be part of the presentation. Let them stop you, ask questions, raise concerns, and help to drive the agenda. A dialogue is always more interesting than a monologue.

8. Don’t Be Afraid to Inspire People
What has happened to vision? Give people something big to believe in and then show them how they can achieve it. Challenge them to apply what you’ve taught them.

9. Don’t Tell Me Turn to The Person Sitting Next To Me and Have to Say Something Stupid
Really? How old are we?

10. Don’t Forget About The Cynical Blogger in the Crowd
The wrong message, to the wrong person, at the wrong time can be devastating. Check out the blog post I wrote about this topic: The Wrong Message, to the Wrong Person, at the Wrong Time (notice the utter hypocrisy here…shameless, huh?)

Don’t Ever Apologize for Asking for Money

As nonprofits, why do we feel so sheepish about asking for money?

Do we not believe that our causes are worthy of donor funding? I doubt it.

Do we think that asking someone to give a gift to our organization is offensive? Maybe.

But why do we feel this way? The reality is that every single organization on planet Earth asks for money. Some are nonprofits. Some are for profits. But they all ask for our money.

For profit organizations ask for your money in exchange for goods and services. They spend billions of dollars on advertising and marketing to target you with the right messaging and number of impressions to convince you that their product is uniquely suited to meet your needs. Oh yeah, and they make billions of dollars in profits too. But have you ever been offended by a TV commercial for no other reason than the fact they asked you to buy their product?

So why do we get so bent out of shape when we receive direct mail and emails from nonprofit organizations that are doing truly meaningful work and making zero profit?

I think it comes down to two things: our own self-centeredness and a twisted perspective of how nonprofits should spend donor dollars.

On the self-centered bit, here is something to consider. When you give to a nonprofit, the benefit goes to someone else. I think we get ticked from repeated asks because on an unconscious level we are all pretty selfish. We would rather spend our hard-earned money on treats for ourselves. When we receive an opportunity to give, we gag because it reminds us that no matter how good a person we portray ourselves, we are secretly pretty selfish. But that’s just part of the problem.

The second issue is even more problematic for nonprofits. Somewhere at some point someone decided that in order to be “donor worthy” a nonprofit should only spend 25% of their expenses on “overhead” and the remaining 75% should go directly to programs. Here’s the fatal flaw in this approach—by keeping salaries low for staff members, and under spending on critical revenue drivers like marketing and fundraising, nonprofits will consistently fall short of their ultimate potential.

The staff compensation issue makes recruiting the necessary talent virtually impossible. In most instances, talented leaders have to make the decision to either make money or do good. Imagine if the compensation for a nonprofit executive was in line with the compensation of a for profit executive? Would we see more talent pursuing careers in the nonprofit sector? I think so.

Lack of spending on marketing initiatives is another part of the problem. Ironically, if nonprofits were not demonized for spending on things like branding and advertising, then they wouldn’t have to ask for money as often, and less people would be offended by the constant appeals for funds. Nonprofits ask for money in most of their communications because they have to. All messages are measured almost completely by ROI.

How Do We Change the Game for Nonprofits?

If you work at a nonprofit organization, imagine what you could do for your cause if you were able to compensate your staff appropriately and invest more dollars in branding, marketing, and advertising. How could this change the game for you?

Now what if every charitable organization was free of the same constraints? How might our culture change if suddenly nonprofits had much larger platforms to get their message out? Imagine watching television and seeing story after story of people’s lives being impacted through the work of nonprofits. How might that inspire philanthropy? What if messages promoting generosity became as prevalent in our world as messages promoting consumption?

Want to learn more? Check out Dan Pallotta’s new book, Uncharitable.

Rocky Balboa or William Wallace?

Two movies I absolutely love: Rocky (the whole saga, really) and Braveheart. Both feature exceptional stories and two amazing characters. On the surface, you might think that these movies share a lot of similarities. Both are inspirational stories. Both feature a main character that endures amazing punishment, suffering, and self-sacrifice to accomplish an amazing goal. But if you analyze what motivates each man, you find two very different stories.


Rocky Balboa is motivated by fear.

In the original Rocky movie, we see a big, strong, rough, tough scrapper constantly fighting his immeasurably small self-esteem. Rocky’s deepest fear was that people would think he was a bum—a nobody. Towards the end of the movie, right before his legendary fight with Apollo Creed, Rocky confesses to Adrian, “When that bell rings—and I’m still standing—then I’ll know that I’m not a bum.”

The very last movie in the Rocky saga, Rocky Balboa, captures the essence of the Rocky credo. In a scene where Rocky is visiting the grave site of his beloved Adrian, he confronts his son, now a grown man, about his own self-esteem issues:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you!”

Fear is a very powerful motivator. In fact, there are cases where people in very frightful situations were able to accomplish amazing, even superhuman feats. But most of the time fear is a very self-centered motivator. In the case of Rocky, his fear of failure stemmed from his weak self esteem and placing all of his self-worth on how others viewed him. We watch the movie and are inspired by the amazing iron-clad will that got him to continually endure unbelievable punishment and continue to move forward, but ultimately, it was self-centered motives that drove Rocky. He wasn’t fighting for his country, his family, or even a belief he held—he was fighting for himself.


Contrast that with the story of William Wallace.

William Wallace was motivated by a belief.
The movie Braveheart depicts the story of William Wallace, a Scottish patriot that paved the way for Scotland’s independence. In the film, we see another remarkable story of inspiration. In the face of great adversity, outnumbered and outmatched, William Wallace led an army of peasant farmers against the legions of highly trained British troops in an effort to win Scotland’s freedom from tyrannical rule (sounds remarkably familiar, huh).

Here we see a leader that was motivated by what he believed. His belief was in a free and independent Scotland. This belief was something that transcended himself and spilled over into the hearts of the battered and oppressed Scottish peasant class. There is a scene very early in the movie after William Wallace’s father was killed by the English where William dreams that he sees his father and he gives him this very short, but unforgettable pep-talk, “William. Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it.”

Follow it he did. And in the process he inspired men to do amazing things. In one famous battle scene, the Scottish militia has gone out to meet the English on the battlefield. Typically, Scotland’s nobles would negotiate a deal and then lead their army away. But it is at this moment that William Wallace delivers one of his most inspirational soliloquies:

“I am William Wallace! And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men... and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight?”

“Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!”

Later in the movie, after his father betrays William Wallace, Robert the Bruce a leading contender for Scotland’s crown confronts the elder Bruce:

“Men fight for me because if they do not, I throw them off my land and I starve their wives and their children. Those men who bled the ground red at Falkirk, they fought for William Wallace, and he fights for something that I never had… I don't wanna lose heart. I wanna believe as he does.”

When it comes to our fundraising messages, we have a choice.

Fundraising is no different. We can either motivate our donors to give out of fear or out of a shared belief. The former usually leads to churning and attrition, while the latter leads to lasting relationships. So, how do you communicate with your donors? Are you inspiring them with a vision that is based in a shared belief, or do you tap into their deepest fears? Are you Rocky Balboa, or William Wallace?

Look, Smile, Thank

I was driving from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando and stopped over at a service plaza to grab a quick dinner. The restaurant was a cafeteria-style Italian restaurant where you were issued a still-damp red plastic tray and had to navigate the different “Tastes of Italy” to assemble your own personal dinner courses. As I was checking out, my eye happened to catch a small message taped to the top of the clerks computer monitor.



In case you can’t read it, the message says:

Look at the Customer.
Smile at the Customer.
Thank the Customer.

As you can tell, I only dine at the finest restaurants.

At first I scoffed at this tiny employee manual cheat sheet. ‘Do people really need to be instructed in how to be kind and courteous?’

But as I thought about it more, I realized that this tiny treatise contains the essentials of a donor or customer retention program. Let me break it down:

1. Look at the Customer. Too often we communicate with our donors with our heads down. We break into our well-rehearsed ask and don’t make much of an effort to make our message relevant to the person to whom it is intended to reach. If we took a good look at our donors, we may discover that what motivates them to support our cause is vastly different from what we think motivates them. This is why donor research and data analytics is so very important. In order to engage our donors in a conversation, we must understand what motivates and drives them to take action.
   
   
2. Smile at the Customer. If we are doing noble work (and I would reason that everyone reading this is indeed doing noble work), shouldn’t we be more joyful? Shouldn’t our messages to our donors reflect that joyfulness? Too often we shroud our fundraising messages in doom-and-gloom, if-you-don’t-give-now-then-bad-things-are-going-to-happen type rhetoric. Why? We should be asking for support with a smile on our face because we know that the work that we are doing is worth it, that the difference that we can make is real, and that the support that we receive connects our organization to our donors. We need to tell people the exciting things that are happening. We need to tell them what their donation is accomplishing. We need to engage cheerful givers.
   
   
3. Thank the Customer. If there is one thing that most nonprofits do a poor job at, it is thanking donors. Too often, we become so acquisition-focused that we neglect the big gaping hole we have in our current donor file. Most of the attrition that nonprofits experience is because donors a) don’t feel that their donation is making an impact; b) don’t feel connected to the organization; and c) don’t think that their donation will be missed. By simply thanking our donors we can overcome two of these main causes of donor attrition and make our donors feel more appreciated.
   
   

So maybe we can all take a lesson from the Italian buffet place and tape a little reminder to our computer screens:

Look at the Donor.
Smile at the Donor.
Thank the Donor.

What if Everything You Thought You Knew About Marketing was Wrong?

As marketers we pride ourselves in our exceptional marketing instincts. We are studiers of behavior and masters of persuasion. We understand the psyche of our customers and donors and can conjure up the perfect messaging cocktail that always gets killer results…or so we think.

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Director of Marketing Experiments, shared a startling fact during the Marketing Sherpa Email Marketing Optimization Summit: the majority of the time, marketer intuition is dead wrong. To prove this point, Dr. McGlaughlin put three different versions of an email up on the screen. Each version was designed by a different agency, and each version was visually stunning. Then he asked those in attendance—all top email marketers in their own right—to vote for the version of the email that they thought would get the best response. About 4% got it right. In reality, every single version of the email that was designed by a competent design agency underperformed the control. So, in actuality, it was really a trick question—every version of the email stunk—some just stunk worse than others.

This illuminates a very important principle when it comes to email marketing: if you are not testing your creative, if you are just going with your marketing gut, you are most likely leaving a lot on the table. You need to be constantly testing and optimizing your email campaigns to ensure that you are making the most of every opportunity. By the way, this is a Biblical principle. It’s called stewardship. We need to think of every campaign as a resource entrusted to us and we need to use every tool available to ensure that we are not wasting what has been put in our hands to manage.


So, What Do You Need to Get Started Testing and Optimizing Your Email Campaigns?

• First, you need a way to quickly and efficiently measure email response. Personally, I like to use Google Analytics with eCommerce tracking enabled coupled with a custom Google URL. This gives me clear insights into exactly what each email campaign is doing in my key metrics of clicks, conversions, and average gifts.
  
  
  



• Next, you need an optimization methodology. Dr. McGlaughlin often puts it this way, “Best practices are not enough—you need a rigorous methodology.” We use a methodology that helps us to focus our thinking on what truly matters when it comes to optimizing an email campaign. This is best represented by the following heuristic:
  
  
  

• Finally, you need to be committed to testing. For instance, we do not let an email campaign leave our shop without testing something. Start small with subject line A/B spit tests. Carve out a sample group from your email file and break it into two segments. Send the email to the two different segments with two different subject lines between 24 and 48 hours before your actual send date. Based on your open rates, roll out with the winning subject line. It may take a little while to get going, but once you are able to see the fruit of testing and optimization, you’ll be hooked.

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

Tullian Tchividjian shared this with me, a piece written by Dr. Bob Moorehead. I've decided to commit it to memory...who's with me?

I am a part of the fellowship of the Unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, learn by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear.
I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes.

And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear for "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.." (Romans 1:16)

Testing a New Marketing Idea is like Making Pizza

I have never made homemade pizza before, so when my friend told me this weekend about the great homemade pizza he made, I knew I had to try my hand at making my own. As I reflect back on the process I went through to make the pizza, many of the same principles can be applied to launching a new marketing initiative.

Principle #1: Foundational Best Practices - Get Some Advice from Someone Who Has Been Successful

The first thing I needed to do to get started on my pizza was make some pizza dough. So, I called my friend who had recently made a pizza and I asked him for the recipe for making the dough. I followed his instructions closely because I knew that the foundation of a great pizza is a great pizza crust. I also knew that I had no experience making crust, and so it was easy to seek out help for this part of the project. Here are his instructions to me:


The same is true when launching a new marketing initiative. Talk to others that have been successful and find out what they did. Don't be ashamed to admit that you don't know how to get started. Follow best practices-- especially for foundational elements.

Principle #2: Customize and Improvise - Add In What You Know Works

I'm originally from Pittsburgh, PA. My favorite pizza is made at a place called Mmm... Mmm... Pizza. They make a Barbecue Chicken Pizza that is out this world. Eating it enough times, I have learned what ingredients they use to make it awesome: barbecue chicken, green peppers, onions, K.C. Masterpiece Barbecue sauce, and french fries. So, I did my best to customize my pizza with toppings that I knew would make the pizza awesome, and along the way, I introduced some elements that were new. For instance, I sautéed the peppers and onions on the grill before adding them to the pizza.

Again, the same principles can be applied to your marketing program. Add in elements that you have learned to be effective with your target audience. Don't be afraid to improvise and improve upon certain elements. Use elements that worked on you.
Principle #3: Test With Those You Know and Trust

My pizza was complete and now it was time for the ultimate test. But I didn't throw a party and invite all of my neighbors-- I served up the "beta pizza" to my family. I knew that I could depend on my family to give me feedback that I could act on. And since my goal was to make the perfect pizza, I was realistic enough to know that this first go would not be perfect. And so, when my wife said that the crust was a little over done, I knew that next time I needed to take it off the grill earlier. Below is a picture of my Barbecue Pizza, version 1.0:


Same is true when testing a new marketing idea. Start off by testing with a segment of your audience that you know is engaged and will give you actionable feedback. For instance, if you are testing an email campaign, send to a segment of your file that has a history of high engagement (open rates and clickthrough rates) and a history of response. The feedback that you get (opens, clicks, and responses) can be benchmarked against past campaigns and will give you the information that you need to tweak the program before you roll it out on a larger scale.

Obviously, there is more to successful pizza and successful marketing than what I've shared here. But the next time you are thinking of testing out a new idea, think of my barbecue chicken pizza and try to follow these principles. If that doesn't work, call Domino's-- they deliver!

The Secret to Social Marketing: A How-to Video

This short video illustrates the secrets to successful social marketing:

• First, you need to step out of your comfort zone and start posting some interesting, original content
• Don't get discouraged, be brave and keep posting
• When you attract your first follower, welcome him warmly-- try to get him to emulate your content and improvise
• Now, there are two of you creating interesting, original content
• That first follower is very important because he waves the others on; he tells them "It's alright. Come and join us!"
• Then you get your next follower-- and three is a crowd!
  
• Then, come in two more followers
• ...and immediately three more
• Then, people start following in droves
• Congratulations! You have a network of enthusiastic followers-- you are now a successful social marketer!
  

Marketing vs. IT—the Epic Battle for your Web Site

Who is running your web site—Marketing or IT?

How you answer that question will usually predict how successful your organization is at moving the needle in the four essential fundraising functions:

• Acquiring names
• Converting donors
• Raising dollars
• Communicating impact

Marketing people think about their intended target audience—the visitor, constituent, donor—and that helps to shape how they approach every aspect of the web site. Marketers care most about what happens on the other side of the screen when real people have to interact with content and complete tasks. A marketer takes a constituent-centered approach to the web.

IT on the other hand, is most concerned about what impact the web will have on operations. IT will always operate from a perspective that ensures that back-end processes are most efficient, that data collected is complete, and that data processing requires as little human resources as possible. An IT person takes a very organizational-focused approach to the web.

If the goal of your web site is to build and maintain relationships with constituents, engage them in your mission, and inspire them to get involved, then your web site needs to be very constituent-focused. People are smart—especially online people. If your web site is very organizational-focused, they will recognize it immediately and will stiffen up their defensive instincts. But when you design your web site with the intention of meeting the needs of those most important to your organization—your constituents and donors—you will find that they will thank you by completing more conversion goals.

Not Sure Who is Running Your Web Site? Consider the Following Questions:

1. Do ideas drive online programs, or are programs a function of technical limitations?
2. Have you been told, “we can’t launch this new program because it won’t easily integrate with our donor management system?"
3. Do your donors have to jump through a series of hoops in order to make a donation?
4. Have you missed out on potential fundraising opportunities because of technology issues?
   

The Wrong Message, to the Wrong Person, at the Wrong Time

Relevance is the key to marketing. As marketers, we strive to serve up the right message, to the right person, at the right time.

But what happens if we get it all wrong?

I was at a conference last week in San Diego, and just this morning, I received a post card mailer with a headline that read, “Don’t be in Last Place!” The subtext told me to stop by a vendor booth at the conference—but the conference ended last Wednesday. Failed! The irony is that this vendor was in last place—their message didn’t arrive until after the conference was already over.

The offer on the flipside of the post card told me, “Be a Winner!” and talked about how I could win an iPod touch. Failed! Obviously, I am not a winner—I didn’t get the iPod touch. In fact, I didn’t even know about the contest.

Just a few years ago, the damage that this type of marketing blunder would have caused would be limited to probably me, a few of my associates around the office, and maybe a few of my colleagues that I would have shared this with.

But today, in the age of the democratized media, where anyone with a blog, Twitter following, or Facebook account can instantly syndicate any message around the world, this type of blunder can prove to be very costly.

Take the example of the ad agency exec that didn’t realize his role as an ambassador for his brand (and they’re supposed to be in the brand-building business right??) and became the subject of international embarrassment to his company by posting a stupid comment about a client’s home town (read the whole story here).

The key takeaway in this example is summarized in the following statement published by the ad agency’s client:

“This lapse in judgment also demonstrates the need to apply fundamental communications principles in the evolving social networking environment: Think before you speak; be careful of you what you say and how you say it.”

So the moral here is simply this: when thinking about your marketing strategy, make sure that you approach it from a defensive perspective as well as an offensive perspective. There are just too many people out there that can potentially give you brand heartburn by using your marketing mistakes against you.

Fundraising in the New Economy

In this economy, we have a whole new set of rules and realities. Learn what you need to know to navigate change as you:

1. Develop better relations with donors


2. Learn about how others are finding success during these times


3. Discover what will motivate donors in 2010

Download The Fundraising in the New Economy Presentation

This presentation was delivered on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at the Christian Leadership Alliance Conference in San Diego, CA

Other Resources of Interest

Also, I’ve included some links to some additional resources that were referenced in the presentation:

1. Convio 2010 “Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study”– Lots of great metrics and insights in this report. This will help you know how you “stack up” with other nonprofits in key areas.
   
   
2. Convio’s “The Next Generation of American Giving”– This is a study on the contrasting charitable habits of Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomers, and Matures.
   
   
   
3. Benjamin Zander Ted Talk– I would strongly encourage you to invest the 20 minutes it takes to view this presentation by world-renowned conductor, Benjamin Zander. This is especially inspiring for anyone that finds themselves in a position of leadership.

The Presenters

Todd Dexter
President
KMA Direct Communications
tdexter@kma.com
972-244-1900

Tim Kachuriak
VP, Digital Marketing
KMA Direct Communications
tkachuriak@kma.com
972-244-1900

Everything is Amazing, and Nobody is Happy!

I came across this clip yesterday on a flight back from San Diego and I laughed so hard that I was literally crying.



Then, I sort of got depressed.

We truly do live in amazing times. The technology we have today is unbelievable. And yet, we are constantly, and consistently, unsatisfied by what our technology has provided us with.

The ability to move across the country in hours, not years.

The ability to instantly communicate with virtually anyone, anywhere on planet earth.

The freedom to shop from our home, work from the golf course, and be entertained while commuting between activities.

But yet, no one is satisfied. When our technology breaks, we freak out. When we have to wait for something, we become restless. And when we can’t afford something, we go into debt.

So, could it be in technology’s quest to solve problems it has actually created even more?

Taking Pages from Obama’s Fund Raising Playbook: Raising Money for Ministries Through Digital Media

You may not agree with his politics, but it is hard to argue with the fact that Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign changed online fundraising forever. This workshop will dissect the strategic thinking and tactical execution of how the Obama Campaign leveraged web marketing, email marketing, streaming media, and social and mobile networking to engage constituents and move them from interest, to involvement, to investment. By the end of this session, you will walk away with an online fund-raising playbook that you can quickly put into action to turn your web properties into a dynamic donation generating machine.

Download The Presentation

Other Resources of Interest

Also, I’ve included some links to some additional resources that were referenced in the presentation:

1. KIMBIA– “The Greatest Innovation in Online Fundraising I’ve Found.” These easy to deploy giving widgets have helped us to achieve unprecedented conversion rates on some of our microsites and landing pages.
   
   
2. Convio 2009 “Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study”– Lots of great metrics and insights in this report. This will help you know how you “stack up” with other nonprofits in key areas.
   
   
3. Benjamin Zander Ted Talk– I would strongly encourage you to invest the 20 minutes it takes to view this presentation by world-renowned conductor, Benjamin Zander. This is especially inspiring for anyone that finds themselves in a position of leadership.

The Presenters

Spencer Whelan
Director, Marketing and and National Accounts
KIMBIA
swhelan@kimbia.com
512-474-4447

Tim Kachuriak
VP, Online Marketing
KMA Direct Communications
tkachuriak@kma.com
972-244-1900

How Does My Web Site Look to You?

The bummer about designing web sites is that the design must always take into account the fact that not every visitor is viewing their web site from the same browser, operating platform, screen resolution, or even from the same kind of device. This creates challenges for designers because regardless of the varying combinations of factors, the web site should look and function consistently. Out of all of the factors that affect the rendering of a web page, browser compatibility usually presents the most significant challenge.

Because of these challenges, it is important to add a “Browser Check” step to your testing and prelaunch checklist. A Browser Check will help you to quickly identify problems with your web sites and flag them so that your designer/developer can address them before the site goes live.

There are a few tools out there that will enable you to preview or take screenshots of your web page on various operating platforms, browsers, and screen resolutions.

Below are a few to consider:

www.browsercam.com - A great service that offers both screen captures and remote access to different devices and operating platforms. Free trial is available.

www.crossbrowsertesting.com - This one is cool because you can usually use the service free for 5 minutes at a time. You select the operating platform that you would like to test and then have the option to launch several different browsers to test.

NetMechanic Browser Photo - The Browser Photo tool by NetMechanic is a good solution if you don’t want to get too technical. The application runs a report that grabs screenshots from 24 different pre-defined computer and browser combinations.